001[clears throat] sure everybody's microphone worked and mine's on. Good evening everyone. Thank you for attending. Okay, we need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of 1028 2025. Patty, Anthony, all those in favor. Okay, that's everyone. Okay. Good evening, neighbors, friends, and families of West Babylon. On behalf of the board of education, I would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the Dilemma family for the loss of their son, Liam. They will remain in our thoughts and prayers, and I'm sure the same is true for our entire community. We also want to thank the school district staff for once again providing muchneeded support to the students, their families, and all those who need it as we navigate this difficult time. Once again, it saddens us to think how the
002community and school district's response to such a tragedy has become all too familiar. It has become what feels like a routine response rather than an infrequent exercise of preparedness. Days such as these remind us of the past tragedies and how fragile we all are. And during these times, we may also find a moment to reflect on how important we all are to each other. Yet, as we take stock of the loved ones around us and mourn our loss, in the spirit of what this community has shown, may we find comfort from those around us when we are in need and also extend it to those who need it most. >> Good evening everyone. [clears throat] Uh no way. No kind of easy transition from there. Uh so we'll jump right uh to it. Uh this
003week uh we celebrate school psychologists. Uh it is school psychologist recognition week. We are fortunate to have a team of phenomenal psychologists who dedicate countless hours to supporting our students and their families. Their expertise, their compassion, and their commitment make a tremendous difference in the lives of those they serve every day. When you see our psychologists this week, please join me in thanking them for their hard work, their service, and their support of others. On Monday and yesterday, um our students, staff, families, and neighbors um came together at or at home or at different events to honor and thank the men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces. Veterans Day is not simply another date on the calendar. It's a day of reflection, appreciation, and unity. We celebrate Veterans Day because
004we understand that the freedoms and opportunities that we enjoy each day are not by chance. They exist because of the courage, dedication, and selflessness of those who have served. Whether in times of war or peace, at home or abroad, our veterans have shown an unwavering commitment to something much greater than themselves. Here in WB in West Babylon, Veterans Day also serves as a meaningful opportunity to teach not only about history but gratitude, right? The simple yet powerful acts of saying thank you. Across our schools, our teachers and our students and administrators found special ways to express their appreciation. Some classrooms invited veterans to receive pins and certificates. Some invited [snorts] them for breakfast. Um, others created drawings, letters, or poems in their honor. Several schools hosted buildingwide assemblies to recognize and celebrate our veterans. While
005district-wide, our PTA sponsored a contest encouraging students to reflect on what it means to honor our heroes. Our board of education and PTA will proudly recognize the winners of this contest at our next board meeting. So to all of our veterans uh throughout our community, please know that your service and sacrifice have left a lasting imp lasting imprint on our hearts and within our community. And we thank you for your courage, your leadership, and your example. And uh to close my remarks for this evening, I would like to express my sincere and heartfelt gratitude on behalf of the entire West Babylon school district, in particular the West Babylon Senior High School for the outpouring of support shown to our senior high school community. As we all know, as uh Mr. Po shared last week, our
006community experienced a profound loss. During that difficult time, the compassion and the unity displayed by so many made a tremendous difference. Whether it was sending a card, a letter, providing food or snacks, sharing a note of encouragement, or seem simply reaching out to check in, every act of kindness mattered. Thank you to our board of education um and other community groups. I mean, Panera, right? Our PTAs, the WBTA leadership, the administrators association, countless parents, Joe's Italian market, Eric's Italian Beastro, the Rosenberger family, and so many others. Your generosity and your care reminded us of the true strength of WB, a community that stands together, lifts one another up, and leads with empathy and heart. Thank you again for standing with us. And at this time, I would like to ask that we all please rise
007for a moment of silence in memory of Liam. Thank you. Please be seated. >> [snorts] >> Good evening everyone. I apologize in advance. I'm not okay good at talking [snorts] when I'm emotional. Um this week I decided to take a pause on visiting [snorts] schools um to focus on what's important right now in the high school. As a student body we're devastated by the loss of our classmate who is a friend to many Liam. [snorts] We appreciate the district's efforts to bring us comfort by bringing in social workers and having a day of support. [snorts] It is important to us that this grief and the need for support is not forgotten. We have been through a lot in the past couple of years and there would have been no way through these hard times without
008the community we have here in West Babylon. Especially the teachers, [snorts] the amazing teachers at the high school go above and beyond to show their students love and support [snorts] always, but especially during times like these that we've seen all too many times. >> [snorts] >> We must not forget the losses we have faced and we must move forward stronger both individually and as a West Babylon community. [snorts] [snorts] [clears throat] >> Okay. All right. Um Okay. Um, I would like to um invite Mr. Olirri um up to the uh podium first. Um, I'd like to take a moment to recognize uh truly remarkable examples of character, sportsmanship, and compassion within our student body. uh during I'll share a recent race and again my colleagues will share more details but several of our student athletes
009went above and beyond above and beyond right for their fellow runner rather than focusing solely on their performance uh or themselves and demonstrated empathy teamwork strength heart character and the values that again we want all of our students to have. They naturally displayed that with courage. These [snorts] actions remind us that true success isn't always measured by medals or finish times, but by integrity, by character, and by kindness. So, at this point, I would like to invite our team up to the podium. Mr. Olirri, you can kick us off and then uh introduce the rest of our leaders and speak on behalf of our students. >> Everything that I was, >> you know, coach and coach the story much better. Just personally, I I find it incredibly impressive when individuals, especially young men, do not
010passively wait for others to make decisions that they lead in what is definitely a high stress environment. So with that, there Thank you to the board for letting us season forward Concussion stopping brace. 82. future. True spirit. >> [applause] [applause] >> You got to take that. coach pointed out a lot of details of course work as a team boys and girls and working together I'll give you what we said our first meeting of the season not going to sing his So I will hands that effort situation. not become any worse. I'm fully convinced that if we have written this plan down their passion who are values in a world where we hear like this small place. It's my hope that young gentlemen continue to use that spirit to guide them through their life. tonight. We
011really appreciate you all. [applause] Daniel, take a picture. All right, come on up here. While we're doing that and again, I do wonderond the skills right across country that you know how much anyone has been any of the award ceremonies the largest teams the room is track let's show those All right, another round of applause. [applause] By the way, how many years? N years. >> We have been issuing it to staff members, faculty members, right? Above and beyond. This is the first >> [applause] >> All right. So, um, we are going to pivot to our presentation for tonight. I'm going to invite Mr. Payne up to the, uh, podium to walk us through our 2025 assessment results. As a reminder, every year we present [laughter] >> Yes, you are welcome to Okay, if you want
012to excuse me, >> there's a [laughter] there's a vacuum. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. This is very typical of my presentations where everyone leaves. So, it's it's all good. [laughter] Uh, as Dr. Farley had mentioned, each year we have to present the obviously all of the state test scores. we try to go a little bit in depth and give a little more information knowing how valuable all of our time is, but how important this is for the district. So, I will do so now. I don't have a clicker, but my trusty assistant in the back uh will go through. I'm going to start off uh with the high school with the June regent results. And of course, uh we can hit it. I'll contradict myself and do
013January because for the ELA, those of you that remember, we give the ELA uh regions exam for all of our 11th grade students in January. So they have an opportunity in June to take it again for those few students that need to. So these are our rates. We go back uh about eight years so that you can see a comparison. And I always remind people, you know, that essay at the bottom was that special appeal time during COVID. So there were allowances for students that didn't pass the regions to still get credit. So you'll see those numbers up there for several more years. They're no longer obviously applicable. So when you see them up there, you can just ignore them. Uh this year, same same results. Statistically, I didn't put percentages. I'm decimals up there
014in the percentage, but it was within a few ten of a percent different in our results for the English passing rates. Social studies, similarly, uh it looks like I didn't do any work at all and just copy the same numbers, but they were the same for global. Uh and then US, we saw a bit of a dip. Uh we'll see this from time to time. Generally, what we look for is trends um going from 84, 90, 81. Um so that's what we kind of keep in mind. Now, mastery for the uh for any of the regent exams is 85 or better. And for those of you that are familiar with the regions exams, you know that an 85 is not an easy score to get on a regent because while they're scaled, those upper level
015questions where the 85 and above points are really awarded are much more difficult to get. It's not just the difference between maybe getting an 81 and an 86, it really takes quite a bit to get. So, we always like to present uh to the board of education and the community our mastery results. Uh you'll see English, global, and US. Obviously, the results I just went through on passing and you'll see the mastery results over there in 2025. We can hit it. Uh this is the science region's passing rate. So we do obviously like every other school offer many science classes, living environment, uh chemistry, physics, and then earth science is given not just at the high school but at the junior high school. For those of you that are aware of course with our accelerated
016program, we do eighth grade um earth science but also nth grade. Then for students that don't take it in eighth grade. So you'll see earth science obviously broken up into two categories. One is the senior high school and the junior high school. Uh 72, 62, 100, 62 and 76. you'll see some fluctuations there. I mean, overall, um, there's some gains there or some, you know, some steady pieces. Uh, but it does fluctuate from year to year. And to really follow this along, we try to look for cohorts, right? Cohorts of kids that kind of move from grade to grade, um, rather than each new grade coming in and taking the exam. This is the mastery results. Again, 85 or better, living environment, uh, earth science, both at the junior high school and senior high school,
017uh, chemistry and physics. Math classes, same exact scenario. We're looking at the passing trends. Algebra at the senior high school was low this year. And you could see even tracking back from years. It's lower than usual. Uh we're still looking at that and and trying to ascertain exactly why it might have been statistically two digits lower in this case almost 20%. Um junior high school remain the same. Uh geometry did go up. So you know kind of following that piece and algebra 2 um about 84%. mastery in math. Uh again, because most of your accelerated students take algebra at the junior high school in eighth grade, you're not going to we don't generally see a high mastery rate at the senior high school for algebra. So, you'll see the 2% there. Uh 60% almost at
018the junior high school. Geometry singledigit and algebra 2 uh 13% for mastery. and the flax exams going through um these are the exams uh that are given for the foreign language 59% for Italian and 78% at Spanish. These are our IP results and I know this is difficult to see but the the bottom line this is a chart that talks about for your AP exams levels 1 2 3 4 and five. Anything above you'll see in a moment level three uh it generally starts to be accepted as college credits dependent on the school and dependent on the programs. So we want many kids taking this exam, but we also want our kids getting above a level three, a level four, and a level five is extraordinarily difficult to get. So you'll see quickly there from
019year to year, uh, the high school is doing a phenomenal job, uh, at not only getting kids to take these exams, but an increased percentage of kids getting level three, which or above, which you'll see in just a moment. Uh, so there's that that level three like I was talking about in that light blue area, the number of kids taking uh, those particular exams. um and the number of kids getting level three, level four or level five. And that last one, level three or above is that level of proficiency for each of the AP exams. So going through each of the years, um we could see that we've been slowly increasing. We'll hit the slide. Um [snorts] and then gives you 220 225. You'll see the graph 76% from around 70 is that I know
020you can't read it, but that's the graph there. and the number of kids taking the uh test itself is on the bottom. Increased number of students. So that's our high school program with a tiny bit of junior high school built in for those accelerated classes. Now I'll do the 38 assessment results. This is the English and math exams for grades 3 through 8. We're going to start on the elementary level and each year we give you this data. U obviously we're still including Forest Avenue because this is last year's results, right? We're always a year behind when it comes to the assessment data. Next year this will be a little shorter. Um but in the light blue there like we do each year we have the district average. All of our district averages I think
021in almost in every single exam has gone up um as a district average in general. The distribution of exams you'll see has changed but I have included the 2024 results so the board of ed could see that along with the top left which is the 2025 results which is what we're talking about right now. And for those you don't remember this is another great acronym TTT anyone remember? stands for total taking the test. The state of New York and and we've been very closely monitoring this would expect 95% of our kids to take the test for every exam. We are not there yet, but I am very proud to say that we have slowly been increasing each year. I think on average this year we're close to 60 some odd percent taking the test. Years
022ago, for those of you that remember, it was well well below 50%. Um I would say even in the 30s in some places. So, we're slowly uh changing that. Uh actually, if you can go back, I'm sorry. So, uh this is the ELA grade three. Um you'll see the distribution uh South Bay, uh Santa Pog, JFK, the district average, Tucker Forest, and those uh numbers to the to the right there. Um 2025, level three and four, similar to like when I was talking about the AP exam, we're at level three, level four, level five is considered proficient. On the New York State assessments for grades three through eight, level three and four are considered proficient. So there's four levels, one, two, three, and four. One and two are not proficient. Three and four are. So
023these are our percentages as a district of proficiency in each of the building for ELA grade three. Similar slide, grade four. Uh right, unless if you didn't notice, you'd think it was the same one. Pretty close. Um similar distribution, district average, last year's district average, and then this year's uh about 10% difference. and then the distribute distribution of uh students in each of the buildings. Grade five uh for the obviously for the K5, this is the last ELA exam they'll take before they go to the junior high school. Uh another significant jump in the average of the district. Um and then the distributions are played out there. We switched to math. Exactly the same scenario. Grades three, four, and five. Uh you'll see a slight increase in the district average from year to year and
024distribution of schools was a little different on this exam. um as far as the last year to this year the different schools and again if we want to look at this data uh and and we generally uh it gets caught up but you really want to look at cohorts of kids so the third grade going to the fourth grade going to the fifth grade you want to kind of do a di a diagonal look at how they're doing this is helpful it gives us a snapshot of what's going on but to really delve into it um we want to kind of track kids as they go up in grades grade four similar piece you'll see a slight increase a distribution of schools uh add proficiency and then grade five. Uh again, you'll see a a
025similar increase as a district and then you'll see um the distribution. Okay, so now we're going to I keep forgetting every time I raise my hand this. Don't do it. The slide changes so I got to be careful. Um all right, so now we'll go to the junior high school. Uh it's it's easier to project the junior high school, right? That all of the kids in the district are in these grades. So we kind of give you more grades like we do for the high school. So you can go back to 202021 and see our performance in each of these exams. These are obviously all the ELA exams in grades six, seven and eight. Um so you can go down and see some changes, some nice progressions in grade six. Uh grade seven ELA a
026little bit higher. Um and grade eight ELA some significant changes as you go through those numbers. And I'll come back to these but I'll switch. Um similarly for math uh you'll see grade six tiny increase a little dip in grade seven but they were already pretty good. Um and grade 8 math is always an interesting one. If you're looking at that total taking the test you'll notice of course those grade age numbers each year I tell you the number is much lower because of our accelerated program students they do not have to take the grade 8 assessment. So the eighth the eighth grade test is kind of hard to quantify because there's so few kids taking compared to the other grades and our science test. So, we do uh fifth and eighth. I I put
027these all together because this is a singular test in each of the elementary buildings and then one test at the junior high school. They changed the grade um from fourth to fifth grade a few years ago, but essentially it's a similar test. So, it's really a reflection of the entire buildings. So, I put them all together and you could see our average there about 50% at proficiency and then the buildings that are above and the buildings that are below. And that's it. Any any qu any questions? >> Um yeah, just of course when you look when you looked at the trends with the regent exams, >> right? >> You said you had to look further as to why there was those >> that one algebra. I think the algebra was a big one. >> Yeah.
028But so if you're looking at a cohort and and you're following a cohort, what is it like? I guess um how do you react to the trends you're seeing? If the cohort's moving, how do you know that the changes you make at the level they were at are going to positively impact the co cohort coming in? >> You don't. I mean, I'll be honest with you. You can take make guesses and you know, it's like betting on a horse race. You're going to try to follow trends and do the best you can. If you see there's areas of deficiency and you know that that group has experienced weaknesses in, let's say, computation of fractions, you can hope that that'll show up and and those corresponding skills will, but you're still taking a chance. Um so
029you do your best you can just to cover the curriculum and prepare the students for the entire curriculum as opposed to kind of fine-tuning it for that particular cohort. >> Now in in reference to the um the state assessments we I think at one point we had like a 70% opt out rate. Obviously we have less people opting out. How is that impacting the results of those? >> So that's a tricky one too because it depends on which kids are opting out. Uh so the more kids that take it we know then less kids are opting out. But when 30% were taking it, if if for argument sake, I'm just throwing it out there, all of your high performers opted out, you would see a huge difference, right? Because so few kids are taking it.
030Now, with more kids taking it, we really don't get in and say who isn't, but I I feel we're getting more reliable data with the more kids that take it. So, I'm going to just answer you generically. When you have 60% of the kids taking it, you're saying the 40 that didn't probably are reflected in the entire population. When you have 70% that don't take it, there is a potential there for a concentration in one particular area, >> right? and you're making decisions based off of a smaller group of which I which I get I guess in the end result I'm just it's a lot of work and tracking and numbers and we're following trends but the trend doesn't exist in the future you know you're you can and for every deviation in when a
031test is given even I think if you go to the state website it'll say you know disregard everything >> prior to this year because some like how how are we making or how are we reacting to any of this >> the real value in in this is the individual ual student performance, which we're able to drill down to on a building level, and sometimes the individual teacher performance, which we, you know, we don't do at the district level. But in my opinion, the real value is when you start to break down a class of students and see how they did in particular. Then you could start to look for particular skills or standards where they might have missed particular points where the rest of the district got it. And I think that's Mr. Po where
032the value is because then you can drill down and say what what happened here and then specifically we can fix that or at least try to work on it. But on a district level, it really doesn't do you too much good as a board to look at all this data unless you're able to predict exactly like we said what's going on that got us there. >> So besides examining the cohort, so let's say there's a regent exam and two, you know, the co years take those out. But let's say, you know, it was 90 something% and then we get down to the mid 80s, >> right, >> in those results. Besides examining the cohort, what examination is given to that specific I guess department or >> Yeah. So how do we know? The regions is
033a little different because we can look at particular areas of the regions and it could still be skill-based or even topic based. When you get to the grades 38, it's more criterion based. So, it's hard to pinpoint it down although I will speak to that in just a moment. So, what we're doing with the algebra in specifically is to look at why did you see what 20% of the kids kind of decreased compared to the year before obviously not the same kids but those groups of kids like you were talking about and then what could have gone differently that would have caused that. Now, it could have been I'm going to be ridiculous, right? None of them had breakfast that morning. Like we'll never be able to fix that. But maybe it is something that
034happened in the classroom. Maybe we took more time to teach something. It didn't pay off, but we lost something somewhere else. >> And that that that pivot piece always happens each year in the regions classes. It's unusual to see that big of a difference. With the with the grades three through eight, I do think there are particular areas what we've done a good job with, which is kind of our our what I call two-step questions, right? Our extended response questions where students have to calculate something and use those calculations and to come up with an answer. And as a district, we've been working hard at trying to get points there because we've noticed in the past, West Babylon has not scored as many points in those areas. So, I'm guessing when I say this, but
035I think a lot of the gains that you just saw for those that 38 has been the work that teachers and administrators have done on increasing our students performance on those more difficult questions, >> right? >> But I'm just guessing like I'm just guessing. >> Yeah. Does is there and I don't even know if you can measure this. You you know, I see the retirements a lot of people retiring. When you have teacher turnover, does that affect or can you even identify that? lesson plans change >> probably individually but not collectively like you probably look at one teacher and say oh that teacher would have made a difference but collectively I don't know that you could >> right I just think different approach it can impact positively it can negatively could be either way the
036results yeah no absolutely I'm just curious as to is there a way to examine or drill down into what what's being effective in one class versus another or >> right we we definitely do that and that's where I said the effective work is being done at the building at the teacher level um but again it becomes is that that give and take because sometimes you spend more time on something and you wind up giving which you didn't realize you were going to. So you think you're going to be phenomenally successful but inadvertently you left something out because you spent more time on this and it becomes kind of a juggling act. >> So you know we're constantly just trying to get to the entire you know the entire curriculum all of the standards while addressing
037you know Dr. Farley knows this the diff more difficult questions. That's one of the things we're doing as a district. Um I think this year, but even in the past years, exposing our kids to more difficult questions in the classroom will then give them some ability as they see it in the real world or even on these tests to kind of prepare for it. >> Is there a part of you that, you know, knows the the future of regions in New York State that eventually you'll be showing us a graph, but you only year one? >> Uh no, I don't I don't I I think Yeah, I think they'll always be regions. I >> to some extent >> they're not going to be worth anything I think in the future, >> right? So not the
038same at least they're still good like honestly for and I've taught regions you know when I taught they're good tests they really are um but they're singular in their purpose so there's a limited use to them >> right >> so >> all right >> I I I'd just like to ask what does [clears throat] the administration how do they feel about these results >> at at which level I and I I think the elementary principles are are very happy I mean um you know if you look there and you'll see there are some buildings that there needs to be some growth, right? Um and the redistribution is going to change some of that. So, the individual um elementary principles are very excited with the results, but they know with the influx of new students in
039their building, they're going to see some changes. Um I think it's a good question on the secondary level. You know, we're working differently, which each of them to try to target the growth. In some areas, they're static. I mean, I'll be honest, the high school AP exam you should all be very happy with. >> Some of the areas though there's growth. There's that's what I'm saying. >> Is you know, very happy, >> right? That's what we would expect from AP students, right? >> You know, but some of these other areas to me look like, you know, what what's what's like at the elementary level? Is it this common core? I mean, teaching has changed so dramatically over the last 15 years. >> We keep putting more and more resources in. And >> some of it
040I'm I'm going to say, and again, this is me just speaking and and you guys can ask me to leave. I will. I think some of it's just hard work for kids, right? This that's not something that's in the curriculum. That's not a standard. That's something we have to keep pushing our kids on. And if we don't, sometimes it it translates into some of these test scores results. So, some of it's just grit. >> Could it be a lack of the reinforcement at home like homework and other things changed in in >> the way we educate our students, >> right? Just just perseverance. If you think about it, it's it's a three-hour test, right? They usually sometimes some of them leave after an hour whatever you know the minimum is an hour and 20 an
041hour and 30. Um you know that idea of let's go back and check my answers I still have an hour and a half. That's something that can't be necessarily easily taught in the classroom. I mean it can be taught but it's not your average lesson or your lesson objective. It's that grit and that perseverance and that care. How am I how am I performing here? And you know, I think it's a mixture of everything, but I think to some extent that's what schools probably right now, at least our school, we need to get back to >> and the format of the exams has changed. For some, >> they have um and I think for the better. The timeness of the tests, particularly the grades 38, the numbers of questions, they've decreased them. So, in the
042past, it used to be a race. And when I was principal, it was a race to take those tests. It's no longer a race. They have unlimited time. time they could, you know, it's just a matter of how much effort they want to put in and how long they want to spend doing it. So, yeah, they've changed significantly. Um, but I think in a lot of ways for the better. So, >> you're welcome. >> I was just going to add to that that that takes the teachers learning how to teach to that test then, right? Like they have to if those questions are formatted differently, they're going to be have a little bit of a learning curve of how to teach to that test or do you not? Think I think for the >> well
043for the 38 I don't think that's as much of a factor for the definitely for the regions it's a huge transition for them when that changes and that and several of our exams have you know the geometry different exams have changed. Yeah. And I know that like the state um percentages that are released, it takes a little time. So like your normative data when comparing to the state, it's not as though we're performing below the state average in these areas, but we have seen our own decrease which might be due to those >> other variables like changing in testing or postcoid or whatever else you want to kind of include in there. So I think when you look at it just in the last three years, there have been decreases statewide that would not necessarily
044be just things that we're doing as well. Correct. Or >> 100%. And I think and I think to what Mr. Pilo was saying and what you were talking about, the secret in education is trying to find out what those things are. And I'd love to say that we're good at that, but it's still a people game and and sometimes you're guessing at it. I think we tried to be pretty good at that, but if if we miss it, we miss it. Um, and you know, whether it's hard work, perseverance, the individual teachers, what they're doing that particular year, we focus too much on this type of thing, it just didn't show up. There is a little bit of chance there, too. Um, so it becomes just a matter of trying to give our kids the
045best possible education and and for them to be able to flex and pivot on these tests, which honestly is is I'm not going to say a new thing, but we're we're getting better and better at, but we lost some of that a few years ago. So, we'll get there. >> Yeah. Another piece, right, intertwined whether we're looking at elementary junior high school or senior high school. Um there's been a we've had a lot of conversations about our own classroom exams, right? And taking a look at the types of questions, right, that our students are um accustomed to, right? Um and taking a look at the depth of knowledge there, right? And the depth of the actual question. Are we asking only recall questions, right? Or are we asking students to really, you know, um apply
046and think deeper, right, in those pieces? And that's not easy, right? And that's certainly not not easy. Uh but it is something that kind of from a K12 perspective, right? I have to, you know, acknowledge again Mr. Payne and our administrators and our teachers, right? Because that's very much a part of our discussions, right, in whatever subject area we're looking at is how deeply are we diving into this and how much, you know, and again, it's not like, you know, students don't particularly maybe want to be pushed as much, right, in terms of those questions, but those questions that Mr. Pay was referring to those higher level, you know, questions that have more of a weight to them, right? Speaking of in terms of the AP or whatnot. Um, that's the case across these assessments
047as well, right? You know, what are students accustomed to in a classroom from a classroom teacher in terms of their exam? Um, how deeply are we diving into the the material, right? Um, is it mainly recall, right? Is it mainly kind of those first three steps or are we taking it a little deeper? So, working on that, right? getting our students to kind of stretch in that manner is also part of that process as well. >> And I will say thank you Dr. Farley because you hit the nail on the head with that. One of the things we did at this last conference day um is to tell teachers specifically, right? Let's give those questions. And why don't we give those questions because kids are going to get them wrong and their test scores are
048going to fall? Well, honestly, who cares about test scores, right? As long as they're getting those questions and we know how they're performing. So, one of the things we told the teachers recently was give those questions, make them count less, right? And I know that may sound opposite to what we're doing here, but if we can get kids exposed to it and see how they're performing, I'd rather them give those questions and be afraid to and then us see how they did. So, it's one of the things we're going to try this year. We're going to give more of those questions on tests, but they might not be worth as much. Um, and the state does this, too, by the way. For those of you that know, they they'll say it's a field test question
049afterward. You'll be like, "Oh, okay. Well, they don't count it." But I think the idea for us, and exactly we're saying, is let's take the fear away of giving those questions and and just not shy away from them, but still have the kids perform on them. So, All right. >> Thank you, Mr. Payne. [laughter] >> He always gets a tough presentation. >> He does. He does. >> He cleared out a room. >> Even the educators, Even the educators love him. [laughter] >> Thank you very much. Okay. Okay. Next statement of residents on agenda items only. Residents wishing to share a statement. Residents uh please come to the podium, state their name, address, and any organization they represent. They should also write this information on an index card and give it to the assistant superintendent of
050finance of oper in operations. Comments about individual students or employees are not permitted. Each resident will have up to three minutes to speak with a total of 15 minutes allotted. Responses will be given after all. statements and questions needing further research will be addressed at the next meeting. Okay. Next, approval of the consent agenda. We need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Kathy, Steve, all those in favor? Policy review. Old business. New business. Okay. Statement of residence. Uh residents wishing to share a statement, please come to the podium, state their name and address and any organization they may represent. They can also write this information on an index card and give it to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Comments about individual students or employees are not permitted. Each resident will have up
051to three minutes to speak with a total of 15 minutes allotted. Responses will be given after all statements. Questions needing further research will be addressed at the next meeting. Okay. Okay, need a motion to adjurnn. Frank, John, all those in favor? >> Okay, that is it. >> Thank you. Have a good night, everyone. >> Thank you. Good night.