001under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Sorry, Donnie. Realize you weren't back there. >> Want to do the pledge again? >> Good evening, everyone. Um, >> at this time it is our public input on agenda and non-aggenda items. I welcome any members of the audience to speak. Okay, thank you for making it on time. It's a pleasure to see you. >> Um, state assessment presentation. >> Oh, wow. >> Tell people were waiting for Batman and Robin. Uh, >> I'll go first and then I'll turn it over to Dr. Uh so this is our annual um kind of go through the results from last year mainly assessment but uh board I don't know when that was a little while ago asked for some it's cold in here is frosty >> huh frosty stand
002right There's lots of room for you to hear. >> Good job. >> Um, children's on working. Well done. Thank you. Um, the board asked about the uh goal of chronic absenteeism and so we'll talk a little bit about that as well. Uh, tonight uh start with our mission statement like we always do. Tri City School District will provide a strong educational social foundation to graduate all our students college and career ready. That's uh what we start every meeting with um from budget to these meetings and that's what we're trying to do every single day to make that a reality. And this will be um you know a little bit of uh how we're doing that uh and how we're how it's going. Uh quick reminder um you know I don't want to keep going back
003but 2012 um the common core assessments started kind of the new assessments at that time and since that time uh we've had consistent sustained improvement from 2012 to 2019 we went up every single year in both ELA and math. Uh there was a pause because of the pandemic. uh there was no tests in 201920 and then there were no real official results in 2021. It was a there was a test given but it was uh it was optional and it wasn't not not a lot of students uh tried it. Um so then results from the 2122 was a was a reset and a new baseline uh and that's where we kind of have started u you know re relooking at what the trends look like. Uh I do want to say we understand state assessments
004aren't the only and really not even the most important measure of our success of our students. Uh we have what's called a multiple measure index in all of our schools where administrators and faculty and staff are looking at a wide range of data sets uh for every single student. I mean, uh, I just had data meetings with all the principles, uh, the last couple of weeks, and it's super impressive to hear them talk about, uh, the data analysis that's going on, uh, right down to the classroom and student level for every single kid in this district. Uh, again, there's a there's a MMI, the multiple measure index sheet, and a and a load of data for that kid. state assessments is one of those pieces of data, but uh all the local assessments, the classroom
005things, uh and there's a whole profile that each student gets. So, um while we talk about the state assessments, I don't know what just popped up there, but hopefully everything's okay. Um while we talk about state assessments because they're a public also um measurement that we have to compare others ourselves to others. Um thank you for that. Who did that, Teresa? >> Well done. did you do something about the gold or >> I'm sorry I can't >> um but they're also a great measure of our our students uh and district's growth over the years. So we we still do want to look at it each year. Uh but again we understand that it's just one of many uh ways that we measure our student success. Uh remember during the budget uh season talk about all
006the things that we're proud of uh from graduation rate to our masterminds team winning the league and and dominating some teams to our out of mind team at school 18 going to nationals to our art and music and all those great things. Uh but tonight we'll talk about the state assessment. So uh I do want to start with the state results themselves. Uh so a quick graph. Um the left is the map and the right is the ELA. This is statewide now. Uh and the only reason I put that up there and this is actually earlier than it's been the last couple years. So the state hasn't broken down like they sometimes do of high needs districts where we can really make our comparison against districts that are like ours. So all we really have
007at this point in the year are the total state numbers. But it is really been helpful to us to know so we can compare to something. So the year-to-year on the state um was not great. Uh you see the math uh was flat. They were 52% uh proficient last year across the state and still 52%. Uh pandemic uh pre- pandemic that first left far left bar 46.7. So since the pandemic, they're 5.3% up over those three years since the pandemic. In ELA, a little bit worse. They've gone down 2% year-over-year. And then the pre- pandemic is really flat. I mean, you believe that was ELA scores pretty flat from 45.4 the last year before the pandemic. Uh now at 46, so less than 1% increase in math in ELA. And again, I show that and
008I'll go back to it in a minute as soon as I show ours. Uh just so we have something uh to compare to. First, we're always comparing to ourselves, but we also want to have some kind of baseline that we're looking at. So then our results with the same kind of chart. So uh our math scores uh last year were fantastic. You'll see them in a in a bunch of different slides here and then even in the highlight section. Uh our math scores really really jumped. So from uh year to year yearover-year they went up almost 9% um up almost 9%. Um and then if you look pre- pandemic we're at 27.3 um and so since the pandemic almost 17% increase. So, uh, remember there the state was pretty flat year-over-year and the state, uh,
009is 52%. For us to be at 44%, uh, really, really, uh, great results in that. That's a, that's a nice jump, almost 9% districtwide. We went down in ELA the same amount as the state did. Uh, it actually was 1.95, but then when we rounded, it was two. So, I was a little disappointed that, but that's just my math thing. Uh but so we're we took a hit there which um you know the principles Dr. Watson already uh looking at that already trying to see uh what happened. Uh we got a nice jump from 22 to 23. You can see it there almost 7%. And so you know it's just a little tiny bounce backwards. uh and to see that the state also did that makes it a little more poundable, but certainly something uh
010we've already started studying uh through the summer uh and and into the school year. Uh I think it's worth pointing out. I talked about the the principal meetings and all the data they looked at. Um it's really great. They they they have data teams and and the the the teachers themselves are doing it as part of those data teams. They can look at the state standards and see by classroom, by teacher, by grade level. Uh which standards on those tests our kids did better than uh the region and better than the state, which standards that we were lacking on it and you know again broken down by student themselves, by teacher, by grade level, by school. Uh and so it really helps target uh what um what improvements need to be made and where. So,
011um, again, seeing that decline there, uh, I'm super confident as I stand before you that that, um, both of those things will be improving next year. Uh, we'll continue to improve in math and that ELA will bounce right back up. So, this is a new table um, just because the years are getting to be too many. Uh so remember uh these first three the bottom three used to be um all of those years in there started at again 2012 2013 it was 12% and went up to like 14 and then 18 and so that's the sustained continual improvement uh over those uh years from 2012 up to 2019 that's math and the LA will be next um then we had the break uh of the two years uh for co Uh, and so now we're
012restarting. And so I thought it'd be better to display it that way rather than put all of those years in uh from the bottom. But we do have those on previous uh presentations. If anybody wanted to see that, I certainly, you know, the board want to see those again. I can get those out from last year's presentation. But really now we're focused on those top three lines. So coming back from the pandemic, that new baseline that I talked about in the first slide, uh we started with 24, jumped to 35% and then jumped again to 44%. So that's a that's two really solid years of increases in our math. Part of that is uh we started the new math program uh four years ago. >> Uh so it takes a little while for teachers to
013get used to it. It takes a little while for for kids to start getting used to it. thing. Uh we're starting to see the um the results of that now and and really really proud of the math results districtwide. Again, 44% proficient. Um it's just below the the statewide proficiency number. And there's ELA. Same thing. Those bottom three were those sustained consistent uh years of progress from 11.4 before way back in 2012 when the exam started uh all the way up to uh just under 29% a break and now the top three lines are the new results uh 30 jumped up to 37 and a little bounce back that I just talked about in the last slide uh that we will correct this year. Tom hated that slide. He just told me. Uh so that
014is the line graph version of the old one that had all the numbers in it. Uh just to kind of show that even though sometimes there are bounces up and down almost like the stock market, right? So if the per the big purple one in the middle is the district, right? And then each line is a different uh school there. The real point of that you don't have to look at all the numbers. Again, the numbers are just the year over year. the ones that I took out here that I was just talking about from 12.2 to 27.3. There's a 12.2 to 27.3. So those are the year-over-year changes in the proficiency. And so even though there are some bouncing up and down, you can the whole point of this graph and the ELA one
015next is to show that the trend is always rising up to the right uh and getting better as the years go on. that that's really been the point of that all the time. I'll make sure to take that off. Um there there's a much better one, the bar graph. He's a big bar graph guy. So we'll talk a little bit about this one. And the next one, this is math and then ELA. So this is broken down by our schools that take the 3 through eight assessments. So it's the five elementary schools and TMS. Uh you can see them there. I'll read them to you. Uh a couple of highlights there. Uh school 16 just under 66% proficient. It's is incredible. Amazing. I just showed you uh way back here the the state results is
01652% 52% on the state level. Uh and uh you're at 65%. So not only higher than the state proficiency, but but much much much higher. So uh really great job school 16. uh all of the principles uh u did a great job and what they're going to give their own presentation so they'll delve into the data a little bit more than I'm going to but I'm just going to point out a few things here and school 16 certainly wanted to point out uh some double digit increases the middle school uh no excuse me uh school two uh went from 19 up to 38% doubled um not only 19% increase but doubled their proficiency percentage uh way up to 38 that's really greatest the highest that they've ever had. So, that's good news there. Um, and
017then, you know, 14 and 18, uh, in the mid to high 40s there. Really, really good stuff. Um, you'll see Carol Hill was the only school that went up in both ELA and math. You'll see on the next slide, they also increased. So, there was the other double digit one. They went from 19.6 to 33.1. Uh, real nice increase in math at at Carol Hill. and TMS uh almost a 8% increase. So our math performances were really really good. Uh and again credit to all the teachers uh and administrators that work so hard uh preparing the students for that. ELA again that's the one districtwide that we went down to and it's it's it's it was consistent really across all the schools. Carol Hill was the only one uh that increased in ELA uh from
01822 up to 28 96% increase. Uh others were I mean really uh there was some bounces down uh I met with Miss Clo here. Uh you know she was obviously disappointed in that but I mean sometimes you and I just you know I just showed you they went up in math 19%. So they're doing great work there. Uh and and it's a one, you know, one week out of the year test, but you see from two years ago they were at 13%, jumped all the way to 27 and then, you know, again, sometimes sometimes that happens and then so they bounce back a little bit. I expect next year to be uh right back up into that 20, high 20s, low 30s range. Um but you know, the other ones are really flat. I mean,
019school 16 goes down a little bit, but they're still at 54%. School 18 goes down a little bit but still at 44. Uh so um uh and TMS down a little bit but still at 36. So they're really they're really kind of flat except for the couple out there parallel uh up in both. This is district goal number one. So all of that is our overall uh proficiency rates uh districtwide and by building ELA and math. But this is your our district goal number one that we vote on every year. I want to talk a little bit about it because we do talk about you know we're changing those goals and what should we do the number of students overall and for every subgroup measured for accountability uh will increase as follows. 20% of our
020students who are at one will improve to two three and four and 20% of level two will improve to three and four. I can remember I don't know just in town that were here when we made that goal. Mhm. >> No, I was here >> when we had the retreat with Jim Baldman and all that. >> But no, it was us. >> It doesn't matter. It was wild. I can remember >> I can remember when we decided on this goal and again going back to my math background, it was it was about making sure that we were trying to make sure every kid improved, right? And so it's easy to have an overall goal of, you know, just doing better and being better, which we all want to do. We all believe in continuous improvement.
021But this was a way to say, okay, even the kids that are way down here struggling, at risk, getting ones, we're going to move them to the right. The kids that are already here, we're going to move them to the right. The kids are already performing well, we're still going to move them to the right. Right? That's what this was about. And I can remember telling the event then uh the board members over here um I even broke down the numbers if we can have 20% it was this many kids and then those kids will then be twos and then 20% more and it's really happened over the last 10 11 years right that's what this know Tom hates it that's what that is right that's improving the ones the twos the twos the threes
022and fours the threes to fours and so on. So taking every single kid, that's what those data meanings are, right? What I was telling you before with the with the multiple measure index, each kid having their own data profile and what does that kid need? What are his strengths or her strengths and weaknesses? What uh standards on those fa assessments have they done well on? What do they need more help on and more targeted improvement on? And taking those kids and making sure everybody's growing. even if you're going from a low one to a high one, right? And that's what Dr. Lson might talk about that a little bit tonight because that's one of her things now. She gets so frustrated when the scores come out and they compare, you know, the Troy kids to
023the Missa kids and our kids are starting further to the left than those other kids, but they're growing so much more, right? And so um the state does not really measure growth but this goal is one way we can do it. So proud to say that we did it and I I know that there was some talk about moving that up from 20% and I was looking at the last year to the year before and I said hey let's try to keep it but maybe next year when we had that conversation I think Tommy was the one said it maybe maybe it is time you can see the percentages there. So uh those are the level ones from two years ago. Uh the top one is 366 level ones. Almost 100 of them improved as
02427 of the level ones now are twos, threes, and fours. Uh 31% of last year's twos and ELA's are now uh threes and fours. And then the bottom is the math. 34% of the ones from two years ago are now twos, threes, or fours. And 36% of the twos from two years ago are now threes and fours. So again, moving kids to the right of that spectrum. Uh and really really proud of that. Uh and then I mentioned at the beginning, uh the board mentioned, uh absentes. It was one of the prior reports I think back and forth maybe here. Um but our district goal number four is uh we want to make sure our chronically absent students defined by New York State will decrease by two percentage points. our chronic absence uh percentages are
025still too high and we're working on that and thank you to the board for allowing us out of all those interventions that we had including now the tennis leaders down in every building that's focusing directly on this goal um the vans that are in the buildings that help us you know um with transportation issues that we're facing u and so we're doing a lot to try to improve this agenda uh and there's two basic measures I've got both of them here for you in this presentation because the chronically absentee list is the definition is any kid who's missed 10% of school. So there's 180 days to school. So it's really 18 days. A kid who misses 18 days of school, they count according to the state as a chronically absent student. So you know 10
026months out of the year 18 days that's two two a month. You know kid misses two days a month. It doesn't seem like a lot when you're talking about it, but two days a month takes you to chronically. So, that's why our percentages are so high. Uh it doesn't I'm not making an excuse for it. We're working on it and it's something we got to deal with. Uh and we're getting better in some places, but we did not hit it in the district. Uh so I gave you the last three years because we hadn't looked at this uh in a board presentation yet. So the bottom is the district as a whole was 42.5 in 2122. Uh did decrease to 39% in 22.33 but uh it decreased just a little bit half a percent. Uh
027not even um from 22 23 to 23 24. So uh still work to do. Some of the buildings really did a great job. School 18 uh went down to from 36 down to 27. school two uh I mean they look at their number two years ago 71% Miss Clo really focused in on that over the last two years she got a lot of incentive programs uh all the schools uh we had a district-wide attendance committee for a while but now it's broken down by schools so each school has some attendance type committee where they're trying to uh get students here um but Miss Cob uh and and Mr. Meadows down from 71 to 58 down to 48. So, uh, real great improvement there. Uh, school 16 jumped up a little bit talking to Dr. Ford
028and I agree with them. Uh, remember they at school 12 all last year. So, little bit different. Uh, when you're not going to your neighborhood school, uh, you're going to um, and you see 18 from 2122 to 2223 jumped up a little bit. Uh, same reason. you know, when you're driving or or getting transportation across town to a different school, it it makes it a little bit harder. But again, we're working hard to try to remove all the obstacles that kids and families face. Uh but that's our chronic absentee number. And I also included the daily attendance rate. So now the daily attendance rate is what percentage of kids are there on a particular day, right? Uh so you could have a 95% daily attendance rate and depending on those 10% of the same ones
029that are absent every day, you might have 10% chronically absent, but you also could still have 40% chronically absent if it's a different again only two days a month and you count as chronically absent. So depending on who those kids are on the daily rate, but it's good to look at both things. So that was last year's daily rate. Um again, uh the board discussion, we used to get those monthly reports, right? And so we're going to get those again. It's going to be and I think I wrote it in a prior report. Um we used to give you just a snapshot. We picked one day at random, which I'm not sure how that started, but that didn't make any sense. So we're not going to do that, but I'm going to give you this.
030So at the end of every month, so we finish September. Yeah. A monthly basis. So we finish September um on Monday. So, it usually takes, you know, a week or two to process it and get all, you know, everything updated. Uh, but probably the Friday report or the Friday report have been like a week or two uh into the following month, I'll give you each school and the district's daily attendance rate for that. All right. There are questions on those. >> In those figures, will the prek the school that has preks will get >> um I'll probably take the preks out. >> Preks out. >> How about your school? >> What's that? How about TCS? >> Uh, I can put TCS in if you want. >> Yeah, they can they can be run separately. >>
031Uh, for this I think they're in there for the for the yearly one, but the monthly one I can. >> So, all hover around 90 districts 88.76 a couple over 90 school 18 and the middle school, but they're all in that 88 89 uh range. Um when I was a high school principal and I went back all those years um we used to report this to the board all the time and I remember uh you know we were looking at it so carefully that if there was if there was a snow delay or half days I used to give the data with those and without those because you know on a two-hour snow delay get 40% of things sometimes and so I used to run the month with and without those kinds of dates just
032so we have a real more accurate kind of look at it. Uh but again uh thank you to the board for reminding at me and so that's our attendance data from last year and from the chronic absenteeisms in the last three years. Uh, I think I already said all these, but just to have them on one page, uh, this will be up on the website, so I just wanted to say, you know, have it all there. But our proficiency rates above the pre- pandemic rates for both ELA and math and better increases than the state level, which we're proud of. Five of our six schools had their highest recorded math proficiency rate. Um, three out of our six had doubledigit math rate increases. School two was the highest. Carol Hill increased in both ELA and
033math. 16 outperforming the state and really by far in both ELA and math. And then the last one I didn't say, thank you, Mr. Meadows and and ML boat. School two no longer a receiverhip school. So you won't see any of those uh visits and any of that in the definitely worth the plug there um in the Friday report. So u finally out of receiverhip and we worked really really hard over the last uh 10 years uh the staff there and um Dr. West and I went over and celebrated with them last end of last year when became official. So, congratulations to them. So much to be proud of. Uh certainly still work to do. Uh but we will keep our momentum and continue to move the district forward. You're going to jump through there.
034I don't know about that. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Do we have any data on the proficiency rates and I know they go to eighth grade, but like how they impacts our high school graduation? It's a great question, Matt. It's really people that um talk against the 3 through8 assessments and and the the importance they get in the news and things talk about that all the time. Really our region's results and Dr. W and I were just talking about it I think last week or early this week. Our region's results are much better. We talk about proficiency rates and you talk about bragging that we're 44%. It seems weird because that means half the kids did not perform proficient but it's it's way it's the way the exams are set up and it's
035the way the scale is made. The reasons exams are still in that uh 100 base percent. And so um I'm not sure there's a predictor on it because our graduation rates I didn't put a graduation slide in there but our graduation rates as you know hovered in the mid to high 80s, even hit 90 a couple years ago. Uh, and so we're really proud of those. I don't I don't think there's really I can ask Ter running. He probably be interested in doing that. I'm not sure there's really any correlation between the two. What's supposed to be is if you're getting a three or four on those three assessments, you're on track for graduation. And twos, you're probably there and ones you're not. But um I mean our percentage of ones even though it's gone
036down we've done good work doesn't really correlate to our non-grad rates because it's so much our non-grad rates are so much better than those. I don't know Dr. L. >> Yeah I would just add that's the trend everywhere is that the kids tend to do better once they get to the high school. So there are multiple opportunities. There's only one ELA regions exam at the high school. towards grade 11 and students can begin taking it. Honestly, some kids take it in 10th grade. I mean, um, our kids take it in 11th grade, they can take it in January, they can take it in June, they can take it in August, they can take it again the following year in January, in June, in August. And our teachers are really working hard. I mean, um I
037don't know, um at opening day I was doing a shout out to Beth Wilson who had um English language learners who were still learning the English language and she was trying to help and I think she got them all through and um so I mean it's a different game. It's it's not like you look at how you do on 3 through eight and then you can say, "Oh, that's how we'll do." We tend to do everyone tends to do much better on high school. which is why people say, some people say, not Troy, why are we doing this? It's not even aligned with what we're doing at the high school. And if kids can get a two and still pass the English regions, is there something wrong with three through eight? So, um, you know,
038it gets confusing, but our the high school is a little bit of a different situation. >> So, um, how >> can I ask a question? >> Yes, of course. >> Yeah. John, so you you a lot of numbers in here, which is great. you put in highlights. What are what are the areas of improvement that you guys are focusing on >> and how do we tie it to this to make sure that >> where we're improving this is going to help that. >> Yeah. >> Right. So instead of highlights is there like not to call it low lightss but needs for improvement. Where are we focusing those and how does it relate to this? >> Yeah, it's a great question and hopefully I'll speak to some of that through the how we're going to continue
039to move forward. But in a single sentence, the work is that we still have far too many students not reading, writing, and doing math on grade level. And you have to remember with a proficiency based test, it doesn't take into account where anyone is starting. So, as Mr. Carmelo mentioned, when the state used to recognize growth and the state is actually considering adding growth back in again, so we may see it in the next year. I mean we still have the test and all of that but um when we used to get a growth score from the state so it would compare our students to other students of a similar um performance the previous year a similar background like maybe if they're an English language learner if they're a student with disability um where they
040performed the pre they took all that so you were kind of comparing very similar students and then teachers would get a growth score in that and it was out of And many of our teachers in our schools were getting 18, 19, 20. Our kids are growing. When you're looking at a growth measure, which is why it's so helpful to look at the ones to twos, the twos to threes, because you could move from one to the highest two, which is amazing growth. Any teacher that works with kids and gets them from a one to a high two is I mean, we should be so grateful to have that, but you're not proficient. >> So, it doesn't recognize that. So, a proficiency assessment, let's assume it was a marathon and we're all running a marathon, but
041Josh is starting on mile seven and then we're going to say, "All right, let's all compare our time. When did we finish that race?" It's it's really you have to, you know, it's not an excuse. And we know, we believe our our um our mission, obviously, our theory of action is that we believe all of our kids can achieve at high levels. And we have to monitor what they're doing. we have to track their data which is what Mr. Carmelo was talking about with all the leaders and I see our curriculum leader for ELA in the audience and everybody working so hard but when the data shows that the student is not growing that's when we have to get in and say what are we going to do differently as the adults we don't say
042oh well you started here no you have to be showing growth um and we have a lot of tools available to us um that help us determine if kids are making gains or not so >> so would you would you say that the the multiple measurement assessment that goes on at >> the school level is what the teachers are using. If you're bringing those kids along based on that, >> yes, >> these numbers should naturally increase. >> Yes, that's I was going to answer those those data meetings I had with all the principles. We're we're talking about I mean I for the board I have the overall district and overall schools but as I said they're breaking it down by teacher by student by grade level and all of the standards that meet uh and
043um you know just curriculum are meeting with those teachers the instructional coaches are meeting with those teachers with your list of kids and so another thing we talked about with the principles is >> each teacher has a list of kids that are in front of them right now this year, but they also have to look at who was in front of them last year, right? So, how did this kids do last year that were in front of you? What standards did they do well on? What standards did they not do well on? What could you do have done differently in your teaching? Right? So, all of that, they're looking at every single thing like that all summer long and into the school year. And then now the kids that are in front of you right
044now, look at them as a student. What did they do last year? What are their strengths and weaknesses? and how can you target the instruction and the interventions better for those kids. So that I mean there's no district why I can say here are the low lights, here are the things we're working on. Each principal, each instructional coach, each curriculum leader knows which areas the grade levels and the teachers are working on and they're doing it at that level. >> Okay. >> Have other questions? Well, I guess I I would just say from a specific goal standpoint does that the specific goals for improvement at those individual levels rely on the principles and the the folks in each school? >> Yeah, it relies on the whole team. So there's a >> So like Dr. Ford
045or or Mr. Monk here would have different goals in their own district to bring those students along. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And they'll all be based off the the district goals that we approve every year. Right. Again, the ones, the twos, the twos, the threes and the fours, the graduation rate for Mr. >> and those district goals tied to those goals. >> Those all tied to perfect. Yep. Got it. >> So, when we think about the reform agenda in Troy, um, a lot of what's in the presentation this evening is going to be very similar to things that you've already heard. And why would that be? Because the strategies we're using are working. And we know we don't have 100% of our students proficient yet, but we do know that students are growing immensely.
046And so, uh, we want to continue to do some of the great work that's happening. Um I would say I was chatting with some of the leaders about the fact that some of this is going to be you know a continuation of strategies and I thought if I could just say the three things that I think are helping our students to grow the most I would have to say it is um class size I think is really really helpful. Um I think it's the coaching and the support from our curriculum leaders. We have so much embedded support in the classroom. It's not like years ago where you would go to a workshop down the street. Um the the experts are pushing in and working with kids and you're watching. It's very hands-on. It's um very
047sustainable. Uh and it changes practice. And then the third thing I would say is access to really high quality PD materials which we can feel very proud in Troy about the support and the uh access to high quality you know people resources materials that we give to our teachers. Um so I think we can all feel proud about that. So the three DIP so district comprehensive improvement plan which we write every year a DIP if you read that it was a lengthy document um but it boils down to three priority areas meeting the social emotional um you know health needs of students all and families and also instruction. So I can't see this and I'm not really sure where's a good place to stand. They're written as priorities. So we prioritize meeting the social emotional
048developmental needs. We prioritize instruction, intervention, and support. And then we prioritize improving equity and opportunities for outcomes. So social emotional needs, instruction, that middle piece, and equity. Um, and as we've noted before, not just in the district goals, but in these priorities, equity is an important piece of all of the priorities. So let's dig into each of these um on its own. So the first uh priority social emotional health we have a lot of strategies. So we have the implementation of the new stronger connections grant program. So that is going to allow us to provide mentors to about a third of our student population. So, so um lots of different adults in lots of different uh roles who will be you know helping to meet with our children, monitoring their report card progress, working as
049a liaison between um school and home and really just helping to remove any barriers that a student is experiencing personal school related. making sure they have access to the right resources and people um and helping to you know make it so that they can focus more on learning. So that's an exciting grant which is new and then the continuation of our uh student mental health grant which expands access for families. We're doing a lot of new programs with that as well. I know that um hospice has like wave riders for people experiencing grief and with this grant we're able to do some small group for any of our students who have been a victim of a crime or witnessed a crime or been affected in any way and I think that has the potential to
050really really help our kids. Um and it also increases access to families um to a wealth of um mental health supports. We have um our staff developers. So, we have Dr. Pepper um with one P. That's not a typo. She is a behavioral specialist and she's amazing. She's got 30 over 30 years of experience in the field. She pushes in and she does a lot of help with behavioral intervention and I believe she's worked in every one of our schools um through Donovan's office. And then we also have Rebecca McInn um who helps with trauma-sensitive practices and she really works with individual schools and individual teacher teams um in any way that they feel they need her. So a lot of our support it's not canned programs. It's sitting down with the second grade team
051at school 18 and saying what are the kinds of things that you're seeing? How can I help you? What can we do together? Doing observation in the room. Okay, here's what I saw. Here's what I would suggest. So, it's a lot of embedded um hands-on work. Uh let's see what else we have. Oh, code of conduct committee. So, we have a comprehensive review of the code of conduct every other year. We just did that and I see some of my friends in the audience who are on that committee with me. Um so, this year in the off year when we're not reading every single word of the code to make sure that everything's, you know, how we want it, we do DFS meetings. So those are data feedback strategy meetings. So we'll actually look at
052uh the board goal related to reducing the discipline infractions and increasing positive behaviors. So we will look at um and actually this is a screenshot of the September PBIS um students of the month at the middle school. So I thought that was kind of a fun one to put there. Um, you know, we believe that the best behavior grows from strong, positive, trusting relationships between the people who work here and the students who go here. So, there's a big push for that. But we will look at referral data, suspension data, where are the incidents happening, when are they happening, what resource do we have? Um, so during the off year when we're not reading every single word of the code, we're having those meetings and then the team sort of shares out, well, here's what
053we've done at the high school or here's what we did, you know, at school 2 or 16. And it it's really really helpful. It's a good brainstorming. And then also, I left in our our canines, our therapy dogs. I wanted to make sure everybody on the board knows that we do have therapy dogs. We haven't seen Sammy in a while. Sam's question. >> Sammy, we are going to have to have an episode with Sammy. But, um, Gus, the the guy in the lower left there, um, he we're expanding our use of the therapy dogs to include prek this year. So, Miss Curry's really excited about that. We have some students that the therapy dogs are really going to be helpful to them. Um, and and it's very motivating. Right, Mr. Meadows? >> Very Dora? answer.
054>> Oh gosh. All right, moving right along. Any questions on the social emotional piece? Yes, Mr. >> I'm just curious about the therapy dogs. I think that's awesome. And the kids in the back probably love it. How does how does that work? Are there like outside handlers that bring their dogs in? >> So, Principal Clo at school, too. Um, Dora is her dog. >> Um, so he lives with the Closes and she brings him to work every day. She didn't bring him yesterday because we had some interviews and she wasn't sure. Not everybody's a dog person. Um, and he has his dog that is in the main office, but he's used as a reward. He's used in small group counseling sessions. He's uh kids will work hard to have time with Dora. I don't know
055Mr. Meadows if you >> No, that's the kids actually love her. You know, she in the morning goes building come down lunch, you know, she's in a small group all over. Nice mix. >> Yeah. >> Is she actually trained as a service dog? >> Yes. Yeah, >> they all are. Well, Sammy might not be, but >> Sammy is my therapy dog and ours. Everybody in the district. She said, "Well, >> Sam's a work in progress." >> Um, all right. Moving on to instruction. So, some strategies. I'm actually going to just use this. It's easier for me. But >> you can stand in front of me. You're not bothered. >> No, I It's such a It's like a weird You don't know to stand over there. You're back to people. Um, I'm going to come back
056to the first bullet. So, I'm really really excited. Um, historically when we do a deep dive into our data, I'm going to be honest, some of us are using a large yellow legal pad and we're drawing things and we are diving into um the use of artificial intelligence to really help us uh to better identify students needs, predict things, provide personalized learning. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that because that one is new. I tried to put the newer things at the top. Um, our data leaison are continuing to lead the data meetings by teams. They've been trained and in every school. They're running the same reports for the leaders and making sure that that work is moving along. The instructional coaches um they're also doing the embedded coaching cycles. They're running
057the data meetings. Again, it's a very responsive practice. It's it's not I come in and I do what I do in every second grade. It's what do I do based on the needs of your kids right now? How are we going to work together to help affect improvements in instruction? Extensive PD. I could do 10 slides on the professional development that this district offers to teachers, staff members, leaders, everyone. And I'm not just talking about going to we there's a couple conferences on the agenda tonight. I'm talking about book studies. I'm talking about serving on committees at the state ed level. um going to do scouting missions to other districts, seeing promising practices all over the state. Um I mean it just goes on and on and on. National conferences, state conferences, local conferences, really
058partnering across districts. Um and then working through our Boseies. I mean there's just so much professional development. And um the two that are listed under there, Mossflower and Eureka Math Square, those are really, I would say, the most um impactful PD that we've offered teachers. Um when it comes to reading and math, it really has been about showing teachers models of expert practice and and our teachers just soak it up and and they have internalized those practices and that we're growing those practices. And the goal would be to be able to lead this work on our own through our coaches who have come a long way. I mean, I think about the last 5 years, all the work and time and support that we've invested in our coaches and they are just topnotch. Top-notch. Um,
059so the PD can't be understated. Expansion of libraries. You can see a couple kids there. Um, the little guy on the top, I don't know if you can see, but there's a banner that says grand opening. That was in your building, Miss Donardo. um where they did a ribbon cutting because they added like I don't know a thousand new books to the library and the kids were so fired up they cut the ribbon and then they all went book shopping. Um and it's just a way to make sure that there's high engagement and excitement and motivation for reading. Um it's not a basil approach like turn to page 19 and we're all going to read about dolphins. um it's you know finding books that are at your level that are that um you know you
060can read independently and that teachers can use to work with you. So the book investment has been amazing. And then our updated curriculum review and alignment. So those of you who've been around a while I don't know if you can see this. I tried to highlight it yellow and purple and gold. It didn't really work. But we have a 4-year curriculum matching cycle which we is brand new in 2014 is when we first started it. So and up to that point some of the projects were sort of haphazard or depending on the curriculum leader but we wanted to systematize that. So, we implemented this four-year cycle and you can see that every single year, thankfully to the board and to um the cabinet and everyone that supports this in the budget because it is not
061cheap. Um, we are able to hire teams of teachers to map our curriculum, which is the really the most important thing we can do to make sure that we have a process where we're reviewing the standards at the time, where we're reviewing our units of study, we're making sure it's aligned to the standards, it's rigorous, that kids will be ready for whatever the assessment is at the end of that year. Um, so we have this cycle and you can see there's one core area each year. So, it's English and then that's paired with some smaller areas um foreign language and library, social studies, art and music, science, PE and health and so on. And so then when that those four years are up, it starts over again. And when those are four years were up,
062it started over again. So right now we're in our 11th year. So at the end of next year, we will have had three full cycles of curriculum review of everything that we are teaching in Troy, which is really a really um wonderful thing to be able to say. Not everybody has such extensive, you know, curriculum review and alignment. So we have our own cycle, but then sometimes um and Mr. Mr. Monk knows this more than anybody because it seems at the high school things are constantly changing. So, the standards are changing, the assessments are changing. Um, and sometimes it's hard to keep track of it because it's a lot. And I'm not going to read all of this, but you can see the different regions exams. Now, we're aligning to the NextGen learning standards for
063math and ELA and the New York State P12 science learning standards. So, we had new science tests at fifth and eighth grade, new algebra. Next year we have geometry. Earth and space sciences are new. And then we're going back to biology. It might not be exactly biology like some of us did in the 80s, but it's going back to biology. And then algebra 2, chem, physics, and ELA 256. So sometimes our cycle lines up perfectly, other times it doesn't. You know, there are times where it might not be the year for science, but if there's a new chemistry regions, we have to pay a team of teachers to work really hard to make sure what we're teaching that our units of study are aligned with the test that the kids are going to face at
064the end of that course. So, there's a lot of moving parts and we have 13 curriculum leaders. Aaron Ali is one of them sitting over there for ELA. um but we have a teacher on special assignment who leads that work for their department and they also work together and they work with the instructional coaches. So there's a lot of collaboration and then finally on instruction we are really leaning into AI and augmented reality and some of this stuff we haven't really done too much of it yet. Uh these are a couple pictures from I believe this is school 18, Miss Donito McB. It was the international dot day which is a sort of a steam day for creativity. And if you look carefully, not the one in the upper left, that's something a little bit
065different. But if you see those kids in the bottom, they're like drawing circles and they're coloring them in with markers. And then they're using augmented reality to create 3D images using um Quiver on the iPad. So they are really just, you know, we're going into some of the virtual reality stuff, augmented reality, and with AI, I just wanted to say we're using that not just for some of our instructional stuff, but also for our robust assessment program. When we talk about the multiple measures that we have a lot of different measures, we can tell you for math and for reading and we collect a lot of pieces of information on every single student. Some of the AI tools um we're using I Ready now, which is an adaptive tool, which means that if um Mr.
066Chapon and I are both taking a test in our grade level and you're answering the questions and you're getting them all right, your questions are getting harder. I'm answering them and I'm not doing so well. mine are going to get a little bit easier. So, it's the AI is trying to figure out the just right spot for you. So, what is it that you normally it might be one test for everybody? Now, it's adaptive and it's helping us to really pinpoint um what students know and are able to do and and there's a an entire portfolio of reports for teachers, next steps for instruction for Mr. Shapone next steps for instruction for me. And then there's personalized learning that I can do at home and I can practice the things that I'm not so great
067at. Um you can excel because you're gifted. Um and you're, you know, you can just carry on. You can do things in the next grade level or the grade level above that. So it's >> I wish you did the example the other way. It would have been funnier for me. >> Um so it >> that's pretty cool. Yeah, I think it's going to really help us and they have some really neat tools that the principles were actually learning about them more on Monday. Um, our proficiency predictor tools and some of the other tools that are available. Um, I would say we don't struggle because we have such a robust and and awesome assessment system in Troy. We don't struggle to identify who's at risk and who might not make it. I think we all could
068tell you that, you know, pretty soon. Um, but these tools may help us to refine our instructional practices to really get the most bang for our buck with our students. Um, what is this? Oh, equity. So, then our final priority is equity. Um, we do we don't have the equity and liaison positions anymore, but the equity work I'm happy to report is really continuing in full force. Um, and you can see some of the things that will be continuing the college caravans. I think these were uh three of these photos. Um, the talk two in the bottom right were done at the college caravan that we just had for the seniors, Mr. Monk. Um, and there were over 40 colleges there. So, everybody was able to meet with an admissions counselor and understand like what
069do I need to get in? What do I, you know, what are you looking for? how can I learn more about this? Um, so that's really great. We have a ton of workforce readiness and career experiences that all will be continuing. And I suspect that when you if you're not on the equity committee, um, if you are on the equity committee, you'll hear the principles speak there. But if you're not, I suspect when they are doing their presentations to you, they will touch on this work that is still continuing. Um, the equity improvement cycles. I'll finish with those restorative practices training. So, we are happy to report again this is another strategy that's continuing. Lori D. Carlo is an incredible resource um who really helps with um restorative practices in schools. She's worked with all
070of our schools and this year she's focusing on school 16, school 18, and Troy High School. And after this, every one of our schools will be fully trained in the restorative practices work. So, that's exciting. Um, we're also partnering with Karen Mack, who is um, just like the national guru on engaging families as partners. There's a team from school 14. I don't think school 14's here tonight. Um, that's going to be doing some work through Harvard with her, which is exciting. Again, Mr. Carmela mentioned the attendance specialist, home visits, really engaging families as partners, making sure that they have equitable access to whatever they need so their students can be successful. And then our survey administration, we were getting a lot of feedback from families that the surveys were, you know, people were getting survey
071fatigue because it was three times a year. It was so many questions. So, we're actually going to try just giving it one time this year in the winter. And then we're going to try to do more data cafes and sessions with families going deeper and unpacking. Okay. So, 40% said this, tell us more. Give us more information about that. So we want to try and see because we had a couple one administration where we had very little participation and it was like there they said we already did it why are you keep asking us the same questions. So um we think if we isolated to just one and ask people to be allin then maybe they will you know give us more information quantitatively and also qualitatively. And then finally um these are the equity
072improvement cycles. Each of the principles have handed these in for this year. Um, and you can see they they span a lot of different areas, discipline, academics, um, reading comprehension, high school is continuing with their goal of enrolling racially diverse students in honors and college level courses. Um, and then at the district office really continuing to try to recruit and retain a more diverse workforce with a real focus on the retention piece. We talked about this a lot in cabinet making sure that we are, you know, supporting and retaining uh the great people that we have working in the district. So that's a little snapshot of the work that will continue. It's certainly not everything, but when you think about the main work of the district, it's around social emotional developmental health of our students
073and families, instruction, our core enterprise is always teaching and learning and equity. And so um hoping and we feel confident that this plan will continue to move our kids wherever they are along that continuum to continue to move them toward proficiency. So, any questions on that? It's getting late. Not even Josh, you don't have question. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There you go. >> Thank you board members for your support. There you go. >> I think more motion on the floor for approval of minutes September 18th, 2024 and September 23rd, 2024. Second >> discussion. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion on the floor to amend the agenda to add under s superintendent recommendation human resources staff matter and specifically um specifically to amend agenda specifically staff matters unclassified. A1 to add
074new subp paragraph C to accept the resignation of Melanie Schleser dated October 1st, 2024 to be effective September 30th, 2024. So motion's on the floor to amend. >> So that's one. >> Okay. A >> A1C. We're going to >> discussion. All those in favoros. Superintendent recommendation human resources staff matter unclassified and classified as amended under unclassified motion on the floor to for consent agenda items 1 through 13 >> discussions. All those in favor? Opposed? >> Under a classified motion on the floor >> for consent agenda items one through nine. >> Second >> discussion. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Superintendent recommendations program programs motion on the floor for consent agenda items 1 through seven. >> People are going to be traveling. the discussion. >> What's Yeah. What's uh the case conference? >> Case conference. >>
075It's a special ed conference um that Mer requested to attend as part of her role as PBS director get more information. Any question any more discussion? >> Do I did I get a second on that? >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Superintendent recommendation business finance. Motion on the floor for consent agenda items one as listed. Second. Now under discussion, should we discuss um this is just being presented to us today. We're not >> for the seeker. This >> for the seeker >> and the lead agency, right? >> Correct. This is slightly different than I'd say most projects. This is just referring to the tech. >> Okay. >> Um as you may recall, the SED came back and said they want a different proposition. Um due to the addition of in the south lot uh
076usually we have what are called type two actions which are pretty much you're not expanding the footprint because we're expanding the footprint of the building. It's an unlisted action and this is the first piece and resolution for passing the seeker. Um and the environmental assessment form is in the SED and they will tell us how to proceed in the next 20 or so days. We're doing any changes to it. Just saying. >> Okay. So we'll see this >> Next board meeting >> then we can discuss it a little bit before we secret. >> Okay. Just making sure everybody's doing their job. Uh any more on discussion? I'll go ahead. All those in favor? >> Opposed? >> District announcements. Future board meetings. All meetings will take place at 6:00. Write that down. Danielle, >> October 16th
077at school 16, uh November 6th at the middle school. And my good news, the only thing that that Jason didn't write was that how great the homecoming was. >> It was good to see the stands full again. Uh we had a good turnout and everything. And um so that was really nice. saw a lot of old some ex alumni and uh okay we also we're excited to host the ribbon cutting celebration for Toron school don't quit fitness center on Friday morning at 8:30 which all board members will be invited to TMS received this $100,000 fitness center at no cost to the district thanks to the efforts of principal assistant Brian Matthews who applied for the award and who is sitting in our audience Yeah, >> Brian sent me a couple videos of the kids in
078there using it. So, it's really great. >> If you're around uh the grand I mean, they're already starting to the grand opening is this Friday morning. If you're around, you want to come watch >> pre uh school 12 prek hosted dads take your child to school day on September 19th. Dance and parents joined their pre-K child enjoying donuts and muffins while reading a new book together to take home. School 14 held its first schoolwide morning program uh of the school year on September 26. We were happy to welcome any families into the building to participate in morning program. Carol Hill has established community blocks across the building. Every administrator and staff member participates in community circles with classes. This provides the opportunity to build relationships and a strong building wide community. That's got pretty. The
079Troy High Masterminds team won the CNY fall kickoff for the second year in a row on Saturday 1928 in Syracuse. This team was represented by Demetrius Flores and Jerry's Sha. >> That was close, right? >> Very close. >> With this MVP last year, I want to thank you so much. Wow. You got to tell Jason. He rates war. With this victory, the team has once again qualified for the high school national championship tournament in Atlanta, which will be held over Memorial Day weekend. Additionally, Demetrius received a special award for being the top individual scorer in the entire tournament field. He's got to be one smart boy. Who's coaching this year? >> Uh, that's right. >> Um, homecoming and spirit week was an absolute hit with an amazing amount of positive energy in the building. Dunkin
080Donuts joined us on Wednesday during our three lunch periods, offering students a small beverage along with a $5 gift card for every student and every staff member. The students carried that energy through the inschool pep rally on Friday which we kind of saw some videos there. >> No, >> students ended the week on Saturday. >> Video out there if you want to see Mr. Miko getting whooped by Mr. Shah noodles. They had a pool noodle fight. >> But I I I loved how Mr. explained that on the on the field Friday night. I could have. I didn't want to hurt him, you know. I'm like, "Okay." Um, so we just let him go. Um, didn't want to ruin his 15minute payment. Our um Saturday with over 400 students at the annual homecoming games. Wow. Big
081turnout. Troy finished fourth overall at the Colonial Council Golf Championships last week. Joey Degman led the way with third with the third lowest score in the tournament. This comes after he was named Junior Boys athlete of the week for September 16th through the 22nd. We could have done a lot more, but it's nap bedtime. >> Anything from the board? >> And I got something. Sorry, I'm talking a lot tonight. Sorry. But I reached out to the board about the article that was in the time junior in regards to skenkity and what they're doing for potential gun identification in their schools with the technology and whatnot. So I want to pose it to the board that we accelerate those conversations and try and figure out what options are out there, what options are there for Droid
082schools, um, and bring some of those options to the table so we can at least get some reviews, get some budgets in place and figure out what the next steps are. As difficult of a conversation as it is, it's one more step in the right direction to try and deter or keep our kids safe. So, I want to make sure that that conversation doesn't wait. And I don't know what the process is to bring those people in or what that looks like. But whatever I can do to help or whatever we need to do as a board to get those people to the meetings to start talking about it, I think we need to do for whatever upcoming budgets we have or whatever that looks like. So, if Skenkity is doing it, I feel like
083there's got to be a way we should be able to do the same thing and do that stuff. >> Yeah. As I wrote in the email, we've already we've already started looking at it. Uh Dom and I have talked about those uh systems. Uh there are a few of them out there. They're not cheap, but um I don't disagree. Um you know, they take some installation and all of that. Um ultimately, it's up to the board. Um, but typically I know Skynctity is inviting those people to board meetings and doing all that display. That's not really in my opinion how it's done. Uh, we'll do that. We'll review all the systems. I'll come back to the board. Um, you know, I got from your email if the board wants us to pursue looking at those
084systems and trying to figure out which one is best. Um, we were only really looking to start at the high school to see how it worked and and be in that lobby area of the high school. Uh, then we talked about we're going to get a new secure vestibule at that high school. And so we tied into that project and do it all at kind of at once because the new systems it's almost like we were u making analogy to the new easy pass. You know, you're not going through like if you come to our football or basketball games, you go through a metal detector. You go to Mr. Campfield's program, you're going through that. These are not like that. These are just >> set up so you're just walking in normal and then the
085detection happens. So, um, you know, we were thinking of the high school lobby to start with that secure park. Um, it gets very expensive. I'm not sure. I mean, this connecting number that was in the paper was almost a million dollars. I'm not sure if they're doing every single school or every single doorway or what they're planning on doing, but we'll we'll do the research. Uh, and we'll, you know, come back to the board. We can do a presentation on which ones you think are right. >> But I think that's that's if the board's okay, that's how we do. >> Well, I mean, just expect a timeline on that, John. >> Um, well, Don's already met with one or two of them. I mean, I could I could have people come to us and try
086to and then come and report to the board on which system we think is best. I mean, he's already got he's already emailed me a quote on what he thinks is the best one already. We've already started that process. So, >> okay, I can I can share that with you already. >> Have they looked at more than one? >> I think they have. >> I mean, I I got a couple. >> I think there are only a few out there. There's a couple different style systems and a couple different generations and I think John referred to you know the most recent generation I can't name >> evolved um so um I do know of other schools that have put it in and and I actually was just talking to one last week um so you
087know the initial ones were you know a different kind of sensor system that really didn't work as well as what I'm being told so we just need more information I just want to you know because we're doing the lobby I just want to make sure we don't put something in to rip it back out later. So, um, you know, it's it's part of the whole system and, um, you know, hopefully it's as easy as they say it is. But, you know, uh, we have to get more information, I think, for sure. And how many places do you want? >> Is this something that we would um, add to a capital project or to our budget? >> Um, depend on the time. >> Correct. Correct. you know, and I one of the questions I did have
088is that does that fall under a different aid category of, you know, hardening your entry systems? You don't always get clearcut answers. So, uh, that's that's one of my outstanding questions. >> Well, Skenctity, you also got half a million dollars in a grant for that, too, right? >> Yeah. I mean, I'm sure there's different funding mechanisms, but you know, when they say grant, I'm not sure if they're talking about building aid or an actual grant. Um there are building a categories outside of a capital project like we put in new additional cameras every single year that falls under a different category. Um so you have to submit it in and then they look at it and say whether it's approved or not. So I don't want to say absolutely but um definitely a possibility. >>
089I mean I guess the last thing I would ask is anybody reaching out to Skenctity to figure out how they did it and what they did and what they've learned. >> Yeah, Amsterdam has it. Um so that's why So Amsterdam already has it in it. >> And so I wanted to pick their brain and get more information from them right away. >> All right, sounds great. >> We'll get on it and we'll >> appreciate that. Yeah, thank you. >> Okay. Um I'm not going to pick on anybody in the audience because I noticed three people dozed off. I'm only serious. Uh so all those in favor