The Board of Education Meeting of October 22, 2025

001Good evening. I'd like to call to order the Wednesday, October 20 uh 22nd, 2025 board of education public hearing and regular meeting. Uh leading us in the pledge this evening will be our high school principal, Latoya Langley. I aliance 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. >> Thanks. Uh the next item on our agenda is 1.3, our superintendent update. And so I'm going to turn it over to Mary Fox Alter. >> All right. Good evening everyone. I have I'm proud to share my update in three different sections tonight. Uh my first section is going to be with our student exopicio BOE member Owen. >> So good evening everyone. I want to start off tonight

002with some shoutouts. First special thanks to our uh high school teachers, Miss Donna Love and Mr. Nicholas Cook for organizing a blood drive at the high school for the National Honor Society last week. Uh, shout out to the prestigious ladies of power club and the black culture club for bringing students to the international day of the girl at Manhattanville University last week. And yesterday, our human rights ho club hosted Dr. Clemen Low, a Holocaust survivor. Our students participated in discussion with Dr. Low about his experience and were able to ask him some questions. Uh, this week at the high school is Red Ribbon Week. Uh, this is an annual alcohol, tobacco, drug, and violence prevention campaign. Uh so make sure if you come to the high school uh wear, uh wear red and your red

003ribbon. Tomorrow evening, we will host a financial aid boot camp presented by Latino U College Access Program at the high school. On Wednesday, October 29th, the high school is hosting a college and career fair. This is an opportunity for our seniors to connect with their prospective institutions while also showcasing over 60 plus colleges and careers for our students in grades 9 through 11. Uh shout out to OHS students who are participating in area all state representing our school in symphony symphony orchestra string orchestra and uh symphonic band. Their performance is on October 30th at Sunni Purchase. Finally, on Thursday, October 31st, Mr. Whitehead's filmmaking class is hosting their second annual horror film festival. Class will be able to attend and see short films fellow students uh filmed and directed. For athletics, uh, all of our

004varsity teams have had their senior day games and varsity and JV regular seasons are coming to a close and sectionals for our varsity teams are starting soon. Uh, girls volleyball had their dig pink game last week and won three sets to one. And winter varsity and JV sports registration is open through form leaf and communication has been sent out to all parents and students. Uh so the rest of my report is going to focus on some general updates uh on some of the projects and initiatives we've begun uh through this role. So last week I met with all of our principles to talk about my goals for the lower buildings especially. I emphasized the importance of building cohesion between secondary schools and primary schools. Uh events like our senior talkback and robotics team visiting the

005lower schools helps younger students become more goal oriented to succeed in secondary and post-secary levels. Uh I'm also working closely with Miss Shamzy, Mrs. Matthews, and Miss Langley to bring select OHS clubs and activities to enrichment day at Claremont. Uh this day is meant to teach students about niche topics. Uh thus concise lessons from OS clubs can help peique younger students interests in turn making them succeed at the next level. It also gives uh high school students the opportunity to talk about their interests and share their impressive work. Similarly, I'm working with Miss Katie Castaniello uh to share some of our OHS clubs with the newly established Roosevelt clubs. Uh I'm also collaborating with uh Mr. Shikawashia, Dr. Novver, and science research teachers, Miss Valerie Holmes, and Miss Arian Prior Graash to bring our research

006opportunities to our middle school students. Uh our program is well decorated at the high school and expanding that to our middle school is an amazing opportunity that can benefit our students tremendously. I'm looking forward to connecting with other schools and starting other events to boost cohesiveness. PBIS programs and student councils at our elementary schools are great opportunities to connect our high school leaders. And for an update on the summer presentations that I reported on early this week, I have met with all the directors involved and we have brainstormed some solutions including uh more diligent uh coordination between departments when creating the summer schedule and having pre-registration available for families and students. Additionally, I'm working with Mr. Cole Reese and the communications committee to better convey the information to our families and students. Uh during budget

007season, uh there will be a report on the importance of these programs and we and ways we plan on better supporting these programs for the upcoming summer. Uh in addition, I'm planning uh to meet with Dr. Dy and attend the district equity committee meeting. Uh this will help offer student perspective on district equity, which is important to our district goals and board goals. Uh lastly, Mr. Dr. Jeremy Ducos and I are engaging in ongoing discussions about the use of artificial intelligence uh for our students and how to better clarify AI guidelines for our students. So I'll be sure to share more a more detailed report in the future when we have made some progress and that is everything. So thank you. >> Thank you Owen. >> So I have a few crowds um to um

008take care of this evening. First of all, um I want to um give a shout out to our O prime program and ask everyone if they have a moment uh this Saturday to drop by um AMD for our fall festival from 8:30 to 11. Um and it's our wonderful explore and learn fall festival. Um I'm really proud to share that AMD student um Yugo Buenaf Buloor, did I get that right? Okay, I tried earlier. Okay, was selected to feature his work in the Dear New York art installation at Vanderbut Hall and Grand Central Terminal. I had the um I was in New York City um a week ago, Friday, and I went through the terminal and I stopped uh to take a look at the Dear New York exhibit. It's absolutely phenomenal. The pictures are

009phenomenal and I saw this picture and I didn't make the connection right away. It's absolutely phenomenal. It's a great exhibit if anyone had the opportunity to see it, but it's >> Oh, you're gonna see it tomorrow. It's fabulous. It's absolutely fabulous. I I seem to have caught it at just the right time because when I finished going through it, I looked over and then there was a line. So, I I happened to have catch caught it just at the right time. But my goodness, um it just spoke to the heart. I found myself thinking about what makes our wonderful city, New York, what it is today. Our communities, um the cultures, the vibrancy, the authenticity of the photograph. I mean, it was just phenomenal. And to have one of our students showcased in it, he's

010a sixth grader. That is incredible because there are some uh known artists, photographers that are actually photographers of renown that are actually mentioned. You'll see that in the exhibit tomorrow. But um huge s shout out to our teacher and I think to it's Mr. um >> the art teacher, Mr. Koga and Mr. Sarno are the the ones who were >> I think so, but I actually think it extended back to his time prior to coming here in order to get into the exhibit. So, it is a community effort and actually features um a crossing guard from the community. >> Oh, absolutely. And it's a phenomenal picture of um crossing guard Mrs. Brown, right? Mrs. Brown. It was just a phenomenal picture. So, anyway, if any of you I'm happy you all will be going down

011the cap to see it tomorrow. Um, and again, please, uh, for those in our community, please take a look. It's just such an incredible, incredible, uh, honor. Um, uh, I want to, uh, give a huge shout out to our Roosevelt students who are diving into exciting hands-on experiments this week at the Regeneron Biobus visits their school. So, we're very grateful to Regeneron for the partnership and sending the biobus over to our Roosevelt students. Um, I want to thank all of our families who joined us last week for navigating parenting in the digital world world workshop. Um, and I hope everyone gained some valuable tips, information, strategies to help navigate um, parenting in a digital world. I also want to give a huge shout out to our new SEPTA organization for hosting a wonderful Halloween party

012this past weekend and to Dr. man and her husband for DJing the party. We're grateful for their hard work in organizing this event and to all the families and staff who volunteered, who attended, helped set up, decorated, uh, donated activities and created wonderful games for our students to enjoy. So, thank you Decepta and thank you to our staff. And again, thank you to Dr. man and her husband for DJing the event. Right. Um, every year during the month of October, um, the New York State School Boards Association sets aside a moment, a pause to thank board of education members for what they do for their community. Now here in Austining I am delighted and thrilled to work with seven unique, different and passionate individuals who take the role of being elected to the board of

013education very seriously. Uh the only thing we can offer you is um little bottles of water. Okay. Um a an evening under LED lights, right? and a ton of paperwork and homework from me and every administrator the evening before. Each of you give up precious family time because this is a family commitment. You give up of your time, your spirit, your energy for the service of all kids in Austin. And it we need every year to take a moment to reflect on this. This this act of governance being elected to do this is such a wonderful system that we have in this country and it's necessary. You all ask good questions. You ask hard questions. You've been great stewards of this public school district and it's an honor and privilege to work with each and

014every one of you. So in honor of school board recognition week which will honor Christine Mamelli, Melissa Bant, Roger Badacheria, Katherine Crossling, Annie Gomez, Rob Milstein, and Frank Schncker. We are this evening taking a moment to celebrate and thank each and every one of you. So in addition to certificates of recognition that you can hang in your offices or keep in a scrapbook and when times are tough you can look at these hopefully to recharge you. Uh we have uh some wonderful students who are here this evening to help celebrate your service to this community. Kate, if you want to come to the podium and introduce our cultural arts students. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for all the work that you do. Um, on behalf of the Austin administrators, I want to

015say thank you. And we also thought it was really the best the best opportunity to have our students thank you because you do so much work for them. So, I asked some of our leaders of our um, Austining High School arts programs. We have leaders from our tri, that's our our music honor society, and we have leaders from our drama club. And I will just pass the mic to them because they will say it best. Good evening, Board of Education. Uh, I wanted to express my sincerest gratitude uh for your continual support uh for the musical programs at the Austining School District. Uh, since co, this program has blossomed with some new members uh exciting new opportunities uh and academic achievers. Uh, thank you all very much and I appreciate your time. Uh my name

016is Xander Bradley and I would also like to thank the uh board of education members for all that you guys do. Um the as uh Miss Matthews mentioned, I am part of the Triam Music Honor Society program and I'm very grateful for the support that our music programs get as they have been very important and influential in my high school career and I hope for music to be influential in my life moving forward. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Zara Jane and I'm one of the presidents of drama club. Um, I would like to take time to thank you all for your time and effort and allowing us to continue to put on our wonderful productions. Um, our production this year, Clue, that's happening November 12th to the 15th. Um, it is it

017really demonstrates the strength and importance of hard work and without the support from you guys that would not be able to be happening. So, thank you. Uh, hi, my name is Sienna Castrio. I'm the other president of drama club. Um, yeah, as a member of drama club, um, and someone who plans to pursue performing arts after high school, I understand as well as anyone how important your support is for our programs. Um, it can sometimes seem disproportional between the recognition that athletics get and that arts get. and we are really grateful for all the support that you guys give us to help us continue with our programs. Um, art is what we leave of ourselves and other people. And by using visual arts, performing arts and any type of art at the high school, we

018can continue to uh further diversity and creativity in our communities. So, thank you. >> Beautiful. >> Thank you. So, we have members from, as I said, our our triumph, our music honor society, and our drama club. We also have a a national art honor society. Um, and they could not be here. You know, our music and drama kids love microphones more than our visual art students, but they have they are the ones that helped contribute to the presents that are inside that we're going to hand out now. So, we want to thank you again. We hope you enjoy these gifts that are from the heart. So each take a bag and a >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. So, um we hope

019the >> Thank you so much. >> So, we hope you enjoy the treats. There are some um just um tokens and momentos and things we hope. And there's a there's a special bag that you can take your artwork home too in there. >> Yes. Right. Look at that logo. >> I know. >> Some hard work going there into all of the work. >> It is It is It is a lot. So, >> I'd like our board of education um to um let's stand for a picture. >> Okay. You stand in the >> back for a Let's do it. I mean, I don't know. >> I'm like, "Okay, I think you did it on purpose." I want to take a day to talk. >> Is that the end of your >> That is the best way

020to end my update. >> Thank you so much. I want to thank the students especially who came to uh generously share their time this evening with us and their kind words. So, thank you to our students most especially, but um everybody who went into planning and organizing these beautiful gifts as well. Thank you to uh Miss Matthews who I know coordinated that. So, uh we deeply appreciate your gratitude. It's and I will say also Nicole Reese posted this on Facebook and it led to exactly one person in the community saying to me, "Hey, isn't it schoolboard appreciation week?" >> Thank you. I got one. So, thank you. I credit Nicole Reese for spreading awareness about that. >> Great. >> All right. We have so much to do. Uh so the next item in our agenda

021is our public hearing for our district-wide safety management plan. So, um, I have a statement to make. First, a public hearing is required prior to adoption of the district-wide school safety and emergency management plan. The document is required to be reviewed annually and updated if necessary. Senate Bill 5539A was recently changed and school districts are required to revise their district-wide plan accordingly. Uh the public hearing provides for participation of school personnel, parents, students, and the community and any other interested parties to comment and ask questions. This segment of the uh board of education meeting has been designated for the public hearing on the district code of conduct. I'll turn it over now to Mary Fox Alter who will uh introduce our guests here today. >> Okay. So, the um the districtwide um safety plan that

022we're looking at is a revision based upon a new law, Disha's law, which I'm um excited to have Shannon Rodriguez of Ars uh consulting here, as well as Jim Minan, our um wonderful safety and transportation coordinator, um here this evening to answer any questions. So with that, Shannon, you want to walk through the presentation? >> Sure. Hi, good evening everyone. My name is Shannon Rodriguez. I am the Austin School District safety and security coordinator. I work with Alterara Security Consulting Firm. So, this should go pretty quickly tonight. The update to the districtwide safety plan. Um, it's simple. It's based on DEA's law. I'll give you a little bit of background in case you don't know what DEA's law is. Dea's law was passed into effect on July 20 Hokll, excuse me. Um, Dea's law was

023based on an incident in 2009 when a 12-year-old middle school student named Dea Sanders collapsed in her school gym. Uh, there were AEDs in the school, but no one could find a key to the AED, and unfortunately, that led to her death. So now in 2025, we have legislation that has been passed and there is a law in effect stating that all public school emergency plans are going to have safety plans that address cardiac emergency response. So the district-wide safety plan emergency response, the district-wide emergency response plan, um it only outlines basically the requirements. So it's under general considerations and plannings. Schools have to develop and implement a cardiac response plan. The specifics for that are held in the specific building emergency plans. Um that's going to cover all school grounds activities and school sponsored

024events. Again, all of the specifics are in the building plans, but the general the general provisions are going to be in your district-wide plan. Um, it also provides for the the building emergency response teams or the BERT teams to do annual updates to the sudden cardiac arrest training and um and staff notifications and this the specific building plans have to include components of sudden sudden cardiac arrest in alignment with state law, national best practices and those recognized by the American Heart Association. So, um, in all school districts, all staff will receive annual training on how to recognize cardiac arrest, respond appropriately, and most importantly, the location of AEDs in all school buildings. I'd like to um um just make a statement actually appropo giving it a board recognition week that the board of education here

025in Austining has been apprised of the details and specifics. Um the building plans are confidential for obvious reasons and um the plans are available to any and all board members for um review and we had executive sessions to uh review the uh to uh go over this. Although this doesn't take place until January if I'm not mistaken. Correct. We are still required under the law to revise our safety plans to include them at this moment. Right. There's an opportunity now for questions from the board if we have any. Are there any questions from the board? Uh, any questions from the public? >> Anyone in the public who has a question? No. Online. All right. There being no further discussion, I declare the public hearing to be closed. Next on our uh agenda, right, we're ready

026to move on. Good. >> Is our work session item um our equity topic, our long-range plan overview from our secondary schools. Uh we get to hear our action plans. So, I'll turn it over to our panel of guests here today. >> Before they start and I uh sets up the presentation, Maria, just do a quick overview of the focus of our work. I know that our board understands it, but for our audience >> and good evening. Um, we are really excited to have our amazing panelists here, our secondary leaders share tonight their action plans. As you can see, the core of the work is based on our vision, beliefs, and core values. Um the board is very well aware of what they are and um it all centers on our mission which is ensuring excellence

027for all students through uh through equity. Um, as Owen mentioned this evening, the importance of cohesion between a preK12. And tonight, what you will be hearing is the secondary uh continuation and the building on the work that our colleagues a couple of weeks ago presented uh in our with our elementary team. So, I leave you with these amazing leaders uh this evening and we are talking about just to build on Mary's prouds. This is definitely a proud this evening. So, welcome. >> All right. I will kick us off with some um information about AMD. So, as you um can recall, I wanted to take a moment to just recap the past few years um under our team's leadership. So during the 2023 2024 academic school year, our primary focus was on relationships, safety, systems, and

028structures. And I think systems and structures has become my middle name as I look around the room. Um but it is so important. Um they are so important. So uh then last year we shifted to sustaining our systems and structures in order to foster a culture of academics here at AMD. This year our vision is to foster a culture of academic excellence which we really see as that notch up on the work that we've been doing. And prior to the start of this year we actually explored what does excellence mean with our staff. So, we had a shared understanding going into our work as a team this summer with our own leadership team, with our curriculum coordinators as we brought our action plan to life. Um, and so our two goals for this year, which

029you can see outlined here, really capture the focus of maintaining and enhancing our systems and structures, particularly as they relate to instructional practices and continuing to show ensure that all students experience a sense of belonging here at AMD. Let's do that one. Um, so I'm actually going to turn it over. um to Jared who's going to talk a bit about teaching and learning. >> Okay. Hello everybody. Okay. So for AMD teaching and learning, our instructional work is centered on helping students grow as readers, writers, and thinkers in every single classroom. One way we're doing that is by making vocabulary and language visible and accessible using strategies like the Freyer model and illustrated word walls. These give students the language they need to talk about their learning with confidence. We're also deepened our use of AVID

030strategies like focused note-taking and critical reading so students can break down complex tasks and build habits that will support them well beyond middle school. This year we're excited to offer an eighth grade AVID elective giving students even more structured support in organization goal setting and academic ownership. Finally, monthly PLC's using the PLC plus framework will be key spaces for collaboration. These will help us define and implement common instructional practices by content area, building consistency for students and share language for teachers. To share more about data informed practices, I'm going to turn it back over to Dr. Novver. >> So, we are so fortunate to have so much data at our fingertips ranging from Panorama to NWA, New York State assessments, the NISTEL and the NISLAT. We have access to the data. But data sitting in

031these repositories will not unlock student learning. So we must be strategic in our use of these sources of data to enhance our instructional practices. And our plans for this year show how we are going to do that to particularly enhance instruction at the tier one level. What you see here is a snapshot of our schedule this year. Through our work with our scheduling associates consultant, Michael Reddig, we were able to carve out common planning times for core teachers. This is a strategic element of our action plan to support tier one instruction. Just to kind of show you, oops, nope. I was trying to get the uh right here. This actually talks that line where it says professional shows each period um that teachers are available to collaborate together. So now um with the exception of

032a very few teachers who teach across grade levels. So they might have an instructional block during that time. Sixth and seventh grade teachers have a common planning period every single day. And eighth graders eighth grade teachers have a common planning period every other day. And part of the reason for that is the um earth science lab and the way that that rotates, but we were able to work to create that. And what this allows is for our teachers to meet formally and informally to review data, have MTSS meetings, and most specifically use the data to plan for instruction. We're continuing to leverage our partnership with Kathy Connley um to support our teachers capacity to understand and develop their instructional plans based specifically on NWA assessments and our New York State assessments including the NISLAT. Um,

033most recently on Monday, our ELA teachers, social studies teachers, special education teachers, and AIS providers met with Kathy to review the fall NWA results and New York State remediation reports for individual students. The goal of this work was to utilize data to support tier one. Specifically, how do you modify the learning objectives to align to the needs of all students in your class and or create small groupoup instructional plans that are taking place in your classroom. And that data and that session provided that support. And all of this work is possible because we work as a team with ourself as a leadership team and our coordinators um on a strategic professional learning calendar which you see um just a snapshot posted here in the slide. This calendar was developed by our leadership team in consultation

034with our curriculum coordinators and directors and we were able to take our district focus or our PLC's connect it to our action plan and ensure that each month has a focus aligned to the action plan and now at our leadership team meetings and our monthly meetings with coordinators we come back to our professional learning action plan assess how we're doing in line with our action plan and then re-evaluate valuate. So just today we met with coordinators to ensure our professional learning plans are set through our December um through the winter break. So um all just a one of some of the ways that we're utilizing data to inform our instructional practices here at AMD. And I am now going to turn it over to Will to talk about equity. >> Good evening, Board of Education.

035Our equity work is at the center of everything that we do and it starts with knowing our students very well. We are looking closely at subgroup data so we can respond to the needs of multilingual learners or other groups who may need more targeted support. This means language support strategies are happening in every content area not only ENL so all students have access to grade level learning. We also partnered with Dr. Goldie Muhammad in social studies to strengthen our culturally and historically responsive literacy practices because we believe when students see themselves and their histories reflected in the curriculum engagement and belonging grow. As we expand opportunities, we are increasing algebra 1 enrollment for eighth graders, making sure that access to advanced coursework is open, equitable, and student centered. We also offer diverse star enrichment programs

036across athletics, the arts, academics, music, and by providing these multiple pathways for students to explore their strengths, they develop passions, and they build confidence. To share further how we're partnering with families and the community in this work, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Roda. Thank you. >> Good evening. Thank you, Will. Our partnerships with families and the community are a big part of what makes all of this pos work possible. We really want families to feel informed and connected. So what we did was we created simple curricular snapshots that show what students are learning and how they can be better supported at home. We're also continuing to grow our collaborations with groups like Gross Wellness, PEK, Andress, and Youth Bureau. These partnerships help us facilitate programs that support students well-being and open

037doors to opportunities beyond the school day. Another priority for us here at AMD is celebrating identity and building belonging. Like Dr. Novver talked about, our calendar now includes cultural events and guest speakers that uplift our students and highlight the diversity of our community. And through our MTSS work, we're reaching out earlier and more often, especially around attendance and academics. So, families are really and truly true partners in helping students stay on track. And I'm going to transition us now to those intended outcomes and turn it back over to Dr. No. So, as um you may recall from previous action plans, the idea behind as we build our action plan is if we do all of these things, this is what we believe is possible for our students. So, on the slide above, you'll see our

038action plans in different areas. Thinking about our expansion. So, we believe by doing all of our action steps, we can lead to these outcomes, including um expanding how many families access Infinite Campus this year. Um, a team of us went out uh to I almost said Orlando. We were not in Orlando. We were in Anaheim. Um, at the AVID conference and in in our during our time there, we actually set some very specific goals related to our AVID courses different for elective experience and schoolwide. So, the elective is that eighth grade course that the students are enrolled in every day. Um, and they are co-enrolled in both algebra and earth science with that. The AVID experience is our sixth and seventh grade every other day course that the students engage in. And then our schoolwide

039goal is because all of the structures, as Jared highlighted, extend to all of our students. We've also are looking to decrease our chronic absenteeism and utilizing those strategies that Roa shared about early and often communication, including our partnerships with family engagement specialists. I met with um Carol Delonte and um Denise Domar today who are incredible assets to our team who are going to continue to support our current um clerical staff in that reaching out in reaching out to families. We've got our measures of school belonging as informed by our panorama data. Um, and our main area, if you recall last year, is the idea of in our academic areas to squeeze the toothpaste, as Kathy Connley said. So our goals for this year that are that in every academic area as measured by NWA we

040will have a decrease of 2% 2% of students performing in the first quintile and an increase of 2% performing at the fourth or fifth quintiles from the 61st to 100th percentile. So this was our spring data and our goal data. But I do want to share as you are looking at those numbers hot off the NWA presses, I can proudly report that in our Spanish literacy um as of the uh assessment closing on October 17th, we have 34% of students performing at the 1st to 20th quintile. So we are currently exceeding um our goal by 8 percentage points and we have 19% of students performing at the 61st to 100th percentile. So again exceeding the end ofear benchmark but we have to be careful we don't change benchmarks because of um the ways in which

041over the year that standard shifts. So we're in a very good spot though to support our students instructionally. Um currently in ELA we are still at the um we are kind of on target with where we were 26% of students performing in that first quintile and then um 35% performing at the upper quintile. So we're getting we're taking a look at our ELA instruction and being strategic about that. And in math 18% of students are in the first to 20th quintile. and 38% are performing at the 61st to 100th uh percentiles. So we are exceptionally proud of all of our educators, all of our students. Um but we are seeing that growth and we are excited to continue to implement this action plan to see what this brings for our kiddos. So thank you and

042I will now turn it over. I don't know if we want to do question or first Latoya and then Whatever you would like. Do we want to do questions now or keep going? >> Well, I think we should do just if we can capture just a couple of quick ones for each. >> Well, we're either asking questions or we're not asking. >> Yeah, we're that's what I'm asking. >> Okay. If you Why don't you start then? >> You got questions? >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Hopefully we have answers. >> Hopefully. Um just a couple of quick questions on just for clarification. you had a um on there increasing algebra enrollment um and and and it there was a uh on there just I wanted to understand when we do increase the enrollment

043um how do we ensure the success for those students where we're increasing the enrollment based upon how they get placed in there and my second question is um just trying to understand what we're defining as algebra uh mastery or algebra and earth science those are my only two >> repeat the second question >> yeah what's the definition of mastery in algebra and earth science. >> Awesome. Um so to respond to the first question, the addition of the algebra course had also so last year's enrollment was 76 students approximately in algebra 1 and this year we're at 106 students in algebra 1. So, and that has consistently been our goal over time since I took over was to go three, we went four small se sections of algebra, four large sections, now we're at five smaller

044sections and to continue to fill in order to ensure support for the students. That's where the AVID elective comes in. So we were very strategic about the selection for students who applied to the AVID elective who may have also been on the cusp of a of algebra enrollment. so that we are providing them with the resources and supports that the AVID elective provides which are the organizational strategies but beyond that there's a component of the AVID elective called tutorology which is an which gets incorporated into the program and there are tutors that come in from partner organizations as well as student tutors. So when students feel that they have an expertise that they can share. So that's just one of the structures that we're utilizing. Also, we developed um some very specific classes aligned to

045the needs of students. So, we had a teacher come to us and actually with a desire to add an extra algebra section and that teacher has very strong relationships with some of our students who were also on the cusp of enrollment. And we specifically there was also some attendance concerns with some students. So, we made that class period 1, gave them a teacher that they have a strong relationship with, and now we're increasing their attendance at school. Period 1, we're enrolling them in a high school level course, and then for some co-enrolling them in AVID. So, Roger, does that help with your first question. And then as far as the definition of mastery, this is where hopefully my secondary colleagues can also uh my high school colleague can help me. But the definition of mastery

046is actually the score you achieve on the regions. So you can pass the regions, but it's not mastery. And it's different for each exam based on the scoring of the year. Mary, did I kind of capture that right? So mastery is usually about 80% but that >> 80 to 85 but it changes based on what's the exam how did other students across the state do what does the um scoring what is that document called >> the raw to scale to scale >> charts so that so what we were and particularly what we found is that while our students in algebra might have been passing they were not achieving mastery which was then impacting some of the high school math enrollment. So, we want and with AVID, you want students to not only be enrolled in

047rigorous academic courses, but to show success in those spaces. Um, so that's how mastery is defined and why we also have been very strategic about the partnership between increased AVID enrollment and increased algebra and movement. >> Um, I'll keep going down. I'm sorry, Rob. I don't have like good eyesight on. You have any questions right now? >> Uh, no. Not right now. Not right now. >> Okay. Owen, >> um, my question is, you said your goal for the, uh, the belongingness at 52%. Do you think that is something you're going to achieve through kind of a a collective effort of all um like attendance uh all those all those factors or do you think it's more through the kind of um the cultural the new curriculum and social studies the opportunities behind the classrooms that

048you you mentioned the guest speakers that you mentioned like where do you see the that goal coming from is is my question >> and that is a great question I'll also allow anyone to jump in at any time. Um, but I think it is the whole picture of many different areas. Um, so when the reason why that we set the goal at 52%, obviously we would want to see more. Um, but in our work with uh Dr. Lopez this summer, we analyzed different areas of the panorama data. So currently our we were um at 46% of students saying the responding favorably to the question how much um how much students feel they are valued members of the school community is how they measure school belonging. So there it's really not just oh this will do

049it right but if we provide the strategic academic support where students see themselves we can do we can hit for some of our students. If we think about providing feedback to students in their core academic classes, we're hitting that providing tier one instruction that supports it. Selecting texts in which our students see themselves. So, for example, um in examining our curriculum, we noticed that many of the protagonists were white, particularly in our seventh grade texts. So this year we worked with our consultants through ARC and selected a new seventh grade text that features an Asian-American protagonist. So all of that work allowing kids to see themselves in the curriculum to inform both the curriculum and our instructional programs. One example we always bring up is the students creating a tennis club last year. That is

050their interests. Um, so it's not just one approach, it's all of the items, all of the aspects of the school community coming together that we hope increases that data on panorama, but also that feeling of belonging here. >> Thank you. >> Oh, and tell your friends. We take the panorama data really seriously and they need to fill that out and they need to be really authentic when they fill it out. Frank, >> um, thank you for the presentation. Really great things. I just want to call out the expansion into the AVID elective. Thrilled about that. The common plan, sorry, the, um, common planning time for teachers and the common planning period. Really, really important. Just great to see that you're able to make that happen this year. The science curriculum snapshot, like how great is

051that? going home and getting that road map of what's going on like just things we've talked about for a long time and just want to give you credit for for really bringing the bringing those things forward and the math the I guess the the assessments through this year with the 18% in the first quart quintile really really great I have a question I'm trying to understand the graph a little bit around the Spanish and the 44% in the first quintile there >> we probably said it and with all the information I I missed it maybe. But what is that? Is that proficiency in Spanish? Is that Spanish primary speakers proficiency in English? Like what's that 44% representing in that first quintile? >> Great question. This particularly is our dual language students, sixth grade only. So

052it represents about 118 students. So they're all So when you're looking at the data, which is also interesting to think about that 44% was um actually and we could re even rethink because I'm talking out loud was last year's sixth grade. So this year's sixth grade what we're seeing and there we could explore more of like what could this be attributed to with a higher proficiency is we've now been utilizing the art curriculum for we're going on four years five years of implementation particularly at the elementary level in dual language where those units align so we're seeing the strengths of our students so that is part in particular the NWA exam in Spanish literacy for only our sixth grade dual language students. >> So I did that with anything you would add there. >> Yeah.

053So >> okay. >> So I guess then the follow on to that just with the English then. So is the English is that representative of like ENL like it's dual language in ENL or is dual language in there's ENL in English? You know what I'm saying? And like and then is that the rest of the population beyond the hundred students? Yeah. The English NWA represents the entire student population and their proficiency on the English NWA exam. So, it includes our English language learners, our dual language learners, everybody. Um, and with as far as our dual language program, some of our students within our dual language program are English language learners, but we also have our monolingual learners who are learn becoming proficient in the Spanish language. So that's why, you know, over time we're seeing

054that growth, but those students are acquiring two languages simultaneously. >> Very helpful to get the explanation. So thank you. That's it. >> And thank you for your feedback. That's >> Annie. Do you have any >> This is really just a clarification question for me. Um, so the AVID program is for students who want to just get more help to succeed in what they're doing. It's not necessarily for students who need intense support. It's for like just any student who wants to do better. Maybe they reach their full potential. >> I'm going to let Jared take it. Jared is our avid >> extraordininaire. So there's a difference between like the every day every other day program that we have for sixth and seventh graders. So they get it throughout the entire year um every other day

055and as Dr. mentioned like they don't get the full picture of what AVID is supposed to be because AVID is ideal ideally an everyday class and so the AVID elective which is where we're able like the idea is that it's for all students not just certain populations of students at the sixth and seventh grade level >> correct just >> um but for the eighth graders we've been able to offer the elective and what that is is an everyday class now in order to enroll in that class you had to have a uh what's the word I'm looking for they had to have an application where they have to answer a lot of questions about like their own goals and the things that they wanted to accomplish because as you said, yeah, it's not for students

056like ideally be for any student that would want to apply, but we had to have students who are enrolled in academic rigorous courses. So, they have to be in algebra. So, they have to be eligible for algebra. So, they had to take seventh grade accelerated and they have to take earth science. And a lot of our students are enrolled in Spanish 2B because they had previously been a dual language, although that's not a requirement. So they're enrolled in two to three rigorous courses. And what they're able to do is, as we said, we mentioned like the tutorology and like the tutor tutorials. The idea behind them is to work to find things that they might not be able to do in order to work together to tackle things that they don't understand to increase their

057understanding as you said like push themselves like to next level. And yeah, it's for people who are really trying to fulfill their potential to be the best student they can be. And I and the difference with the elective because this is a new course this year is the goal is to align it more to the work that takes place at the high school because in the middle school we have AVID for all school or AVID schoolwide in the lower grades but that will kind of peter out over time and when they get to the high school I think there's four sections of AVID or is it two per grade level? >> It's two per grade level. >> Two per grade level. So, kind of thinking about how we build that connection and that bridge. >>

058Thank you. That's all. >> Melissa, do you have any? >> I do. >> Uh, just a couple clarifiers. Um, first, thank you for the presentation. I like how it's worded of like we will. You're like manifesting what you want to achieve and your goals there. I was hoping you can talk a bit more about some of your equity efforts and if at all you or how even you might be incorporating like things like IEPs and things like that into your consideration around the scope of equity work you're doing. >> So I think equity the way that we see it is it's at the heart of everything that we do. And so if it's not explicitly named or like I was even thinking very strategic like very specifically when we talk about assessments we so often

059leave out NISLAT as a measure but it's a it's a significant measure for many of our students within our population. Um so I think that's one of the things to kind of share and think about. Um, as we're thinking this year, we have our student equity leaders are meeting on a bi-weekly basis with their equity advisors and they're helping to bring different programs to life. So, they contributed to our um, Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. They also did another program that is escaping me right now. It will come to me. Um, but then also for our students with IEPs, we involve them in all of our programming. So whether that's our afterchool programming um to ensure Kim and I actually had a recent conversation about ensuring that we had access for all of our students to

060engage and participate. So I think when it comes to equity, it is the core of everything that we do. And we're looking at it, we're look at everything through the lens of equity. Jared is really working as an overseeing our special education department to ensure that the teachers are implementing in collaboration with Kim um and our and Jester Grande who's our director of special education that we are implementing like effective co-eing practices within our classrooms to continue to promote inclusion. So I hope that helps a little bit. Um, but it really it's always so hard because it's the heart of everything that we do. So, as we look at any data, we're looking through the lens of whose story is being told and versus whose story is not. Today's curriculum coordinator meeting, we dove into

061looking at student grades across their classes and we saw who's passing our classes. Just a quick snapshot, many of our in our classes, more of our black and Hispanic students were not passing our classes. So now, what are we going to do instructionally? We had Chris Mton coming, you know, yes, uh, conference day on Monday. How are we implementing the mindsets and pedagogy that he talks about to know and reach our students? So, it's an ongoing effort. Hopefully, that helps Melissa a little bit. >> Thank you. But I'm going to get even more specifics as we continue because it's the core. Um, and it's the lens we look at and it's the questions we ask in every one of those settings and in our MTSS spaces too and the team really works to ensure that

062everyone's needs are being met. >> Appreciate it. Just one other quick question. And similarly when the uh early um elementary schools were here they were kind of unpacking some of these similar goals they did touch on their um efforts around just you know what all schools are dealing with around attendance and I asked them the question about how they are I think you talked about use of clerical kind of resources around that. I'm curious as to how you are or if you're utilizing um other efforts that look at other motivators that might be involved in that any kind of clinical aspects or things that might be contributing to what you're seeing there or if you're exploring that analyzing that responding to that in any way. So one of the things and I think if any

063of the teams want to jump in on the ways the specific teams are engaging in it but we are looking because each month the grade levels each week our APs meet with their respective. So as you recall through the budget process we have a psychologist shared we have two currently two psychologists so shared across the three grade levels a social worker and a counselor with every grade level which has provided significant wraparound supports. So the team meets during their MTSS meetings once a week with their support teams and looks at that data. So thinking about the whole child and what is it that those individual students need then they meet on a monthly basis with the teachers on the teams and that gives us more information but we're really thinking about the broader outreach. So

064a new thing we're adding is the work with the family engagement specialists. So what we find is the APS are connecting their clinical teams directly to the family engagement specialists and because the family engagement specialists are also connected to one another and the entire community we're able to get full family information. And so then when the family engagement specialist is there, it's not just about oh one of our eighth grade students who's at AMD who's struggling with attendance. It's the high school sibling and the elementary school sibling and what wraparound support are we providing to the family unit, but I don't know if anyone wants to speak a little bit about something specifically at the grade level and how you're approaching it. This can speak a little bit to uh seventh grade like we had

065a student last year who had like some like complications they weren't able to attempt as often and so like we were able to notice that as a team and we really have we worked very hard to connect with the families to get offer support outside of like the clerical things like as Dr. just said in our MTSS meetings, we bring up students that we notice. We look through the data pretty frequently like to notice who's here, who's not. Uh, funny, we talk about NWA, we were able to find a sixth grade student who had like gone on vacation cuz I was trying to do like catch up work to get all the students to test like when I'm doing the makeups and we're able to catch things through that. So even another data source that

066you wouldn't think would show us who's not in school, but it's really just the MTSS house teams being able to notice things. There's some teachers who might have a better relationship with one student. So having them reach out or something, finding the classes like that's what Dr. Nov said about the algebra class that was strategically like aligned like those students are coming to school more frequently now. Their attendance is better. They're not as tardy. They're not as like way as like it's working. And so we'll keep trying new things, but again, like it's just looking with our teams about ways we can improve about finding the pockets of like kids that might need help and trying to provide it when we can. >> Thank you. >> I was just going to add that uh working

067with the two family engagement specialists has been great. It's brand new. We just started working with them. And so, for example, we have a brand new eighth grade student um who's not been in the district. This is his first time in the district. and the family engagement specialists were able to get mom involved, meet with mom, get Andress, uh, get mom connected with Andress, um, have a whole team meeting with the teachers, with our team, and it's just been great. So, it's a partnership that we're really looking forward to just keep building on. >> Thank you. >> Katherine, did you have any? >> Yeah, just um, I had a real quick followup about this data. Is it and maybe we already have it but is it possible to have this disagregated so that we can

068see for example in our Spanish of the 1st through the 20th um who are our native English speaking students who are native dual language speaking students and then the same in the English um and in the math >> we can definitely it's just going to take some time because the NWA system doesn't do it as cleanly as some of our internal work but we can I'll follow up with Marie We'll follow up with Tim and we'll get some disagregated data for you. We have to we're waiting for all of that to come back together because now all the systems need to speak to one another. So, we'll get it. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um I just had one well I had two questions but uh Roger actually asked my algebra question. Great minds.

069Um but I heard a mention of a Freyer model. could um I I just point >> I I'm curious about I want to make sure we're clear to our community and everything like what is that? What's its purpose? How is it beneficial? >> So um the Freyer model is just one of the Can you pull up while we're talking? Oh, I the literacy instructional practices handbook. So the Freyer model is just one of the tools that we're providing with teachers. Thank you. um to um use as an instructional strategy within their classroom. So, it involves um what we actually did in working with our consultant this year is that we were able we um pulled in a lit uh a literacy consultant to help us really dive deeper into the ARC units and align our

070instructional practices to support tier one. And then we created an instructional handbook for teachers to leverage. And so we provide multiple strategies for teachers. The Freyer model in particular is a specific strategy that involves I want I had the visual in my brain. Um but when you're teaching the word, you're including the definition, characteristics um of the word, examples, and non-examples. So, it's a quick visual snapshot of a new vocabulary word that students are also learning in context. So, it's connected to the tier 2 and tier three vocabulary words for a unit. So they're not your necessarily everyday words, but those really specific to the content you're using, which is connected to our goal around disciplinary literacy. >> So is it just does it is it just for ELA or is it provide consistency across

071different subject areas? >> Different subject areas. So and that's with some of the AVID strategies as well. Um and AVID actually even promotes the use of the Freyer model in teaching vocabulary. So it can be used, it can be used across all academic areas and through our professional learning. We're continuing to bring it into our department meetings, faculty meetings that as well as other strategies because there isn't just one way to do vocabulary. >> Great. Thank you. All right. I think we're ready to win. >> All right. Good evening everyone. We're still at evening, not night yet, right? Okay. Um, the clicker. >> Okay. So, just a really quick I just want to kind of highlight the goal that we had for last year and kind of bring you into where we are right now.

072So, just a reminder, our focus for last year really centered around literacy and attendance. And while our goals don't speak to that specifically, I want to help you to understand how we arrived at where we are now. So you'll still see literacy and attendance embedded in our plan, but it's more of an action step rather than being a focus. So, if you see um up on the screen, you're going to see throughout our presentation little icons of us um as construction workers because we started off the year um with our faculty really talking about the fact that we want to build the school that we want to see for our students, what we're ensuring that we want to see and how we're creating, as Dr. Novver would say, those systems and structures. You'll hear some

073of that. So, as we have become more and more aligned, you'll hear some of the language that has been interchangeable um within each of our schools. Um but meeting with uh Kathy Connelly this summer with the team with the curriculum coordinators and looking at all of the data. Um one of the visions that I set with the building is that I wanted us to think about our vision statement. Something that everyone when you walk in our building, you know what we're working towards and what the expectation is. And so this year we started out with every student ready for college career and the future that they choose. That is where we started. Um it's morphed into a little bit more that I shared with our ninth graders during PSAT day which is along the four

074E which is not something that I created but it's something important that I want them to know which is that by the time they leave we want to make sure that they're prepared to actually go into um employment, enrollment, enlistment or going into entrepreneurship. So the vision that was set was every student ready for college career and the future that they choose. At the high school, I wanted to be clear, it's a little bit different where we want to measure our growth in many different areas. I think that superintendent Fox Alter said it best that in every other grade level um they are working when their their work is represented on a a report card. At the high school, it's very different. their work is represented on a transcript that really helps to show what

075their post-secary experiences will look like. So for us, it's how do we make sure that we ensure that all of our students are ready for college, career, and whatever it is that they choose to do thereafter. And again, all of our students. So you'll hear in our presentation that we're building on much of the foundation that our colleagues in the lower grades have established. Um, at the high school, one of our focuses, we want to make sure that our students in each of the classes across the disciplines, that they're speaking more, that they're writing more, and that they're reading more. So, you'll hear a little bit about how we're doing that throughout the throughout our um building. Um and then also for us it was important that we work collaboratively um with all of our

076outstanding teachers, curriculum coordinators, the administrators, counselors, but also our directors in making sure that the work that they're doing within our building aligns to our action plan. So in a building as large as the high school, you have to really make sure that everyone is rowing in the same direction. So, as much as possible, I continuously went back to our directors, went back to our curriculum coordinators, what does this look like in your content area? What does this look like? Um, just really in in their specific areas in order to make sure that we were all aligned. So, that is some of the focus that you'll hear as we move through the presentation. So for our first goal, it is to establish systems and structures that prepare all students for enrollment in higher education, employment,

077military service or entrepreneurship. Again, at this point, we're establishing the system. So we looked at it by way of if we are building that house, what are the systems and structures that we need to have in order to make sure that this is a possibility. So one of our focuses is that we want to make sure that our work remains aligned with the nice it inspires New York framework um which the state has recently began to um publish. So using that as our compass and that guides some of our our decisions and our pri priorities as we move forward. Both myself and assistant superintendent Meyers along with Mr. DUCOS, we've begun participating in some of that work around the county, just understanding what that looks like at the high school level and we've begun to

078have some of those conversations with our faculty around professional development also target instructions and how we make sure we stay on path with New York inspires. We're really hoping that by aligning our efforts as a system and focusing on academic achievement and real world readiness that our students will really be prepared to pursue their goals and succeed beyond the high school. Our second goal um our second goal um if you can just go to the next slide. So, our second goal, I'll read it first, is for 100% of our 9th graders to be on track for graduation by the end of their freshman year in the 2526 school year, we aim to reduce that existing gap by 20%. So, let's talk a little bit about the numbers and how we arrived there. So last year

079with our ninth grade students, we realized that 20 out of the 344 freshmen that started last year, 260 of those students earned at least five or more credits within their freshman year. We're looking at five or more credits as being on track because of the fact that if you look at the board policy, when you have five or more credits, really that's what the board speaks to as being in the sophomore class. So, if they want to make sure that they're progressing, at minimum, they should have earned five credits within their sophomore year. There's a tracker that you have there, this beautiful graphic here. I will not take any credit for it. As I started creating my goal, uh, Miss Mauricio told me she worked on this eight years ago. And so, I went back

080and looked for that graph. And so, this is something that she created to help us to know when students are on on track. So, we're not only looking at just credit acral though, we're also looking at the fact of in order for them to be on track, they should have earned at least five credits in freshman year and they should have passed two the two regences that they have to take during that year, which is the math regions in addition to the biology regions. Now the reason why we're really focusing on our ninth grade. So I talked about the systems and structures of the house and for us I said to the team like we're starting on the ground level our ninth graders understanding that if they are set on the right track if we

081make sure that we build that foundation with our nth graders then they will proceed more and that ultimately impacts our graduation rate. So last year 260 of our student 260 of our students earned a five or more which is about 76 credits. Um but we realized out of the 260 only 177 actually pass both of the regions. Okay. So that's where we're looking at right now at least 51% of our students are on track. That's looking at not only five or more credits but also the two regions that are indicated in nth grade. So, when we're thinking about closing, looking at that gap, the gap is about 49%. 20% of 49% is um I think the difference is about 9.8. And so that's why we're looking at making sure that at least 60% of our

082students in this current cohort are on track by the end of um by the end of their freshman year. Looking at the predictors, we know that our students, if they remain on track, like I said, it sets the foundation, but it builds that academic momentum. It gives them confidence as they enter into the 10th grade. If they remain on track, they're able to take some more of the advanced level courses and electives that they would love to participate in. That means it requires fewer credit recovery interventions, and they have more time for enrichment and post-secondary planning. And we also believe that that means that our students will stay engaged and connected because they know that they're moving towards graduation by moving from 51 to 60%. We believe we're really ensuring that our students have a

083solid foundation for future success and that we're laying the groundwork towards graduation. So that is an overview of our two goals and right now I'm going to pass it off to Miss Mingo who's going to talk to us a little bit more about teaching and learning. You need I can project >> who hopefully she tells you I went through maybe five different iterations of an emoji just for her. >> She's being generous to tell you it was only five. It was probably a little bit more than that. Um I think you landed on Yep. That was the right one to land on. Um good evening everyone. So really to echo a lot of what Miss Langley said um and I'm not sure if we're tallying how many times we're saying um systems and structures but

084I'm going to add everyone everyone can add a tally. >> We could add a tally mark. Um we're really going to start to look at our New York inspires plan and really start to develop that shared understanding of a portrait of a graduate. um really looking at those specific attributes, being academically prepared, being a c creative innovator, a critical thinker, an effective communicator, a global citizen, and being reflective and future focused. And a lot of what our goals are really align very closely with these attributes. um this shift really and and the focus that we have is really to think about how the shift how we are shifting from simply earning credits to really creating more experiences for our students um and really helping to prepare them for life beyond OS. Um, when looking at

085that New York State portrait of a graduate, it's it's really highlighted that how we are equipping students to learn and grow and then contribute meaningfully to society, which I'll speak to in my um next action step. But part of this work is really assessing what current action steps and current systems we have and then how we begin to align our work and build and building as specific departments as not just the building but also specific departments. Um as an extension of that work and you'll see this in our second action step is really piloting the generation citizen program. Generation Citizen is a civics readiness program and it's really a hands-on program in which students are able to explore how they can make an impact on the larger society and help inform and shape decision-m really

086the units are a passion project. So students choose a unit of their choice that they feel passionate about and really start to conduct a root cause analysis of how they can explore factors that result in some of these issues that are might be local to the community. The next step is for students to help develop an advocacy strategy and really start to think about how they can make meaningful change in their community. Um so when we look at the portrait of a graduate um and really start to align with some of our curriculum framework in our participation in government classes we are really looking at how this could be embedded throughout um future classes in in some of our um in the upcoming year. So at the very end, students participate in a civics day

087where they can really share their passion project and talk a little bit about how they themselves can implement some change in the community. And what is so wonderful about the generation citizen program is that when you compare it side by side with the seal of civic readiness, you see that those components of civic knowledge and civic participation really are embedded throughout each of the units. Um so one of the highlights that you know we really want to hone in on is last year we had about 55 graduating students uh graduate with the seal of civic readiness. And we're hoping that with incorporating this pilot program of uh generation citizen we can increase that number to over 87 plus. So students who are graduating and participated in both our senior capstone in internship program in addition

088to the pilot class of participation in government will all qualify for the seal of civic readiness. Um, and then just in addition to that, right, as we continue to branch this out and expand into future participation in government classes, we will hopefully, and maybe it's reaching for the stars, um, hopefully have almost 100% of our students graduating with the seal of civic readiness. I will now pass it off to Dr. Barbach, who will speak a bit more about data informed practices. >> Project two. There we go. Good evening all. Um so when we look at utilizing data to ensure that our students are on the right path for life after OS, we want to make sure that we can quickly and efficiently identify the students and continue keeping track of this data. Now we already

089have this this data at our fingertips um in the repositories as Dr. Nor had already said. I'm going to cite her every time we use her. Um, what we're looking for is just finding a more streamlined way to access this quickly, especially in our house meetings because we want to be able to recognize at a glance who continues to be on track and who continues to be off track so that we can continue to intervene as a house team um and kind of overcome whatever obstacles we see may be um confronting our students. One of the most uh integral components of that tracker would be attendance. Now, we've already done a great job kind of highlighting and celebrating our 9th grade students um on PSAT uh PSAT day. We highlighted those by giving them a

090snack because who doesn't love snacks? Um with the stay with the saying clip to it, it must be hard being this perfect. So, we want to make sure that we're giving as much positive reinforcement to those who continue to attend and continue their interest in their courses um and stay on track both attendance-wise and grade-wise. So, we're monitoring these attendance uh this attendance in our house meetings along with our deans and with our attendance officers. um making sure that we're communicating with families, our house teams are on the same page about these students and making sure they receive the necessary support in addressing any obstacles because we know that when they're here today, they are ready for tomorrow. And one of the reason we put this picture of Miss Langley up on stage is that

091we've addressed our freshmen uh when we first had a conversation with them is that we want to ensure that in June 2029, each one of them walks across this stage and shakes Miss Langley's hand when they receive their diploma. So that is equity. So I'm going to pass this mic to Miss Haristen who's going to address equity as long as we don't break it. Okay, >> thank you. Uh hello everyone. I hope you're all doing well tonight. Um I'm really excited to speak to goal number one as it relates to equity. Um so in order to meet our goal of preparing all students and I mean all students for all the different pathways after high school, one of the first things we're going to do is analyze data to identify opportunity gaps. So why is

092it important to look at data? I'm gonna give the the one second the two seconds 5-second teacher wait time. Um just kidding. So why is it important to look at data? Um we strongly believe that in order to create equitable um systems and structures, we first have to identify where the inequities are. Um so you know we're going to be looking at data such as you know which students have access to college level courses. um which students are getting all the information about the different pathways after high school and essentially which students are not taking these pathways or getting access to these pathways um and most importantly finding out the why right like why aren't students getting access um to these uh pathways. So once we have all the information and all the answers, um

093we can do things or we will do things such as looking at our course study guide and seeing if there's any changes we can make there. Uh looking at our scheduling and the way that we uh assign courses to students. um training all of our staff members to ensure that you know they know the right information and all of the information to share with all of the students so that all the students are getting access to the information about the different pathways after high school. Um bringing in programs and partnerships uh that truly reflects our students wants and needs and doing check-ins so that you know we can stay on top of any of the barriers early on. Um, so that's looking at the quantitative data, right? And we love quantitative data, but we also

094think that qualitative data is also equally important. And so that's why our second action step um is going to be increasing student voice through talkbacks and community circles. We really want to hear from students and their perspectives and their real life experiences to be able to uh make decisions uh based on their uh wants and needs. So recently uh during PSAT days, we did community circles and uh talkbacks. Um so we had our ninth graders uh split up into groups and they all sat in circles. Um and they were able to really engage in discourse about what the transition is like from middle school to high school um and answering questions like you know what are some of the things they're struggling with, what are some of the things that they need support with and

095etc. And then we also invited some of our seniors um to ask questions and the you know the ninth graders were really excited to ask questions about like organization and time management and how they can be part of the school community more uh which definitely aligns with you know preparing them for um life after high school. Um so both of these action steps uh we really feel like will help us create more equitable systems and structures um that is inclusive, responsive and truly student centered. So thank you and I'm going to pass this on to Miss Ko for family and engagement. >> Just before we move on that I just want to say thank you for the talkbacks. We talked about the fact that we had some of our seniors um speak to our freshmen

096and we talked about really organizing that. That was really Owen. So Owen, thank you so very much for making sure that we had the seniors there that day. >> Thank you. >> Um okay, so good evening everyone. So now regarding our pillar of family and community engagement, our work aligns closely with the district's mission to recognize and strengthen the value of family school community partnerships and supporting all students. To support this goal, we'll continue hosting grade level parent nights. These events give families a clear picture of student pathways, graduation requirements, and post-secary opportunities. They also make sure that families and caregivers know what's expected of them in supporting their students. At each of these events, we have translators available so that every family can fully participate in the conversation. I'd also like to highlight uh

097the work of our family engagement specialist, Alicia Eningga, who has created strong partnerships within our community through home visits and conversations with students and families. It's been a really great addition to our building. Furthermore, we're also working to increase opportunities for students to get hands-on experience through internships, volunteer work, and employment with local businesses and community organizations such such as Oprime. These experiences give students real world real real world learning and help them build stronger connections to the community. We make sure students have access to classes and careers that match their interest. For example, in the future healthc care healthc care leaders course, students learn through the school health center, guest speakers, site visits, and they research in the fall and com and they complete healthcare internships, research projects in the spring. In the senior

098capstone internship program, skip students explore a topic they are passionate about and complete a meaningful internship in that field. And for Project Thrive, something that has happened this year, they've collected gently used clothing for a popup thrift store at the Austin Public Library. Also, through OP prime, we've partnered with community organizations where students can volunteer and complete their seven required hours for each year. All in all, we're committed to engaging families and the broader community in our students educational journeys, honoring their diverse perspectives and support that they bring to our schools. Now we'll hear from Miss Mingo regarding our pillar of teaching and learning for our second goal. Okay. So when we look at specifically at our second goal, one of our first action steps is to look and to really hone in on teaching

099and learning specifically at the tier one level. So the hope is that we are enhancing tier one instruction by focusing primarily on lesson design, vocabulary development, and the idea and concept of disciplinary literacy. This goal really will help support all learners and promote mastery of meeting grade level standards. So similar to what Miss Langley mentioned earlier, much of this work really aligns closely with our goal last year, right? So you'll see a lot of this work embedded in this action step. Um and when we when we speak about lesson design, we really are focusing on how we are enhancing content and language objectives in our lessons as we as we plan and prepare curriculum. When we look at vocabulary development, it's much of the work that we are doing with Dr. MSON as it relates

100to tiered vocabulary words. Looking and and intentionally planning tier one vocabulary, those high frequency common words that we see in content areas, tier 2 vocabulary, which is focusing uh predominantly on academic words crosscurricular and then those tier three words that are really content specific. So, a lot of the future work that we'll be planning in future PLC's will be focusing on intentional vocabulary building in each of our content areas. And then lastly, when looking at disciplinary literacy, it's really thinking about how each of our departments are really focusing on on promoting and fostering a students ability to think, read, write, contextualize as mathematicians, scientists, right? historians um in the work that they do each and every day in the classroom. Um I'll speak and I'll highlight our English department just you know as comes off

101the heels of superintendent conference day. The English department did some phenomenal work in really aligning um the current curriculum into our new district scope and sequence and really you know had wonderful conversations and collaborative dialogue really looking at vocabulary. Um it went so well we're actually continuing the conversation at Monday's department meeting. So um really just thoughtful dialogue has really taken place um in in the spaces that we've had thus far. So it's just really exciting to see where the work will continue to move forward. Um and then you know I speak about the English department but in in future and upcoming PLC's this will really be happening across and throughout the building. Um secondly, uh which I just previously highlighted briefly, uh we will facilitate monthly PLC's throughout the course of the year. What

102will be a little bit different this year is that last year colleagues from across multiple departments came together in a PLC. The intent with our planning this year will be that PLC's will be department specific. So it will really provide teachers ample time and additional time um to really discuss curriculum, curriculum framework and really touch on um and have dedicated time to go into lesson design, vocabulary development and really promoting data and disciplinary literacy. So this these PLC's um that I speak about that will really focus on curriculum will also provide time to work on common assessments and quarterly exams which Dr. Borbach will be speaking to next. >> Thank you. In our efforts to reduce this uh this gap by 20%, we're really looking to align our assessments um by examining performance data that's

103specific to the New York State learning uh region's learning standards and skills in our core content areas. Uh so the data is not just going to be used to identifying to identify learning gaps, but it's also going to be used to guide our teaching practices. It's also going to give us the opportunity to monitor progress as we continue on through the year. We've recently signed on to a new program called formative. In this program, we can actually tag skills and standards within our formative and summitive assessments, which this program will quickly analyze and display data surrounding these tagged skills and standards that we've identified. That's going to give us uh the opportunity to see certain areas of need as well as help to guide our professional learning communities that Miss Mingo had mentioned. Right. So

104therefore, it's not just about identifying who and what we're targeting, but it's actually going to help guide um where we are looking to grow. Uh so we're really excited about utilizing uh this program that we've signed on to um and how it's going to continue to help us utilize data. Um and I'm going to pass it to Miss Carol. So now turning to our pillar of equity. Uh for our second goal, we're focusing on embedding culturally relevant teaching practices using Dr. Goldie Muhammad's Hill framework, which helps promote engagement, belonging, and representation for all students. Our staff has already been doing a lot of work around historically responsive education. Last year, for example, we held community circles throughout the year. This year, we will sustain and deepen our learning through our monthly equity committee meetings, our

105student equity meetings, and district level meetings. We're also working to enhance access and engagement for our English language learners and students with disabilities. This includes targeted training on the SCOP model and ICT instructional model, as well as co-eing strategies for our ENO and English partnerships with Dr. Andrea Hanikfeld. Currently, our ENL and English teachers have coal planning built into their daily schedules along with dedicated time during their trainings with Dr. Hanikfeld. To make sure the scaffolds are in place and we need to make sure that all students can fully participate and succeed for our students with disabilities. The district has partnered up with G&R inclusive group to monitor and improve our inclusive practices with ICT settings. In addition, we've partnered up with growth wellness services who will be working with some of our English language

106learners to provide additional support which will help students explore their values, experiences, and personal narratives, creating a literary journal that celebrates their evolving identity and culture. And having seen the truly meaningful work they've done with AMD students, we are very excited to see the impact that will happen to our students at OHS. Now you'll hear from Miss Langley regarding our Pillow Air family and community engagement. >> So again, just focusing on our second goal and how it relates to the ninth our ninth graders. One of the things that we're hoping is that we would create a ninth grade parent um explore and learn a Saturday event for our families. So, we really are trying to be intentional about planning this event right after the first report card. So, we'll take an opportunity to walk through

107the rapport card with our families, help them to understand what it means. Um, and maybe if the student is already showing some signs that they may be falling off track, having that conversation and also speaking to some of the resources, I've already begun tapping into some of our directors to make sure if they can present um during that day, just small items. So it helps families to understand what students are experiencing as they continue to move through the uming school system or through the high school I should say. The other one is talking points. So we began piloting talking points at the high school this year. Talking points is a communication platform. I think back to a conversation that we had I think at the ending of last year. was at the board meeting with

108our trustees just around communicate versus notify and what that means at the high school level when you have teachers that have upwards of 130 students on their roster, how we can have those conversations. And so one of the things that we looked at for talking points is how can we have more conversations with families around data around academic updates and really be able to pro provide them with the information that they need in a timely basis. What we found is that so many of our students um they were taking advantage of the fact that maybe families needed their support in maneuvering phones. I'm trying the best way to say this that we were realizing that our numbers were blocked or certain families phone numbers and that we couldn't get through and so this became a

109platform that we could use that families would have to opt out. They were using it's connected to um Infinite Campus. So families are automatically enrolled and they would have to opt out if they didn't want to participate. Um right now it's optional for our teachers but so far 37% of our teachers have signed on and more and more are trying to get involved in the sit the the use the system. One of the things that we love most about it is that when we send out a message, so for example, I sent out a message to all families for back to school night and immediately I can see that while I typed it in English, it was translated in English, Spanish, Arabic, Filipino, Portuguese, Russian, Erdo, Farsy, and Turkish because those are the family the

110family um languages that we have right now currently in Infinite Campus. So, not only is the message translated, if they respond back in their language, it comes back to me in English. All of the documents that we send out can be translated immediately. So, talking points has definitely been something that we've been able to use to really see how we can enhance communication with our families. So, that's the end of our presentation and thank you so very much. >> All right. And again, sorry, we're all a part of building. So if you would like me to put you as a emojicon, please just let me appreciating those throughout. I'm like, there's another right. Um, does anybody want to start us off with questions? >> I'll I'll ask a question. Um, >> yes, for board appreciation,

111whatever month, week, whatever it is, I would love our photo in a bit emoji. Um, Um, just about the infinite campus, you know, I know that there are just so many studies that show that when parents are involved in what's going on with their children's education, they are so many more times exponentially likely to graduate and likely to pass regents and likely to sit for exams like the PSAT and the SAT and all of these things. Um, and I I just know speaking from personal experience trying to navigate, you know, what regions we have to take, what regions we can take, what regions maybe we should take so that we can take other AP courses that don't align to a region's curriculum, and we're not sort of having to stuck taking a course that maybe

112we didn't want to take because we need the regions credit, right? It's it's very complex. I remember trying to go through my child's schedule the last two years thinking if I'm this involved in the school district and I'm on the board of ed and I was a president for however many years and I am struggling to understand this it it it's hard right and I think like the way that you start understanding that is by following along your child's infinite campus scores when they're at AMD when they that sort of first become comes available to then you get the alerts all the time. You go, "Oh gosh, we have to talk when you come home today, right?" um do we keep lists or do we have a way for technology to kind of identify for

113us hey this is I don't know what the 20 or 30% of parents who are not active on infamous camp infinite campus and then do we have a plan for targeted connection with those parents to sort of bring them into using the platform >> yes so for infinite campus I am sure that we're able to have that information where we can who's actually using Infinite Campus and who has accurate numbers. I can tell you more specifically, that's one of the things that I love about Talking Points is it can tell me even wrong numbers. So, it will tell me if a number is there that is no longer in service or if someone has opted out. So, when we were reaching out to families to try to engage them in conversations around their students, only

114thing we knew is that we just weren't getting through or they weren't getting through to us. Talking points allows me to see if our number if they have um if they're no longer active in the system and if we can't connect with them. So that's the beauty of talking points for Infinite Campus. I know that we have that information and I know through our family support services um family engagement specialist they've tried to have sessions to make sure that more and more families are using Infinite Campus also to see what's there. So that work has continued on year after year just to make sure that we have more families that are using Infinite Campus. But I think it still requires a lot more training on a year-by-year basis. And that's why we want to continue

115having our family nights to really talk about at each grade level where your student is and what they need to be looking for for next year and really helping them to know what classes they need to take, what regions they need to take. And that's why we're having that conversation with families year after year saying at each grade level offering grade grade level parent nights so that that conversation's going on. We also um met with Dr. Nova earlier this year to begin talking about at AMD, how do we help families to know how they actually earn credit at the high school in AMD by taking the um not only taking algebra but also taking Earth and Space Science and the fact that they have to pass the class and also pass the regions in order

116to acrue that credit. Usually we feel like we've had such a high success rate with Earth and Space Science. last year was a little bit different and so that helped us to know we need to make sure we start the conversation at AMD where families understand what that trajectory looks like. >> Thank you. >> I'll head that way around. >> Thank you guys uh for a very thoughtful presentation. So it really um a lot of great details in there which I really appreciate. Um just a clarifying question. Would you mind terribly just going to the slide where you had the five classes? Um that was there. I just had a question just specifically on that one. >> Yeah, that one. Yep. Okay. So on this one, I'm just trying to understand here. I think you

117had said something and please correct me if I'm wrong, which I probably am here. there when I think you started out you said there if we look at like having like five credits during freshman year that was originally thought of as kind of like being the starting point for how you would determine graduation success and then and then I think that you there's some this is where I think I I got this a little fuzzy so please bear with me on this >> um and then there was also the the um talk about the fact that you know there are certain classes that are in I I wonder is it is it the classes plus something else and that something else meaning the combination of you know feeling like you're belonging at school that sense

118of belonging in there in addition to the classes is there something else that needs to go with this not just the classes by itself to move the needle from 51 to 60.8 8. I think that's what you had, right? That that's I mean it's it's a good goal. I I I appreciate that. I'm just trying to think of is there something else that's in there? And please correct my my my fuzziness here as well. >> So the five um five or more credits is really about making sure that they're on track, meaning that they're moving into the realm of being a sophomore is what I said. So, five credits really determines that they're moving towards they're now um in 10th grade and they're also at they're also a sophomore is what I was saying. Right

119now, what it's been paired with, it's five credits. And the other thing that we've added to that is the two regions. So, I'm not sure if that's the part that you may have missed, but it's making sure that they have five credits and that they've passed the two regions that are also done in ninth grade, which is the algebra and the biology regions. So, okay, just that this is where it's my fuzziness is a little came in a little bit >> on that algebra and biology. So, Dr. Nova and her team talked about really upping that algebra one and that's where regents would take place correct at that point, right? So assume that that success factor happens >> there and they they hit all of their milestones there. >> Then it's just a focus on

120a biology regions at that point. >> It would focus on biology and those students would then go into geometry, okay? Where they can still sit for the geometry regions, but they wouldn't then the focus wouldn't be a ninth grade algebra. It would then be just the biology regions. But that still means that >> Say it again. would you sub by at the uh >> no because only thing we're looking at right now is what they need in the ninth grade in order to remain on track. So if you think about the fact right now they have to have a 4 plus one as far as the New York State assessment. I wouldn't then say add something else because we want to make sure that they're progressing towards graduation successfully. >> Okay, that's clear there. And

121then the other part that was just more along the lines of is there something else that create fosters that sense of because it may not just be the fact that you know academic there could be other things part could be could it be hey I'm not part of this entire I feel like I'm on the outside looking in I feel like I don't belong here I feel like I've got home pressures. Are there some of those things that you see that as like factors that can kind of help to create a little bit more of that cohesiveness to get you to the 60 1%. >> Yeah. So, one of the things that's unfortunate that Kate just left because she's been working with our clubs around Passport for Good. And that's one of the messages that

122we sent to our ninth graders this year is about getting active, getting active in the school community and what that looks like by way of participating in athletics, in clubs, in um in arts. Like those are the things that we've been trying to highlight for our students is getting involved in the school community so that sense of belonging is also strengthened. So I think that's one of the things that they learned even in having the talk back with the seniors. I had just shared with them the whole thought of getting active and that we have so many offerings and when you don't see something know every year we're looking to maybe create another two c another two clubs. So when they spoke to the seniors that's one of the things that they heard from the

123seniors seniors that are playing sports but they're also part of robotics also a part of science research also engaged in so many things in the community. So that then brought the conversation around um around science research and what that looks like and saying, "Okay, now we have to go to 8th grade and make sure we're showing some of these opportunities." Just thinking about what else just like you said, what else do we need to make sure that they're connected to so that it's not just athletics, they're actually enjoying their time at the high school. >> Yeah, I think that connectedness is what you you were saying and I think it needs to manifest itself in this building, right? and and continue on, but not manifest itself just because they came in and said, "Hey, look

124at the clubs we got." But rather there's something that you started that when you start earlier, your transition and bridge. This is my belief. It's it could be garbage for all I know, but it's just it's just my belief, right? that if you take it from from the early points of when you're like, you know, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade and you have continuity of that into high school that combined with all that, it creates that sense of, you know, bringing that all together. >> So, it's just a comment. That's it. I'll leave it at that. >> Thank you. Um, very good detail on both sides. Just a couple of quick ones from the middle school handoff to the high school. And I don't know if this is considered what you would call vertical alignment,

125but are we kind of thinking of like, okay, here are some things we're doing here in terms of the tracking and the measurements. Here's how that's going to line up with what you're doing in your building. And then sort of how do you see, okay, this from here led to this here or this is going here to there. like uh can you speak to any of that? >> Yeah, I feel like we have a lot of conversations just around what are some of the things and how do we line and honestly that is from academics to even behavior. So I think about just the fact of right now that students um the cell phone the not the internet enabled devices ban the mere fact that they started a lot of that just at AMD the

126mere fact that they're not allowed to have their internet enabled devices and now transitioning to the high school and the same thing like I feel like um Dr. has kind of prepared the way for that and we're just continuing it. Um when it comes to um some of the things that we've done as far as the focus on literacy or oracy, those are the things like Dr. Nova's talking about squeezing the tooth the toothpaste up uh or the tube of toothpaste up and I feel like that's coming up to the high school. So we're looking at our eighth grade data for our for the students as they've come into the high school. That's the data that we've actually given to our department so that they know exactly where the students are as they're coming into

127the high school. So taking from that knowing where our students are and then using that as we plan and move forward is what we've been able to do. And so and I think I I while ELA and social studies like have their own components I think >> sorry >> I would also you know ELA and social studies are it's slightly different than in math and science because of the trajectory at the secondary level. So I think most of the academic conversations while we're leveraging the data really um and you know last time I feel like we brought Jeremy over from some table he was sitting at over there right are in our collaborations with Mr. Dukos it's really those math and science conversations that we're finding we're having the most often Latoya cited the example

128of earth science and the impact that that's now having on their you know credit bearing and regent courses. Um, we've also talked a lot about algebra and then should they be enrolled in honors geometry or regular geometry depending on that's why going back to the question about what is mastery. So those are the domains that Latoya is saying we need to do like I want to hear about how the Saturday explore and learn with the ninth graders go because that's probably something that we'll want to look back and I've made note for our team to bring for the eighth graders as they're entering and we do that earlier so that families fully understand because a lot of that we want to tighten up to support their mission of and our mission as a district of

129the 100% of schools being graduation ready. I think also something that we noticed during superintendent conference day that I actually thought was very beautiful, walking into the OS gymnasium and you had all of the STEM teachers districtwide K to 12 in that room. Really backward planning from the high school down to park looking at what are some of the things that we're doing across buildings in order to make sure that as students coming to the high school they are on track and prepared for the learning that's going to take place there. So a lot of that conversation is happening K to 12. And so when you hear our plans, we've really been trying our best to make sure that we're aligned as much as possible. >> And just one other followup, and I don't know

130if it's for you, this group or Mary, you Maria, um because it's a broader question. So we have the data points in here. Do you know when the the board if there's interest would get a look at kind of taking what's in here mapping that against NWA the ERA if applicable like would that come at the second round when these groups come back is that on another agenda item that we're already talking about just to see like literally to plot against okay this versus this versus that like when would we potentially get a chance to see that >> triangulation them but there But I mean we can certainly talk about that when Kathy Connley comes because that's part of the you know the New York State assessment reports and speak about what type of assessments

131we have because in that situation there you've got New York State assessments which are actually achievement assessments in way but they're taken at a snapshot in time similar to a regent exam. NWA is a growth measure over a period of time and that's why Dr. Nova, if you listen to her earlier, which when she was highlighting the great results of the fall NWA, which we're off to a promising start, that can change as we monitor throughout the the the year. And then Erla and Anne Neil is very aligned throughout the year to help you monitor progress on certain skill sets for um ARC. So I certainly think the question is great because to our families they won't understand all of that. Right. Of course and there are pieces of NWA will norm to a national

132standard and it doesn't always align to a state standard. So your question is spot on because it can get confusing to parents who gets all of this information. >> Well it could be confusing the boy ad right like that's you know we're and we're kneede in it. So to me like that would be very valid for us and yes for families too. >> Sure. Great question. >> Yep. >> Frank, do you have anything? >> Yes. Um great presentation. It was really great to see the evolution of the summer planning meetings and those great conversations we got to be a fly on the wall and watch you having and to see this. So just I give you a lot of credit for where you started and where you are now. There's there's been a lot of

133work good work great work done there. Um, I I really commend you on the ninth grade focus and and really looking at that hard because it is tough once you kind of get off of that trajectory to get back to it. And so throwing, you know, when we had the, you know, bringing in the ninth graders at first for that first meeting at the high school and keeping everyone else out. Great, great, great thoughts there. Um, and great work to see it evolve. It's exciting to watch that evolution where it's um the aspects of the family engagement, the multiple pathways, the idea of the after the first report card having explore and learn like I think it's just a fantastic idea to try because like we want to catch them as soon as we can

134along that trajectory and and try to adjust that. Um I guess with the the kind of the technical question I have it's not really a question for tonight and if you have some insights maybe but so the students that pass the five courses but don't get past the regions >> what do we know about them in terms of do they get on by August is it really once if they're not there at the end of the school year the likelihood is they you know they're not there maybe they catch up the following year and I'm I'm not trying to um get an answer tonight, but just trying to see what we know and what we can learn from those 90 students that basically passed the courses but didn't get through the regions. Um, >> so

135I can just share with you something that we're working on right now with um New York Gear Up and um Wendy Trager is that we've already since we've identified those students um letters went out I think as soon as today as recent as today to those families and we're trying to connect them with Einstein. We looked at how far away they are um from meeting with success on the um regions to say really how beneficial is it going to be whether or not it's going to be virtual tutoring it's going to be online virtual tutoring sorry or in-person tutoring so that's the work that we've done but that's really across grade levels not just our ninth graders we've looked at anyone who has not been successful in passing the New York State regions whether how

136can we be targeted whether or not it's going to be online whether or not it's after school And at this point, we're also considering a Saturday academy for our seniors. So those are the things that we're continuing to look at. But again, if we put our focus on the ninth grade and making sure that they're not repeating these exams is the thing that we're trying to focus in on as much as possible. But that is exactly where we are right now is making sure they are sitting for the January regions, but we're helping to prepare them for the January regions. And then if it's not the January regions or they're not successful, making sure that they have that opportunity to take it again in June and in August as we continue to prepare them for

137those those times. >> No, that's great. And really love the whole picture. One last thing plug here I guess I want to commend you on is just the generation citizen work. I think seven years ago, Mary, if I recall, we were in a meeting with all the school boards in the region and we had a presentation from Generation Citizen and we were talking about the importance of civic readiness. And >> I don't think at that meeting I think if you had said we would have 55 students doing that, we would have all been like that's amazing at the end of the day. So the fact that we're at 87 students on track for that seal of civic readiness through the program and we're looking for a hundred is just kind of it's an amazing follow-up

138story to an early conversation that not just here in Austin but across the board and I would be surprised if others are reaching the numbers we're reaching but I hope they are. So thank you. >> Thank you >> Annie. >> Before the meeting started I was telling Latoya how hard I think her job is and that still stands. Um, I wanted to express my appreciation for all of the oracy work you guys are doing with the visual word walls and all of that. Um, I think I've mentioned before I didn't speak English until I started kindergarten and I learned most words through reading. So, I got to college and I said the word decal and people laughed at me because I didn't know what I didn't know how decal was pronounced. So just like bridging

139that gap for kids who may not be hearing these words at home or wherever it is is nice for me to see. Um for my question is about the this slide as well for the regions are are students allowed to opt out and if so how does that impact this um on track status? So currently students have to pass a math um they have to pass the math regions they have to pass English they have to pass science and social studies. There is then a plus one that they can have which is a combination of seal of civic readiness. It can be a world language, it can be in the arts but they have to pass math, science, social studies and English. So you cannot opt out of those exams. You have to have one

140of those four. >> Yeah. Melissa Yes, thank you for your presentation. Um, the emojis are really cute as well. Latoya, it was not lost on me that you were modeling with your hard hat the OSHA standards. So, kudos there. Um, I just wanted to ask a couple of like some a couple of questions I have mirror what I was asking um the middle school. Um, but I did want to ask cuz it was brought up and I was curious about the electronics ban and just, you know, what observational data you all if any have to just share. I know we were most concerned about the secondary schools and what that would look like. It sounds like just from, you know, even Owens updates and things that things are going better than expected. So, I'm wondering

141from like an educator perspective what that looks like for you, especially since these are the students who are probably most reliant on technology throughout the day. Um, and what that what that's looking like. >> I I feel like, you know, as we've shared, it has gone a lot better than we anticipated. One of the things that I learned in our freshman circles is that the goal is that everyone would use their lockers. And I kind of threw that question out during our circle and they were like, "No, we don't use our lockers." And I was like, "Well, where are you putting your phones?" And they were like, "In our bags. No one uses the locker." So, I think there's still a little bit of a learning curve there in just what works and what's not

142really working. Um, for the most part, we've gotten a lot of positive feedback from our teachers just around the fact that they feel like students are a lot more engaged and they're not in that power struggle because the cell phone shouldn't be in the classroom. But I can find that I find that in some of our um our less structured environments like our cafeteria and our library, more specifically the library, you find that students are trying to take it out more and more while they're there just because of the downtime. And so that's something that that's a conversation that we'll have to continue to have around how we fill the time in those spaces because I think as the year goes on, I put in my memo recently that we're now in October like the

143honeymoon phase is over and what's going to happen is now going to start happening. And so we have to be mindful of how we're supporting them in building those connections with their peers outside of the classroom and using that time where they're not resorting back to trying to use their cell phones. Okay, thank you. Um, I appreciate the update you gave on equity and how you're just expanding your work around that. Um, especially I'm assuming some of the the things you were talking about are generally you're talking about students with IEPs and some of that that you were talking about. Um I do have the same question that I had I think I had it for all the schools about like just how are you being strategic about just tackling the attendance issues right even

144from clinical perspectives and just kind of navigating how complicated that can be and what that looks like for the high school. Yeah. So I feel like for somebody else want to answer? Okay. >> For the high school, I think, you know, we started off the year talking about attendance and trying to bring about a a culture of attendance at the high school and knowing the importance of it and making sure that we blasted that message out. One of the things about talking points that we want to be able to use is that as students are off track, we can send a message to families immediately letting them know that your child is at this point in time they've missed 10% of school and that allow that opens the door for that communication that's very easy.

145So, we're trying to think about we're trying to use talking points in that way. That's one of the reasons why we purchased the platform was really about attendance and the metrics that it can give us to really be able to monitor student attendance and be very intentional about our inventions, our interventions around that in addition to the work that we're doing in our house meetings in identifying those students and really trying to narrow down what are the barriers to attendance in order to support them. One of the things that I love also is um through the work with Jess Grande, the um the Compass program and how she was able to we were able to create classes for students that are school avoidant in order to really make sure we're meeting that need also. So,

146it's constantly a work in progress. I've shared with the building, especially at the high school level where we sometimes get students that have been chronically absent for years, there's no one thing that's going to change that path. It's really understanding whether or not it's a mental health challenge, whether or not there are transportation, whether or not it's disconnected, whether or not there's so many things that we have to think about that you truly have to be a case manager that's going to delve into the issues in order to really support students. So, our focus is still around attendance, but we know that there is no one way that we have to address it. you're really looking at it from a varied, you know, perspective to see what else we need to do. >> And just

147to add to that, something that um I can give an example from one of our house meetings when we met with students. So, there was a particular student who we noticed was cutting a particular period, right? Um and we were kind of identifying like what's that root cause? Where are you going during that time? What are you doing? And we found out that they were actually attending another class during that time that they were interested in. So then we were able to kind of look at their schedule. I know it sounds really funny. Um but uh we were able to look at their schedule. >> A cousin that would join me in my class. >> Yeah. Yes. Cuz she they had friends in that class. Exactly. So um we noticed the interest. We noticed that

148they had friends in the class and we worked with them to change their schedule up a little bit and now we've noticed an improvement. So it's like really honing in and talking to the student and meeting with them and getting to know. >> Thank you. Yeah. And I noticed throughout the years that you all are just being really creative about like how can we just keep learning from what we're what's we're experiencing and try to keep tackling this moving target. Really quickly, you brought up target uh talking points. Is that by default an opt-in or an opt out? Like is everyone automatically signed up and they get the messages? >> Yeah. So for families, everyone is automatically signed up and teachers can send messages to their classes or they can they can create certain groups.

149Each of the counselors, they have groups that they can send it to all of their families, but then there's also an option that you can send something out to the entire building. So I have the ability to send it to the entire building. Um, others have rights to send it to the entire building. We learned that we need to make sure that folks don't always resort to that in sending it to the entire building. So there's a little bit of a learning curve on that, but it does give the option to either send it just to your your classes. So I've been able to see the conversations back and forth between teachers and families. But again, that's the record for the teachers that they said like I've been able to reach out and this communication

150is ongoing. So it's been very helpful from that stance. >> Okay. Thank you. You know, I always go last and then I No, >> no, you have Owen. >> Oh, Owen. I I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to skip you down there. It's because you're sitting so far away. I'm sorry, Owen. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah. So, um I just wanted to touch on ALS the the community engagement that was talked about earlier. I think that's what we're working towards with like the lower buildings and having some events from the high school go to the middle school and then go to the elementary school and then also the the internet enabled device span. um how I I think from what we've seen it's more of an adjustment for our upper classmen um because they've had

151different rules for four uh three two or three years now and now there's nothing um I can speak from personal experience um but it's it it it is it is getting better I think especially for our underassman is getting better but my question was on um there was some talk about the exams and uh reshaping the exam format And there was you mentioned briefly the quarterly exams. How is that going to work for our classes? Is that going to be every class? Is that going to be just our core classes? Um yeah. >> Yeah. The the focus is trying to align these with right now the core content classes, especially the region space courses. Um so trying to create that alignment to be able to assess the performance data and to assess the core skills

152required for the data. that's going to help us kind of analyze where our students currently are and how they're progressing throughout the course of the year just so that we can better change our teaching um our teaching ways or our um our kind of styles in that sense to make sure that we're addressing a the needs of the students and b different standards that we might not be um considering that hot topic to be able to adjust accordingly so that we can get the best out of all of our students. >> Thank you. Yeah, that >> was such a good student question. That was such a question that would have come from a student. >> Can I also say that the uh OS news video that was released did interview students about their take on

153the cell phone ban and there has been some positive feedback on that that they're enjoying the the tech-free space um in that sense. So also good also a good question. Um, I find I always find myself on the same wavelength as other people when they've already asked their questions, but it's never the same person. And this time, Frank asked both questions that I wanted to ask. So, thank you, Frank. Um, um, and I don't have any further questions. I just want to thank you so much for your time and um, all the work that you do day in and day out, not just for this. Um, and thank you again for letting us into that meeting over the summer that Frank also referenced. um that allowed us to see kind of under the hood a

154little bit and and give us a deeper appreciation for how high level this is compared to how much work is actually going on underneath there. So, um thank you very much and I think >> yes to 10 and you should all leave. >> Yes. >> And thank you for your support. I think I speak on behalf of all of us when I say thank you and have A WONDERFUL NIGHT. SAFELY, EVERYBODY. >> All right. And yet there's more work to be done. Okay. Um the next item on our agenda is our um public comment period for our audience recognition. Is there anybody um in person here who wishes to speak? I seeing none in person. Is there anybody online? All right, we'll move along then. Uh, move moving ahead to number five, our consent agenda,

155business of the board. Does anybody have anything from 5.1 through 5.5 that they wish to break out? Seeing none, I'll take a motion for 5.1 through 5.5. >> So moved. >> Second. 5.1 Resolution to adopt the revised district-wide safety and emergency plan. 5.2 Resolution to appoint consultants for the 2025 2026 school year. 5.3 Resolution to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of September 3rd, 2025. 5.4 Resolution to approve the minutes of the special meeting/ Austining Public Library bond vote held on September 16th, 2025. 5.5 Resolution to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of September 17th, 2025. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Looking at uh agenda item six in our consent agenda, business office matters. Does anybody have anything from 6.1 through 6.10 that they wish to break out? >> Break

156out 6.1, please. >> Okay, we'll take that first. I'll take a motion on 6.1. So >> move second. >> 6.1 resolution regarding bond issuance for the Austining Public Library Capital Project. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Absentions. All right. All right. I'll take um is any anything anybody else needs to break up from six? All right, I'll take a motion for 6.2 through 6.10. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thanks, Frank. Uh 6.2 resolution regarding disposal of classroom equipment and textbooks AMD. 6.3 Resolution to accept funds from Ohio PIO Royalty Print Program OS. 6.4 4 resolution regarding acceptance of funds ACT testing service OS 6.5 resolution regarding acceptance of donation of equipment from donors choose OS robotics club 6.6 resolution regarding award of bids cooling and driveway and maintenance/sto AMD school general

157construction 6.7 resolution regarding award of bids cooling and driveway and maintenance/sto AMD school site construction 6.8 8 Resolution regarding award of bids cooling and driveway and maintenance/sto AMD school mechanical construction 6.9 Resolution regarding award of bids cooling and driveway and maintenance/sto AMD school electrical construction 6.10 10 resolution regarding interfund transfers. Any discussion? >> Just one thing. Thank goodness. >> Thank goodness that this if you're watching at home, this means we can begin construction on the driveway out of this building on Storm Road. >> Yes. And I will tell you the dates. You can all show up and put a shovel in the ground. >> Like we're checking off before was the giant check. Now we get to put a shovel in the ground. Oh, >> we're we're checking off the boxes of those u Mary

158>> all our public service dreams. >> Mary, >> it's the field of dreams. >> Did you want to talk about the alternates? >> That's a great point. Alita, I will let you do that because that's great news. >> Go for it. >> You're you're more wellversed in this than I am. This is your forte. >> The um Lita knows I get very excited around HVAC. Um at the end what Alita is referring to is that we are very excited and I want to thank our ARIS construction Jared Alita and CPL. We receive very favorable bids so we're able to add the add alternates into the project and it is all within the scope of money that we have so we can air condition the gym. right now when you think about that in order to

159do that in in addition to RTU's rooftop units independent coiling systems it requires a whole other level of power distribution electricity. >> So you expected me to say that and explain that >> but um um but again um I want to thank Alita and Paul and everyone we got some really great bids and we're very excited to do this work. >> Awesome. All right. So, the motion's already on the floor, so we'll take a vote. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Absent. >> I just want to reiterate how great that is to be air conditioning a whole gym space in within the budget. I mean, look at those line items on their own. That's a that's a seven figure number at the end of the day. So, this is just >> absolutely >> this

160is just the community should know this is a huge win. >> Yes. Yeah. >> So, thank you. huge. >> Yay. All right, let's get some >> just say one more thing. Thank you for all your hard work. You you you >> I don't know how you do it, but you we're >> Good on you. Good on you, >> team board, team Alita, team everyone. >> Good on you. That's awesome. >> Right. >> All right. Looking uh next we have our consent agenda for curriculum and instruction. I'll take a motion for 7.1. >> So moved. >> Second. >> 7.1. Resolution to approve recommended placements. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstension. All right. I need to break out 8.1. Looking ahead. Does anybody have anything or 8.11? I'm sorry. 8.11. All right. It's

161not 10 p.m. Yep. It's getting there. Any uh Does anybody have anything else from section 8 that they need to break out? All right. I'll take a motion for 8.1 through 8.10 and 8.12. >> Oh, that's right. So, just 8.1 through 8.10. >> Yes. >> So, move. >> Second. >> Thanks. >> O. 8.1 Resolution regarding rescending professional staff appointments. 8.2 Resolution regarding rescending bus attendant appointments. 8.3 Resolution regarding support staff resignations. 8.4 4, resolution regarding bus attendant resignations. 8.5 Resolution regarding professional staff appointments. 8.6 Resolution regarding support staff appointments. 8.7 Resolution regarding professional staff appointments before/Afterchool programs. 8.8 Resolution regarding confidential staff appointments before/Afterchool programs. 8.9 Resolution regarding support staff appointments before school programs. 8.10 Resolution regarding PDM substitute appointments. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Abstensions. I'll take a motion for

1628.11. >> So moved. >> Second. >> 8.11. Resolution regarding approval of school volunteers. Any discussion? Yeah, I'm going to abstain due to um a personal reason and a potentiality for a uh professional conflict. >> Oh, >> I guess I should also abstain. >> I will also be abstaining. I'm listed here. >> Yeah. >> So, um any further discussion? All in favor? I >> I >> opposed abstensions. Abstain. Abstain. >> All right. >> Thanks to our school volunteers. This time it's >> not just us, but some of us. All right. Um, our next item is audience recognition. There's no one here in person. Is there anybody online who wishes to speak? Got to give it just a second. Okay. Uh, next up we have board reports and dialogue. Does anybody have anything from uh, we'll hear

163from committees that have met first? Communications committee met. The conversation was mostly around the OLASTs. How many they are there are, how long they are, how we can make them more concise. That's still up for much debate. But um yeah, it just seems like it's a lot of information. Maybe some of it is redundant. Maybe some of it could be seen elsewhere through links, calendar, whatever else it is. That was mostly what we talked about. Did it have any other committees met? I know um a policy committee. We need to just confirm. I had we had received a bunch of calendar invites and I had said, "Hey, 12 o'clock on Tuesday doesn't work for me. Can we do 12:30?" And then it kind of unraveled into a conversation. Can we do one instead? So I

164said, actually said, "Let's talk about it tonight." But that was yesterday. And Melissa said, "Do you mean tomorrow?" And I said, "Yes, sorry." So let's uh just we're all in the room right now, so it might be easiest just to like settle that. it. One o'clock is fine for me on Tuesdays. It's also fine for me on Thursdays, but 12 o'clock is fine for me on Thursdays as well. So, um I don't know if we want to add Thursdays into the conversation. I don't know what everybody's schedules cuz some of the meetings are on Tuesdays and some of them are on Thursdays. >> What are you asking? >> Is one o'clock okay on Tuesdays for policy the policy committee meetings that fall on Tuesday? Is 1:00 okay? >> Yeah, I'm the one who introduced the

1651:00. So, for me, this is okay. >> Okay, that's I'm asking, but I don't know like like I don't know what Alita's regular schedule is. You know what I mean? Like if one o'clock because maybe she has a standing meeting that starts at 2 or something, you know? I don't know. >> Um >> 1:00 is better for me. >> Okay. >> Um Thursdays are more flexible. >> Okay. So, we can keep it at 12 when the meetings take place on Thursdays and ones for when they one o'clock when they take place on Tuesdays. Thank you. Um, other updates and reminders. Um, our NISMA annual conference is this weekend. It begins tomorrow. So, um, I know I'm going. Annie's going. Melissa, are you going? You're going too, right? Did you say? Yeah. Is anybody else going

166>> this year? >> Okay. Um, start a group text. We can take the same train. Um there's a Westp advocacy committee an advocacy meeting on Zoom on Monday from 7:30 to 9:00. Um any any of us can go. It's open to everybody, but especially if you're on the legislative advoc advocacy committee, excuse me, you might find it uh pertinent to go. Um >> all right. What's the date again? >> It's Monday. >> Okay. >> The 27th from 7:30 to 9:00. It's via Zoom. Um there there's an email from Westp that was sent out on the 15th if you want to check your inbox for that. Um also there's upcoming the regional superintendent board dinner on the 13th. I know Roger's going. I signed up to go. Mary will be there. So if you want to

167eat dinner with Mary, you can come. >> Is that the thing we went to at the bar? >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. >> And it's at the same place. >> Okay. I'll go to that. uh email Illy to let her know so she can sign you up. Um, another thing and I don't know if we want to talk about it in depth now, but it was on my list and we didn't did not have time at the last meeting. Um, something that came up in our retreat setting was an idea to do kind of like a coffee chat with board members for community members. Um, is that something we're still interested in? What would that look like? When would that look like? Does anybody have any thoughts on that? I suggested it, so I'm pro

168it. Um I just find that people do really want to talk to me um just when I'm out and about. So, you know, people who don't have regular access to us as friends or, you know, our kids play sports together, whatever else, I think it would be nice for them to be able to have that. >> Um the last time we did that, we we have done it fairly recently. Well, we did a lot of community events related to the bond that turned into something of that nature. But before that, we had had some maybe like two or three during the year. And the way that we had structured it was that two or three board members would show up, not a quorum of course, and then um we would record who came and what

169their concerns were and then relay that back to the board so that we could all have kind of equal access to that um information that was gained during those um meetings. I think I I mean my reflection on that was that it worked nicely if we're happy with a system like that. Um maybe we can talk to Nicole about using spaces like the library or we can talk about maybe a Saturday Saturday Saturday explore and learn dates where we're hoping families already are. I think that's what after a lot of negotiation or like talk where we ended up last time. Does that sound like something that works for the rest of us? it could how did they how did they do did people come did people engage like >> yeah people especially to the Saturday

170and small room because people are already there >> okay >> I think that's why we implemented that is because when we were not doing it that way people were not really coming to those things right >> so we kind of it's like let's go where people are instead of asking people to come where we are >> so I think as long as we follow a similar format >> it would be um it would yield more results as opposed to just carving out time and then hoping people show up and speak with you. >> Yeah. So, what we could do is we could certainly do a Saturday explore and learn or maybe an event that's already happening at one of the schools or two of the schools, a high school, an elementary school and middle school

171maybe like where where they're already expecting families to attend and then just kind of set up a table like an information booth is basically how we had had it set up before. Um, I can email Nicole and tell her we'd like to do that and she can come back with some potential ideas for events. Does that sound good? I'm going to put that on my to-do. >> Yeah, I think the the one two things to consider with that. Um, it should be be communicated to the community, right? So, it's not just the schools. It can be anyone that wants to come and talk about any issue. I would recommend that we sort of have a space away from the event so that we don't become the event and depending on who shows and what their

172issues are. So I'm not so sure I want a booth in the middle of the explore and learn but maybe the board will meet in this classroom with anyone that wants to and sort of direct them there. >> I think we had had them set up like there's always community partners right like kind of lined up. So, we had lined up >> kind of along the side there. And we had done one at the library to your point about >> pulling community members to that one was less well attended, but we also didn't coordinate with the library. Like maybe we set up a table outside one of their >> free concerts, you know, afterwards. So maybe people will want to chat with us on the way out. We didn't that wasn't as intentionally that date

173wasn't as intentionally planned to coordinate with an event. So, um I can uh email Nicole. Let me just get that down. Okay. Does anybody have anything else for board dialogue? >> I think you had it. I was assuming you had asked for an extension on that RSVP for that invitation we got so we can discuss it tonight, right? Oh, thank you. Yes. Um, we were, thank you for that, Melissa, because I was definitely going to let it slip. Um, we were invited to send a representative from the board, basically create like an ad hoc liaison to the what is it called 250 as event to celebrate the 250th year of founding. So, um, I guess my question to the board is are we interested in that? Candidly, I'm >> candidly I'm supportive. I think it's,

174you know, you take everything, the community, the residents, district, everything all together. I mean, it's it's a 250 year anniversary of our of our nation. So, I don't know why we would not. So, I I think this would be, you know, just in the spirit of trying to bring everybody together and being part of that. I think that's actually a good thing, but that's just my personal opinion. >> If I can add that Maria will be going to represent the school district. I have a conflict that night. So, thank you, Maria. But, um, yeah, >> I'm in favor of some board presence there. I think it helps build, you know, some community relationship. Um, I don't know if we already have a if you know, Frank, I think you have more to I can see

175you like moving toward the microphone. If you have more to say, >> you can finish your thought. >> Um, if if we have consensus on that, and that's an if because we haven't heard it from everybody yet, the next question would be to look at our list of committees and see if one kind of aligns with this already. And if not, do we want to set up an ad hoc? Um, >> and just the it's not one municipality that's running that, correct? Or is it? Was it the town's meeting? Was it the village meeting? Like, is Yorktown going to have a 250? Is Newcastle going to have a 250? I'm just trying to understand. >> I know that it was both village and town. Okay. In that email of Austin, >> um, >> I don't

176know. I don't think any other towns were included in that, but I don't know. I don't, you know, it was like BCC to us, I think. So I don't know who else. >> Yeah. >> But I mean it's called 250 Austining. So I assume it's just a village in town. >> Um >> I mean generally speaking I think those are good things to take part of. It's a once in 250 year event at the end of the day. I do think like we may want to just you know touch base with those if we're going to do this for this one. we may want to reach out to the others and just say, "Are you doing anything with your communities so that we're making sure we're represented across the board?" But, you know, I mean,

177I'd be happy to participate in some of those. I don't necessarily need to do this one, but um what's the date of the meeting? What was the date of that? >> Uh, November 3rd. >> November 3rd. >> I think a Monday night. >> Okay. >> Sorry. So many people I'm happy to do it, but I'm also happy to let someone else do it. >> Okay. >> I I'm I'm happy to to be on as well. >> I don't know. I have to like reread the email. I don't know if they want >> representative. They want a person. Okay. >> Um >> you're right, Frank. >> Well, I guess anything props up. >> Yeah, that works. So, >> as an ad hoc liaison to this committee, I That's fine with me, Frank. And then >> yeah,

178if there's any issues, >> Roger can be kind of our uh alternate. >> All right, does that sound good? Thank you so much, Melissa, for bringing that up because I was going to regret it by tomorrow morning. >> Um uh just out of curiosity, who I know Roger and I are going to the equity conference. Is anybody else going? >> I think it's just you and I. >> Okay. We just got emails about I don't know, hotels or something, so curious. Wait, you got it or or a hotel? >> Yeah, I got um a confirmation and then it said book a hotel, but I assume I'm going to email Illy for that. >> Yes, take care. Billy will help. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> All right, we do need an executive session, right? Okay.

179So at this time, I'll take a motion to enter into executive session for the purposes of discussing the medical, financial, credit, or employment history of a particular person or corporation or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal, or removal of a particular person or corporation. So moved. >> Second. >> Uh any discussion? All in favor? I opposed abstensions.