001Call the meeting to order. Uh, call for a motion to exit executive session. >> Make a motion. >> So move. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. >> Opposed. Stained. Motion carries. Now call for a motion to enter into public session. >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppos. Motion carries. Please rise for the pledge of the flag. >> 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. Okay, I'd like to welcome you all to tonight's board meeting and we'll begin tonight with recognition of our Falcons of the month health.
002>> Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> Excuse my back. Um, this is we have usually two board meetings a month and this is by far our favorite board meeting of the two. Uh, the one that where we get to recognize our Falcons of the month. We're really excited. Uh, every time we get a chance to do this, I know it's our board's really favorite meeting of the month. Tonight, we have the distinction of honoring our next group of Falcons of the month. Each school in our district celebrates numerous students each and every month for being outstanding. We have asked our schools to select one individual from the many to represent the group. Therefore, the students we will be honoring tonight were selected because they personified the trait or characteristic being celebrated this month. In
003other words, these students, they're the best of the best. I'm going to read you what's on the certificate. The certificates are the same for each student, and obviously each student's name will be different. I'll be calling you up. When I call you up, I'm going to ask that you come up, you shake my hand, I'm going to give you a certificate, and then you're going to walk by and you're going to shake the the each person who's sitting at that table, you're going to shake their hand as well. Okay? The certificate of certificate of recognition says whereas the philosophy of education of the Niagara Redfield Central School District calls for aiding all students in the development and achievement of their potential and whereas the primary goals of the school district include encouraging each student to
004develop a sense of values, instill a feeling of responsibility to self and others as well as an appreciation of good citizenship. Being resolved, the board of education of the Niagara Wheatfield Central School District here hereby recognizes the following. First up, we have Evan Gansworth. up next. Owen Daniels. Next we have Nelson Watson III. Next we have Michael Wara. Yes, my black and red for board meetings were perfect. Next we have Lucille Watts. Next we have Brooklyn. One more round of a pause for all of our falcons of the moment. In a few minutes, we will take a break for some some refreshments. Okay. But I have one more thing I want to do under recognition. So, I need to go back over my seat here. What you're seeing in that photo there um is a
005um ceremony I was able to attend uh earlier this week. That is our National Technical Honor Society students who were just inducted. We actually had three four students who were inducted. Ryan Moore, Cooper Grasseri, Juliana Lambert, and Xavier know um our national technical honor. The national technical honor society um is an honor society throughout the United States in which the students with the highest averages are chosen. 1.6% of the students nationwide who are part of the career tech programs actually received that award. So, uh, congratulations to those four students. They'll end up in our next newsletter. Uh, they've been doing some great work over there at the Career Tech Center. So, congratulations to them. >> Well, thank you very much. Congratulations to them. And to our Falcons of the month, we're going to take a
00610, 15 minute break uh with punch and cookies in the back. uh as well as uh feel free to take photos over by our uh NW wall and enjoy. Congrats once again. >> Meeting back to order and we'll continue now with our presentations. All right, great good evening everybody. Uh we're honored to be here and present in front of you. Uh we'll be going over our elementary CES plan with you this evening. We're going to highlight some of the uh building uh happenings and from our students and staff that apply to each of the three goals that we'll present tonight. Uh I'm Jeff Casisha. I'm the principal over at Colonial Village. Behind me I have my colleagues. I have Theren Mong, principal at West Street. Kelly Dohy, principal at Tusboroation, Jennifer Golias, uh, director of
007curriculum instruction and technology. I have Kristen Leupa, assistant director. I have Michelle Fiorella, principal over at Eric Road. And I have Jessica Smith, uh, assistant director of technology. Think I got everybody. All right. Uh goal one I'm going to start with uh it has to do with cultivating a safe environment within our school uh healthy and inclusive environment as well. So we're going to highlight some of the things that we currently have in our plan and how we're addressing those. Uh so when we're looking at the safe and inviting inclusive facilities at each of our individual buildings, uh it starts with our safety team and that is from a districtwide um and also building uh committees that each of us have at the building level. So we meet three times a year and a lot
008of times when we go from the district meeting we take that information back and apply it within our individual buildings and we meet with our staff three times a year. Uh some great things. So from a district side we we talk about uh some of the most recent things uh which would have been our reunification plan um that is an ongoing process. I know uh Mr. stack has been helping with uh individual faculty meetings this year to take it to that next level, next step to make sure that we are properly prepared if we ever had to reunify. Uh some of the other things that came about this year um we have uh lockdown procedures. So for our afterchool activities uh tightening up what those procedures would look like if a lockdown were to happen
009after school. So those are just some of the conversations recently that have come up in our first uh safety meeting this school year. And also one of the most recent ones that uh was needed uh from law is our cardiac arrest plan. Uh so we are required now um to include that in our building level plans um but also then discuss that what it would look like within our individual buildings. Um that is a requirement. I believe it's in January of this coming year that needs to be implemented. our staff I believe all were trained uh first opening days and now we are also required to train students on that. So getting the proper age appropriate uh training for our students just so they're aware um and can identify those AEDs. Um some other things
010we do we ongoing practicing of our safety drills uh throughout the year to make sure our students and staff are prepared in case we ever had to implement those uh our fire safety week. So, at each of our elementary buildings, we work with our local fire departments. I know some of them are are Lewon 2, Sanborn, St. John'sburg, um Town of Niagara, all come out. They put on a presentation with our students, teach them um how to be safe if there were a fire, but they also introduce themselves um because a lot of them would be the local uh folks that show up on scene if they ever did need help. So, uh they do a great job. They hand out a lot of information, materials to our students. Um and it's just a great
011interaction that that they have with them. Um some other things uh that we do, we have our sec uh security offers within the buildings. A lot of the technology uh that we maintained uh that we've had in place now. Um and then also what the last bullet point is in making sure that we have inclusive print um within our classrooms, hallways, and libraries. So, I know our equity and education committee uh has been pushing out a lot of the um some inclusive things whether it's uh different cultures, heritage months um most recently and we've recently had installed uh some display boards within each of our hallways um at each of the elementary buildings. So, our students and staff are seeing these regularly um to celebrate some of the differences uh that our students and staff
012may have of their own. Um, our libraries also, I know we we push information out uh on book cards that go along with those different celebrations and and heritage months as well. Um, and bulletin boards in each of our buildings to just to try to keep highlighting and showcasing those. Um, some of our at the bottom collaborations with our law enforcement, our ongoing safety training uh drills. We have another one upcoming in March. Um, again, making sure that we're prepared and practice uh with law enforcement and from a building standpoint. I know Jessica will show you some pretty neat things on the next slide that go along with that. And as I mentioned, Mr. Stack uh helping out with the reunification process this year. I know just going a little bit further with our staff,
013making sure that we are prepared and doing things the best that we can if we ever had to to use that. I'm going to turn it over to Miss S. >> Hi. Um, >> thank you. >> Um, okay. So, um, just highlighting some of the newer technology that we've added in the last year. Um, going back to what Jeff was saying about how the elementary schools had raptor um, reunification drills in the in the last couple of months, um, we got the opportunity to use some of our uh, newly assembled emergency go bags. So, in the picture on the left, that is a greeter table at one of the drills. Um, and in our reunification bag, there are Chromebooks and tablets. The Chromebooks are used by the greeters who um greet the parents and enter
014them into the system when they're there to pick up their child. And then the tablets are used by other staff who are um seeing that the parents are there through the app. And then they are able to reunify the child with the parent. Um and then they click a reunify button and communication goes to all guardians within the student information system. Um, so that training was really great to teach our staff how to use those technologies that help us keep track of students and make sure our accountability of students is accurate in in case we ever have an emergency. And then um looking forward to the spring um when we do the um active shooter drills with the law enforcement, we we will get to use um our command center go bag and that is
015the picture on the right. And in that bag, we have a portable table and stool. And then um some portable uh extended screens that we can attach to our laptop. And then that gives us more screen space um so that we can see things like the security cameras. We can have the Raptor platform up there monitoring communication um from staff that may be inside the building. And then also using our newly uh completed roll out of our communication platform, parents square that was just that roll out was just completed and that would allow us to send um emergency communications to uh parents uh quickly during an an emergency. So, um, also in the go bags, there's things like batteries, uh, hotspots, phone chargers, lots of things that would help us, um, in case something ever
016did happen. So, uh, we look forward to getting to use this new command center bag in our our next drill in the spring. >> Can I just add one thing? Um, I just want to thank Tom and Jessica. Um, I mean, this has been a huge group effort. I know they will say that, but they've done a lot of work um with reunification, spent a lot of time on some of the um real particulars that would come up and and that's really important and and I want to thank our staff. I I just need to share this with the board. You know, there was some hesitation with putting uh the technology on our on personal phones and but in an emergency if we have to reunify um and get kids back to families, we want
017to make sure we can do that as fast as we can. We don't want to create a crisis on top of a crisis, right? And um it got tested here at the high school first because they did the first reunification drill here and there were some issues with some of the tablets just guess maybe the wrong bag was there or whatever it was and um they said, "Okay, well we might have to pause." All the teachers started whipping out their phones and they all had the technology on their phones right there and they were able to do it the way quite frankly in an emergency it'll probably happen anyway. And so, um, we're really thankful that, you know, that our staff and that was really, you know, mainly teachers who were there, um, were able
018to do the do the drill like we'd be doing it in real time. So, but thank you both because I know it's been a big undertaking. Um, so I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Uh another focus of the elementary uh buildings is social, emotional and physical wellness. Um all of the elementary schools are currently building social, physical and mental health skills by having North Point instructional lessons on a regular basis at all grade levels. Uh too good for drugs. Uh but at Tuscora it's also called social perspectives. Um, Aaron's law is also taught and there are many clubs and inter murals and afterchool activities that really encourage students to participate, get involved, be uh be a part of their community of the school. Uh there are yoga sessions happening and everyday speech is the uh
019speech uh is the uh social emotional uh lesson curriculums. Um, we also are linking families with the supports that are in place in the community. Whether you're talking about the family support center, Cara Kirk, she's been amazing. Uh, Lions Club, uh, Feedmore Western New York, this is a program where students get food on every Friday and it's given to them. They take it home for the weekend. Uh, clothing closets, Gateway Long View, uh, that's at, uh, Colonial Village. mobile counseling service of Western New York. They come into the buildings, but they also work outside in the community and our counselors work closely with those counseling services to make sure that we're providing uh spaces for our students to really get the care that they need. Uh proactive strategies that are happening right now. Uh there
020is CPI which is a deescalation uh program that really helps people to understand how to deescalate situations. Focus on uh making sure that students are centered in their um in their emotions and they can move forward in their learning. Uh PBIS is positive behaviors intervention support. Leader in me is based on the seven habits of highly successful people and restorative practices are currently in place at CB and Tuscora. This is not working. >> All right. Um the other thing that we've been doing is trying to create a really strong structure and be thoughtful about making sure we have supportive environments where all students feel valued and cared for. uh inclusive calendar which recognizes the heritage months and the holidays. Uh equity and education committee I have heard nothing but amazing things that have come from
021that committee. Um people including teachers are really excited about the work that's being done and they uh feel a value from that. Uh and distri uh so each month there's information uh being distributed for the heritage months. Uh again, it's it is on the boards. Jen Golias is very good about her and her team. They put it together and uh they push it out onto the boards in the uh in each building. And I have witnessed at students stopping going up and then having conversations about some of the information that's on there. Um so this so September was Hispanic uh heritage month. People with disabilities was October. Native American heritage is current. Um, but the hallway panels are used on a regular basis and I would strongly encourage all of you to come to any
022building and come see our boards. >> Right. Um, good evening. Our next goal is that uh the district will provide learning experience that accelerate academic, social, emotional and physical student learning. And um basically uh just a few things I'd like to highlight up here. The first one uh is the professional learning communities as well as the content area facilitators. And I would just like to to come away from what's up there and let you know that I've been able to witness these teachers in groups districtwide coming together. And to me that's breaking down walls and silos, right? that they're coming together um and and they're not, you know, they're they're rich meetings, there's discussion, there's difference of opinions, but at the end they've come together to ensure that we have common curriculum being taught across
023the district. And I don't think that happens without those teachers in in it together. So, it's really awesome to be honest with you and it and it almost makes me feel better to go in and hear all them talking about the work and you know, and we know that they're getting it. inform professional development for teacher standards. I mean, we really have a rich professional development right now that's being run by obviously Jen and Kristen. They're working very hard to make sure that uh teachers are receiving the the uh the PD that they need and really differentiating it. Uh we also are meeting with our extracurricular teachers to go over their goals to make sure that they're ready to go as well as meeting with our reading and math specialists to go over uh their
024goals. And um and that's been amazing too to just see how much we've added to our repertoire, so to speak, when it comes to interventions. All right. And this slide basically um one of the biggest things is about these PLC's that I would just bring up. It's not like they were just thrown in a room and said go at it because one of the things I've learned over time is that when you're putting a group of people together, you need to have some norms and you need to make sure that everybody feels valued. So those norms are put in place to start the year and when you walk in, you can really see that they that they're doing it. So that's been amazing. Our teacher leaders are excellent and they continue to do a good
025job. Multi-tered systems of support. The biggest thing I'd like to say here is that we have a common master schedule. And that means that RTI blocks are embedded within their schedule. And that doesn't seem like a big deal, but it really is. It allows the reading and math to know when these blocks are. We're also doing it all the same in all the buildings because while we do have autonomy to do things we want when we're dealing with structures and processes, we should be similar. So, we really are tight uh this year. And then you've got your RTI triangulation meetings. Like I said, the system is really working well this year. It's always about refining. It's always about reaching the the students that need the most help, which excites me to show the next slide.
026And we really wanted to try to provide some data and this is really pretty neat. So at the start of the 2022 23 we had what we 318 students that were identified at high risks. All right. This year we're down to 198. And I mean that is that tells me right there that we're we're staying the course. We're not jumping around to this implementation that implementation. You're never going to get deep unless you stay with it. And that's that's what I that's what I see up there. So, I was excited to to take a look at that data. >> Good evening. >> Baron just recently talked about multi-tered systems of support and so I'd like to bring to your attention a graphic that's up on the screen here which is in relation to multi-tered systems
027of support but also focuses on our RTI framework. and they go they work tandem hand in hand and in your folder there is a copy of the graphic on the lefth hand side so if you'd like to take that out right now I'm going to just outline and highlight some key points of that give you a minute this graphic here as you can see outlines the six pillars of literacy and how it looks in our district and the importance of it is that in December of 2024 the New New York State Department of Education released a brief lit some literacy briefs which turned out to be instructional an instructional best practice guide for educators to look at to begin to review what we have to offer as a district in terms of literacy. And it
028focused on these six pillars in front of you here. You can see oral language, phmic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. It used to be five pillars and with this new initiative with nice NICE I say or New York State Department of Education um they added oral language. They saw deficits there and so that's the sixth pillar and that was one of the major shifts um going from five to six but it also required us as a district to as I said review what we had to offer what our curricular tools were and make sure that they're evidence-based and aligned to the new NextGen standards. And so prior to my arrival in the spring, Jen did some heavy lifting with teams of teachers and they looked at each pillar and what we had to offer
029as a district and to see if it was aligning with what is expected of us right now. And so when I came on board, we looked together and worked as a team and we took the list that was developed in the spring and developed a graphic here just so that all buildings since we have four elementary schools would be on the same page and understand what's expected of us and what do we have to offer? What's our menu of choices for oral language, phmic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. You'll also see under each pillar uh it might say in parentheses tier 2 and as the mentioned we have multi-tered systems of support but within that is RTI response to intervention. So when a child after a screener which is given three times a year
030if they're identified as needing an an extra layer of support that would be tier 2. And so we've noted in our document in our graphic here which interventions would be specific for that layer of support. everything else if it's not identified as tier 2 would be considered tier one and that's just regular differentiated core instruction that all students are entitled to. So I'll give you a moment to just look at those different programs. It was a very thoughtful process by both our K2 team and our 35 grade level team to make sure that we're aligned. Does anyone have any questions about some of the programs that are listed there? Before I go on off to the side of my slide, but it's not on your graphic, I just want to outline what came of those
031very rich conversations that, as I said, took place prior to my arrival, but our K2 team realized that we'll just stay the course. Our current resources are working for us. There are some minor tweaking that needed needed to be done based on as I said the new pillar a world language and uh some of the other areas listed there uh but what they had already is working so we are sticking with that curriculum and then 3 through five because they had an older copyright date which I believe was 2018 uh they realized that it's time let's look at some other programs so they are currently piloting mossflower and benchmark advance and that's happening right now and And then in January, we'll come to a decision on what would best meet the needs of our students
032in grades 3 through 5. So that's what that graphic is. As I said, the the reason for it is to make sure that all four buildings understand what's offered, what's evidence-based, and what we expect our teachers to be employing in the classroom for our students to best meet their needs. And oh, I'm sorry. I'm next, too. I thought we were jumping a bunch. So, we have our ELA proficiency data. So leading us to the next step here we have all of our data from the last three years 2023, 2024 and 2025. You can see here, if you will follow along with me, if you look at grade three, the black bar, that's 2023. That same cohort of children as fourth graders went from 35% proficiency, that means they received a three or four on the
033night on the New York State ELA assessment to 44% proficiency. And then that same cohort from grade four to grade five increased to 61% proficiency, which is pretty remarkable. It also shows us that any interventions we put into place with multi-tered systems of support and RTI which I just highlighted are working because any of those children that may have been falling below the benchmark expectation, we are doing something through that process to increase and close that gap. It's also important for you to notice that our regions data regardless of looking at let's say third grade in 2023 35% proficiency but when our students eventually leave high school we are meeting them or they are meeting the expectation overall our region data is excellent um in my opinion from looking at different area uh surrounding high
034schools they are leaving at 87% proficient last this past year. So I think that's important to highlight is that regardless we are leaving with a large population of readers that are ready for co college and career. The next slide and my last slide to highlight for you in terms of ELA is just comparing us to the region. So we are cons we are the red there indicated by the key of course and then as you go down the list we have Orleans Niagara Boseis Winnywick the region and New York state as the sample size gets larger we continue to exceed and so I think the remarkable thing to take away from this graph is that overall we are outperforming even as that size gets larger where some districts may not We stayed quite true and
035strong in our proficiency rate. You'll notice I just want to highlight New York State is missing from the regions on this graph because it hasn't been released yet. It's supposed to come out this month. Any questions? Thank you. Good evening. I'm going to start by looking at the math data. Um, thank you Kristen for sharing the ELA, but these graphs are similar to the ELA. So on the left hand um the one axis is the percent of students that are proficient and as you go across you can see grades three, grade four, grade five. 2023 is an interesting year because that was our last year that we actually took the math assessment on paper and we transitioned. The red is our transition to taking computer-based testing. And as you can see, our math scores took
036a little dip when we did that transition because you're going to think about math is a little bit harder to take on a computer than ELA is because the students are getting questions, they have to go take their scrap paper, write on their scrap paper, and then they have to show their work. So, think about if you're writing down a long division problem, how would you go and translate that to showing your work on a computer? Okay. So, there's a lot of training that you have to do with kids on how to do this. And for third graders, it's very hard then to go and transfer that work in there. But, as you can see, our second year of doing it, our math scores did rebound and they're at the level that they were prior
037to the requirement from New York State in the most cases um for computer-based testing. So looking at the next slide, we'll show our math scores compared to the region. And like ELA, our math scores are very good compared to the region. Our math scores usually are very good compared to the region. And the celebration of the ELA that we've just seen was that really great growth that we had and the fact that we are now really above the state level in fourth and fifth grade now for the very first time that we haven't been. But typically in New York State we are um very strong in the math. So if you look um the red bar is Niagara Wheatfield. And just to explain a little bit, Owen and Boseies are the area the schools that
038are the component districts in from Niagara County and from Orleans as well. So there's 13 school districts that that encompasses. So you can look and that's represented by the black bar. So you can see in all cases in some cases we're almost 20 percentage points um higher than the region um which is really exciting to see in our math. Our math has always been very strong. Winny Rick is then if you would think of that those are all the component Boseies districts. It's OM Boseies it's Eerie 1 Boseies Erie 2 CAD Alagany. So if you almost think of just like going down from here to the Pennsylvania state border that's what those schools encompasses. So when you see that, that's that darker gray line on there. And you can see again, we're still very strong
039um compared to that region, sorry, to Winnick. Then the region is if you would go over to between Rochester and Syracuse and drop a line to the state border and you can still see that we're doing really well compared to the region. And then New York State is all of New York State. And you can see in this year we did really strong as well compared to New York State. All right. So, this is the slide that we Kristen and I kept going back and forth going, where does this actually belong? because it just seems kind of random to put this up here, but we put it up and decided to put it under goal number two because really when we look at our kids who are in our program right now, we can see
040our second graders and see what they're doing. And we know we can compare the second graders who were in our Buddy Bunch program to our second graders who either attended a different prek or no prek at all. And we can see that our students, we've only tracked them up until second grade because we've had the ability to do that, but are performing better academically, the ones who have our ones who have attended our program. So enrollment in our Bunny Bunch program is key to some of that academic success that we're seeing for kids. And so we want to increase enrollment. So this is a big celebration here because last year we had 105 students enrolled in Muddy Munch and this year we had 139 or we have 139 and at one point in time we
041had so many kids coming in at the end that we had to temporarily put a little waiting list on where Theren and I and Dan were trying to figure out like where are we going to put these kids because we know how important it is. We didn't want to turn it turn anyone away. And if we had known back in March that we were going to have 140 kids, Bunny Bunch would have been able to adjust that. But just finding out two weeks before school that 13 new kids had showed up. Um it was it was kind of fun. Um but we wound up being able to place all of them. Um, so there are 139 pro kids in the program this year and that's really exciting and we can't wait to see um how
042that impacts our results to even better heights. >> Jen said fun. It's because she appreciates plans A, B, and C like I do and you know I think we got a D cases. So nice job. >> Yeah, we did get the D but I do enjoy it too. Um, so the other thing that we wanted to talk about under the academic goal is technology because as I just talked about the CBT test, um, that's important for kids to be able to navigate technology in order to do well on that assessment. But beyond that assessment, having students, um, technology is a leveler. It allows kids uh, to have work presented to them in a way that's accessible for them. It's also a way to present information to students in a way that's really engaging. So, it's
043very important that we have meaningful technology experiences for our students. And in our last three-year tech plan, one of the things that was strongly recommended by the committee at the time was that we had a technology integrator, a full-time permanent technology integrator. So last year um we were able created that position for us and I know it's um November so thank you all for doing that. Um very much appreciate that. Um and it's been phenomenal. Mike Johnson was the one who applied for the position and if anyone knows Mike Johnson um it would be expected that he's doing a really amazing job and he is um because that's the kind of person he is. Um, and Jessica and Kristen and I go around to schools and visit schools regularly and whenever we're in an elementary
044school completely unsolicited, someone comes up to us and says, "Mike Johnson is amazing." Um, so he's been doing really great and I talked to him and he is three months completely booked up full right out from today. So his calendar is completely full because people are taking advantage of him. So, I'm not going to read all that, but some of the things that Mike has been doing is he goes into classrooms and he models the technology because one of the things that we found out, and we still discuss this in our tech meetings, is that we have a lot of products that people can use, but sometimes they're not sure of how to use it. So, Mike will go in, he'll either work side by side for the teacher or he'll say, "I can do
045this lesson. You watch me do it so that they can actually um use the different technologies." And one of the things that was great was we were just recently in all four buildings and we went into kindergarten classrooms in all three of them or in three of them. Didn't go in the fourth one, but they were all using technology already in every single room that we walked into. Kindergarteners were on the computer in some sort of way. And that is a huge change because a couple years ago, they would say, "Oh, you know, in kindergarten they're too little. We can't get them on until like February. Then we'll start using some of the technology." But here it is November already and Mike has been in classrooms working with them and they're already using it. So
046that's really amazing. Mike also will provide training on our superintendent conference days and he also works with teachers um like just at TV he went in with a group of fifth grade teachers who were working on trying to say how can we create a spiral so that we can work on some of the math that we've noticed in PLC that our students need to work on. So, he's been doing a great job, but technology is really important to accelerate student learning. >> Before you start, I just like to say something. I'm on that the tech meeting committee and I've met Mike and he's he really seems to have a best of what we need to do to go forward. So, I think we're definitely going in the right direction with that. I I I really
047see things really moving forward with the way you guys have put things together. Appreciate it. The last that we have this evening is the district will continue to increase community engagement and strengthen partnerships. And all all of our buildings in the elementary have really grown this year with um looking at student attendance and interventions and re-engagement to making sure that we're supporting our families and making our students, you know, come to school and feel supported and be present. Um this year we started something new inhouse system. Um, every student K through five has an every student every day newsletter that is sent home to parents um, just to reinforce the importance of being in school and what that means. Um, our buildings have also started uh, attendance teams where we're working with our counselors and
048our support systems to review student attendance data to make sure that they're coming regularly and if they're not, what are the roadblocks? You know, identifying, you know, the patterns. If it's chronic illness, how can we support these families? um whether it be through phone calls, um home visits, uh supports through Carrick Kirk and any other agencies that need to be, you know, supported through the family. Um we're providing families with strategies and resources, you know, within the schools and outside community supports to get the ensure the students are coming to school. Um, I can tell you that we've had a couple students in my building alone that they had some issues last year with and the parents are so receptive to the supports that they're getting that they're excited to see their kid want to
049come to school. So, it's definitely making an impact in our our families. The next slide, it talks about our uh family and community engagement that we're doing throughout our buildings. It's amazing to be new and see all of these exciting things that we're doing. Um, Eric Road and CV are doing virtual parent group meetings. Um, we have PTA committees and we do them monthly. Um, ours is continuing to grow. Eric Road also has Boseies that also supports the parent group. So, they're joining the parent group committee which is amazing to see that grow. Um, we have some parent inerson parent group meetings at Tuscore and Rest Street which is a great opportunity for them to come in. Um we did a half day kindergarten orientation for the students and parents and it was recepted great
050received from the parents. Um it was great for them to come into the building for the kids to see the teachers to see the rooms that they're going into to feel that safe space with the you know for the next day when they came in for a full day. So it was good for the parents to get to see the rooms meet their teachers meet some other students in their classrooms and then as well as you know have that opportunity to you know have a half day with us. Um we've done open houses in all of our buildings. We have engaged parents and partners with volunteers in the classrooms. Uh parents will come in and do projects with the students, the teachers that set up it. It's great to see them in there and you
051know support each classroom. We have parent teacher conferences. We offer inperson and virtual so that parents have that flexibility whichever is best for them. Um we've done trunk or treats in all of our building and they were enormous this year in in our buildings. It was great to see. Uh we do turkey trot over at CV. Eric Row does a glow run and West Street does a fitness challenge. Um we have band and chorus concerts. We're integrating the high school coming over with their course concert for the holidays to um sing to the students in the Eric Road and and West Street um CV. So that's exciting to see that happen. Um that's new this year. We're having intervention conventions over at CV and West Street. We have history comes alive in May and June
052every year at Airro. Uh we have culture night at Tusk. Um the elders day also at Tusk which is unbelievable to see and see the community come in. Uh field day for Eric Road CV and West Street. Um and then the shooter nights over at C uh excuse me Tusura. So we are growing and it's great to be a part of >> any questions. So does anybody have any questions? Thank you all for >> I don't have a question but uh for this presentation and uh and you see the numbers they're they're going up going up going up and that's a a tribute to what everything news are doing in the staff and the teachers and uh we commend you for that but is there anything in particular I mean is it um daycare or
053the the 5year-olds that are causing this to go up, us reacting with them sooner. Uh not to take anything away from what the teachers and news are doing. I I'm just asking just you have a thought on that. >> I think it's a combination of things. I think as the talked about the um we're able to identify kids who are struggling um and we have a lot more interventions we've been working uh over the years to try and make sure that we have that menu that if we know a student is struggling in this we can do this intervention or if they're struggling here we can do this. We've invested a lot of training in Orton Gillingham for a lot of our reading specialists and so they're trained in that. Um we have um just
054I think been looking at our tier our tiered interventions um I think our teachers with the PLC last year was absolutely amazing and I think that that's a lot to do with our ELA results that took that huge jump last year because they were working and they went through and looked and saw okay these standards as a PLC they looked at and said these is this is where our kids are struggling in and then they went and they made units or they made lessons specifically to address those things. So I think the PLC is driving it a little bit the whole coming together of making sure that we're on the same page with curriculum and then I think our RTI that we have is very rich. So does anybody else want to add on to
055that all? I think our child study team is unbelievable to be able to experience that firsthand this year. And just to see all the different um interventions and people that work together to make sure that we're supporting the students, whether it be social, emotional, or academic to help close those gaps is really been wonderful to watch. and just get those interventions into place earlier so that we could make sure that we're hitting all the components that we need to make sure that that student grows continues to grow is really been amazing to watch and to be able to put into the buildings for all of our kids. So, >> Thank you. And I commend all of this what butchers are doing. If I could just say one thing, you know, um that the the group
056in front of you do an incredible job of passing on a lot of the credit, rightfully so, but the work that they do all the time. I get the chance to work with them at instructional leadership team meetings, district leadership team meetings, they are so committed to what's best for kids all the time. Um they're are um true professionals and it's really great to be able to work with them. Uh and and I know that um reflects then with their teachers who you know Jen was talking a little bit about the different interventions. One of the things that's really amazing to me is that when we do roll things out when they do professional development with their teachers that that they embrace it. They want to pick it apart. They want to make sure that
057they find what's really going to be best for kids and then make sure that we focus on those things. So, thank you. >> Thank you all. Appreciate your presentation and all the hard work you guys put in. >> Make some cookies. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. Uh, moving on to our residents comments. Uh we have Susan Taylor Moroni signed up. Go ahead and please keep about two minutes. Appreciate Good evening. I sent an email concerning this topic to you today. I'm requesting that Niagara Refield host a screening for its students for the documentary Common Ground. Right now, Common Ground is offering free screenings for educators. Here is a synopsis from their website describing this film. Common ground is a highly anticipated sequel to the juggernaut success documentary Kiss the Ground, which touched over 1 billion
058people globally and inspired the United States Department of Agriculture to put 20 billion towards soil health. By fusing journalistic expose with deeply personal stories from those on the front lines of the food movement, common ground unveils a dark web of money, power, and politics behind our broken food system. The film reveals how unjust practices forged our current farm system in which farmers of all colors are literally dying to feed us. The film profiles the hopeful and uplifting movement of white, black, and indigenous farmers who are using alternative regenerative models of agriculture that could balance the climate, save our health, and stabilize America's economy before it's too late. What is regenerative agriculture? As described on Joel Thin of Polyface website, the philosophy centers on working with natural systems rather than against them, emphasizing the restoration and
059health of the soil as the foundation for sustainable food production. The core principles of Salatin's regenerative farming include controlled grazing, which mimics natural animal behavior to naturally fertilize and irrate the soil, composting to rebuild soil health, and multiecies farming where different animals contribute to ecosystem balance in symbiotic ways. Salatin emphasizes that regenerative farming is not about maximizing yield, but about leaving the land better than when it was found, building soil organic matter, increasing water retention, and promoting ecological resilience. We as humans are not separate from nature. The soil of our bodies determines our health or lack thereof. The further we stray from nature, the worse off we will be. This idea applies to soil health and it is intricately woven into our own microbiome health as well as ethically raising animals without any unnatural inputs
060for all animals. Understanding this will enable us to apply the same concept for our own well-being. something sorely needed in our current era of increasing chronic disease and the increasing cost of caring for those chronic diseases. Even at the school level with increased staff needs, common ground is about an hour and 42 minutes long. At first, it seems gloomy, but at about the hour mark, it gets really hopeful. There is another film attached in the email called the biggest little farm about a regenerative farm in California. All are very powerful and very hopeful. One will leave excited and with a smile on. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to our consensus agenda items. Um call for motion to accept those items numbers one through seven as presented. So we'll second >> then moved
061and seconded. All those in favor please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Moving on to our personnel items. I call for a motion to approve personnel items 1 through 22 as presented. >> Make a motion. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppos. >> Jason 23. Oh, 23. >> Oh, I got 22 on my on my home. >> Okay. >> Mine must maybe is updated. I don't know. Mine says 23 >> on. Um, >> so just number 22. >> You got a chrome? >> Yeah. >> Uh, call for a motion to accept number 23 on that as well. >> So, second move and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Abstain. Motion carries. Moving on to reports from our
062standing committees. anything from capital? >> Uh yeah, as far as our auditorium, it looks like we're getting pretty close to finalizing closing it in and then we start to work on the uh interior getting that all finished up. Uh we also received our first playground at Eric Road. So that'll be that'll be the one that's going in right now. And then as as weather permitting, we're they're hoping to try to get it all done before winter, but that's all comes down to weather permitting. So >> So and just just to just to clarify and Eric, the the materials have been dropped off, some have been dropped off, the rest will be dropped off uh by week's end, and the it should be um they should start construction next week. >> All right. Very good. See
063>> now external communications. Uh moving to our executive seno report. >> Two things. Um so last week or earlier this week we had five athletes commit to some college teams and I will name them right now. Colin Stephanucci Brendan Sheldon Maris Wy Tyl and Emtt Hurley. They have all done excellent in our athletic department. Some in softball, baseball. full of great sports and I have to say congratulations to them and I hope that they have a great time with their sports and their future endeavors. Um, second, tomorrow we have a Thanksgiving celebration where we will have lots of food and there will be lots of fun. I promise. So, please attend if you can. It will be so worth your while and it'll bring the community together because this is a districtwide event this month.
064So, thank you. >> What's that called or what is that? Um, it's we're, you know, it's just a thing. We're having a Thanksgiving dinner. It's at the high school in the cafeteria >> from 5 to 7. Correct. >> Yes. >> Well, that's nice. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, I have nothing for president's report. Moving to our superintendent. >> I actually think um I've either myself or someone's covered everything that I had on my list. So, >> so, so we're good. Although I I must I will say this. Um, do you play spoons? >> I do. >> I'm bringing them tomorrow. So, bring bring your hands. >> I'm ready. >> Be ready. >> All right. Spoons it is. >> Uh, no reports to the board. Any items for board discussion tonight? old business, new business.
065>> Just the one thing um FA fantastic report with everything and numbers that's there. One thing I was on before still elementary STEM program, you know, looking to see that part as being up there also. So throwing it at you. >> You do. I have the data now for uh what the for the improved attendance uh for having a data validated STEM program in the primary buildings. >> So any see it we can share with >> I would I would love for you to share. >> Yeah. Good. Thanks. Any other public comments? Any board member comments tonight? >> Oh yeah. I just like to thank you. It was a great presentation and by all the numbers and everything else we are definitely heading in the right direction. I appreciate everything you're doing for us. Thank
066you. >> Okay. Well, call for a motion to resume. >> So moved. >> Moved and seconded. All those in favor please say I. >> I. Motion carries. Thank you everyone. Think of the session most.