Board of Education Meeting of January 28, 2026

001Good evening and welcome. I'd like to call to order the Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 Board of Education regular meeting. And our superintendent, as Mary Fox Alter, is going to lead us in the pledge. So, let's stand. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. And we're on to item 1.3, our superintendent's update. So I'll turn it back over to Miss Mary Fox. >> All right. So, first of all, I want to thank everyone in Austining from the um DPW department, the village, the um police department, and um our staff and clearly uh Jared Mance and the building and ground staff for just being on top of all things snow,

002more snow, side snow, all kinds of snow and frozen weather. But it it takes a village and there were lots of communication, lots of conversations of it. But um with a one-day closing, a 2-hour delay, we were able to open. Um our attendance has been really good. And I just want to thank everybody for their flexibility and for their support and figuring out how to carpool and getting creative about how to get to school. So I want to just thank everybody for that. We are halfway through winter. So just just saying just putting it out there. All right. >> I want to thank everyone who uh joined our Saturday explore and learn. Um it had no baked snacks, easy and healthy recipes to try at home and yoga. And a big very very special thank

003you to the Austining Early uh childhood PTA for sponsoring this event and making it such a great success. Our seventh graders, you might have seen this on social media, created super amazing and beautiful and powerful self-portraits inspired by an Ecuadorian um artist. And it was in Mr. Koga's art class. Beautiful. If you've saw them, and if you didn't, just go check them out. It was just so impressive. I want to congratulate Claremont student uh Marjgerie Lopez who won first prize in the Ginsburg Art Contest. She received an art tablet and a $5,000 donation to support Claremont School's arts and education program. $5,000. That's phenomenal. Phenomenal. I also want to give a big shout out to um Austining High School senior Claire Schnecker um who was spotlighted in a huge article on lowhud. So if you

004haven't seen it yet, very proud of Claire and I I think I know her dad uh do a shout out to >> don't tell her that. >> But again, it's a wonderful article and we are with such pride sharing it with everyone. Uh, the drama club put on an excellent production of I Love Rock and Roll. Congratulations to them. AMD sixth graders constructed pinatas and had great fun breaking them apart last week. I love the social media pics of that too as well. Our arts, our park students held a multicultural enrichment concert with 123 um Andress this engaging bilingual assembly. Use music to explore Latin American culture, language, and geography. Please note that UPK prek registration is open at this time and closes on March 2nd, 2026. Again, I want to thank the Osnik Early

005Childhood PTA for getting the information out to the community as well. Um, I'm going to ask everyone to mark their calendars to get ready for the Austining Matters fundraiser Friday, March 6th. Details can be found on their website. And I want to turn it over to Owen. >> Good evening, everyone. Last week at the high school, we there were no classes and instead of the regular schedule, we had midterm exams. So, we were very grateful for that snow day and to our delay um because it it kept the uh kept a little bit of a break going. But I want to thank the high school administration, Miss Scorge, Miss Rosario, and all the curriculum coordinators for their help in organizing the exam week. And then last Friday marked the end of the semester 1 at

006OS. Uh and we are halfway through the year. So, we're looking forward to a a good semester, too, and a good end of the end of the year. Um, tomorrow at the high school, there will be a 10th grade parent night. And on February 5th, there will be a 9th grade parent night. Um, these info sessions are led by Miss Langley, administrators, and Mr. Ducos, and are always um good for parents to to learn about what's what's going on with their stu with their kids. February is Black History Month and we are excited to kick off the month with a Black History celebration on February 4th. This is a wonderful event that will spotlight our students, faculty, and community members while honoring the legacy and impact of black history and culture. On February 5th, OHS

007will be having its course fair and this is a great opportunity for underassmen to see what classes are available and what they would be interested in as we go into course selection for next year. In athletics, girls bowling uh advanced to the section finals. So, we're wishing them good luck and uh as they continue the season. And at our last meeting, I shouted out Colin Liberts for earning his 150th win. Uh he recently hit another milestone at 100 career pins. So, it's super impressive and um congratulations to Colin. The Rivertown Legends hockey team beat Mayapac yesterday in their annual hockey fights c canc cancer game improving to 11 and three on the season. And both boys swimming and wrestling recently celebrated their senior nights. Also be on the lookout for girls basketball as they continue

008their season. And I think I don't want to jinx it, but there may be another milestone coming up for for um them too. Uh so I spoke briefly uh last meeting about starting a campaign to encourage high school students to check their email and Friday is wellness day at the high school. So included in a virtual assembly uh myself and Miss Langley will discuss the importance of keeping up to date with your email. Uh I will break it down by grade level emphasizing the specific reasons why checking your email is important. Um, and with the new internet enabled device ban, administration plans to use email as a primary form of communication for schoolwide events and has already started to do so. So, in the assembly, I also address scholarships and post-secary opportunities for juniors and

009seniors and how checking their email is vital to making sure they're staying up to date with that. Um, but this is only the beginning of an effort to check their email and kind of improve student communication overall. Um we've met with uh Mr. Cole Ree a bunch as well to to kind of improve that. And then also at our last meeting uh it was mentioned the progress of the internet enabled device ban at the high school. Um I have talked to Dr. Son, our dean at the high school. We're going to try to do a more extensive report in the spring about um kind of the trends there and what students are thinking. maybe put a schoolwide survey out just to get um a more uh comprehensive opinion of everything. And then finally, later this

010month um and next month, there will be some collaborative events between OHS and Claremont at Claremont. And I also plan on doing something with Brookside in the spring. I we miss our planning to have a meeting in the coming weeks. So, I'll make sure to provide updates on everything as we move forward. >> That's great. >> Thank you. And I want to get um congratulations as a senior for hitting this milestone. I mean senior year and those of you with parents who've experienced that before, but senior year is very unique and now it's mid year and the first half went by like that, right? >> Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So it's it's um you know it doesn't feel like we're close to the end, but this is definitely definitely a lot of capstone events. So, so

011all parents of seniors, en enjoy every moment of it. Enjoy every moment of it. >> And a big congratulations to you, Owen. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you for the update, Owen. Um, at this time, I'd like to take a motion to move up 7.1. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. abstensions. All right. At this time, I'll take a motion for 7.1. >> Second. >> Uh 7.1 resolution regarding professional staff tenure appointments. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstensions. And before we move on, I'd like to turn things over briefly to uh Dr. Novver who will speak a little bit to the motion we just passed. >> Good evening, Superintendent Fox Alter, members of the board of education, esteemed colleagues, and

012members of the Austining community. Tonight, it is my honor to recognize and celebrate the tenure of Rebecca Franklin. >> Rebecca is a phenomenal educator, human, and friend. She works tirelessly to ensure that all of her students receive support both academically and socially. And she not only excels in working with students, but is a critical member of our overall team. Rebecca's attention to detail and stealth spreadsheet maneuvers ensure that testing schedules are clear and accessible to all. Further, Rebecca's organizational capacity and knowledge of our school community made her instrumental in the development and implementation of a successful summer program. Not only did she ensure that our students received the appropriate interventions to meet their needs, she has met with our team on an ongoing basis to analyze student data throughout this school year, which is helping

013us to determine whether or not the summer program has impacted students overall academic achievement and to plan ahead for this summer. Rebecca, in the words of your colleagues, you are the smartest woman in the world. And I would say that I agree. You have the rarest heart, one made of pure gold, and you always go above and beyond to make the people around you feel seen, loved, and special. And another colleague shared that you are a constant source of support and knowledge, someone everyone can always lean on. We all turn to you, whether it's regarding math content, anything related to computers, or literally anything in between. And Payton says, "You are the goat." >> Now, a quick sidebar. Rebecca is special. We all know this, but her tenacity was completely solidified when, unbeknownst to me,

014and early in her pregnancy, I flew her across the country for a conference, dragged her through two Disney parks over 14 hours, had her complete a scavenger hunt that we won. That tells you all you need to know about Rebecca Franklin. Rebecca, you are so deserving of this honor. I now forced it upon you. >> And my friend, you are loved. >> Thank you so much. >> I love you so much. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. >> Thank you everybody so much. tenure is such an incredible milestone in a professional's career. Um it uh a a tenure candidate goes through a lot for three years. Lots of teacher observations, lots of pre-conferences, postconferences, uh lots of drop in and different folks coming in. So again, congratulations for this wonderful milestone

015in your career. >> Thank you again. And this is um the part where I usually say, you know, you're welcome to stay, but you are also welcome to go home and celebrate. >> All right. Um, our next item and our first work session item is our equity item, our ARC reading programs presentation. So, I'll turn it over to Mary Fox Alter to introduce our presenters. >> Right. So, um, we welcome this opportunity. Um, this topic tonight came from, um, a discussion working with the administration and the board over the summer about we are in the middle of our fourth year of implementation of the ARC reading program. So, it's a wonderful opportunity to check out where we were, where we are, and where we're going. And to lead that work is um someone new to

016us. She just completed her first year with us, our new director of literacy, Dr. Leila Mson. So, Ila, come on up to the podium. All right. So, good evening members of the board. Um, thank you for this opportunity to present an update on the implementation of ARC core and the department of literacy. So, with us tonight is my colleague, Mr. Lawrence Ramos, ARC's director of teaching and learning. Um, I would like to begin by acknowledging our amazing cabinet for their leadership and support as well as the directors that I work with every day building principles whose daily collaboration makes this work possible. Our literacy work is not done in isolation. It is a collective effort. Oh, language and literacy are central to our vision, beliefs, and core values, and is grounded in equity and responsiveness.

017They provide access, belonging, and success across classrooms. When instruction is culturally responsive, rigorous, and aligned with scienceinformed practices, students are positioned to meet high expectations. Literacy advances our mission by enabling students to access content, communicate ideas clearly, and think critically, supporting academic achievement, civic engagement, and lifelong learning and partnership with our families and community. Our why every portrait of a graduate competency is grounded in language. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening enable students to collaborate, problem solve, and engage across disciplines and real world contexts. Our portrait of a learner here in Austin aligns closely with these competencies, positioning us well to support student success. Strong tier one instruction is our most powerful equity lever. Our long range plan emphasizes relevant learning and student choice, multiple literacies, a culture of care, family and community engagement, and aligned

018professional learning to ensure long-term literacy success for all our students. In the next two slides, I'm going to take us through our district literacy commitment and implementation journey. Our core was adopted in 2022 2023 school year after a careful study and a pilot year in two dual language classrooms at Claremont to address equity by literacy and alignment with the science of reading. Since adoption, implementation has been phased to ensure coherence, capacity building, and sustainability. Our focus continues to be fidelity to the program framework, effective and efficient use of our tools, integrity to design and delivery to meet all our students needs at all grade levels, strengthening the overall impact of positive outcomes. So I can give an example of that. Each summer before the school year begins, leaders and teachers collaborate to revisit and refine

019implementation plans to strengthen tier one. Together, we address timely unit pacing, providing Earla and Neil home updates, making sure those go in out in a timely manner before conferencing with parents, equitable conferencing practices, ensuring that we understand what that entails, and increased opportunities for writing while reading. That was something that was very important to me from the minute I stepped into this district this year is to make sure that we are writing more. So the implementation journey where were we where are we now and where are we going? So our implementation journey reflects a shift from some variability to a coherent scienceinformed literacy system. We're now more grounded in shared language, distributed leadership, highquality instruction with integrity, and the intentional use of multiple data sources to drive decisions within our multi-tered systems of support. Moving

020forward, we will sustain this work by deepening our understanding of the science of reading and learning, what students need to know and do, and how they learn best when conditions are right. We will also leverage universal design for learning principles that are in ARC core materials to provide multiple ways for students to access, engage with, and demonstrate literacy supporting their growth as proficient readers. We continue to strengthen tier one instruction by aligning our systems and supports to ensure equitable access to various texts and meaning making. Implementation fidelity using the program as intended is monitored through district and literacy learning walks, building leaders and um collective collaborative sessions working together with our leaders and action planning with our teachers and teacher leaders. while remaining responsive to all grade levels needs. ARC core coaches also provide ongoing

021guidance, clarify expectations, and address misconceptions when they work with our teachers and leaders. So, beyond student growth over time, we are seeing increased readiness as students transition across grades and buildings. There is a deeper understanding of complex topics through the research conducted from the early grades and consistent use of program tools and materials. That consistency lessens the cognitive load and students know what to expect year after year so that they can focus on the content and the knowledge and skills they're learning. The same can be said for our teachers and leaders. There's a higher level of confidence. It is very evident and that comes from content, instructional and assessment knowledge that we're building over time. During my many class visits, students I see students all the time using their Arcore tools to conduct research. They're

022able to articulate their tasks and goals using scaffolded supports such as supplemental reading uh articles if they need it with Nuzella or differentiated materials such as writing paper as needed. And that is what our teachers do. They meet our students where they are at a given point in time in the year in their learning. In foundational skills, students engage in orthographic mapping, mapping matching those letters to sounds. Using our core word study notebooks, their anchor charts, they're interacting with their materials, supported with additional tools like letter tiles and whiteboards for word building, dictation, and receiving timely feedback. We know that no single program meets every student's needs. Strong tiered instruction comes from knowing our students well, how they learn best, and using high quality core resources responsively and with consistency and intentionality, which has really

023been a part of the implementation journey. In the next few slides, I will touch upon the research and how it's guiding our language and literacy work using the ARC core program. So before I show you the image, some of this may be new information. Some of it may be known, while some may be a reminder of things that you may not have thought about in a while. To ensure sustained impact, it's been a focal point of mine that we share a clear science of reading aligned understanding of what it takes to become a skilled reader and writer, making the necessary connections in teaching and learning. Research shows that while we are hardwired to speak, reading and writing are learned skills built on the foundation of oral language. As word recognition, as you see at the

024bottom domain, becomes increasingly automatic through explicit instruction, how readers accurately and automatically read words, language comprehension, the top domain, that is how readers make meaning from text becomes strategically um in its use. So, as we're building those skills, it becomes automatic and more strategic, particularly vocabulary, background knowledge, and language structures in text. They are interconnected and interdependent, and they must be taught together. Guided by data across our schools, our instructional priority this year is oracy with a focused emphasis on vocabulary and language structures. These skills support meaning making at the sentence and text level and are instrumental to skilled reading and writing. Here you'll see you may be familiar with this the NISED literacy briefs uh number three which further reinforces the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing which draws on shared knowledge and increases

025in complexity across grades. Strengthening cognitive and linguistic skills is especially impactful for multilingual learners and benefits all learners. We're committed to intentionally connecting daily reading, writing, and foundational skills instruction through the appropriate use of decodables, connected and authentic texts. Here you'll see in this last image is the connection between reading and writing. So when we're building background knowledge for example in verbal reasoning we are also building critical thinking skills when we're generating ideas and you can just so that gives us a little context of the of the research as shown here. The principles and elements of structured literacy are embedded within the ARC framework. What remains within the locus of our control is are three things. what we teach, the quality of our instruction, and how we pri prioritize time. Together, we're creating the time

026and space to develop a clear understanding of essential basic and advanced literacy skills, how they're taught through explicit instruction, and why they matter, strengthening instructional design, uh, decisions for students. An example that I could provide for you is in K2 foundational skills. They now have thematically aligned decodables when students are applying their taught phonics skills and building fluency through a three reads oral reading fluency protocol. grades three to five will have word study and advanced phonics is being offered as part of their uh literacy experience that's uh coming up and we're um exploring that and and and having discussions about it. So in year four um we are right about 3.5 uh in uh three and a half years in monitoring our implementation plan occurs across multiple levels of the system including professional learning and

027district and building activities. For example, some ongoing feedback that we receive from our coaching sessions and midyear implementation surveys inform celebrations, things to be proud of. We address barriers, misconceptions and this ensures strong consistent tier one instruction. This work is reinforced through district and building instructional learning walks, leader discovery tours, literacy walks aligned to our five instructional lenses. So now let's take a look at our investments over the years. This table highlights per pupil investments in materials and capacity building. While costs have stabilized, year four requires replenishing durable resources such as classroom and thematic libraries alongside annual consumables. We forecast a similar need next year and are exploring ways to use our core resources effectively and efficiently. Ongoing professional learning remains critical to sustaining quality implementation. So as we shift to internal capacity building the

028number of ARC professional learning sessions will decrease. Not shown here are stable per pupil investments in for school pace our data analytics tool and resource center which have increased modestly from $23 per pupil in 2022 23 to roughly a projected $27 per pupil next year. So now we're going to take a closer look at consumables, durables, and the shift in professional learning. Consumables include lab writers notebooks, thematic exemplar packs for information units, and newly aligned K1 decodable text that support skills transfer, fluency, and knowledge building. The lab notebooks serve as a think as thinking tools embedding research questions, assessments, and articles that students annotate to support critical thinking and academic discourse. Overall, these workbooks are being used consistently across classrooms. In some cases, use varies by grade level, units of study, and individual student need.

029We continue to explore ways again to maximize that and to reinforce the instructional value of our tools. Here you'll also see skills cards to practice individual power goals identified during conferencing, practice during small groupoup instruction, and independently to build proficiency and progress as as a reader. Research, writing, and genre cards support literacy development by providing information on key text structures. It also includes prompts and questions that deepen meaning making across new and familiar topics. So again, when I visit classrooms, I often see students with all their tools at their fingertips as they interact with text, engage with their peers, using structural strategies that have been set up in the learning environment to achieve content and language objectives. We continue to set conditions for optimal learning by maximizing tools and temporary scaffolds so that all the

030students can progress in their literacy. The goal is for students to know their literacy power goals and explain how these tools or strategies improve their own reading and writing journey. In years three and four, we've seen a continued need to replenish our toolkits across buildings. They're being used. The kids are working with them. They they just happen to some natural wear and tear reflecting their consistent and effective use. Classrooms are using wide reading libraries across genres along with thematic libraries to support research and content learning. Some feedback that we get from educators confirms a need to expand authentic Spanish text to ensure equitable access for students particularly those in the dual language classrooms. Overall, students have a wide range of text options which I will highlight in the next slide. So, this slide captures a

031range of texts students have access to interact with, including decodable anthologies as part of their foundational skills lessons in K&1, coupled with decodable sentences, passages, and connected text in their Earl and Neil toolkit small group lessons within your core tier one instruction. Wide reading with grade level authentic text in English and Spanish, both in print and digital, are available. These choices and access support engagement, equity, and knowledge building. Some additional feedback that we've received from teachers reveals the need to maximize those decodable passages that are utilized in toolkits during the reading lab for more practice to ensure accuracy in reading and building overall fluency. So right those are usually done in small group but we want to make those available for additional practice. So also teachers have expressed the need for again the uh more

032uh Spanish text. So we are going to definitely look into that. Now let's shift to professional learning which has evolved um in how it meets the teachers needs and builds on leadership capacity within schools. So early coaching focused on learning the components such as ERA and Neil implementation, small groupoup design, conferencing, instructional delivery and use of school pace, our data analytics tool to monitor reading progress. This year, coaching focused on instructional coherence and capacity building by strengthening oracy through accountable talk, explicit vocabulary routines, and language development in grade level text supported by iterative job embedded cycles consisting of modeling, co-planning, co-eing, and reflection in reading and writing practices. Feedback is embedded in coaching summaries from each school visit which reflected the need for ongoing support with planning pacing of hold and small group reading and

033reading and writing and accurate accurate use and data collection in school pace. As educators are at varying stages in their levels of expertise implementation fidelity differs by grade and over time with clear next steps for continuous improvement. As I've mentioned earlier, we're in the process of surveying educators um for the um we we started off with the foundational skills and now we're moving into the the tier one instruction for reading and writing. The next few slides are going to review three years of achievement data from our core literacy assessments. NWA Map Growth, our universal screener, Era Anneil, our formative assessment for learning, and NISET ELA, our summitative assessment of learning. Each assessment provides distinct insights at different points in the year to guide responsive instruction. So, NWA MAP growth is our universal screener administered three

034times per year. It provides a broad indicator of risk by measuring overall and it also measures overall achievement and growth helping us to identify where instructional attention should be focused at the system level. It allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of tier 1 instruction across buildings. As you can see here, median percentile scores across grades 3 to 8 range from the low 40s to 50s. 50. Several grades are performing at or near national norms while others indicate the need to continue strengthening tier one instruction. Because MAP growth is adaptive and normed reference, these results reflect overall system performance rather than mastery of individual standards. >> Um can I just ask a clarifying question? >> Yes. Um, are we reading third grade in 2023 and then their fourth grade in 2024 or are we reading third

035grade in 2023 becomes fourth grade in 2024? >> Right now it's third grade across. >> Okay, thank you. >> Yes, thank you for asking. >> So the NICELA is our summitive statewide benchmark assessment. Proficiency rates vary by grade with notable gains in some elementary levels and the results align with patterns seen in both NWA MAP growth and ERA anal data. As a summitive measure, NICELA reflects the cumulative impact of instruction over time and indicates grade level standards mastery, not day-to-day instructional effectiveness. It provides a consistent statewide benchmark for accountability and when viewed alongside screening informative measures, the NISET ELA confirm system level trends rather than driving instructional decisions on its own. Earl is a formative ELA assessment designed to guide instruction rather than just report performance. It identifies students reading behaviors and instructional needs, which

036is helping teachers determine what to teach next along the grade level proficiency uh continuum. Lower proficiency rates signal where to intensify explicit instruction, small group conferencing, and language supports within tier 1. The data show variability by grade level with stronger proficiency in grades 3 to 5 and lower proficiency in grades 6 through 8. This pattern is expected in a formative assessment that measures instructionally specific reading behaviors rather than overall achievement. And the data indicate that early and elementary tier 1 instruction is gaining traction while the middle grades required continued focus on stamina comprehension and content area literacy. And then we have anal that is our formative assessment in Spanish and provides critical insights into students by literacy development insight that Englishonly assessments cannot capture. Lower proficiency levels identify opportunities to strengthen vocabulary, syntax, and discourse

037through intentional oracy and literacy instruction in Spanish. The data shows stronger performance in the elementary grades and lower proficiency in the upper grades, reflecting the increasing linguistic and academic demands of Spanish as students engage with more complex contentrich texts. These results are especially valuable for understanding language development, not just reading skills, among our multilingual learners. So, this example illustrates how our day-to-day multi-tered system of support approach strengthens the literacy system as a whole. As shown in previous slides, map growth, Earl Neil, and our nice ELA each measure different yet connected aspects of literacy, much like comparing apples, oranges, and bananas. Because these assessments serve different purposes and occur at different points in the time of the year, we're looking for trends across measures, and that is exactly what the data show. This convergence confirms that

038our system is aligned and generally effective. We are on the right path yet we know that sustained precise implementation is needed to move achievement forward. I will now ask Mr. Lawrence Ramos to come up for his portion of tonight's presentation. Thank you so much Dr. Mson. Good evening. Uh my name is Lawrence Ramos and I am director of teaching and learning at American Reading Company. I have had the pleasure of supporting the implementation of Arch Solutions in uh the Hudson Valley region in Long Island. O in New York State and I have um supported the awesome implementation since the very early stages with uh starting with the pilot um which was in spring of 2022. So I facilitated the coaching at Clarammont Elementary uh back when we were piloting our core and then since then

039I have been able to support the implementation of our core with the expansion uh from K through 8 um since school year 23 um until now. uh and some of the supports I have provided to uh the team and in the collaborations uh has been through uh coaching and also um leader leadership learning series um supporting the both the district leadership campus leadership in creating systems and structure to uh ensure that we have uh an implementation the follows fidelity of what the program is designed to uh accomplish. um the creation of different resources to support um the implementation timeline being one of them to support the teachers in the transitions from the units throughout the year. Um identifying common resources that are part of the program to ensure that all classrooms are receiving um all

040the instructional activities and resources and routines uh that are designed as part of our core and literacy commitments. So I know Dr. Monson mentioned that every summer uh there's there are sessions for curriculum mapping. So I get to support teachers who come together during the summer to continue to uh do enhancements to their their implementation plan and um professional development. I have the pleasure of supporting a team of coaches uh that are assigned to each of the schools. Um and this year um we are implementing a coaching plan that focuses on uh ORC uh and vocabulary and writing. Um so those are some of the um collaborations um I have made with the uh district leadership and again campus leadership as we are now in year three and a half of our core implementation here

041in Austin. So going back to professional development and expanding on what Dr. Monson presented earlier today the shift from the first two years of the implementation where our professional development was more uh focused on the formative assessment and intervention piece. So, we wanted to make sure that we were providing teachers with uh all that they needed to be able to implement successfully the independent reading level assessment and uh and also uh how to maximize the use of the uh toolkits that are designed for both English and Spanish uh to make sure again that we were tracking students reading growth through school pace which is our platform where we get to identify uh all of the evidence of the conferences. with students and it's a system that will track again students growth uh throughout the year

042but also um as a cohort and then the second uh the last two years um we have focused more on tier one instruction in the knowledge building and and writing component of our core. So we have really focused all of our efforts in ensuring that uh our coaching sessions um are designed to uh continue to build on teachers capacity uh to understand the process of how to maximize the resources that are included as part of the program but also uh taking a little pulse of where their students are and ensuring that they're providing the appropriate differentiation and scaffolds to ensure that all students are growing as readers and writers. So this is uh a little description visual of what we expect uh in in the process of building the foundation through our core. So there's

043the two lenses that are definitely working together with reading and writing but uh what we describe as a successful um our core classroom and in the reading component it uh focuses on ensuring that students are engaged readers that we're that we are tracking um students independent reading time um that we are identifying accurate era and anal levels for each student and with that uh power goal which is the one skill student needs to uh advance as a reader. um following our conference activity recommendations for equitable conferencing practices which aligns with the NTFS MTSS uh process and also monitoring students uh rate uh of reading growth um to make sure again that for those students who are not making adequate growth that we could put plan in place to make sure that they are accessing additional

044opportunities for conferencing uh and different recommendations again that we have as part of the AR core program and same in the writing uh piece and component of our core uh providing daily writing opportunities for students whether that's right to text or writing um as an activity under the informational research or uh narrative research uh or um argument uh making sure that students are creating their own pieces right whether that's independent or in collaboration. Uh teachers are also um uh conducting writing conferences and modeling explicitly. Uh so the teachers guide will provide some guidance on how to teachers could engage students in that process. Uh and also the effective use of uh mentor text and writing rubrics and editing tools that are available as part of our core. So from the lens of building expertise there

045are again the two categories one of them being students as a learning community and then the other piece will be educators as continuous improvement team. Uh so for students as a learning community some of the recommendations are for students to act as effective peer reading and writing coaches. Opportunities for students to be uh engaging in driving the questions the discussion. So the teacher serves as a facilitator. the students are actively engaged in sharing their thinking and also ensuring that all students including multilingual learners or students with special needs that are successfully and actively participating as part of daily instruction. And from an educator's perspective of a continuous improvement team uh that teachers are effective uh peer coaches that they have opportunities to co-plan and share resources and the way they're planning instruction. um that students

046are that teachers are using student work as a feedback loop. So they're actively being able to analyze um the uh students writing pieces and and and providing feedback in moment to ensure that they're improving and as they continue to craft their their writing and also opportunities for uh grade level teams to share responsibility of the success of all students and also that includes opportunities for the teacher leaders uh to be able to collaborate with one another. going to share now briefly some district profiles. I will begin with Saratoga Springs and some of the results as they were in um implementing our core and arc solutions. So in Saratoga this visual will provide in figure two that after a one year of implementation of our core um it was a significant increase in uh students results

047in the I ready when comparing grade one and two from the fall assessment to the spring assessment. Um so again figure one two of I ready on or above grade level you can see that in grade one uh the fall assessment the result was 14% and again this is year one of implementation of our core in the assessment conducted in the spring there was a 48% uh proficiency on this test which was an increase of 34% and in second grade uh the fall assessment the results were 32% and in the spring assessment of I already it was uh 59% which was an increase of 27%. Again, this is a uh one of the results that were gathered as part of the implementation of our core after year one in Saratoga Spring here in New York.

048Now, let's take it to Elk Township uh in New Jersey. Uh and in here you can see that in figure two uh which talks about the um percentage of students their growth after uh three years of implementation of our core uh there was an increase in the state assessment in third grade of 7% in fourth grade of 22% in fifth of 4% and in sixth grade of 10%. So that figure again this is a reflection of uh some of the results that that this district received as part of the implementation of our core. Also in figure one uh that visual provides a decrease uh of students reading on emergency levels from the beginning of year 1 with 138 student to 19 students. there was a significant reduction in students reading on emergency levels uh towards

049the end of the second year of implementation of our core. And the third um district profile that I would like to share as part of the national results and district profiles of uh districts implementing our core, we have Villa Park in Illinois. And again this uh data reflects uh the Illinois assessment of readiness results uh which is there is a test and we have a sample of grade three, four and five after our core being implemented for three years uh in uh before the implementation of our core in grade three 18% proficiency and after three year three of implementation we see an increase of 36% again in grade In grade four before the implementation of ARORE proficiency was 26% and after 3 years the uh results of the proficiency in grade four was 40%. And

050in grade 5 uh before the ARCore implementation in 2021 31% and then uh after 3 years in year 23 24 34%. I'm sharing this because now we're bring it back to Austin, right? And but before we get to that, here's a quote from the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in Villa Park in Illinois. Uh we've not only provided reading proficiency, but also built a foundation for a lifetime of literacy. Our district's progress is a testament to the hard work of our educators and the effectiveness of a guaranteed and viable curriculum aligned to our mission, our vision for students success. Now let's get to see some of the data here from the Austin implementation. In this visual we're um we're seeing the percentage of early proficiency by cohort. So we're going to follow if we

051look at the kindergarten in year one it's in purple. Then you're going to see that year two it's going to be the second uh box in purple. Year three third box in purple. And then year four where now they're going to be in grade three. those students it that will be the result. So we could look at this data uh to see the the increase in proficiency but to have a better visual I have another uh chart that will uh give us by cohort or students in 22 23 that were in kindergarten at the end of that year students were at 44.9%. Now those students are in third grade and uh currently they are at 64%. Which was uh an increase for that cohort of students in proficiency of uh 19.1%. Uh in students who

052started with the when we started with the implementation were in grade one now are in grade four. In grade one that that uh end of year data reflected 56.7% of students reading at proficient levels. Now in fourth grade those students are at 61.8 so there was an increase of 5.1%. Uh students who were in second grade and now are in fifth grade there was a reduction of uh 1.3%. So there was a decrease with that cohort. Um same for students who started the program in third grade and are now in sixth grade. >> Um there was a reduction from 43% proficiency in third grade and now in sixth grade of uh 15.8%. But when we think about fourth grade and now are in seventh grade uh from 35.4 to 44.3 uh which is an increase

053of 8.9%. And in students who started the program in fifth grade who are now graduating from 8th grade uh also a decrease of 4.3. Now this visual we're still uh sharing the results of of the ERA speaks to teachers capacity of really understanding how to use the ERA as a formative assessment throughout the years. So uh going back to kindergarten in year one in blue students at the end of kindergarten in the first year of implementation students were 44.9% reading at proficient levels but if we take it to uh now uh in January when we were looking at the data 76.2% 2% of students currently in kindergarten in English are reading at proficient levels. Right? And we can see that trend in grade one when in year 1 it was 56.7 and now we have

054uh in the year four 65.9. Grade two we have 50.7 proficiency at the end of year 1 and now those students uh which are in the year four and now in uh sixth grade are 70% proficient. So we can see that trend. So this visual again provides some insight into teachers capacity to really understand how to use the independent reading level assessment as a formative assessment, right? Their comfort with the tools and the intervention and again following the equitable conferencing recommendations as uh that are part of the program. And now this is the same information but for espanol. So we have again following the trend of year 1 kindergarten 45.3% and we followed a little steps down until now that there we are in year four of implementation. Uh so again we have seen uh

055some uh increase uh in students performance in espanol as Dr. Monzo also also shared. Um so again you will have access to to to this visual to see again the the increase the percentage of increase for espanol and same visual of again the independ for teachers capacity kind of like the same trajectory that happened for the earl we can see in regards to teaching maximizing the use of resources and really understanding the uh anal uh formative assessment. Yes. >> Are there typos? Are there typos on the on the last line there? That's >> eight. >> Where's point8 and 3.2 and >> for grade system? No. So So looking at back at the data from end of year for year one, two, and three, those were the that was what the system uh registered, but I

056could definitely look again and see if there was any. >> It looks wonky. It just doesn't. >> Yeah. I can definitely look again and go back into school base which houses all of that data and and take a quick look at um at the numbers again and um again the outcomes some of the results of our partnership right so uh as part of our commitment in this partnership with the Austinian Union Free School Districts uh continuity in building teachers capacity to successfully continue to implement our core uh continue to support teachers, right? We know that some sometimes we have new teachers who are learning the independent reading level assessment, formative assessment uh recommendations and guidance and understanding the the conference activity process and equitable conferencing practices so we can continue to support teachers in in

057the assessment structures and recommendations for next steps. Um improving uh students proficiency across decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Uh it's a continued uh commitment of ours. Um continue to provide again uh getting back to the teachers guide and and make sure that uh teachers feel comfortable understanding what is provided as part of the recommendations for our core to increase students reading stamina and their ability to engage in grade level texts. Uh some of the results again a reduction in number of students needing intervention. Right? When we're thinking about those students who are transitioning from emergency levels to at risk level to proficiency level, right? So there's as we see an increase students reading at proficient levels, it also aligns with a decrease in students in the other two categories. Some of them uh transitioning from

058emergency to to at risk and to proficient even in one year. Uh continuing to uh provide stronger language development for multilingual learners through structured supports. uh consistent uh use of evidence-based literacy practices across classrooms, right? So, there's vertical alignment. All of the uh schools and teachers in all grade levels are receiving the same kind of support when it comes to uh sitebased uh job embedded coaching and of course uh a coherent literacy system where curriculum assessments, interventions and professional development are all aligned. So, so uh those are some of our results. Now that we are in year four of implementation of AR, >> thank you so much. Thank you. >> It's a lot a lot going on in there. So, I'm sure some of our board members here have some questions. Does anybody want to

059start? And then I'll go around in a circle. >> Can I just I guess this would be a point of order. >> Sure. given the um all our stuff is always important but given that this is I think our first real big readout on this with Dr. Mson and um with ARC here as well. Can we try to maybe I know traditionally we say two questions. Can we try to extend the discussion? I think especially in the public forum is going to be really really important. So can we try to do more than two? >> Let's seek consensus from the board on that. >> I'm okay with it. >> I think we should do the two. See if that answers everybody else's other questions and then we can take a motion to extend public comment.

060>> We don't even need a motion. I can just agree. We can just do >> the presentation over. >> Yes. >> No, there's more. Oh, sorry. >> I think we'll take a pause just on the overall literacy of the high school and >> yeah, the um slides are different on here than they are. >> Oh, yeah. That's what size is what threw me off. >> Okay, but this is a good place to pause. >> Pause. We can pause. Sure. Um, if that's I don't want to throw anybody off their game. Okay. >> Um, let's How about this? Because I'm thinking there's more to be presented. I don't want to >> Yeah, I didn't mean for it to be now. I I'm sorry. I thought the president I was looking at a different version. So, I

061thought >> Oh, did did we intend to stop here? Was that on purpose? Well, I think we mistakenly thought that that was the last we didn't finish to the board. Just keep ri let's keep going. How about this? We'll keep going. We'll hear the whole thing so that maybe maybe some of our answers questions may already be answered or whatever. >> We'll go around. We'll do two questions. If we feel like we need more time, we can discuss it then. >> Sounds good. Thank you. Let's roll. Thank you. So I'm going to conclude by highlighting the department of literacy strategic actions aligned to districtwide goals. And again under the purview of my work is uh English the ELA department um academic intervention services and library library media specialist. So our work in language and literacy

062is again grounded in in research and it's aligned to our district's vision, mission and goals. The goals and action steps across the four pillars are intertwined with the work of my colleagues, my fellow directors, building leaders whom I collaborate with on a daily basis. And we know that student success depends on the consistency um of our work, highquality learning experiences across grades with all our educators. And when students are immersed in a coherent language rich literacy ecosystem and educators are supported with clear structures and high quality resources, we tend to see outcomes improve. So for I give you an example, students attention is this year is intentionally and it's very evident in classrooms and and our educators are so immersed in this work. They're so invested. Um they're focusing on tier 2 and tier three

063vocabulary across content areas with embedded morphology to support multi-elabic word reading and meaning making. Emphasis is also placed on sentence level structures and syntax. And there is an increase in student writing. They're writing during independent reading time. They're writing about reading. They're writing in responses. They're jotting. They're annotating. Um and so that includes both the writing process and responses to reading. So just as importantly has been refining our MTSS model, sound systems and meeting structures from the district to the individual student level and aligning our instructional cycles for horizontal and vertical alignment across our grades. So when students pro progress is uneven, that data is helping us respond with those targeted supports and timely instructional excuse me adjustments. So our enhanced MTSS model, it it's creating this time and space for leaders and educators to

064examine the core tier one instruction at all levels. We're having we're seeing more collaboration and articulation between our classroom teachers, ENL, special education, dual language interventionist, related service providers, building their capacity through data discussions, sharing of best practices and action planning, leaving meetings with a plan. So, Orisy again, as I mentioned, is our district-wide priority because it drives reading comprehension and written expression across all disciplines through a shared focus on vocabulary, language structures, explicit instruction, and reading writing connection supported by job embedded coaching, aligned curricular units, vertical alignment, pre-K to 12, and cross department collaboration. teaching and learning will improve at every level for every key stakeholder. Data literacy is enhance is enhances our own ability to improve instruction and target supports effectively. So, as I mentioned before, our walks, our year, our year-long arc

065of professional learning on data analysis, cross department collaboration, using shared tools, we're increasingly using data to guide core instruction and intervention decisions. So daily use of those data visualization tools like branching minds and school pace along with fastbridge our progress monitoring tool supports problem solving critical thinking and informed decision making across all our tiers. Equity underpins literacy success. It ensures that all students have access to high quality scienceinformed instruction and more importantly timely support through our new district literacy council. PreK12 aligned MTSS systems, targeted tutoring with part partners at the elementary and secondary level through Einstein and the reading institute and strong literacy partnerships with AVID. Our structures are strengthening to support educators and students across grades. We have shared tools including book creator which is being led by our library media specialists and elementary

066STEM educators partnering with buddy teachers in classrooms including ENL and dual language teachers and they're using that tool to uh creatively complete projects the final projects in ARC at the end of every unit. There's also a literacy for all site, Google site, which promotes consistent and inclusive practices that improve outcomes for all learners. Family and community partnerships extend literacy learning beyond the classroom. Through family update reports, workshops, and community events, we build shared understanding and capacity to support students at home and at school. Opportunities like an our upcoming spring language and literacy fair are going to highlight our teaching and learning experiences using ARC core aligned with the science of reading and the pillars of reading oral language and writing. offering science of reading microcredential course to interested parents like similar to we have a

067cohort right now of 50 educators who are just about wrapping up their 10-hour micro credential course and they're doing excellent and showcasing student work with digital tools to amplify their voice and reinforce our collective commitment to success. So I want to conclude tonight with a quote from Victor Hugo. To learn to read is to light a fire. Every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. Thank you. Thank you. I went and I grabbed a hard copy of the slideshow presentation too. So that was helpful for me. Um all right. So we have I can sense a lot of questions and there's certainly a lot here. Um we'll start and try to be mindful of each other. So we can start with two minutes or two questions however it works out. Sometimes we try for

068two minutes but sometimes the answers are we we ask what feels like a simple question and it becomes a complicated answer in response. So um we'll go around the table and then if we feel we could um more discussion is warranted we can take that route. Um, who would like to start and then we'll go around in a circle. >> I'm happy to start in the sense that like I'm going to ask for if we can find additional data if that's what the board wants. It might be like a good place to start. >> Sure. >> Um, hi. So, thank you very much. Um, a sort of like a couple of data clarifications. Um I was looking at the cohorts of um the various grades and um I think that the first group of students

069that began with ARC are now in 11th grade at at the high school. Is that correct? Does anybody like >> what school? >> Like the the first cohort of students that started on ARC >> in what grade? >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, you're right. The highest level, the highest grade of students that began in ARC would be 11th grade, right? >> That would be correct. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> So, is it possible for us to see their their data and their proficiency now of of like the 9th, 10th, and 11th graders? >> Um, so that was just sort of I'm interested in in seeing that. Absolutely. Right. Because that's sort of like our test cohort. >> I would I would support that as well. We'll gather that data for you and and present it

070to you in our next board update next Friday. >> And then um along the same lines, >> remind me when our 11th graders take the English regents is that's a sorry I just said it myself. That is 11th grade, right? Okay. So it's it's this year, >> right? >> So then do we h we don't yet have a data point for regions then? We do not have a regions point. We can give you formative data at this moment in time >> or if you'd like we can give you the June data and that'll be probably in July. >> Okay. Yeah, definitely look forward to that. >> Okay. >> So, that was a data piece and then it's very difficult for me, you know, if we're evaluating this program and I'm sure we all all have

071opinions as we go around the table of of what we're seeing. It's hard for me to form an opinion or come to a conclusion if I don't have the data broken out by uh our ENL students, our um demographics, socioeconomics, and sort of just like a little bit more granular data. So we can analyze this and say do do we happen to have a subset of students that's doing really well in this and do they have certain identifying characteristics and then do we have other students that are categorized in a different way that maybe aren't responding as well. I think that would be really helpful even if you know if we have students that are are having 504s and IEPs I think that would be really important data to look at as well. So those

072are sort of my two questions which were really >> requests I guess for just a little more granular data. >> Absolutely. We will get that you >> do we want to stay on the data request questions because I could or we could go because I do I've got a couple too that again if the board would entertain you know is interested in it. So is that cool? >> I mean yeah you we'll go around the table anyway. So you >> okay um so more data. So we talk about fidelity. I know we've heard that Mary you know admin this works well when you've add fidelity right the implementation and it's referred to in the deck but how do we have a measurement of fidelity is there a way to measure the the fidelity or is

073that more qualitative if there is a way to measure like I don't know like percentage implemented of blank in this classroom observe whatever that is or is are there not quantitative data on that because that right you said that's really really important to the success of the program. >> So at this time we do have qual we are gathering qualitative data but that is something that we're looking at moving forward is to develop something that would probably give us equally um equal amounts of quantitative data so we can balance that out >> and it could be a little more comprehensive a as a as a full holistic picture. Sure. >> Okay. And then I guess I'll take the second one for now. Staying on the the the ask around data referencing the deck that there's

074feedback from teachers, feedback from the community. I So it's a two-part question. Do we have that? Can that be shared with the board? And then more qualitative, what are we hearing from teachers and families? Do they like it? They want more of this, less of that? Like what what are sort of sort of the initial readout? And again, can we look at the data around any surveys or other things you've done? >> So, sure, we can c. Currently, this I can speak for right now. Currently, we're collecting midyear surveys. So, the next round of surveys is going to be more for the reading and the writing. Right now, we have the foundational skills. We do have qualitative data from our coaching um sessions. So that is that can is just very quick to curate that

075data and come up with a summary for you. I did address certain things throughout the presentation. For example, you know, the their feedback in terms of their continued need for support or their um the the way that they value the research. They want a little bit more um guidance when it comes to school pace, but they're receiving all this. So with the coaching that's being given to them and we get that on the spot feedback after every session. Those are the things we're collecting. But I think we could put it together for you in a way that is it it tells a better story. >> And when you say that, you mean midyear surveys. Are those teacher surveys? Is that community surveys or both? >> So that is teacher surveys and at this time that

076that would be u a point that we would definitely look into is is also fielding the community as well. So, thank you for that. >> Got it. Yeah. And if the rest of the board likes that, like Catherine, >> if I can add to that just for a moment, just I want to jump onto the balcony for perspective on fidelity of implementation. And I feel the same way about math. I feel and it goes back to correlation does not prove causation, right? In many ways, which we know. And we also know that learning takes place with three important components. the what which is curriculum, the how which is instruction and assessment on the what and the how. All three of those have to come together for learning to take place. So initially here and I

077think you know it's a conversation I would have Kim Mauricio who has more longevity on this but when I first arrived here in interviewing many teachers what happened and going back and looking at reports from Jessica Turner even board reports from the time is that fidelity of implementation with the TC model which was used here was almost non-existent. the term was we did it the awesomeing way or you might find that in one grade level all the third grade teachers did it this way but the second grade teachers did it that way. The problem with that is when you're trying to look at everything to see where is the source of trying to improve instruction. Is it the tier one instruction? Is it the tier 2? Is it the lack of vocabulary development? Is it

078not enough this? Is it is it too much uh not enoughformational text? What are they doing about vocabulary? It was hard to ascertain that because of the way the TC model was implemented. And then we all know the research on TC that the science of reading wasn't clearly part of that. You know, my personal opinion, I think some people misunderstood TC. TC is not an ELA curriculum. It's a program. we should have always supported it with the other elements of the science of reading, but that ship has sailed and that's a long time ago. But so to find a program that has components that you could say to a teacher in second grade, so you're able to look at things across grade levels and between schools. So, and and in order to gather that qualitative

079data, um last year when I did a full day learning walk with Emily at Park School, I could go into every single preK classroom and to see fidelity of implementation on what was taking place in a reading session. All teachers were aligned. They were using similar materials. Now you you you want every child to experience the uniqueness and specialness of every single teacher, but you want all 13 sections of class for kids to arrive at the same place and get the same experience with the materials. So it's it's making sure through the qualitative measures that we have which are built into the program that there is fidelity. There is a math literacy council now established. We have literacy team leaders that do speak on a consistent and regular basis. There is feedback forms at the

080end of every PD session about this. So trying to get as much trying to make sure that we're on on and and having regular and consistent summitative and formative assessments help us along those lines too. So that's that's the that's the spirit behind the concept of fidelity of implementation. And again taking a look at those three components. You could have I we all know this. I may make another um thought process. You could have the most wonderful engine car in the world but if the driver it isn't really that proficient. So again it's making sure that that and you heard Dr. months and say that several times that tier one that main class instruction not just for English language arts but for all subjects is important that's a critical piece to this there will be

081some children as we all know who maybe the phenemic awareness or the phonetic piece of all this they are far above that they don't need that and that's where the individual there there's there the program is built for differentiation but again that takes a skill set within a classroom of a teacher to do that. Well, >> and also just to build on what Mary said, we've been very responsive in listening to teacher feedback um as far as responsive with the professional learning and um Mr. Lawrence uh did mention the fact that our coaching cycles have shifted throughout the years based on where the teachers felt that they needed more support in in order to to ensure that the fidelity of implementation was happening. Um it's not only the fidelity of implementation but also the use

082of the tool and its integrity that's also been a a parallel focus of ours and our teachers. Great. And um more if we go around later, but I just want to say really do I don't think I'd start off as I really do personally appreciate the deck. It's transparent. You got financial figures in there which will be follow-up question mine, but I just want to say that the really do good thorough work on it and again very transparent as well with all the data. >> I mean this is important to us. I do need the board to understand that we ask these questions all the all the time. you know, there's an awful lot of time, effort, energy, money, and um our children who are engaging this on a daily basis. It's super important for

083us to put a critical lens on all of this. >> Let me get catch Owen first. Owen, you got any? >> I'm good. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> So, appreciate as my colleague said all the data and the efforts around this. I think the intentionality around writing is great to hear. I think there's, you know, there's a lot of components that are great. um as a comparison data set, right? Some things were seeing K to 8, some things were saying K to six, you know, the comparison districts, you know, that we have I think that came from ARC in this case and this one they're it's kind of hard to compare when you're looking at first grade and second grade and then third grade and fourth grade and we don't know the demographics of

084the districts. So as we mature this and I don't know if this is an immediate thing because I don't know how big an ask it is or if this is a next iteration thing but it would be really helpful to see similar profile districts K to8 I'll say generally looking at the data and looking at this type of data for for quite a bit of time across the elementaryaries K5 we've seen grade level increases across those four years and pretty much cohort either maintaining or increasing the middle school picture is muddier and it's hard like you can look at percentages and get caught right into it but then when you don't have things to compare it to it's a little bit tougher and I'll say my perspective is this has been a struggle in Austining

085and and probably in a lot of districts where elementary looks great and then there's a dip off in middle school and then it picks up a little bit again in high school and so but that's sort of the anecdotal it would be helpful to sort of understand the story in a little bit more detail in terms of that to see like like one of the things and part of the reason we did the facilities work for the middle school was we were concerned about student engagement. We were concerned about overcrowded buildings. We were concerned about those things and the impact on academics at the end of the day. Is that true in Austin in this and for our middle school or is that true in similar demographics across the world because middle school is a

086tough time of life? I'd love to know the answers to that or at least have better information around it. And I know I'm asking a lot because we're focusing on this and I'm asking a little bit broader picture, but that's sort of the question I think as we're assessing any program is is okay, what's the norm elsewhere for a similar district? What's the norm here? What are the factors that we think are involved with it? And so I'll ask that's kind of my broad question. The specifics is it's like is there anything that we've seen to this point that says looking at the middle school, here are some things we're doing well. here are some things that we would shift based on what we've seen. Not that we need to answer that tonight. I mean,

087if you can, great. But that's sort of just in looking at some of the data, I would say, okay, middle school is really what I'm looking at. So, those are my two questions. I guess a broader data set, you know, when we're looking at K8 across all, we have comparison districts with similar demographics that I'm guessing ARC could probably give to us hopefully fairly easily. But then also like what's the observations at the middle school? loaded question. I two questions I know. >> If I may, um, can you just go back to the anal slide for me, >> Dr. Mson? >> By cohort or over the years, >> that one >> is it? >> That one right there. That one's perfect. Um, so if you see sixth grade for anal um and the data, uh,

088we can speak to to the fidelity of implementation. Um when we first started in sixth grade for the Spanish uh side of the dual language program, um our core was still in development of the Spanish units. >> We had the English unit and nobody had it ready, right? Like that was the everybody was struggling. >> So and there you see and now you see that as of January of 2026, we're not where we want to be. We're at 34%. However, we have our full units and the teachers have been implementing with fidelity. So, you're starting to see the impact of that implementation. Um, so it took a while uh in building that and our core was right there alongside with us with our teachers that we pulled and and they we developed them together with

089>> and that would seem to link with the thing what we've been talking about for a long time is authentic Spanish text. The teachers asking for it, right? And we like so part of that I would say that's part of the program development. We wish we were further down the C curve than we are but that's where we're at. When you go back and you look at the ERA data, yes, there's more questions around that that kind of jump out around that. And so, but I appreciate the context on the Neil. I think you're right. I think it's important. It seems to align with what we're hearing. And um >> you know, it's a moving it's a moving target. And >> just for context, when the state education department put out the modules that everybody

090was using, which is what we used before teachers college. They didn't even have them in Spanish >> and and the teachers in the district were writing the units >> and that was a big shift to the teachers college at the end of the day and part of the ARC implementation was they had this >> looks like K5 it's matured middle school is my kind of my question around the board >> I support >> use my time I'll move on >> thank you >> it's a great no and it's a great point and I will answer it because it's a comment I had when I first arrived I remember asking Maria about it grades seven and eight like you know that's unusual It's unusual to have an artore program there if you look around but again

091um it's something we're keeping obviously we look at and we look at student data you uh we have the d we have been internally Maria has done that and we've talked about it um and you all when when you see the state testing data similar schools we can share that with you and just flag the ones that are >> are districts you can you can see that in some of the data you already have right >> didn't peak skill implement theirs very similar in time frame to ours. >> They were ahead of us. >> Were they? I I don't know how long they were. >> How many years? >> Uh I >> Sorry to put you on the spot. >> It's okay. I I it's I think it was around the same year or the

092year prior. I have to double check but it's been Yeah, they started a year full implementation and I believe it's up to fifth grade. >> Yes. in um in peak skill >> and and they started tell they things is like they started with a dual language program >> and then transitioned to uh district white >> and I spoke to my colleague in white plains and it's only in dual language there um haven't connected with my colleague in Tartown um but I believe it's also and Portchester >> um >> they have it all the way up to sixth grade like we do in Portchester. So again, it's connecting and we can highlight as Mary said those districts for you. >> Great. Thank you. >> With the data that we already have, >> Kenny, >> um thank

093you so much. Uh your work is noticed. I was working with some DI kids last weekend and they were talking about, you know, they're making a blizzard and they were thinking about adding lights, but they just done the weather unit. They were like, "Blizzards don't have lightning, so why would we put lights?" It's a whole conversation. There just a little bit of arc spill over. Um, a lot of my questions have been asked. They're mostly about data. I going to echo Katherine with the demographics I would really love to see broken down. And Frank, the middle school data dips. I would I'm interested in learning why that is as well. And I'm not sure if Rob said this or if I somebody else said it, but um I would like to see two to three

094years prior to ARC implementation for for example grade three just to see you know how it trended along. >> Yeah. >> Um the one little caveat I will add is that during the COVID years we don't have states that say that that's that's the conundrum. >> Yeah. I forgot about co >> and even if you had >> that would be nice if you could just >> Yeah. Even if you had it, it would it would be rife with anomalies. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. Yes. Yeah. And then you're going back to the teens for other data. >> Yeah. Um I did also have a question about the steps. I am curious how those are taken into account like are those used for scoring or anything? And I ask because there are parents who

095flat out opt out. Um, you know, children lose sheets, things like that. And then you get your ERA back and it's like, oh, your child is 7,000 steps behind. And yeah, I'm curious how that works into it. >> So stir steps are calculated with 15 minutes of independent reading equals one step. So our recommendation is that daily students have four steps. those 60 minutes of independent reading, two happening in during school during reading lab which is already built in into the literacy block and then two steps at home right and the purpose of that is to first is a piece of communication with families or others uh an opportunity for them to really understand the importance of reading at home independently daily uh but also to build on students reading stamina right so that's the

096purpose of the steps that uh that are part of our program and uh yes there's There's a system at school pace you can capture uh steps for students. There's also the reading logs that will go home. So there's multiple ways for teachers to to share with with both students and families the importance of independent reading both in school and at home. >> Okay. So those steps aren't part of like the proficiency scores. >> Uh no thank you. Yeah. So, I appreciate us opening up to be a bit more um a deeper dive in this conversation because I do have a few questions. I'll start out with the two that aren't so granular and kind of um are on trend with what we're talking about. One is just a clarification. Um so, year four isn't complete,

097but the year four numbers are notably higher than all the prior years. Is it expected that those numbers will be coming down by the end of the year at all or is like is it typical for them to be so high right now at this point and then we could should expect to see those year four numbers decline a bit and could you provide context to that? >> Absolutely. Yes. So the way the the independent reading level assessment is designed is that it follows a progression throughout the year. So for example, right now we have 70 uh this is 7 76 in kindergarten, right? 76% in kindergarten. There's going to be a target shift because the way the independent reading assessment is designed it goes through different phases in kindergarten and we have it's it's

098by color. So we start with yellow then we want go to green, one green and two green. So now the program is shifting right. So, and and there's uh uh skills and concepts that live within that color, right? So, in yellow will be uh print concepts, tracking, letter names, and sound. So, at this time of the year and the progression of the program is that students are transitioning into reading, starting to learn or practice uh high frequency words which we call power words. So in that processing and in that trajectory and shift of students skills acquisition and progression there's going to be target shift that are part of the uh school pace. Uh so the system will now for those students who are not making adequate growth right now they will fall into the at

099risk category right so students who are already in the process of learning and acquiring those high frequency words the power goals they will be proficient but those who are not there yet now they will be flagged as at risk right because they're not making a progression based on the way that the that that kindergarten independent reading level assessment levels are designed. >> Thank you for that. >> Absolutely. >> Um the other question I'll ask for right now is uh handwriting. I saw that as one of the or he supports the reading and writing connection. I'm always intrigued when I see handwriting as part of just a curriculum. Um I am from the age where cursive was part of that. I'm curious. >> Me too. I'm curious of of of how handwriting is part of the

100process as far as especially in a year where now we have the electronics ban. So I would imagine there there's more time to focus on handwriting. Could you talk a little bit about like what handwriting looks like in supporting the reading writing connection? And I'm curious as far as the perspective of ARC arc. I know we wouldn't be teaching uh cursive, but what I've come to realize is that there's a generation of students that like they literally can't read in cursive, right? It's one thing to not write in cursive. >> Um, so that's like a curveball. I'm just wondering if you have a perspective of that element of literacy uh from a perspective of art, but I'm more curious to hear what it looks like as far as the handwriting component in this in this

101model. >> Sure. I'll get us started. And if you'd like to add something that's that's something that the early educators were just as equally um uh more wanting to know how is how is it living, what does it look like, sound like, feel like in the classroom. So there are uh multiple opportunities to develop handwriting in if first of all let's start off with the modeling of handwriting. So that is done through interactive writing. There is um basically a very very detailed script as to how letter formation should should occur. And so that starts in kindergarten. And you can see those we've shared it with all our teachers because we know that even in the you know upper grades children may still need support with handwriting right proper letter formation. So there is opportunity for

102modeling during interactive writing. There is handwriting through dictation in foundational skills. there's emphasis um during the workbooks, the use of the workbooks that then that right there that instruction, the modeling, the guided practice, the independent practice then gets transferred into writing and then reading. So that's why we want writing and reading and we want reading in writing because we want to maximize that. So at all points in time of that literacy time that 120 minutes there is attention being paid to how children are forming their letters and how are they writing to spell and then from spelling it's that composition right from that word level to phrase level to sentence level to paragraph level. So yes, there are multiple opportunities for children to receive the guidance that they need, the corrective feedback, and the practice

103at all areas of the 120 minutes. I hope that answered your question. >> It did. Thank you. >> I I'm just going to say thank you. the questions I was going to ask a lot of um my colleagues already asked the question so I'm not going to bother going down that road but I I'm glad Melissa asked the question around the the handwriting because I think that I I noticed it particularly you know in my own household um where there's that ability to be able to read script write script I mean it's just just basics of yeah okay you can sign your name great But but then reading that, right? And I know it's kind of like this I don't know if I want to call it a lost art or whatever it might be,

104but there is still that ability to kind of like communicate by writing your on your own. I know your tablets and you can speak into devices and all these other things that are there, but it's just a matter of like connecting to, you know, being being able to write down your thoughts and put it into some sort of constructive way to communicate. I think that's always great. But, you know, I'm just want to just emphasize what all my colleagues have said in terms of middle school data and as well as the um, you know, just a lot more of the anecdotes around what's going on. I think I'm very very interested in wanting to know. Um, and then, you know, I I think there's, you know, a lot of what Mary had said to me

105resonates because it's just a matter of like, yeah, the data says one thing, but there's an full-on story as to what's going on here and what those parts and pieces are. You know, I'm going to wait with Beta Brown to find out. >> Roger, if I can answer that for a moment because it's a the board asked some great questions in previous presentations this year. So, I want to go back to Katherine's question and tie it into a question that Frank asked when um Miss Langley was giving her report and all over and actually Nancy brought it up when she was talking about the seal of biiteracy. The area where we struggle with our children who are elves who speak is not in the Spanish language. It's in the New York State English regions. >>

106Yeah. Um, and that's an area of struggle and it go it goes back to what you had mentioned when you saw the dip in that it's an area that's miss it's one of Miss Langley's goals is that because we we we explicitly see it over the past year and a half and what can we do brought up the tutoring that's been instituted there are some measures in in case I think my gut will be to your question about this year's English regions I think we're going to see our monolingual kids do fine I think but again arc at that period for our eighth graders. I do not know how strong the bilingual piece was in that for our kids at that point. So it'll be interesting. You asked a question that we're all anxious to

107see. So, it was a great question, but again, it's going back to what what was that experience like for some of those kids when they were in eighth grade here at AMD >> and and that English regions is and it's it's a gateway exam to diploma. It's an essential exam. It's super important. So, everyone has their eyes on that one as is the that's what Llaya other presentation about ELA at the high school. It can be another she highlighted some things but it is a super important question. >> It's going to be unless you know of a way but it seems like it's going to be almost impossible to tease out positive anything given that they were virtual learning and in the thick of co as well. Right. >> Good point. That's a good point.

108>> Yeah. the the ones that are 11th graders today probably they were during co were fifth graders at the time right so um yeah so but just sorry one one more thing here so I I think you know you you rais a very interesting point because I think a lot of I mean by the time students get to Latoya's building or the high school let's call it right all of the work it's it it poses a challenge in and of itself because it's like at that point in time, you know, there's more advanced classes going on and what have you. So, a lot of this really is the the intercept of all of this really it happens in that K through six period where that intensity needs to happen in order for that success to

109manifest itself in the high school. Is that a fair statement? >> Well, yes. It's like you're teaching kids how to read and then all of a sudden reading becomes the method to content and then somewhere it changes. I mean um this is a fabulous discussion. We I think all of us could be here for like two hours and be totally into it just I could spend half hour on >> two hours. I know >> but but but to that point because it's super important. I certainly think though when you heard this piece around vocabulary development, the importance of being able to read non-fiction, those are something we measure. And when you hit the sciences, when you're able to read heavyduty science, I love what Annie said about about blizzards and about weather, that's non-fiction reading.

110Kids who do well in that do well across the board. We know the research says that. So emphasizing that ability and breaking it down and helping reading strategies and comprehensive strategies with content specific teachers is also super helpful. Dr. and over when she talked about her goals this year because of all that what because these are questions we ask shifted the um the second period of uh ARC implementation was a double lab every week at ELA at the middle school with more intense focus on just the data we have in front of us for areas of weakness. So it's it's trying to create that bridge Roger which is what your question is asking. Yeah, I mean it's it's the it's the bridge, but it's also like the early it's like >> getting that done with

111intensity and intentionality in the right way the first in during those early reading years. >> Yes. Yes. And getting kids to love and enjoy reading >> clarifying question. >> Sure. um for the charts that are doing percentage proficiency by cohort and then successful use over the years. Is there am I missing something? Is there a difference? Because it looks the same to me. It >> is the same. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> It is the same data. The only thing is that one is reflecting the one with the stairs. It's reflecting students percentage of proficiency by cohort. the one that it's in a line like grade level same same line it's it's on a teachers capacity and ability to uh use the resources and use the independent reading level assessment. So we can see growth

112on the teacher from the first year of implementing at the end of the year 45% of the students were proficient now uh um year 255 year 362. So that speaks to the teacher's ability to really understand how to use the independent reading level assessment as a formative assessment uh and the intervention piece as well, right? So that's that's more reflecting teacher comfort with the tool. >> Okay. >> Um I have a couple questions. Um, recently when we looked at math, we've seen some successes where we compare how our students are doing on the assessments that we give them, compare them to the state tests, identify maybe specific topics or subtopics um that students are struggling with and then can fill in the gaps, right? Um, and we've seen some success there. So, I guess my

113question is, are we doing that in ARC and how are we doing that? um within ARC um so that we can kind of duplicate the success we've seen elsewhere. >> So I can give an example of let's say a particular standard that deals with vocabulary, right? Um, and so it's really making it's helping teachers make those connections as to where in the program those activities are are number one and like we're drawing their attention to okay if we're having concerns or we're seeing the data reflect that we students need to be more uh working on unfamiliar words or the multiple meanings of words. Well then that's vocabulary morphology, right? So where does that live? In how many places in the program does that live? So let's really be intentional there. And I think that goes

114back to the reading rope and knowing that we teach both the word recognition skills in in tandem with language comprehension. It's very important from the very earliest of grades. We are building both type of the spoken language and the written language. So yeah, it's like going back to those specific domains, going and drilling into the skills and then aligning them to the program so that we know where and how to teach it. >> I had a feeling the answer might be the like the ory stuff we've been focusing on. And I will say I was hearing Miss Shamsay's voice in my head the other day. I used the word brutal in a sentence and my my fourth grader said, "Well, that's really kind of a word you hear mostly in books, but not really that

115much out loud. You don't really talk like that." I said, "You don't really talk like that. I just used it in a sentence, but we we're getting we're getting there. It was definitely like an oh, this is the ory stuff coming through. Um, >> there's a lot of intentionality with with with and also the the abil just the learning environment, right? Talking more talking more before we write. >> And I think throughout all our buildings, we've all agreed that yes, we don't just go and write off you go. We want we need to talk it through hear ourselves just be in that conversation so that does it sound right you know what what is the perspective of my peers generate ideas revise my ideas and then I can go right so it's and all those

116things are happening and I'm so happy that you mentioned that but I am very proud of the work that all our buildings are doing with vocabulary tier two tier three we're we are pinpointing that teachers know through our curriculum framework that we have across all our grades. There's alignment there. We all know you we're talking the same language, right, across units. We're we're really understanding how, you know, essential questions ties into enduring understanding ties into the vocabulary ties into the skills ties into the instructional approaches, structural strategies that you need to have in the classroom to make that language content and language objectives. we really are connecting the dots so that planning is intentional and delivery is precise. >> Um, I just want to kind of acknowledge how important this work is. I feel like

117people in communities everywhere expect schools to do an awful lot and they expect schools to do more and more, but one of the most basic things that they expect from their children's school is that their children will learn how to read there. And um I think the takeaway for me is that the numbers are not as high as I want them to be. Right? We all want all of our kids reading fluently in whatever language they're learning how to do it in. Um, but that the progress is there. It's modest and it's promising and it's moving in the right direction. That's the takeaway for me. Um, and when I reflect because I agree with some of um, my board trustees that I'm hearing concerns about those middle school kids because you can see that those

118numbers aren't in alignment with what else. And you know, I'm thinking back, you know, those were kids who were remotely learning in grades 1, 2, and three when they're learning the foundations and then being tossed into a new curriculum in grades 3, four, five that presupposes that you have those foundations. They're very in they were just really in a wrong place, wrong time, difficult time to transition to any new curriculum. I'm sure that no matter what I I have to imagine that no matter what curriculum we were switching to and or even if we had switched to none, right? like if we had made no change that that cohort would have struggled. Um but it is interesting to dive into that and it's we all I could see us like honing in and looking at

119those middle school numbers and going >> like wow what and what a contrast between the younger uh students. Um, my question is, um, we do see pre-K students. I know that they don't use ARC because ARC doesn't go down to pre-K. Um, and we don't see every, how do I say this? Not all of the kindergarteners that we have are pre-K students that we had. So, um, in kindergarten, we have a mix of kids we've seen as pre-K students and kids who are coming from other preschools or no school whatsoever. And so my question is, how are we on-ramping kids into so that they're set up for success before ARC even begins in preK uh or or catching those kids up uh in kindergarten. Uh because we know that that time, you know, the earlier

120on, the more we catch them up, the greater dividends that pays if that question makes sense. So one of the initiatives uh over at park u collaboration with uh principal mas capayan it's that uh some point in the spring all of the prek students are assessed with the earli so that gives us baseline data to really identify those students where students are towards the end of of of prek and already um when students transition into kindergarten right so teachers are already meaning with some data of like what students uh can do at uh as they are entering kindergarten. So that's that was an initiative that um that uh that was very innovative and I really love that idea. So I'm so glad that they're doing it again because it provides kindergarten teachers knowing from students

121that attended pre-k with uh baseline. >> Thank you. >> Um are you do you have anything? You don't have to have anything. I just look like you were okay. No, you know, I don't want to cut anybody off. Um, okay. We've all had a chance to ask a couple questions. Uh, the request was made to open up the time to ask some more. So, I'll ask the board. Will we like to ask more questions or if we have brief questions, we can email them. Uh, I'll I'll leave it to >> I'm okay. That's what I I don't have any further questions, but there's somebody that does. Rob's got >> I do just one or two more. >> We'll take one more lap around the table then. How's that? >> We can do that. >> I

122don't I don't have anything. I went first. So, >> okay. You have you have more. I need >> I have I have two. >> Okay. >> So, the first one um and thanks again u for sticking with us is around the financial aspects. So I think if you add everything up for through four years, it's about 5.2 million if my math is accurate. Year one was the biggest impact, right? Probably the ramp up period. So it's a two-part question on the finances. One can sort of I guess you can call it a run rate and yeah, this is on slide 13. Will this continue at about what's that about 800,000 give or take for year four? Does that sort of stay the same in year five, six, seven, eight? Will that smooth out or you

123know will there be another spike for some reason? And the second but probably related is around the materials. Um, do we have a breakout and if not today board entertains it around the the consumables and then if so like are all those consumables right the one-time use are they all optional they mandatory um I think I asked this way back when last year dur budget season so I'm glad we're talking about now but like do we have to buy everything and if so what that breakout so that's the two parts on the of financial aspects. >> Sure, that's a great question. So, as I um I alluded to and I may have mentioned that as we are now in year four and we have our professional learning with iterative co uh job embedded coaching cycles

124next year, we we are projected to do much less and so we will slowly phase out of that. The materials uh I did look at this here so I can provide you with that information. and I broke down consumables and durables and so I'll be very happy to share that with you and I'll go back as many years as I can. Um in terms of the materials I know that we are in we're this is budget season so we're sort of discussing um word study in grades 3 to five. So that is something that you know we are thinking about. We're talking with the principles and our cabinet, our leadership to see if that's the direction we're going to go. Um, I foresee the durables needing replenishment year after year. Maybe not as much. So,

125that could be sort of variable, but the professional learning will will definitely decrease. And materials for durables, as I mentioned, may slightly decrease. and consumables might offset that only because if we do move forward with word study and to your other question regarding do we need all of these and so in conversation with all the grades you know sort of taking teasing it apart there there is a a purpose for every single one. Um there is the thematic lab. The one that was strikingly interesting to me was the thematic lab writer's notebook where it if you look in it for many grades, it has so many so many things that are needed, right? It has the prompts, it has the research questions, graphic organizers, it has um the pre and the post assessments. Now for

126the younger grades, I did notice that there are and teachers have mentioned that there are a lot of writing pages there. So it's very unique to every grade and very different for every unit. So it's uh I I think that we would have to further explore that and discuss it. >> Great. And then so just to make sure I got clarity that number for the year four of five six seven8 did you say that's like that would be like a floor or a ceiling going forward like would we ever go up beyond that 800,000 >> do we think or >> I don't no I don't think so. >> Okay. All right. Great. So >> so I think Laya I want to highlight on Rob's question again. We we talked about this at length, right? And

127um I think um we can certainly >> uh Lauren, we can add to it a little bit, but just to give an example of let's say you buy a bundle you're talking about per pupil you you get a packet of stuff. One could be um a book. One could that could be $5, another could be six. Like every grade has a different configuration of things. And many of them include things like prompts inside of them. So the point being is that an artic and research articles that go along with them. The whole point about that is that to make teachers time more efficient so they don't have to go to the xerox machine decide they have an array of product as opposed to xeroxing and producing more. So based on um you know just feedback

128from staff who use products they would rather have that at their fingertips for all kids to use. But it just helps them with a time piece associated with it. So there are many ways of looking at that from a different level. But I think showing a sample of what a third grader that's that's what they get. Showing a sample of what a second grader has and breaking it down by price. I think that would be and then an explanation. I think that would be helpful to the board. >> Yes, that's true. And we will provide that and and we've had discussions. ARC is really great at receiving the feedback from their partners, you know, and we've I even recently um discovered that in the Spanish lab notebooks, let's say for example, they don't have the

129articles that the English ones do. So, we're saying we would like to see that, you know, let's make sure that it's equitable because again, one of the one of the asks have been more authentic Spanish text. So, just constant conversations and I'm sure um I don't know if Lawrence would like to add anything regarding materials. Okay, >> thank you. And so my last one, I think it does touch upon what some other board members mentioned going forward. Is there like a sort of model where you've seen in other districts where the ERA results will no longer I'll call it like outperform significantly NWA and ELA especially in what few folks call out that grade six to eight like when will we see the transfer like to the equalization of the results in those two benchmarks

130NWA and ELA and Just a little bit of followup on that. I think at the end of the presentation you indicated like the goals like 3 to 5% on the NWA over the next year or so. So I guess the question is related to this curious like did do why we wouldn't also look to or in place of or in addition to the NWA goal around the ELA test or for the New York State because for better for worse and I know people have differ opinion on that thing it's there and it's what New York State says kids should be learning where NWA is a national sort of thing. So I guess the broad question is you know when will we see like sort of the normalization and the transfer from ERA to those test

131results and especially in the 68 6 to8 grade level and then you know why not what are your thoughts on like using the ELA as sort of the gold standard to see whether this is really translating across versus NWA. >> So Mr. Hello. Um, the reason why, and we had many discussions about this with our building principles, our directors, um, the reason why NWA was chosen as part of developing our smart goals was because it was a better measure um, and aligned to the ELA. It was a better predictor. And I know that during um our presentation on December 3rd with Kathy Connley, uh we went through the fact that NWA is just a better predictor. >> Okay. >> Hence why we chose that so that we can continue to measure our um our progress,

132our children's progress towards achieving success on the ELA because the ELA is only a onepoint measure and it's happens in in the spring. So we wanted a measure to help us gather and and support our students. So, NWA was the best and the most aligned point of measure. >> I hope I hope I answered your question. >> Yeah. No, on that part, I guess the then the broader question back to ARC is we're in four. ERA is outperforming NWA. It's a general statement. NWA and certainly ELA, but especially the call outs on the sixth to eighth grade. So I guess just the second part of that question is yeah you know is it like in years five six seven eight we start to see the smoothing out of like early is not up here the

133other things come up as well or you know they sort of normalize is that is that a pattern we see you know with this assuming you know we we keep going with it for the next let's just say three four years I >> mean I can give a very broad generalization um in terms of I I feel that we are better at pin pinpointing specific areas to target instruction and in those specific areas they they're being measured in each of those assessments. So I think just by us being more targeted through our our data analysis and interpretation and very thoughtful in our instruction and our explicit delivery and just ensuring that across the grades we have that common understanding and how is it and more importantly right how does that look like sound like feel

134like in the lower grades and how does that how does that develop over time again going back to just knowledge of of our skills skills and how those progress and how does comp the interaction with complex text change over time because it really is m is meaning making through text. So I I I do feel that really understanding the complexity of text and how that impacts children's ability to just perform. >> Thank you. >> Annie, do you have any more? >> Melissa, you mentioned you had one. >> Yeah, I just have one. question. Technically, now it is a little bit layered and it's more specific to arc and oening as opposed to arc across regions or nationally. Um, so I'm going to attempt to formulate this question in a way that does not sound like

135a word salad. Um there's going to be parts of it that might be too granular for a response tonight. Uh and so I welcome, you know, extra feedback from that. So looking at the presentation, hearing how everything fits together, I see, you know, it is one of it is on our agenda under equity item. I heard that reference um several times along with seeing it as one of the pillars of the department. So my question would be if you could speak to how cultural responsiveness is being leveraged across things like professional development um learning the researching text that was that was uh referenced in there um data literacy and how that applies because I see it standing alone as a pillar but I would assume it kind of flows throughout all the aspects of the

136work. So, I'm more I guess my question is more focused around intersections of equity, especially when it comes to things like linguistic backgrounds, especially those that are not most commonly reflected in programs like this. Um, so could you speak to the equity part specifically in that right when it comes to cultural responsiveness and languages and linguistic backgrounds and how we also leverage data to see if we're really capturing um truly the diverse linguistic backgrounds that exist, some of those that might not be the most prominent ones as well. Um, does that make sense? Did I did was that a word salad or did I make sense? >> Not at all. >> Okay, good. >> Makes perfect sense. I can speak through my interactions with our literacy teacher leaders and monilingual and dual language teachers and

137how they um how they work with cross-linguistic their pedagogy transluaging and listening to their approaches of how they promote language and discourse in the classroom. So, you know, there are structures that are in place. There's very intentional teacher modeling and and practice in terms of when English is being taught, then we're le you know, we're making those connections and and really thinking about the child's culture and their language. No, knowing the child well and bridging those connections. So, that is very apparent in our classrooms. So, I can speak to to that. Um, I'm going to also ask maybe if Maria could add to that >> when it comes to equity and as you mentioned Melissa, it's one of our pillars. Um, definitely not separate. Everything we do is through the equity lens. hence our MTSS

138and um strategically uh implementing and strengthening that MTSS process and analyzing data through our our subgroups um so that we can target uh both their home language as well as their new language as any multilingual learner. Um so that lens is is one of the ways that we're embedding equity across the board. Um also ensuring that our children have access to the same materials. That is also a way that we are ensuring that there's equity in all our classrooms. For example, it was a struggle with you know having the same materials in English as well as in Spanish. Um so now we have we're still working on it but we are very it's simultaneous pretty much across the classrooms. Um ensuring that language allocation in instruction is the same. Um we have a 50/50 model.

139We adhere to the 50/50 model and we're creating a scope and sequence and a language allocation model that parallels in both classrooms. Um just some examples of how we're approaching everything through the thread of equity, making sure that all children have access to grade level materials. >> I'll just add to that as well as Maria was speaking um this year we I mentioned the the use of book creator a digital tool which translates the language for the students. Um so that's a tool again to lift children's voices and that's work that um our library media specialists are are doing directly with ENL classrooms and dual language classrooms. So supporting teachers in that teaching children how to leverage those tools so that they could express themselves in multiple ways. So really developing the one part of

140the equity is also developing their multiple literacies and letting them know that they have the tools in front of them. so that what they can choose to whatever um way they want to express themselves. Um and again just reiterating what Maria said about the language allocations, the um cognitive linguistic transfers um that ARC provides very very specific prompts, questions, ways to embed in teachers pedigogy. So all those tools together with our additional support from um we have a I know we have a partnership with a professor who supports with trans languaging um right now we have in our district literacy council we have someone who is supporting us with oracy work right again through our language and our content objectives and that's really important because it's not just about the goal to meet a content

141objective aligned to standards. But it's what I've noticed is that now we're providing this additional uh pathway for teachers to leverage the four modalities, right? The speaking, the listening, the reading, the writing with a tool, a specific structural strategy or a tool or an interaction with a a peer very intentional or with a graphic organizer or a sentence stem. So when those things are in place, students know, what to expect, how they're going to use their language, and what uh tools and what strategies in the classroom are going to be used by the teacher. So they're they know the expectations, they know what to anticipate. And so that gives them um more, you know, um more ways to um develop their language, right? And then the teacher on the flip side knows their students so

142well. They're tapping into their cultural background. They know their students families. They know how to lift that language and and honor, you know, their home language. So I can think of a few and if you'd like I can come up with a few more. >> And if I may just add um the work again is not working is not work in isolation. Miss de la Cruza Rojo during her presentation mentioned our work with Dr. Honixfeld. Yes. and the co-planning and the co-eing that Dr. Mson just mentioned. Um it's very intentional ensuring that the teachers have the tools that they need to be the best in front of our children which they are um dedicated to every single day. Um also the work with Dr. Dy and I know that Dr. De and Dr. months and

143have been working with um embedding hill pedigogy and and criticality into our scope and sequence into literacy. So it's the alignment and I believe uh Dr. Mson mentioned it very well. It's the connecting of all the dots where all the directors all the principles come together and the work kind of meshes >> right all our work is so intricate and again I I I definitely want to echo what Maria mentioned with Dr. De's work and uh Nancy Dela Cruz's work, it's almost like we we do everything together like so if any decision or anything we're doing is is really impacting all our work and we're very proud of that. And so again with the Hill pedigogy and infusing that in our curriculum scope and sequence, we're now doing work with social studies department and math,

144ELA, um ENL. So it's just so intricate. It's kind of coming in many different facets of our work. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. I'll leave off by just saying food for thought. Um and I appreciate the the nuance in how we approach this and make sure that it's through the lens of equity as as applied to the standards of aing when we talk about you know I think it was it was said talking more before we write is being promoted right and spoking language is such a key influencer on literacy skills right so I would and I would uh encourage us to think about when we say language anguage. Also think about dialect. There's different American English dialects that also are not very prominently reflected in how we teach literacy or how we respect

145how some students might be receiving literacy skills within the classroom. So as we move forward and kind of advancing our equity approaches to literacy skills, I would encourage encourage us to unpack the nuances of language versus dialect and how that might also be elements of the work that might enhance some of those outliers in the data that we see. Um, I kind of always touch on this point when we have these literacy discussions because I think that those are some of the the lingering elements and not saying it's specific to Austining, but just in in in literacy approaches. I think there's um American dialects that often go unnoticed in in terms of our approaches to literacy. >> So appreciate Yeah. Thank you so much. Excuse me. Um I have one more question. Um when we

146the first year we implemented ARC, we were also using foundations, excuse me. And I know people who maybe have an interest in learning more about reading and if they're googling and they're googling the science of reading, foundations is one of those um programs that comes up as something that is rooted in the science of reading. Um even though foundations to be clear is not a full curriculum. It's phonics based program. >> Um and this year, correct me if I'm wrong, we're not doing foundations anymore. Right. in the core. >> And I I'm hoping you'll explain to me the redundancy in or similarities included in foundations that we see also in ARC core that so that when parents say well we got rid of um foundations that does not mean we're getting rid of phonics instruction

147right so tell me about that. >> Sure. So I just brought up this slide. So let if maybe we kind of refer to the uh first bullet and also probably the third bullet. So I did an analysis again because one of the things is scope and sequence. So we want to teach the phonic elements according to a scope and sequence that goes from least complex to most complex. And in K1 and two looking at foundation scope and sequence, arc core scope and sequence in foundational skills, they both addressed grade level standards. So that was number one very important. The other thing is that in their in their activities, right, within a phonics lesson, it was very important for me to find evidence that print concepts were being addressed, funological and phmic awareness, phonics, which includes

148decoding and encoding, vocabulary, handwriting and fluency and all the essential pillars including oral language. language and writing are included in the foundational skills lessons. So, those are the two really big important um variables or factors that um came into question. I wanted to make sure that our children were getting explicit, systematic and cumulative instruction. So all the essential pieces which is that slide right the elements of and the principles of structured literacy are included in the foundational literacy. Now does art and I'll admit does art go a bit faster? It does. Does it include all the phonic elements within a particular grade level that needs to be mastered by the end of a school year? Yes. >> Thank you. All right, we've Oh, and then foundations is just to Yes. give you Foundations is part

149of our tier 2. Wilson, the FA Wilson family is part of our tier 2, tier three. So, we have foundations with um we have just words in grades four and up. And we have the Wilson reading system for our tier three students. >> Okay. >> So, that is part of our multi-tered systems of support. >> Okay. Thank you so much for that clarification and thank you for letting us put you through the ringer this evening. A very full presentation and I know we we try to keep our presentation short and our questions short but this really um >> this is all good. Thank you. >> Yes. So we we we took this much time on it because we care that much. And so we appreciate your uh time and attention to and all this work

150that everybody >> is doing for this um issue that's very important to not just everybody at the board table, but I think uh the school community at large. >> 100%. The board has great questions tonight. We really do appreciate that and we'll provide more information. Seriously, it's a very important topic. >> Sure. And if anybody has any more burning questions, as always, you can email me and I'll forward them along. Although I hope that we feel like we got the chance to ask them here >> and you're you're off the hook now. You can go home and enjoy the rest of your evening. >> Again, >> thank you so much. >> Always happy to answer anything and we are partners together. The literacy and the language work that is happening in this district. I'm excited

151about I hope you are and I only see great things happening. Uh again the the the better we are with our data, the better we are with our systems and our structures, we are just we're stronger and we we can do this only together and having a sh like this shared mission to vision together. So thank you. I appreciate your time. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Next on our agenda is item 2.2. But uh I given that um Alita, our business school business official, uh is had to attend to a personal matter this evening, I'd like to take a motion to postpone item 2.2 until our next meeting, which is uh February >> 4th. Still moved. >> Second. >> All right. Uh any discussion? All in favor? I >> I >> opposed abstensions.

152All right. So, that item is postponed. >> We come now to our first audience recognition for agenda items only. Um, not to exceed 10 minutes. There's nobody here in person who could possibly speak. I can't see from here if there's anybody online. I don't think I can see that there is. Do you see? >> Okay. Then we'll move ahead. Next we have our consent agenda. Does anybody have any uh for business of the board? Does anybody have anything from 4.1 through 4.4 that they wish to break out? >> All right. Seeing none, I'll take a motion for 4.1 through 4.4. >> So moved. >> Second. >> 4.1 Resolution to approve the school district calendar for the 2026 2027 school year. 4.2 2 Resolution to appoint additional consultants for the 2025 2026 school year. 4.3 Resolution

153to approve the minutes of the special meeting/executive session of December 2nd, 2025. Resol uh 4.4 Resolution to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of December 3rd, 2025. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed abstensions. Fabulous. Does anybody have anything they wish to break out for our consent agenda? Business office matters from items 5.1 through 5.4. >> I'll take a motion for 5.1 through 5.4. >> So moved. >> Second. >> 5.1 resolution to establish uh the Gel Moyes Memorial Scholarship. 5.2 Resolution regarding change order 3 UNIMAC LLC Brookside. 5.3 Resolution regarding cersiary fund Chemy's Cove Conominium. 5.4 Resolution regarding interfund transfers. Any discussion? Just a quick one. Um, this one's for Mary. Mary, I know I know um before we had um uh gosh, I'm drawing a blank on her name. Um she would

154send out all of the the um scholarships to all of the the seniors, you know, or you late junior year seniors, drawing a blank on her name. She's it's right in the guidance office. She was um is that do we know who's doing that now? sending you doing the communications all these scholarships or the >> Michelle. >> Yeah, it was Yes. Yes. Thank you. I'm sorry. Just having >> like literally like blanking out somewhere between in this space of mine here. >> I believe it's Kevin Menz now. He is um we get emails from him pretty much weekly on scholarships and updates and there's a whole living document of all the scholarships for that seniors can apply to that we have access to and it's hyperl and everything. It's great because I just want to

155make sure like all the students are able to have access to be able to apply when it's all ready. So because this is great that we're adding a scholarship here. So you know it's like >> every penny. It does. It really does. >> So thank you Owen. I'm glad to see it's like readily accessible and you knew the answer to that that >> I know. I'm like oh this is our student exeicio board member coming in clutch. Thanks Owen. >> Any further discussion? >> All right. All in favor? I >> I opposed >> abstensions for our consent agenda curriculum and instruction. I'll take a motion for 6.1. >> So moved. >> Second. >> 6.1 resolution to accept recommended placements for special education students. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed for consent agenda

156personnel matters. Uh, does anybody have anything from 7.2 through 7.13 that they wish to break out? All right, seeing none, I'll take a motion for 7.2 for through 7.13. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. 7.2 Resolution regarding professional staff resignations. 7.3 Resolution regarding confidential staff resignations. 7.4 Resolution regarding support staff resignations. 7.5 Resolution regarding bus attendant resignations. 7.6 Resolution regarding professional staff appointments. 7.7 Resolution regarding civil service staff appointments. 7.8 Resolution regarding bus attendant appointments. 7.9 Resolution regarding professional staff appointments before after school programs. 7.10 Resolution regarding civil service staff appointments before after school programs. 7.11 Resolution regarding support staff appointments before after school programs. 7.12 Resolution regarding PDM substitute appointments. 7.13 resolution regarding approval of school volunteers. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstensions. All right. Let's talk board

157policies. Um sometimes we want to discuss first. Let's discuss 8.1 uh school district records regulation as a first reading. Um I can speak on this or somebody on the policy committee can speak to this or Mary can speak to this because you were at the last policy committee meeting. Um but I believe that this was an update just compliant with laws, right? Laws changed, the language changed. And the I guess the context is that we had council there to guide us through that. >> Yes. Um >> so I guess I'll take a motion on 8.1. >> So moved. >> I'll second it. >> 8.1 resolution to adopt policy regulation number 1120 uh R school district records regulation as a first reading. Any further discussion? >> All in favor? I >> I >> opposed abstensions. All

158right. Um similar situation with voting procedures, right? Um >> not a substantive change, just language changes in accordance with the law. Right. Right. Give the flexibility. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's about the vote. It's supposed to be by the first Tuesday of July. You're supposed to have the reorg meeting, but you still under the law can do it within the first 15 days. >> That's you're talking. >> It was just It was just straight clarification. >> Oh, sorry. Voting procedure. Sorry. >> Voting procedures was just straight um it was just a clarification language added. >> Yeah. >> Um so let's take a motion on 8.2. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Resolution to adopt policy number 2120.2 voting procedures as a first reading. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> I >>

159opposed abstensions. >> As Mary just stated for 8.3 board reorganizational meeting, the change there is that um to give us some language flexibility about when we hold our reorg meeting. So it doesn't have to specifically be on the first Tuesday of the month. that can be within the first two weeks of the month which is I think again in accordance with an update to the law around that. >> Ju just a quick question about that. So just more for my clarification if there is no um let's just say that the first 15 days and month say at July 14th is when we have the board reorganization and say there's a board meeting prior to that. Um would that ever be the case? there be a board meeting prior to that or would that first board

160meeting be the 14th? Um, and then and I'm asking that just because I'm just trying to figure out like, you know, there's still no board president, vice president really in that that interim period, right? >> The first meeting that we have after July 1st has to be a reorgan. >> It has to be that reorg meeting. Okay. >> Just clarifying that. Okay. >> And your clerk runs it. >> Yes. >> Correct. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Correct. >> At least time to shine. I know it's her favorite time of year. All right. Um, >> I'll take a motion for 8.3. >> So moved. >> Second. >> 8.3. Resolution to adopt policy number 2210, board reorganizational meeting as a first reading. Uh, any further discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstensions. Um, maybe we can

161take 8.4 and 8.5 at least as a >> pair. Um, this is really all the same type of changes in all of these policies. They're all just updates. Um, >> although we did go we did discuss this more. This was with Mike Hannah, right? >> and Stephanie was there too. Um just talking about so these were updates regarding um technology that we use right and student data privacy and updating our um policy to be in alignment with >> like state regulations and ensuring that the the um >> programs that we use that aren't yet up to date with those regulations can be have time to become up to state with new regulations so that we can um >> correct it gives us more flexibility for them to do it because we have ED law 2D

162and you've got federal law involved in this and then changing tweaking language from immediately to as soon as practicable you know like right changes like that. Um, and Mike can did assure us that all of the major systems that we use like branching minds for example, like NWA are all already in alignment, but it's those kind of smaller, more niche um programs that might be specific to a a certain class, right? Like I'll use my own self for anam as an example. If I'm teaching music and maybe there's some site reading software that I use, it's not going to be used broadly across a district, but it is going to be used by students. We want to make sure that those smaller companies have a chance to adapt their uh policies to conform to our

163needs and across New York State really. So, >> that's a great example of the point. Yeah. >> Yeah. Um, >> so that explains that. >> Uh, I'll take a motion for 8.4 4 and 8.5 >> second. >> Thanks. 8.4 resolution to adopt policy number 8635 information and data privacy as a first reading and 8.5 resolution to adopt policy regulation number 8635R information and data privacy regulation as a first reading. Any further discussion? All in favor? I >> I >> opposed abstensions. All right. Um 8.6 we were updating um so to explain this. Most employees in the district are union members with union contracts, but some employees are not and their salaries are negotiated regularly and within their uh our policy exists longevity payments have not been updated in many many years. So the update to

164this is an update to longevity payments. It hadn't been updated in I think over 10 years. So those or maybe you can remember even longer longer >> um so that we can pay that it's really just a handful of employees the confidential staff >> or conf that's what the confidential staff uh rever refers to right >> the confidential group um this would be modernizing some longstanding terms of employment that um we feel should be updated >> and confidential staff um they have they're privy to information that if you were in a collective bargaining group, you would have a conflict of interest in. So, we need our confidential staff to be part of it. And I thank Dr. Mara for bringing to our attention that this was going back 15 years and hadn't been changed. Um,

165so it makes it more align with those that collectively bargain. >> All right, >> I'll take a motion on 8.6. >> Second. >> 8.6 Six resolution to adopt policy number 9550 confidential central office salary and fringe benefit plan as a first reading. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstensions. All right. We come now to our next audience recognition um for public comment on any school business. Uh again, they're seeing nobody here in person. Is there anybody online who wishes to speak? Okay, we'll move along. we come to board reports and dialogue. Um, as you just heard, policy committee was very busy. Um, we got a lot of first reading stuff over the across the finish line. It was helpful that Stephanie was at the last meeting to kind of really advise

166on all of the legal work requirements that were changing. Um, does anybody want to talk about any other committees that met first? Oh, the no curriculum committee met the day of the last board meeting. So, the update on that, right? >> And we're meeting again on the 4th. >> Yes. So, we'll have another update at the next board meeting from curriculum committee. >> Um, >> what did you say you were about to discuss? >> The curriculum committee, but I couldn't remember. >> No, before that, before you opened it up, were you did you say before you >> Oh, I said a policy committee just now. >> Okay. Okay. But we we really already discussed but we discuss policy >> committing in I'm starting to find out. Don't mind me. >> Um I know we can

167talk about other things. I know uh Roger and Annie are attending the >> Yeah, we're leaving Saturday. >> The conference. What is I forget blanking on the name of the conference. >> The advocacy NISBA advocacy >> NISBA advocacy >> institute in Washington DC. So I look forward to that report. I look forward to not seeing a snowstorm that would >> There we go. Good luck. That would be very true, too. >> Is there any other um board business to bring up? >> I have Oh, go ahead. >> No, please go. >> Um I just wanted to throw this out there as food for thought. I'm not really asking for opinions tonight. Um, but I am interested in discussing at some point having a public comment sign up via a Google form that goes out to

168or is available doesn't have to be circulated. It could be available on the on the district's website to sign up if you want to make a public comment prior to the initial presentations. It's essentially right as after the board meeting begins and then there's a superintendence update and then we can launch into public comments. There are some districts do this. They basically say we'll have a session for 10 minutes in the beginning. Whoever we get through, we get through knowing that no one will have more than 3 minutes. And then once we close that first session of public comment, you're welcome to stay for the other sessions of public comment if we couldn't capture you during that one. And essentially it's a mechanism that um if you know people have something that they want to

169talk about that is germanine to education and the school district but is not on the agenda, they can come in and have themselves be heard without having to wait through the whole entire meeting. So, I just wanted I know Lakeland does this. Um, and there are a lot of different ways that you could do it and I just kind of wanted to throw it out there as something for us to think about. >> Okay. And to be clear, you're not opening it up for you're not intending to have a full board discussion on this topic right now. Just putting a bug in the ear. >> Just putting a bug in the ear. >> Okay. >> Can I just ask what So that So, what you're saying is all that that first comment period would be

170open to any topic. It doesn't have to be agenda item, >> correct? >> Okay. Yep. And then you still have your agenda items comment section like we have now. And then you have your one at the end like we have now. >> And I'm just I want to make sure I'm understanding the suggestion is that if somebody filled out the Google form >> Mhm. >> they could come and comment. But if they showed up and hadn't filled out the Google form, see at the next public comment period. >> I don't know. It's it's up for >> we could do both ways. You can say you can fill it out online. Um, get it in. I know Lakeland, for example, there says the cuto off is Friday at 2 p.m. That's sort of when our window

171closes for this first advanced notice public comment section of the meeting. We don't have to do it that way. It could be if nobody has signed up in advance, we'll still open it up for anybody who is here and has signed up on our little signup sheet in person. I don't know. It's just I wanted to throw that out there to think about. Okay. >> So, this would be three total. >> Three total. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Uh just a quick update. So, the district had a it's I don't know I guess quarterly meeting with um the community black collaborative. Now, it's not an official like committee that we have on our sheet, but I think it would fall under I know we compiled the liaison to PTA council into all kind of parent teacher

172type based groups, right? Might fall under that category. Um the focus was primarily on discussing Black History Month uh and what some of the district is doing and collaborating with the community around that and what um great activities that the district will be providing. There were some there were some uh questions and concerns raised about the consistency um not just at that time of year but throughout the year with access to those educational opportunities and also just access whether it be just specific activities uh student access to those and what um and capturing student feedback on those events and challenges with accessing those events. Uh especially being consistent across grades as you get into the older grades and it gets a little schedules get a little more hectic than you know people who are in

173one classroom. So just putting that out there. I know Maria you took notes. I'm sure you'll give that to um >> those who need it. Maybe um you know Mary's involved with that too, but it was just I'm just bringing that to the board's attention that that was a concern that was brought up about uh just being consistency and and it kind of not being tailored to one part of the year, but also when it is, how are we managing to make sure that students who wish to have access to that and maybe schedules don't perfectly align that they are being supported to have access to that. Um so that's just a quick update. Can you say again the name of the >> It's the community black collaborative. >> Okay. Is that specifically a parent

174group or is it a community like is it like is it parents is it a parent group? >> It's it's would it qualify specifically as a parent group? I don't think so. >> No, cuz there's other people who are in there. Right. There's teachers, >> right? But it's a collaborative. That's the name, right? Um but it's >> it was kind of formed out of parents uh concerns. >> Yes. >> We have a large staff presence at those meetings. >> I think it's only this year two that or three that the district >> Yeah, this will be year three that the district has been collaborating with them. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I just want to make the intersection between this group and the school. >> Yeah. Like I said, because it's so I don't know, it's

175not where it falls and but I think it's something that should be on our radar as a group that does collaborate with the school and does you know. >> Yeah. And I think we should probably if some you or somebody will help us remember at the next reorg meeting to clarify under which >> group like under >> where it would fall in terms of making sure there's representation there. >> Yeah. Um because I'm sure whoever Yeah. that we want we would want that to be clear. >> Um any other updates? >> Um there was the MBK lunchon a couple weeks ago. Um Ann and Dr. Sar gave um they showed us a video of musicians and was everyone went around the room and introduced themselves and kind of said you know how did the video

176make you feel? How does it tie into hope for the future and what is hope going to look like for the next generation? Um, and then it went into the MBK program and how they start young and keep going. And they, you know, talking about literacy, they brought up the third year, third grade ben benchmark where, you know, the gap just gets bigger if you're not at reading level by then and how that's one of their core issues they try to focus on. And then I had to go. >> All right. Thank you for the update. Any other board dialogue? Speak now or hold your peace until next week when I get to see me again. >> I'm holding my peace. >> Okay. >> Uh we do not need to have an executive session this

177evening. So I'll take a motion to adjourn the regular meeting. >> So moved. >> Any discussion? All in favor? I I >> oppose sentence meeting.