001[Music] uh six o'clock call this meeting order please stand for the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all at this time we will hear the Middle School presentation regarding chronic absences D EI analysis of student belonging for Mr Jeff cervone excellent thank you good evening this is actually before I even start this is a really fun topic for me to present on tonight because this is some great news about our school our middle school high school our student body their interests so I'm I'm excited to present this to all of you tonight good evening members of the Board of Education Mrs May and superintendent stiso I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with
002you tonight about our initiatives at Eden middle and high school our focus is on two critical areas improving student attendance and fostering a sense of belonging among our students tonight I'll share data strategies and the progress we've made in these areas first let's look at our attendance data we are currently maintaining a 95% attendance rate between grades 6 to 12 which is an improvement in previous years 93 93% in 2223 and 94% in 2324 I've also included some Regional historical data this would be all the districts in the are 2 region you can see Eden fair is a bit better than districts in our region so we're proud of that on a typical day we have three to four students out per grade um however chronic absenteeism and we Define chronic absenteeism as any student
003who has 10% absences or 18 total days in a school year this remains a concern for us we are currently we have three students currently classified as chronically absent and about 10 students who are borderline with approximately 10 absences long-term medical and suspensions are the only two absences that do not count against the student in these reports we are implementing a multifaceted approach to address absenteeism this begins with identifying root causes whether it's Health mental health Transportation or family issues and we'd like to offer targeted support such as ACC access to our social worker counselors and we set up parent teacher conferences as needed engagement with families has been Central to this effort with over 10 home visits and growing and daily follow-up calls by me and our team uh these steps aim to build
004trust and ensure that students and families feel supported in addition we are employing more formal strategies such as attendant attendance contracts that outline specific attendance goals for students and their families we actually bring them in we have a contract we sit down we go over the details of the contract and we all sign it and agree to it and then we monitor it as we as we progress when necessary we escalate cases to the Ary County Child and Family Services they will will typically assign a probation officer to work with our families linking families with outside resources has been vital finally we are committed to fostering a positive School environment by strengthening peer and teacher relationships and celebrating student successes through our student of the month initiative and our just say hello events which I
005will get to in a little bit next I'll discuss our efforts to support student sense of belonging which aligns with board goal two on diversity equity and inclusion a sense of belonging is fundamental stud to student well-being and engagement and we are taking intentional steps to nurture it across the school Community our just say hello initiative which is new this year is one of the ways we are addressing this each month we organize a student staff activity to create opportunities for connection for example our first event a get to know a trusted adult happened right here in our library here's some pictures of it it was based around cider and donuts and it was just they grab a glass of cider and a doughnut and chill out and sit with a teacher or an adult
006you can see the great crowd great conversation happening kids enjoyed it very well attended from September went we went to October where we did a beaded bracelet activity we did this in our cafeteria you can see students lining up to grab supplies big crowds at this event lots of teachers there after this event we did bookmarks it was a fall in love with reading during November uh students made a bookmark out of a slice of paper we did leaves on it and then we actually had Mrs Krebs if you remember Mrs Gail Krebs came in Ran our laminator we laminated all of the bookmarks poked a hole in the top kids had a great day personalizing their bookmarks and you know we kind of support our our reading initiatives in December we did an ornament
007making students made an ornament for themselves and they made one for the members of the Eden Heights community great turnout we have great turnout at these events we sometimes Wrangle kids in that are hanging out for sports like waiting and they're kind of shy and embarrassed to come in and we we make them come in and they have a blast and sometimes kids just need that little nudge to come in and have some fun but they sit with adults and they they have a great time these simple but meaningful activities allow students to connect with staff and peers in a relaxed supportive environment to ensure our efforts align with student needs and interests we conducted a comprehensive survey the survey asked students about their Hobbies interest and ideas for clubs and activities in our school
008it was a Google survey we had all of our students take it and the beauty of the survey was we could then take the information we could upload it into our power school student management link it to every student so then we had the ability to analyze that data download it into new Excel spreadsheets and really get a sense of what our kids do both inside and outside of school and let me tell you I I'll I'll get more into this in a little bit later they are very active what we know is students that feel and have connections are happier and have better attendance the results were encouraging of the 655 total students and yes we got them all to do it which was no easy task we hounded them we called them out
009of study halls we they they did this thing and a lot of the seniors gave me a hard time on this um because they were like what do you what do you care what we're doing we're out of here soon we we made them do it we said we want to get to know you better over 465 students 71% of our student body are involved in something we offer at Eden middle and high school I think that is a great statistic for us um this data gives us a solid foundation for continued engagement and our next steps is to analyze the results further and have some direct conversations with our students over on the other side there we have some quick facts we offer 25 clubs and activities um along with a very strong Athletic
010program with 23 Sports in the fall 15 in the winter and 17 in the spring I'm not going to go to that just yet so one of the things that we were thinking is that as we're analyzing attendance and really focused on it this year as we dove into our student interests we really thought that we were going to find a connection between students being disconnected and having high absentee rates and what we really found is our students with absenteeism concerns are actually very connected they were involved in activities they had great robust friend groups so where I thought we were going to see these students that weren't coming to school because they didn't have anything here they actually had quite a bit here and had great friend groups so that was positive information and
011it doesn't I mean it just helps inform us as we kind of keep battling absenteeism finding ways to get come to school so our goal is to continue to expand these opportunities and all students have access to activities that align with their interests and passions uh Beyond School our students are incredibly active in the community one of the things this survey did is it really gave us a strong picture of who our students are and what they're involved with in a way that would take you forever just having conversation with with with students they participate in a range of activities from church groups Scouts to sports travel Sports volunteering at food pantries animal rescues they're also engaged in unique Pursuits like Park work cars at the bills games working with working on their dirt bikes
012and tractors and participating in our local fire departments and our 4H programs and here is a list that I compiled of just some of their outside activities I mean one kid makes pies and sells them I just thought we we bumped into so many neat answers through this survey of really cool things that people do as Hobbies outside of school because we know we have the data on everybody that's in a club and activity that we run we had no clue of all the great things and cool things they do outside of here so recognizing and celebrating these interests is another way we Foster a sense of belonging and just get to know our students all that much better in conclusion we are proud of the pro we are very proud of the progress we
013have made at improving attendance and fostering belonging we know there is more to be done and we are committed to continually refining our strategies to meet the needs of all of our students I welcome your feedback and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may [Music] have we have the number of the person that makes pies I do that could be a very lucrative thing thank you uh Jeff I do have two two quick questions I just want to make sure I understood your data correctly so you're saying three students to date have already missed 18 days of school correct okay oh that's a lot um so the Erie County Child and Family Services when they intervene is that via a called to CPS or is that a separate they're they're kind of combined
014and there's a couple legs I believe of CPS I really don't know the exact details that's who the that's the term that or the agency that we call okay I was just curious that's all thank you thanks Jeff um one with a care for dogs is is an interesting one because uh I may know somebody that's that's doing that has a career right now through Rover and stuff like that so he or she may be making like $1,200 this week dog sitting yeah so there's a career out there rover.com um Jeff one other question I know it it kind of Falls in in regards to where we're at can you just give me the structure of AE I just want to get clarification of what AE looks like my understanding it's a two-part thing and
015it's it's grown over the last few years to where it used to be just as a as a study hall where you get your work done but it's more than that now correct correct we've we've expanded a little bit Mr iwano really spearheads it I can speak to it though I don't know if he's here he can also come up so the way it works at Eden middle and high school is we have academic probation that's our power manage student management system scours every student and it looks for bailing one or borderline in two great classes if that happens you're placed on probation for five weeks in that five weeks every student on a Friday their teacher looks at the student and will assign an s or a u on how their week was and
016they typically will put a comment if there's a u so if parents look at it they say why did my son or daughter get a u they're missing an assignment so the way it works is if you have one U or more you have to attend a specifically if you want to participate in an extracurricular so one you and you attend AE Tuesday Wednesday Thursday after school you're eligible after that you still have to attend because we want the academic support in place but you are no longer eligible to to participate now what we've done is we expanded this opportunity a little bit with our learning lab program which is really just a very structured study hall with his certified teacher we have allowed some students to attend a learning lab that will count as
017a session of AE for their eligibility in athletics or an activity dance or um whatever we have you know happen to go on here Jay did I miss anything or you you want to add anything okay I answer that for you I just wanted to clarify I you know when I first you know I've been out four years and it was just you know basically after school Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and you went there and got your work done but I knew we were working I just wanted to make sure we all understood what the structure looks like moving forward so perfect that's exact you answer exactly what I was looking for rover.com me that's for the dog that's for the dog character okay that has nothing to do with your presid no I'm not but
018um so anyway um really nice job really appreciate the focus on on attendance and belonging re Inc incredibly important because both of those things go to academic uh achievement right um in terms of chronic absenteeism just so the board understands uh chronic absenteeism is typically when a student misses 10% of the school year it's 180 Day School year so a student who who is on track to miss 18 days of school year would be on that path to Chronic absenteeism now you did say there's a couple of students who are already there but what you've shared with me which is not appropriate for to to share further in this conversation is the those students and their situations are very well known to most both Mr cervone Mr McDon Mr iono on our entire student services
019team uh there are linkage outside of school as well in the effort to to bring those students back into the fold is ongoing um those are extreme cases but there's other cases where um Mr cervone's intervention and the team's intervention is trying to circumvent that path and one of the things that you really can't measure is the number of students in our school who say I don't want cervone showing up in my house so I think I'm gonna go in today and that's a real thing if it gets back to me it's a real thing nobody back there they wouldn't be part of that no sir but really nice job thank you very much uh just one other thing um we need to update our district goals to include belonging into that one okay just
020saying yeah um I just have a quick question because you you brought up a um I was planning on actually discussing it during the board Round Table do you want me to discuss it now or wait I mean at this point if you have a specific question about a that Mr cervone can answer that would be fine if it's if it's more General about the program then that probably should wait okay all right thank you very much thank you appreciate it at this time are there any requests to remove any items from the consent agenda there are none approval of consent agenda items second any discussion oh sorry wait back up I screwed it up again that upon the recommendation of the superintendent consense and items be approved second any discussion it's Tree on my
021head all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried this is the approximate position in time that the board has designated to receive statements from individuals and groups the board will review all statements then respond appropriately at a future meeting all persons in attendance are required to sign the attendance sheet and designate their representation status for example a parent teacher bus driver Chamber of Commerce Etc there is a two-minute time limit nobody okay that upon the recommendation of the superintendent the resignation for the purpose of retired of math teacher Marie bendlin be accepted effective July 1st 2025 the board and administration wish to thank Mrs bendin for her 26 years of service to the district second any discussion all in favor I I any opposed any abstained motion carried congratulations yes that upon the
022Su recommendation of the superintendent the registration of Laura burky be accepted effective December 20th 2024 the board and administration wish to thank Mrs birkby for her four years of service to the district second any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried that upon the recommendation of the superintendent the resignation of teacher Aid Jillian smigelski be accepted effective December 20th 2024 the board and administration wish to thank Mrs smigelski for her service in the district second any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried then upon the recommendation of the superintendent after successfully completing his probationary period Patrick Tai be permanently appointed as a bus driver effective June 10th 2024 second any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried that upon the recommendation of the
023superintendent after successfully completing his probationary period Thomas tbat be permanently appointed as a bus driver effective September 17th 2024 any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried but upon the recommendation of the superintendent after successfully completing her probationary period Judith rone be permanently appointed as a bus attendant effective September 17th 2024 any discussion I favor I I any opposed any abstained motion carried that upon the recommendation of the superintendent after successfully completing her probationary period Jenny Roco be permanently appointed Ed as a school nurse effective November 28th 2024 second any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried then upon the recommendation of the superintendent after successfully completing his probationary period Benjamin marandola be permanently appointed as a bus attendant effective January 25th 2025 second any discussion all
024in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried that upon the recommendation of the superintendent Amanda pinski be appointed on probation as secretary to the superintendent district clerk effective January 31st 20125 and ending July 30th 2025 second any discussion favor just one comment one comment folks um first off um your first uh order of business uh after January 31st is finding the missing gavl secondly I want I want the board to be aware that uh and I've mentioned this before we had over 20 people express interest in the position we had 16 applicants who were reviewed and five that uh applicants who were fully reviewed and then five that we brought in for an interview um while Amanda is a familiar face she's well beyond that and is by far the best candidate for the
025position um I look forward to working with her you are not filling anyone else's shoes because that's impossible um and we're not going to talk too much about Barb we'll save that for January where I have time to build up my repertoire if you will so you know before you vote I just wanted you to be aware of the process in and the outstanding candidate that that is before you right now congratulations not yet you didn't any other discussions you're gonna have to teach me how to pronounce your name so I apologize if I butchered your name s right we really don't need the B gavl okay just take some space on the desk all right all in favor I anybody opposed anybody abstaining motion carried congratulations that upon the recommendation of the superintendent Kelly
026Maser be appointed on probation as payroll clerk effective January 6 2025 and ending July 5th 2025 second any discussion yeah I'm going to jump in again so Kelly's with us uh this evening thank you for coming uh the board remember that we had a a a long longtime employee that was responsible for payroll um that we attempted to to replace uh and we had a we had to move a little bit sideways and work with the the CBO to help us with payroll we're going to maintain that relationship with bosis for the remainder of this year as Kelly gets her feet under under her and and learns that the position she's got someone right over here that's going to help help train as well so our transition plan is is really uh is really a
027solid one obviously overseen by by Mrs May so again we had a number of applicants more than we expected that this is a hard position to fill and Kelly has some outstanding experience I think is going to be a real asset for us any other discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried welcome welcome aboard that upon the recommendation of the superintendent Rachel cerr be appointed as a long-term substitute teacher replacing Madison Weber effective September 5th 2025 and ending April 1st or 24 and ending April 1st 2025 salary is based upon ETA contract step one any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried that upon the recommendation of the superintendent Michael jtz be appointed on probation as a mechanic a maintenance mechanic effective January 6 2025 and ending
028July 5th 2025 salary is based upon CCA contract level 10 step three and four second any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried that upon the recommendation of the superintendent the results from the capital project vote are as follows proposition one 30 million um doll proposition 352 yes 172 no proposition one passed proposition two 10,700 222 yes 302 no proposition two failed thought we were just no any discussion I'm uh a little disappointed I'm just going to leave it at that um we tried to keep it as as clean as possible and uh not go for the shiny stuff because out there was a$1 Million softball baseball field we chose not to go that direction we chose to go the direction of um maintaining our buildings maintaining you know something that
029everybody's going to be able to use and and the voter spoke so I'm just going to leave it at that it's it's it's disappointing um it didn't pass and uh more to come any other discussion um yeah I just want to thinkk on Monday I kept thinking Jeff what you said about you want a school the kids can be proud of and and I know the kids are you know the changes we've had at the glp the cafeteria looks amazing the changes here um I have four students in this building and they do they love the change they you they are they're proud of their school you know my one son he said our school doesn't look so poor anymore you know those were those were his exact words you know this is what a
030a teenager thinks um so with this family I keep thinking how can we still make our kids proud of the school you know what changes can we make um you know and I know you know you know I care about what's on our walls you know but like our graduation pictures um and and I'm talking about this building you know they started I think at 1996 95 and they stopped at 2019 you know so for the last five graduation classes aren't on the walls um and then the banners in the cafeteria stop at graduation year 2017 um you know so just you know things like that I don't know who updates that but you know it kind of looks to the students like oh it's just forgotten about um or the pictures at the GP
031you know I know they have pictures I don't know how often those are updated on the walls which they're super cute fun pictures but I just like things like that you know I think could updates like that you know things we were doing you know if we could continue that I think that would you know just you know I'm sure your wife redecorates the house once in a while puts up new pictures no others too you know but things like that you know so I I think my my best response to that would be um that's something that you may want to bring through your Shar decision Mak team um I don't know about the graduation photos I I do recall you mentioning that to me before I don't know why they stopped or or
032if I know 2020 2020 but yeah but in terms of those those building wide components we probably should go through through the shared decision making team yeah I wasn't sure who I just those are just things and I also know that um if it's not in in place yet I know that they're working on on developing a student advisory uh team which would be a great uh Mr mcdonal a great opportunity to gather information from the students and on things that we can do around the building okay if we can't do the big things maybe we can do a lot of little things and they look big any other discussion all right all in favor I I any opposed any abstained motion carried that upon the recommendation of the superintendent the corrective action plan required
033to be sent to the New York State com Controllers Office be approved second any discussion about that no thank you worst summer ever all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried that upon the recommendation of the superintendent the Transportation Route spreadsheet effective December 20th 20 24 be approved any discussion all in favor hi I wait let's go back to no never mind I was going to get electric buses all right all in favor I any opposed abstained motion carried but upon the recommendation the following sports teams be combined with other districts for athletic participation game day cheer with Eden and North Collins boys volleyball with Eden and North Collins football with Eden in North Collins girls swimming with Eden in guanda any discussion all in favor I I any opposed any abstained motion
034carried but upon the recommendation of the superintendent overnight wrestling trips for Friday January 10th through January 2025 through January 11th 2025 at faler high school and February 28th 202 25 through March 2nd 2025 State wrestling meet at the Albany MVP Arena be approved second any discussion all in favor I I any opposed any abstained motion carried that upon the recommendation of the superintendent the 2025 2026 budget calendar be approved second any discussion all in favor I any opposed any abstained motion carried next we have the business report okay so start with an update on school tax revenue uh to date we have received 98% of the total School tax revenue um towns have now turned over that tax collection to Erie County uh we will be expecting Erie County to make the district full we
035had talked about the last board meeting um sometime early in the new year um they'll make us whole with the outstanding principal payment of the school tax bills and then they will keep any interest and penalties that are received after after that point um secondly uh as part of the New York State enacted budget for 2425 it included a provision for the Rockefeller Institute to conduct a study in order to assess the state's Foundation Aid formula and report on any findings and or modifications suggested on that formula so as a reminder Foundation a is the largest portion of state aid funding that the school district does receive uh the report was released on December 2nd and included over 300 pages of recommendations for the State education department we are currently examining the report and we'll
036discuss any potential impacts to Eden as we head into the budget process for 2526 any questions thank you next we have the superintendent report okay I just want to start start off talking about the the capital project and thank you to the E Community for taking the time to vote uh for Capital project 2024 uh proposition one is $19.3 million if I remember correctly uh that work is primarily the replacement of the Eden Elementary roof and the Middle High School roof uh the building that we're in right now the glp parking lots some ventilation updates and door replacement uh at GP renovating two uh prek uh classrooms and then um some parking lot and sidewalk replacement at this building as well that's the maintenance component of the project uh planning design work will begin early
037next year early in 2025 um obviously it's very important uh it's a very important uh proposition because it addresses a number of uh maintenance items as I just mentioned so thank you to all who came out to vote uh moving on from there I have some very very good news and I'm pleased to to announce that the Eden Elementary Auditorium has been reopened for use uh the board will recall that the odd was off limits for over a year as we investigated what caused plaster to fall from the ceiling the cause was a leaky roof which we are replacing of course uh the leaks have been fixed currently and um as part of let me move on there earlier this month the company that specializes and all things to do with plaster examined uh the
038ceiling of the auditorium they did some addition demolition uh um for some of the areas that were damaged by water and they deemed the auditorium safe for occupancy uh our staff will continue to monitor the odd for leaks and for any other plaster related issues but as of uh this moment we are good to utilize that space so and I know this Friday there'll be a uh a a movie being played in there as as part of the sendoff to uh winter recess for those students finally I just want to um wish everyone a happy holiday happy holiday season and happy New Year to to our board members and our administrators and our students and and our new employee that that is with us as well as anyone who is monitoring this uh meeting from
039afar I hope you have a a safe uh healthy and restful holiday and a happy New Year thank you that we voted on for the capital project I think the number we voted on 30 million for prop one I think can we just go back to that really quick just verify that it's like 30 I'm sorry no it wasn't 30 for prop one it's yeah prop prop one say and the should be 193 I believe yeah let's let's let's correct that right now thank you um where where is it not P didn't read so what I suggest to the board is that we make a motion to um correct new business a results from Capital project vote to correct proposition number one to equate to 19.3 million not 30 million 30 million was the totality
040of the project um and that's right on the numbers okay I'll make the motion okay so there's a motion on the floor Mrs Thomas there's a motion on the floor to correct uh under new business a results from the cap capital project vote under number one proposition number one should read 19.3 million 352 yes 172 172 no proposition one passed you're GNA ask for a second we got a second any other discussion on it all in favor of the motion hi I I any opposed any abstained motion carried good catch next we have the student report um in December from the 2nd to the 6th we did a Toys for Tots Drive um from the 9th to the 13th we did a pajama drive for Granny's and papies and on the 13th everybody who donated
041got to wear their pajamas is a little bit of an reward um on the 10th we did our December just say hello meeting there were snacks in the cafeteria and everybody got to make ornaments one to take home and one to donate to Eden Heights and on the 13th we did the Middle School holiday dance oh wait that is going to be rescheduled because of the snow day um we're doing winter spirit week right now and on the 20th we're going to have the Arctic Rider races up at the turf any questions uh I have no idea thank you next we have board report Round Table I didn't I didn't want to say anything when we were voting um on the capital and project but I did want to just make a comment that I
042understand people's vote I'm not I mean I do question it a little bit it's just the nature of my personality but as a whole the school district not just this one every school district has always kind of been for lack of a better term the punching bag for people when they're feeling frustrated and I know the the economy has been a huge soures of frustration for people over the last few years that said my heart breaks uh for the staff at the elementary school for the students there who were really looking forward to some modernization in that room in that space um for the students who work so hard in music and theater who are really looking forward to having an updated space that they could use I'm sorry that it didn't work out I
043really I really am I feel like that is one area that that really needs to be given more attention um I feel like as a whole and I'm not faulting anybody we've given a lot of attention to sports and that's not a dig at sports it's but I think it was music in theater's time and I'm super sorry that it didn't work out um not to say that we won't as a team go back to the drawing board and figure out how we can make it happen for everybody but from the bottom of my heart I feel it's hard not to take it personally it is so that's it agree I would uh I would just add that we've been on the board now 10 years this was our third Capital project and my experience
044is that if we wait the expense doubles um and so if these items that were not passed are necessary which we certainly believe they them to be necessary it's just going to be more expensive when we get to them three years from now five years from now seven years from now 10 years from now I don't know what it would have cost to build the turf field but at the time we felt it very expensive but my guess is if we were to build a turf field today it would be twice or three times what it cost to build a turf field four so four times and so with with State budgets getting tighter um I think as we do um capital projects down the road I think it's critical for the voters to understand
045and again I I don't take it personally people are free to vote their mind but to understand I'm a numbers guy we don't do it now it's twice as expensive when we when we have to do it down the road and so um I think it was a a missed opportunity and um for not only for everyone's taxpayers pocketbook but but also obviously for the kids uh that we're not going to have the opportunity to use those upgraded facilities so School roof is really a problem is there any way of having funds to just redo that one roof check I'm not sure I understand your question but I think I can answer it um the elementary roof was a problem uh we believe that we've solved the leak in terms of you know temporarily uh
046the roof still needs to be replaced yeah that's right yeah so not I'm going to be a little superstitious here fully stitious um that we don't currently have any active leaks that we're aware of and that's why we're able to reopen the auditorium but when it comes to roofs they have a they they have a a LIF span right and it's typically either 25 or 30 years the roof on this building and on the elementary building were 30e roofs they will be out of warranty right around the time they'll be under construction which is perfect timing um because you the district will receive the full 78.2% Aid back on the roof because it's out of warranty if we did it early if we did if we went out tomorrow and said we're we're fixing this
047roof we're putting on a brand new roof on tomorrow the district would be on the hook for the full amount with no Aid back it's the way it is is that's why that's why this board long before you ever met me planned out this part of the project to include these roofs now that 197 million right now about $15 million is roofs it's kind of boring but you need to have a roof right yeah so will that include the elementary school roof too that we can do yeah that's very good news thank you any other yeah so as I mentioned earlier um so as you know anyone who's been to a shared decision team meeting at the middle school high school like AE academic probation it's always this huge discussion right um and at the
048beginning of the year many parents and students including myself um received a letter that their student was on academic probation and like no one knew what it meant I know some board members got call from parents um so about let's see um so I realized basically academic probation is you just get a letter for five weeks letting you know how your students doing um but I was talking about two weeks ago with an Eden parent who has um some students who go to this school and one child who goes to a different high school now talking with that parent she raped about how that school gives so many opportunities for improvement if a student fails a test they're not told study harder or go to this study hall after school um they're given opportunities to
049do test corrections for partial credit extra credit assignments they stay after to work with that student and I know we have some teachers here who do do those things um some of our Math teachers especially I um have heard stories I witnessed it personally that they really want the students to learn the material um so so I I bring this all up um because kind of as we've established a is more like a study hall right it gives those students maybe extra time to catch up um you know I know some students who have one or two study halls a day during the school day um you know so staying after school say a student is struggling with chemistry um having a math teacher there might not be the best option to help remediate that
050student so of course I go down a rabbit hole in my job in the medical field it's so much of evidence-based best practice so going down the rabbit hole of allowing test corrections um there's so much research that supports allowing students to do test corrections facilitates learning right like that's the ultimate goal we want our students to learn um hold on took GL notes sorry um you know for example and I can share this personal story I have a a child who came home from school the one day and he was like I am never studying again it was such a waste of time I studied I memorized it and I still failed a test so now we're worried about him great you're going to be on academic probation you're going to be ineligible to
051participate um so I emailed the teacher and I said hey what can I do to help my son what can I do to help and the teacher emailed me the test she sent me screenshots of this test for me to go over with him which I haven't printed out because my printer still doesn't have ink um but I kind of go through all of this to ask um you know for all the students for not the students who are failing because they just didn't do the work right because that's you know some students they just don't do the work um you know and some teachers are gracious and they say okay if it's a day late the best you can do is a 75 two days late the best you can do is a 50
052you know they give some Grace but also have expectations but my question is and again going down this Rabbit Hole of allowing test corrections even if the test was reviewed in class the benefit of allowing test corrections um one Reddit thread a teacher had said her school policy was if a student gets below a 70 on an assessment they have to do test corrections because that they find facilitates learning and I think the ultimate goal you know for any teacher should be they want the students to learn not just pass a test um so I guess my question is my thought is you know how are we facilitating learning in our students who are struggling um besides just a learning lab because you know like I have a child again personal story who would stay
053after a when he didn't have to because Paula Ferrell was his teacher he was struggling in algebra so he stayed after purposefully to work with her which was great but I have someone else I know who's struggling in English you know unfortunately that math teacher is probably not the best source to help that student with that class um so I just kind of hope we can maybe look at what research says that we can benefit learning um maybe look at you know like a teacher said the policy in their school you know allowing test corrections you know instead of just saying oh study better next time well you're ineligible for a week because you failed this test even though you studied and you tried really hard um because I this is my personal story and
054I know it's not the only one but I just share because I want to talk about it and and my son gave me his Blessing to share his story um I wouldn't have shared it without that um so I guess you know looking at research how are we using that to help our students learn that's my so I'm I'm I'm just just gonna paraphrase okay and I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm going to nitpick just a little bit that's fine thank you no no it's it's important you're not nothing to be worried about so first and foremost the Board of Education sets policy okay nobody else not me not our administrators not our teachers um if you're interested in in in a policy that requires the opportunity for test corrections we could look at that I'll
055be honest with you and i' I've not heard of a policy to to do that I think that would might be a little bit of an overreach from a board right um yeah no I'm just saying like but if you're recommending that as a practice I completely understand where you're coming from um in terms of practice it that that does go to you individual teachers have some leeway there administrators responsibility and and Miss Gregory's role and Mr McDon Mr cervone and Mr iano's role they can strongly encourage that um I I agree with that there is a benefit there okay so that's a that's the test corrections but the the AP discussions are a little bit separate from that and what I heard you say is not every student needs the the help of the
056expert that's overseeing AP that day right like for cor like a is not going to benefit every student who's failing a is not going to benefit absolutely but what you also said is if my student needs help with English and the math math teacher has a that day how how is that going to help right so we could look at that you know we could expand how many teachers we have for a we would need to budget for that okay we would need to and which is fine we're we're going into budget season we have a great calendar very excited about that by the way um and I and I think that maybe at some point we we're gonna want to hear from Mr iwano about how creative we've become with the different ways that
057a can be can be those requirements can be met because the goal of a is not punishment it's academic uh Improvement if you will okay I I think we're we're in a line there yeah no I was just basically just going down a rabbit hole of research and how are we facilitating learning in our students who are strugging and right now kind of we know have the learning lab in a but there's no like individual teachers and of course they in can do what they want um but I was just kind of having a teacher send me a copy of a test was just kind of like interesting so that experience wasn't great okay um but it's a it's a legitimate question and and I I know that and you're gonna you've heard this a
058lot we haven't talked about it a bit it's coming the the secondary plan I'm coming to you Mrs Gregory pay attention the secondary plan regarding mtss is starting to grow okay one of the one of the really neat things and I'm looped into the this conversation and you and your mtss friends are are having a blast creating this is Miss Gregory has now created a regional group who are all collectively trying to create a multi-tier system of support at the secondary level the reason it's so hard to do is it's very different at at a at a middle high school where where students are moving from class to class and they have multiple teachers and so on and so forth so the true model doesn't exist and and we're kind of building in that plane
059as we fly it and I appreciate that work and you know obviously there are a lot of messages today that I'm reflecting on that and I I do appreciate that but you're absolutely right we need to get better at how we're helping struggling students and and that is one of the steps we're taking and I just share personal stories because that's all I know you know I know another student whose great-grandmother is raising them you know a seven-year-old woman is gonna struggle with material we're learning today I mean I'm 43 and I struggle I couldn't help my daughter with her math problems it's Val points Jee can I just say something really quick as as a mom of someone who just graduated and um you know she's a kid who prided herself on doing well
060I think this is a time when kids struggle and it's hard to watch them but I think as as parents we have to encourage them and this was always my first my first response to her did you go to the teacher I know we have a but I she almost always found a teacher teacher who was willing to either come in early stay late gave up their lunch because she needed it explained differently um and I think it's important to help kids get there first before they get to the test like they need to understand maybe while the materials happening like this is a little confusing like maybe I need a little reteaching pre-teaching or something prior to getting to the point where because if you're studying really hard that's great but if you're studying
061the wrong way or the wrong thing you're just setting yourself up for failure so and this is not just for you but for any parent like I think we these kids need to have and it's intimidating emails a great thing because you don't have to ask a teacher right to their face now like when I was a kid like help me please um so I think encouraging the kids and then if they're met with roadblocks there then I would step in as a parent and like I said those instances were few and far between I mean she had one teacher who could never come in early or stay late but she's like come down on my lunch here's my study all will figure it out and they did so I mean I think by and
062large large the teachers are willing to do whatever they can my daughter also uh found Google to be a huge help sometimes when she couldn't get into a teacher right away especially when she was taking AP classes there's 5,000 videos of people teaching the same content in 12 different ways and she would just find somebody who would help her get it so I mean I think there's ways that kids can help themselves too but I I don't doubt that we can always look to improve yeah in terms of resources too though did we launch Varsity Tutors am I saying that right yes I got yeah yeah I did I saw that yeah yeah no I think it's awesome yeah it's a great a great resource and and I have to say like I can um
063I've heard recently a story of um Mr Pearson going above and beyond to help a student who is struggling um so I think we do you know should commend the teachers you know because you know like you said most teachers are available and they do I just you know yeah I'm always looking you know I have five kids and I have some kids who things come really easy you know and kids that struggle and have you know IEPs and stuff so I think it's you know and I have a lot of family in the district and and friends so I hear lots of stories and um so everyone has a story you know and I it's very different than when we went to school for sure that's the one thing I always tell my kids
064did you email your teacher did you talk to your teacher know but anything else from the board just like to wish everybody uh Happy Holidays happy New Year and uh what else we got up on the docket there Cheryl and that upon the recommendation of the superintendent at 6:58 p.m. board of education enter executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular person or persons second all in favor I I any opposed any obain motion carried you guys