001Tuesday, October 7th, 2025, housing board of education business meeting. I'm calling the meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. >> President Clemens >> here. Vice President Valentine >> here. >> Trustee Mcnall >> here. >> Cover >> here. >> Trustee Clemenson >> here. Student member Sanders here. >> Student member Rajiro. >> Uh, welcome everybody. Um, before we get started, um, we're going to have a moment of silence for Gary Hattersley. Um, Gary Hattersley was a teacher at Heldane Elementary School for 37 years, uh, retiring in the early 2000s. Um, and I took a moment to read his obituary because I had not ever met
002him. And in addition to his really important dedication to the district, he helped folks with their taxes. He was an animal lover, a woodworker, and a gardener. So, we'll um just take a a moment of silence for um Gary Hatter. Thank you. Um, so the first thing we're going to do is approve the agenda. I don't believe we have any revisions to the agenda. So, may we have the recommended action? >> We resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the agenda as written. >> Do you have a motion? So moved. Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Um, a few comments from me. Um, I've continued to have the pleasure and honor of accompanying Dr. Duck Duffy as she's been introduced
003to various groups throughout the community. One of those groups was at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast on September 25th. Um, and not only was it really delightful for the community to meet Dr. Duffy, but it was actually really gratifying to hear um, the president of the chamber and other members of the chamber speak about their support for the district and their their commitment to engaging with and supporting us. So, that was really nice. Um, another thing that I just want to speak about briefly is that I went to uh the depot docs uh documentary series showed a movie called Speak, a documentary called Speak a couple of weeks ago and it follows five students from across the country as they prepare to and then travel to compete in the original oratory competition that's part of
004the National Speech and Debate Competi um associations competition. Um and right after the meeting or the the the movie there was a reception and all those all kinds of people were coming up and saying well do we have this at Haldane and why don't we have this at Haldane and I was like I think it's a great idea but I felt really very comfortable and gratified saying to people if this were something that students wanted to do the board and the district would find a way to make it happen. But um it's a great documentary or original oratory is where students write a 10-minute speech and then give it in a somewhat dramatized way um uh as part of this national speech and debate uh competition circuit and it's quite heartwarming. So recommend it and
005it I was glad to say that you know we find lots of opportunities to support our students in doing the kinds of things that they want to do and and I feel good about that. Um, Dr. Guppy, comments from you. >> Sure. >> So, as always, it's a nice busy time of year as we are now in our second month of school with our students. So, just a couple of things to highlight on my ends. Our girls tennis are officially now the league champions. And this is the first time they've been league champions, I believe, since 2010. So, that's very exciting for our team. We had homecoming the past couple of weeks. So, the parade was well attended, the pep rally, all the athletic games. And this is just a wonderful example of community connection
006and spirit that we have here in Haldane. And it was just such a pleasure to be part of all of those events. Um, I started my learning walks and so what those are, I have a chance once really once a month to meet with a principal and walk around into classrooms and see teaching and learning and the students in action. And so today I was with Christine um at the ele at the elementary school. Tomorrow I'll be with Maryanne in middle school and next week I'll be walking around at the high school with Julia. So, it's really great to get into the classrooms and we're really telling the the students and teachers to still do their thing. Don't mind us. Although it's kind of hard when we come in the classrooms, they want to talk
007a little bit, but we're really just excited to get in and see all the great things that our students and teachers are doing. And last, it's really wonderful. I'm so excited to be welcoming. We have two student board members. This is a regulation that came across the state. really the work started uh last year and Max and Luke put in to join the board this year in this capacity. And so tonight we're going to hear from both Max and Luke and then moving forward they're going to be rotating which board meetings they attend. Um and so Max is a 12th grader and Luke is a 10th grader and I'll turn things over. We'll start maybe with Max if you'd like to introduce yourself and I believe you might have some prepared remarks and then we'll
008go to Luke. So a warm welcome to both of you. >> Thank you. Good evening, members of the board of education, staff, and community members. As you may already know, my name is Maxwell Sanders, and I am in 12th grade. I have attended Haldane since kindergarten and am still in shock that this is my final year at such an incredibly tight-knit and embracing school. At Haldane, I don't just focus on academics. I also prioritize being involved in the community. I have been the president of the Leo Club, a community service organization, for two years, leading blanket drives for disabled youth, and roadside cleanups with our parent club, the Lions organization. Additionally, I've led the history clubs, helping an attic dig last year in the district office building and learning through the Putham County Museum how
009to preserve our historical finds. One of my favorite activities has been serving the girls varsity volleyball team as their manager for four years. Joining such a spirited team has taught me how to work with others when opinions differ or competition gets to our heads. When I first heard about the opportunity to become a student representative, I was thrilled. I had been involved in the community in service, athletic, and academic based ways. But having an actual say and listening and being able to be at the table for educational policy sparked my interest. I want to bring ideas and concerns from elementary, middle, and high school students, creating a productive environment that fosters real change, benefiting not only the students, but the community as a whole. The beginning of the school year has been a massive success
010in the high school with an exciting spirit week and homecoming. Students were able to reconnect after the summer with friends and teachers. High schoolers have shared both positive and negative feedback with me about the phone ban. Some say that the phone ban has helped them focus better and improve their mental health by reducing social media use during school hours. However, others feel that it hasn't made much a difference. Some even describing it as withdrawal from the online world. These these upcoming fall months are full of festivities. Haldane's annual trunk or treat is later this October. The model UN trip to Yukon is from November 7th to 10th. And the Veterans Day trivia bowl at the VFW sponsored by Youth Court and the History Club is November 14th. Before our next meeting, Luke and I will
011meet with Mrs. Jamman and Dr. Silky to expand representation for the elementary and middle schoolers by hearing directly from their student council representatives and classmates. Thank you to Thank you for your time. I am beyond honored to serve this new and exciting position and I look forward to representing the voice of Helian students throughout the school year. Thank you so much. >> Uh my name is Lucira. I am a 10th grader at Hain High School. I've been here since kindergarten. I'm currently a member of the varsity football and lacrosse team. Um I am in Hain's culinary club. I started my own Albian fishing and hiking club. >> Great. >> Uh and I'm also in international club. The main reason I wanted to fill out the application to be part of the board is I wanted
012to make sure that the student body's needs and wanted wants were being representative representative represented um and I wanted to be a part of it. So thank you for this opportunity. I recently last week sent out a survey to the whole student body asking them what they thought needed to be represented at the next board meeting. And I got a lot of responses, many of which referring to lights on the football and softball fields as well as new tennis courts because they've been cracking and destroyed. So, thank you very much. I look forward to working with you guys. >> Give me both a round of applause for >> Max and Luke. Thank you so much. Welcome. We're really glad to have you and we look forward to working with you all this year. >> Thank
013you. Um all right. Oh, it's a great meeting. Now we have faculty recognitions. We'll have two faculty being recognized for prestigious awards. >> There's a group of humanity teachers that um eat lunch together every day. Um, and it's it's interesting because I was in both of their classes last week and watching them teach is magical. Um, it it's my pleasure uh to stand up here today to recognize two teachers that I'd like to believe are um of the same generation as me, but um they're not math teachers, so maybe they are. But um it really is a true honor to be up here um to speak on behalf of both Jenna and Michelle. Um I'd like to first recognize their department chairs that are both here today. Um Miss Jackie McGrath and Miss Nancy Martinez
014Celli who are here to support um teachers within their department. Um and I know they too are super proud um of the work that they're able to accomplish together as a unit. Um I want to thank their families for being here. Um, we have Miss Cordderero's family here and we have Bella's family here including other and Michelle's >> no the older brother >> older brother and Michelle's parent um but I am going to read from this so I don't get teeyed but um tonight is a great pleasure to share some truly outstanding news about two exceptional educators who have recently been recognized at the state and at the regional level for their remarkable contributions to teaching and learning. First, on behalf of the Westchester Lower Hudson Valley Council of Social Studies Teachers, I'm proud to
015announce that Michelle Cordderero was selected as the recipient of the 2025 Outstanding High School Social Studies Teacher Award. >> All right. Wow. This distinguished honor recognizes Michelle's unwavering dedication to her students, her innovative teaching practices, and her deep commitment to fostering critical thinking and civic understanding within the classroom. Nominated by her department chair, Jackie McGrath, Michelle has consistently gone above and beyond to bring history and the social sciences to life. Her work inspires not only her students but also her colleagues. She continues to set a high bar for what it means to be an impactful teacher. We are deeply proud of Michelle and grateful for her passion and the excellence that she brings to the classroom every single day. Congratulations. All right. >> Michelle was honored last May, but as you all know what it's
016like in May and June in a high school. I kind of felt like if we were to celebrate her then it might get lost within the shuffle of everything else so that it was better to wait until the fall. And then it just so happened that I got an email in regards to Jenna. Um, so in addition to celebrating Michelle, we're equally thrilled to recognize Jenna Isabella, who was selected as the recipient of the Ruth Everett Award by the New York State English Council. This prestigious award honors cooperating teachers and mentors who guide and support future educators in the area of English language arts during their student teaching and/or an internship experience. Named in memory of Dr. Ruth E. Everett, a renowned mentor and the past president of the New York State Council of Educators.
017This award celebrates those who embody a spirit of generosity, professional excellence, and a lasting commitment to develop the next generation of teachers. Jenna has exemplified all of these qualities through her mentorship, her thoughtful guidance, and her dedication to nurturing emerging educators in the field of English language arts. Her impact extends far beyond the classroom as she helps shape the future of our profession by in investing in those just beginning theirs. And as we all know, we have a national shortage of teachers. And I'm grateful for Jenna and her vigilance and willingness to give back to our profession. Please join me in recogn I told them they didn't have to speak. >> Congratulations. >> We'll pause. >> It does work. >> Um so that was great um to get hear those features. This is actually a
018really honestly very exciting night um because the third thing that we have is um a presentation from uh elementary school principal uh Christine Jamman and our uh director of curriculum and instruction Josh Elder um to really talk about what are the final steps of a year'slong effort of the district to support uh teaching reading in the early grades which it's arguably one of the most important things we'll just pursue. So, thank you so much. >> Before you start, I do want to take a moment, Josh and Christine, just to acknowledge your leadership and just guidance in this whole process. Um, I've had the opportunity to help push out a new curriculum in a couple different content areas. So, I know personally how much work it is, but in spring, I had the chance to attend
019one of your final planning meetings, and I was very um super excited, but really impressed with the leadership in the way in which you led the team, gave all the teachers opportunities to give feedback, both positive, negative, and kind of wonderings they had about the program, and you've taken all of that feedback as you move forward. So just kudos to both of you for your a lot of hours, hard work, and this is exciting tonight to be able to see the final uh recommendations to move forward. So thank you both. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. And um in the spirit of maybe acknowledgement and giving credit where credit's due. I would also just like to thank the board of education because I think one of the things that's made this very successful is
020uh the space that we've been allowed to live within over the last year or so. And um this board has provided us the space when there's been some turbulent times around literacy and some evolution around that. And I think we've come here on multiple occasions and talked around what we were doing and things that we're doing and um appropriately inquisitive and at the same time recognizing that these things do take a little bit of time. Uh it's just been really nice to be able to have a process that goes along that way and to understand we've had the uh support of the board along the way because in speaking to colleagues and around it's not always that way. And so we recognize that we're able to do something very thoughtful uh and very measured in
021a way that we come here today and feel very um excited as much as everyone else in this room is around um this presentation. And so um before we kind of move forward with a lot of this um you know you're going to see a lot of things around our process and ways that we kind of whittleled a very large market down to our our final decisions or something. Um, one of the things that's at the forefront of everything that we do is obviously the healthy essentials, right? Um, so anything that we go through in terms of a curriculum resource or ways that we're evaluating products or or things that we might want to use, we're always starting or this is always the lens that things need to get filtered through in which conversations are
022happening, ways in which these materials or resources promote critical thinking, problem solving, communication, growth mindset, emotional intelligence, and wellness. Now, some may carry more balance than others at times. Um, but things don't get through unless they kind of go through that filter to begin with. So, as we move forward with this process, please understand that the absence of these words in the later slides um are only because they're always at the forefront of the things that we do as we're looking through them. Um, sorry. So, we alluded a little bit about a year long. I would say this has been going on for a good four or five years now. um uh predates me uh obviously uh and was Miss Jam first came up here and you know we're not going to go through this
023whole thing together but uh the point is is that uh years ago under the last adoption uh under the teachers units of study um there's been an evolving landscape not only in education but obviously through a tremendous amount of work that's come out with the science of reading um and through this timeline I think Miss Jam has and myself have always provided updates along on where we were. Um we've been moving through this in a process for about the last four years or so. It's really accelerated I'd say in the last two and a half obviously. Um I think areas to highlight would be uh do I can I do this? No, that's okay. um the year of 2022 23 where the big public fallout with uh teachers college became a little more public and
024um we were able to go under a year-long process of kind of learning creating a shared understanding amongst our elementary teachers around what's revisiting science of reading and making sure that we were starting um from a very common vocabulary. And one of the reasons we kind of went that route was we had a lot of teachers going lots of different places, right? And so um Sunni new pulse was creating a micro credential for teachers to go through and we had a tremendous amount of success that way. Um we didn't want to have a process where it was some people went out learned about it and came back. Um we wanted to make sure that we were able to have a grounding conversation with all of our elementary teachers around the science of reading. Um and
025this is where we partnered with the reading league which was emerging out of this work. uh and they came in here a couple of times during that school year and were able to cycle through all of our teachers K5 and actually up through K8 uh in ways um to really engage in that conversation. So, as we knew we were going to start looking at resources and evaluating our own curriculums, we had a really good solid foundation understand that we were speaking the same vocabulary as we're engaging in these conversations. Um and that took a good year-long process to do that. Um, and it culminates in last year really be able to whittle down through some resources, further engaging those and arriving at kind of our recommendations that you'll see a little bit later on. So,
026that's just a little bit of that. Um, one of the things that we would just like to say uh and we've been very uh purposeful when talking with our teachers is that um we're not we're not asking to adopt a curriculum, right? It's a resource and the vocabulary is important, right? Um the elementary curriculum um in ELA is anchored by the New York State ELA standards, right? And so the anchor standards are there and there's a tremendous amount of subsets within each standard and they uh really spell out through grade bands what students should be able to know and be able to do as a result of instruction. They are the roadmap from which curriculum is designed from. So when we're going through this process, we're talking about resources which will help best make our
027teachers um achieve those standards with students, right? Um it's not a curriculum in ways. And so um that's important because as we talked with our teachers, it was important to have that mindset as well that um no materials are perfect. And this slide looks very similar to the one we shared when Miss Jam and I did math. Um very similar conversations that were happening, right? Um none of them are perfect. Inevitably an evaluation process will uncover gaps, emissions or an adequate treatment of some content and emissions are not all of them are the same. The key is how easily teachers, a school or a district can help fill these gaps, right? And so as we started to take a step of evaluating our ELA literacy curriculums A5, this was one of the things that we
028really started with the gap analysis. Um where are we doing things well? where things we should continue doing, pause doing, stop doing, right? Um, and it became the center for which we started looking at curriculums for us. Um, and I just I just uh had a full pop resources, right? We weren't looking at curriculums. We're looking at resource or resources uh which would best support our our needs. Um, we also say resources because we were very open to with our teachers that uh we want to find the best things that work for our students. And if that is one resource, great. Um, but if it's a couple, then we'll go that route as well. Um, but the key was to make sure we were finding things uh that really upped our our curriculum and filled
029the gaps that we really needed based upon what what we knew. So, this is a very similar process that Miss Jam and I did a couple years ago when we were selecting a math and it was just to create structure to this process um for ourselves, for how we facilitated this and how we spoke with teachers and how we kind of uh progressed through it. just kind of goes establishing your process, developing your lens and the prepare study kind of know and uh when are your choices, investigate the materials and then to the decide and launch process. So obviously the last couple of years have been the prepare and the study and we're here today for the decide part and then starting tomorrow hopefully the launch part uh as we move forward with that. So,
030one of the things that was really important um was in establishing the process was making sure we got as a representative input from all of our elementary teachers. Um so, we had a very large robust committee I would say you know there's 15 members of us um eight general education teachers at least one per grade uh three special education teachers both of our AS teachers and then myself and Miss Jam were part of this process from the beginning all the way to the end. Um, and so this was the group that uh did the deep dives with us and then were able to go back into their grade level teams and to kind of either flush things out, revisit, get feedback and keep coming back. And we kept repeating that process a multitude of times
031over the last few years. You must >> you you can leave what you're good. >> All right. >> So that first step is developing your lens and we looked at this in two phases. The first phase was our start where we didn't have any resources right in front of us but we were just looking at what do we know about the science of reading and what we want from an ELA curriculum based on our knowledge base and that robust committee. Um, and so that phase one was having that uh committee go back to their grade levels and collect information on where are we at, what do we feel most strongly about what we're doing currently, where do we see our gaps, and what do we most need from a resource as we adopt it. And
032so some of the priorities that came out of that were um being able to integrate our ELA instruction with science and social studies, not necessarily every single unit, but at times throughout the year, is something that's become valuable to our teachers when they're doing project- based learning or when they're doing research projects and when they're doing those interdisciplinary projects. And so finding a resource that had overlap with the science uh and social studies standards as well as reaching the ELA and writing standards, the reading writing standards was important to uh the K through5 committee. Incorporating research based on science of reading was critical. Uh, one of the things that had led to this search was the fact that teachers felt like we had been doing and legitimately so doing a lot of work to fill
033that gap ourselves using the TC uh, scope and sequence as our units, but then really building our lesson plans, structures, and actual instructional practices at each grade level to ensure that it was doing the right things for our students had been a great deal of work over the past few years. Um, and so we wanted a resource that lifted that burden and made those instructional practices easier. Structure and coherence because when you're all creating your lessons and your units and filling those gaps, you know, first grade might be doing it one way, second grade is doing it well but in a different way. So that common language, those common routines, common structures were something that was um becoming less coher coherent between the grade levels without a common resource. Um, and then just making sure
034that the skills were building K through two or preK through two and three through five. So that there was a building in the writing stamina, there was a building of the reading comprehension skills, morphology and spelling, grammar instruction, that all of those components were in there um as we looked. Once we were getting the resources, then it was okay, now that we have some things in front of us and are able to look at them, what are the questions we're asking when we can actually look at them? and they're looking still at the coherence and the structures and making sure that they were actually there in the research, not just in the promotional materials. Um, looking at the assessments, how did they tie into instruction? What kind of data did they give us? Giving Looking
035at the instructional tasks, did our teachers feel like they were engaging, like they were where we wanted our students to be? Usability. Did it come with a manual that you could dig into easily? Or did it require just more effort than it was going to be worth to get the information out and in your fingertips to use with your class? And then promoting success for all students. What were the supports for differentiation? What are the supports uh for a student who was struggling? Was there scaffolding? So, there were a couple of resources that had really great materials, but then lacked that second phase. they were good for primary, but we would have needed additional resources for any students that didn't get it through primary instruction. So, um those were some of the questions we asked
036for that phase two. So, this overlaps in that um the survey of the districts is how we got some of our materials. So, we surveyed other districts, what are they using? A lot were in a really similar place to us. we had been using one material that were no longer satisfied and we're entering this questioning phase of what are we going to use next. So that was mixed results not in that uh other places weren't using good things but that we're all in the same place. So a lot of the answers were we're still figuring that out too. Um, we went to PNW Boseies, went to Duchess Boseies, we went to other directors, um, and, uh, reading specialists in the area to see what other resources other people were using, and we created a list
037of some of the resources that were well-rated, um, that other districts were uh, reporting had they had success with. So between getting those surveys, asking other places, and then looking at the research data, we narrowed our list to still a pretty robust list of resources that we then looked at those sample materials with those second tier questions. Um we then after we narrowed with those second tier questions, we had vendor representatives looking for a smaller um group of the resources and then we got to the point where we had narrowed it down to two and we actually did a two-eek pilot of each of those resources. Um and with that we had Megan Hardgrave coming in. She was our consultant. she was able to work with grade level teachers to really dig into the materials,
038make sure they had a good understanding in a short time frame so that those pilots could give us um good information in a in a short amount of time. >> The only thing I would add with the vendor presentations, which was really great, was because of the process we had had, we were able to provide the vendors we wanted to, they listed questions that we wanted them to answer for us based upon the presentation. And sometimes many of these can be stock things that they get up and do, >> sales pitches. And um because of kind of the work that had gone through, we were able to give each of them uh kind of a very detailed set of questions that we were looking for uh to better inform our decisions with that. So um
039was it was a worthwhile process. And I would say looking back at that timeline slide, the work we had done and the professional development and the chance for questions, the work with the reading league and the micro credential um you know I think back to when I was uh doing my science education training and they were talking about when you have misconceptions of students in science they will hold those misconceptions if you don't create dissatisfaction with what they think. Um and entering this it wasn't that Josh and I were saying we need to find a new resource by going to the PDS by doing the science of reading they were saying we are not satisfied with this resource we need a new resource and so that was really helpful in that like when we went
040to the vendors when we were doing the research when we were looking at the sample materials we weren't the ones saying you need a new resource because we said so they were asking the questions and leading that charge because they wanted something better which was a really good position to be in. So after the benchmark pilot when we got together and I believe this is when Dr. Duffy got to join us for um for our group meeting um this was some of the feedback that we got. So the ratings on ed reports they saw the same kinds of things. So both the K1 and 35 resources uh were well rated with the ED reports and they saw that in the materials they liked. There's a multilingual vocabulary glossery uh within the benchmark resources that they
041really like. We've talked before about how our population is changing and we're having more ENL students. And so the fact that that's there and can be shared with students, can be shared with the ENL teacher to support students, they really like that. Um there's a visual magazine component where it's not um even though it's a core resource, a lot of the core resources have then like this big giant book that the kids have. A lot of the readings here are they they're broken down by unit into more engaging visual colored magazines. So they like those and the students were really easily picking them up, engaging, opening them and excited by the by those materials. Um they saw the comprehension strategies they were looking for. There's a digital component that allows them to access and annotate
042texts and keep them up uh on the screen while students have them in front of them. Still a strong connection to science and social studies, probably one of the better ones of the resources that we saw. Not 100% but enough units at each grade level where those inter disciplinary projects would be there. The assessments seemed like they would be meaningful. It was hard to judge because we only did a two-eek pilot so we didn't administer the assessments. So that's why I said seemed um but looking at what where the unit would make the would help them reach at the end and what the assessments were um looking for. The teachers felt like they would get meaningful information from them. Grammar, spelling, and word work were all included. Uh they liked uh this wasn't on our
043wish list, but they liked that there's a journaling and reader theater component in each unit. Uh there are like additional add-ons. They're not necessarily something we would use every single unit, but they're there along with research and projectbased extension activities. That would be opportunities. So, when they're looking for if they say, "Oh, this unit lines up well with science." There's already a project-based sol uh suggestion that's there and a reader theater component that's there that could be used to as a starting point for a project or as the project itself depending on what the grade level's looking to do. And the texts uh were varied and appeared appropriate for each grade level um with appropriate length, appropriate topics, engaging uh engaging uh levels to the text. Um and when the students were using them during
044the pilot, overall the teachers felt like they responded positively to those texts. So those were all things that with the benchmark um the teachers enjoyed. We felt like it was a better place to just this is the one we're recommending. We don't need to trash any other programs. So, we won't go into why we didn't choose other programs. We've highlighted the things that made us think that this was the best choice for helping with the University of Florida Literacy Institute, which we just call you. Um, that is an additional resource. So, Benchmark does have a phonics component that's integrated into it. and we could adopt benchmark in its entirety and it would include the phonics for K2 and then shift to spelling and word work at 35. However, that's not our recommendation right now. We
045would get those resources as part of when you purchase like the resources you get the phonics and we could use them for support stations, additional materials. But our suggestion is to adopt UFly as our primary resource for phonics instruction with the benchmark resources as a backup additional resource if we need extension or you had a student that needed more work or additional um extension activities. And the reason for that, it's also wellrated. Um it also uses the science of reading um approaches but we used it while we were uh looking for a resource because we had recognized that TC was not meeting what our students needed and we looked for something that we could use in the interim and while we've used it we have gotten extremely successful results. So we had shared during the
046elementary detail report last year that under Ufly our students were getting you want 85% of your students to reach the benchmark. So these are the fall spring winter data from last year of students reaching benchmark. Um three through five doesn't use youly that's just your reading comprehension and your word other things. But if you look at where our students started in September and where they got to at the end of the year in K1 and two in phonics with our use of UFly, it is quite impressive. Um all of them well above that 85% um and not while starting. By the second grade they were starting, they would have had two years of UFI prior to that. Um, and if you look at kindergarten specifically in the strategies that they would focus on as they're
047learning to read in kindergarten, these are the components that go into that benchmark research. So, um, our students are coming in with their phoning segmentings came in at 100% and ended at 100%. Fantastic. They were all great at that. But our other skills were not there. And by the end of the year, a 100% of our kindergarten students reached the benchmark that we would want with their phonics skills. Um, and it's hard to argue with that result, which is why our recommendation would be that we use you as our primary resource, keeping benchmark uh as a supplement should we need it. um moving forward and benchmark and UFly. Another benefit to them that we looked at because we had been using UFly and seeing this data as the year went on is that the benchmark
048progression of through phonics and the UFly progression through phonics, they aren't identical, but they are you can mesh them so that it's not ahead. Um it wouldn't preclude any of the reading strategies that they're using in reading class if we used the other resource. So that's our recommendation for adoption would be UFI foundations for the K2 phonics instruction and benchmark advance for preK through five questions. I got a sense through uh just your describing the different uh methods and different approaches um that in some way this might reflect a lot of practices that you have been pulling together in a way and I'm curious to know you know day one as you start to make this shift what does that shift look like by rising second grader like or a first grader let's say to
049the parent and how >> yeah like so how do what would they see this >> well yeah how's it going to shift and change. >> So, as we've explored and knowing that this presentation was coming up, our teachers have been exploring benchmark has some asynchronous videos on how you can become oriented to some of the procedures. So, like there's a routines and structures unit that often starts the year in all of the grade levels. So, our teachers have watched that and looked at and they've been trying some of those things. They're not drastically different, but it's, you know, it's simple things like if we're going to shift to small group work, are there common times and ways that we shift within a lesson? And the idea being if you have the same common practice within
050how a reading class shifts between whole group to small group to individual in kindergarten to then first to second, then you're not reteing all of the routines every single school year. whereas right now that >> you know they're all doing great things but not using the exact common language. So they've been trying some things like that. Um and I would say it's not something that parents are like what's going on how they the structures are different. It's just building common ways in which we do things which have been helpful but we've done small group work >> all the time. We've done stations and centers and small greeting groups. Like all of those things are components that you're right, we've been doing it, but maybe the timing, maybe the structure, maybe the way in which we
051instruct kids on how we move between the two hasn't been the same in every classroom and this would allow that to happen. Um, reader theater is something some teachers have done and tried and enjoyed, but they were creating those reading theater things themselves, finding a resource and creating it. this would then maybe make a teacher who's less comfortable say, "Oh, I'd love to try that in my classroom, too, and it's here and I have everything I need." So, I think it allows us to try some of those pieces >> um that weren't mandates before, but were things that we had um get to enter more classrooms. >> Do the um the resource comes with sets of level books? >> No longer. Or do we use leveled books? >> I say no more leveled books. >>
052Use decodable books. >> Okay. >> Because leveled books use words that you have rely on queuing strategies for whereas decodable books use the phononics rules that you've learned or are practicing. Okay. >> So they come with sets of decodable ones. >> Okay. And can you choose other ones too to supplement recommendations? >> Yes. And we've been building our decodable libraries. So we've have pretty robust decodable libraries. K three decodable books become less necessary at the higher levels because they're now not decoding every word. >> Um but you still have some students who struggle with reading at four or five and there are high noon is one publisher that makes a lot of decodable chapter books. So we have those in our four or five classrooms. >> Um so we've got those and then these would
053have additional ones. I'm glad to hear that the texts are engaging because if I understand from my understanding phonics kind of went out of fashion, right? Partly because it's like kids were not particularly motivated to read the books were so boring. >> Yeah. And comics is a really short period like if you think about the structure of our day and jump in Josh but like we have >> roughly and when we combine with science and social studies you get more if it's an interdisiplinary unit but we designate roughly 45 minutes for reading 45 minutes for writing and then 30 minutes for phonics. So that part where you're doing the like like we stopped by a second grade classroom today where they were actually practicing like the breaking down the sounds and the syllables and what
054letters that goes with >> that isn't the most exciting part of reading. >> Also very helpful. >> You need that explicit instruction if you're going to later spell the words correctly. You're going to read and be able to code >> a longer word that you've never encountered before. Um, but then you want your core reading resources to have those other parts that you have those strategies. Let's use them on something more exciting than >> just the phonics. >> Okay. >> And the magazines the teachers felt like added to those pieces too because they're short, they're engaging, but they've >> they're aligned with the reading strategies. >> So it's not like throwing the baby out with bath water. It's not like there's no more whole language techniques ever. >> In fact, they're Yeah, they're going to
055be doing reading of texts and books and articles and all of those pieces. Um, the science of reading doesn't say we shouldn't do that. It says you have to build comprehension and language work alongside your phonics. Otherwise, you can only decode and you don't understand. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's great. >> Thanks. >> Just real quick, um, >> we're leaving it out. Okay. I want she's got a gem in short but ready to go. >> I'm ready. Go ahead. >> So this is all you know I mean you know from where this is heading right when you think about like we want to provide a foundation the weaknesses that we see in the higher grades and in college is that children students can't finish >> lengthy texts at all. lengthy being 15 20 pages. Um, and
056so, you know, it's one thing to have this resource to where you're where you're looking at, well, we have magazine pieces, we have short pieces, we are data gear, we're building this inside of that both you fly and the benchmark advance recognizing that this is a foundation, but also realizing that there's there's a huge like stamina problem with reading. is uh do you see this um resource as something that will be able to build up the stamina for you? I mean the one way that I would approach that is thinking that particularly with something like you fly I think we have that you slight moral imperative to ensure that our kids by the grade three they all reach that 100% foundational phonics ability to be able to decode text that way. And that will then
057allow them to engage with longer pieces of text and be able to spend more of their thinking power on the actual comprehension of it rather than decoding them. Right? And so, um, combined with the coherence that goes in with that, because I think that what starts to happen that I have seen is that as kids progress in higher grade levels, if those foundational pieces aren't met and they haven't mastered that, they get less and less explicit instruction in those and it just compounds itself every grade level. So, by the time you have a percentage, and it might start off as being a small amount of kids per grade level, but they're all kids, right? And so whether it's three or four of them, by the time they keep going year after year, um the texts
058only get more complex and only get more longer and they're not getting any real direct instruction in the actual aspect that's the the gap that they need in the beginning, right? And I think one of the ways we've structured this or looked at this is to say what's going to give us the best idea of by the time kids exit grade three is what I think we're saying is they're on a path to then be able to feel like the other part of elementary school can either be a resource that we know can also continue to serve in like an AIS pathway, right? Um so it could still be a foundation for tier two and possibly tier three, although we have a different tier three resource for that. Um, but that's where the coherence part
059of it comes into play. Um, and then I guess what a long-winded would be, you know, they're at the best able, so as they continue to it shifts slightly to being, you know, we're going to teach you how to comprehend more and at longer periods of time. Um I don't have the answer but the the thought process is absolutely that that's the thought that we we're thinking of going into this is um let's make sure they can do all of this by a certain grade level to be able to you know really engage with the materials that are coming out next. Okay. >> And I would say the other thing is is that and I will not say I've looked at all the grade levels to the depth that I know 100%. But I believe
060in the fourth and fifth grade there's an independent reading and book club component. Um or I'm remembering that the teachers felt that that was something they could add because remember no resource is perfect. So one thing I'll say that the teachers felt was a weakness within this curriculum was the length of the writing pieces. But our teachers said, "We've been encouraging and we feel really strong in our writing instruction." That's feedback we get from like the middle school and the high school is that like they come in writing lengthier pieces stronger. Um, so if we need to add writing prompts, that's a gap we can fill without extensive additional resources. So when you're looking whereas what are the differentiation structures for somebody who's struggling in reading that was a gap they said no no no
061we don't want to have to look for that one somewhere else we want that to come with the resource. So like length and stamina on writing was something they felt like not as strong as they wanted to but a gap they felt like we can extend a writing piece we can add to that without uh without any difficulty. And so that would be something we'd look at like, all right, so second grade, where are we adding some additional writing length? Is that in unit one? Is it in every unit? Is it some units? Are we adding a research project? Are we doing it in social studies or are we doing it in science because maybe it's not in the core English? And so talking about those things and so um I think reading stamina, if
062they notice that that isn't there, then that's something too that we've had book clubs that are reading lengthier chapter books. We've had book clubs, classroom reads that they're reading those lengthy books. So that's something too that if I'm misremembering and it isn't in there, then it's that we had that discussion that they felt like they could add that. >> Yeah. I just go from like that, you know, in that backwards planning thing like you said, like, okay, well, we want these skills to be seen and to me it's like we we see those skills to be seen in a like, you know, by fifth grade every kid can read or most kids can read, you know, page or something like that. you know where you have something where you say bang we have it and
063then so that data that you have you know it's represented in you know in something that's quite tangible that's not just in the >> the code >> yeah just >> yeah a very small number of your kids should be reading just a kid who's maybe receiving specialized reading instruction >> right yeah got you thank you >> any other question >> I mean I just really I mean I really appreciate what Josh said about teaching ing children to read as a moral imperative, right? And so that and you know, um I know a lot of people think about that decodable books are boring. It's really exciting seeing children be able to read like that's so I think sometimes adults think they're really boring, but children reading and being able to read them is really I know
064very exciting. But I think throughout this process, the thing I I I find really very you know um you know that I really appreciate is the extent to which right it's the teachers in the classroom that are doing this work you know and and really you know incorporating them in the process to identify you know where they and you all wanted to move. Um you mentioned I think last year how hard teachers were having to work to fill all the gaps without having um a set of wrong strong resources and you know there's there's already so much that they have to do. So yes, learning new resources is not an easy thing to do and I'm sure that that will take time, but once that they master it, you know, like being able then to
065free up their time to really, you know, you know, think about how to build, you know, um, uh, resilience and what's the word I want? >> Stamina. Yes. Stamina. Yeah. For reading. Um, and I know it's actually something that's happening in the middle school. You was it you and I were in the middle school last year? Yes. Yes. It was actually really exciting to hear that so many of the middle school classrooms, I think, especially the ELA classrooms like the teachers were really building in opportunities for students to engage in prolonged reading in class. Sort of knowing that students might not be doing that as much outside of class. Really finding time like on the straight nine days. being one of the teachers super talking about that was their time to read. So anyway, it's
066great and the idea of it all being, you know, having one resource that's aligned and really getting kids to where we want them to go. It's all really great. >> Yeah, >> it's very exciting for me at this point. >> Just so you know, like I don't know how much this goes into the fourth grade, but I'm being taught from my by my son who comes home and he brings all the things and he's like, "This is what we read about today." He's like, he's not bored. He's actually pretty engaged. That's great. Good. >> Good. >> Do you guys remember how to read? Don't want to put you on the spot, but >> ago, >> thank you very much. >> I don't. >> No, it's the juicy coffee. That's right. That's right. >> My kids
067all decoding books. >> Sure. >> All right. Thank you so much. Really, it's really I think we said this quite a bit last year at the presentation, >> but really it does represent such a long um a really thoughtful process of getting to a really important place, you know, and and people being open to that is is really fantastic. So, thanks very much. Um, all right. So, we're now at the first opportunity for communication from the public. The Haldane Board of Education desires and values input from the entire school community. This first comment session is reserved for comments on any special presentations or active agenda items. Anyone who'd wish to address the board, we'd ask you to sign in and state your name. To keep your remarks to three minutes or less, and to refrain
068from using disparaging remarks or discussing district personnel, the board would not engage in dialogue, but we would listen and we would ask you to leave your contact information with our district clerk so that um Dr. Duffy or myself can follow up. It's good to meet. Next on our agenda just for the board's reference and I think actually these are also the public content. So uh all the financial report that the board will act on at our next business meeting in November which feels um and lost. So, we're at that state. I don't know. I is consent agenda. I don't know. I feel like I'm missing something. We're going next into consent agenda minute. Yes. No. Minute. >> Um may we have a motion, please? >> Move. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I.
069Any opposed? Next is the consent agenda financial for the uh financial reports that we are approving at this um meeting. May we have a motion please? >> So moved. Second. >> And I think we just wanted to just point out that on the consent agenda of financial is approval of our agreement with the Pton County Sheriff's Department for our SRO which we really appreciate. >> Yes. And there's no increase. So it's just going through the for this current school year approving the agreement. Yes. Um, all those in favor? >> I >> Any um opposed and agenda personnel. May we have a motion, please? >> Second. >> I think it's all state for all those in favor. >> I Any opposed? Uh next we're moving into new business which which is the uh committee for special
070education and committee for preschool special education recommendations. May we come to recommendation please? Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. The board of education hereby approves the recommendations of the committees on special education and preschool special education as presented. May we have a motion, please? >> So moved. Second. >> All those in favor? I. Any opposed? And next, the very exciting uh culmination of or actually maybe in a new beginning to our our ELA journey here in Haldane is uh the uh ELA curriculum adoption. May we have the recommended action, please? Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby adopts the curricular resources benchmark advance and University of Florida literacy institute for grades prek through 5. >> May we have a
071motion, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? All right. Now we're at the second opportunity for communication from the public on all school district matters and board reflections. Anybody have anything you want to add? >> Uh just again special thank you to Putnham County for supporting the SRO program. We know that that's always a budget conversation at the county level >> uh and is a gigantic help uh here at the >> in our district and uh so thank you. You know, and one of the things Gail and I heard when we went to the re regionalization meeting in early September, that there are a lot of districts, I think mostly in Westchester, well, I don't want to call out any counties, but in other count in other
072places in the state where the the cost of their SRO is rising exponentially and that really isn't the case for us and it's really something we should all be really appreciative, >> very thanks for pointing that out. >> All right, anybody else? All right. So, um, the board, do you have any final thoughts before we go into executive session? >> I just want to thank Josh and Christine again for a fantastic presentation on behalf of the staff as well. I'm very excited to see the work moving forward there. And Max and Luke, you made it through your first meeting. I'm wondering, do either of you have anything that you'd like to share as we close out? You don't have to have anything. It's but I like to ask. >> It's really awesome experience. start out
073and I thought learning about the what the new English notation is interesting. >> Yeah. Wonderful. >> So you all should feel welcome when we do the board that board reflections at the end. Right. I do kind of pause but if there's something really you guys are you know one of the reasons why the state passed the law that school boards have student exophysicio members is the recognition that student voices are really important. Um, and if it's a time to reflect on something or to note something um, at any point in the meeting, you all are always welcome to join in. We look forward to hearing from you. All right. So, the board is going to convene into executive session. We'll adjourn the meeting from executive session. Um, and u we're uh so I'm going to
074make an a motion to convene into executive session for the purposes of discussing a personnel matter. May I have a second, please? >> Second. >> All those in favor? I I