001uh the board was went into executive session at 5:30 to discuss certain legal and personnel issues on the motion of Mr. Abrams and second by Dr. Graham. We have now ended our executive session and this is the start of our regular meeting which we will begin as we begin all our meetings with the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Uh, we have the printed agenda in front of us. Oh, I I would be remiss in saying that at our last meeting, I did say the snow would melt, and I'm happy to say that the snow is all gone as far as I can tell. So, uh,
002it was not a good beginning of February. Uh, we will have, uh, some special recognitions tonight, which are always exciting, and some, uh, some great stories to tell. Uh a number of people have filed to run for school board and we will go through that. Um we'll have some reports from the superintendent and from others board comments. The calendar for next school year is back for its second and final reading. We've got some new business and then a personnel report to approve. And I should also point out that Michelle Dwit has joined us by Zoom uh due to a family issue. She could not be here in person. Uh Michelle, can you hear us? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you for participating. Um so with that, we will move on to uh
003our special recognitions. >> We have one adjustment to the >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> One adjustment to the agenda for tonight under item 8B, school board election May 12, 2026. That's actually going to be covered under item six. All right. So, with that, we will go to special recognitions. First up, we have the National Board Certification, Dr. Small. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, my name is Ed Small. I'm the director of human resources for the district and I am here to recognize those who are awardees for the National Board Certification Award. I'm also joined by Miss Yavvon Kamak who is also going to be recognizing some staff for national board certification. Our national board certification recognition celebrates educators who have demonstrated the highest standards in teaching excellence and dedication and professional growth. Achieving this certification
004reflects a commitment to student success and a deep mastery of the craft. So, a little bit about the award. It's an exam-based award, which essentially means that an individual takes a test in order to be certified for national board certification. But it's much easier said than done. Like I'm saying it as test certification is it's like a multiple choice test, but it's a lot of rigor, a lot of preparation that individuals go through in order to be um up for this particular certification. um nights, weekends, a lot of working together in order to um standardize the practice so that we can make sure that these individuals are certified at a national level. Thanks, Steve. You me up like I should start singing or rapping or something? Um so before I go any further, I'd like
005to have Miss Kamak share any words of affirmation before we start with the names. Hi, my name is Ivon Kamak, coordinator of health services and lead nurse for the district. The National Certification for School Nursing or NCSN credentiing is a nationally recognized board-certified examination based on the highest national standards in the area of school health. Achieving this credential demonstrates advanced knowledge, expertise, and a strong commitment to excellence in school nursing. So, we have a couple of our nurses tonight to recognize. >> Thank you. So, we're going to share the names, have those individuals come up and receive their certificate and small gift for our appre or of appreciation. We are proud of these individuals. So, we're going to ask that you hold your round of applause until we get through all the names. There are
006four names for the national board or certification for teachers and two for nurses. Once we announce all the names, we're going to ask that you help us in a round of applause and then we'll take a picture with everyone. If you want to get in the picture, come on up. All right. For social studies, history, early adolescent, the credential or that credential for Christine Cura at AGW. [applause] >> All right. You guys didn't follow directions. We were supposed >> for the credential of social studies history, adolescence and young adulthood from OS. Kevin Layer. We try not able to be here with us tonight for the credential of science, adolescence, and young adulthood from Middletown High School, Nathan States. And last but not least for our teachers for the credential of social studies, history, adolescence, and
007young adulthood from Odessa High School, Joseph Worthington [applause] um in the area of school nursing and school health. Um, we'd like to congratulate Danielle Sigvertson, Olive Bel Law, school nurse, [applause] and Aaron McFaden, school nurse at Brick Mill Elementary School. Congratulations on this outstanding professional accomplishment. >> All right, if you didn't get a chance to give a round of applause, let's do it on one, two, three. [applause] All right, our next uh set of recognitions is for project soapbox and Miss Leitzki. Oh, I'm sorry. They're still taking pictures. >> All right. Now, our next set of recognitions is project soap box. Good evening everyone. My name is Amy Leitzky and I am the K through8 social studies coordinator for the district and tonight I am joined by fabulous seventh grade teachers and we are all
008here to recognize 12 exceptional students across our four middle schools. Um, all students in seventh grade take place in Project Soapbox, which is our civic engagement public speaking project, uh, which encourages young people to speak out on an issue that's important to them or to their community. Um, the students that we're recognizing tonight, uh, were chosen to represent their schools at our district showcase that took place in February. and they were chosen because of their commitment to an issue, um their willingness to share their perspective, and of course their courage to speak out on a subject matter important to them. Um with that, I'm going to pass it to one of our seventh grade teachers, Jamie Churchill at AGW. Good evening, everyone. I'm proud to present the awards or the certifications for AGW, starting with
009Ellie Billings. >> [applause] >> Friend [applause] and Ryan Somaya. [applause] >> Hey, good evening. I am Cormel Pi. I'm a seventh grade social studies teacher at Kent Will Bridge. I'm going to be announcing for Kwells, Meredith and uh Reading. So from Kwells, Wendelyn Blackwell. [applause] Hana Rivera could not be here. Felicity Williams could not be here. [clears throat] Moving on to Meredith, we have Lakshika Nanti. >> [applause] >> Lily Sappington, [applause] Sophia Chic, [applause] >> and representing uh reading is Ada Danaqua. [applause] Joshua Flewelling and Tiffany Juguno Kunabier. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you. Hi everybody. Uh we're here tonight to honor our winter champions. So we are going to start with our middle school basketball champions. So this is the fifth year we had middle school basketball. Again the exciting boys final was
010between Kwellsbridge Middle School and AGW. Kentwells Bridge Middle School is our 2026 district champion. This is the fourth year in a row for Kwells Bridge capturing that. [applause] So, I'm excited to introduce Coach Chavis and Coach Earl who are going to introduce their players. [applause] Good evening, everybody. Um, I'm super proud of these boys and what they were able to achieve this year. Um, it was really great coaching them. Um, one of the one of the biggest things about this team and how special they were is the goal that they had set coming into the season. Um, it was winning another championship, but it wasn't for the reasons that you would think. Um, these guys have been here, some of them, this is their third, their second one, but for them, they wanted the new
011guys to get their first one. They wanted them to be able to feel the same love, feel that same attention. Um, so for me, that was super special. But I think that's just the brotherhood that we um that we have in our program. Um so I'm here to introduce these young men. First up we have DJ Cannon. [applause] Next we have Thomas Carr, [applause] Tai Chappelle, [applause] Reese Steels, [applause] CJ Johnson, [applause] DONOVAN JONES MILAN, [applause] TAYDEN JULO, [applause] Adrien Lewis, [applause] Lorden Reeves, [applause] Levi, Seth, [applause] Malachi, Sumakada, >> [applause] >> Team Swig [applause] and Christian Warner. [applause] Our managers couldn't be here tonight, but they are Zia Chavis, Morgan Harris, and Maya Walker. [applause] >> [applause] >> Congratulations, gentlemen. Next up is our middle school girls champions. Uh for the first year ever,
012Kantwell Bridge Middle School earned the district championship game uh hard-fought victory over Ever Meredith. They avenged the two regular season losses and two previous championship game losses. So, I'm here to introduce Coach Tracy Smith and Coach Robinson to introduce their players. [applause] Thank you all for being here. We are super proud to announce our first ever girls basketball championship team. First, Beiju Juliet Aimang [applause] RILEY BRUCE >> [applause] >> RICKLIN CAMPBELL, [applause] Cameron Cumlo cannot be here with us. Elelliana Henderson, [applause] Alyssa Henland, [applause] Annayia Jones, [applause] Milan Robinson, [applause] Mia Ryland, [applause] Zary Sanders, [applause] Olivia Smith, MCCORY, [applause] Brinley Savage, [applause] London Walton cannot be here with us tonight, and two of our managers, Adeshua Adji >> [applause] >> and Vasia Troyer. [applause] I got it. First time champions. You could have gotten
013the picture. [applause] Congratulate. Congratulations, ladies. Okay, we are going to shift gears now and honor our high school state champions. We had an abundance of individual state champions in multiple sports that we're going to do first and then we're going to finish with our team champion. So, first um we're going to introduce our girls wrestling state championship state champions individuals. This is the only second year that girls have competed for a state championship. And while it's not a recognized DIA sport, they're well on their way. And once again, uh, we had two girls from the district. So, our 2026 girls state wrestling champions, first one, who is not here this evening is Katie Edinger. She's state champion 125 120 pounds. And second is Isabella O'Brien, state champion at 138. >> [applause] >> The [applause] coaches
014are here tonight also for the push show. >> Congratulations, Kate. [applause] All right, jumping over to our boys wrestling this year. We are honored to say that we have one young man who is the individual state wrestling champion at 215 pounds. Congratulations to Jack Wilson. [applause] Jack was also the Blue Hen Conference champion. He had 100 career career wins um also. So congratulations on a great career [applause] and defensive player of the year in football if you remember that from back in the fall. >> All right, moving on to a different sport. We're going into swimming. We are pleased to welcome back Grady Reading. I'm let Grady come in because we always have a lot to say about Grady. GRADY [applause] THIS YEAR, Grady is a state champion in two events. The boys 200yard freest
015freestyle and the boys 100yard butterfly. In addition, Grady was the Delaware 302 sports swimmer of the year, the state swimmer of the year. He holds six APO High School swim records and set several new Blue Han Conference records. And he will be swimming at University of Delaware next year. HIS [applause] coach is here if she would like to be in the picture with him too. Coach ready. [applause] [snorts] Congratulations. [applause] All right, we're moving on to indoor track. We were blessed to have several individuals and relays win gold medals at the indoor track meet. We're going to start with our Odessa High School girls 4x200 team, which is the state champion. Members of that relay include Michaela Wilkins, Addison Barker, Audrey Howard, and Riley White. Congratulations, LADIES. [applause] [applause] >> WAIT, hold on. [clears throat]
016All right, congratulations, LADIES. [applause] OKAY, we have several from Middletown High School who captured gold medals. Our first in the girls triple jump is Jada Clark. [applause] You all got some loud clapping tonight. It is a loud clap. I love it. All right. In our boys 400 meter, we have Jaden Faster. [applause] Jaden is also a member of the 4 by 800 relay, state champion. Also on that relay, Logan Elmore, Andrew Lindmeer, and Kevin Howard. [applause] Another individual state champion in the boys 200 meter is Zamir Miller. >> [applause] >> AND Zamir also is a member of a state championship relay team, the boys by 200. He is joined by air Jones BRANCH [applause] and Wy Robinson and Heneife Miller who are not able to be here tonight. [applause] There we go. Congratulations. [applause] All
017right. So, we had numerous silver and gold medals. Too silver and silver and bronze. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Too many to bring in here tonight. But obviously with the success of the Middletown, they are also the 2026 DIAA indoor track and field state champions. So, I'd like to introduce Coach E and Coach as long along with captains Zamir Miller and Marcus Cuffy to accept recognition for this. [applause] AND I think I've been trying to think. I think this is our seventh season in a row where we're bringing a state champion here. I think it's seven. It could be more, but start with soccer, went to football, indoor track, outdoor track, back to football, back to indoor track. Soccer's before. So, we're doing pretty good. CONGRATULATIONS. [applause] We're back in the end of the spring.
018Don't miss me too much. And I emptied out the room. All right. Can we close it? >> All right. Special recognitions are always, I think, my favorite part of the evening. And it was great to see all those kids um with all those terrific awards uh as well as our teachers and other staff who were recognized in the national board certification. Uh next up we have an announcement about uh our upcoming school board election. Dr. Graham. >> Yes. Uh good evening everyone. The Aquinic School District's Board of Education has two seats open for election this year. The deadline for candidates to file closed on Friday, March 6, 2026. I would like to announce that we have six candidates. Alina Brener, Shan Connelly, Nelle Dit, Richard Foreston, Mark Hec, and Britney Merk. The board of education
019will host a board candidate forum on Tuesday, March 24th, 2026, beginning at 6 PM in the boardroom of the Marian Profit Training Center. At this public meeting, each candidate will be given four [snorts] minutes to introduce themselves to the public public. Following introductions, the board members who are not up for reelection, myself, Mr. Higgins, and Mr. Abrams, will host a Q&A session. This year's election will be held on Tuesday, May 12th, 2026. Candidates elected to serve in the open seats will begin serving their four-year term in July of 2026. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, next on the there's no one signed up for public comment. Next on the agenda is reports and we start with the superintendence report. Dr. Burroughs. >> Good evening. Thank you everyone for joining us tonight and I agree with
020Richard. It's so exciting to see all the recognitions and things like that that are not only our teachers and staff are receiving but our students are receiving. Start off with this month is um National Social Workers Month. Uh the 1st through the 7th of March is educational diagnostician week. Also, it's National School Social Worker Week. The 11th is National Registered Dietician Nutritionist Day, and then the 20th is World Behavior Analysis Day. We currently have 14 full-time teaching openings, the lowest it's been in five years, and we have nine full-time paraprofessional openings. From our September 30th count, we have grown 203 students. At this point, we're as a district, we're at 13,161 students. Um the second largest district in the state. Um currently, I have just uh one other thing to announce. Um this is more
021just like for public service type thing. We're transitioning from board docs to diligent. and might might not mean anything to a lot of people, but I just want to just note that uh this will occur at our March board meeting. I wanted to share an update with the community about where the information about our school board will soon be located. For many years, our district has utilized the platform board docs to house all schoolboard information, including agendas, documents, and other required items. We have a link to board docs on our district website in the school board section. Recently, Diligent community purchased board docs. This means all districts who currently utilize the board docs platform will be switching to Diligent. And I'll just note that all districts in the state of Delaware use the board docs
022or did use the board docs platform. Beginning in mid-March, information for our district will be cross-posted on both platforms. By the end of May, Diligent will be fully up and running and the board docs website will be deactivated. Please note all previous board information will be migrated into the diligent platform. We will share information with our families and community beginning in our March Applecom school district family newsletter and we'll continue to share information during the migration. Beginning in mid-March, community members will be able to find the information about Diligent on our district website. And as usual, if you have any questions or anything about it, feel free to reach out. more than glad to answer those questions for you. Thank you. That's all I have tonight. >> All right. Thank you. Does any board member
023have a question for our superintendent >> hearing? None. Uh that brings us to early literacy. Dr. Feathers. Good evening everyone. I'm Rebecca Feathers, uh the director of curriculum instruction and assessment and I'm joined today with Annie Davis. Annie is our coordinator of ELA in the elementary schools. So we're here to share a little bit with you just about early literacy today. So, we are aligned um with the state of Delaware. I'm sure everyone knows that early literacy is a focus of the state and a focus of Apoquitic School District. Here is our early literacy vision. And it's aligned directly to the state of Delaware. And it reads, "All students will read at grade level by the end of third grade, providing them with the foundation to become strong readers, writers, thinkers, and speakers. So, why
024does early literacy matter? Well, we know that reading is the foundation for all success. We also know that students who are reading fluently by the end of third grade are more likely to be successful in all content areas throughout their school career. In early um elementary school, we're building the foundations of readers, writers, thinkers, and speakers. In our K to5 schools, uh we have highquality instructional materials. It is required by the state of Delaware to have um what they call HQIM and we use Amplify CKLA in our K to5 classrooms. Um Amplify CKLA is aligned directly to the science of reading and it's also aligned to the common core state standards. Our teachers are professionally developed in our curriculum and if you visit our classrooms, you will see this in action. In early literacy, you'll
025see uh a time for skills, which is our foundational learning, which is what we're talking about with early literacy. And you'll also see a knowledge portion. So, when we're talking about early literacy and building those foundational skills, we're talking about our students in K through two. So, what will students be able to do in those grades? We will help them to master their letter sounds, learn to segment and blend sounds to be able to read the words, move into reading decodable texts with accuracy and fluency, and then also develop those strong comprehension skills. Once again, align to our vision of having our students as readers by the end of third grade. So, like I said, CKLA is aligned uh to the science of reading, and Annie is going to talk to you a little bit
026about what the science of reading is. >> So, like Rebecca said, uh the Department of Ed has required that all districts in Delaware um choose a curriculum that's aligned to the science of reading. And our curriculum we adopted in 2020, which is aligned to the science of reading. Um the visual that you see up there on the slide is of Scarbor's reading group. Scarbor's reading group is really what's required to develop [clears throat] a skilled reader. It's a framework that's supported by the science of reading and it really does show um it captures that complexity of learning how to read. So the science of reading isn't a program. Um it's decades of research based on how the brain learns to read. I'm not going to explain the entire rope to you, but if you look
027at that bottom portion of the rope, we know that our students need that explicit systematic um foundational skills instruction to have that um increasingly like they just can are able to read the words um without like they just come naturally to them. That top part of the rope is making meaning from words. So understanding what those words mean. So that would be that language comprehension portion. The thing about Scar Bro's rope is that all of the strands need to be strong in all of the strands in order to be a fluent reader. Um, our teachers have been receiving ongoing professional learning around the science of reading and how it relates to our curriculum. So I do want to talk about how we measure reading progress. So one assessment that we use is dibbles. So, Dibble
028stands for dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills. It is a benchmark assessment that we give to all of our kindergarten through fifth grade students the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, and the end of the year. And it does measure those early reading skills, decoding, comprehension, fluency. Um, and it also helps our teachers support their instruction. Another measure that we use for reading progress is uh smarter balance. That's given in grades three through eight. That's only given one time in the year in the spring. And when we give smarter um it shows that grade level proficiency in reading, writing, uh listening and research. And students will engage in a variety of texts of literature orformational text. So you can see that both of these assessments serve two very different purposes. So
029now I want to just showcase some of our early literacy data, our dibbles data, um, and our K to2. So the first thing I want to explain is what all of the colors mean. So the red is our students that are performing well below. Our yellow is students that are performing below grade level. Green is on grade level. and blue is above grade level. So I want to start with at um the beginning of last year. So you can see at the beginning of last year our students started the year at a 56% proficiency. As the year progressed in the middle of the year we went from 58% and then we ended the year last year with 74% of our students um at proficiency in grades K through two. For this year, we can see
030at the beginning of the year, our students are at started the year with 57% proficiency, but you can see our middle of the year scores are at 65% proficiency. >> Are these the same students? Is this their same class? >> That's a really good >> back. >> So that so the beginning the 2425 school year, that is the same cohort of students. But when we start off the beginning of the year in 2526, that's a new cohort of kindergarten students. So our second graders are now third graders. So that's not in that beginning of the year data. >> So do we know what the date of their retention is going into the next grade? So if they ended out the year at 74%. What was the net loss going into the next grade test? >>
031Yes. Okay, I can answer that. Um, so taking the well I would say you at if you're looking at that end of the year that 74% you would have to take out those second graders that are in that 74% cuz they're not in that next cohort that you're seeing down there. So when students end the school year in either that green or the blue, so on grade level or above grade level, we're it is projected that at least 80% and usually we see more than 80% of those students are maintaining that on or above grade level. >> Um but again, it's like you're looking at two different cohorts because the beginning of the year >> I I understand. I just didn't know if we tracked what the retention was going into the next year. >>
032Okay. >> Thank you. So a couple of questions. >> Sure. >> On this is a report of kindergarteners, first graders, and sec second graders all aggregated. Do we have the data broken out by individual grade? >> Um we I don't have that right now, but I can get that to you. >> Okay. But we track it by individual. >> Yes, we do. Yep. This is our comp. If you want to jump in, feel free to jump in. Um these are the composite scores. >> You're doing fine. So [laughter] >> you're doing fine. >> Dibbles is a This is a composite score. So, this is an overall. So, Dibbles um because I didn't even get to explain really what Dibbles the report is, but it is a composite score that shows all of those different um
033subtests and then teachers are then able to like hone in on okay if a student's struggling in this they can adjust their instruction. And then my second question >> obviously end of year 74% start of the next year 57%. >> But I'm going to say in theory is that the same st in other words if I'm in first grade at the end of first grade and then is that the same standard as the beginning of the year second grade or since now I'm in second grade is the expected standard for start of the second grade higher than it was at the end of first grade? It's going to it's the beginning of the year is what's expected for not at the end of the year for a second grader, but yes, as a first grader
034coming in at the end of first grade to the beginning of second grade, that beginning of the year assessment is appropriate for a second grader. >> I'm not asking if it's appropriate. I'm just asking if it's the same level. >> Yes. So, >> the text Yeah. The level the text complexity is going to increase. In theory, if there was no I'll say learning loss over the summer, I would score the same at the end of first grade and the same at the beginning of second grade. >> Usually, if you are in that green or blue, >> that's why I said in theory, right? In theory, my score should be the same if there's no learning loss, whatever I scored at the end of the first grade. Right. >> Yes. >> Okay. And some of this
035could also be because now you've got kindergarteners coming in for the very first time and they might be pulling the average down a bit. Is that >> Yes. Because they haven't had any instruction at that point. So that beginning of the year assessment is given within the first four weeks of school. So kindergarten, first four weeks of school, we're learning how to follow direction, sit on the carpet, you know, greet our friends. Um, not that instruction isn't happening, but it looks very different and this is the first time that they've ever engaged in an assessment like that. >> And are these I assume this to be true, but you can tell me differently. The dibbles data that we're generating here starts with the 2425 school year. >> Is that when we first started employing this
036test or do we have earlier years? >> Oh no, we have a we have earlier data that I could share with you. >> Okay. I mean I'm just curious if it's been I mean and when did we switch to I'll say the pure science of reading and got rid of whole word and all that other stuff. >> Yes. So that was we started in 2020. >> Okay. So has the numbers been creeping up since 2020? >> Yes. They've they've they're looking I mean I feel like when I I look back at like back in 1920 2019 and 2020 that our data is increasing. It's looking good, >> right? >> And we'd be I'd be happy to share [laughter] any data you need. >> You guys I know the questions. You guys are great answering any
037all of that information. I'd be to look at it. >> Okay. Um I noticed some of the things that we've noticed here, but one thing to your point that I noticed is COVID. I mean, you can see the grade levels where COVID kids were affected by COVID >> and their their proficiency is just so much lower. Right. >> Right. >> For instance, you're not it's not here, but fifth grade, >> um which were really impacted, right? Kindergarten, >> right? >> You can really see those numbers just dip. So, um I saw the same thing coming out of the weeds. every year it seems to be a little stronger clips here and there but uh to your point. Yeah. >> Right. >> So with co um to my question um so do you do you feel
038that the the curriculum is now getting a little more robust and a little a little more enriched now that we're getting out of the co years like from kindergarten to fourth grade. >> Yes. >> That we're not we're not seeing that anymore. >> No I I don't So we adopted CKLA which is aligned to the science of reading in 2020. So we started implementing it in 2020 2021 um and each year it has improved right. So our understanding of the science of reading our understanding of how to teach systematic sequential phonics to our K through2 students to get them proficient and ready to read by the end of third grade has definitely increased. So there's been a lot of work. Um our students have been doing great and so have our teachers. So, I I
039just want to say kudos to our teachers and to our department, our teaching learning department because as been mentioned here a few times, we implemented this in 2020. There was a little bit of an event that happened in 2020 um that impacted us being able to one be able to professionally develop the teachers um in the pool science of reading. And so, they've really done a lot of work to I don't want to say catch up, but get up to speed um on this. and the teaching learning department's done a great job of professional learning for them to get to this point as well. So, >> you guys, >> right, and I don't want to skip ahead if you're going to get to this and but you mentioned early on that the goal here obviously
040is to get kids reading at grade level by third grade. And obviously, you know, you got to learn to read when you're young because it affects the rest of your academic career, the way you learn, how you learn, how well you learn. But how ruthless are we going to be about that standard? And by that I mean if you're not reading at third grade level and you're at the end of third grade, what are we going to do with those kids? Are we going to hold them back? Are we going to advance them, give them special instruction? >> Where do we slide for that? [laughter] >> Okay, >> there it is. >> There you go. I said I might be anticipating your ne your rest of your presentation. So I've set you up. So please
041explain. >> Yes, thank you for the setup. Um so multi-tered system of support MTSS. So what does that say? Tier one is our core instruction. Tier one means that all students have access to grade level content material every day in every classroom. That's tier one. We need to make sure that's strong and that our teachers have what they need to be able to teach tier one. that the children are properly engaged in the classrooms in tier one before we start talking about tier and tier two and tier three. However, what do we do if students aren't responding to our core instruction and if we know our core instruction is strong? Then we have to look at our individual student data and that's where we could move a student to tier two or tier three. So
042first you would move to tier 2 and that would be small groupoup support for students and that can look different from student to student but when we're talking about early literacy we are really talking about phmic awareness phonics decoding then we can move into fluency and comprehension as well. So there is small groups um that we can provide. Uh we do have interventions that we uh professionally develop our teachers on um so that they have the materials and the professional learning to understand how to implement um strong tier 2. For some of our students who aren't responding to tier one and tier 2, tier three um is the opportunity for more intensive, more targeted intervention. And sometimes that just means that maybe they get more minutes a week or a smaller group size, not necessarily
043a different intervention, but it could be a different intervention as well. Um, so we use our data um to determine where we need supports and interventions. We have to monitor and adjust. So what Annie described with Dibbles, we give that to all students beginning, middle, and end of year. But we also use it as a progress monitoring tool. So if you're in tier two and tier three and you're working on phmic awareness, phonics decoding, we use um dibbles every two to three weeks as a progress monitoring tool as well. And that helps uh teachers adjust their instruction in real time. Um and then we do something else. We [laughter] um oh this is provided in addition to core um classroom instruction. So everybody gets the core instruction. those levels are additional supports as needed. >>
044So, right, but getting back to my question then, how ruthless are we going to be? And I picked the word ruthless because it sounds mean, I guess, but but what do we do with the students who, you know, we're working really hard, we're giving them the extra support, and, you know, I mean, for whatever reason, they're just still struggling. And so maybe they're only reading at uh you know uh first grade and a half level even though they're in third grade and they're getting to the end of their third grade career and they're still lagging behind their peers. I mean, you know, one of the things that I'll say you hear out in the general public sometimes is schools just keep promoting the kids anyway, social promotion and all that. What are we doing though?
045because I don't think it's fair and we're not doing our job if we've got third graders who are like, you know, two grade levels behind or a grade level and a half behind. So, what do we do at the end of third grade and they're still struggling? >> Sure. So, we know students learn at different rates at different times, right? We know that we have to progress monitor. We know that we have to adjust our instruction and still some aren't going to be at grade level. Um, so we would take them through the tiers first. um we do have special education services that may result um because of uh them being below um their grade level. Once again, that's individualized um as well. So, [clears throat] I mean, there's there's opportunities for us to intervene.
046Will 100% of the students leave the grade level proficient at that grade level? I mean, we would like to see that. Um but there are students who are going to perform below level. >> So, what needs to happen for you to hold them back? So retention is not, you know, the research says, you know, retention really isn't calling me and I got the Zoom going. I can't answer. >> Did he have the answer? [laughter] >> I mean, because I think that's what Richard I think that's what Richard or Mr. Forest is asking. So if that's not the answer then what like what is like I I hear you keep saying the tears I got that part right and so they're still not at grade level or they're still on I think in Mr. Forest's example,
047he said reading at a first grade level and they're in third grade. Then what? Like cuz the tears are exhausted and then what? So that's when we're probably going to look for special education services and individualized education plans, right? And we're always looking for students to grow. So they might not be proficient or on grade level, but are they growing? Right. And where how are we closing those gaps? >> Closing the gaps is more the becomes the question as opposed to >> grade progression. Right. >> Correct. Yeah. that >> I think just every individual student is different, right? Like so it's definitely a partnership with the parent teacher >> um as far as that goes and what is the best plan of action for that student as we look at it like there's not like
048a individual like okay you're not at you're not at third grade level we're going to retain you like or we're going to keep you back >> then everything just becomes challenging though >> right it is right like it's definitely a challenge if you're not reading at third grade level when you leave third grade everything becomes more challenging No. >> So, is that fair to a kid then to not engage in retention because we are told that's bad, but then we're just pushing them off into another grade where they're still not reading at the grade level of their peers. And they as you progress through your educational career, I mean, you're reading more and more on your own. You're reading for homework. You're reading for learning in a way that you don't do as much in
049first and second grade. So we offer different levels of support and like I said the individualized education plan might be um the action that's taken once we have gone through our tier one, tier two and tier three and then that offers the student different supports and services interventions um maybe frequency and intensitive in intensivity that's not a word um >> but it's not just reading I mean you'd be taking the holistic approach in each notch of what the student can do math, they can do everything. They might just not be able to read on the third grade level. So that's not the only criteria whether a student passes, right? Whether promoted from the next level. I mean tell the student the student might be struggling reading at a third grade level. Let's just leave it
050there. But in the other aspects of every other part of the class, that student's doing fine. So, you're gonna have to make a decision to pass the student on and then continue working in the reading to get them up the level under a tier two or tier three tier three aspect. I mean, is or are you saying that we're holding everybody back just because they can't read? Did I miss that part? I'm just trying to make sure I just >> No, yes, we are not saying we are holding students back. We're saying that we're looking for the proper level of support for each individual student and then following those plans accordingly. >> Okay. >> And do we also have those students I'm going to say do we encourage them to attend summer school and extra
051classes beyond school itself? >> So I know we presented on um our plan for summer academy for this year. So students who have um IEPs and are in our ESY um or our 12 um month programming will have the opportunity to attend summer academy >> and then it also encompasses like the reading coaches that come in and take students out of classroom and work with them individually. So we have different levels of supports at the school um and different teachers uh paraprofessionals who are trained in the proper interventions um and supports small group instruction and that looks different you know for different children different grades different schools. >> So I guess then what when would be the level you'd have to address that issue >> at what level you have to address the issue? Tell
052me more >> that they're behind like they're at what level the I guess to circle back around to Mr. Forceman's question when do you have to make that difficult decision? >> Are you talking about an individualized plan or are you talking about >> the student can't is unable to perform at the level they're supposed to be at. When does that become an issue that you would have to sit down with the parents and say unfortunately your student on our recommendation we don't believe they can go to the next level. Is that is or is that at every level you have you could have that at any level based on their performance. >> Sure. Yes, you could. Um but and I know I keep saying MTSS but that is the process and each school has an
053MTSS team. So they they get together bi-weekly, monthly and review student data. Um, and they have information on all of the students who are in tier two and tier three. They're progress monitoring those students to say, "Where are we starting to close the gaps? Where are we seeing improvement? Where are we seeing growth? Where are we not?" And then having to adjust the plan. That could potentially then lead to um them heading to the special education department for additional services. >> Is there anything you need from us to help this to make this situation better? I I know that's an on the spot comment. If you don't have an answer, that's fine. Think about it. If there's something that you need our help in, >> thank you. >> So, the goal is to have every
054third grader reading at third grade level. This presentation doesn't include that data for third grade, right? I mean, >> no, we just focused on the K to2 where we're building those foundational skills for today, >> right? and we talked about that and that's important but I mean how are we I mean if we instituted the science of reading in 2020 a challenging time to institute anything um how is it coming in other words are is our third grade number trending up and where approximately are we right now >> in dibbles yes um I don't know we didn't did we put the third grade data in here >> I can definitely send you the data I think Annie and I um focused on uh K1 and two. We we have the additional data. I can email
055that to you. >> That would be good. And then obviously if if we're using third grade as the benchmark, I mean and let's say it's only 75% right now. So we're still short of where it should be. I mean, what plans are we engaged in to get that 75% up to 100%? Because in theory, we want 100%. And maybe we'll get it to 95% or 98% or something, but 100%'s the goal and the target and that should be what we're shooting for. And if we're not there yet and we're not there after a number of years of this, do we need to be doing additional stuff, slightly different stuff? >> Sure. We're I mean, we're always monitoring ourselves and monitoring what is happening. So, um, we're implementing, you know, systematic sequential phonics, and we need
056to make sure that our teachers are all professionally developed appropriately to be able to deliver that instruction. That's number one, to make sure that our tier one instruction is strong. Um, that our teachers have what they need to be able to deliver. Uh, the more I know Annie was just in kindergarten today. So, um, when we see our teachers delivering this instruction with fidelity, um, doing it regularly and daily and then pulling those small groups as needed, we're seeing improvements in their classrooms. So, it really starts, that's why we focused on the foundational um, piece today and the early literacy piece because it really starts there before you're going to become a reader. >> So, I can appreciate the foundation. I think what I would like to see is the last like two three years
057of the third grade cohort at the end of that year what was the proficiency level like how many of our students were proficient and appropriately moved along right well let me not even go there how many were proficient you know I'll leave it up to you guys you guys moved them along there obviously it was appropriate right so >> so you want to see third grade specifically >> yeah third grade specifically because [clears throat] that's that's the year in which you benchmark whether or not they have met these said goals. I can appreciate the foundation that you presented today. So that's what I would like to see. Um I think that would help to give me additional and my fellow board members perhaps um appropriate context in what you're trying to tell us and kind
058of where we are needing to kind of focus. as you know, we get a lot of information and so I can always appreciate the context and the details that you both presented today. I appreciate that. Um, but more so the year that you guys are actually using to gauge whether or not um they have met uh the requirement. So >> absolutely we have that we can send that to you tomorrow. >> Thank you. I appreciate that >> in a very simple format not all this like extra. >> All right. So our path forward >> was there. >> So once again, I know I've said this numerous times, but our focus is on that strong core instruction, that tier one instruction for all students. And then also, like we have said, building the capacity in our
059teachers, our coaches, and our administrators, right? We have to make sure everyone has what they need um to be able to instruct the students and that in um includes the professional learning. So what are the next phases of this literacy work? Um so we always continue to look at our curriculum resource which is CKLA and Annie works very hard with a team of teachers to continuously refine uh that implementation. When we talk about literacy we talk about readers, writers, listeners, and speakers. So we're also working on our writing instruction. And then also we're looking for that vertical alignment from K through five. Um, so making sure that we're strengthening across our grade levels. So we didn't share all things literacy with you today. We tried to pick one area to focus on which was early
060literacy with the K through two. We do understand that you would like a little bit more information and we're happy to get anything that you would like. I've written down the third grade scores. You'll have those tomorrow. If you think of other things, Annie and I are happy to meet with you or send you anything that we can. If you would like to us to present on something um outside of early literacy with K to2, we're happy to do that as well. >> Just to clarify, I think we're saying the same thing. So, I just meant like the number like the percentage of students that were proficient in the dibbles. >> Yeah. And you got it. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. You said scores. I was like, I thought it was going to be like
061one of these charts, but Okay, I think we're >> We can send you the chart with the number. Just the number. >> Got it. Just the number. >> Got it. >> Thank you. >> So, >> oh, go ahead. >> Go ahead, Michelle. Go ahead. You're good. >> I would like to mention that um Dr. Feathers, I think that you did a phenomenal job at the combined board meeting where the uh northern districts got together and they are discussing literacy. And I remember the secretary of education, she also um is is certainly um working on this on this goal for Delaware. Um recently heard her on the radio stating that um the board the state board of education has not had a strategic goal and they have implemented um a a strategic a five-point strategic goal.
062So I think that the target is certainly to increase it. I want to say she said across the board the number has gone up I think she said 1% um and Dr. Burls can verify that. But while that is not enough for proficiency, it's a little step going into um the right direction. But I think as we all continue to work hard for our students, um I think it it will continue to grow. So I thank um you Dr. Fathers for presenting tonight. I know this is a very uh challenging and tough topic to talk about since this is the centerpiece of being a board member is is is children's literacy and proficiency. So um I just want to say thank you for supporting our district at the comorbine meetings at the com combined board
063meetings and the work that you continue continually do. But providing those numbers for the board will also be good for appemic since we more or less got the numbers for the state. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Dit. We'll get you that information tomorrow. [snorts] >> So, I just want to reference back to the to the table. The one one of the numbers jumped out of me and great great job by the way. Great presentation. Thank you for providing me with all the information I asked for this. >> Absolutely. >> Appreciate all that. Um I looked at the beginning of the year to to to middle of the year comparing 25 and 26. It's an out it's an outstanding jump from last year. >> I mean it was only a 2% jump last year from
064beginning to middle to two middle and then this year it's an 8% jump between beginning and middle. C can you attribute that to anything? I >> sure yes kids or [laughter] something in the program because [cough] you know [clears throat] hats off to you guys. That's that's that's a fantastic job. So um like Annie was sharing uh it is a different cohort of students right so the kindergarten students are different but we did change one thing in our implementation of the assessment this year so last year the kindergarteners uh took the assessment earlier in the winter and we looked at the scores and we said I don't know that this is really telling us where our students are where they should be at this time. Um, and the teachers talked to Annie and said, "We're
065testing them too early because we haven't gotten through some of our units, some of our instruction." And that makes sense, right? Because we have to teach the students before we assess them. So Annie worked with the teachers and adjusted the timeline. And so the timeline was adjusted just a little bit. So they took it in January. >> They took it in February. >> February. February. So we we actually adjusted a little more. >> So yes, so they just um recently took the assessment. So that just means our instruction is working, right? So when you assess them and you haven't instructed them, you can't expect the scores to go up. So that's also something that we appreciate the teachers come to us and say, "Hey, this doesn't look right. This doesn't feel right." And tells us
066why. And Annie works with them to go ahead and make those adjustments. So yes, >> thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. I thought your presentation was the best of the presentations about the science of reading. I I still think that um and I want to echo what Mr. Abrams just said. I mean, for my money, there's nothing more important in terms of of the educational mission than making sure that kids learn to read and learn to read well when they're young because it it goes with you the rest of your academic career. And so, um, and so that's why I think, you know, that's why we really are emphasizing this now. And I just want to say, you know, the board does a budget every year, obviously, and the budget reflects different priorities, all sorts of
067competing priorities, we never have enough money. Um, but if it's the case that we need to be doing more or there are more things that we need for literacy, to me, as I say, that's one of the most important things that we need to do. And so let us know in the budgeting process, hey, we could do with more money here and we'll try to figure out where we can pull it from uh to do that. And I don't want to sell math and science and social studies short. I mean, you got to learn to multiply when you're in uh in your early elementary school years and do long division and all that sort of stuff as well. But but reading is where it all really starts. So again, keep us informed about what we
068as a board can do to support those efforts. >> Thank you both. >> Thank you. >> And I'd just like to thank Annie. Um she has been an exceptional leader of the work of early literacy and ELA. Um she is highly sought after at our schools. Um she has done excellent work. So I just wanted to publicly thank her for all that she does, her commitment um to literacy. Thank you, Annie. So, >> so next on the agenda, you get to stay at the podium, Dr. Feathers, because we're now going to move to secondary literacy. >> Yes. Um, and this time I have Lisa Ali Turner with me, and she is the coordinator of secondary ELA, MLL, and libraries. So, we're going to talk about secondary um literacy. Ready? >> Yes, I am. Good evening,
069everyone. >> All right. So, um, Annie and I just spoke about CKLA, which is our core curriculum, um, at the elementary level. In ELA, we also have a core curriculum called Common Lit 360. Uh, in the secondary level, like CKLA, it's considered a highquality instructional material. It's approved by the state of Delaware. It's aligned directly to uh the common uh common core state standards. Um and we are in a soft launch implementation with this this year. >> Can move on. Yes. >> Yes. So um we know that secondary literacy goes beyond the ELA classroom. Um so we do have our core uh curriculum in the ELA classroom. However, it goes throughout the disciplines. So we had our early literacy vision. We also um have a secondary literacy vision and it reads students in grades six
070through 12 will develop the ne the skills necessary to critically read, effectively write and thoughtfully communicate across all disciplines. So we know that literacy um is everywhere. >> Okay. And why secondary literacy matters? Well, as we move into the 6 through 12 space with our students, literacy really becomes a crossdisciplinary effort as Rebecca just said and you've heard the expression that in elementary students learn to read and in secondary they're reading to learn. That is definitely true. In the secondary space, literacy really lives in every classroom. It is not just the ELA teacher's responsibility. Um, students are really building on that strong foundation that Annie talked about and really taking it into all of the content areas, but they're doing it in very specialized, very content specific ways, which I will go into. Thanks. So
071the secondary literacy demands, I like to think of this as a staircase. As students are going into these advanced courses, they are expected to do so much more than read texts. So let's think about it this way. Students are engaging with first of all longer, more complex text across the board. And they're doing this in every subject area. So the texts become very contentspecific, the vocabulary becomes much more sophisticated and the academic language becomes much more complex. They're also expected to grapple with some very challenging texts and they have to analyze ideas across multiple texts. So they go from reading one text and really understanding and grappling with that to looking at multiple texts, multiple sources, analyzing them and having discussions about multiple texts and writing about multiple texts at the secondary level. And that
072starts at the middle school level. They also have to support their thinking with text evidence, which is why it's so important to have Common Core aligned curriculum that requires them to do that as part of their daily instruction and daily practice. But when students struggle with literacy, the impact of that really goes beyond the English class. So you start to see these students struggling in math or social studies or science if the literacy foundation really isn't there. So strong um literacy at secondary level like I'm I said it's um necessary not only for academic success but college and career readiness generally and next slide there should be one disciplinary literacy or did we >> go back one >> there you go um so disciplinary literacy is really literacy in every classroom and when we talk
073about disciplinary literacy. We mean helping students to read, write, and communicate in [clears throat] ways that really reflect how experts would work in each field. So, for example, in a social studies class, students may evaluate sources. They may be analyzing historical documents and speeches, constructing evidence-based arguments. So we call that reading like historians in the social studies classes. In science they might be analyzing data sets. They might be interpreting graphs or simulations, writing lab reports um based on evidence thinking like his like uh scientists in math. Literacy is super important in math as well. although we don't automatically associate the two but our students are reading and interpreting really complex problems and they are explaining their thinking as well. So they're thinking and working as mathematicians. And then we have our CTE courses, right, where
074our students are always grappling with complex text. They're engaging with technical reading. They are learning to communicate clearly in real world situations and they're applying all of the learning from the career pathways they're engaged in. Whether it's engineering or construction, our students are reading texts and manuals associated with those fields. So our goal is really to ensure that our students are developing the literacy skills that they need starting in the elementary, moving into middle and into high school so that they are truly prepared for college and career. But it's really a cross-disciplinary effort and we're doing a lot of work to make sure our content teachers are as engaged with literacy as the ELA teacher because it's truly everybody's responsibility. And >> so that leads into the literacy work that we have been um doing
075throughout this school year. So we've partnered with um a consultant from School Kit. Her name is Ally. Um she is amazing. Um and we were just with Ally today. I'll tell you a little bit about that. Um and the focus is just what Lisa was talking about across the disciplines. So what happened this school year? Each middle school and high school um created a school-based literacy team. Um we create uh had an opportunity for professional learning in September. We all came together the teaching and learning team along with everybody's literacy leadership team and our partner from school kit facilitated that professional learning for us and then that translated into the job embedded professional learning. So, we have visited each middle school and high school one time with our partners um to do uh in-class visits
076um and we're in our second round and one of those rounds happened today. So what we're using is a tool. It's called the instructional practice guide tool. And it has three core actions. And so we have been professionally developed on the tool. And now we're using the tool to go into the classrooms in all content areas, all discipline areas um to see and collect data about what we're seeing in the classrooms and then determine what the next steps are. So core action one, Lisa was talking about the text and the different kinds of texts that you'll find um throughout the disciplines. And so core action one says that the work that the children are doing is rooted in text and that could be map, that could be a technical guide, that could be a novel.
077Um so there are many things that constitute a text. So that's the first thing we look for. The second thing we look for um are the activities or the tasks or the projects that the students are doing, are they rooted in that text? Do they have to go back and use these texts to be able to answer the questions or complete the tasks? And then the third thing we look for is who's doing the heavy lifting. Are the students doing the work or are the teachers doing the work? What we're looking for obviously is for the students to be do or to be um doing the heavy lifting. Uh shout out to Kwells Bridge and Odessa High School. We were there today. So we were with Kwells this morning in Odessa High School this afternoon.
078Like to say thank you to the administrators, uh the sixth grade team, the sixth grade students who welcomed us in. Um so we visited four different classrooms. We saw ELA, math, science, and social studies. and we had the opportunity to use that tool um collaborate together as a team to say what are we seeing and then Ally always says let's start from what we see and how can we level it up and then providing feedback to uh those teachers and uh feedback to the literacy team members that were with us to say what are your next steps what are our action items and then at Odessa High School a shout out to their administrators um to their literacy team and to their social studies uh teachers and students. So, we were able to visit um
079three or four uh social studies classrooms once again using our tool and looking for those core actions. We had a great day um of learning and on Friday we're at another middle school and another high school. So, this job embedded um professional learning that we're doing is so impactful because you're in classrooms where the students are and the teachers are and we're saying what's going well and how can we make this better? Everyone that we have worked with at the secondary level has just been super amazing this year. Everyone wants readers, writers, thinkers, speakers, everybody in every content area is on board. And a lot of people are saying what does that look like in my discipline or content and how can I make this better? Um, so we thank the teachers and the administrators
080and their teams. We have put a lot of hard work in this year and it's paying off and I'm super excited about the path forward. um in secondary uh with our literacy and I think that's the next slide is the path forward. So we're going to continue to focus on that literacy across the disciplines like Lisa and I have said it can't just happen in ELA classroom it has to be pervasive everywhere and once again that's reading writing listening and speaking um building the capacity of the teachers coaches and administrators Mr. Forest and when you say like what are we budgeting for? One thing we have to budget for is that proper professional learning. We have to have that ongoing professional learning job embedded work. That's how we're going to move the work. And then
081our next phases of the work um we talked a little bit about the common lit. So once again whenever you have a high quality instructional material you're always refining that. Once again, we're strengthening our writing instruction across the disciplines as a next phase of our work. And at early literacy, we also said that that was a piece of our work, too. So, we're looking vertically. Um, and then strengthening the alignment across the grade levels. Let's understand the common core state standards and what's happening vertically across the system. Um, and that is our path forward. Any questions? >> So, yeah, going back to that last slide real quick. I mean, you know, I've done it now for a long time in my career. I do a lot of writing. Like this last month, I wrote four
082briefs, which are, you know, thick things you give to judges. They're like 10,000 words on average. Um, and I've done a lot of other writing over the years, but I write a lot. And it, you know, there's a book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, which basically says, how do you get good at something? You get good at it by doing it and doing it a lot, right? The Beatles became one of the best groups of all time. He postulates because they went to Hamburg and played constantly and they became a really good band doing that and others uh who practice things intensely become really good. You want to become a uh a concert level pianist and takes some talent but it takes a lot of practice. And so, you know, when I look [clears throat] back
083at my own high school career and uh even some of my college career, um I don't think I did enough writing. And if it were up to me and and you guys I could give you unlimited resources and unlimited staff and everything. I mean, I would want our high school students because I think you learn to read and you develop your reading skills and reading well helps you be a better writer, of course, but if we're up to me starting in high school, I'd really like to see kids writing like a 500word paper, a thousandword paper like once a week. I mean, the only way you're going to get good at it and be an accomplished writer and therefore a an accomplished communicator and an accomplished speaker is by doing. And I just I worry
084sometimes that we're not asking our students to write enough. So I don't know if you want to correct me and say, "Oh, no. We're doing more writing than you think." >> I can share the Common Core State Standards with you because that'll show you the nice vertical alignment of where we start with kindergarteners drawing to where we end with 12th graders. So that will show you the progression of what is expected um within our writing. And Lisa, you can so I'll share that along with the data tomorrow, but you want to add on. >> Sure. and at the secondary level and elementary as well. And when we look at the standards, the focus is on reading, writing, speaking, and listening. And so we balance those. And you know, while we're saying literacy here, when I
085when I talk about literacy, I'm not just referring to reading. Writing is equally important here as we consider what we expect our students to do. What we're talking about at the secondary level is that they should be doing that in every content area. So, our students are certainly learning how to write a research paper in their ELA classroom and they may be doing research there, but they're also researching and writing in their social studies classes. And >> no, I don't because every class they should be doing writing in between all the classes, but I just worry that we're not having our students write enough because the only way you're going to learn to write and write well is by doing it a lot. Um, you know, that's what Outliers says. You get 10,000 hours of
086practice and you'll be a concert level pianist. Well, 10,000 hours is a lot, but I mean, if we have kids writing 500 words on average a week or or a thousandword paper every other week, they're going to get better. And they're doing that for three years or four years. By the time they graduate, they're going to know how to write and they're going to be better at it. But we got to make them do it, >> right? And we we have a a vertical articulation for what we expect from our students by the end of year in terms of writing at each grade level. And we have students write across all the genres. So it won't just be it may be a research paper at the beginning of you know in the first marking period.
087There may be literary analysis that they're learning to do. There are just different there may be expository essays. So we teach our students to write in the different genres and the expectation for what they're able to write and how much they're expected to write ratchets up with each grade level and with each course they take. So there's a there's a real clear progression for expectations and at the end of it we do expect them to be prepared for college and career knowing what the expectation is there. And Annie and I didn't hit on it today, but the writing does start in early literacy and it does start at the beginning, right? So, um, Annie formed a writing committee last year and the committee got together and just like we have Scarbor's rope, there's also a
088writing rope. Um, and there's a book called the writing rope. And so that committee did a book study for the year on the writing rope. And then as a result, that committee has built out professional learning for this year for K through five. So once again, we started off in September where everyone in the district K through five was trained on the um writing rope and then our teachers on the um committee, our administrators, we have some coaches on those committees. They made um many professional developments and they are our whoever's on the writing committee for each school will deliver those once a month on each of the components of the writing rope. So to your point, Mr. Forest, we're also seeing the need for writing and more writing and we are bringing more writing
089back, but that is starting with our kindergarteners who learn how to write strokes at the beginning of the year. If you ever want to come to see that, that's fun. That turn into letters, letters that turn into words, words that turn into sentences, sentences that turn into paragraphs that turn into those larger pieces of writing uh that you're speaking of before they leave us and they graduate. So, that work is underway. We just didn't highlight it today, but we did highlight it as part of our path forward because we know there's a lot of work to do. >> Right. And look, I mean, the practical problem is that when you're, you know, when you give your kids a students a reading assignment and you're teaching them reading, you're teaching them a skill, they go off
090and do it. when you, you know, when you're getting a lot of papers, if you're demanding a lot of writing, I mean, to really teach it well, then it takes time to review all of those papers and point out to the students, you know, you didn't have parallel construction, you didn't have a good introductory sentence that captured the reader's attention. I mean, all that you didn't have a conclusion, your paper kind of petered out. I mean, it's much harder, I think, to teach good writing. That's why I said, but I mean, the more that you point out what they're missing and then the better they get at it over time. you don't need to teach those things as much. You can then just grade for the ideas in the writing. But look, it's hard. I
091get it. And that's why I say, you know, if there's things that we need for this, both at the early grades, but also at high school, because I do think writing is so important, let us know and let us figure out if we can make adjustments to the budget or get more resources for these areas. >> Absolutely. It's an important part of our budget. So, absolutely. Does anybody else have any questions? I didn't mean to hog the time. Mr. Higgins, >> I just uh hearkening back on high school four year class reunion. So, I got this snazzy jacket. Um when I was in high school, I remember let's say in social studies, right? Let's say you're really really strong in social studies, but students just aren't really good at spelling or composition. Um, do you
092find it might be discouraging for a student that might have strengths other than writing to be graded on writing in a nonwriting class? >> There really isn't anything at the secondary level, any of those core contents that should be non-writing classes. The expectation is that our students are reading complex texts in all of those classes and that they're writing in all of those classes. You may not be writing as much in math, but in science you certainly are writing. In social studies, you are. And the truth is, since we are preparing them for college and career readiness, think about the college courses they have to take. They will certainly have to write in a science class or a social studies class or a math class at the college level. So, we are preparing them for
093>> I'll take that >> experience. [laughter] You're not not concerned. Um and one other question I had was um this is a new program right for uh the uh three literacy 33 right >> that's just for ELA >> ELA okay um feedback teachers challenges >> are yep we are only in the third marking period of that implementation right now so it's early okay to >> so really no time for real feedback or okay great thank you >> Lisa works with the teachers regularly >> I work with I I was just with teachers yesterday I'll be with another group of teachers tomorrow doing curriculum refinement because the way you know with any new curriculum my mantra when you're first implementing it is don't add salt. We want to implement implement the curriculum with as much integrity
094as possible because they are highquality materials that are written with specific um instructional routines and we want teachers to experience the curriculum as written. But we know that sometimes there are challenges there are and we take teachers feedback and what we are doing now is we have entered the third marking period is meeting with teachers from each grade level. We are making refinements to the curriculum without really disrupting the integrity of the resource but adding things to make the resource more engaging to make instruction more engaging. But that don't add salt mantra is because we don't want to make the changes before we've tasted the food, if you will, right? So we know what we need to adjust and we're making the appropriate adjustments now. So the goal is that by the time we go
095into fourth marking period, we will have adjustments in place and we'll re go back and refine units one through three from the previous marking period so that we'll be ready for a full launch when we fully adopt next year because we're in that soft launch period. >> Circling back on that after after the year then absolutely. >> Does any other board member have any questions? Well, thank you both very much. Uh, and >> I'd also like to publicly thank Lisa for um her leadership and um her undertaking of making sure that literacy is pervasive in all of our discipline areas areas. Um, and she has been u very hard um at work with our secondary literacy plan and launching that this year. So, thanks for your leadership. >> Right. And then you're gonna you're going
096to get us revised numbers for the early childhood stuff. And then when are the end ofear tests given for >> In May. So, if you have that data for us in June, that would be good. But or if you have it for us in July, but I mean I think this is something certainly I'd like to see reported on a regular basis how we're doing and I want to follow it and I want to see that >> we are continuing to get better and if we're not continuing to get better, I want to see what we can do so we will continue to get better. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> We're going to stay here though. >> We're next. [laughter] Hang on, Natt. Well, >> Lisa, come back. >> I've got revised policy 4110
097school libraries and media centers. >> Yes. So, like I said, Lisa is the secondary coordinator of ELA, MLL, and Libraries. So, she's um here with me for this presentation as well. So, we're going to talk about board policy 4110, school libraries, and media centers. All right. So we had a review of this policy. Uh myself and Lisa uh were part of the review. We also had a library media specialist um and the teaching and learning department uh representatives as uh folks who went through the review process. The reason for the review of this um policy at the time is because there is a new house bill, House Bill 119. So the bill says that each local education agency shall develop and implement policies and procedures to review objections to library material in a school library.
098The policies and procedures developed under this subsection must do the following. So there's three things. One is we must establish a uniform process to submit an objection to library material in a school library by a student, parent or guardian of a student enrolled in a public school or school personnel. So these must be folks within the school. Two, require that the library material under review due to an objection remain available for use by students and school personnel until the review process is concluded. and three, establish a reasonable timeline to conduct conduct and conclude the review process. So, we reviewed the bill, we reviewed our policy, and these are the changes that we made. So, the policy currently reads with a challenged materials process that is now outdated because of House Bill 119. So, we simply
099put a strike through the challenged materials process that you see in policy 4110. And then we added a section called eligibility and submission of objections. And uh the part that you're seeing on the screen right now is what the policy has been changed to. And this is simply based on House Bill 119. Um, so it says that objections may only be submitted by a student enrolled in the school, the parent or guardian of a currently enrolled student or a school personnel assigned to that school. Um, and then objections to library materials must be submitted in writing. And we have a form, it's called the district request for reconsideration of library material form. And individuals must have read the full um piece uh of material that they are objecting to and they must complete the form
100and submit the form. Um the form would come to me or whoever the curriculum director is and then uh it would be sent to the school um where they would have a committee and that committee would have the time to review and then provide a recommendation. And once a recommendation comes to the director of curriculum, a decision will be made. If the objection, if the person who objected um wants to take it further, if it's not um approved, [clears throat] they would bring it to the school board and then after the school board um they would bring it to um the school library association if it was to get to that level. So, our new policy 4110 simply just outlines um the process for an objection per House Bill 119. [snorts] >> Any questions? basically
101policy. >> Correct. Okay. >> And then it goes to >> correct >> members of the state board or who makes up that committee? >> It's a state committee. They haven't >> I'm just curious >> designated who is on that >> Right. Okay. Well, >> I can get that for you. >> No, that's okay. I mean, it is what it is. Well, so if you objected that that it had to be kicked out to a higher authority. >> Yes. So then it goes to the school board or >> No, I mean like if if we do the internal review and you you say the book stays, they disagree, it comes to us, >> it comes to the board, you say it stays, >> then a final appeal may be made to the state school library review
102committee. >> Um it's at the bottom. Oh, it's in our policy. Mr. Abrams, >> do you have this sheet? >> I thought that part was taken out. >> The first is the school or district review committee. Then it goes it appeals to the school board and then to the state >> the state library review committee. >> That's part of the bill. The bill does blanch there. for the final, >> right? >> Stop. So, we So, you're saying >> somebody writes a complaint, >> you guys get together, then you say their complaint is we're going to keep the book, they disagree, if it comes to us, you say the book stays, and then there's another level above that >> if they if they appeal your decision. And that's the part I thought was taken out because
103that takes local control away from the board. >> I didn't realize that got slipped back in there. I thought that was coming out. >> Yeah, it says >> that's what this policy does is takes local control away from the board. >> Yeah, I thought Yeah, but which but what I'm saying is I thought that part was taken out. So that got slipped back in at the last minute that >> it's H. >> Right. So okay, that was my confusion. I thought we were the final arbiter, not some >> Oh. So that that piece got slipped back in because I thought that was taken out. >> Okay. >> So that and I apologize I missed that. Like I said, >> however, I mean this really was a proactive measure on the part of the Department of
104Education to ensure that books don't get >> banned by school boards. >> Yeah, I I'm sorry. I thought that >> that next piece was taken out. I didn't realize it got put back in. >> There were three amendments to the final version of the bill. So I suspect Norm that that was one of the amendments that got added. But >> you know it's interesting that from the local school board it doesn't go to the state board of education. It goes to this other special committee which >> and that's where it was supposed to go. They want it out. >> Okay. >> And that's what I was just trying to figure out. I apologize. I should have known that. >> I should have known that. >> So this is is this does this go through the
105normal this is our presentation. There'll be a first reading next month and then a second and final reading in two months. So, >> does anybody else have any questions? Because this will be back in another month. >> I just need to clarify where where the request for reconsideration of library material where is this actual document like on our landing page like where is somebody finding this? >> We haven't put it anywhere yet because it hasn't been approved. So, once the policy is updated, we will determine a location for it. Right now, um, our old process is part of the librarian's handbook. So, so should somebody want that, that's where we would go for it. Um, so once this is approved, um, through all of you, then we'll find a landing page for it and I'll
106let you know. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> We may want to put up notices in the library too, just for more rather than just the web page, but I'll leave that to folks to implement. >> Okay. I had just one thought uh researching this and we went back and forth on emails. Um so my understanding the school policy is going to be if a student at Obl um family or child sees a book they believe is inappropriate that would go to the school to through the process through the whole process that book would only be removed from Obl's library not any other elementary school's library. Right? That's what I understand. >> Yes, that is correct because >> um however when it gets to the state, this is where I maybe you want to check.
107I could be wrong. When it gets to this state, the state I defines the word library in this in this in this policy as all school libraries established, administered or under the control of a local education agency. So when they say the wording um the state will remove the book from the quote unquote library, you can again Richard's an attorney, but you can read that as well their definition of library is all school libraries, right? So for me, I'm conflicted. Not that it matters, we have nothing to do with that. It's the state. But I'm conflicted as to what's the state's intent there. Do they mean if it goes to the state it will be removed from all elementary school and again specific to grade level right because apples to apples it would be removed
108from all of the libraries at that age group which would only make sense because if it's inappropriate for all loss's elementary school library it should be you know the same for the other elementary school libraries. >> Sure. So I understand where you're wondering what the interpretation is. >> We'll we'll reach out and get you an answer to that. >> Thank you. I think Tim is ready to go to law school. >> Would that also include libraries in the classroom? >> They're specifically specifically not I mean I I Yeah. Okay. >> It says that in the >> Okay. Well, we we we will see you both next month, right? On this policy at least. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now we have the construction updates, >> Mr. Hopkins. >> Are we on time and under budget?
109>> Yes, >> we are. >> That's much as we can be from what we're doing now. Yes. >> Okay, we started ready. There's not a lot been going on. We've been snowed in for about two months. So, as you can see, it reading out here. We're still pretty much in the state we were before. Things are drying out this week. week. We're hoping to get started back in out here, do the final grading, and go ahead and get the field down in this area here. There'll be a a building on the end here for maintenance, but this is all getting ready to get turned over. We're trying to get the basketball court finished so the kids can use it before the end of the year. Just a few minor repairs and get it lined up
110and it's ready to go. Hey, Steve. Just more the same. You're just kind of seeing the whole back area, but with the weather, we couldn't go very far. Things have been pretty pretty dead right now for both schools. The snow is melted. So, >> the snow was melting. We had 85 degrees. We're drying out. >> So, [clears throat] this is the front of the school. Again, just giving you one look, which is not a lot here this month. This is a plaque in the back that we did. There'll be a change order for some of that where we incorporated the plaque that was inside the school and this sign inside this here to keep that in the school and, you know, part of the uh part of the school itself. Summit Campus. Still not a
111lot going on here. We're still wet, but we have some aerial views that you can see. 896 on this side here. You have uh the the Summit Aviation on this side. This is Beaston Road coming down this way. As you can see here, they have the road coming in, which is the construction road, but will eventually be the actual road. So, we're not constructing a a construction road and then another road. We're just building it all at once. This will start to get paved in the beginning of April. >> And that'll be the main road to the back of the high school and middle school where the kids the buses will go. That's the bus loop. drop off. Will parents drop off at the back or will drop? >> That'll be the outer loop. There'll
112be another loop that comes off right in this area here that comes in front of the middle school and high school and connects up here. >> So, that'll be the front that you know for student drop off and even the best laid plans, but the schools will end up doing it to what they think works best for them at the time. But the plan is for that to be the drop off in the front. This would be the bus drop off that comes in the back here. And this will connect up as well for bus connection on the back side to the middle school on this side. You can see here this is waiting and turner trailer here. This is some some of the storm water management ponds are going in. This this is temporary.
113This one will come around and it's it's temporary also. This will be the tennis courts in the end. This will be a baseball field in the end. But we have to catch the rain water in the beginning. It's deep. Just some some of the look of what's going on. There's a lot of pieces of equipment out here. Just none of it's moving very much. All the concrete structures are showing up, you know. So once we get going, we've got everything we need to get revved up and back on pace here. Just a little more of the same. This is looking back towards 896. This is our back corner of the property. Railroad tracks on this side. And this is this is our component here, too. This all goes this way. It just gives you an
114idea of the size of the lot, but it'll shrink up pretty quick once we start putting things on it. Just a little bit. That's actually an older one cuz we haven't moved any dirt in a while. Just kind of a picture. Same thing here. Just pipe our water line they ran in. They have that up to here at this point. Have a look. Our property runs all the way down this side and back into the woods here and down along the train tracks here. This will be an auxiliary field, a baseball field back in the back. This is some of that that that stormwater management pond we're working on now in the front. This is just another look at that looking back of the of the stormwater management. This will be a baseball field. That's
115all we have for this week. Not much going with the weather, but we're on on time and on budget as much as we can be. >> Okay. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Hopkins? Hearing none. Thank you. Next on the agenda, we have the high school course catalog, middle school course catalog, and profile of a graduate report. Dr. Feathers, you're back again. >> All right. And this time I'm with Mike Tgo, our supervisor of college and career readiness. Uh he's going to join me to talk about the profile of the grad and our course [clears throat] cataloges. So, I know we've seen our profile of a grad before. This is just a reminder that these are the skills and knowledge we want our students um to have um as they graduate um from Apoquamik.
116Our students will be academically ready, life ready, future focused, workplace ready, civic-minded, and financially savvy. Why do we have a profile of a graduate? Well, this is our commitment to the community. This is our commitment to the students and to their families. These are the skills that are necessary for them to go on in college career and in life. Um they also guide our strategic plan. Um so making sure that that is just part of the work here in Appo. And it also sets um clear expectations so that we have consistency across the school district. All right. And we have our high school um course catalog. And this the most recent course catalog is for our graduating class of 2030. Did you all get a copy? Yes. Okay. Um and so we just have a
117couple updates for you. Um, we worked uh as a group to streamline our pathways and our AP um courses this year to ensure that every course runs with strong enrollment, that we maximize student access, and that we have our um proper instructional um quality. So when you see uh we this year in um our catalog for 2030 we have 21 pathways, 25 AP courses and 42 AP exam opportunities for our students. We just wanted to uh bring forward a couple of changes uh that we made in the course catalog. So, one of our pathways was removed this year and that's global leadership pathway and that was simply because there were courses that were aligned to that pathway that we are not running at this time and also it was just a low enrollment pathway so
118there really wasn't student interest um so we did remove that from the catalog >> in a couple classes in AP um >> but just just so we're clear to the extent that we are getting rid of a pathway because of I'll say low interest, low enrollment, the the students who are in it are still going to have the opportunity to finish that pathway if they've started it. Correct. >> So maybe so it just depends how far along they were. And we're going to speak a little bit more about some of the courses that we had to remove because low enrollment. Um there were a couple courses um like one for example that lived in there was AP macroeconomics. We had under 10 students taking that. um the the whole pathway had under 10 students in
119the entire school district. So when the courses aren't running because there's not enough student interest, then there is the possibility. So in this particular case, so in some cases your answer is absolutely yes. We sunset the pathway. In this particular uh case, the counselors met with each individual student. Um I believe it was nine, might have been seven or eight. It was less than 10 students across the district. We met with each one, got them into a new pathway. >> Right. And and Right. I mean, one of the secrets of life or mean is um critical mass, right? You need critical mass and things in order to for so many things. You want to have a good party, you need critical mass, right? You want to do anything in life, you need critical mass. You
120want to have a successful company, you need a critical mass of customers. So, if we're going to um if we're going to offer classes, we can't afford to be offering classes to like three and four students at a time. That's just it's not fair to a lot of people. And and we, you know, I remember years ago before I got on school board even. I mean, the high schools cut German because there just weren't enough kids taking that language and it didn't make sense to try to teach it. So, I think that what we're doing here, if we're cutting a particular pathway because of low enrollment, it's just part of the natural process. But I do want to make sure that if you're in a pathway, you get the opportunity to finish it if that's
121an opportunity you want because I don't want to pull the rug out from from people after they've started down a pathway. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Since we're just talking about what you're going through as you go through it, um it was alarming but then clarified. uh the the the 25 AP courses, five of the courses that you eliminated from what I understand were not active. They weren't used. Children weren't students were not in it. They were just in the catalog, but they were not being they were not active >> AP courses. So you're really cutting well limiting two two AP courses, not seven. >> Correct. >> That's correct. Same situation where there was low enrollment in those two. But the key word there was opportunities. So, we offered the course an AP uh college
122board put it out. We offered the course to students. They did not elect to sign up in masses that allowed us to run the course. So, because we can't run a course with two students in it. >> Um uh criminal justice uh has a name change, criminal investigations and technology applications. Um, and this, uh, allows us with our partnership from Wilmington University to make this, uh, a six credit course instead of a three credit college course. So, that was just an upgrade. Um, our three our courses are now two to three courses um, and repeatable. So, before you would have to take acting one or stage craft one and then move to two and then move to three. So, we're offering it uh so that it can be repeatable and that students will have more
123opportunities to take it. We're hoping that will increase um the student interest um and the class sizes for our theater programs. >> But then I assume that if it's repeatable, I mean each semester or each year it'll be slightly different. So, you're not taking the exact same class again, right? >> Correct. >> Yeah. Okay. offers more opportunities for more students to be involved in the theater with their schedules. Yes, absolutely. All right. So, some new addition. >> So, when you say you remove those classes the because of low enrollment or [clears throat] what what did we do with the like honors classes? Did we remove those because low enrollment? Was is everything being removed? Do you tell to tell am I am I lower what you're saying is that >> so there were some adjustments
124so we we offer the traditional class the college prep class in in all of our content areas then we offer in some areas an honors class and in some areas an AP class and so at times we were offering all three and that just wasn't sustainable right with what we're talking about low enrollment and Mike can add to this as well so there are some cases where there'll be a college prep course and an AP course or a college prep course and an honors course. Would you like to add to that? >> That's correct. Yeah, there's there are two levels. So, just for a course efficiency and running a master schedule getting down to two course levels. So, anywhere where AP was an option that is the honors level option for students currently as it
125exists right now and there's always the CP version of the course as well. >> Does that help or answer your question? >> Okay. So, so if you have the three levels, which one are we eliminating of that level? >> This is not This is nothing that's changed in this course catalog. What you may be referring to is something that that happened years and years ago where we leveled out the two courses per level. There are that has not happened in this course catalog or the previous course catalog. It's been a few years back. And you had referenced that yes, we were going to you were the process was to remove you're going to remove some honors classes where they could go down >> or go up. >> Yes. >> I'm just asking is that been
126done here? >> That has that has been done across the board. I think that was finished last year. I don't know that there's any >> we spoke about that and I >> So all that has been done. >> Okay. >> Uh but not for this course catalog. Um but yes in there you will see either an honors or an AP version of the course. There are not three levels of any course currently as it exists. >> Okay. >> Um so just a couple of new additions. Uh we added um English 10 AP seminar. So we've always run AP seminar. It just wasn't an English offering. So now students can either take um English 2 or they can take um the AP seminar, English uh 10 AP seminar. So it just gives them those two options.
127Um the state has added in the need for uh financial literacy as part of our 10th grade year. Um and so we have just added that to two social studies courses. So the students will have the option in their 10th grade year to either take economics and financial literacy or microeconomics and financial literacy. So the content that is required by the state will be embedded into both of those uh courses. Um we also added more information about the Delaware volunteer credit. So um there's a full spread in the um course catalog that lets students know you can earn a high school credit for doing 90 hours of volunteer work. And we know that so many of our students are involved in the community involved in volunteer. um it has to be approved and it's 90
128hours at the same place where you are volunteer u volunteering. So there are some stipulations but it's a great way to earn um a high school credit. And uh we also added more college credits to articulation agreements. Uh Mike works very hard with our partners at DelTech, Dell State, and Wilmington University to make sure that there are these opportunities for um that articulation with the universities with the local universities. So he's always working to build those relationships, partnerships, and make them available for our students here. >> All right. And I think you also received a copy of the middle school course catalog. And for those of you listening, um you can access the course cataloges online um at on our web page underneath students. So there's the high school course catalog and the middle school
129course catalog. The middle school course catalog is virtual only. Um, so there is not a hard copy for our students. This simply just lets our families know and our students know what to expect uh in middle school. Um, the various offerings that we have, our uh course offerings, our electives um, and it also gives them some tips uh, for success. Would you like to add anything to the middle school course catalog? >> I don't think so. It's it's really exciting um to have a middle school course catalog and being able to get that information out to families. I mean, for many years, it was just kind of information that might have lived on a website or if you heard about it because you maybe attended something or you heard from a counselor or a principal.
130So we just kind of when we came together as a team, we took all that information that families often ask questions about things that we want to have in writing to communicate to our community and our family because especially when they transition from fifth to six, that is quite a jump, especially if that's your first child. And so this just kind of lays out everything that we have available um because we really are um offering a lot to our students um and we want to be able to see that and take advantage of that. >> Does any member of the board have any questions? >> Yeah, just I'm just trying to find it. Have um so I guess there must have been a presentation last week. We got a parent reach out or have we
131removed I'm I see it here. Honors biology and just trying to find it. They were >> Can can you explain the with the I guess the advancement classes you've taken down or are removing, does that affect the the students GPA bump that they normally get in the AP classes, how will that affect our advanced students in that aspect? >> Sure. Okay. So, I I can explain a little bit first how the waiting happens in the front of the catalog. It lays it all out for families. It's called advanced standing. And so when a course has college credit attached to it, so it's either AP, advanced placement weight, it's articulated means that we have an agreement with a college that it's going to um give them credit if they metriculate into that university. Or the third
132one would be a true dual enrollment course. All of those courses get that bonus point. If it is a an honors class, it gets half a point. So the answer may be yes if if they're not taking the honors weight. So like a biology course for example may not be weighted. However, if they took biology 2, so a lot of those level two courses are honors weight, but because of the way I explained it, you can kind of see like those don't earn college credit. So it's not a full point. It is an honors weight is half a point. >> So but for the articulating, they actually have to be accepted to that school. the class that they take has to take them into that pathway, right? >> Not to not to get the bonus
133point. So on our end, they do get the bonus point for taking a college level curriculum. It doesn't matter. We don't look at where they go to college if they we are working very hard right now to do a better job. Um it's it's really kind of a pain point across Delaware and really across the country where students are earning those credits but they're not fully aware that they can go metriculate into a Delaware school and take advantage of those credits. So, that's kind of a project that we've been working on for a couple years now and and trying to get across the finish line where we are getting them to go get those credits and be uh more informed about what um opportunities they have if they um take those credits. So, if you
134look in the course catalog, I'll just give you example. Some of these pathways we have such as the education pathway, you can leave with over 30 credits just by taking the pathway. Criminal justice is another one. Dr. Feathers mentioned that we added an additional three college credits to the level four course. So those students are earning three credits in level one, three credits in level two. When they take the AP exam, they could get another three. And then now with level four, they're getting six college credits. So that's where we've progressed over the years. Um but students need to if they want those credits take advantage of them by metriculating into a university in Delaware. If they go off to a college somewhere across the country then you know we don't have agreements with every
135university institution across the country. >> Thank you. >> And are you saying that the challenge is ensuring that students are aware of that opportunity? >> That that is a challenge. I mean they get this catalog when they're in eighth grade. >> Yeah. So then they take the courses throughout high school, they take the exams and really making them aware to say, okay, if I go to Delaware Tech, I'm I'm entering with six college credits. If I go to WU, I have 18, you know, and so forth. And Dell State, you know, and I have some agreements there as well. So it really that's the that's kind of the pain point for students to to know that they may not need. I mean, there's ev we we've seen cases where students have taken the APO course,
136earned a college credit, went to that university, and didn't get the credit because there's not a great connection right now. And that's what we're really working on. >> Okay. So, that reminds me of like downstate, the early college high school program that they have in Dover with Dell State. Like my son actually did that program and like graduated from high school, had like 20some credits. And so you're saying that our students don't realize that that is an opportunity and that's what you're trying to address. >> That's correct. >> Oh, that's that >> some do if they're really like on top of things >> on top of it. Okay. >> But it >> but what it's hurting to some of the families that just aren't up to speed on that enough. >> So that that's a
137pain point across Delaware and the country. It's not an APO problem. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> But maybe we can connect on that. >> Yeah. Because it just I don't know. I don't know if it's because I that was that's been my experience that it feels almost counterintuitive that how would you >> not know but I guess you know you're a young kid you got to kind of >> I don't know maybe because it's it's it's my actual story so it's kind of easy for me to kind of understand it and take advantage of it. I mean, that's one of the primary reasons we moved here, right? So, yeah. So, it's it's just when you say that students are sometimes challenged by knowing that that is a benefit. Um, and then as a parent, I'm
138looking at the cost savings, right? It saves me dollars when it's time for you to go to college. And so, it's like it seems just as important as knowing how to apply for financial aid or something along those lines. I see you have like a whole layout on how to pay for school inside this booklet. So, to me, they kind of go hand in hand. So, let's save money on the front end. will learn how to pay for what's the residual on the back end. So maybe that's the correlation, but >> and we work through, you know, we have uh webinars at night and you know, parent information nights and things, but still like getting the word out is it's important. >> Yeah, for sure. Thank you. Thanks for that clarity. >> Thank you. >>
139Go ahead. Uh just for clarification, so a college placement and an AP class both get the same weight on a GPA. >> Uh could you clarify college placement? What you meant by? Do you mean articulated credit? Were you SP? >> Well, again, as far as GPA goes, kids looking to jump up their GPA by taking certain classes. I thought you said AP classes get a full point. >> Correct. >> Honors get a half a point. >> Correct. >> And I thought you said college placements also get a point, but I could be wrong. >> I could have heard you wrong. >> So, if you turn in your catalog to uh there's a complete list. It's right in the very beginning here. Sorry, it's on page five. Everything you see there on page five is what
140earns a bonus point, GPA bonus point that Mr. Abrams was referring to. >> Okay. So, so college placement isn't it crosses all different levels there. So, that's not really from must have misheard that. And then my other question was um 42 AP exam opportunities. So, I take my student takes a class that's not AP and then they can opt they can opt to take this exam, right? Does that then give them the same bump an AP class would give as far as GPA or no? So, >> no, because they did not take the class, but they are able to put that on their um >> they're able to they're able to to provide that information to the university to earn the credit on but we don't add >> but not for APO doesn't give you
141the weight of an AP class just because you take an AP test. >> That's correct. >> Honors class. >> That's correct. So some students will take let's say AP Japanese or something that you know and they they just >> they may already be proficient >> because they may be self-studying on that so that they can because I know a lot of kids are hunting for that GPA bump but that does not give you a GPA. >> That's correct. >> But we do allow students to take any AP exam they want. >> Does anybody else have any other questions? Michelle or I know you're still there. You have any questions? No questions. Great job. >> All right. Yeah. I I just want to say I continue to think that our course catalog is um just an
142amazing amazing thing. And I remember when I first got on the school board, the the course options were very limited compared to what this C course catalog is. And you know, when I look back on my own high school career, the opportunities that are available in this course catalog for students today are just truly amazing and and I think almost profound. Um, you know, like everything else in life, um, you get out of high school and your high school educational experience what you put into it. And so I would encourage all students and and parents talking to their students, take some classes that maybe are outside of your comfort zone or that you might never have the opportunity to take once you do go to college or once you join the working world. Take a
143class on photography, take a class on FFA, take a class on drama, public speaking, computer science. I mean, the list is endless in this catalog. And you have the opportunity as a student to take up to 32 classes. Now, I'm not saying you have to take 32 classes, but the opportunity is there. And so, I, you know, you're just not going to have, you only go through high school once and you're not going to have a second opportunity. And I guarantee that, you know, 10 years after you graduate or 15 years after you graduate, you're going to regret not doing something. Oh, I wish I had taken that art class or I wish I had tried that. Um, so it's an amazing document and I encourage everybody to look at it, figure out what their
144pathway is, of course, but also find something else that you might not have thought to take but might interest you because that opportunity isn't going to come around again. And I will say to Mr. Higgins question about GPA and you know waiting grades and figuring out class rank and all that sort of stuff. I mean, I would be more than happy to consider a policy that says when we're figuring out what your GPA is, we will not consider your two lowest grades or something like that. Because I don't want to I don't want to students to think they're penalizing themselves if they take something that's outside their comfort zone and they want to try cooking. Right? I know my wife wishes I had taken a cooking class when I was in high school. um about
145all I can do is boil water. So again, you know, that's something we can look at for the future. But again, I'm always impressed every time I pick up our course catalog. It is just an amazing document. There are wonderful opportunities there. And I hope that every student and every family takes advantage of all those opportunities. >> Thank you for the kind words. And I just add that this is a collaborative effort with counselors and um administrators from across the district um as well as teacher surveys and feedback that we get as well. Thank you. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Thank you guys. Thank you. >> Next on the agenda, we have board comments. And Miss Dit, do you want to start or do you want to go after Mr. Abrams? >> Sure,
146I'll start. >> Okay. >> Um good evening, Apple community. Um over the past four years, um it has been an honor to serve as one of five members on the African School Board of Education. What began as a new experience has been meaningful to our students, family, educators, and our community. In collaboration with Superintendent Dr. Burroughs, his administrative team, my fellow board members, and many engaged community members. I have worked to help strengthen the transparency, communication, and governance within our district. Some of the efforts I've helped advocate for include bringing greater visibility to the financial advisory committee and its work supporting the district, clarifying the board agenda by changing the term delegation to public comment, making participation clearer for community members. Engaging board collaboration around the district's five strategic goals by aligning board members with
147the district points of contact. Requesting the development of a stronger bullion policy to better support students and families. Promoting partnerships with local restaurants and community members who help support board meetings and events. improving procedures related to executive session to ensure alignment with the sunshine law and transparency requirements. And lastly, and certainly not least, suggesting that the superintendent be evaluated using a standardized rubric and document a process similar to those in other districts across the state. Coming from the corporate world, I believe evaluations are normal and important part of accountability and leadership. This process is still being refined to ensure it is done correctly. With the experience I've gained over the last four years, I feel even more prepared to continuing serving our district. If given the opportunity to serve another term, my priorities will focus
148on community engagement, continue board transparency, and now, as always, student proficiency, but making it a target goal. The Aequinic School Board election, as stated, is May 12th, and hopefully you will support me in this venture. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Welcome, >> Mr. Abrams. >> Good evening, everybody. I'd like to take a minute just to thank everybody who's working behind the scenes on committees that are helping making our district better day by day. I know it's a thankless job, but I do appreciate as long as my fellow board members appreciate all the work that's done on those committees as it does help make our district better. I'd also like to just mention that tonight as we come in every monthly meeting, we start our meetings off with recognitions. And again, it just amazes me
149the great and phenomenal work our teachers and students are doing. It's just great to sit and listen to the presentations and the awards given. I know we all talk about graduation day as being the best day, but I could go for more of these presentations. It really does hit home the hard work that's being done in the classroom. I'd also like to take a moment just to thank everybody who's working behind the scenes um as our crisis hit last the end of last school year. I know the work is still ongoing and recommendations are still being made each month. I know we still continue to to switch things that we're doing. So, I just wanted to take a special note to the to the team that's behind the scenes working on those avenues to make
150this a better district. I'd also like to thank everyone who's filled out the candidate form for school board. Um it's not un u it's not an easy decision to make. So if you have any questions or comments how we got here, where we got here, I can help you from 2009 on the decisions that were made. You have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. That's all I have. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd also like to uh thank all of our candidates uh for running. It isn't an easy job and I do wish them all well and they're all able to share their voices and their candidacies to be heard so the community can make a an informed decision. Um it attended the uh financial advisory
151committee uh some notes. They were generally optimistic of cash flow but still a bit to be collected which does matter in the austerity mode that we're in. Um the salary tracker uh reports seem to be online uh with the increases that were made. Um there were any budget amendments and I believe there were two were discussed and questions answered and the questions were answered satisfactory. Um, there was one question outstanding. I believe that was um, the Brick Mill Early Childhood Center had an $85,000 dispersement, most likely collected from family tuition, but they were going to get back to the the person in question. Um, so also this last week or two, I did go to the uh, Aquinic School play um, How to Eat Like a Child. Uh, they did a great job. It was
152entertaining. Um it was kind of fun to watch that setting of that play is well before social media. Uh so these these students had to kind of put themselves in the shoes of what we were in when we were kids. And uh there was one scene where the the child was begging to go outside. His punishment was that he wasn't able to go outside. And I just thought that was such a contradiction of what's going on now. We're begging our children to go outside. So great job on those kids to really put themselves in what our shoes were. and it was just really really enjoying really really did like it. Um I did also go to uh the I did attend the code of conduct meeting um and uh to uh Mr. Aan's point it
153was great to watch just the back and forth feedback between teachers, constables, uh principles, just everybody just throwing out ideas and and and really sharing sharing what their vision should be for an updated code of conduct committee. So, I want to uh thank and acknowledge the the work they're doing. Um I also went to a school some school visits. I went to the Erit of Meredith uh um middle school where I got this shirt. Um want to thank uh Beth Everett for uh being there and showing showing me all around. Um, we were uh we were greeted by some very young entrepreneur entrepreneurs that were selling school stock and it was great to see they learned from soup to nuts how to run a business, how to inventory, all that stuff. So that was great
154to see. Uh we went to the Appleo preschool where we uh met uh Aaron Kaplan and her staff and that's always just fun and refreshing to see the little guys and girls out there finding their way uh targeting what needs they may have going on through school which I think is so important. Had a great conversation uh over there with uh Dr. Kaplan about the process these kids go through from 3 to four to going on to kindergarten. Uh then we headed over to Brick Mill where we saw uh Danielle Rash and Sydney Clay gave us a great uh tour of of of the of the school. Um very informative. We finished off at uh the Brick Mill Early Childhood Center, which also gave me a shirt, but I could only wear one shirt, so
155um my my daughter picked this one out. Um so we had a great time there. Also learning about how these kids are introduced to our school system. They're doing great work. Stuff they're doing is incredible. things that we should have had when we were younger, but so glad we're doing it now. Um, lastly, I will not we will not have a board uh bagels with a board member tomorrow. Um, tomorrow morning, my family are headed out to Clearwater to go check out the team this year. So, we're going to go watch some Phillies games. We will have the bagels with a board meeting on I mean uh bagels with a board meet uh bagels with a board member uh March 17th. Um, and uh, look on the website and Facebook for uh, more details about
156that. But also, even though we're I'm not going to be there, I think everybody's reiterated. Email us with questions, call us, do whatever you need to do. We're always here. Um, we get a lot of information. We have a lot of information. If we don't have what you're looking for, we can send you in the right direction. That's all I have. >> Oh, yeah. At Manhattan Bagel. Thank you, >> Dr. Graham. Um, hi, good evening everyone. So, uh, just to kind of echo what, uh, Mr. Abrams said, I certainly want to reiterate a congratulatory message to all of our recipients tonight under um, our special recognition at the top of the meeting. Um, and then I want to take a an additional opportunity to acknowledge Dr. Bros and his cabinet. Um I personally have had
157some time spent some time with them ear a few weeks ago or so I think we were together and something that I've heard through ES and even executive session and even tonight is the kind of one-off conversations that are happening with each of us um each of us board members as we take a special interest in certain things and Dr. Burroughs and his cabinet never hesitate um are never reluctant to share their time and knowledge with us and a very respectful uh uh with a lot of patience um and they take you can tell that they take a lot of time to prepare for us as well. We're able to send questions ahead of time and I think we've seen that tonight with Dr. Feathers and she's like I'll get it to you tomorrow morning.
158And so I just want to acknowledge all of you. We certainly recognize that you guys are doing um hard work and you're doing hard work really well and so I thank you for that because I know we all kind of come at this from different perspectives with different lenses with different experiences. And so um to you Dr. Burrows and your entire cabinet um I won't take time to name all of you, but you all know who you are. And so we appreciate you guys um and your hard work that you do for our students and um in supporting us in our roles. And then lastly, I just wanted to highlight, as I said at the outset um earlier in the agenda, that we are hosting our APO school board candidate forum on Tuesday, March 24th
159um at 6:00. And everybody is aware that two of our current board members are on the docket along with four others. So, we encourage you to participate um and to tune in or join us here in person as we go through our forum that evening, our Q&A session rather, that evening. And that concludes my uh comments for tonight. >> All right. Thank you. Um I'll just observe quickly that I think tonight's agenda and some of the things that we've seen, again, I may be biased, but I I think we have a really strong school district. Um you know, I thought that the literacy presentations were strong and we're definitely on the right track there. I look forward to more presentations about that. I continue to be impressed by the course catalog and all the opportunities
160uh that it offers. You know, the recognitions uh as my fellow board members have said, and that's why it's sometimes hard to speak last, but the recognitions um are I think my favorite part of any agenda, the amazing things that our kids and our staff are are accomplishing. Um, you know, we implemented a new smartphone policy at the start of the year and everybody was worried about it, but the reports I continue to get are that it's going well and seems to be working and uh, nobody seems to be having uh, withdrawal. So, that's good. Um, like Mr. Higgins, I did get to see How to Eat Like a Child at Epic Quinn High School. I thought it was very funny and a very talented cast. I also got the opportunity to see Anything Goes
161at Middletown High School. Um I'm a big Cole Porter fan and that's my favorite Colep Porter show and again a very very strong cast. A lot of good music. Uh especially I really I just like that show. This weekend I'll see Spongebob. I know nothing about the music and in fact I think I've only ever seen one or two Spongebob cartoons. So maybe I'll try to cram before uh this weekend. Um, and then I I'll just conclude by saying I think it's wonderful that Miss Dit is uh running for reelection. She's brought a new perspective, hasn't been afraid to ask questions, and I certainly appreciate all the efforts and uh all the hard work that she has brought to the board. Um, so with that, I will conclude my remarks and we will move on
162in the agenda to old business, the calendar committee. Dr. Feathers, >> you had any stage fright? That's over tonight. >> Thanks so much for having me. >> All right, we are going to review the proposed calendar. Just a reminder, we do have a district calendar committee and I would like to thank them for um their time uh and effort and commitment to this work. and we operate under the guiding values that are listed here. We review those during each of our meetings before we start just to ground our work. Just a reminder, we do have regulations and procedures to follow when we're creating a district calendar. Our teachers work 188 days. Our students come to school for 1,60 hours up to 11th grade and our 12th graders 1,032 hours. Our school day is 375 minutes
163and this process that we're going through is a minimum of three months and we're at month three. And this is just our timeline shows you that we have had committee meetings uh our school board presentations. We opened public comments. We closed those on February the 26th. That was followed by our last committee meeting on March the 3 for our final review um of the calendar and we're here to present to you tonight. Uh when I was here last month, we had 366 responses. So, uh after that presentation, we received another 128 responses. uh about 62% were parents and about 38% were staff. And I'll just walk you through the calendar. In August of 2026, we welcome our new teachers the week of the 17th. We welcome our staff the week of the 24th. and we
164welcome our students uh beginning with um grades one through nine in kindergarten uh with last names A through L on Monday, August 31st. Moving into September, we welcome our 10th, 11th, and 12th graders and our kindergarters with last name of M toz on September the 1st. We've noted some open houses uh throughout the month as well. September 15th is an election day. So that will be a day for professional learning for our staff and our students will be off. I should note that in August and September there were no changes made by the committee from last presentation. Same with October. Um, so we have our open house uh noted in here and then we also have our two professional learning days on the 9th and on the 12th and we note that PSAT date for
165our high schoolers on the 14th. No changes were made for October November. Uh we have our first grading day uh at the end of the uh first marking period there on the 2nd. Election day will have uh no school for students or staff. Same thing for uh the federal holiday on the 11th. The week of the 23rd uh is the week for us to hold our parent teacher conferences and it's also the week of Thanksgiving. No changes were made for November. December. Um, we did have a lot of conversation around December. However, the committee did not make any changes to the proposed calendar from last month, meaning students will come on the 21st and 22nd, and winter break will begin on the 23rd, and that will bring us back to school on Monday, January the
1664th. We also noted the federal holiday on the 18th. Our marking period 2 comes to a close on the 22nd followed by the staff grading day on the 25th. No changes made in January, no changes made in February. So we simply noted our staff PL day and then the federal holiday. March. Uh we noted our parent teacher conferences the week of the 3. We also have our SAT for our high school students on the 17th. We have the end of the marking period on the 24th. Our grading day on the 25th and then we be begin spring break on March 26th. No changes were made to that month. In April, we reopen on the 5th after our spring break. No changes were made there. In May, uh, offices are open, but schools are closed on
167the 28th and then schools and offices are closed on the 31st for the holiday. No changes in the month of May. In June, uh, the last day for our 12th graders will be on the 2nd. high school graduation on the 5th, our marking period closing on the 4th, last day for preK on the 9th, last day for K through 11 on the 11th, and the last day for teachers on the 15th, and then noting the holiday on the 18th. No changes were made in June, July. No changes there. And then we have August of 2027 welcoming our teachers back the week of the 16th. Our new teachers welcoming our staff back the week of the 23rd. And beginning school grades 1 through nine kindergarten last name A through L on August 30th, followed by our
16810th and 11th and 12th graders and our kindergarters with the last name M toz joining us on the 31st. And that moves us into uh September having um schools and offices closed on the 3rd and the 6th for the holiday. >> Any questions? >> Does any board member have any questions for Dr. Feathers? >> Yeah, I I just wanted to make a note again. I mean, not that it's going to stop the process. I just want to I I am still against async days, scheduled in sync days. I think it's counter intuitive that you're trying to get the kids in school, trying to make sure they get in class and then tell them it's okay not to be in class. Um and then also having async days to minimize snow days. I just think that
169the kids um I would almost rather have them just have offer. That's my personal opinion. Just not even have class. Um that's my only objection to the whole thing. I don't know if that would ever stop the thing from being passed, but just want to throw that out there that I just think that that's you know um you know going backwards and I just don't really believe in uh scheduling any signs. But that's I've said that before saying it again. Didn't change anything but uh that's where I'm at. >> But great job on everything else by the way you and the committee. >> Does anybody else have any questions or comments? I mean, I agree there are things I don't like about the calendar. I mean, why why are we taking off December 23rd? I
170would go that day, too. >> No, we're not going to debate. I agree that there should be uh no asynchronous days. Um so, as I say, there's things I don't like about the calendar. There are things I like about it. Um and I recognize there's always tradeoffs in life and uh and there's certainly tradeoffs in this calendar. Um, but I do think that in future years, the calendar committee should think long and hard about any sort of asynchronous day. I mean, if we didn't learn if we learned anything from COVID, we learned that asynchronous is not as good as being in school. And so, I mean, I'm prepared to vote for the calendar because I recognize it's a compromise of a lot of different interests. and and I do want to thank all of the
171hard work that the calendar committee put into this and and I also want to thank all the people who took the time to comment. Um but yeah, going forward uh I I agree with Mr. Higgins that uh we should think about whether we actually want to be scheduling asynchronous days or not. >> I did read all the comments by the way. Uh there were a lot. Um so I appreciate what you did, all the different opinions. >> Yes. Um, but like President Far said, you kind of have to go to the middle. So, I appreciate that. >> Does anybody else have anything? Hearing no further comments, the chair will entertain a motion because we do have to vote on this. Mr. >> President, I'll make a motion to approve the 2026 2027 calendar as presented.
172>> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Abram, second by Dr. Graham to approve the 2026 27 calendar as presented. Any questions, comments, or discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Thank you. Now, are you not coming up anymore? We're going to miss you. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Feathers. >> Uh, next on the agenda, we have the February 10, 2026 Board of Education meeting minutes for approval. The chair will entertain a motion. >> Mr. President, I move to approve the February 10th, 2026 Board of Education Minute meeting minutes as presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Dr. Graham, second by Mr. Abrams to approve the February 10, 2026 board of education meeting minutes as presented. Any questions, comments, or discussion on the motion? Hearing
173none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, next on the agenda, we have the revenue and expenditure report for January 2026. Miss Stewart. >> All right. Good evening, President Forest and members of the board. Um, I am presenting tonight the 2026 January revenue and expenditures. This presentation is going to be January 2026 revenue and expenditures. Also want to let the board know as well that um a new financial report I have implemented and presented to the FAC meeting on March the 3. And so this report is essentially going to be used to show all revenues, expenses, and internal accounts in one document. Um in past times it's kind of have been separated out. So this document will bring everything forward and together just it's going to be
174use um easier for the end user and easier to understand. >> Next slide. All right. We'll start with our C discretionary cash flow. As you know, this is one of the documents that's pretty much internal. We bring to FAC for um just review. As you would see here, January 2026, we received about $84.3 million incumbrances to date. Money that is set aside our purchase orders POS about 1.9 expenditures to date 43.5 and then gives the end of month balance about $ 38.7 million. When we look in comparison to January 2025 to January 2026, you will note that at the bottom essentially we were um expending about $2.6 million less than before. That attributes to us being in austerity mode, excuse me, and [clears throat] only purchasing what we need. And then you see the difference
175with with the end of month balance. Um prior year we're about $9.9 million up from prior year. And that attributes to the cash flow concern that we've had. Unfortunately, this year we received all major that lumps some of our tax receipts which I will explain later in the presentation. Next slide. Our local salary tracker is another internal document that we use and we bring to FAC for internal review. Um, as you will see, the January 2026 payroll amounted to about $5.2 million. to note here in the January 23rd pay. Um, just so that you are aware, if you notice, it's a a bit less than the prior January 9th pay, that is due to us being two weeks off for winter break. So, there weren't um as many time sheets submitted during the time as
176we no one essentially was was working. Um, when we get to our comparison of our payroll, we are about 59.4% 4% of what we have expended having 15 pays that have passed and then looking at the prior year we're about 103%. Next slide. All right. Going into our revenues, our property tax receipts, we've received about $63.6 million. I want to break this down to the board um and those that are are are watching. Essentially for the month of January, anytime that we receive tax receipts in a month, it's for the month prior. So essentially for January 2026, we received 63.6 million. That was partially also for December 2025 receipts, which was about $55.2 million that we received in January. And then on top of that, we received another $8.4 $4 million which the county advanced
177to us for the days of January 5th to January 9th. So that was a good thing. We appreciated that. Um so that attributes to the increase of our revenues. Next slide. When we get to discretionary revenues, as you know, we do have discretionary revenue, non-discretionary revenue, and other revenues. It's shown um on the slide up here both state and local as well as any federal or tuition or debt service. Nothing major to really note here as you see on the side that is pretty much the breadcrumbs of the reports that um we use to generate this information. Next slide. We get to our expenditures. This is the total of our operating unit and program um expenditure summary report that is pulled out of data service [clears throat] center. Essentially this number that you're seeing please
178do not be alarmed because this number in has includes everything. So, it's not just our discretionary, it's our non-discretionary, it's our debt service, um it's our federal funding, but here is just pretty much a snapshot overall of what we have expended for January 2026. >> That that includes capital as well, right? Capital special. >> Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Next slide. Okay. So with this particular portion uh I always try to make sure that I have items to note just so that the board is aware to bring to your attention January 2026 um ASD utilized the state loan option that was available. Uh just to clarify the state loan option was in regards to our tax receipts being received in a timely manner. the state allowed us to have three appropriation options to use in a
179sense um to continue to still operate. And so what we decided was to utilize the state loan for our charter choice and tuition billing. If you remember back in November, we used 30 we had to pay 35% of I believe it was our charter uh bill. Um it's you will see here that was about $1.6 million. But then what you're going to see that's um explained in this screenshot is what we uh we had to pay our choice the remaining charter and our tuition billing. So it all came up to about $5.3 million. Um and so what you see with the snapshot I also want to bring to your attention so you kind of can see our internal controls around his around this. I created a transfer reconciliation document that essentially I was the one
180to create it and it's a reconciliation of the expense that we had to pay utilizing the state loan but then also where the revenue needed to come from in order to re reimburse the state loan because that has the net to zero. And so I created it. My finance analyst Jennifer Stewart is the one that then reviews my work and has reviewed my work. and then my finance specialist Sunday is the one that then processes it. So, just wanted to bring that to your attention. This is just a snapshot of what that reconciliation is looking like to see where it's [clears throat] netting to zero. Also to note, we are still moving forward with being in austerity mode and consistently communicating that throughout the district. And I know that board member um Tim has brought
181this up, but just want to bring again to your attention to note there were about three questions that FAC asked that was relating to the reporting. One was prek tuition uh that had to deal with internal accounts. Um the next one was summer camp funding and the third one was midyear unit count. The first two I let them know um just high level uh with pre-k tuition we do have a process where the schools then cut a check to us for the tuition to come to us. And for summer camp it was more so of a coding uh question because there's a there was funding in one code that didn't have a budget than there was a budget for another. We're still doing that cleanup and that reconciliation from 2026. Um, so that entails with
182that, but I let the comm the committee know that I will have full detailed answers for them at the next FAC meeting. And the latter question that they had about midyear unit count, Dr. Barrows was able to answer right there on spot. So, just wanted to bring that to you all's attention. Any questions um that you have for me? questions as the chair. >> No, I I I just want to make sure I I do have a question, of course. I'm sorry. I was looking at some of the numbers. Um, but we still are on track at this point to have the required carryover that we need for the end of the school year, assuming things play out correctly. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Where we talked about that last month. Where do we where
183will we see that that carryover kind of tracking? I think we talked about that last month >> if I'm not mistaken. >> So essentially that's shown in our monthly pull it up for me. >> The monthly it's report. >> Yeah, it's the it's the state report that I have to do monthly but then I it's we have to do it quarterly to look at where we stand. But internally I'm working with Dr. Chuck and the superintendent to make sure that I am keeping a pulse with that because when you're looking at a projection, what we have communicated is that it's projected that we're going to have a carryover of 4.293 million with um payroll being $4.214. However, if actual expenditures um and you are correct, Dr. Shea that is close with actual expenditures when you're
184looking at that that's where it matters. So there's things that we have to do internally to make sure that we actualize that. So that's something that I'm working internally with leadership to make sure that we are headed in that direction. I believe that we will be headed in that direction. I won't know 100% for sure until we get to um May 1st. So essentially what we have implemented is that May 1st is going to be a stop payment date. Um essentially all expenditures or requests for expenditures within stop. If there is any expenses that need to be approved or any purchases that need to be made after May 1st, it needs to be ran through me because my plan is after that to run a high level of where we stand in the discretionary of
185our fund balance. So at that time, for example, if I run the report and let's just say our, you know, carryover at that time is like $5.5 million. Well, then I need to make sure that May and June what those estimate expenses are netted against that 5.5 to truly see where we're going to stand. So, this is going to be a working um we're going to work together on this. Um, I'm confident that if we work together, we will reach that, but we're not really going to know for sure until we really get close in those last two months of the fiscal year. So, that's why we're keeping a pulse now and communicating the austerity mode and communicating um if you don't need it, wait. Um, only purchase what you need. Um, and so that
186is a collective matter that we're doing. >> So, just to follow up on Dr. Graham's point though, I mean, I know these are kind of a new way of presenting the information, but you know, I I don't think there's as critical a thing from the financial reporting as making sure that we meet the minimum carryover that the state requires. So maybe you can have if you're going to use this kind of format going forward, just have a separate slide that um highlights that number and what the projections are. And then as you know we've learned and we talked about I think at the last meeting um you know there were two critical mistakes that our former CFO made. One was he was expensing items to uh to the wrong account and when he made those
187corrections uh and expensed into the right account suddenly we didn't have nearly as much money for the carryover as he thought. So, I know we talked about this and I think you know you've got an assistant uh now who's double-checking that things are getting coded properly and and obviously that's something we want the financial advisory committee to be focused on like a laser and then the other part that so there were two parts and the other part was he he blew it when it came to projecting the expenses for the rest of the year and he left out a pay period So, we just those two things more than anything else we need to make sure that both you're focused on, your assistants focused on, and the financial advisory committee's focused on because obviously we
188never want to be caught short again. Um, so, [clears throat] so that's kind of my request going forward. if and if you want to do it as a separate slide or part of one of these other slides, however you think best, but that's always going to be I think the the most important question that we ask you when it comes to finances. >> So, we she's reinstituted the um the program unit operating program code. We get that now every month and I think as of January your estimate was three and a half 3.5 million would be our carryover and at the baseline of that report if I remember looking at it right um we get that every month in order so unless that's deviated that's still all that information is there >> when you say
189we are you saying us or the financial advisory committ >> we get we get it the financial advisory committee but it comes to us too right am I I'm thinking the right I might have the report wrong in my head but that's what I'm I'm thinking of. It's the breakdown of every It's the monthly operating report or I don't have it in front of me. That's what's on the top of my >> operating um that's the operating program summary report. >> Right. We used to not that got stopped and you've restarted it and I think that gives us a monthly breakdown of every everybody. >> So I still present it I just present it in Excel file instead of PDF. >> All right. But I mean it comes to us monthly. So, we should be
190able to see that. >> Yes. >> That's what I'm That's what I'm That's >> And we're currently doing a monthly financial position report. We can make sure that that's included as well. So, you can see that which will give you the carryover. >> Yeah, I think that I if my memory serves me correctly, and we talked about this last month, and so I think it's to Mr. Forest's point, I think having it kind of explicitly stated would be helpful. There's a lot baked in and for those of us that are not on the financial advisory committee, it's a lot of numbers to absorb at once and if we are laser focused on certain areas, I think if we can call those out specifically, Dr. Burrows, that would be helpful because I mean because as of
191right now those numbers are really close. So that tracking is going to be all the more important. And I understand kind of like the true up that will happen on May 1st, but between now and May 1st, like I think we just need to know what that what those numbers are. >> Thank you. >> Is the chair ready to say, are there any other questions for Miss Stewart? Hearing none, the board will uh the chair will entertain a motion. You want to >> I move to approve the revenue and expenditure report uh for January 2026 as presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Dr. Graham, second by Mr. Abrams to approve the revenue and expenditure report for January 2026 as presented and as recommended by the financial advisory committee. Any questions, comments, or discussion on the
192motion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next on the agenda, we have the internal accounts report for January 2026. Miss Stewart. >> All right. So, bringing the internal accounts report for approval. There was only one item noted which I stated in the prior presentation about the prek tuition that we will have a full answer when I come back for the next FAC meeting. But there was no other concerns with the internal councils report. Um that is also included in that one report but the backup documentation still has the reconciliations just so that you are aware. So if there are no other questions just requesting board approval for that report as the FAC has approved that report as well. >> Are there any questions for
193Miss Stewart about the internal accounts report? >> Hearing none. The chair will entertain a motion. >> Mr. President, I motion to approve the internal accounts report for January 2026 as presented. >> Second >> motion by Mr. Higgins, second by Dr. Graham to approve the internal accounts report for January 2026 as presented and as recommended by the financial advisory committee. Any questions, comments, or discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next on the agenda, we have overnight field trips for approval. >> Um, Mr. President, >> I think we have FY26 budget amendment number one for approval. 11D budget amendment. >> My agenda doesn't. >> Yeah. 11D. We have FY26 budget amendment number one for approval. Miss Stewart. >> Okay. >> All right.
194So, my agenda for some reason doesn't have that. Okay. So, scratch what I just said. And next on the agenda, we have the fiscal year 26 budget amendment number one for approval. Miss Stewart. >> Yep. There we go. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, so I did this in the form of a memo. Uh, usually just in my past experience, I have another document that's able to show the shift changes with within a budget amendment. Um, so if you have your memos, you can pull those out. But one of the things that I wanted to note for information because per our policy that has been implemented any changes that have been made within a do within a department or within a school or just within um a funding source essentially uh we still have the
195approval goes through myself as a director of finance and Dr. Burroughs as a superintendent but we also make that known to the board. Uh this particular item, I would count that as a item that whenever you approve a budget and you have someone on your team that is uploading a budget, which I have one person that uploads the budget. Um there are sometimes mistakes that can happen. So for me, if you put 5,000 and you should have put 6,000, that's not really something that warrant that should be alarmed. I mean, when you're dealing with hundreds of lines and hundreds um and having to go back and forth in the system, um mistakes are going to be made. Not a lot, but there may be some issues with that. However, I still wanted to bring it
196to you all's attention just so that you understand um where I'm coming from and see it in full action. So, this part is just for information um purposes. Uh we had it where we had a final approval of federal funds H, which is IDAB. And so uh with the operating unit, what happened was the numbers were just switched between program code. So essentially the program code 92903 um which was for uh Apple preschool in the amount of 12.5,000 should have been for $95,000 program code which is the general and vice versa for 92903 should have had 53.2,000 instead of the 12.5. So essentially that was just part of the final budget but we did get the I reviewed it and approved it as well as the superintendent and the correction has been made in DSC.
197The next part of this amendment there are three items under this approval for fiscal year 2026 budget amendment one. The first one is the VSA transfer for Crystal Run project. We need to increase the revenue side by $700,000 to appropriation 99154 and then increase the expenditure operating unit 9999701000 program code 99999 by $700,000. And then the second part of this amendment is regards to private grants and donations. So in our budget book there is a line specific to private grants and donations. So, we need to increase the non-discretionary local revenue by 48,000 and then increase the subsequent expenditures by um that said uh essentially that said amount and then also making those adjustments um there too. So, we received two grants from DCJC. Um, I believe that's Department of Criminal Justice. And one was in
198the amount of 13.7,000, the other 26,000. Um, and then we had a private donation of 12.5,000. And then also there was another private donation that was um came through for that's now under finance that was about $15,000. So this adjustment will essentially true true up what will be expected from our private grants and donations. And then the last request under this uh budget amendment is the transfer for midyear unit count. So we initially budgeted um $95,556 for mid-year unit count. However, the state transfer amount was actually $54,936. This means that we need to reduce our discretionary state revenue by $40,620. So that's all that falls into the budget amendment one for fiscal year 26. If you have no questions requesting board approval. >> No, I and again um I'm not an accountant, but I play
199one on TV. I'm just we're increasing non-discretionary local revenue by 48,000. So the budget's going to show 48,000 more in revenue, right? But then you say increase expenditures by the following, but those are grants to us. I mean, am I missing something? I mean, if we're getting these grants, why are we increasing expenditures? >> Because essentially, when you're looking at it, it's not specific. It's a private grant. So, we have our federal grants, but then there's those small um those small grants that come through that you still need to note for and amend because initially I think it's about 20ome thousand that we budget under private grants and donations. So, this because it falls under that line in the budget, we need to make sure that we um we pretty much accommodate for those increases
200and adjustments. Well, and again, I'm sorry if I'm seeming thick here, but we're getting these two grants that we didn't think we were going to get, I guess, when we put the budget together, right? The DCJC grant of 13,000, the DCJC grant, >> 26,000. So, that's money we didn't think was coming in when we put the budget together. >> Correct. >> So, why are we then going to not increase revenues by those amounts? Why are we increasing expenditures by the amount of grants we're getting? That doesn't quite make sense to me. >> So trying to find the best way to explain it. So essentially with when you're looking at the budget book, so when we presented the budget, let's just say private grants and donation was was $20,000, right? And so in the midst of
201that, there's things and funding that still can come after the budget has been approved. You want to make sure that you add that in there so that you can account for that because essentially I could have this and then not bring it to you. And then if there's an increase in our revenue or increase in our expense, there could be a question. Okay, Alisa, why did this tick? If we underbudgeted for this particular budget line, why didn't we account for that increase? So that's why we're presenting that essentially. Um it should wash a portion of that is already I would say included um but I still wanted to bring it to the board's attention just so that you are aware of that. So the 48,000 adds to the 20 or 25,000 we already had budget.
202So when you take that number collectively, it should add up to [clears throat] what we received in those grant funds and private donations because that was not essentially explicit um when we went forth to finalize the budget. >> So Mr. So I think I'm gonna I'm equally confused as to why we are listing a grant and a donation as an expenditure, >> right? That was >> because when the revenue increases, you're going to expend the money. So look at it like this. If let's just take the $15,000 donation. If I get the $15,000 donation and I don't increase the revenue side, but I have an $15,000 increase on the expense side, how are you going to net that? It's basically you're expending money that you don't have budgeted for. So, the reason why you have
203to increase the expense is when you receive the money, you expended in some way. So, if you are taking that private donation, let's just say um that private donation is related to all things necessary for students. I could essentially expend that. But now my expense size is going to be overstated by $15,000 because I didn't record the revenue on that side for what we received. So this kind of just keeps a pulse on our >> It should offset I mean what you're saying is if we get a $15,000 donation we weren't expectending expecting we'll increase our budget revenue by 15,000 and then presumably we'll have expenses of $15,000 as well. Although maybe we'll just put it towards savings. I don't know. But this says we're just increasing expenditures by these amounts. But these amounts add
204up to more than $48,000. >> 67,000. >> So essentially whatever if it's 67,000, take the 67,000 minus the 48, that's what we you already approved in the budget. So increasing it by the $48,000 is going to true up the revenue side and then make sure that the expense side is where it needs to be. And when we show it as an expenditure in the budget, is that I'll say the way we want to report it. I mean, presumably we got a $15,000 donation. I don't know if it came with any strings attached >> or not. >> If it came with certain strings attached, I suppose we list it then as an expense uh expenses per $15,000 donation we received. Presumably that was anonymous. >> And the same with the 125. And I guess the grants
205are going for very specific things too, right? >> Yes. Once it gets approved, then internally we're going to work on making sure that the uh expenses have a specific program code so we can readily identify it, keep track of it, and what it is needed for. Anytime that a donation comes in, essentially I look at donations also as restricted funding because you can't just spend taxpayer dollars if somebody wants to donate something on anything. And even that's kind of the I would say as the accountant in me that's the frustrating part because we do not have a general ledger. So if I had a balance sheet or I'm dealing with a general ledger essentially donations would be a deferred revenue because really [clears throat] that's not part of your it is your revenue but it's
206not part of your revenue. It's still set aside. So, just to clarify, if we don't use all the 15,000, let's say we use um 7.5 of that, then essentially 7.5 of that is still going to be carried over in the next year, but not really included with the total grand scheme of things. So, I know I'm kind of ahead of myself. It's going to take time to get us there, but that's the place that we need to be because those are restricted fundings and if the donor has a specific request, I want to make sure that we are honoring those requests. >> Well, this is all just for the budget. So until we actually expend the money technically it's still correct >> in our checking account or wherever we say hopefully we're in a money
207market. >> From my memory this was brought up the of the financial advisory committee these >> yes they went through them for approval. >> Yeah. So I think that explanation around deferred revenue makes a lot more sense to me. Like so when you just said that it clicked having grants and donations listed as expenditures is where I think we were struggling. But now that explanation makes sense to me, I'm sure to the rest of the board as well. So, thanks for that. I think we're we're on the same page with you now. Okay. >> And and the numbers don't add up, but you're saying it's the delta of what we've already approved. The 63, what was it? 63. >> 637. >> 63. >> 673. >> Okay. >> 673. >> And then on item three, and
208I think I'm reading this correctly for this. So, we're reducing our discretionary state revenue by 40,620 because we thought we were going to get 95,5656, but we ended up only getting 54,936. >> Yeah. Correct. >> Is there any is there any particular reason why we uh didn't get that other 40,000 where we jipped or what's >> So, the way they do midyear unit count is they've never fully funded midyear unit count. They give a million dollars to be split among the 21 school districts and the 25 charter schools. So you only get a percentage. And so last year our well we received was like close to $200,000. I think it was like 198 something. Um so in the budget we projected half that which and then we ended up receiving a quarter of it. our
209share, our portion of the $1 million this year was less than it has been previously. >> And so notwithstanding then this $40,000 reduction, we're still low on track to make the carryover, right? >> Okay. >> Does anybody else have any questions? >> No. >> Does anybody want to make a motion? >> Mr. President, I make a motion to approve the financial 2026 budget amendment number one for as as presented. >> Second school year. >> Motion by Mr. Higgins, second by Mr. Abrams to approve the fisc year 26 budget amendment number one as presented and as recommended by the financial advisory committee. Any questions, comments, or discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I >> I >> motion any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Next on the agenda, we have overnight
210field trips for approval. Believe we have two. The chair will entertain a motion. >> Mr. President, I motion to approve overnight field trips as presented. >> I'll second, Mr. President, trip ID 11318. >> Thank you. for Middletown High School track students to South Carolina for an athletic competition in trip ID 11327 March 2027 students from Everett Meredith Middle School to the Dominican Republic for Cultural Immersion Experience. Two nice looking trips. Um motion by Mr. Higgins, second by Mr. Abrams to approve trip ID 11318 and trip ID 11327. Any questions, comments, or discussion on the motion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next on the agenda, change orders for approval. Mr. Hopkins. >> I'm seeking approval for change orders that I submitted um and reviewed. A few
211of those out there are were those signs that we were talking about in the outdoor classroom for the amount of about $12,000. There's a couple other changes out at the outdoor classrooms for IT issues for little over a thousand a piece. With that, we're seeking approval of these change orders as submitted. >> Mr. President, I move to approve the change orders as submitted. >> Second. Motion by Dr. Graham, second by Mr. Abrams to approve the change orders as presented and as recommended by Mr. Hopkins. Any questions, comments, or discussion on the motion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next on the agenda, we have the personnel report for approval. Dr. Small. >> Good evening again. The personnel report for the March board meeting has been presented
212for your approval. We are asking for approval with the change in executive session. >> Mr. President, I move to approve the personnel report with the change inclusive of the change as discussed in executive session. >> I'll second motion by Dr. Graham, second by Mr. Higgins to approve the personnel report as presented with the addition discussed during executive session. Any questions, comments, or discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> All right. Establishment of meeting dates. >> I don't I'm sorry. I don't oppose because I wasn't there um on time. So um I'm not voting on that. >> Okay. So So we have uh the mo one abstension and otherwise four votes uh in support. So the motion passes 4 to
213one. Thank you Miss Dit. >> Thank you. >> Uh our establishment of meeting dates as was discussed earlier there will be a board of education workshop a candidate forum on Tuesday March 24th at 6 pm here in this room. The financial advisory committee will meet at 6 pm on Tuesday March 31st uh in this room. And then the next regular board of education meeting is Tuesday, April 14th, 2026 at 7 p.m. in this room. So with that, our agenda is complete and we are adjourned. Thank you all for attending.