001okay um all right all the meeting to order we can rise with the plug to the flag the United States of America and to the it stands one nation indivisible andice for all all right um B could you take a v call here iar here here here here as a courtesy to members of the audience and the Board of Education please silence your cell phones public comment any person wishing to address the board may speak at this time any person wishing to address the board should complete and submit a public comment form to the board president immediately prior to the beginning of the meeting public comment forms are available at each board meeting presentations are limited to five minutes we have no public comment this evening um can I get an approval of the agenda
002all in favor excellent uh report agenda um I'll start with Brent you want to start sure i' just like to say like Amy and I got to attend this the Schoolboard training session which was awesome I learned a lot in there so I highly recommend that again like like you recommended for new to take that learned a lot that was great um got to attend a couple JV lacrosse games last couple weeks and that was awesome I mentioned before that that's the first time they got to play together in a year which is amazing think about that they went a whole year play together and then just uh con graduate compe Che that the conf championship all excellent I've been out of touch just a bit so they won the championship the cheerleaders the competitive
003excuse me the competitive chair that's so awesome thanks for bringing that up really good St really all right Amy um still working with the Parks and Recreation board which is great um they did a lot of work with Chris or to go and go around the Little League um Fields they're really really hoping that that partnership with parks and Rex in the school can be a a good partnership um they're talking a lot about to what are the things around the schools each of the schools that are safety issues so they're really wanting to figure out even from citizens or from us or whatever we've all been assigned different parks to go and and look and so you know there are a few different things that are ready to definitely need to be fixed um
004and that's the safety for our kids you know since our kids to use them so it does seem like there's a lot going on towards mostly working for safety and really hoping that we work with the little so what is the safety concern are they about equipment or the ground or is it about predators no no mostly equipment mostly equipment yes so I know sometimes oh this is a dark place that you know potentially for sure they did actually talk about lighting and they talked about um what are the hours that parks are open um because you know it's to dust but that gets later and later um and then some people rent them out for parties some people rent them out for reunions so they have been talking a little bit about safety and
005what's a logical time to have people out of the parks but most of it is like broken benches Heritage has a huge problem with that you know that the part around the lake and so they're talking about what does it cost to make it safe for our kids and for our families and how do we attract we have so many young families that are moving in to Granville because they love this school system and so what do they you know what are we offering as a city as well so it's a really important partnership and it's really cool to see all the parks that are next to elementary schools and how that was very intentional so they want to keep an intentional relationship that's great yeah good deal thank you yeah thank you all right
006Jason nothing to report not a l report but happy to see wood shop is back on the uh higher L my son was missing that a lot this year know a lot of kids were are ready to get their hands into some technical spaces again so glad to see we're supporting that um also glad that the seniors are having some opportunities coming up and hearing a lot of that around the community that we're excited to be able to celebrate in different formats this year um a little bit more than maybe last year so thank you for that the uh note that you son us rer is really cool about the high school students who jumped in at Grand View and and helped with that kid and I I think that really captures a lot of
007the spirit of our district in terms of being kind so I really appreciate that experience in my own life and also every every time we together I'm gonna say it thank you thank you thank you thank you for sending the kids back this year and for providing us consistent data and pulling us back in when we needed to again this week I had an opportunity of talking to people in Pennsylvania and they were saying how St they were the school board was making them go back to school and St trust just have trust I was scared too and it turned out fine and it was a great year and our kids did a lot better for it and so thank you for being using that again thank you welcome good deal Bob um yeah I
008guess something I'm gonna take my mask down for this so you're friended I hope you're not um my my my report is really about um out of order and the incidence that occurred at the last board meeting between you and I and I will say every board member should always have an equal voice they should be heard and that right was taken away from me this time and it's not the first time and I'm going to say it again you guys probably hate it when I say it but I'm going to do it I've been on this board for 20 years I've only known one board member that shuts people down and it's mbuck and I thought it was disrespectful and if you never even gave me a chance to talk about what I was
009going to talk and you were out of order and as president the purpose of the president is to ensure that as much dialogue from my perspective anyway as much dialogue is understood that we debate as effectively as we can a more diverse School Board helps us truly understand the issues understand the opportunities that we may not even think about that other board members are thinking about so I was I was offended I was pissed and I was about five minutes from resigning so if my suggestion is you seek some guidance some Consulting but um I pray it is thank you par well I was um thinking about the staff and just all the wonder of the things that done to make this be such a great transition I guess into our schools again and I
010um I don't talk to a lot of people because again I'm still working from home and but I do get on Zoom and you hear things about other districts honestly and some of the concerns and they're never from Grandville people you know um so I do feel very um thankful to all of our staff and I don't know if he call the teachers and our administrators and support staff and our volunteers and our parents I just again I feel that Community spirit that you spoke of and and I too wanted to say that um we need positiveness you know we need to keep finding the good in what we're doing and so far seems like there's a lot of good here in D so thank you for everything you've done Roger and your staff and
011to this sport as well uh new members learning how to do things it's um it's not easy and we do have times of um conflict or disagreement and it is healthy and um hope that again we just continue to support one another in these times that we're coming back and being close together and all that important so again this big thanks is mainly my ort today and thank you um I only have one thing and that is that um I appreciate updates they're um super positive and I think that at this time um we need to remain that way as often as we can I uh I'm a judge I was a judge for an essay writing contest for Lake Michigan Credit Union where they give out 20 scholarships for $2500 each so I landed
012the job of reading finally the final 36 essays or probably 450 and every single essay was was real difficult to read them because they all were extremely related to Mental Health home and the challenges that many kids experienced being home um losing parents people dying divorces abuse in their homes and it really gave me this realistic picture of just 38 voices that were in the finalist for the scholarship so again I just want to thank um I know we have principles here today and I appreciate y all being here um you have a huge taxing job and that is to keep an upbe attitude amongst your staff and amongst um your kids and I guess that's probably one thing that I apologize um it's bad that he feels this way um I do want to
013keep our meetings positive and I sometimes think that it can go into a negative Direction fast so um I respect your opinion obviously unfortunately um you know you think that I'm not a good president whatever B that's your opinion and I'm going to go on trying to maintain a positive attitude and focus on the positivity of our district so thank you for your comments and with that I'm G throw it to you superintendent ab and I just like to start off by saying it is so good to see every in person it's so good to be here in person I mentioned a little bit earlier I was getting ready to leave went home and ate was getting ready to leave and my wife noticed I had a little more pep in my step and she
014goes you seem a little more excited today and I think she knew we were at versus she she you know kind of giving me a hard time was excited about that and so it's just it's just really good to see everyone uh winter sports wrapping up a lot of things to celebrate you know our kids our coaches have done you know during this time of co co a phenomenal job in managing Brian Parson done amazing job in our our Administration so kudos to to everyone but we have a lot to be proud of our kids are are enjoying many of those experiences it's good to see some grandparents back in to those games you know mainly parents and now we're getting a few grandparents and matter of fact was at the basketball game the other
015day and I kep he Mr Mr C so good to see good to see you know in the place too so just very excited I know getting outside's going to be a great thing here for spring sports but I think it's been a you know a good winter sport season and something that uh you know we can be proud of as our kids certainly have uh done us proud if you will uh there are a lot of other events being planned as uh was mentioned you know many of our things that the the high school for senior years um the review show I know I read read the plan for that just a lot of those things are popping up so really excited to see it's be a fabulous to the school year so looking
016forward I just had a question do you feel that we've lost a lot of knowledge with our students is there a feel for that amongst teachers like oh man we're really behind or I I don't sense that as much and we have we have a you we have a lot of data we we do have some areas that that have hurt you're not GNA go during you know through what our kids and our adults have gone through and especially our kids who haven't had the experiences of being in person or the supports and interventions whether it be academic or social emotional that they get from being present physically president you're not going to go through that without having some of those things but I think our our step staff has done a fabulous job um
017noticing and you know and you know trying to do everything we can to help in those situations but I think overall if I have to look at our current data I would say it's much better than I thought it was going to be but yet we we do have some some gaps and we have some things that with our kids we're gonna have to really focus on um you know we will uh you'll hear some information tonight um about a Rob robust program that we're working on that that we believe will help with that um and you'll also hear a little more on the things that the middle school and high school are doing as far as supports and interventions for our kids so I I you know I there definitely has have been kids
018greatly impacted and I think everybody has been impacted some um without question but I do think we have systems in place and we'll continue to look at you know what our kids need when they need it and focus on those things in the future may I add something to that I had two testimonials from people that um I work there's a young mother at South who is taking over the garden responsibilities and we talked about how she did remote and her teacher was remarkable and she said that she adored being able to be home with her child to learn remely and another father who his son's MTH scores shot through the RO with the teacher that he had so I actually asked them both to write to you and make sure that those teachers were
019uplifted as great examples of what is possible and they were thrilled with remote wow and so that was really nice to hear that's good thank you good stuff any old business old business all right moving on to consent action items can I have a motion all in favor yes all oppos super all right we have the first item up it is regarding to reapproved gral Extended covid-19 Learning plan for the month of March it is recommended that the Board of Education re-approve the gral extended C 19 learning launch can I have a motion excellent okay and we have people to give you a little update on things but right now turn it over to Mr Merkel and or Dr merkl I should say and he he can give you little so we talked about this
020last time right the um uh our learning plan our extended learning plan were required by the migan Department of Education through legislation to update this every month once again we have zero questions but there were some questions last time about Friday right I kind of kick that off and we thought that would be a great opportunity to bring uh Mr Ken C and Mr Adam lto in to talk about their perspectives um on how the remote Fridays have gone um if you remember the plan back when it was one of the fortunate times we were in person right at the high school auditorium where they presented the idea was all based on Intervention and supporting kids in in these times that um were struggling finding failure rates and I know they told some specific things
021but also just have a lot of anecdotal uh things to share about Fridays um and answer any questions you might have about that so wants to say you have questions to start just is it more about just Clarity on start backround sure so obviously we started um Adam and I talked in the fall about just uh seeing the need for students um based on what we were seeing with grade data for some support um students were were feeling was looking very much like they were very overwhelmed um and and it wasn't just a remote leage it was a lot of our school leage as well so um we obviously proposed the plan and uh there was a point uh when it was a Wednesday we transition to Wednesday and then back to a Friday but
022um basically we have an opportunity for our teachers to meet one oneon-one with students you know for in each class for 30 minutes uh on Fridays but really what they do is they break it up into five or 10 minute uh segments with kids in our building so that they can see more kids um and what they've reported is just the smaller the meetings the more impact they seem to have with those students um I talked to some of the teachers the other day and they just said that for the really there are some students that that the are just struggling you know they want to be here but for whatever reasons they're they're they're home and those students are really appreciating that time uh to to meet with the teacher uh as much about
023the relationship as it is is the academics is what the teachers are saying yes it's helpful to them academically but some of these students um it's uplifting for them and they're willing to try a little harder uh in those situations because there are some you know it's just hard for some of those students that uh from from home so you know we're we started the year at about 180 uh kids remote and we're down to as of last week about 130 um I spend a lot of my time during the day calling homes of the students that have been identified as certain students that are remote and talking to the parents about transition and back you know there's some fear and some things you have to work through you and talk about and for some
024it's like hey this is what we're doing we respect that but um uh you know we try to get students back it's just better it's just a lot of the parents report that you know obviously their student was was a much better doing much better academically before they had at home so so we're doing a lot of that we still have oural lesson once a month the first Friday of every month counselors uh create a video it's about a 25 minute lesson uh that the students they report to their sth hour uh remotely from home on Friday and they go through that that activity um that is led by our counselors and that's that's something we try to keep consistent because you know there's there is a need for that so um other questions guys
025I'm wondering in that um trying to get kids to to come back to school if you find that because our teachers are vaccinated that there's more um willingness to send their children back has that been any um at all anybody me about that it was just there was so much fear of the unknown sure before and now they're feeling so much more optimistic um you know when I it's very nice to be able to say and I've said this so many parents so many times not a single student has been contact traced back to another student in our school not that our students haven't gotten have but we haven't had a single student yet sick and and have it caused by being in school it was it was it was whatever you know weekends or
026whatever happened at their home that that it says a lot about the safety so but uh I let ad sh thought with to what is what the parents that want to keep their kids that what are their concerns having come back to school um there are some they have um for instance a par or grandparents that live in the home that might not be vaccinated yet um there is some Mass concern I've had a hand where they just as long as there's a mandate to wear masks there make from the school that's you know and I don't I don't get into that I just say you know about the he back be better and they will tell me you're right I wish they could come back to you until they change that mandate so this
027most of it is is um is there's something in the home that is a fact one of the parents which might be diabetic or or the child themselves you know we do have a parent who's um going through chemo so that student need to home as much that student wants to be so badly but yeah and despite the risk they're just not willing I have the same conversations with our k6 families right it's bring back it's bring back and for some of them it's just still no I'm not I'm not willing to risk it and and those are delicate conversations people like K said he said that so well right we just had the tough conversation without judgment and kind that I'm a little bit of a Salesman you three a week right come back
028it's great tell the teacher send the email back like just cheers and guest they just know how badly you know these we meet once a month about the kids and you know it's not all REM own kids we have some kids in school that are struggling too because their parents are out of work and things like that even though they're at school going through the struggles Co but uh but it is so hard to watch a kid struggle that's a home and they know that they could just get them in front of them you know the impact have Ken before we jump to to Adam you shared some numbers with me I happen to be at the middle school today and uh and I had a really nice conversation about this and he shared some
029enlightening numbers with with me that I haven't stopped thinking about but a lot of the failure rate numbers and he said this about kids who are struggling aren't necessarily all remote kids that we're having bigger failure rates even with our inperson kids and the hypothesis was some just a lot of social emotional like things that are here for kids maybe we the first trimester we've had about6 students that had at least one failure in four I was looking at I wasn't looking at El four but only 41 of them were remote now we just finished the trimester and just locked in grades today so I only had I could only quickly kind of look through them today but it looked like it was a reduction closer to about 120 students in our building that had
030one core failure and I wasn't able to dig in I didn't have time to dig into how many of them remote but I can tell you this it's going to be smaller because we keep bringing you know I I was talking about how I'm recruiting kids to come back I get I get at least one or two call I'm not I'm just not we created these timelines oh you got tell us by this this time and they yep give need a couple days to get a desk in that room and make sure you know we allow the kids in their rooms the rooms are too full we they work just you know maybe one or two hours a day they have to work in the media center um remotely because there's just nothing Stak space
031in that already that happens mostly yeah so we're seeing first there's two more weeks in the quota so get those renewals in or two more two more weeks in your quota period in the first quarter yeah so get those renewals in right um so doing math is 14 15% of the students in the Middle School are still remote we were 16 last week I feel like it's it's lower yeah I mean every number is a big impact there but about in the first quarter 25 or first semester 25% of those students were the one failure or more I'd be curious to know more than one failure versus like is it is there a larger number are there a larger number of failures with the remote students and inperson students so not just the one but
032multiple and i' I'd really love to know those numbers when you get the grades from the second trimester that just started to just to make some comparisons I've been Fielding a lot of calls this week from parents who don't have kids in that 14 15 16% saying when can we send our kids back on Fridays you know we talked about it's not just your kid that's learning here and we're we teach all students and you know success for everybody's important but they're concerned about lost time and more about their kids just not being actively busy during some of the times on Friday and I talked a little bit with them about you know how they can see what they're supposed to be doing my kids snows me all the time on Friday take them back
033set them down Google Classroom here nope you got an assignment you've got an assignment so you know it's hard to say what's reality and what's um you know kids being kids but um just want to make sure that we talk about all sides of the spectum in terms of we know there I get a couple of those emails about why are we still doing the Fridays because it's hard if your student if your student um is is not having some of these struggles it just feels like it's one more thing working against them the P so I abolutely and we we're going to reevaluate we come back to spring break me again I feel like people are continuing to come back and um you know we'll look at ways we can continue to support kids
034you know a lot of it is counselors making phone calls to those kids um I had a parent today I said hey just let them come in and we'll put them in a room with just safe that's right you're worried about them being safe how about I keep them in a room in the office and we'll come visit them but they just need to be out of your house because house is home and comfortable and not structured but school is starts to feel more and that's really what I see these kids they can't they can't make the transition well I mean I have one it's impossible to have home but more than that the concerns I heard this week were academic you know we're losing another day of instruction testing's coming up SATs coming up
035those kind of things you know but they feel like with the numbers going lower and the failure rates improving that maybe it's a time to revisit and talk I will I will share that at the meeting we will continue heard yeah that a lot of students they really enjoy that Friday opportunity to get caught up and get things [Music] done you know their child they're using that day and really helpful day for they're pushing so hard during the that they like that day scho I ask the teacher Fe either the middle school or the high school how teacher teacher so I'm gonna go yeah I just I know that a lot of our teachers are reporting that they they see the impact of meeting with those kids because you on a regular school day you
036could not sit down for five minutes with a student and really go you know especially now because the last five Factor cleaning table you know you could be you could have said well well kids are cleaning up get off to the side and and have a quick conversation about hey this is what we need to do this remember you still need to do this and that other but it is literally there there is none of that so they are reporting that um that appreciation for that time but but there's also we we all recognize that there is nothing better than having kids in F there's just so we're we're trying to find yeah is it true more kids are in school because there's less illness because we've been cleaning so much I've heard some teachers
037say to me like they have very few kids abtin anymore due to the flu and cold the Mas I don't know I [Music] per anyway thank you very much all right so I I gave you guys a packet um I ran some of our numbers our current reality at the high school right now we're sitting at 820 um in person 8% 20% home we were more 7030 when we came back from the winter break we brought about 150 students back since um February continue I just got so so we keep bringing some kids back to um and you know I would Echo everything that Ken said that you know I would also just want to add a perspective that some there are some students who are succeeding in remote and doing very well and it's
038and it is good for them I think the best things for have majority of our kids in there but there are obviously a small population that we've talked about that are succeeding in the remote grow so um you know we're sitting at an 11 uh a little over 11% failure rate I broke it down as you see our fail rate amongst our remote students is obviously our highest piece there of our inperson students right now we at 8% failue rate of the students who just brought back were at they were at 17% failue rate before coming back so keep on out um you know six and almost 7% of our students have a grade within the D range rate now add those together we're about at 18% of students who are near at obviously that
039means that we have a large portion who's not there but if you see my note on the bottom and typically right around 3% so it is a significant issue when I came here in October and presented the plan we were at like that 15% October when you guys remember Clos we were here um I am very pleased that we ended up with all the chaos of first semester end up near a 6% value rate for the first semester and when I was sitting over at ad County with all the principal over there and we were talking about this a couple weeks ago um we were kind of sharing some of these things and everyone just gas and look at me and said serious with a 6% failure rate so um so you know I can't
040pinpoint it on the remote plan I can't pinpoint first semester on that but I can just pinpoint it on the fact that we had a lot of chaos and I feel like the staff had an unbelievable job empathizing understanding but also contining to teach and I think that there was a lot of stress during semester about exams at the high school specifically like why are we having exams and everybody else has contined to wave them or make policies on and it was a rough go for some of our kids but you know things like the SAT coming up and things like that I think are helping prepare our kids for that resiliency for that ability that you know this is hard right now but we're not canceling everything everything's not being weighed and everything's not
041being you know forgiven and things like that so I think that that is a piece of that um to answer your question K uh that comes up pretty regularly about you know some of these pieces and I think Lori K's in here I have a couple of of Staff members um P here Lor hits on the mental health side of that about how some of our high students are finding that they are getting a better um sleep studying health ratio because yeah I mean Monday through Thursday they're working their their tails off and you know they're involved in a lot of things and now a lot of things are happening and they're able to go to activities and youth group and whatever they're going to right um but they're finding a healthier balance with that
042she's finding with the students that she's meeting with and I can tell you there's kid in her office constantly and it's not kids that are coming from you know crazy scenarios it's students who had 4.0 I've seen walk in there their three sport athletes and walking in there and they're melting down and and so there are some things that are helping those kids on Fridays how V you know our AP US History teacher um you know he he was he was pretty honest in there you can get through his big words in there um you know he uh he was pretty honest he was he was he was in my office not on board 100% on this and after the first time he did it you remember back in the fall then second week we
043had the old M he came down just ecstatic because because he did this workshop model in the afternoon where he could really hone in on some of these skills and kids could be able to um pop in there and get some additional help um and he was like I wanted to do something like this for years and he forced me to do something that I didn't want to do and now I worked out now he has kids feeling that idea of kind of like that next level College feel of you know making their own schedule learning how to manage that and going in there and Sarah L LA had a a comment in there about just the the important it's been for students with I to be able to work with them oneon-one small group
044um more intentionally throughout the week because that's a population of students who's um struggled with with this duality of iners remote instruction so those are just a couple of things I wanted to add on that last Friday our bands directors were able to um get the bands together both remote students and inperson students and have a concert they brought a videographer in was able to film a conference or concert I went down there was just awesome so that was a cool experience that they've been able to do some of those pieces um Mike Cox our new Ab teacher was able to bring in some remote students who felt comfortable coming in in a smaller environment from their parents allow them they were able to use our equipment to use editing and do some things so
045it's not perfect for you know every scenario but when you know from my perspective this Duality that we're in it is taking longer to get through things you know it is being longer to um you know there's not that time to be able to help students oneon-one I don't think we're losing instructional time I've had multiple teachers tell me they're actually do more because there's an intentional focus on some of the things our AP teachers are telling me they're going to be fine for this and I think about this nationally right at is National test we've been in school every day since you know in some version since August 24th so I I feel like we we put our instructional time up against a lot of places I I'd say that there there's a high
046reality that we'd be close up there and you know I I I understand that there's probably some flexibility maybe some free time on Fridays you are achieving at a high level but you know there's there's options I know I sent BR you some options you know you get a b or something know Ian there are some things that they can be doing but I also think like the thing that Roger probably put board update that I sent him some kids went out to gr and play basketball and help us student right like I mean you know these standards that we're telling kids that they're missing I'm seeing that they're growing in standards of empathy gratitude and resiliency so like some of those stop skills that I see it every day and I mean you see
047our kids doing things like that I can tell you stories that are like that too so this is something that's unique I get it but our failure rates show it but our speakers are are using the time I can't tell many times good the teachers say I haven't got this kid to talk all year and they finally talk to me yeah you know and also to say you know I was able to connect with some kids I was able to get this thing done they're looking at better assessments you know and how are they adjusting what they need to assess and how they want to assess so I know that there's some things that we haven't ironed out when it's expected us to with us putting this together in the year but it really has
048been invaluable for my staff and for um many of our students so well and I think you know this year has really taught us lot about just that empathy piece and um that our teachers also needed also so I appreciate you empowering your faculty to um do the things that they did like Kyle I read his the best I could in a five point time it's just amazing you know and um you got a lot of different personalities same with Ken right and the support that you given to your teachers is just phenomenal and you are building resilience among D so um we appreciate it very much had a question with the data it says 18% of classes are near at or failing is that so how do you figure that so if there's a
049majority of kids failing a class it's a failing class so you have about 17 35 1 40 kids right now in the high school right okay and we get that six classes right so you multiply that by six then see how many are failing they're they they have an F in their class because I notic this next one is talking about an F so that kind of gauge or the yeah so so I said % classes are near or at so what I did okay thank you I'm just wasn't exactly sure I mean I know no because it's compounded if unfortunately we have a student who's failing multip cles they compounded 450 students and you're finding that your remote students are having the failure rates at a higher number then like in the middle school
050was really those people who are coming in person you see it Opposite at the high school say that again sorry um it sounded like you were saying that your remote students are the ones who are in this failing area maybe a higher percentage than your inperson folks where I heard Ken say that at the middle school you're people who are face to face are having more failure rates true that now mind you there was there would be some failures Nal failures anyway but yes the percentage of students um that were failing was higher in the your in person because there's so many more of those kids oh okay that's of our 8 kids you know there's there's only 130 there remot 3% failure for that's about three Med students but you know 8% of inperson
051students you're talking about 1250 kids you know so I break it down student for both those but that's I just need a little clarification there that classes did that clear it up yes it thank you so much so I'm actually kind of shock real quick on the 20% of students are remot that seems like a large number do we I mean I don't want to say it scares me a little bit but it does scare me a little bit thinking you know is this an option you think are want to have going forward the future that they're start asking for stay tuned to the next board meeting plan looking at next yeah and and yeah we don't see that I'll just say we we see a need but we don't see a need for 20%
052because we know what the best education is right um overall for for most every kid but there is a group who might be a unique group who might benefit whether it's medical or some other unique and we might consider something for that very small population um but not 20% because that's not I I don't see I mean we we wouldn't be having this conversation right now in my mind if um if the world were at a point where we could have 97% of our kids back in person because parents felt comfortable with that I there are a lot of families who have chosen to keep their kids remote because they're doing okay but they don't want to be contact traced out for because we're allowing them to do extra that's a real part of the
053invested in but not to the degree I think that plays a the school okay well me the middle school I think it's a tough one your kids areen I got two middle schol right they see you know squirrel it's over you know all the I feel the needs of kids that are just young teams um the things that they need like um just I was parent um healthy Risk Takers in other words you used to be able to go up and ask to go to this or take a chance and go sit with a group of kids at lunch that you would normally so those are those things that middle school kids are going through that they need to build there's a lot of that kind of stuff that they need for their development right
054now that they're just not they're not getting and you know that's that's a struggle but tell you what I just have to say this our behavior in our building this year has been our kids have just stepped up and and been wonderful we just haven't had significant issues you that that would make things that much more challenging if you were dealing our kids my son me he took some healthy risk taking it to high school when I got to eat outside last week they tried to sit 12 at a table till Mr wi came by we so we settled um thank you for all this data especially child testimony me a lot what kind of teacher he is and how dedicated he is and how every minute in the seat matters say that is great
055I'm glad this is working for students I would like to know before we move on to this how is it working for teachers and their own health has it helped them yeah I think that you know by Nature know my sta kind the same way you know they they were in a in a tough spot in the fall because they felt like they couldn't give the students the parents the community the kind of education that they were accustomed to and I think that weighed on them more than they probably wanted to um admit um because that's the when I synthesize all those those conversations over the first semester I think it came down to they just felt like they were in and I just tried to remind them that like just by virtue of being
056here in school like we've kind of mentioned right like that that that's stuff that we to start having conversations about little things you know you know Brian Parson I were talking about how we got conversations about playing time like things are things are somewhat normal back in August we were just up so um I think our teachers are feeling like this has given them some of that um ability to feel like they're giving students what they need whereas um before they just kept feeling like they were missing kid I didn't even talk to that kid today I didn't even get a chance to check in with that kid today I just I'm not doing my best job that I know I can do and so this has allowed them to be more intentional Monday through
057Thursday getting what they need to do still giving content or things on Fridays um but checking in with kids building those relationships that I think our staff now absolutely the great way to put it is is Effy you know when you feel like you're making a difference it's it's help you just feel so much better and at the beginning of the year the teachers didn't feel like they were as effective any of those gifts um it was making them crazy it making them crazy because they hold such a high standard for what they do for kids and uh you can just see it um it's so fun to watch them communicate you know they send group emails about hey I just found this new thing happened today C I just found this this way of
058when you're correcting papers you can leave a recorded message to the kids or feedback instead of you know typing in comments about what they could adjust and everybody just jumps on board they get excited but it's just different um they they are more effic they've been all year in shows um when when you do when you do go into class I know I told Roger and John a couple others the other day that you walk into the rooms and they've got an iPad hanging from the ceiling and they've got one maybe two laptops and then a third screen and and it took me a while to figure out why they needed it all but it's it's to make sure that the kids at home were feeling as included as the kids in school so they
059had to come up with some different tricks to make that work so that the kids in fact could hear the other students respond so the kids at home can see what's on the screen but yet the teacher could still see their face and they can see you know their face um just a ton of tricks that they learned throughout the year but it took us so long to figure it out you know but but it is as as Adam said you can see it um overall feelings that the people have more effective get well and also kudos to the district and the boards that preceded our Lords and members who've been here for a long time because I'm watching districts who are not only dealing with all this but most of them have never been
060one to one to have six years of this under our belts is a huge leap we got schools all over the country figuring out where to press the power button right now and do all that stuff that makes me think too of you know moving on to college that you know my daughter is getting her bachelor's and it's all online by the way she's getting her degree in elementary education especially in special EDS but anyway it's all in line and so these skills of learning like this I think may be important as you move forward in your career of some sort any just want to say that it's not great I know that that maybe given skill that we'll take them further with their education good deal okay we need to vote on this okay
061all right so um all in favor accepting this recommendation say I I I'll opposed excellent thank you so much for all of the information and obviously the great questions and remarks all right we have to move on to an important item Kim and this would be the Chrome books okay so here we go it is recommended that the Board of Education approved the purchase of $2,000 Chromebooks at a price of $454,000 the purchase will also require $48,000 for Chrome management licenses and a $26,000 allowance for device cases the total approved purchase price is $528,000 can I have a motion excellent all right and our expert book guy and all things technology so you guys thank you go ahead so this is uh every year I come you guys come withal for Pur um this is
062the annual purchase refreshes of our one device please and keeps them up and running and uh for the students um I am coming to you guys a little bit early this year and the reason for that is that we learned the lessons um last year we ordered 1500 Chromebooks for our students right around this time last year and didn't end up getting those devices until November oh my because things like that so this year I'm coming a little bit earli so we can be sure we get the devices ordered in year um so actually with these 2,000 devices we still have 1500 devices right now in with this 3500 devices this summer so basically every student in the district through 12 will be getting a new Chromebook with this purch except for two gr I
063will not also in here um there was a description of Google raises the price of the management licenses that uh go with these Chromebooks they require us to purchase those licenses so that we can have the device on management system we can filter that filter and things like that to it and um they were going to raise the price of that from $24 to $31 before this meeting and so when I saw that obviously I wanted to move quickly on that so I work with to make sure we could get that order done that get sale ends tomorrow all right it was that quick too I I told we get in the board update we did a had that in your board update it was great move on Walt's part I mean he a matter
064of a few days and we saved that much money said 14,000 yeah can't believe they ra all right anybody have any other questions all right we're going to take a roll call vote on this please yeah yes yes excellent all right so we're on to just uh some discussion items Roger sure so a strategic plan visual first one a a visual thanks to Jill vandry so we took the discussions that we had with you the things we had talked about um tried to capture that all uh in this and so giving this to you and just looking for feedback I know you're just getting it so I don't expect a ton right now but what I would suggest is take it home or in no hurry um take it home take a look at if
065if there's anything you wonder you see you notice whatever um please mention and uh we'll we'll take a look and and if we need to go back to uh Jill needs to go back to the drwing board she's the expert in that area then we'll have her do so but uh anyway this was our our first go like the agre it's simple it kind of tells the story as you go around go any way you want story yeah very we did all this yes did well you and the community you and the parents and the kids in the community is everybody giving that that input so um I would say take a look at it give me if there is anything give it to me if I don't hear from you I'll probably mention in
066a board update and then we'll probably come back if there's nothing um then we will come back for an approval of this and then visually get it in place and we have some ideas on some other things we'd like to connect to this since this uh really does um you know really sum up who we are what we're about and how we go about our business and uh so on so yeah take a look at it yeah one more the next thing so so uh we wanted to talk to you a little bit and this will be big pictures what some student opportunities this summer we will have uh some funding for some opportunities and we've been discussing those uh amongst ourselves with staff and so on so we just want to give you some
067big picture Elementary and secondary thoughts ideas you won't have a lot of the details yet um because we are working on those um but I'll turn it over starting out turn it over to Dr a l to say tonight so yeah this is all big picture we were waiting last week um the state of Michigan pass house built 404 that appropriated specific funding uh directly for summer learning opportunities so we had already had some conversation about about what we felt like uh based on some of the data that we talked about tonight different pieces at the elementary level what our community needed what our students needed for some summer opportunities so in really big picture k6 uh we plan to offer a summer program for remediation specifically for learning gra gaps focused on math and
068reading um we're going to Target math and reading we're going to layer in some science and I'll I'll talk about that in a second 78 um as a combination of remediation and credit recovery so in the past our um middle school has always run what they've called a lab um opportunity and we're going to run that again they were able to do that last year even when almost everything else shut down were some of our first virtual testers um and they want to do that again but they also had a big uh meeting with their leadership team and want to provide some opportunities for kids that address that failure rate and not so much like I call it credit recovery but really the main idea is just making sure that we can support them in
069that a sexual Contex before they're moving on either grade more onto the high school and then 912 uh will be specific credit recovery and that's what we've done in the past um to provide students the opportunity if they uh have failed a class to earn that credit back or if they are at risk of not graduating so uh this uh the funding is nice for this the summer programing we can get up to $550 per student that we engage Credit Recovery same amount uh what's nice about that is Credit Recovery in the past summer school for high school has always been uh the cost burden on the errant this will take that off the parent and it um can help provide our staff some extra funding as well you see in there um as part
070of that the state has offered up a staff stien of an additional th000 per teacher who participate in these um experiences there there is some concern about will we be able to get teachers and will communities be able to get teachers and so it's a nice bonus that we don't have to write in it comes straight from MBE $200 250 per support staff and then we can apply for an additional $100 per pupil for what the state is calling Innovative programs and the challenge with this is um they've given us less than a vague description of what these might be and so we're doing our best but what they have said straight in the legislation are Community Based projects um integrated uh opportunities that are kinesthetic or involve cognitive growth programming or outdoor an adventure
071based program so we this is great I love that you we we had already had some conversation about wanting to take a morning Elementary program for example and pair it with afternoon community at opportunities when when we saw this it it it layers an additional funding for us to develop those plans I have a meeting on Thursday with Lindy paritz from the VIS or why we've been great partners with them for the last couple of years and I'm going to reach out and make sure we try to coordinate something with Chris balar as well and plug right into not only one element of community programming but really try to wrap around unities for kids with State funding come State requirements so um again they haven't given us a lot of guidance on this all that
072was written in the legislation is that the program must be eight weeks in length Monday through Friday they didn't give us a a duration on that day so most districts are are being flexible with that time it fits in with our vision because our credit recovery at the high school is typically two sessions morning and afternoon for kids to be able to class that up and what we wanted to do uh k6 and maybe K8 again we haven't flushed it out yet but was to have some academic time in the morning and then afternoon can be that Community um experience time so it has to be open to all students this was new to us our initial discussion was we were really going to Target our bottom 25 or 30% um but that's fine we
073are even more excited our limitation was thinking that due to our own funding we would have to make restrictions based on who could participate and we would want to layer that for for those that might be most urgent so we'll open it up to everybody as to include an inperson option we heard tonight that we know that that's most important we might talk about some additional virtual options for those people like Brent asked you know why aren't people coming back there are some people that still won't come back and so are there ways that we can still reach out to them um we'll have conversation about that so the credit recovery is eligible for any student who failed one or more course this year or is not on track to graduate so this could really
074help us if we have students that that maybe aren't credit deficient this school year but were last year we can pick them up and um hopefully bring them forward so um um our initial structur is like I said K six we're hoping for a full day experience um half day academics 60 Minute blocks for ELA and math and then layer in some social emotional work as well we have tremendous staff in that area so we want to address those needs what's great about this um we can tack it right into the summer meal program right talk Jeff Ward and we can offer free breakfast and lunch that's a benefit to our district and the community um and then again the afteron Partnerships will work on seventh and eighth grade likely half days um and we'll
075structure out whether students are in those lab experiences or if they're in kind of an essential skills credit uh piece but they also even before the state had released their guidelines the middle school had sketched up something that uh had built in also social emotional learning and recreational type activities so we think we're going to be able to do something there and then 9912 um we're able to follow our traditional format which has worked out well three weeks four sessions morning and afternoon so three weeks of a morning session and an afternoon session and each of those equates to one semester so a student if a student failed two classes all year long could earn that back credit is a half a semester so they have three weeks um and then three weeks again so
076uh and then the high school too um looking at layering in some type of the social emotional support for students it's just it's just been a tremendous our timeline so this was entertaining when the state first put this out um there their initial deadline was March 15 for for these applications to be submitted so today yeah right and they were approved I think last Thursday so they bumped that up fortunately um I can sleep a few hours tonight but the applications are due April 15 the funding distribution is May 20 so this is going to be interesting for the business departments they are going to distribute funding based on your estimated enrollment right yeah I know it's funny and then on June 15 we're going to submit our program our actual enrollment and if if
077we have overestimated our enrollment we're going to have to return those funds so anyway hean she'll work that out but [Music] underestimate invite students like The K invited them to come of this in this in the past or anybody right now say everybody has to come everybody has to be invited invited invited but in the past well we've never had something like this in the past when we did k6 summer school it was restricted to our Title One students only because that that was the it could save them some money yeah um and then obviously June through August we'll be working on program implementation throughout those eight weeks we'll structure that out right now I think all work up deing is we probably do four weeks and then a break and then four weeks um
078but we'll we'll work that out once we see the calendar um and then this is not our only piece just a couple of other things that we' had conversation about um uh special education we want to make sure that we layer in resource room support for those students um who need that in addition we want to um combine this for our extended school year asy for those qualifying students in um in our programs um our ASD and CI programs so they can take advantage of this as well we've always done that in the past um and we're talking about essential itinerant services for speeching language social work again there's that social emotional piece and maybe even some occupational therapy for for those people we're excited um the funding is there um we just we're gonna
079work real hard over the next month to get this structured and and and get people signed up the other thing is just over the weekend you know that um the Michigan Department of Education came out with recommendations for at home summer reading programs which has been push over the last couple of years there's a ton of research out there on um the benefit of just reading at home right without instruction the research says anywhere from six books if you read Richard alon's research to eight to 10 books if you read some of the the most recent research but it can not only stop summer loss but it can actually increase students's ability to comprehend but the problem is engagement so they're they're pushing that as well so um we're going to have some conversation for
080those people again who maybe won't come in or can't come in or won't commit to eight weeks what can we do to just get them some resources at home if they're at least Comm to that I know that's a fun that's up really fast I can tell um but we're really excited about this some questions yes so how are you gonna um I'm just looking at the number the staff stiens right so that's $1,000 right on here on top of on top of hourly rate okay we will pay our teachers an hourly rate we have in our Master agreement in our contract we have an hourly summer school rate got it they'll get paid for that that, is like a signing bonus yeah that's that's really amazing um and then how are you going to
081then you'll just be putting a feeler out to anybody who's yep so our conversations were once we have enough information to put out to parents dates and some structures we will send something out to to get initial registrations and then we'll probably do a followup for commitments because I didn't even talk about um in the past when we've done summer school we've offered Transportation as well we want to eliminate all barriers um so we'll have to figure out all of those things and then we'll get in addition to space like Brent said well if build it and [Music] everybody does sound incredible does your book initiative from Department of Education you partner with the libraries ever they have these programs are really well and we we first of all the staff at the Greenville Library
082is the best amaz so we typically meet Every Spring to kind of revise how can we partner to get kids there we tried to do a combination with Barnes & Noble and get kids there so we'll do all of that um in the past we also uh spent some federal dollars that we had on buying our own books created our own book bags and sent them home and did our own exchanges that was helpful um but again it's that that extended but we have to get different books so that that'll be our main focus I mean I just I just coached follow the books and that's kind of cool figure out how to make it you know an engaging competition even you know so you never know I mean it just feel like the library
083so good I think Community Ed and anything we can do through there if you think about it if the kid participates and that's that's I mean you've got to have some incentives in there other than hey you get to come do math and read we all know how fired up every kid's can get about that right in the summer um so if you can link in the fact that they have not experienced a lot of the getting together socially with friends and peers and so on and do some classes through your community and that's free during that afternoon we think that's a big attraction too yeah you can be a part of this camp or this whatever um you know be a part of this and you get to be that for free and like
084like Brent said hey what great child care that is if my kids gonna be in there in the morning they're gonna get breakfast they're gonna be there in the morning they're gonna get lunch and they're gonna be there in the afternoon that's pretty good you just got to call it something fun are you able besides adding on to this are you able to bring community at the typical programs for the summer are you able to bring any or all of that back this year for our fam we are hoping to bring as much um as as many opportunities as possible in the summer we know for sure the outdoor activities and indoor activities with a plan with a a plan based on whatever the plan needs to be at that time with with the different
085things that have to happen um so I think we'll be able to do that um and I think a lot of you know with the funding we're going to get we should be able to fund a lot of that in Su things that people normally pay for we might be able to fund it so that we're able to run it of course that's in out money um be able to fund those things for kids so that they have OPP but with and the people who would be funded for would be the people who are in the summer program so I think I understood maybe I so let's say a family's like you know what my kids had enough they need just be period are we offering or going to offer that so it's not tied
086to an educational yeah we'll still have those programs um Community Tye class yeah we'll have those it's just I think this is an incen no and I understand that I get that this funding can pay for it for kids who participate in the overall program so that'll be an incentive as well run and I get that it's just that some parents are going to say you know what yeah it's time for them to get back with their yep if mask is required it's going to possibly affect you I think and the flip side of that is we I hope we can be flexible enough if a parent says I'll send them in the morning but then that's it we have home stuff we're doing or something like that hopefully we can kids were in camps
087travel accessible I sent everyone directly the presentation look at it again question quick on when we do this are we going to communicate clearly to our community that this is possibly just this year like I don't want the funding expectation to be there like they get all excited and all invested this year and then next year the state goes well we're all caught up I I really want to make sure knows this is a special one time opportunity we have a unique opportunity for recovery right I mean if they can do it [Music] every well they proove all the money we might um are itinerant Services just for those enrolled in the program or are you saying iner Serv iterate services for any child in special education even if they're not in the program I
088I don't know okay I we're not far enough down that road to know okay when we talk about just like buzzing through them so we when we talk about Middle School Credit Recovery are those when you say that you talking about credit recovery for middle schoolers who are taking High School level courses or you taking talking about regular courses regular courses do they get credit in the Middle School well yes and no yeah and that's why I said it's really essential skills Focus based on those students that maybe you know one of the things we asked a question earlier about data one of the things about data is that we have some kids haven't Eng significant absences and and the state county and the state level has handled treny very differently this year because of
089everything so there are a number of kids that we hope to engage whether it's absence based uh learning loss um disengagement learning l [Music] can we possibly state it as such for the middle schoolers not say Credit Recovery where credits aren't created okay um I just don't want to confuse parents if their children are losing credit if they're not credit um put together the YMCA I've wanted this for so long right can we offer some we live in the land of lakes children should be sing you talk to them this week will you consider we'll we'll talk about because is working on getting their program as well right we partnered with them in the past on their summer day camp um which they're not running so it's win-win for them to get people in their
090facilities use their programs resources we used to I used to work out for R pools and we pulled in every third grader every year during the school year for two straight weeks and took them to the Y and every third grader how a swim and I thought that was one of the best things that we did well Granville used to have drown people it was did my mother-in-law ran it I just God Rest for soul so important buing I wonder the library can't do it if we can maybe mobile Library into some of the communities around I think that's part of the issue is like I live way out by Metro hospital and I'm just going to tell my kids to bike over here while I'm working because they have to cross Town they're just
091not doing it so unless the library is closer to them they lose opportunity to go can we bring libraries to them maybe po some pop at the door I lure them all of a you know and a puppy and a a yeah and we've um all evolving conversations that we've tried over the last years as well including K has mile yeah they do getting books and and accessible is always questionable but that's exactly what we did with our own individual Book Exchange for book bags once we tried at the library because we thought great opportunity get them signed up get them comfortable with the library other places we've done it at the school because again they're comfortable with it they might be um up at Cummings or or south of town so we'll be talking
092about all those Kim we need you to move into GR well keep my eye find me a house here will be here well my son is gonna be a new resident of Grandville they purchased the home so we're pretty pumped yeah yep really excited right by Central in the backyard practically good so I think that it was an amazing meeting thank you for your presentation if anybody else have any questions we're good okay we are meeting again in not until after spring break yeah and that's gonna be awesome so everybody have safe travels and whatever yall might be doing because I know I'm going but um than that the meeting is [Music] Jour yeah de b a house behind oh my God out the yeah do you know they yeah there's nothing so we we
093and they didn't get it the first round the Kim thank you for these clothes you're so sweet a lot more I just you um I don't give it [Music]