Board of Education Workshop, September 20, 2025

001Good morning. It's for the view. >> Yeah. >> Melanie is two minutes away. Good morning everyone. Thank you for being here on this wonderful Saturday morning, September 20th. It is 900 a.m. We will get started with our meeting. Understanding that we do have some board members that come in a little later. I am going to call roll in the absence of No, I'm not. I'm going to first stand for the pledge. >> Um, Mr. Ambrose, do you mind leading us? >> Sure. >> I pledge algiance 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. >> Thank you. >> And now I will call on Mr. Abra >> Mrs. Abby Mitchell walking in Dr. Weaver >> here

002>> Mrs. Hines on her way Mr. Cox >> present >> Mr. Roshan will be late and Miss May present thank you everyone next we will move to item 13.26 recommendations and presentations and I believe we're starting with Dr. C. >> Thank you. Well good morning. I appreciate you being here uh this morning. Um I'd like to introduce Nancy Schultz. To those of you who might not have met Nancy, she's our director of PD and school improvement. She has put a lot of time into this, not only because it's important to share it with you, but to kick off the year with our strategic plan being front and center um for our staff and our students. So, um, good morning. What I'd like to do, you have a great place right here with your name on

003it. What I'd like to do is start off with board members. Um, something something that's good that's happened this week. It could be professionally, it could be personally, but just something good that happened this week. >> So, I'll start. Um, one of the things that I would celebrate is the legislative lunchon that we had yesterday. It was extremely positive. Um, great opportunity to just have conversations and to advocate for the needs of the district and to even learn more about what some of our greater needs are as well as the great work that's already taking place that needs to continue to be supported. So, that was a highlight for me this week. Thank you. Well, I share we had the opportunity to go to height to celebrate their 10y year anniversary and me being a

004member of the rec center when the transition was going from Wayne to height and just to see it come alive and one of the things that Wayne mayor shared that you know we could be looking at an empty building right now and just to know the partnership that they have with our Wayne Westland community. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. >> Uh this is I'm sure less than what they shared, but um I'm really enjoying the impact that Madden the dog has on our district and on the kids. Um she's really doing a nice job with the with the kids and also his handler. So, >> thank you, Dr. Weaver. So last night I had the opportunity to go to Hamilton Elementary and they had their their fall festival and it was just a

005great experience seeing the parents and the teachers and the students as a community come together and have a great time socializing and being able to to meet some of the the parents at that school and to to see how happy their kids were to be at a at a building like like him. Thank you. >> This week I drafted a letter concerning the food nutrition. You know, the board has had a lot of conversation and had a presentation from our food provider, Aaron Mark, about the the type of food that we're that we're giving the kids. In some cases, the children eat three meals a day at our school. and uh the by their own admission uh this this menu is at the top of the salt and sugar allowable uh by by the federal

006government. And honestly, I don't believe we should be anywhere near the top of it. I think it's a guide to to to recognize that eating processed food three times a day and even in some cases more is just not in the best interest of the children. and and it it sets them up for how they will eat in their life also. >> It's not it's not good. All of the work that we try to do here with respect to curriculum and our different focuses are lost if the kids aren't eating properly, can't concentrate, aren't growing well. And we all heard the same presentation. There's seems to be even with the resources to make another move, we don't have the ability to because the type of food that we're offering is just never going to Are

007you a sign? >> is just never going to allow us to do that. So, I directed a letter uh or I drafted a letter and I uh sent it to the president and asked her if it would be okay if I sent that. I got her approval. It's being transcribed and everyone will get a copy of it. It's basically acting asking the secretary of health and human services to recognize that nationwide this is a big problem in our district. We happen to have exceptional infrastructure so that we could actually make a decision to change the way we provide food service. We have the facilities for it. We have the kitchen for it. But in many districts they don't. They're basically reheating operations. And so if we're looking at this problem, I have to think that

008there are many other districts that are looking at this problem. And I'm asking the federal government, especially with the fact that uh the federal department of education has been dissolved to take a leadership role in this and try to help us with, you know, the system and the costs and what have you be necessary in order to provide fresh meals for kids. And I I don't know how much uh complication that all creates, but we shouldn't just be in my in my view, we shouldn't just be answering questions that come along during the day, but rather take some time to try to dramatically improve something we're doing. And we're spending a lot of money on this and as you all know, I I would like to do a better job with this. So, um more

009on that later, I guess. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, Miss Hines, we are reflecting about the week and talking about something that positively stuck out on your mind. I don't mean to put you on the spot. >> No, you have something you can draw upon. >> So, yes, I like to thank our president, Miss Kimberly May, we had that amazing legislative lunchon. And what I liked about that is we were able to get things done in real time. Like when we needed some answers, Senator, she was texting everybody and we got stuff real time. So, I thought that was super awesome. and especially with our demands with the budget, you know, not being approved and it hurting our kids and even when it came to driver's training, our food, just certain in particulars with

010threat analysis. So that that was so awesome to have like things done in real time, the answers um being met and to just putting the emphasis on like said the importance of educating our children with the food, you know, getting these budgets passed because it's hurting our kids and it's hurting our students and staff because we can't really staff. we don't have the money, you know, and the state already set aside to talk about problem. So, thank you guys for putting that together yesterday. It's a great event and well said. Well said. Um, I'd like to thank Kimy for arranging all the food and the coffee and the water and making us feel so at home this morning. And thank you to Juel, Alex, Scott, and Angie for giving up part of their day to

011to provide some insights along the way with us. Um, I'm going to turn it over to Nancy in a minute here, but uh, let me just talk a little bit about why a strategic plan is so so important. Um, think of it as a structured roadmap as many of you know and it sets direction for the district and it um helps us make decisions to achieve our goals that are more long-term. So, if we don't have direction, we can't base decisions on that direction we're headed and the decisions will be made and might take us off path. So that's why it's so important. Um strategic plans not only um usually include a mission and a vision uh but goals and objectives for us to know our milestones and then how are we going to measure

012that? And in my first month of being here, um I sat in our district um school improvement committee and it had representatives from all schools, instructional coaches, um central office, all all walks of our of our organization. And just sitting and listening, what struck me was the incredible alignment that Nancy has put together. Not only vertically, everything from our our middle learners to our 26-year-old special ed students, for example, to horizontally. What's happening from elementary school to elementary school or middle to middle? And that is uncommon. It is very uncommon that your strategic plan is so grassroots driven. It it is a living breathing document that gets touched upon many times throughout the year. It involves all parts of our organization. And I was so proud to come into an organization that had this had

013this foundation because in many other places where I've been the strategic plan sits on a shelf or you're like oh we have to check a box and we'll we'll get a meeting together and for the sake of just meeting. So I think the information she is going to share is going to be very valuable. I was excited, Miss May, when you asked if we could do this because I really think this is a a highlight of Wayne Leson. So, Nancy, I'm going to turn it over to you. and she has worked hard with Joe Orbin and other members of the department including Angie um and been to every school >> since the start of school to bring this presentation to you. I just I wanted to ask a question before we started and it's not

014for you Nancy. So this is a board question, right? >> Because I want to put this out there. we as a board never voted to accept these goals. And I think that with the work that's being presented today, I'd like for us to think about that because perhaps at our October meeting, this could serve as maybe a first read and maybe in our October meeting, we vote to accept the goal once we have seen this presentation because I think it's important for that to be on record that, you know, we support this work that's being done in that manner. So, I just wanted to lift that piece before. Thank you. Thank you for lifting that and I think that um in the creation of this it was to get the best foot forward that we

015could as a proposal to you and to move from there. So consider this your proposed strategic plan. Um okay so my kip is the platform in which we use to put our information in with the state and it has changed considerably over the years the way that we document and the way that we uh measure progress at the state level and it's become a much more authentic and um living and breathing and iterative process that allows for real time improvement and changes. Um, and so, uh, it's a exciting time to be working in school improvement. Um, so as you listen, I want you thinking not just about um, obviously if you agree with these type of things and if this is something we're going to accept or adopt, but also for ways in which you

016can support what you're hearing about today. And at the end of the um session, we're going to workshop some ideas. We'll see how far we get and I have some sample ideas for you if you need them. Um so at the end, we're going to talk about and workshop ways in which the board has a role in supporting the district strategic plan. So um a little bit of past to present. Um, historically, and this is pretty uniform across different districts, um, the past the strategic plan was based upon perceived needs, uh, rather than data. And now we have worked together with our district improvement team and buildings to collaboratively identify challenges and goals and evidence-based strategies to improve those. Um, in the past, school improvement has been centered around uh arbitrary growth indicators such as

017a 5% increase on MSTEP or a 3% increase on NWA. And now, um, my KIPP supports measuring things not only by growth data, but more so in the early phases by implementation of those goals. Um, because you're using evidence-based goals, you're expecting evidence-based outcomes. But that only happens if you implement them with fidelity. Um, in the past, school improvement plans have been written in isolation and kind of just communicated. Um, here this now we have drafted this collaboratively by a team. Um, we've shared with building admin and teams for feedback and our building goals are all aligned, supported, and reviewed by district visits. and we at the annual end of the year summit to reflect and celebrate which some of you may have had a chance to come to. This is the vision and mission

018um that was adopted well not adopted last year but proposed last year and is still a work in progress um as far as our core values but our mission is uh Wayne Westland Community Schools provides a high quality evidence-based education that ensures the success of all students and our vision is our because Wayne Westland Community Schools provides an equitable learning environment centered around positive relationships and practices where every student is supported equitably. believe and then those are some of our proposed core values that we're kind of hashed out. Um this is our continuous improvement process that we follow and it follows the MYKIP um format pretty much lock step but we go through data gathering. Sometimes that's MSTEP data, SAT data. Um sometimes that's street data based upon what the needs are happening in our

019buildings in real time. Um and then we identify what are our challenge statements. Um if we do this then we would expect these results and that's usually your your big goals about the earth about 3 to 5 years that take uh take to accomplish and then we create our annual goals from there. What is the first big rock we have to move in order to achieve those goals and then our buildings align to those goals and our content areas align to those goals as well. So, some of the things that used to be owned by the building as far as um improve math scores by 5% um at the high school and and secondary have now moved into each of the content teams to develop a goal that relates back to the district goal so

020that they're more realistic and um noteworthy for those teams. Then our job is to throughout the year implement and progress monitor how we get there and um acknowledge the incremental outcomes that that are the interim targets along the way and then review and reflect. We determine if we were if our goals were attained and then we reflect upon the process and identify the next goals or if there's something that we need to dig deeper within those goals to go towards improving the cycle. um what that looks like as far as the human um resources. It starts with our district improvement team which is a cross-section of a whole lot of people across the district. Um then it flows into our principles some of which who are on the team and then the principles give their

021feedback align their goals and then the building improvement teams go that are directed by the principles and then also into the content leads and then you'll see the school board the role in which you can play um is to adopt the policies approve budgets and ask critical questions in supporting the plan while engaging the community and then we have our annual district summit that's kind of a a culminative um celebration at the end of the year to recognize the the work that's been done and to um reflect upon did we meet our goals. We invite community members, we invite the families um to that and you as well. Um so that's kind of our culminating activity at the end of the year to then move us into the next year of work. Um what you're

022about to see is I don't want you to have any question that this is um a real practice that's happening. So these are some testimonials straight from some of our administrators at the building level. And um I want you to hear that this is real boots on the ground work. But I would say my first few years here, I think that the best way that I could describe it, describe everything was a little bit chaotic. Um there was no consistency. I think the last few years has been absolutely wonderful in terms of school improvement. I believe that the practices are equitable. Um which in the past I didn't feel like they were equitable, but um everybody has a say and all of our thoughts are brought together. Um, and now that there is a consistency

023between buildings, >> well, in February of 2024, I started as the principal at Stammer. And at that time, our school wasn't aligned um fully with the district goals and having school improvement goals that align with the district's direction. Um, so we really felt like we were behind and we wanted to catch up. >> I feel like in the past few years, our school improvement system has improved quite a bit. I know that all schools are trying to work together to make our goals a little bit more in sync with each other and follow along with the district's improvement goals because that seems to make the most sense. Um, I feel like it's more organized. I feel more confident as a principal presenting those goals to the staff as well. And I feel like the staff

024is on board as well. the work last year and especially the work we're continuing and starting to build towards this year. Alignment is the focus and that's something to really be excited about in our district is for the first time in a long time I see resources um and people groups coming together aligning what we do um and making making a step in the same direction. But since we decided to get on board with what the district was doing, we started using some of this uh elementary assessments like the Zpass and letters. And so we've been able to take that data um actually put it into the system that the district uses like edge climber and then use that data to start our teachers kind of looking at the data and using that to drive

025their instruction. And we're also focusing on processes and procedures. And I know that um as a district, those are things that we're always trying to improve and work on every single day. I do feel that they're authentic. I feel like people have input, people get to have a say in things. And when people get to have input and a say in things, things change and things happen because they know that they're being heard. And we've seen our um data and our like phmic awareness and letter recognition just explode because we're actually able to use evidence-based instructional materials elementary school programs have been implemented. Tech has grown astronomically and I'm super proud of our school for where we are because of the school improvement process. We're aligning our resources from our PLC's to to our district

026plan and everything is kind of moving in the same direction. Um, you know, great future start right here and it's not just a tagline, but when we align our resources, we're creating those. We're creating those for our community. This is authentic work and it's going to be super impactful. We have a chance to do something really special. Um, and I'm I'm convinced of that. And more importantly, with the collaborative, uh, involvement of our of our shareholders, our stakeholders, uh, as well as our staff and students, I think we're going in a great direction. Um, unifying and pulling together and aligning what we do, which really takes a bit. Makes me giggle when he says that. He's got so much energy. Um, so from that, uh, one of the interesting things that came through my email

027this week was from a kindergarten teacher, um, that was addressed to the Saddle Meer, uh, leadership team and then shared with their staff. But um one of our teachers at Hicks Elementary who teaches kindergarten um took time to send a thank you to Stuttle Meyer saying that she could see the difference now that they're aligned, the difference in the children that are coming from Stlemmyer versus the children that are coming that haven't attended Stlem and to see um their ability to assimilate and um take part in the activities at a different level. So that was really exciting for Statleer to hear that their alignment has already after just one year had an impact on our our kindergarteners. So these are our proposed goal uh challenge statements. Challenge statements are 3 to five years in length

028typically and they are written as if then statements. So if we do this then we can expect that. And so we came up with a as a district improvement team as what are our three true buckets of the work that's needing to happen and that's really in process in place um as far as to move our data forward as quickly as it possibly could. And so our first bucket identified was around our steer our tier one standard of care. And that is just kind of meaning our standard of care meaning any child that comes into our district can expect this level of care. If you um translate that into the medical profession, it would be the standard of care that you would receive for whatever diagnosis you receive. And that's the standard of care in

029which you can expect to receive. And so we created a a bucket around tier one standard of care and aligning that. Um our multi-tered systems of support. So if that standard of care isn't working for you, just like at a doctor's office, they try something else. And so what is it that we're going to try and how do we identify and um what's working and what's not working and how do we address that with our students. So that's our MTSS systems and then our attendance. Um we know that along with the state we are struggling to with chronic absenteeism. So ways in which we can address that. We thought we're first and foremost because children have to be here in order to continue to grow. Um, so within those, our tier one standard of care

030is proposed. If we strengthen tier one instruction by identifying and implementing aligned evidence-based curriculum, tools, assessments, and instructional practices districtwide, then we will increase student achievement and ensure more equitable outcomes across all schools. Um, our MTSS proposed challenge statements was uh, if we develop and align our academic and social emotional MTSS practices across the district to ensure all students receive equitable and appropriate supports, then students sense of belonging and achievement will improve. and our proposed attendance challenge statement. If we improve district-wide and building level attendance rates by increased awareness and consistent application of district policies and procedures, then student achievement will increase as students have more consistent access to highquality instruction and support. >> I have a question. Um, I haven't fully formed the thought, so bear with me. >> Take your time. We have

031laptops for everybody. So even if a kid stays home because they have a cold, you know, they're still at home, couldn't they still do their they're missing a day, but really they're not? It's continuous education. Um, you know, is something like that a possibility? or they go on a two week vacation, they still can keep up with with their uh scores. >> Absolutely. And many of our teachers do use uh Google Classroom and things like that so that students can stay connected even when away. Um our problem that we're facing is kind of a deeper problem as far as the chronic absenteeism and the disengagement of those students. So even with the supports uh if we were to invest even more into those supports which is important and noteworthy um it wouldn't necessarily tackle the

032crisis that we have for the kids who are just not here not engaged and without much intention of becoming engaged. So how are we addressing those? Is there anything? >> Oh yeah I just had a quick question that could be a problem with the chronic absence of them. You know, a lot of times with the parents having alcohol and drugs, you know, I think that can be, you know, with depression and things in life and that could be an issue. I'm starting to notice a lot of that, you know, in a lot of the homes because I know when I was working with the city, there was an issue with David Hicks with this chronic acism and it's like K through four and that's a parent problem. You know what I'm saying? Like elementary school

033got be a parent situation. And um when I was talking to the principal, Miss G, she even had a bus to go out. So no reason why the kids was a they had buses come out extra, you know, so that's the issue, too. Just figuring out what's going on in the home. >> Absolutely. And part of our seeing our goals is identifying what those needs are in the with the families. Um the district did a lot of work around the policies and procedures of what that is and they've gotten some momentum on that, but they um what we need to work on is documenting the wise and how we can support that so we can wrap our supports around families. So that is kind of where MTSS and attendance blend together. too. Yesterday I noticed

034Wayne West seems to be the fifth highest in home. Now it's two. So the homelessness can be a big issue too. Our kids aren't coming to school. So that's an issue. And how do you even fight that when that's like an economic type situation? >> Yeah. So we have to know what the problems are in order to be able to assist and combat them and support our community. All great points. Um, moving from our bigger challenges that we were looking at in our buckets of tier one, standard of care, MTSS, and attendance, moving those into one-year goal statements. What do we want to do first as far as how can we um get at the biggest barrier in front of that issue? um as a board and as educators in general, we want to see

035real progress and we want to be able to measure that progress. And in order to measure that progress, we have to know what the input is. So if we stay focused on the outputs without knowing what the input is, we don't really have a way to gauge what we're doing. So, our first goal centers around being able to measure our input, which is another way of saying our alignment and making sure that um our teachers who are teaching third grade are approaching it in the same manner with the same tools, with the same questions. So, it doesn't matter what school you attend. Um that our seventh grade math classes all are offering the same pacing, the same supports, the same resources and things like that and so on. So, for every grade that that's happening.

036Um once we have that in place, then we can begin measuring and paying attention to our outcomes and making those tweaks. Right now, our data says we have a critical need for some tier one structural um concerns to happen because our data is showing not 80% of our children uh achieving outcomes that we are looking for, but more so 20% of our children are. So, we need to get those tier one instructional practices in place. >> Angie, can I jump in for >> Please? >> Angie, you gave me a statistic this week about seventh grade math. Do you remember what it was? >> Um, I don't think it was seventh grade. I think it was um SAT. >> Yes. Yes, you're right. >> It was um 7% of our students were proficient. And so certainly

037that is something where that Joe and Nancy and I definitely in those data meetings, you know, um it's a concern, but it's so much more than the a high school issue. I mean, it's just layer upon layer of prerequisite skills that kids need. Um, so I think, you know, I've been super impressed with the work that NY's doing and and Joe has lots of institutional knowledge to to help um with explain the data. Um, but certainly >> so it so to your point, if 7% of our students are proficient, that means 93% are not, >> right? And why tier one is so important is because that means that our teachers as a whole need to tighten up how and what we're teaching. >> We'll never intervene our way out of it. >> Right. You can

038hire all the math interventionists you want, but you're not going to cure the problem with 93% not being proficient. >> What are you thinking, Miss B? >> I just want to clarify um just because this is being filmed and we have bored here. So SAT is given an 11th grade. So, just I want to thank you and then understanding that when we're talking about this, we're saying that we're looking at kids that have been with us since kindergarten >> potentially. >> Yes. And that of course not all 93% have been with us since kindergarten, but maybe have, right? and understanding that when you talk about tier one, we're saying from preK, potentially K to through 10th grade, mid year and 11th grade, students have missed somewhere along the line that tier one foundational learning because

039really when you get to the SAT, that's come, you know, and so, >> okay, I just I want to thank you for adding them and bringing them into our conversation because that's so important. And it's kind of terrifying for me to tell you these statistics, but yet if we don't realize them, we're not going to get any better. And that's that's I think our whole our whole motive. >> I just like to say that this is the same conversation that I've been having for like 30 years in this school district. And for many of those years, the the challenge to being able to achieve that goal was that we simply did not have the financial resources to purchase the curriculum necessary to fill every classroom. That's the reality of it. And so what instructors would

040do is they would cobble together uh an instructional program, you know, based upon their collaboration with their colleagues and from other venues. And we would end up exactly with what we're dealing with. everyone trying to do a big job but running a separate show. Then when the voters provided us the resources to address that, we had people who were so stuck in their way. Uh I I remember a story uh I was told that superintendent walked into a classroom and saw a curriculum that had been purchased two years previously still wrapped in the plastic in the bottom of a closet. >> Wow. because you can pass all of the uh you know we can go ahead and vote as a board what we want people to do but they actually have to do it and

041they have to be monitored to see that they're doing it >> and that's exactly the point of my in the implementation goals the way that they support that is they want to ensure that those things happen with fidelity so when you drop adopt a new tool within a classroom that it's being used but another piece of our first goal is the term curriculum um how are we how are we using that tool um not just the tool being the curriculum but how are we using that tool so that we can understand does that tool meet our needs so that foundational work has to happen um and part of that has to do with building in um accountability and fidelity checks this is something that we've done very well with our literacy in our K5 and

042I can stand before you and say with 95% assurance well no with 100% % assurance that 95% of our classrooms at least, and I'm just giving you wiggle room for error aligned in their instructional approach and in their tools um as far as how they address foundational skills and the knowledge building portions of Scarsville's Road. So, it is possible and even in a district this size, but that's something that districts everywhere kind of have trouble with as far as monitoring and ensuring the fidelity of what they're doing. Um, and so that's a big push within our goal. You'll see the first big step is to create aligned common assessments, common assessments that are truly common, that are standardized, that are given at um assigned increments. So that holds um teachers to a pacing guide, but

043also enables as we move forward into next year us to have real conversations around real data. when you pull NWA data and SAT data, it's about a puddle deep as far as where you can get for us because with 7% you can't really dig into that that you can't dig into subgroups, who's achieving, who's struggling, how are we addressing those because we're just not obviously with those kind of numbers. And it's not a lack of care, it's not a lack of effort, it's a lack of alignment. And um so the >> can I just jump in and I'll don't ever ask I'll go back and um but I what I heard in your comments was a thank you to the voters for giving us the tools in order to make a difference. Um and and

044I want to say thank you to you as well because the night I was approved, you approved a million dollars worth of curriculum that is going to make such a difference. and um I am grateful that now we can do this important work and and do it in a meaningful way. So you were a big part of that. >> I just have one question. So when I was in high school, I was in the upper bound program and that program they really helped a lot of different study skills. They even had like teaching to the test because a lot of times we don't know how to take the test. That's another skill as well. Maybe if we can find ways to implement that with some of the high school students like teaching them how to

045take the test, you know, and I don't know like it's been a while since I know upper bound to see what they're using to kind of help with that. >> But I think it might go broader than that even study skills. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> How do you get your homework done? How do you prioritize it? But I think you're on to something. >> Yeah, certainly. Thank you, Nancy. >> No problem. Um so our proposed tier one standard of care goal so what we want to accomplish by the end of this year um would be by June 2026 all secondary departments and elementary ELA and math will have standard aligned common benchmark assessments fully developed and entered into a centralized database that is accessible to both teachers and administrators. In addition, a data review

046cycle for both teachers and administrators will be established and ready for implementation by the same date, ensuring ongoing consistency, usability, and accountability across the district. So, that's a lot of words to say. We're going to develop these assessments. The teachers are developing them. There's one um piece in place for how the high school is doing them and the middle schools are following another. But at the same juncture at the end of the year, the expectation is that those common assessments will be in place and that they will serve both the teachers and the district. And we're not we don't want to just create common benchmark assessments and have them be given. And that's that. They have to have value. And so the value a common assessment has for a district is our ability to see

047what's working, what's not on the on the whole. um ensure that we are being fiscally responsible with our curricular tools and resources and uh ensuring that they're having the impact we want. And then when those things aren't happening, we can start digging into that data to see the why. Is it a particular classroom? Is it a particular school? Is it a particular approach? Or is it the tool issue? So until we have that proper data, we can't even begin to ask those questions with any sense of real meaning. Um so the first step is to get that more granular data at the district level. And so these assessments are in place in places. It's just the accessibility of them. Um so where they're in place, they're going to work on the accessibility so that um

048administrators can see them and so that departments can share them at their PLC's next year. And in one another strand of this is in creating at the district level with the help of buildings and teachers um a PLC or a data review cycle that comes in to happen monthly at the building levels for next year so that they all look at the same types of data ask similar questions and have similar um outcomes for what they're trying to adjust. And then teachers can have conversations around will this really seem to work for you? What are you doing? What am I doing? and then we can start to come together as far as how those things happen. um our MTSS or multi-tered system of support goal for this year is and this is in place really

049strong at the K5 and so we want to roll that up and in an effort to equitably support the social emotional growth and sense of belonging for our students while increasing academic outcomes a secondary MTSS process will be created documented and aligned in process and implementation across all 612 buildings by June 2026. 6. With full implementation beginning in fall 2026, all K5 schools will continue to refine the MTSS process by providing support to teachers with small groupoup instructional planning and documenting while aligning preK to this process. So, in short, it's developing a system. Our 612s have some systems in place and they look different in each building and they have different strengths that they bring to the table. So, um, we want to form a committee that brings those all together, get into the building,

050see what's working, piece it together into one excellent system that's strong and used by all 612 so that um, we can target areas and know how to address students um, with academic, behavioral, social, uh, academic, social, emotional, and and attendance concerns in the same unified way. So developing that team approach, who's at the table, how do we talk about it? And what do we do with that? And then our attendance goal and that goal for year one is proposed to be in an effort to increase attendance rates, the district will create and implement a community awareness campaign to promote the importance of consistent attendance and engage community partnerships. In addition, the district will refine and implement updated chronic absenteeism policies and procedures by February 2026 and develop a consistent and documented system of support around

051chronic absenteeism by June 2026. So basically um at the district level that looks like raising awareness of the importance of of attendance and being in school and the impact and effects that can have on your child if they're not. Um possibly including and these are all proposals that the um the steering committee will be working around with attendance. Um possibly putting the rates right on the report cards and then engaging community partnerships. Um, do you remember uh book it? >> If you read 10 books, you get a pizza from Pizza Hut type thing. So, one of our proposals to engage our community partnerships and invite everybody into this is to um possibly have if your attendance is above X rate and it's indicate on your report card, you can take that to a community partnership

052and elicit some type of um >> yeah, whatever that may be. So that's um that's kind of the highlevel things that we can do to promote. But also we are looking at different policies and procedures around chronic absenteeism. Um such as what do we do when a student is absent for 10 consecutive days? Let's say the state doesn't dictate how many days that has to be. Um it's a district decision. And so let's say a child is gone for 10 days. No call, no show from families. We've attempted to engage them. What happens? Well, right now what happens is when they decide to come back and they're available to come back, they go to the school, they reenroll, and then they're back in class and then the cycle repeats. So, one of our proposals is

053to update that policy where they are dropped after 10 days. They have to come to the central office to reenroll and then they have a conversation with a director around um the importance of of being in school. So that's some small things that we can put in place while we're building up those other things to answer your questions as to and through the MTSS process. Why is your child absent? What's going on? And how can we support you as a family? whether that's through um our mental health support services, our um clinics, or through um transportation issues, or is it a is it a social emotional issue your kids avoiding your child's avoiding coming to school or or things that are going on in the home? >> Yep. So, I just wanted to share I

054think the um ideas that are tossed out there are great ideas and just to add to that um Kalamazoo um they've done a lot of work with decreasing their chronic absenteeism and it may be worthwhile to reach out to Dr. Slade. Um their board was also involved in that process. So, it wasn't just like, hey, this is what the district did, but just taking a look at some of the things that they did to um reduce their chronic absenteeism. Their population and and what I'm hearing is similar to our population, so it may be worthwhile. >> Thank you for that because it is hard to find pockets where people have had real impact on that. So, thank you for that. And we will definitely explore what's going on there. Uh HR is also doing a

055project. Go ahead. >> I have one more thing, too. One thing I did notice when my son was David Hson some years ago, it was an issue with parent participation. And I noticed when I started doing those robocalls and making parents more involved and like I noticed that all the parents, it's not about the parent involved, but like the robocalls and getting them engaged. And I noticed that too like I know it's like a lot of parents like showing up parent offices. I went to some council members Wayne the other day and they were saying they don't know what's going on in the district. So maybe I mean I know we're doing but that was like a complaint kind of like so like certain programs other people complain about we didn't know we didn't know

056>> and I know we're doing a good job maybe that's an issue too people don't really know what's happening some of these programs so maybe that might help too >> well we can communicate all day but if it's not reaching people in the right way we're not communicating >> so those are things to explore and uh an example of bringing community together is something that's happening in HR around uh hiring and retention practices and So our HR department is working with Harvard. Dr. Oily Harvard. You guys are working with Harvard. >> So we're as a as a department, we're going to be traveling um a group of us from CIA and from um a couple different departments are going to be traveling in October to uh Pennsylvania. We're going to be working with other HR

057departments across the um uh country to find out some of the best practices that they're doing with uh uh traction and retention of personnel and some of the things that are being um groundbreaking uh across the country and we'll be coming back reporting out to the district some of the success stories that we're seeing um throughout the country. So just give a little bit of time and we'll come back with some of those ideas that we'll be able to eventually implement as a school district. And so that's the important part about out outreach as Miss May said um as far as our chronic absenteeism, what's working for other people. Um and it's harder than you would imagine to find information on that. Um okay, so those are our proposed goals for this year. Uh implementation

058goals. I don't think I need to read this. I think we've gone over this as far as what my is looking for and how we're going to measure the success of these things. We have to measure that they're happening, that they're happening with fidelity, and that they're really being done and implemented strongly. Then we can begin measuring the outcomes. So once we have the district pieces in place, the schools are then asked to create their goals around the district goals. And I wanted to give you kind of a cross-section of what that looks like. Um, and there's much more detailed pieces to this, but as far as for today, um, our with our tier one standard of care at the K5 level, um, the teachers are working around the adoption of the new resource I

059Ready and then also identifying an assessment within that similar to the letters, if you've heard of that, for our literacy work. um we want to have that same adoption of uh and assessments for foundational skills in math. And so that is the goal of our K5s. The other goal for our K5s embedded within that is um the last piece of our literacy task force work um as far as the implementation parts of it and then we'll be off and rolling and tweaking and modifying um would be in the differentiated instruction portion of how are we addressing the different needs once we do the um foundational needs of our students. How are we addressing those different needs within those groups? And so our schools chose between those two goals for the most part or through those

060two goals totally. Um at 612 they adopted straight off the bat the district goal. They don't even have their own. It's that the core contents will have their common assessments um in place and ready to launch for the next fall. And then um Ford Career Tech is similar, but it's around career portfolios and aligning their specific content clusters to the to the different um career clusters that they have. So you can see even Ford is in involved in this and our prek um kind of incredible. And those tier one um if you look at the bottom, those are supported by our instructional coaches, our CIA department, um our data um Joe and uh our content leads, department chairs and our building admin all support those um goals. Our second goal around MTSS. So our preK

061and through five have two avenues in which they're addressing that. The first one is if they adopted the math goal, then they're adopting the differentiated instruction goal here for MTSS if they feel that that's already in place. their second tier was um their second choice was to um engage. So our MTSS process at K5 was so excellently put in place that our numbers referrals dropped which is amazing but they dropped too much. So what we're concerned is that teachers weren't comfortable with engaging in the process um and in documenting those interventions so they kind of may be avoiding it. So increasing that awareness and understanding and capacity within our teachers to really engage in the process of how we document our intervention. So we can bring children to team if we feel they need to

062be um receiving more supports or or having a um an evaluation for special education if needed down the line. Um and so it's just about refining their practices. Then at the secondary level that is exactly the same as what I just uh produced for you from the district level is aligning those systems and processes around our MTSS work and then that is supported by CIA teachers special education our multilingual department building admin PBIS interventionist data and our student services. So it's an all hands- on deck kind of uh goal. And then our attendance goal. Um at the building level, we asked the buildings to approach this from an SEAL, social emotional learning standpoint so that children who um want to engage and be feel comfortable and have a sense of belonging at their building level.

063So as we refine and adopt policies and procedures at the district level that they have an environment in which they want to engage in and feel comfortable with. >> So I just have a quick question. And this might sound kind of crazy, but all these word things with this new government situation, would that cause issues with our funding, you know, how you got to change everything around now? And you know, with social emotional learning, you can't say these type of kids, you know, just so weird with the wording. Would that like cause problems with our strategic plan with the funding? You got to word things in a certain kind of way. >> I don't I don't feel comfortable speaking to that only because I would not be the best source of that information because I

064don't know the different changes that are happening. But I do know that regardless of what the federal government says, our aim is to make sure that all of our learners are supported and especially those learners with more exceptional needs than than an average child coming into the district. So whether that be a multilingual learner or somebody that's lower on the socioeconomic uh ladder that um they have our services and supports. I do know like the cuts with the multilingual learners and our immigrants um that just becomes a district general fund issue too and switches over to that and so they our children need support. So regardless of who's paying for it, it's got to come from somewhere. >> Does anyone have anything to add? >> I think I can speak to a little bit. Um

065you know we talk about Nancy and I talked about it quite a bit of belonging the term belonging. belonging being a for students to belong, staff to feel like they belong. It's a precursor to learning. Um, you know, kind on that hierarchy. We we need to feel like we belong before we're going to be successful in learning. And I think regardless of federal government and mandates and questions around seal versus DEI that the term belonging, access, equity, those are all um that for all kids and I think we can still, you know, reach the goals and um put supports in place even even in in the circumstance. But I understand what you're saying and it I think Juel could probably even speak to maybe if there's things particularly that districts had tied to a term

066like DEI when we can rework that in in under an umbrella of belonging >> and we routinely get legislative updates if there's anything that's a hot button item. We work collaboratively as an organization to make sure that we one alert the appropriate people and then make any necessary changes that we need to make. Yeah, thank you. This is so touchy. It's like a, you know, just because of a word or letters, you know, it's not like and it's already embedded in the system before whatever happened is already embedded like changing things and positions and like I said, we have more multilingual children in the district and even like when we had our legislative update about like you know registering kids for like the lunches and you know with the ice and you know everything is

067so tricky >> and Yeah. No, go ahead, please. I was just going to say equity is at the foundation of of all of our goals here. You can see equity, equity, equity, equity. Were you >> Yeah, my apologies. I It didn't have anything to do with that. So, that's why I was like, I'll wait till you finish and make sure everybody had all their questions answered around that. Um, so I just I don't want you I don't I wanted to go back but not go back per se. Um, not so much as to the my kit slide, but one of the things when you this has been great. This has been absolutely wonderful. So, thank you for that. Um, but one of the things when you started, you kind of talked about the role of

068the board, right? And so when you got to the measurement slide, you talked about the my kit piece, but from the lens of the board, we always want to know when we're investing in resources for a million dollars, what's the return on that investment, right? So while my kip has one way that you measure, and we know that this is long term, but we're looking at goals that are set out for a year. So what I would like to hear is how are we how will those how will the measurement of those goals be presented to the board like what are we looking for right are we supposed to be looking at MSTEP scores will we be looking at SAT scores are we looking at NWA scores and understanding that one one data source is

069just a snapshot right so not saying that it has to be one data source but just so we know right because we want to be able to not only know that we're making the right investments, but be able to speak intelligently to the community because this is their money that we're investing, right? So, we want to say, hey, thank you, you know, you supported this bond or thank you for, you know, the taxes that you pay and this is we purchased this resource and this resource is making a difference. So, how is that how what are we looking for for that measurement? Does that make sense? >> Absolutely. It's a fantastic question and it's completely relevant to all of this and even though we're measuring implementation that it's happening the data still matters 100% the

070data still matters um the situation we are working with is we are data light um and part of what we're doing within each of these um is finding ways to dig deeper into how can we assess those things on a more granular level. So, for example, at the um the lunch yesterday, uh what was it called? >> Legislative. >> The legislative lunch, we were able to present to you some data around our foundational skills through our letters assessment and children's mastery and how it's doubled and tripled in some cases um at that level. So, that's the kind of data we want to look at at first. And so, our job is to build within each of these goals how we're going to measure it. So even though right now the how is making sure that

071teachers do it, the common assessments will then become the measurement of the success of that. And so we'll be able to present to you and you should expect to hear um data around common benchmark assessments and how that's being achieved. And not only that, how are we addressing the gaps moving forward? And not just that, Nancy. So I'm going to say because I heard you present, right? So I talked about this yesterday at the legislative lunch and so when we talk about fidelity like Mr. brought up, you know, there was a time when materials were still um shrink wrapped, not being utilized, right? But you put measurements in place for letters training to ensure that that implementation was happening. That should come to the board. People should know about that, right? And and so I

072just I want to lift that because data isn't always >> the numbers, right? When we talk about you lifted or you mentioned street data, that's street data and and so those pieces have to be lifted, right? So if we know that >> y >> implementation with fidelity is >> a concern, >> then talk to us about how the district is addressing that, right? And that won't necessarily come through through NWA data. >> Excellent. So, I just I want to lift because you're doing that work, >> but it's not always lifted to the Lord and it should be >> and and I want um people to from our district to um highlight the work that's happening and and the pieces you'll start to see as a board coming together. For example, I want you to hear

073from our MTSS at the K5 and how they have built out a lockep equitable amazing program that puts students first across the district. So, it doesn't matter if your child attends, Graham, or Hicks, they're going to get the same standard of care and equitable intervention practices. Um, I want you to hear from our instructional coaches about the different adoptions happening about FAME and things like that. So, uh, I love what you're saying and I love how, um, that gives us an opportunity to look at real data. And when I say real data, I mean, >> yeah, >> more at the local level, >> the work we're doing. >> Nancy, just to add to uh, Miss May just said with the uh implementation of the academic achievement committee, I think it being a standing agenda item

074where every month at the committee's meeting, there would be an update that's coming from this work. So, it's going to be one of those things that's uh um pretty uh routinely shared out for the community and uh being that board members are part of it is just one of the things that's ongoing conversations around what we're doing for our event. >> Yeah. And I think it's important also because the community looks at that snapshot of data. So when you look and you see 7% of the students are proficient on the SAT, well then yes, now it's very negative. >> No one knows if there's other work that's happening to try to close that gap for the 93% that are not, right? Because we don't talk about that. We're looking at that one snapshot of data.

075All of those pieces that it all goes together, but we have to do a better job of talking about it. And I know it's hard because you're doing the work >> in the work, but we have to share the work that's happening. >> And we want you to know too because you hear when you hear complaints, you're hearing from a usually a typically small portion of our instructional staff and they are very vocal about their concerns. Um but we also understand that when there is um resistance, it's usually a sign of some kind of an educational need for that staff member to be supported in through and an understanding. So if we were able to have these conversations and for you to see the incremental growth and hold us accountable to it because that is

076really your role to ensure that it's happening that gives us a backbone as well. I mean we have a strong backbone but it just further shows that we're all on the same page and moving in the same direction. And so that's an excellent point. >> I want to talk a little bit about data because I'm one that doesn't believe that the that the fact that we don't have much data is an accident. I think accountability and data by necessity go right next to each other. And I think there's a reason we don't have data. And I want to say this because it's over the over the course of the last eight or 10 years there's kind of a there's kind of a uh intent to make the actual data appear less destructive that it appears

077when when you get up and say 90 93% aren't making it and then you say I don't want to change this, I don't want to change that, and these are the reasons we're having problems. This organization spending $150 million and we're 7% efficient. We should be willing to change everything >> based upon those results. And the biggest mistake we can make is is cajoling these data points so that they don't say what really is going on. And with respect to what I want to see as a board member, I want to see it attached to the uh agenda at every single meeting so that we know by school, by classroom. I mean, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all teachers. And if one's doing 70% and everybody's doing 30%, we want to find out what

078the 70%'s doing. And if we don't have it split out like that, it means nothing. >> It's just an exercise. Um, so I I am going to be interested in seeing actual facts no matter how bad they look because we can't fix a problem we don't know is there. >> And if you're not seeing facts, it's probably not being fixed in a in a way that it should be being fixed. >> Yeah. And maybe as a board we need to look at when we have the schools come out and report maybe we need to change that focus a little bit from >> some of the social activities that are going on instead instead of what's actually going on in the classroom. >> That was right that see what's going on in the schools. And I

079think with our um um student achievement um committee and now we have also coming up a parent advisory committee. I think we see a whole lot of changes but the most important thing that we have to remember that this is a school. You know, it's so much since I've been on the board, there have been so much business taken care of, but we have to put the students first, you know, and remember the reason this is a business is because it's a school. And, you know, make our parents proud. You know, I have grandchildren that go here, but now I'm not a proud grandparent. Listen to that, you know. So now I look at it like our kids is in this school because this is the district that they need to go to. So we

080need to get back to that proud Wayne Westland. You know my kids go to Wayne Westland cuz they doing this and not because this is the district and the bus is going to pick them up. >> Yeah. I hear you saying tell our story, >> right? My I live in Northville and they're one of the top graded districts in the state and my son came here for half days to go to career tech and so that was an opportunity he didn't have within my own district and so we we can highlight those things and and understand that great things are happening and but we have to control that narrative as opposed to controlling us. >> I'm sorry. Um I want to look at the practical side for a moment. We have intervention interventional lists you

081know through our system. So I'm going to throw out a scenario. So we have a a junior in high school that has four credits. They're not even trying. And here's the practical thing. I think that this board ought to look into and invest into a permanent space for WEA and get our kids over to WEIA much faster than we do. >> It's all a fair point. Um, a little bit beyond what Yes. And I I don't I agree 100% that that space is um is different than u most spaces and unique when it comes to a space from a district level. Um there's the offer the the program that it offers is a hybrid education which you're not going to see that anywhere in this space or around in the area. So I I I

082I do see that being beneficial and that we get we we get we basically pay attention to those kids before the 11th grade. Now I'm even going to say forget the 11th grade because 11th grade is really you're you're at the point where you're you're almost too late. You can recover but you want to identify those students even sooner than that and give them an opportunity in that space. Um, and I I I I see so many positive things happen in in the district with the you mentioned the CTE program that we have, and I'm going to say this, we have uh I don't know how many districts coming over, but the reality is we only have 15% of our kids in in that program. I just talked to uh one of the guys that

083does the um the auto mechanics and he has 150 kids in his sections throughout the day. He has like 12 kids >> in his classes that are from Wayne Westland. So, we have to me this all plays into this and I didn't want to go on a soap box with this, but I it truly plays into what we do for our kids to prepare them um or give them the opportunity to be successful in in life. And I know we can look at the test scores and that's they're they're not very good. Um, but we I just think we need to do a better job in that space because of the the the unique programs that this district offers that other districts come to. We just have to promote and be able to get our

084kids involved in them. >> Making sure they're there for the right reasons. >> Correct. >> And that we've addressed the needs along the way. >> Yeah. >> But I think that also adds to what you said earlier around the chronic absenteeism and the engagement, right? Like we don't as a system as an educational system talk enough about student engagement. We talk about doing to kids. We talk about what kids need to show up and produce, but we don't talk about how we bring them along, which is that engagement piece. How do we make learning exciting? How do we set a purpose for learning? Um, and again, that goes back to what you just talked about. We have a beautiful CTE center and to have 150 kids in a class and only 12 other kids go

085here and then we're talking about 93% of our kids are not proficient. That's a huge miss, >> you know, and something that we can begin to look at and dig into. >> I know we're going to work on my goals at our close session and I'm wondering if that might be an excellent one >> to to dig into. Kimberly, I want to say one thing too because it it relates to your and uh and Dr. Weaver's point. The program that that Dr. Weaver's talking about um and I can I can rattle off 50 to 100 different kids names in regards to um kids that were out of the district that came here because we talk about absenteeism. This goes into the chronic absenteeism. kids have a problem um and especially in the 912 space >>

086getting to school uh and a parent will tell you listen I work midnights I don't I can't get them up so that's fine and dandy there's a solution for that and we offer that solution you can be uh virtual for the first three hours a day as long as you can get there for the rest of the day or somehow put yourself in we in in a better space to be successful we offer all of these programs that other districts don't And to combat absenteeism, like what Dr. Weaver said, I I realistically see the future of education in that hybrid model anyways at the comprehensive high school level where it's going to give kids with chronic absenteeism the opportunity or a kid that wants to work with his dad as a roofer or uh an

087HVAC guy that his dad can pay him $40,000 a year or 45,000. He can still do that and you can tell the dad, "Hey, listen. you can be I can have your son at the job site at 10:00. He just needs to be here for a couple hours in the day and we can do virtual the rest of the day. So, we we truly are doing the right things here. I mean, and when I talked to Katherine when she got here, I said, "This place is is special in regards to the six other places I've been in regards to the offerings that we give kids. We just I don't think our kids know." No, I don't think we advertise it enough >> and I don't think we do enough uh we don't do our kids

088a service to put them in a space to be successful and that's my biggest I guess complaint. So, >> and I just wanted to speak to that guy off of SC. >> Then Lana gets to speak her hands up for a very long go I'm not I'm a gentleman. >> Go ahead. No, go ahead. >> I'll just I'll be real brief with what I was going to say because Mr. Ambrose made a comment about being a little bit more targeted in the conversations that or the points that our principles are hitting on when they come to board meetings um and giving them a little bit more direction. Um and then as far as like equity or being engaged, we have some buildings I use like TAP for example where they're doing some magical things to

089really come together as a as a staff. And I think it goes back to what Scott's also saying. We have pockets of things that are fantastic that even people outside of the uh community are taking advantage of more than we are. If we're collectively say and sounds like it might even be a goal at some point of um Dr. Cross just having a more targeted approach to how we're highlighting what's going on in the district and what our focus is as far as gains being made in certain buildings. Then we'll be able to kind of package all the great things that are going on. So what I wanted to say like you said earlier people like to know that they belong somewhere you know building that personal relationship. So like at graduation time us as

090a board we usually hand the student a diploma. Those students don't know us. So this year, one of our um one of our schools, the principal decided that he was going to hand each one of his students they high school diploma. And that's what he did. That was relationship that he built with those students. And so when those students have an opportunity to purchase their pictures, because they can purchase the pictures, they have a better chance of purchasing a picture with their principal than a board member that they don't even know. Mhm. >> So we have to build that relationship with the student. We have to make them belong feel belong. We have to build that relationship with the parent, make them feel belong. So it's it's we got to do figure out how to

091do that and we can raise those grades and raise those achievements and get our kids in career tech >> and and what and maybe even choosing their own pathway of what's going to work for them. Whether that's going through the programs that we and when are we intentionally engaging them in those conversations to determine what's the best path for them >> and I think we need to start earlier before ninth grade. Nth grade is too late because they don't understand importance like when you're basic you mess up in ninth grade you already messed up. >> Yeah. Oh, and especially with attendance. >> Yeah. Well, we have had so many kids just move to the ninth grade with all E. >> You know, the discipline is just like, see you next year. So, next year when

092they get to high school, they got all E. They didn't fail cuz they haven't did any virtual work. >> Yep. I mean, it has to start in kindergarten. I don't think anybody comes to school every year and says, "Hey, >> I want to be I don't want to be successful this year." But the fact that that Lana just said that is true that they the kids don't come into school. And I truly don't believe that. Like talk to some of the teachers, they'll say, "Well, >> his brother Paul was a bozo, too, you know, so he's going to be that guy. This is the reality of what happens." >> And then that then Scott doesn't have a chance because his brother and and they get in that mindset. But every kid that comes to school,

093and I don't and I believe at every level says, "You know what? This is my year. I'm going to be successful." But to Lana's point, they come in and they might be so far behind eight-ball in regards to academically that they it's almost like they're we set them up for failure if we put them in the same learning environment. So, >> I was going to say I was going to say that in in addition to what we're talking about, >> okay, >> uh talking about creating a dedicated space. It's just my opinion, but if a ninth grader comes in and it's straight Fs and they have no interest, they need to go to WEA right away where they can actually see every four to six weeks classes falling off and them able to um able

094to see their progress more readily. You know, I know this this is not your your your uh your presentation, but I wanted to support that idea because if you've got four credits and you're a junior, not only do you need some intervention, as Scott mentioned, but you need to get out of the class where the other kids are trying to learn because you are certainly not bringing anything positive to those hallways and those classrooms uh during the day. That that's my opinion and and I I want to be kind to everyone, not just the kids who need a little bit of help, but the kids who are trying to concentrate and learn and aren't interested in the theatrical drama going on with someone who isn't. So, I just want to say I support that. >>

095And data says 85% of behavioral issues are tied to academics. >> Yeah. And so I hear you saying, "Let's get to the root cause and and Dr. Weaver's saying, "Let's do it sooner and find a place where they can be successful." >> Well, you know, Melanie said earlier tonight about she addressed some of the challenges that we have with attendance. Let me just say, yeah, right. And they still aren't here. So whatever the problems, you know, ingrown toenail, dad's a drunk, they bought a Plymouth, it doesn't matter. They're not here and it can't happen. The nutrition can't happen. The education can't happen. So we got to get tough because their parents aren't getting tough. So there has to be accountability. They're just asking. >> So Mr. Scott, I I agree with what everyone has said,

096but one thing when it goes back to accountability, I want to make sure our counselors and our administrators are aware of those kids that are going in that downward trajectory. Because what I don't want is for a kid that has the aptitude to succeed, but for whatever reason is disengaged and doesn't feel connected to the school that we haven't done multiple things to get them back on track. Because what I found is some of our schools do a much better job from the onset of the school year trying to connect those kids and connect those families where some of them they a little bit more hands off. And I think it goes back to what systems do we have in place where we're reporting to administration at the central office level and at the building

097level who we're concerned about. So flagging them early and then coming together collectively to support them. I of course I don't have experience with with other school districts except for the one that I attended and this one. And I can tell you some horror stories about the very wellrespected school district I attended that Wayne Westland Community Schools is far superior. These people, these teachers, these administrators, they know who these kids are and they know their names and they know who their brothers and sisters are and what's going on. They know. >> And I'm not arguing that they don't. The point that I'm making is I want to make sure that we're tracking any of those kids before it gets too far. So I >> Okay, we're going to do two more comments and then we're

098going to turn it back to Nancy. >> So I thought you Mr. Ro >> as I hear everyone speak. Everyone has a great great point. Um, Monday I talked to some kindergarteners, some fourth graders, some fifth graders, some ninth graders, some 11th graders, and some 12th graders in the lunchrooms of their schools. Um, it is essential that we have student voice here, not just um in um uh in the classrooms, but in our meetings because we're making decisions for students and we don't hear what they're saying. So I think um with all that we're saying and with all that we're talking about um it is essential to have to have student success we have to have students at the table. >> Thank you. >> We have a um >> thank you Kim. She took from

099that meeting and already uh Dr. C and I have a meeting on our calendar to to brainstorm and look at some potential avenues for student voice on the board. Couldn't Could I just say that if you do that, we might need um you know, because what's going to happen is you're going to get the 4.25 student, >> you know, we need to maybe expand that >> by grade point a little bit. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. We we'll talk about we'll brainstorm all sorts of ideas of how to representative of a diverse group of students versus but I know exactly what you're talking about because I've been on some districts where the student representative is 4.0 and everything everything and it's not necessarily represent the whole but Nancy does have some really cool engagement activities. So

100should we turn it >> so I'm gonna let Miss Hines because she's been very patient and then we'll go back to Nancy. >> So can you help me with this? So, one thing I don't like about the district, I say if a kid is fail, like say you have like um algebra, pre-alggebra, right? And they fail, but you put them to the second one. Why would you put them to the second one if they didn't master it the first time? That's like my biggest pet peeve. So, if you guys can help fix it because it puts a kid behind. It doesn't make sense to put them at a higher level if you didn't even master the beginning part. >> 100%. So, it >> Thank you. >> So, this conversation is really amazing and I'm feel

101privileged to be a part of what I thought was going to be a half hour presentation. So this is fantastic and one thing I would love to um highlight is uh last year we did a book study uh with Rick Stiggins and he is a assessment guru and he talked about his own experience and he's PhD known around the country um and his own experience with with education and how difficult it was for him but then his experience within the armed forces and how that set him up for success. So that being said, everything that you've said is valid, but also if we engage our students in a way where they feel success and that incremental success along the way, they're going to want to naturally be here and there'll be less reasons for them

102to not be here. There'll be less reasons for them to disengage or disrupt. And so if I would love to um engage the board with with a book study for that. Rick actually requested it and he would love to hear um information around that. Um which he did at no charge for our district and people were jealous. Um so it's uh it's a great piece around not only knowing your learning targets but being really clear of your success criteria so children can feel that incremental success. And then from what you said as well, our teachers are motivated by success. And imagine coming to work every day not feeling that strong success. And so what's been a really motivating factor for our elementary teachers is seeing that letters data and seeing those gains. And so data

103really is critical to the backbone of what we're doing. And and the accountability parts are not the gotcha accountability. It's the measures in place that ensure that things are happening. and teachers themselves begin to hold themselves and their colleagues accountable and we're seeing that happen but we have to give them the structure to allow that to happen. So our attendance goal is supported by as we talked about communication, transportation, student services, community partnerships, data and CIA. So it has a lot of different um crossovers throughout central office and beyond. Um Dr. Cross wanted to highlight how the different departments um are important to the work. CIA kind of being the central focus of of all the work um as all these pieces come together to support CIA who supports our students. So, um, I met

104with each of the departments and this is what, um, Scott, Juel, and Alex came up with for ways that they could directly support the district improvement goals. Um, and I'll give you a chance to look at it and maybe make note of anything that you find relevant or interesting. And you don't have to raise your hand. I think it's um all of it is facts. I just think about um the circle being a heart, right? It's like curriculum and instruction, teaching and learning, that is the heart of the district. That is that is truly where that's a heartbeat. That's where everything stems from. >> And when you think about a heart, you know, and the val that a heart needs to function, these pieces business, human resources, student support services, building grounds, school services. Those

105are all valves that that allows that that heart to function. >> And when a valve is not functioning, what happens? >> I'd like to make a comment, you know, and Dr. Cost mentioned something about this. I I think under human resources, having marketing and industryleading wages to target qualified and experienced staff, that would be the biggest waste of money that you could possibly make. They'll find out by themselves. Trust me, marketing should be next to the business. >> We don't do any marketing in this school district. None of the, you know, we always deal with what our challenges, problems are, >> but there are many hundreds of kids who are just blowing the doors off this thing and they never get talked about. They never get spot lit. Uh I I think that we're totally

106missing. I mean, why we don't have uh a Facebook page where one of the principles for the elementary school does a 35 second thing? Why at least one? It's like this is a secret. Everything we're doing here, we know about it. But the people out there that are thinking about selling their home in Warren and maybe moving uh closer to the west side or closer to Ann Arbor, they don't know anything about it. So, we really need to do some marketing. We need to let people know what what's going on here and and the Ford BCK center that's got to be that's got to be the center of everything because if if you're teaching English compos composition I would like to introduce you to Chat GPT. I mean you're making buggy whips basically. uh the

107life has changed and we really as you said with your own children we really have something to offer here and I'd like people to know about it. >> I absolutely agree with that. We miss it completely in our marketing. There's so many things we could do without costs but we need to put some money into it. I mean, great futures start right here is what 20 years old. You know, we we've talked about this in other board meetings. Um I think we need to make some sort of substantial um input into getting our our story out. >> I agree. With one of the challenges being every time there's an election, everything changes, >> right? Y >> one one thing I um being a newer board member um our district have been on the defense for

108years now think it's time for us to be more offensive um with our marketing strategy. I know this Monday we look forward to hearing from our communications and marketing um hear their plan. Hopefully I'm really going to be looking at um are they implementing the strategic plan in our marketing because um as being a new board member, um, finding out the jewels that we have in this district, I'm like, my my kids came through this district. I didn't know they could have taken advantage of some of these programs and some of these opportunities that's in right here in Wayne Westland School District. So, um, marketing definitely, uh, um, um, we need to utilize, ramp that up, and be more offensive sharing our story. >> That was one thing Dr. cost and I talked about in

109our in our first meeting. Um, every day going to work, I passed about three billboards advertising either an online academy or a different school district and those districts weren't within about within the city limits that I was going through. Um, I get flyers in the mail for Lincoln Consolidated and Yipsy Schools and I live in Canton. I mean, I I I think especially in today's day and age with the way funding is done now at the state level, other districts are realizing that that foundational allowance of getting students from other districts and Dr. Cost came from a district where 30% of her students came from outside of we dot schools that we're falling behind that gain. I'm just back. >> I just wanted to say um one thing. So I was able to go to

110the ribbon cuts new fire station in Westland and I met Dr. Ivory for the first time Wayne Community College and Sharon Scott and I'm like dude we have a fire tech. They need to come here and have a tour. He didn't even know like that's Wayne County we already have a property. That was all arranged just before we lost $17 million and and then oo found it again. >> Yeah, >> we are that was all that was one of those things that was all laid out. It was going to be beautiful. >> Yeah, but the fact that they you know don't even know that we have that fire academy so I want to invite them to come and do a tour. I want to have because I do like like I'm at the cood like

111they don't even know we have here. I'm always everywhere, but we need to do more tours of this facility to let people know. And even with the I had a lot of friends in the movie industry, like a ton of them, like and this would be, you know, to come out here and trying to coordinate, but school year is going so fast, but just to really open it up for more tours for these different organizations and people to come out to see what we do. Great ideas. Great ideas. I was just gonna say even our own parents don't know what the Jews that we have here at every game or every event that a parent come to we should have a video running >> about highlighting what we have to offer and you know just

112getting the information out there. But I was going to say something else but I lost that chain of thought. Um, I've been waiting so long, but I um, you know, just the advertisement of what we have to offer and when I get that thought back, I >> and I or Miss Abby Mitchell, I I would like fine. >> Okay. I would like to say that um, >> I wholehearted with what everyone's saying and Mr. Rashan made a comment about being on the offensive instead of the defensive. And I think that's a really good way to put it because unfortunately over the past few years, we've had a lot of these that have we've worked through and I think we've done an amazing job collectively as a leadership group to get through it. Um, and it's

113a story in itself to talk about how we're going in the right right direction. Um but the reality is when we get the most um noise coming out the way west land is normally for negative things and you're 100% right Mr. that uh if we are being strategic about how we're marketing the things that are being done, there's a lot to talk about. We just have to come together and have a concerted effort. We have a whole department that um just needs a little bit more direction as to how we're going to work as a unit to promote it. I think uh can I >> go ahead um the idea been on this board 22 years >> and we've always talked about the parents the parents the parents why do we be proactive with parents

114bring somebody in because I think the disconnect is this I think the parents are doing the best they know how but they've got kids standing up in their faces saying, "I don't care what you say. I'm going to do what I want to do." So maybe a think tank for parents. Hey, you know, this worked for me and be proactive with that problem because if it's not parent and student supported at home, >> Dr. There's already been conversations around parentmies that we're starting to try to kind of flesh out a little bit because we do see the value in helping them come up with strategies and different tools that are working in the schools that they can be used at home as well. >> Yeah. And let them talk. Let them >> we'll take this

115back to Jenny who is >> I already think can we do Miss May and then Tokco and then I think the last slide is going to be a great space for us to leave this because it's going to be all these pieces coming together in print. >> Perfect. I just wanted to to just say like as we talk about marketing which I wholeheartedly agree with. I agree with what u Mr. Rashan said. I've been saying that since I've been on the board that we need to tell our own story. We always wait to tell our story after the bad story has broken. The other piece though that goes along with the marketing is that we have to make sure our families that are already in our district know what we offer. So my son metriculated

116through here. I didn't know anything about dual enrollment. You know, counselors didn't have time to talk to us. It was like, hey, we're going to put you in these classes and move on. So we're missing the kids that are here. So again, we go back to engagement. We can offer all of these wonderful things on paper, but if we don't tell our kids that they exist, >> we're only telling a certain pocket of kids about opportunities, we're missing out. So that that's one of the pieces that I feel like yes, marketing most definitely, but we need to start marketing within. >> That is huge because we do offer a lot of things, but people don't know that we offer them and kids don't have access to them. >> 25 pathways to graduation. >> Yeah. Kimberly,

117you got me before I wanted before I was going to say it. Um, just to give you because right now we're talking about data. Um, we have programs in our in our district. Like I said, this this building right here is servicing 80% of the kids are from outside of the district. >> Here's the dilemma, and I'm just going to be frank. You have um the foundation allowance. So, this is how this started years ago in this space because the foundation allowance basically gives us an opportunity to run the district. We're taking 80% of our kids from outside of the district. That's a that's fiscally uh and we're in a better place by doing that. But from a from servicing our kids, we're not. So, our kids need this from our community needs this program.

118I'm just going to talk to this one and I'll talk to the unique one over the two unique programs. We have the IE program. We're servicing more kids from out of the district in these two programs than we are internally. So when uh Lana and Kimberly both stated that we need to do a better job internally and get take care of our kids first, we we are not doing that and we're putting ourselves some and our comprehensive high schools are not doing a good job and promoting them. Um, and I'm just going to be honest, you probably got some people that have been in those spaces that have uh have teachers that they came up through 30 years ago, 25 years ago that are elective spaces. So, they're a little bit hesitant about um directing

119the kid to the right direction instead of and putting them in a classroom. So, because they're take they're the person who's in that class is they don't want to lose a job. So, that is the reality. That's the sad reality of a lot of the things that are going on here that we can be better at. Um recognizing >> Scott the re other reality is we have new leadership at in different buildings and different departments in central office and now it's more of us just giving guidance as to doing what you just said. We need to make sure that we have a clear direction that's being get that and expectations that are being asked of those people that are leadership roles because you're right, there's some things that have just been the status quo and

120now we're at a point where we need to do things. >> So my question would be then do we have enough education with our staff as to these programs and do we have enough people in place such as counselors? I think we have more than enough staff and education. It's more about a clear direction about what our expectations are >> and what's best for kids. They have to think about not what's best for adults, but for kids. >> Let me tell you what's in my head because knowing we're having a goals conversation in a close session. >> So, I heard marketing and engagement in a proactive way and I would love to create a goal around that. then begin to sift through what does that look like and get your perspective as well as um

121think about ideas that we could we could capture for the year. But that is terribly exciting to me. I get goosebumps when I hear you talk about that. >> It's about it's it's time. It's time. >> Yep. >> It's time. >> And how can we bring it from data rather than thoughts and opinions and presumptions? So what what is really going on and who do we need to ask and what do we need to do? So, I have loved this entire conversation. It's truly been a privilege. I know I said that. Um, to be a part of it, and I love that you're thinking and so supportive of what's going on. Um, and so, in addition to all these departments, the question then becomes, how can the school board support these initiatives? And so, you

122have been given some sticky notes. And then I gave you, can I see that? Thank you very much. I gave you some chat GPT versions of how traditionally school boards can support strategic planning. Um so from things you saw in the presentation today or from that document if you if you want some guidance what are some ways in which or opportunities that you see for the board to support or engage and I just make a couple corrections on that real quick. So um >> that's why qualified and I appreciate that. So really quick just under setting vision and direction we approve the goals the mission and the vision statement. That's it. we don't approve like the whole plan, right? Um the other piece was under oversight and accountability. Just the second bullet that we hold

123the superintendent and not the leadership team. Superintendent is our only employee. So I just didn't want us to put stuff up there that wasn't >> great. Thank you. >> Thank you for that. >> Man, we would be powerful if we was over there. >> You have to say that then go So they clarify their task. They're using post-it notes like one post-it note a thought. >> Yes. One post-it note per thought of how the board can support is an interest is interested in supporting um the concepts today as far as our strategic plan. How'd you get the orange? >> Oh, my school colors. >> It's my favorite color. Nice cool colors are blue. >> A gentleman would rip off a chunk of orange hand. Yeah, I'm trying to I'm trying. >> Well, last time I

124tried to be a gentleman with her, I offered her my jacket because she was cold and You can take a break anytime you'd like. She say one message. >> One per sticky. So you can write more than one. Just try to limit it to one per stickies because later you're going to do something with them. Not today. >> I wasn't. I went cuz I had to go. >> You can do 25 if you like. You see what I'm doing? Dr. Weaver, I think. >> Okay. >> So, if anyone is willing to share, I'd love to hear one or two things that you wrote down and then we're going to collect them and then we'll workshop them at another time. And >> I want to hear me >> different people. >> I just put um I

125like uh case studies and stuff like that. Those are good. and then getting student feedback because that's important. Um, and it helps them get the information out in the community. People don't really know like I used to take pictures. I'm like going everywhere and I'm always on my Facebook live. Where was that? Just like they had the one. >> Excuse me. Alex, can you just push pause for a minute? Thank you. >> Oh, so just like recently like coach they've been posting John Glenn like live video. Super cool. So, I've just been pulling them off the way it's like putting online just kind of like sharing the information like going to the games live like me and um Mr. conference at the game yesterday at Wayne and doing a live with the football the game

126and the band you know so people can see like real time like so I'm really good at doing that even at the city council meets I go to the west council I've been going to Wayne I didn't realize Westland just kind of get information out >> community awareness and support >> we we um talked about doing this many years ago um I don't think it was ever followed through with but if we could identify maybe five students starting at kindergarten and a long-term process in this district. They've been in the district from kindergarten to 12th grade. And looking at their specific um their specific uh what they got out of the uh teaching that they had. Um I think it's an interesting concept uh because we tend to look at the kids as the hundreds

127or the thousands. But if we did a blind study of certain kids as they metriculated through um our our schools that I think we'd have a much better understanding of what our students are going through and also the board um approves and supports um the curriculum. >> Thank you. That's how they >> um so I have monitor progress through board meetings. So maybe we add to every agenda. Um following what Mel said, be ambassadors financial security, financial support and stability. Um review and adopt policies so that they are aligning with the strategic plan on um the house in our lane. So thank you. Thank you. Who would like to go next? >> I think uh we should approve a marketing plan and provide a budget for it. We should make benchmark data available monthly at

128every meeting including every classroom. Provide clear policy verbiage and we should host a student board forum. Thank you. Those are good. >> Anybody have others you'd like to share? >> Basically the same >> the same, >> you know, in community engagement and marketing. >> That's where you'll see these themes come together. So when you guys come back to it, you'll you'll create those themes. >> Yeah. I had um data monitoring on a consistent basis. >> Um student voices as everyone else said. We also had um remembering that we're board we're we're ambassadors for the district as a board making sure that we're knowledgeable what's going on and talking to the community on what's going on. >> Thank you. Thank you Shannon. >> You know sometimes it will help to have that elevator >> um that

129elevated speech you know that you can just throw out there. Yeah. You know, Wayne was saying, you know, cuz sometimes you don't have a lot of time, you know, and elevate the elevator speech keep me on target. >> Cuz if I'm not on target, I start talking about how pretty I am and you know, and everything. So when I throw a joke out there, so it helps to have that elevator speech. And what I connected with is if we're talking about marketing, you could like once a month get a different elevator speech >> so that you're I like it. >> Throw it out there, >> Andrew. So, one thing I I've noticed since uh I've been on the board, um we have all these different committees. Uh and I and I take a look here.

130Um, one of the bullet points, um, approves budgets and aligns resources. Well, we have two committees, but I don't think there's a lot of talk between the two committees, and I'll talk finance and student achievement. What better way to align resources to where they needed than to say, Shannon and I need to sit down, and I I've learned this from a systems engineering approach. When you build a car, you got to make sure everything works right. And so maybe at some point the committee chairmans need to get together and have a have talks about well this is what we talked about and maybe as a finance committee then we can sit there and take a look and go how can we align what the student achievement committee is working on and where we can get

131the financial resources needed and the policy >> and the and then work with the policy committee to get that. >> Make sure we add you. Thank you for bringing that forward. I like that because before I was part of the discipline hearings and everything. I had no idea the rate that we was putting students out of school and the board members don't know that because they not part of that and it's just something that we don't talk about. But you know this is early in the semester but last year you know students was getting sent home for the rest of the semester. Matter of fact, what's this? The second week in school. I don't want to get kicked off the committee, but we already got a student that's gone for the whole year. And this

132just the second week of school. >> And I think that goes back to the MTSS supports, right? >> But see, like the other board members, they not part of that committee. They have no look at him. He have no idea about that. >> Right. >> So, thank you for all of this and your feedback. It was a privilege to present to you and I look forward to sharing more data with you on a regular basis. Thank you very much. >> Have a good weekend. >> Can I say two things? >> Two. Then we're going to turn it over to Miss May. >> Okay. First of all, uh the if you want to our elementary flight football start it. It's right next door. If you want to stop by there and show your face, it's at

133John Glenn. And um number two is your elevator pitch. Everyone has it for the uh bond, correct? >> Yeah. >> Okay. What is it? >> Scott, we're not we're not going to put them on the spot. >> No, the smart ones aren't going to put them on the spot. >> All right, Miss May. Back to you. >> Call me. I'll get >> Okay, so we are now at um 131.26 in our agenda. Citizens comments. have any questions with us this afternoon for this morning and so we will go to 132.26 and Port's comments or report Dr. Cross. >> Um I would like to give a huge shout out to all seven board members who gave up part of a valuable day um provided great dialogue and great insights as to how to move our district

134forward. I felt like you were all on the same page and um that collaborative effort is what is really going to lead us and I'm I'm grateful. So, thank you. Um thank you to Nancy. I I really got a lot out of your presentation. Um Nick, thank you for being here as well and um great things are going to happen. I'm excited. >> Thank you. We are now at 133.26 review and recommendations of the board of education. Dr. Weaver, would you like to get us started? >> Yes. Uh, first of all, thank you for the presentation and I'd like to also thank everyone else for all their questions that give us kind of a think tank moment. Um, I just want to say I really hope that we look into dedicated space for WEIA and

135get make it a I know it's a high school but make it it could easily be 5 600 students strong. >> Well, thank you for that. Appreciate it. um that we um look at that uh in terms of the reality of our students, >> right? >> And first semester, ninth grade, they're not doing the job. They're not uh even trying. They need to go to WEIA then so they they can salvage their um academic career. >> Thank you, Dr. Mr. >> Um I want to thank everyone uh for being here. Um the presentation was very informative. Um uh the plan is rooted in data and uh sound like the plan will do in equity and um however I want to make sure that this plan is just not a document but it's it's attainable and

136and do and something that can be implemented where the families of the community the students all will be able to uh see all this come into play. So, um, other than that, that's all it is. >> Thank you, Mr. Amber. >> Want to thank Miss Schultz for, uh, putting this presentation together. Um, one thing I really love about the the plan that's been presented is that it is data focused um, on where we are going to s where we will be succeeding as a district and where we are struggling. Uh, one thing I was taught early on in life, um, Thomas S. Monson, uh, once quoted as saying, when performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, which is what is in this plan, that it will be reported out, performance improves

137dramatically. And so the key is going to be in the implementation and the followup on not only the administrators in this district but also on us as the board to make sure that we see that dramatic improvement in performance. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Um I just like to piggy back off everybody else. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you for coming and um thank everybody for that input. And since I've been on the board, it been three years now. To be sitting here, it's almost a tearful moment. To be sitting here and have all the board members working together, speaking the same language, everybody wants the same thing, data, what's best for our students, engagement, and everything. And even to have a alternative school for our students to go to when they

138don't make it into the regular what we call the regular school is a blessing. You know, I wouldn't want to see it 500 strong, but if it had to be 500 strong, let us have the space and the staff for to be able to host and educate those students. And I just want to just say I'm thankful for this and I'm looking forward to now being on the board when we see our school system, our school district go from being a business and a school to being a school and a business. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Mr. T. >> Yes. Hi. This is an amazing event for strategic planning. Super important. Um definitely would like to congratulate you for doing an amazing job coming on board really quick with the curriculum instruction. Super

139important. >> Everybody's been fantastic. Thank you. >> Yes. The opportunity for you excited about that. And um I definitely agree with some of my board members. I love the innovative academy. It actually helped my son. He was going through some struggles after co just gave up straight ease. Didn't care. And then once I moved him out of Glenn to the innovative academy, he went to all A's and B's calls, press up, graduated, went to Michigan, Institute of Aviation Technology. So that with the grades being so bad, that was the best way to go straight into that because he didn't really have any options. So I'm a proponent to innovative academy. Um like to say I'm the president of the way West Kanas Club and we do a lot of the literacy and children and so

140this is our second year. I'm super excited. We did a lot in the community. We did the building with Salvation Army, a lot of different uh book drives and stuff like that. We get books from Detroit to come down. So, I definitely like to get with the elementary schools. And I just talked to Miss um um Miss James in Inkster. So, that's my next plot this year is to get into, you know, the surrounding area. So, I'm get out there in Inster and then maybe around this. But I definitely want to, you know, bring it together because we got Wayne Westland. um you know just really help with literacy initiatives and um Sunday we're having this kid Baptist church at New Hope Church. So we invite everybody in the community to come out because um

141I know they do a lot with our schools too. They were doing some donations to David Hicks and uh Franklin stuff like that. So it's like to have that extra community support with our kids. >> Thank you so much Mr. >> Thank you, President May. You know, uh it was said earlier tonight that the teachers are professionals and they want to be successful. And this is something I've been saying ever since I got here. They absolutely do. They're dedicated to this and they want to know that their life's work is meaningful and it's making a difference in the lives of young people. They know, you know, you go to to work to build a car, the car looks good when it leaves, you did your job. But if you don't do a good job in

142the classroom, that kid's going to suffer for it. And by the same token, if you do a good job, that child's going to benefit the rest of their lives. So, when we're talking about taking kids who aren't being successful in our schools and giving them the opportunity to go to the innovative academy, what we're not saying is we want to carve you out so that our numbers get better, but we want to recognize that this isn't working for you and we need to put you in a position where you can win. I will tell you that's what that's what anybody that loves you would do for you and that's what anybody at the school district should do. If it is obvious to us that you are not excelling in this environment, we need to immediately

143change the environment and give you an opportunity to learn. And I think we need to to jump right on that. That's a great idea. Uh I don't know why we didn't think of it ear. I don't know why you didn't think of it early, Dr. Weaver. And the second thing I'd like to say is uh this executive leadership committee sitting over here at this table has done a remarkable job in this school district. >> Think about what they've gone through and they've gone through it all and now they're working effectively with Dr. Cost who has put us in a very good position today. This was very needed. We didn't even know how needed it was but she did. And uh I think that credit goes to the board of education that put her in this

144position. So uh thank you to my colleagues for putting somebody who who can understand who can get to work and know exactly what needs to be done and have the ability to work with our team to get those things done. And look how as far as I'm concerned any criticism that the board of education took over the last few months over this decision is is gone today. That's how I feel about it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone for your comments. Um I definitely want to say thank you to everyone to um our executive committee for being here this morning for um to Mrs. Marky. She is always there. Thank you so much. You take such good care of the board and just the entire team. Mrs. Schultz, thank you so much for your

145pres presentation today. It was very informative and I really just appreciated the space for the board to learn all of the things that are taking place. Um, so I do appreciate that. I appreciate my fellow board colleagues for being here on a Saturday. I know Saturdays are hard. Um, but this work is so important and it's so needed. So, thank you all for being here. Dr. cost. Thank you for, you know, when I came to you about this, being able to take the lead on it and making it happen. So, thank you for that. Um, the the benefit behind board workshops, you know, when we have our board meetings, they're so formal, you don't really have the opportunity to just kind of ask the questions that you'd like to ask and even just have the

146dialogue to hear what other board members are thinking. And so, that's where the value comes in in having a board workshop. I think we learned a lot today. I think we learned a lot from each other just in terms of where we sit in alignment. And so often at the board table, it feels like maybe we're not in alignment, but we truly truly are. And so I'm appreciative of that today. Um, one of the things I'd like to highlight coming from this for me today was the appreciation of hearing us talk about strengthening tier one and the need for tier one because so often we would hear about the interventions and not necessarily hearing if the interventions are working. It doesn't feel like they're working because we're still looking at data that's showing for example

14793% of the students are not proficient. And so being able to hear that like, hey, we we recognize and we want to work on tier one. We want to work on student engagement. And one of the things that I also just like to lift is that that piece around student voice. We have a lot of conversation today about what students need, what's what has to happen with students. And I hear a lot of doing things to students, but not necessarily talking to students. And so I don't disagree with expanding WWIA and and having those supports, but having that opportunity to talk to the kids and ask them what do they need and not us just doing to them. Hey, you're not making the grades. We're going to put you over here because this is what

148we see, but what do you need? You know, because maybe you do need WWIA and maybe they express that to us. Or maybe they need something different. So, I think that student voice piece is is extremely important and just remembering that um which I think I heard this throughout the conversation today that all of our children are our children. So, no matter what they're going through, they're all children and they're all all of our children. And so, with that, I'm going to move us to um item 134.26, follow up to board of education questions. Are there any? I think we have any today. Nope. And if not, then we're at 135.26. Looking for a motion for >> adjournment. So move. >> All in favor? >> Thank you guys. Violence.