Cohoes CSD BOE Meeting October 22, 2025

001Good evening and welcome to tonight's uh Co City School District Board of Education meeting tonight, October 22nd. I'm going to call the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. If you could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I stand. >> That might have been the best pledge we've had all year. I'm the best pledge we've ever done. >> Please take note of the emergency exits. There's two on this side here and the door that you came in. We would meet out front in case of emergency. Can we please have a roll call? Mr. Jackson >> excused. >> Mrs. Snder here. >> Mrs. Jedan >> here. >> Mrs. Paradis >> here. >> Mr. Jeros >> here. >> Mrs. Burwell >> here. >> Mrs. Taylor, >> I am here. >> Like to welcome a very full room

002tonight. We've got a lot of things going on, but we we're going to kick this off and start it with our student board member, Britney. Would you like to give us your monthly report? >> Sure. Um, we have a couple of things going on at the high school um, this month. >> Volume up. >> Oh, sorry. >> We have a we have a couple of things going on. Uh, first, we're hosting our first uh, glow dance on November 5th. And before that, on November uh, 1st, we have the haunted house at the high school. And the hotel house will go from 6:00 to 900 pm. The tickets will be $5. And this year we'll be not only benefit the student council, but we are also uh helping the the host fire department with uh cheers

003for children program which helps provide families with um need with presents for the holidays. And with the new renovations going on at the third floor, um the haunted house is going to be in the first floor and the aisle of um maintenance and course wing and uh there will be clubs in the main entrance with they're going to sell items and food. They're also going to be a couple of games and that's like a really big event going on this month to Halloween. We're really looking forward to that. And also another thing is uh there's a new club at the high school that is the new culinary club who's going to be run by Miss Olsos and um I believe it's going to take place here at the middle school and they have the meeting

004um today which I talked to also about it and there's a couple people who went there's like I think 30 students who show up so they're really excited for that and the club is not only for learning how to cook but also learn a little bit more about the history and everything. So that's another very good on and I think that will be it. >> That's exciting. >> Yeah, I'm hearing about new things also old things like the haunted house. People get really excited about the haunted house. So very happy to see that and I'm sure we'll see signage out in the community about that coming up soon. Right. >> Very good. Well, thank you very much. We appreciate your report and at this time I will turn it off to Dr. Mandelle who is

005graciously sitting in for uh Miss O'Shea today. >> I like to refer to it as pinch hitting. Right. Listen however you need to. >> No one can really replace Miss O'Shea. So we're just pinching hitting tonight. I want to start this evening first by uh taking note of the New York State School Boards Association annual October recognition of board uh member service in New York State. And tonight I would like to personally thank the members of the board of education of the CO city school district for your commitment and your dedication to the children and the families in this community. Uh I've been around for 41 years. I've seen a lot of boards of education have been members of member of board of education locally uh in my hometown on Long Island and you are

006a high functioning group and you're getting things done and putting kids at the center of that and that's what this service is all about. So we appreciate that tremendously. We have some quotes on on the uh the screen there, but also Mr. Perry has a group of students that he would like to have come up and do a little presentation for you in recognition of your service. >> Well, welcome Mr. Perry and students. >> I brought a few of our friends to make a half circle here. >> I brought a few of my friends. That's >> right. So, we have a lot of leadership in this building right in this room right now. Right. You guys, your leadership are the administrative leadership. Um, we have the building leadership teams that are here. We also have

007the student leadership team from Harmony Hill here. And I will tell you, I expected to have three or four or five. This is this is the enthusiasm to come here to say thank you guys for for for everything you guys do. Mrs. Laughlin, >> for those of you who don't know me, my name is Mrs. Laughlin. I teach fifth grade. I am a building leader. um person, but I'm also student leader advisor as well. Um and my students are very excited to share with you um something that we've been doing at Harmony Hill, which is the Tiger Way. Um showing off my new merch. Um but they would like to um express their gratitude for everything you do for us to ensure that we're all successful, including myself as well as our students. So when

008we're ready, who's first? C. >> Loud and proud. >> Make sure your board members >> team first. >> T first. Celebrate everyone's success. Show interest and support each other. Work together to solve problems. >> No, no, no. Right there. She gets one. Right there. Be >> No, she gets one. >> Does our student see it? Can't forget her. >> All right. Letter I. >> And I asked them to introduce themselves and I think they forgot about that. >> Who are you? >> Individual commitment. Show up every day ready to learn. Set a goal and try your best to achieve. >> You're supposed to hand me the >> Oh, Mr. Terry. I know. We're >> not doing a good V. >> I miss practice. >> Come on. >> Hello, my name is Give back to your

009school and community. Always look for ways to lend a helping hand. Give them or listen to others and show exhibit five years. big and small. We proud of our family, friends. And >> we actually wanted maybe to give yours and we forgot she was the wrong >> Thank you. are respect yourself and others. Treat it with fairness and equity. Be safe. Use manners action. >> Nice. >> Be careful there. So this was awesome. When things get tough, bounce back from difficult times and ask >> on Mr. Okay, next letter. A >> my name is my name is a building action show responsibility acceptance. Our last It's five. said that there'd also like to be So, what did we say to our board? Remember we talked about what did we say to the board? Ready? One,

010two, three. Well, we'd like to say thank you to Harmony Hill and the students on the student leadership team for coming here. It takes a lot of courage to get up in front of all of these folks and to speak loud and proud. So, thank you guys so much. We really appreciate you being here today. >> Thank you for allowing us to come. >> Good job. Thank you guys. >> This is a club. >> Thank you. the boring the boring straw. But Stacy had to get text >> of course I know >> she did an incredible job. >> Yeah. You guys are more than welcome to stay for the entirety of the meeting, but we also understand if you'd like to um exit, you're perfectly welcome to. >> Okay, sounds great. I'll be here. Facebook

011here Right. Right. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I just have a a couple of uh uh updates uh from Miss O'Shea. Uh we just wanted to let you know that uh Bill has been working on the microphones and the sound for this room. Uh he's out shopping and finding the best equipment at the right prices. So we should have an update for you in the next week or two with regard to to that purchase. Um last week we had an extensive meeting with the capital project team. The architects and um the project manager and the engineers were on the phone. The main topic was uh the technology and the functionality and the new science rooms at the high school. There is a timeline laid out for those rooms to be turned back over to the district

012u and moving the furniture in and all the boxes and things and instructional materials that all the teachers need to load into that classroom. Um, we're going to set uh November 5th for a like grand opening day. It's the day after the uh uh November 4th uh election day off uh for our students. So when they return the next day, they're going to be able to use those new rooms. We're trying also to coordinate a board walkth through. So we'll we'll be working with you on uh identifying a specific date for that. We're going to have a photo op opportunity and take pictures of the room and get a news press release out quickly so that people see what they've invested the money in so they can be proud of that as well. So those

013are the two updates that I have. I would like to now turn the meeting over to our first BLT presentation. I believe Mr. Perry and Harmony Hill are going to come up and begin the set of slides with regard to uh the BLT plans for 2526. Thank you for all the work that you've all done in putting these plans together from all three buildings. You've done a really phenomenal job. >> I'm going to start out the first of all u there this first slide represents common action steps that all three buildings are still involved in. So um Mr. Chair would like to add to my comments on these but the analysis and use of I Ready data. We're all getting to be pros of I Ready data. We use utilizing both the coaches and we

014utilize the I Ready approach as well to help out with I Ready data. Um we find it very very informative foundation phonics programming. Um that's something that we do on a daily basis in all of our kindergarten through second grade. Um we've even you'll even hear from us we're we're dialing a little bit grade as an intervention uh looking at piloting also um in introducing to our buildings multi-ter systems and of support NTSS um we uh we've had district meetings where all buildings were represented all the from kinderg from uh elementary school all through high school they were all represented there are very productive meetings there's a lot to learn about NCSS a lot and our monthly attendance recognition. Um, I'm pretty sure we all have tighter cups that we can about um in recognizing

015the grade or the home, whoever has the best attendance. Uh, they've been you'll find out a little bit about each individual school, how we recognize attendance, but we value attendance. We we let people uh we celebrate good attendance and we do a lot of different things to to help with our attendance. the career education. Uh we're we've been diving into well I had we had our JA in a day. Our attendance was was great at JA in a day. J and day we had I think we had 42 volunteers from outside agencies come in. Fantastic day. They we had one or two volunteers in each classroom and uh it just it's just a really wonderful day. They they learn about um they learn about banking. They learn about how communities work. They they they work

016they learn about entrepreneurship. It's really really it's really good stuff. Um career weeks we have um career weeks and trade days as well. We're inviting trades people in. Uh DESA we have DESA social emotional screening. Um it it it really focuses on the strengths of the kids, identifies the strengths of the kids, but it also identifies any needs that the students may have. And uh what we do there is it it's it's targeted interventions and um there's a lot more region I call on it but I think you guys you guys have gotten information from from this Marcel um we find it we find it a very good tool for our teachers to find out a lot about their kids a lot about their kids and how and how to help them out. um integrating

017the Tiger Way into elementary buildings. You saw how how hard we did. The Tiger Way has been around a while for the high school and now we're finding ways to utilize it in the elementary schools. We're finding it's a nice mesh with PBIS uh as a character tool and again that's that's way there's there's a there was a video but we're going to we'll share that out through the Harmony put together video. We really really like the like the video because it also represents um sort of the cultural things that we do. There's um there's some uh different languages represented as well. So we like that. We like the video a lot. Uh and then um building blocks that's a support system for families and it's coordinated care. Um, we identify the ones that need

018building blocks the most through all of our other interventions and uh and and again we we need a lot of building blocks to help our to help our families. So, you guys have anything else? >> All right. Okay. Final to our building leadership. >> I got um so our building goal is great. First, Stacy B from our CS rep and Mary Sevil, our CTA rep, and Sarah Atkins, fourth grade, fourth grade teacher. Crystal Roberts, um, just got a phone call. She had to take off. Her mother took ill, so she she took off. Uh, fourth grade, fourth grade teacher, Sam Heritage, a Spence self-contained coach, and Cheryl Love, the fifth grade fifth grade teacher. So, okay. Now, >> now I can go. >> No, not yet. Not yet. >> Not yet. >> Our first goal,

019our first goal is that they are that we're going to grow our I already scores, our overall building I already scores by 2%. Last year, I will tell you, we went from um two years ago, we were 61%. That's that they that they met their yearly target. Each kid 61% of our kids met their yearly target. Last year it was 74%. huge increase. Next year we're looking for percent growth of 76%. That's in reading. In math, we went fif we went from 58% um um two years ago and 23 24 25 we were 74% of our kids met their yearly growth their yearly growth goal that after three diagnostics and all their intervention all their all their uh regular I ready le plans throughout throughout the year. So again, we're looking for 2% growth in

020that 76%. Now, Mary, >> okay. >> Uh we're doing monthly teacher meetings with the Bosey's coach. She's coming in meeting with teachers individually. She's focusing a lot with some of the non-tenure teachers right off the get-go. Now, um mostly we're focusing on a lot of instruction within writing because we noticed a lot um and that's I didn't really pick a specific writing. they do skills more. So, we're really talking about more inclusion in um actually writing writing pieces and you know um and grammar things like that that could be added more in. So, she's working with that. She also does PLC check-ins and she does um at the faculty meeting it takes about 10 minutes and we go over some little practical activities that you can do for writing um during our faculty meetings. So

021she comes in and and does that. Um continue to monitor student growth using I Ready. We really have been looking and that's one thing she does too is that the coach will come in and we look through our I Ready scores in our grade level and see like where we need to work on what has been going well with kids. What can we use for opportunities for enrichment? We've been talking a lot about enrichment too. not just focusing on kids where they're struggling, but you know, if they're if we see them that they're really working really hard and doing a great job and everyone has, you know, their phonics levels or whatever, then what's the next step? What's the next step after that? Um, we noticed comprehension was a little bit more something we could

022work on a little bit more like with umformational text, things like that to really get into some of that um enrichment because kids just seem to gravitate towards some of the um non-fiction things. So, we've been looking at that ways to um enrich um it says use photo. Yep. So she's finding resources, helping us all finding resources for the kids who are ready to go to some more enrichment things too. >> And the reason this is our side and the reason why we're doing that is because our kids who are higher um when they're doing their I Ready, they're doing they're looking at seventh grade math, eighth grade math and you know and that's on their mind path because they've done so high on their diagnostics. So, you know, in our discussions, how can we

023support those kids because like Mary said, we have so much support for those kids who are meeting those benchmarks. Now, you know, myself, I'm really going to we're going to start focusing on those kids who are that high. What can we do to help those kids? because you know at the end of the year because they've scored so high they're not reaching that benchmark because they're doing seventh eighth grade work that you know even the the reading portion the text is a little hard to navigate for them and as a fifth grade teacher you can't teach that I you know we don't teach them seventh eighth grade math but what are some ways we can support them for that higher level of thinking so that maybe you know they can tackle some of that >>

024more writing, more like instead of like going up more across like you know taking your your curriculum and and spreading it further like more genres more you know what I mean adding that stuff for more enrichment you know >> and also with the writing um a while back we had a mail system where kids would write to each other or teachers and everything I don't know if you remember Joanne Walter started that way back when um >> we mailed it >> right now is called the Tiger Cove Courier. Um that's something that myself and my students are implementing to get our kids writing more um authentic writing instead of you know um well like text writing. Well, we got really last year we worked really hard on answering like two-point questions, you know, like uh

025response to text, but now this year we really want to work with more of that like Shar saying more extended responses but also more authentic writing. Like how do you write a letter to someone? The tone of your letter is very different than what you write for a text. You for a test, do you know? So, and you know, can you write a story? Can you write a journal entry? This is what you know that writing extends more beyond doing it for a test. So, we really are focusing on that kind of more authentic writing. That's we're asking for research and and help and trying to figure those things out and doing rubrics for that kind of writing as well. We've been working with that too. Expectations Have you reward? Um >> I do not

026because it's we are piloting pilot student literacy programs. I mentioned earlier about the um the foundations in third grade. We're also piloting a reward program reading. Um it hits more on some of the some of the um foundational skills but a different level. Um and um one of the one of the fifth grade classrooms is working. It's just piloting. See how it goes over. So far so good. Um we'll see we'll see that one of our readings in >> Yeah. I will also mention that um having Sharon on on our building leadership team, we have been uh we are having surveys like crazy and she surveyed everybody. First of all, do you want the weed delivery back? Right. Um, if we if we if we put control over if we put control over teachers have

027to look look at the letters before they go because we don't want anything sent through the mail that that we don't want sent through the mail. >> And also she surveyed the kids what we like to call it. So, >> and that was a building survey. Um, and that's what they wanted. Target year one. >> All right. So, the next building goal is um we will strengthen our commitment to whole purpose of health and wellness for all members of our building community. So, some of the action steps we have here um that we really want to promote a respectful and positive school culture like within our school building among staff and among students. Um, so just modeling that as the staff and the teachers and also really encouraging the students to greet each other, to

028greet other adults when they see them, to use banners, um, even just walking through the hallway when you're noticing that, you know, someone's picking something up. Oh, thank you so much for picking that up and thank you for helping keep our school clean. So, really trying to promote that culture in the class or in the school. Um, we've also introduced a fourth B to the three Bs. It's now the four Bs. So, we have be safe, be respectful, be responsible, and be kind. The kids have loved that. Um, they've jumped right into it. Very much involved. They're noticing when others being kind. You're following one of the bees. They're pointing it out. Um, so it's been a very positive response there. Um and we tried to we met with NBIS um earlier over the summer

029and we talked to them about the um the way that they run their monthly assemblies and monthly character traits and we took time to really take the monthly character traits that PBIS is using and um update them to mesh with the tiger way. So now we're utilizing the tiger way. Um this is just the poster that we have hanging in all the classrooms. So, it has the tiger way listed. It has what each one is um what each letter stands for as well as the poster that you saw earlier in this afternoon. Um so, that's in every classroom. So, the kids are seeing it. They're recognizing it. Um, and so they're being, you know, very involved with identifying these things, finding, you know, noticing when someone is being kind, noticing when someone is showing resilience

030and helping that out to each other and in terms of financing the school building. We also are working to continue the family involvement activities um that we, you know, started last year. We have a few more coming this year. We have our Halloween bingo night. Big success last year. Um it is looking to be a big success this year. They are very excited about that. Um we have our PBIS dance, our ENL picnic, just things to get families involved. And we are continuing to do our PBIS assemblies every month and recognizing students who are showing the Tiger Way um and students with good attendance and um things like that. And we have introduced the PBIS tiger tiger way train. So >> all the song props guys. >> Um so we started we just decided to

031do this over the summer um for every PBIS assembly. I meet third, fourth, fifth downstairs. Line them up, give them their certificates and then um the train. >> Is it select? >> We go upstairs. Yep. Select the students. Um two students from each class >> and then special teachers like phys and music. They pick students and I think um Magnus was >> those. So they um they get certificates and I meet third, fourth, fifth downstairs, bring them upstairs and get UPK. They get on the train UPK kindergarten first and second and I line them up in the hallway. Um I put the crazy hat on, blow the crazy whistle, um play the song, and we walk into the gym and we go around the gym and they sit around the parents. and they sit right

032in the middle of the gym and then Mr. Perry announces their names individually. They stand up, show their certificate and they loved it. They said, "I feel like a movie star." >> We we made that change because it took a long time to call them to come out of the crowd. You know, they're tripping so forth. So now we decide, okay, to speed it up, speed these up a little bit to bring them in through the train of course and Stacy just makes the train. Well, it also gives a sense of community too because they're coming in as a group and it's not, >> do you know what I mean? They're not like spot individ. So, they kind of have like this little sense of community that they're on the train. You know, >> I

033realized the first assembly that we had for the train, I had to I had to let the parents know >> that just because you if you don't see your kid, don't be afraid because they're coming in on the train soon. >> Good point. Um, so our next action step was to provide opportunities to support the development of social skills for the self-contained classroom. And this was something I advocated heavily for. Um, being a previous behavior development teacher at Harmony Hill and now being a functional skills teacher at Harmony Hill, I found it very important for my students to be more involved with their same age peers and have opportunities to um, practice social skills and for other kids um, to just see that kids learn differently. Um, kids have different behaviors and it's not scary.

034It's okay. And, um, it's worked really well so far. We started a reading buddies with fifth grade and I have some plans to do kind of like a big buddies with kindergarten and I have a little bit of a plan kind of in the works with third grade. So, we're hoping to kind of get that ironed out the next couple of weeks and start that. But, Reading Vice has been going great. You can see the picture up there. Fifth grade comes up to us. Um, they take turns picking books. Sometimes my students are reading to fifth grade, sometimes fifth grade's reading to my students. We had a Rosie appearance. So, it's been a lot of fun. And the kids ask all week, "Is it reading buddies yet? Is it reading buddies yet?" It's been great.

035Um, and we've also reestablished the Sunshine Committee to recognize some milestones. Um, we currently have 42 members, which is wonderful. Um, and we already have some recognitions planned for next month, um, including a master's degree and an upcoming course. >> So, very excited about that. >> We're also we're continuing to have to increase faculty and staff's input into all the major decisions that we make. Um, just this morning, we have we have an assembly scheduled for Friday morning. So, we had a quick uh um meeting this morning just to say, okay, how do we want it to run? You know, this is this is our field. This is our thought. How do we want to change it? And those quick little meetings have developed probably our best Halloween uh parade day that we've ever had

036last year. We're gonna we're going to do that again. This year we we we uh sculpted everything again, taking everybody's input, everybody's input. The student leadership team, the student, those students are going to play a major role. They don't know yet, but they're going to be playing even bigger role this year and making decisions uh meeting with BLT and so forth. So again, we're we're spreading that leadership around uh letting every a lot of other people make a lot of lot of uh lot of the decisions. The focus meeting this morning was really really great. Um last year's focus meeting uh I think we might have had two focus meetings on on Halloween last year because the year before was like it was it was crazy. But um uh so again um we uh oh

037there was one one little victory that we had too based on another survey that we had. um we were planning something in our action step as an action step. Come to find out we surveyed our faculty and staff and the survey results show that you know what we didn't need to go there. So we celebrated the first faculty meeting say you know what this 15 minutes or 10 or 15 minutes was going to be designated towards this action step based on the survey we don't need to. So you know that again that's their language hearing it from them and we changed it. So, >> yep. >> The next building goal, uh, decrease chronic absenteeism by 2% hopefully this year. Last year, we had 144 students. Um, so we had 34.6% 34. We're chronically absent, down

0381% from the year before. Um, we research research research things and ways to do it. Uh so you guys want to talk a little bit about >> um yes so some of the things we're doing is daily attendance monitoring in the main office and we're discussing that weekly at our Monday cabinet meetings um we're just keeping track of those students that have been uh chronically absent in the past and those who are kind of starting to hit those numbers having meetings um deciding how is the best way to contact them how's the best way to support them what we can do to make sure they say the importance of coming to school and then if it's something at home with the families that need support. How can we support the families there to encourage them

039to get to school? Um, and we're doing um daily attendance. The average of attendance is being monitored by grade level and you know students as well. And every month the grade level with the best attendance percentage gets the higher tips for the month. Um they're pictured up there and fourth grade one. So we're excited. So for everyone for the month of September, but um the kids are very excited about it. They know that there's an incentive that goes with it. We have to tell everyone we were here for we were here the most and try to hold on to the tiger cub for the next month and others were trying to beat you. So they're encouraged to be at school. >> Um >> did flip that up once because yes, >> we noticed HPK was

040tipping K5's rear end. So, we decided to make their UPK 3 versus UPK4. So, they're having their own contest with even a smaller tiger club. >> It's like a baby baby tiger. >> We have that award and then K5 awards. >> Um, and then at our um PBIS parade at the beginning of the year, the mayor would speak and associate was there as well and they gave us challenges, a pizza challenge and ice cream challenge. and the students have jumped on that. If someone's not there, they're like, "Where were you? You're affecting our pizza party. We want to earn it." So, that is a big incentive for them. Um, and you can tell that they are eager to >> especially. >> And then, um, we're also just wanting to make sure that families are recognized

041as well when their effort to get their students to school. At the end of every month, students are getting um recognized for excellent attendance and they get to bring that home and share the candies. Some of us are reaching out on parent square and contacting families. Thank you so much for getting your student to school here every day with this percentage this month. Um they've received an award for excellent attendance. Um and just kind of really encouraging them to be at school. Um, which kind of goes into the next point here, which we just in communicating the importance of timely drop off and pickup. Um, for families, school starts at 8:45, ends at 3. So, we are working to make sure parents are aware of that and they get their students there in that time

042frame. They're not dropping off late. Um, so we are working on creating a a studentled video to kind of just show it a different way. You know, we sent it out on Paris Square. We sent paper messages of reminders, but we're just going to put we're going to put together a video to encourage families just show them a quick reminder of like this is why it's important to be here at school. We start academics and we go all day long. They're missing out on valuable learning. Um, and I just wanted to point out we had candy wars um going on the past week and a half through our PTA. It was grade level versus grade level and our attendance today which was going to be winnings were discuss who won candy wars was up to

04396% attendance today because they were so excited to find out who's winning the candy. >> Yeah. So just like little things like that we're trying to really encourage um do more often so that they are wanting to come to school every day. >> Yes. >> We had a candy monster to read each day. They were decorated boxes each day. The kids brought the candy and fed it to the monster and then PTA came in at the end of the day and counted each piece. So at the end of the day, uh, kindergarten brought in 4,300 pieces >> overall and and all this candy was going to be donated to the trunk or treat. So we'll give it away. I said, you'll recognize your hand. You're gonna get it back. The monster kind of regurgitated. You're

044gonna get it back. So anyways, um we had 14,083 pieces of come in. Uh incredible. Absolutely incredible. One of the things and we PTA gave us little trophies and they're going to get a pizza party. Kindergarters gonna get little trophies in a pizza party. So >> yeah, successful. We had we had indeed we're talking about the student videos. We had the one we did make a video for PBIS and for Tiger Way and we showed that with all to all of our students and they are still talking about it and they still ask us to watch it and it's on the the board in the comments. So hopefully this the studentled video once that's done we can do the same. We'll be doing the same you know really showing it over and over and it

045is it they do talk about it and like they'll see me in the hallway and they go hey Mr. I saw you on TV, you know. So, like the teacher said a little something for each tiger way. I Mark said he'll share it out, but it was really good and the kids really loved it. So, we're hoping to do the same thing with attendance. Okay. And as far as career exploration opportunities, as Mr. Perry spoke about it before, junior achievement in a day, they come in, it's a lot of energy when they come in. We we love having them. Um they're very very good practice and they're very good um trade a trade day which Amy Magguire does and college day where we've had students come in from college and talk to students about >>

046former students yeah former students come in and talk about their their college day and career week where Amy once again gets all these cool jobs. We've had Lego builders and tree uh tree trimming >> garage owners. >> Yes. Garage owner mechanics. Like it's been a lot of fun. >> Fishing guy. >> We had a hockey um hockey player. >> Yeah. NHL hockey player, but now he's >> game designer. Y we've had really cool things and local companies will be utilized to the best of our ability >> and RPI engineers were looking forward to RPI engineers coming first week of November uh for second, third, fourth and fifth grade. They they teach them uh different really cool scientific lessons. >> Second grade they teach them how to make paper airplanes. >> And let me tell you,

047I love it because we tell them in class all the time, don't don't do shoot the airplanes at each other. But then they're like, they come and then they can do it in the hallway and they see how long there's they mark a line. They they love they love it. >> And what's nice is what they come in align with um our next gen stands like fourth grade does something that circuits fifth grade to go do something with um design water filters which is actually one of our our kits that we use too. So it's nice that the kids um see that correlation between what we're learning in class and then having these engineers come in and look this is something you can do you know >> thank you very have any questions or any

048comments >> the kids could teach the fourth be kind to some >> grumps I do a drop off pick up every day. >> I want to apologize. I thought for a minute you were Chris and that's why >> thank you guys very >> sorry. >> I just wanted to say thank you for your presentation. I love the inclusion, you know, having everybody kind of the shared decision making because students will that's what we want to happen. We want we want to have another Britney at the table, you know, when the time comes where, you know, they're going through. So, thank you guys very much. Very thoughtful, very creative. Appreciate your presentation. >> Thank you. She was like, I'm so sorry. >> And the Lancing team is going to make their way up to the table.

049They're up next. >> All right. Thanks for having us. I'll start out by we are still on a list. um if we haven't had a chance to talk about that, we saw some really good improvement in our attendance with our subsets and we've seen some good improvement in our subgroups on state tests as well. So make some incremental steps. We realize our first I may have said this to you all before, but we spent our first four or five years in a panic that we want to get off the list. Uh and talking to folks at both seeds in the state, it's going to be a while. So, we've decided to stop panicking and start playing the long game. If we have to do this, how are we going to make a difference five years

050from now, not just to try to get us on the list by June? Uh, Mr. Perry mentioned multi-tered systems of support that the entire district is involved in through a grant. We often have the privilege of working with the middle school to be a pilot school. So, not just learning about NTSS, but we're putting it into practice. uh we have combined or tried to combine our state um plan with our building plan for you. So there's there's a crossover if you see uh you will also hear about um trauma skilled schools that our assistant superintendent brought into us and we have the privilege as well of working with the high school in uh need trauma skilled schools or TSS in and we've built that into our plan as well. So here is our fantastic team.

051We have some members that are in abstentia, but Sukio is our fifth grade teacher. We have Jordan Paluso, a second grade teacher. Ellen George teaches fourth grade. Bridget Quinnland, who's our fifth grade teacher. She also represents the CTA on our team. And then missing is Holly Cesy who's a reading teacher. She has a medical um issue tonight. Our CSA representative is Carol BL who could be here and our parent representative because of being on a list. We wanted to mention her as well. That's Rachel Edwards. She's to join our team as well to talk about where we're going to address the rest of the show. >> Well, welcome. Um, can I just also ask before you get started to please use your teacher voice? Uh, when the fans turn on, it's very difficult for us

052to hear. So, if you wouldn't mind Um, our first building goal, um, is to have at least 65% of all of our students, K through five, meet one years of growth in ELA and math. Last year, we were at 59% in ELA and 56% in math. Um, so some of the actual steps we're taking to help with that is, um, like Mr. Bird mentioned, we are piloting the FTSS, um, this year. So we have so far created three teams. One at the district level that was created first and then in our building we have two separate teams. We have a team that is driven by the data portion of MTSS and then one team that deals with our um students um that don't quite fall into that tier two or tier three but a teacher

053sees a need. um they go to that team to um bring that um student up. So far our teams have met once. We are being trained by Renee Bouier from building better futures. Um and she has taken both teams in for a full day to or for a half day so far to um discuss the data with u both of us and really define what our tiers are. Our goal is to bring that t tier two and tier three support into our classroom so we're meeting the needs of all of our tier one to hopefully streamline less of our students falling into that tier two and three because we have the professionals in the building that know how to uh differentiate and provide that instruction. So we want to make sure that we're giving it

054to all of our tier one to try to delineate um how many students are needing those extra supports. Um, in addition to MTSS, we are continuing support from Julie Carol at Cap Region Boseies. She's in our school on Mondays and Tuesdays and she is great. She helps any teacher who needs anything. She has plans um for small groups, for whole groups, and reading, writing, math, whatever a teacher comes to her with a need for. um she'll meet with teachers either bi-weekly or monthly and really go through that progress monitoring data that we're taking um to tweak things if we need to find different resources to use. Um so she has been um great in our school and will jump in and model if we asked her to to come into a small group. Um so

055we are really using all the resources that we have to help us uh reach our populations. We've also added self staff development. Karen Synynic of Ire Math came in um in September and she observed and supported all of the 3P5 teachers um watching a math lesson and then at the end of the day we had our PLC as a group and she gave us some feedback just kind of to make sure we're maximizing all of the resources that I already said we're using all those um she's hoping to come back to meet and possibly also to reach out to KH We also want to reinstate teacher rounds where um teachers will come and observe other teachers. Um not in a um not evaluative um just you know to observe and to pick up some pointers

056and see how other people are doing things. Problem with that is that we've had trouble getting enough subs to um but that is really um something that we would like to get back to. Hello, how are you? Um, so for the past couple of years, um, we have been, uh, using win whatever I need to address our students, um, as far as our reading needs. Um, at the end of last year as a building, we were really starting to see there was um, a lot of transitions between classrooms. Um, and we felt our population of students, a lot of them were having difficulty transitioning into other teachers classrooms and transitioning back. Um, so and also a lot of the teachers, we didn't feel like we truly knew our students as readers the way that we

057needed to. Um, and it made it difficult at times when we were talking at parent conferences when we really needed to get into some nitty-gritty conversations about reading and say, "Well, wait a minute. I don't have your kids for that. I only have them for homework." So we really uh really planned very extensively on what change needed to happen and we went back to traditional small reading groups. Um and this is what we feel is definitely best practice. None of us wanted to move away from those small group times. Um but we just really felt that our our kids our population right now really could not handle the transition. we were losing a lot of learning time dealing with transitions and behaviors, you know, different routines. So, we really wanted to bring it back in,

058really get a strong handle on our students before um bending them out again. Um right now, all of our tier one, obviously, all of our students are are getting this in addition to their instructional time. Um all grade levels have a 45 minute small reading group time. During that time, our special ed teachers um and also our tier two and tier three uh reading supports um students can also be working with them um whether they're pulled out or pushed in. Um so that is definitely something I know that Jordan had mentioned working with Julie Carol. Um I think one of the things that Julie um certainly doesn't get up and talk about the most is is how dedicated how much time she has really given to us at Uber Lancing. Um, as far as obviously

059during uh the school year and Mondays and Tuesdays, but Julie has literally been our companion all summer long for the past two, three summers now. Um, she meets with individual teachers, grade levels. Bridget transition to fifth grade this year. So, it was really just nice having somebody that sat down and is is was really helping to guide what we as teachers need, helping us go through the data, helping us understand what does this mean, you know, where should we go with this? So Julie really has been a huge calm to our storm and I don't think she really truly gets enough credit for that. Um so also that um our continuation of our PLC's and our focus really has tried to bring back a lot of the vertical alignment that we have done previously in

060our building and throughout the district. Obviously we're post COVID world. So, um, vertical alignment has definitely shifted, um, since, uh, COVID. So, we're really trying to bring that back. One of the things that, um, our building has focused on is really being very purposeful with our groups. Yes, we have that individual grade level time, but we're really trying to meet as cohorts. with a K2 and then a 35. Our goal is also in the second half of the year bringing second grade up into that 35 cohort conversations because at that point second half of the year we really got to get our second graders really ready to join that third grade bubble. So that is something that we've made um a really conscious effort uh for vertical alignment. We're looking to have similar language um

061have similar scaffolds. You know what's working? Why reinvent the wheel if there's something that's really working? Like we need to share those best practices. Also, you know, we have all a lot of the same kids here you're families. So, we're really trying to uh build those connections. Um we're also working to really establish those consistent systems and routines. And that's something that our building is really focusing very heavily on to really try and to obviously move kids academically, but really to try and be in better control of the behavioral needs. And really we're we're looking at having those shared resources. So when you know we're as a 35 cohort when we're talking about RAS or extended responses all seeing the same they're having the same language they're seeing the same type of paper there like

062all of the strategies so that way there is those consistencies. So we're hoping to kind of instead of having kids look at you like what is I've never seen this before where you have a thousand times but now we're going to make sure that we're all doing the same thing. Um so um that's another thing also with our PLC's um we're working to really create action plans like um with heat maps also which we support we're looking at where our data has brought us to this point and now we're able to really kind of look at some of the trends as far as what are um some of the standards that have been more consistently tested than others. were able to like for me as a fifth grade teacher I look at the data as

063an exit grade even though those kids are in sixth grade I get to still see what how they did but also now we're focused on the kids that are in front of us so we're able to look for those trends and then also with Julie's help develop those action plans of you know what should we focused on what could we do as a team we're going to focus this time on you know compare and contrast okay we're going to do this everybody bring your data for this so we really have more of an alignment again I That's something that we're really focused on getting back to. I know we've had a lot of district level discussions on bringing that back. So, um I think that's something that's helping to really get everybody on the same

064page and you know, everybody's a team. So, that's something that our PLC's have focused on. Our next goal is we are committed to continuing our our family engagement opportunities and ensuring that every child feels they belong and has intentional opportunities to practice and build social, emotional and cognitive skills strategies and we focusing on the implementation of trauma skills the TSS model and the whole staff is being trained in that. The first thing that we are implementing is purposeful practices um which are um practices that are intended to stop behaviors before they happen. So movement um there are some schoolwide purposeful practices um upgraded announcements including a riddle of week on Wednesdays a Friday dance party in the hallway. We have drop everything in and read time. There were a few of them that were schoolwide

065and what we're implementing in the classrooms. individual classrooms right now are movement implement. So in the start of the year all the teachers who are tasked with implementing three and when we get to January we're going additional practices in and by April and May we're going to have another we'll have a total of nine purposeful practices per class going on and it's just basically transitions between like reading and math. or get up, do a little exercise or you know move around little dance party or something like that. Could be as simple as looking over there, stand up, sit back down, anything to get them be kind of to start up activity. And again the idea is that their breast was kind of >> so obviously our social emotional wellness uh greatly affects everything that we

066do uh in our classrooms. So this year um we are continuing with our tier one um all of our classrooms have calming corners as problem. Um, so our main purpose is obviously to try and keep our students um in the room so they can still be engaged but maybe they just kind of take a glory. A lot of our kids are able to function within the room just kind of a step away and back in. Um we are continuing this year three of our reset room. Um our reset this room is actually being manned by two completely new people. So that is also um an adjustment. We have Jennifer Guadagget that is the TA. Um Jen jumped in full force like from day one. Uh she's a huge asset to our building. She's a certified

067art teacher. So that is awesome. She has a lot of background um in different areas that have been extremely helpful. Uh Amanda Rogers is a and she's super wonderful. She's also a parent in the district. So it's really nice for her to see um what we do in a different capacity. Our recent receives a very very high number of calls last year and this year. Um the purpose of our group is for the scheduled short-term breaks uh having a quiet area outside of the classroom uh sensory bins having that sensory pathway and also academic support for students that need. Um currently um we are trying to readress and kind of refocus the purpose of the room certain right now um certain tier three behaviors are really at times almost uh the room and unfortunately when

068dealing with some of those students we are unable to really quickly address students um for uh what they need at in that moment. Um, as far as a plan, what we would like to see happen as a team, we've discussed going back and maybe visiting one or two constructions um that were in Skenctity and have the police district that we use to model our reset room after. Um, we know that they have also made some changes. Um, so we would like to kind of see what other people are doing. They I know that they have very similar issues and concerns that we have. So, they're just kind of looking for somebody who's been there, done that, but really tell us it's a lifeline. Um, I know uh some of the things that um they have

069right now currently um that's a little bit of an issue for us is their staff. They obviously have a lot more staffing to spend ratio. So, that's something that I know just going in that would be something. Um also um we are struggling right now as far as having space like right now we have all of these different centers within one room and in our uh tier three kids that need that additional support that it's um a lot more of the resources are being used to focus on those kids. So, it's very difficult for a child to come in a tier two that just needs that quick break that just needs that I just need that moment. And it's very hard when we have some of those more extreme group behaviors and also kids that

070are there for longer periods because we also need those kids to still be working to the best of their ability to some degree. So that is something that also we would like to kind of look at how other places are managing that because other than having a separate location and we know that some of the schools have moved to that. So as you know looking for solutions our team would like to go back and just kind of review the outside world to just see what kind of options uh could come our way. Uh we are continuing with our library lunch as well. So, kids that don't necessarily need the green room, but can't really handle the chaos, the loudness, the sensory issues that the um cafeteria brings. We have uh the library lunch. Uh this

071year, we currently have eight students that are in there. Um we have three students that utilize um the reset room daily for lunch. So, we actually have more kids going to the library that's flexible and again, it's really on that need uh based. So we are working uh to continue that. Um also again very structured in there. Um as far as you know some kids, you know there are certain things that they just they just want that quiet space. They have they have blocks, they have color sheets, they have you know some of the sensory stuff. So again it's just kind of to give them that half hour where they can kind of uh cool down as well. Uh we are looking uh to continue our family engagement opportunities. Um we have our um monthly

072or our weekly or bi-weekly um breakfast, but every one of them gets a couple usually about four a year. Two of them we invite parents in. So it's a really nice opportunity for the kids uh to start off the day with uh their parents having breakfast. Um our PTO is amazing. They really are. They're a small group of people, but they literally are the heart and soul of getting things done for us. So, we're really trying to offer a variety of different activities um and volunteer opportunities for families to join in. And this year, we're really trying to seek out some more um of parents for our career week, looking to see, you know, what they can also offer in in different capacities. So, um just continuing to bring in our families as much as

073possible. Our last goal is that we can are committed to decreasing the chronically absent percentage by 2%. Um last year we had um 131 students marked as chronically absent 38.3%. So to decrease that and to assist in that we have a really great attendance committee. There's a sevenerson team working together. uh we meet twice a month to discuss the students that are showing up chronically absent and each one of the people on the team is assigned a grade level. So they will go out to that grade level and discuss the students that are showing up chronically absent and try to um come up with ideas on how to get them to come to school even just a communication with the parent on what would be a way to help out to make sure that they

074can get their children to school. Um we're monitoring those that attendance every week and um looking for be best practices on how to get them every day. Um so so we have a lot of things that are we are offering to help improve that as well. So some opportunities we have a power lunch with Russell Sage. So that is for it's multiple grades but kids um are chosen to go and spend time during their lunchtime with people that are volunteering. they read with them, but it's also more of a social emotional connection. They have somebody that is there just for them if they spend that much time with that's really special for them. Um the RPI ambassadors in grade three through five have been coming in. Um another thing that's just a little different for

075them to participate in, but something another reason to come to school. Um, of course we have our annual Proctor's Theater visit that we go and we're going this year in March. And the third grade is continuing to participate with the Ellen Snaply Dance Company. They're really focusing with their social studies, integrating the curriculum of social studies with movement and um, focusing on culture and geography of three different countries around the world. um the college and career awareness that we have that you know districtwide but um offers the students just ideas of what is out there and helping to encourage them to show up so that they can be a part of these activities. We have the mayor's attendance challenge and superintendent ice cream challenge going on. So those two things we remind them of. We

076also are uh recognizing the students every month at our monthly QBIS meetings ceremonies, excuse me, um for their great attendance. We have three classes, the top three classes are earning a tiger cub and a little banner to sit outside of their classrooms to show their best improvement, most improved for their attendance. And they we're offering a pizza party to that top winner, which this year we're also in in including inviting the parents to that pizza party. So maybe something else to kind of encourage them because at this level we know it really is all on the parents to get them to come to school. So want to just um thank them and recognize that we are um sending home notes to the families to encourage and support them and say thank you so much for

077bringing your kid to school this today, this week or whatever it might be. But just really getting out there to the parents that we appreciate them for bringing them to school and encouraging them if they're having a little difficulty. Um there's been a lot of communication with the parents even from other not just classroom teachers but all teachers and staff in the building with grand square on there's some sentence issue that might come up. What are ways we can help you out? What do you need? How can we get you to you know get your kid to school? Um and then of course as it's already been stated we also are using JA in a day which is a really fun experience. Um in our building there are two volunteers in every classroom and everyone

078is participating. They all really enjoyed it. Um just a wonderful experience for everyone volunteers and students as well. >> Questions or comments? >> I have one question um on Sue's topic the library lunch. Is that students your choosing or they they chose themselves to go in there? >> I think it's more really We have had kids that have expressed to us like they really can't handle um the cafeteria for a variety of reasons. Um we're also trying to maximize like the reset really being for those tier 2 coming in um or tier three. So some kids it's really like if they've had a lot of issues like not as a parchment but we want to give them that alternative space where they can be successful. A lot of them they they'll bring a friend. Um

079I have some for example that saturate it's just it's it's too much. So it's it's just not a cafeteria escalates into the work we're going to entire rest of the days. So we've been doing this now for the past couple of years. Um obviously it's something that we work on to try and get them you know try them out throughout the year like hey let's go in and have some other strategies. Let's try go back in um at any point during the year. I do try by the end of the year to try and have all of my fifth graders back in um if they do go to the library at lunch because that is something that the does. So I think it's also important for us to understand this is what our kids kids

080need now but how are we also transitioning to them to that greater picture of independent this is what they have how are we going to get to that zone too so it's something that mostly it has come from this issues some sometimes students do you know selectively so I would say we try to inform them the best ways possible questions One of the words that I wrote down was um intent, right? Like you guys really seem like you are making decisions for an intended p purpose. You've got plans. Um I know that you mentioned the list. Listen, you're not defined by the list. You you guys have such a great um you know, community. I think that, you know, you should look at it as though you you're going to be the experts in the

081district of, you know, how to deal with some of these difficult things that are now we see are increasing. Um, and so love that you're bringing back the teacher rounds because you you guys are the ones that are going to be able to provide that support um to the newer teachers coming in and it's important that we have it because it's been years of of development. Um, I'm excited to hear that, you know, you want to make a shift and and maybe change something, you know, with your reset room or whatever and would encourage you to absolutely make those plans to go see if there's something working somewhere else um and how we can help support that. So, thank you guys so much for for coming today and really kind of putting it all out

082there. um really, you know, we see you and and we see the work that you're putting in and that your teams are putting in. So, thank you guys so much. >> Thanks, guys. Good job. >> And we have the crew from the island. Last but not least, right? >> And again, if I could just reiterate the teacher voice because when the fan comes on, it's just hard for us. You know, I >> Well, welcome. Thank you for coming today. >> Thank you for having us. >> Um, so this is my masc team and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves. They're already here. Hi, Carrie Bennett, kindergarten. Connie Bell, reading teacher. Trina Keith, third grade. Amanda Door, I teach fifth grade and I'm also the CTA rep. >> Amber Delaro, I teach second grade. And >>

083Propsky, CSA. So our first goal building goal is the percentage of students making the year's worth of growth will increase by 3% and I ready reading and uh math in 2024 2025. Um we are going to be shooting for 86 uh we had 86% in reading and we had 84% in math. Um we did come up from 2324. Um our goal from last year was to um increase in our um ELA which we did meet that goal. So we're very proud of our 86% in the reading. However, our math we we were quite high though. We were at 91% so we did slip down to 84%. Um so we thought 3% in each of the reading and the math was a um a reasonable goal for us to try to achieve. And so how are

084we going to do that? I'll let my team tell you. Um, so on a monthly basis, we review our I Ready data. Um, and we have a buildingwide WOW board and if the students meet their number of minutes and they're passing their lessons at 70% or higher, um, they get to pick their ticket on the WOW board and then when it's full, we pick winners for private. Um, in looking at it, we also look yearly data. And then this year we were like, let's make sure that there's no one that we missed that hasn't made their goal two years in a row. Um, which we are proud to report that there was only three kids that didn't make it place two years in a row. Um, so we're always looking at that data. And in

085looking at that data, um, AIS also met um, and we are revising and modifying our academic intervention pyramid. Um, looking at what interventions we have in our building, are they being used, who's using them? um to recreate that pyramid. >> And the document that you have in front of you is our portrait of events students that we created to kind of align with the um core competencies that were released by New York State. And basically we are revising it to um just say like by the end of fifth grade at Vansike these these are the opportunities that we have provided. this is how the we'll prepare our students for success in tomorrow's world. Um so by looking at that we're able to see which areas we were kind of lacking in. Um so like last

086year we had noticed more of a need for um cultural competence. So we did start our world culture day in our building inviting um students from the high school down to present their culture. So the kids were really excited about that. They loved that. Um, and then something else that we were looking into was the Teach Like a Champion book that has just best practice strategies listed in it to promote engagement and um, kind of hold students to high expectations. So, the two strategies that we had picked out for that were no opt out, which means like we're not accepting I don't know. we're going to get to the correct answer whether it's me leading it leading you to it and then you repeating it just to give the students a chance to be successful

087so we're not just uh you know diminishing their confidence or anything like that and then another one that we had pulled out is the right is right strategy which means we're only accepting the entire correct answer um which does lead to some thoughtful discussions and it does give students the opportunity to chat amongst themselves and they kind of take over the conversation in that sense. So, I'm sure that you guys have noticed we're using that. We've had some great conversations happening and not only does Mrs. Turo want the the teachers to use it, but we also have been talking about it at faculty meetings. So, support staff is hearing it and we're creating that schoolwide consistent um expectation for our students. So our next building goal for believe in positive school climate and culture is

088to provide students and staff with strategies and resources to support the social emotional well-being. Um so like everyone else in three, four and five we are completing the DESA and based on that we are establishing solution focused groups um that monitor and provide intervention using our social worker using our psychologist sometimes using classroom teachers um just to make sure that we're definitely addressing those social emotional needs that you might not be able to see firsthand. Uh the other thing that we did to kick off our year is we we had some fellow Tik Tockers around that um were inspired by some of the welcome back videos and we had a lot of fun just the day before school started. We asked everybody to wear the same thing and you probably saw our video on the

089Facebook page. Um and it was just our quick little way to welcome them and the kids were like, "Oh my gosh, we saw you on this video." We we had fun doing it, too. We won't lie. >> We were we were gonna say, "Are you ready? Um this year we it's been a while since we've had a full-blown Veterans Day um celebration and that's something that we kind of wanted to bring back that we haven't celebrated in a while. Um I think our last one was hard to beat when we had the the Blackhawk land in the field in our backyard. Um but we decided to bring it back this year and start by honoring some of our students and their family members that are veterans. Um, so they're slowly rolling in and we're hoping

090to still do something and hopefully after, you know, getting that initial year under our belt. Um, hopefully it will grow. And it's kind of cool because a lot of our students are cousins of students or family members of former bandag students. So I had a student today that brought it in. I was like, "Oh my gosh, I know her. That's Kayla Clemente." So there she is in her military. She's eight years old in my head. So it's it's super exciting to see you know the our students that are we now get to celebrate in this amazing capacity teach. >> Sure. So the we um chose two more strategies from the book to just ensure that we're setting a firm but positive tone for our students throughout the day. Um, one of them that we chose

091was warm, strict, which means warm, you can be kind, you can be understanding, but we also want to make sure that students know what our what our expectation is and um, you know, what is allowed and what is not allowed. And then we also pulled out firm confines which basically means that we take the steps that we need to without um conflicts or establishing an environment that um has some respect and um we ma we maintain our employees as adults and professionals. kind of modeling to the students how to work through um you know conflict and appropriate resolution. Um and then one other thing that we're doing amongst our staff, you know, happy school is when you have happy staff um who like to enjoy coming to work each day. Um, and one thing that

092we have continued to do this year is our secret staff where we just each among ourselves pick a different person and surprise that person with a small treat each month, you know, and going to your mailbox and seeing like a Dunkin Donuts gift card or, you know, a new bottle of lotion or just a chocolate bar, you know, kind of kind of perks you up for that day and gets you through. So, it's little things like that that make it a warm place to work. And then as far as things that we already have done in the past and continue to do, um, like many of the of the other buildings, we continue with our SecondStep program, our apple a day communication with families on Parent Square, sending our attendance letters home to those students

093that meet the number um to kind of give them that warning that you're approaching um, chronic absenteeism and then eventually the ones that are considered chronically absent. Um, something that we do at the beginning of the year in our open house is we introduce our parents to this little, it's this little sheet of paper and there's like four on a sheet that they can cut and it just um is a little blurb about candle with care. We say to the parents um if your child's having that morning, that rough morning and you know that they're going to get to school and it's just not going to be good, just give us a sheet of paper. just let us know. Have them put it in their folder. Put it in their agenda. Just let us know.

094It's one of those learnings and then we kind of know to tread lightly right off the start. We know to give them that extra care to get them back into the comfort of the classroom. Um we continue with our fun Friday dress downs. Um we continue with our believe week each week which is super fun for the kids. And we're in the midst this week of celebrating character counts week. So, you know, those traditions that are already embedded in our schools that we continue to celebrate. And then our final goal is to decrease chronic absenteeism. Um, this past year we were at 28.4%. And so our goal is to be um to come down by 3% is to 25.4%. Um to ensure students are immersed in learning. So this year we started to do um

095what's called clause of ponder. So um Mr. Chiro will pick she's gone down to the lunchroom every week and see a couple students and ask them. They have a little bucket with a bunch of different questions in there like what would you do if you were straight on an island? What would you bring with you? Three things. That was their last question. So they it's like a little interview with the kids and gets them engaged and there's been certain dur um different grade level every week to get them all involved and it'll be different questions based on the grade levels. Um, so the first one it seemed like it went really well as fifth grade and they had some good answers. I think um, Franchesca said she's bringing her sisters and seeds. >> The other

096student was bringing his phone and charger. >> Yeah. So, we're going to start doing that. Um, to teach like a champion for this one is threshold. So, basically at their front door when they first come in, like when my class for kindergarten, we come down and I'll do a little introduction. When you come in, tell them what they need to do, and then as they walk into the classroom, they can pick um they shake my hand, we say good morning, a hug, high five. So, it's basically just welcome in the classroom for the morning, set in that tone, it's going to be a great day. Um, so before they even cross into the classroom, building that relationship with them and the attendance >> for our attendance because we've been working on it and we were

097on the attendance works page. We're try to find our picture on there now because usually we are. But u, Mr. Chiro and the staffs at home letters to the students who actually came off the chronically absent list to say great job. Thank you for getting your kids to school. Um it's great to have them here. So we did reach out to those families that did make a really big commitment and improvement to have their kids there retire because you know it's it's it's a lot of the parents getting the little ones there. So it's hard. So we we were thinking diamond reaching out to them for that. >> And that brings us right to the next one. We kind of switched the order up a little bit. But we decided as BLT this year that

098we wanted to try to target the parent audience with attendance um because we know a lot of us, you know, are trying to do things in school to motivate the kids to come to school. But as we were talking about it, Carrie just said that parents that are bringing the students to school. So the kindergarteners, the first graders, the second graders, the third graders, a lot of them are only arriving to school if their parent brings them to school. You know, there are some fourth and fifth graders that walk, but for the most part, we were thinking, you know what, maybe we're targeting the wrong audience, you know. So, we went to our PTO and we asked them if they would partner with us to start a raffle this year. So, every trimester, we are

099going to pull a parents name of a student who has been in school and the parents are going to receive a $100 gift visa gift card um donated from the PTL. So, the parents are being rewarded if their kids get. So, we're hoping that maybe having a parent raffle might entice some of our parents to get their kids there and, you know, the day that they're like, I don't really want to come. It's raining, they're like, I want my gift card. So, we're we're hoping that maybe that will help um you know push things right up over that edge because we you know getting our attendance down by 3% that's that's our goal and we want to make sure that we're reaching that. So, if we're hitting both the kids and the parents then maybe

100together we'll be able to even more than 3%. Who knows? A couple other things that we're doing for attendance. We're still having our trimester attendance ravels for the kids and um September uh was recognized as attendance awareness month. We had a beautiful attendance celebration um with the mayor and Miss O'Shea came down. As you've already heard, Miss O'Shea offered to buy the kids ice cream if they um got the attendance goal. So, pizza party plus ice cream party. So, the kids are really pumped about that. And then finally, one of the other things that we are doing a little different this year with attendance is um we're uh making sure that any students that do come as chronic, we're pulling them in early with a meeting with their parents and with them just to be

101like, "Hey, what's going on? Is there something we can help you with?" I have a student in my class, for example, that's struggling with this and they're new to our district, so maybe they're just having a difficult transition. So, we're trying to lead with compassion and see if there's an issue that's preventing them from coming to school because we know this particular child, for example, is not ill all of this time that she's been out of school. So, hopefully with those new uh, you know, ideas in place, hopefully that will help us get our attendance number where we want it to be. And just a few other things I wanted to talk about um add about parent engagement because we know that you know since co you know we were doing some things pre pre-COVID

102and then coming back from COVID after these years how do we can get our parents involved and make sure they know what's happening in our classroom. So some of the things that are happening at Vans Skike are our teachers are sending home weekly newsletters or they call it a week at a glance on parent square. Um I ready math provides family letters um for each of the units. So, the teachers do send home that family letter so that the parents are aware of what unit they're working on in I Ready, what are the what are the skills and practices that they'll be doing. Um, all teachers are outside of dismissal. Um, everything goes home with Wednesday folders. Um, we are going to steal an idea from our friends at April Lancing um for I think

103it's April Lancing. Um, so the classroom that has the best attendance, not only they going to get paused, but then we're also going to invite their family in for to have lunch with their child. And while they're there, we're going to say, "Oh, while you're here, here's what's happening in our classroom." Um, and I did want to mention UPK um used to again pre-COVID always had um special person of the week where a parent was identified and able to come in and spend a lot of the time on Friday, be the mystery reader and stuff like that. and we are starting back again this year. So my parent was really excited as she got it fixed to be a parent. So >> yeah, and I think a lot of the things that we've talked about,

104we we try to look at this wheel um the portrait of a graduating student like the pause and ponder, you know, that helps with the effect of communication. Um so, you know, really keeping these things in mind and trying to plug in, okay, you know, what is it hitting in instructionally? How is it getting our students there? and how is it hitting these components that stated is saying is is necessary to be a um a citizen ready to go out once they graduate from post high school. And this is just how we see our part in that. They're with us for six years and this is what we're saying how we contribute to what they're going to do once they get up there. So, >> and of course we do the career week and the

105train day and all the other things that the other schools can do in programs also, but these are what we do >> besides those. >> Any questions? >> Actually, I just have a quick comment because you guys do have such a compact area for your students and it's more of a walkable school and stuff like that. I saw the city of Skenctity, one of their middle elementary schools actually that don't get picked up by the bus. So they're they have volunteers that go around to the houses and pick the kids up and they have like this whole thing about this. >> So I will say that again I'll go back to Mr. Bird. Uh he did bring that to their district quite a number of years ago trying to say we're going to start the

106walking school bus. Um and we did try it. I did see that news article as well. >> Yeah. And we just we haven't been able to >> get that totally like Yeah. Like you guys do have such a walkable area, >> you know, even just like once a month and make it like that's what we're gonna do, you know, get the kids to walking and stuff like that. So >> I love this. I think this is fantastic. You know, I think we all have to be more mindful of where we're going. Um, and with that said, like that's kind of what I wrote down, like kids need to know where they're going. They need to be accountable. They need to be responsible. They need to be motivated for their own education. And I think that

107like your entire plan speaks to that. It is like how are we making kids care about the things that we're doing at school, which eventually will lead them to here. So, um, good job. I I appreciate you guys being here today >> and this is a a living document. Like this is something that we visited all last year. Look at it at every couple of faculty meetings and then the state kind of changed things up on us over the summer. So we readjusted ours. >> Well, I think you're going to need to continue doing that because we still also haven't seen, you know, final product of what that's going toate to in the secondary. So, it's it's ever changing and and I think it's good because it keeps us all in our minds of what

108what the purpose is. >> Well, thank you guys so much. >> Did you want me to >> Was that part of your >> Oh, yes. two seconds. >> Okay. >> Um >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Um so last year we came to the board about the idea of having um a change in our ENL program for the elementary students. Um right now, as you know, all of our elementary ENL students attend Harmony Hill. Last year, we came to the board and said that we would like to go have the students go back to their home schools. Um our numbers have, you know, increased. we think it would be in the best interest of the of the students. Um, and we decided that we were going to push that off a year um to give everyone

109time to prepare for that. So, I just want to give you an update of where we are in preparing the elementary for that change. Um, over the summer we did have um a one day August 14th, we had the Arburn, which is the regional bilingual education resource network, come in um and do a one-day PD when um it was offered to all the elementary teachers who wanted to come in. um they were looking at you know talking about report cards, translation support strategies, alternate assessments, things that you know happening in the classroom. Um 12 teachers attended that day. Um they also are always offering PD. So um I have sent out the links to the elementary teachers in the district um for the PD that's available right now um through the Arburn. And then what

110we have decided to do in-house um starting in January, we're going to utilize um our specialists. So Meg Cherabino at Harmony Hill um is going to do a one-hour session after school is going to be offered to um all the elementary Vansky and Averil Lancing to do come to see her and she's going to say, "Okay, we've had ENL my I've had ENL students. Here's what I've seen that works. Um here are some ideas, strategies um to ex to expect that you need in your wheelhouse. Now um the following month in February, it's going to be a one hour with our two elementary ENL teachers, Kim and Bra will then discuss with those teachers. Okay, this is going to be new to you to have an ENL teacher. Here's what you can expect when I

111come into your classroom. Here's what you can expect is happening when I take the students out. And then in March, we'll do a one hour where all three of them will be with those teachers and and kind of go over everything, anything we've missed, any other questions to prepare for to prepare for them. And then we're also Mr. Perry is going to um talk to his um teachers and we're going to offer any of the advanced biker um I lancing teachers who will be receiving um ENL students next year a chance to spend a half an hour in their classroom um so they can go and see it in action. Um, so that's what we've planned so far. >> Any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> We appreciate all the elementary schools

112coming to present their goals today. Um, it was wonderful. Uh, I think anything else as far as update or Stacy? >> Uh, it's Stacy's turn. >> We'll move on to uh update. So, uh, we have the audit committee meeting tentatively scheduled for November 17th at 5:00 pm with MMB. So, as that's finalized, I'll communicate that out. And we did uh visit each night crew this week uh to discuss the new uh supervision model at night for facilities. Um, so we're introducing two new roles. So, we have the cleaner leader role that we're introducing as well as the districtwide cleaner coordinator role. Um, so we're excited about these new roles and piloting this for the for this school year. Um, we are starting that this week. It has started this week. Um, so it was received

113fairly well and uh like I said, we're excited about the new model. Um, we were very vocal about receiving feedback. Uh, if anything needs to be tweaked or or modified, it's important for us to know sooner rather than later for it to be a success. >> Good. Anything else? >> That's it so far. >> Upcoming events. >> So, we have uh a couple things coming up here. Thursday the 23rd, uh, Districtwide Early Police Day. Friday the 31st, our Halloween parades, uh, Harmony Hill 2:00, Vancing 1:45, and Vans Gike at 2:15. >> No, not until 3:15. >> Says you're out. >> Probably till 2:45. >> Um, and then Saturday, November 1st is uh The Haunted House. Exciting stuff. And Tuesday the 4th is uh superintendent conference day no school. So very good. >> Love the sectional

114action. >> Look forward to this weekend too. >> Stuff going on in the sports world for the high school. I'm sure we've had some teams doing pretty great things. So look forward to see how they end the season. >> Yep. boys are fighting at seven and the girls are at home and the girls are six o'clock in the week. >> And congratulations to our boys JV team who is undefeated. So that means something too. >> So um with our presentations over, we will move on to uh the agenda portion um of the evening. Does the board have any items on tonight's agenda they would like to discuss? I just have one item. Um, tonight we are accepting the retirement of Aaron Hill. Um, you know, long-erving employee here both as a school psychologist and then

115our director of special programs. Um, she's done many great things here for the district and we just want to congratulate her on her retirement, wish her well um, and happiness in the future. So, just wanted to say that before we got to our agenda. Um, does the community have any items on tonight's agenda they would like to discuss? >> Mr. Perry, >> yes. You would like to speak on those individuals. Go ahead. >> They vote. >> Certainly. >> Amanda's not tired because Amanda had a really easy day. Yeah, >> sweetness here. This is a super strong team. Amanda, we're so happy that Amanda's been with us at Harmony. She knows all the kids. We love our sense of humor. We love her little mini her. They come in, they steal candy from from stealing candy.

116But uh Amanda does a phenomenal job of all our kids. She she knows a lot about I know a little bit about every single kid. She knows a lot. >> Well, I don't know. I mean, >> so so Michelle came to us from the school that I taught at middle school, correct? So it was interesting to watch her morph from a middle school teacher into into working with the special ed she can't think of a better team. Um it was interesting to see her when she was using some of the big kid strategies on little kids. I said, "Well, we got to we got to knock it out." But uh and I I observed her two days ago and I remarkable achievement she's done to let me say transition from that middle school teaching to

117now secretary being the secretary of phenomenal job. We're so happy. We're so here and she's got and she's got Mason watching Congratulations. >> Anything else from the committee on agenda items? >> Okay. Can I get a motion that the board of education adopt the following resolutions of the October 22nd agenda and agenda 6 A through or I'm sorry 7 A through K 8 A through N and 9 A >> I'll second it >> Mrs. Snder >> yes >> Mrs. Dendran Mrs. Paradis >> yes >> Mr. Dro >> yes >> Mrs. Burwell >> yes >> and Mrs. filler. >> Yes. >> With the consent agenda being passed, we'd like to congratulate again our tenure employees. Also, uh would like to welcome um our new director of special programs, Miss Lissa Fremont. Um she comes to us,

118she is in attendance tonight. So, she comes to us as a sitting director. Um highly recommended and qualified. So, we're excited for her to be here. What makes her the most qualified is probably that she's a Cahose graduate. Um, we like to welcome, you know, our own back in. Um, if anybody that knows Lorissa knows that she loves to tell people she's from Cahose and so this just adds to, you know, her resume, right, Lars? Well, congratulations. Um, we're very happy to have you here and welcome to our school community. Any comments from board of education members on anything not related to the agenda? >> I think we've said it all earlier. Any comments from the audience regarding anything unrelated to the agenda? Mr. first. >> Yeah. Hi. Sorry. Um over the last couple of

119months and you have also said goodbye to other employees and they are employees that employees. I just want to mention we lost our bed. Not only brought the bail brought for my dog and also I was shocked and sad to see guy Paul retired. Paul is identity creeping up to the top there. I don't know. >> I know both of these gentlemen replaced Thank you, Mr. B. Appreciate that. >> Mr. I want to mention um I know that Friday is a busy night with the 7 o'clock boys soccer game, but if you haven't been home, uh turn on WHD at 7:30. Um, Basite will be on the document with the uh, Senica chief, the area canal repro. They're doing a documentary on it and my third grade went over um, took part in some of

120the ceremonial things and were interviewed um, both two of my teachers and four of my students. So, they're going to be featured on WHT Friday night at 7:30. Can't catch about at the soccer game. There's going to be a link that I'll be sending out on parents square for saver. Great. Now they can be excited that they're on TV. >> Thank you very much. Any other comments from the audience? >> Okay, we just adopted uh two policies, animals on school uh property and interpreters for hearing impaired parents and guardians. Again, those were just um some updated policies. dates for future meetings, November 5th and the 19th right here at Clovis Middle School at 6 PM. Can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:49 p.m. >> I'll second it. >> Mrs. Snder, >>

121yes. >> Mrs. Gendron, >> yes. >> Mrs. Paradise, >> yes. >> Mr. Dro, >> yes. >> Mrs. Burl, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Phillip, >> yes. Thank you all for coming. I hope you have a wonderful evening. That's okay.