001well that's meeting to order they have a roll call Roger here Mr calmeyer here Mr Thomas here Mr James here Mrs Elder here will you all please join me in the pledge I pledge the United States of America and to the Republic of which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice power thank you we have no one signed up for the recognition of the puppet but we do have a number of presentations this evening welcome to all of you glad you're all here um I first on my agenda is the Middle School Mr whoever do you need to set this up yeah I think we have Henry Danger here talking about Middle School English language arts textbooks welcome thank you for being here thank you you're welcome beautiful hi thanks for
002having us [Music] and what we have decided to recommend for adoption is the commonlit 360 curriculum in assessment series so just a basic overview of the program we're really excited about it because um it is a great program that will meet the needs of our five through eight building um which is hard to find a resource that does that with our two different kind of great bands going on there um we love that it's research based and created by teachers which means that we know it will be an engaging program for our students there are a lot of different options for engaging the students in this curriculum um the full program itself includes a commonlet 360 which is a thematic unit a set of units that have text sets and novels in addition there is
003a lesson Content Library which includes over 3 000 lessons that can be differentiated and targeted for students intervention and extension opportunities um there are lots of digital tools for students and resources for professional development for teachers so as we're learning about the program and Beyond uh that on-demand resource is going to be really helpful for us and this next slide just breaks down a little bit more of kind of the differences between the two areas that we'll be able to access one is kind of a general library that you can sort through by genre topic grade level standard um and then the other is called the 360 curriculum and it's a set for each grade level of six full units um and each one includes vocab Reading Writing discussion and then other kinds of things
004but what is really nice about this for us is that we can be flexible with it um we know that we have a wide range of students at every grade level so we have the opportunity to stretch ourselves into the grade levels above us to access things for our students who are needing some enrichment and we have opportunities to use other resources for re-teaching and small group work and stuff like that so the flexibility was really appealing to us as we tried to find something to fit our building's unique needs the alignment to standards um was was very intriguing to us because we were looking for standards-based assessments that we could use um throughout the school year as Benchmark opportunities and then also specifically targeted standards-based lessons that we could use to kind of support
005our multi-tiered system of supports for students in Wyoming schools um so there are lesson planning resources for teachers as well which include pair text and related media to build background knowledge with our fifth or eighth grade students um so we can use any of these tools to kind of track the track the learning of our students to support them um in their growth as readers and writers um using those those assessment tools that we'll talk about in a couple of slides there's also the connections to our future focused skills or those 21st century learning skills there's a lot of technology and critical thinking aspects of it every unit comes with a kind of function to practice discussions with your peers which we know those speaking and listening skills are really important and can sometimes be
006overlooked when we're doing other things so we love that every single unit brings us back to those kind of collaborative discussion stills so the assessment series is part of the full common lit program that is not accessed for free through their Content Library and this program is fantastic because it includes um three specific assessment series that we could use to Benchmark student skills and they are differentiated by standards so you can see where your students um where your students are as a whole and individually need to have those targeted interventions in reading and writing um there are the performance data that is available for teachers and administrators is really helpful in creating those Target lessons and whole group lessons in addition to that um the professional development on-demand program allows us to learn how to
007use this data more effectively and kind of as we're learning the program we can use this to kind of grow our our kind of action research ability to to add this data into our our learning process and planning process um so the reading growth data monitors our student progress and it also supports the planning and future curriculum with our students foreign just those kind of three benchmark assessments we have the opportunity to access this data portal um continuously so every time students do an activity it tracks their progress based on the standard so it's kind of keeping you continually up to date on how students are progressing and it's going to be really helpful for us in terms of differentiation making small groups and figuring out where our students strengths and weaknesses are the Content
008Library is a piece of commonlit 360 that is it supports the overall thematic units of the common lift 360. it's also a piece that can support us in our our curriculum that is existing as it is um but you can search the Content Library by Theme by text set by standard or by Target lessons and even more than that to find uh non-fiction and and literary attacks that support the learning of our students in our concerts um one of the things I really liked as we were doing this as a pilot and that I hope to get a little bit more finesse with as we implement it was the way that you can differentiate through the way that students access different things so there are different um strategies and different things you can turn on
009for different students to kind of check in with them or kind of let them fly on their own or to offer collaborative opportunities um so there's opportunities to work as a whole class and then partner and then independently and it'll kind of have prompts and checks along the way and then there's also this opportunity where there are these like in-text questions so every once in a while they read they have to stop and answer a question before they can move on to the next part and that's really helped us monitor progress kind of as they're working and it all shows up in this like real-time dashboard so you can see if a student answered something and you can see their misunderstanding like right at that moment you can go over to that student um kind
010of redirect them and then let them get back to it which has been really really nice um there's also text each read aloud and translation into lots of different languages this is one of my favorite parts of the program because with a program that's as comprehensive as this one there are so many parts that we need to learn and master as teachers and so having that on-demand support in addition to all of the webinars that are available to teachers is going to be really helpful for us um you can schedule live personalized webinars that are specific to questions that we have um and I'm just thinking specifically about the autonomy that we have as teachers in our classrooms and the number of times that we know what's best for our students how can we use
011this resource to support them well there are so many different Pathways to do that with common lit so I'm really excited about learning more about the program in addition to implementing it from from what I know so far additionally we love to see this year it Imports and connects perfectly with clever in canvas so we have that natural seamless integration into the systems that we already use so that just kind of makes things a little bit more fluid for everybody is there any questions about the program it is so thorough I feel like the differentiation I love the flexibility like I wrote down so many things that I liked about it I'm just curious like how long it takes you to find this like was it kind of you've heard about other people using it
012so um I'm always just curious on how that was kind of where we started I'm I'm really involved in the Ohio writing project so I just reached out to the Ohio writing project listserv and I said hey we're you know undergoing this resource adoption and so and people just responded and said this is what we use this is what we use and we also reached out to like school districts um and we got a really thorough kind of good dialogue going with Mary Mott to kind of like share what they use and what they like so that was kind of where we started and then we had a whole bunch of stuff come in and some of it you know we loved that and it didn't seem like the right fit and commonlit just had
013this level of flexibility that seemed amazing for us a lot of things are only six eight because of the way the standards work so finding something that we could Implement for um our five eight to have that alignment was really important to us and the exciting thing about that too is commonlit said that they're going to be continually building new thematic units so since it's a digital program that we can also transfer into print if we need to it has lots of options for the future too that students um will be able to ask so we'll continually get every upgrade or Improvement or change that they make which we're excited about or you can ask them put one down I see all the benefits you and I know you're a great teacher you're going to
014use it in the best way but given that this is this digital format I'm curious how you're incorporating your novels your your printed word into the classroom there are some studies that show kids retain better yes for people it didn't mean better and we see two and it might even be a seventh and eighth grade fifth and sixth grade different thing worse we see all of Great Adventures here that um doing some of this stuff on paper has been really beneficial just for attention and for practicing our reading strategies so everything has a print component that you can print out and copy and put into units or binders or however you want to do it so it does have that component and we haven't really had a textbook that we've used regularly for an extremely
015long time so it's not that big of it actually fits in kind of better with our current teaching style this way um and what's so nice about it is everything is so flexible that like it's it's like a Google doc and you download it you make a copy of it and then you can modify it as you want so we've been able to modify some of their things to incorporate both the text that they provide in a unit and connect it to a novel we're reading a class so it's kind of cool how you can tweak things and integrate them because of how points it's not like this is taking over all the things that you're getting in the classroom with your novels and and you know other creative things that you do it's a
016kind of a tool and I you know I don't love the idea of pulling out a Dusty English sex language arts textbook either but um well one of our favorite things that we noticed when we first started looking at the program was the 360 units that are already available through the program actually feature some of the novels that we teach at different grade levels already so we have those novels that we've been teaching and now they're all of these really great supports and lessons and additional resources to teach those novels so it yeah that was another factor for us and we're going to spend some time meeting this summer we're excited to kind of review our current curriculums as they existed kind of examine where this fits in and what it could replace or bolster
017as we go so do you see this as a daily resource I think so I don't know yeah I think I think um there are the nice thing about the program is there are large pieces and then there are also small pieces um that could be used for a few minutes a day or a larger part of our blog that we have with the students um because I also did not when she turned from the print menu and are available and then the quality of young adult literature um what about some of the the other programs that you have going um the whole research segments that you have going that would work simultaneously with this and what about writing uh you seem to be looking a lot at Reading how how does this work with
018and some of your writing units so it works really well um the way that the so there's like several types of units so there's like some of them are called multi-genre units and that's where you'll read stories and poems and informational texts and merge it all together and throughout that there will be some kind of um I want like to find small writing skills that you're practicing so it could be transitions between paragraphs it could be text-based evidence and Analysis so there's those smaller pieces that build and then every unit ends with some sort of a writing piece that is pretty substantial it could be literary analysis it could be research it could be argument and then they also for each grade level have two writing units that you can use as well and we're
019already looking at using those to kind of plug in to some of the current ways that we differentiate our writing um so it has a pretty robust writing component as well and I like oh sorry I like how there is this library of resources that for texts specifically with thousands of texts that can support this type of writing so if we're doing research we can find those texts that support that writing assignment um and we know that it's a rigorous text we find the Lexile within that and we're able to make sure that it's relevant for our students so just having access to that we're able to quickly find it is really helpful too rather than you know searching for all of these texts to support their learning elsewhere and and text Define them for
020me so uh informational texts articles uh literary pieces like fiction pieces that students would read to maybe write a literary analysis um so any kind of so if there were like an anthology for example if students we looked at a few of those um like the Anthology series that were comprehensive um but we felt like weren't quite as flexible you have this set of texts that never changes and you're going to be using the same text for the next six years um and so there's just a little more flexibility with this especially since there will be um updates on the materials continuously um over the time period that we'll be using this resource in in your slides you talked about an engaging sources can you I'm sorry I don't speak education news um topics that
021are relevant to the students so since there is a digital component that can be transferred to print um we have the opportunity to find things that are mostly relevant for kids right now um so their interests can change pretty quickly um and so finding those up-to-date texts informational and literary that connect with their interests um I think is one of the the great things about the program yeah and like I'm thinking about and I'm mostly like looking at my seventh grade ones because that's what I spend the most time with but the um their argument writing unit is centered around this idea of like social media and risky decisions and how all of that plays in together um or there's another one where it's about you know school start times which is something some 8th
022graders love to learn more about it their thoughts and feelings on but now they're getting some weird evidence to kind of support that um and then I feel like what has so impressed me is the um the texts that they're including I'm thinking mostly right now about short stories and poems represent um or are giving us an opportunity for so much more um diverse authors topic story situations than we've had before in some of our older literature books and I'm excited to know that we're always going to be getting their updates and kind of what the newest thing is looks from those lots of material and content almost digital there's things you assign that are in there does the student had access to go into spaces and read additional things or kind of explore in
023that digital space yeah we've done before where we've sent them to like um a kind of like a text set page and they've had that like all connected under some sort of Nemer topic and the option is you know pick anything that is interesting to you in this umbrella and then practice you know whatever our skill is whether it's summary evidence anything like that piggyback on Genie's question about writing and when we talk about writing is it actual writing or is it primarily typing there's a kind of a breakdown of opportunities to actually use the your hand and as opposed to tighten them because we can print out any of the the resources um we'll probably use a combination of of the typing in the handwritten um like Beth mentioned before we feel like there's
024an aspect of a higher level of Engagement in many cases when it comes to actually pencil and paper writing it down um so we're going to have a variety we do want to prepare the students with the 21st century skills of using the digital resources but we also want to balance that with um pencil and paper as well in Middle School we're so intent on the writing process um and really making sure students Master the writing process and develop their own writing process and I feel like some of those smaller steps at the beginning of the writing process are often kind of pencil and paper and some students like I know I kind of prefer that approach to thinking when I'm first starting something so we try to give students opportunities to try different modalities
025so that they can kind of figure out what their process is going to be in the future when they don't have um that kind of structure last time to explore it thank you yeah when you talk about the software as identifying problems and and even gives you a child lunch but it is there then something also in this program that allows you to give the child more work or reorganize where where they are or meet them where they are I guess is what I'm trying to say and make I I watched the primary program and how it especially what's it called Lexia identifies and then creates actually work for the kids to build on those skills that they they need is that something that's in this yeah so the assessment uh portal where you I
026think you saw an example um where each section was divided by standard um there are what they call Target lessons actually hundreds of them that are designed to support students in mastering skills in like a small group setting so that would be kind of a reteaching opportunity if a student isn't mastering a specific skill um and also the texts themselves can be differentiated by grade level or reading level which is really helpful if you're trying to have a student Master a skill and they read at a specific level sometimes it's helpful to have access to that grade that text that is accessible to them so that they can master the skills specifically and the program runs grades they're up through grade 12 so we have the opportunity to also stretch our students um and since
027it's all aligned by standards if you see they have like the way it laid on if you see they have Mastery on that standard at your grade level then you can dig into that standard at the next grade level to find them something to help them kind of with that next step is there a chance now that we're done with the pandemic you will bring back the collaboration people that's right Shakespeare we gave it up for the pandemic let's bring back yeah we love that great thank you thank you thank you uh next we have the high school yeah thank you I'm Angie Edmonds this is my colleague Ali Wisher and I appreciate her coming with me this evening I'm gonna drive through here um so between the broad online availability of texts available through
028the public domain and these individual student ebooks the high school English Department has chosen to adopt textbooks only two of our courses we're going to we're looking at adopting for the AP language or composition class and the AP Literature and composition class for the language class we're looking at the Amsco uh text and for the uh applying our lit class sorry we're going to look at the Bedford Saint Martins textbook so to be honest our primary goal with both of these texts was to find something that was college level material and that aligned with the College Board curriculum which in just recent years has become very prescribed and so we have a lot less freedom to in terms of how we teach the standards their recursive units in both classes that have a very particular
029skills and standards that need to be covered with each within each of these units and in the past we've I would say with both classes have you know brought in a lot of our own texts a lot of our own materials and we wanted to find texts that really aligned with that college board curriculum we also wanted to make sure that we had online access for our students who need that in order to meet their accommodations and also to have some practical teacher and student resources that are AP test-like but outside of the AP classroom resource that the College Board provides which is somewhat Limited in the amount of material that it gives us both of these resources also align with the Ohio State Ela 1112 standards so the AP curriculum as I said it
030starts with Big Ideas both classes have this framework that looks at Big Ideas and during understandings Essential Knowledge learning objectives and recursive skills and standards and trying to work in this organization which is somewhat complicated with a text that doesn't clearly outline how various passages and activities and scaffolded writing assignments fit into this has been challenging yeah yeah and so now we found two tests that I wouldn't say do it for us but they will ease that planning process as new teachers step into the roles that Angie and I are currently billing yeah um so one of the reasons obviously we chose these because of the clear organization and the alignment um we also feel that um I want the Amsco book it's a new book for us we've never used Amsco before and um
031most of the online forums and whatnot that I'm involved in and my teacher friends this was this was kind of the the new book that everyone was has been raving about and I'm pretty excited about it the passages are new uh AP Ling is very non-fiction based and so I was looking for new voices new topics new themes um instead of the same old tried and true American Dream you know and things like that so um I really appreciated the way the Amsco was put together and this is going to sound silly but it's also not really a hardback book so I like to see kids bending a book and I like to see them being able to stick it and you know they're it's their back pocket and walk around with it like that
032we can't do it it's very fun but um they don't I don't I don't want to feel like it's it is more like the Anthology that we had in college and that was fun right I'm trying to make it fun and the AP let book is actually the Third Edition um we are currently using the second edition of this book um but like the the text that Angie is using very diverse authors a wide variety of texts from the 1600s right up to you know 2018 2020 20 you know 20 I think the most recent text in there right is from 2022. um it has a nice balance of AP Lit does not cover non-fiction but this text does include some literary analysis some non-fiction instructive essays and um in in the book that the
033Juniors we do AP Lang junior year AP Lit senior year in the book that this book I do not fiction but there is poetry in there as well like there's a really nice connection that leads them to the very to the next year um which I and even though they're not from the same pill which was beautiful the way they work together in that way um so we feel pretty confident that this newly revised editions will provide our students with better preparation for the test and the college level writing and all those skills that you know they talked about those 21st century skills we really feel like these books will help us supplement those we don't look at these texts aren't our every day day in and day out what we do in our rooms
034um also important to touch on the differentiation aspect of these like we talked about before there are varied selections and authors the scaffolding for essay instruction I think is really strong in both books um they do a fabulous job at the middle school with that with the writing process and giving them those basic state the basic you know rules and and putting things together and now we have to kind of break those rules yeah can we break the rules and how some different ways that to break it and and um I think they are that the scaffolding is really strong in both of these books because our students you know we've really pushed at the high school to put to make our AP program accessible to everybody you know anyone can you know we want
035to encourage even if you are not the strongest English student on the planet that you should try it because we have we have tools that we can help you get to where we need you to be so um there's pre and post reading guides unit organization options model text that's huge in what we do the model techs are really really big and the model writing writings that are available in those there are varied lessons to prepare students for the AP style multiple choice and the essay writing which ultimately is what they're heading toward in May um in addition to those resources uh for differentiation uh and the teacher resources and student launch pad there is an online component to the both of these texts the publisher also provides links to videos offering differential differentiated lessons
036and assessment ideas specifically for these texts these texts offer multiple options for approaching units and um like things like the study thematically genre time period lots of different options in that um like we are more of a novel based I would say at the high school and and so we look at our textbooks as a supplement to what we do and um it you know that's I think that's how we get the best the most out of our kids so that's us do you have any questions thank you the only thing is not really really I mean it's related but um thing I've just been reading about the attention span of kids are you finding that you're having to have sex you know whether they're passages or their studying I know you do novel days
037from a little bit but they are they needing to be shorter are you challenged by that it's a little bit off topic but um I'm I'm just worried about that as a someone in education and wanting to challenge our students and encourage them I love that you're making the AP courses accessible in their ways to help support kids but are we also I know the answer but are we also still challenging them in and helping their attention space I mean the new I can only speak to the AP Lit curriculum but in this new curriculum there are nine units three of them are poetry three are short fiction and three are long fiction and so we really only do three long fiction pieces over the course of the year in order to maintain our in
038order to be approved by the College Board audit and that's something that in the past we really had a lot of freedom to to do what we wanted to with the AP curriculum and that is no longer the case and I would say in the Lang um but the not I think that's part of what I I love is that we do a lot of short essay type essays that they can access read in a short amount of time and come and have like really rich conversations that stem from topics and themes that were coming out of our novel so I find that it's easy to supplement the the shorter selections but they're not very short I tell them they're short they're not very short um you know they're you know there's still a couple
039pages each time I would say we're still pushing them pretty hard and um I teach freshmen and he's Juniors and that attention span gets a little better by the time they get back to me as Juniors which is yes so last year we transitioned to we called it the big read um we we did notice well during the pandemic and everything kind of shut down um that we wanted to have a common we decided we're going to kind of do a common theme every year and have every child in the building read the same book or type of book this year we're going to a genre um we just felt like maybe that way we could get other departments involved as well we chose finding chica last year so our science department could could piggyback
040on the science that the book was talking about history Department could talk about the history of the novel so um this summer we've chosen graphic novels with all under the theme of identity and there will be a choice of six it's like five or six like the shop and had five or six um and we will make those available to all of our teachers the titles and we're we're meeting particularly with the social studies Department in uh May to design some lesson so like at least the first well I'm coming on Thursday so that whole that second week all of our students will be getting semi-similar experiences in all of the different classes where they're talking about the topics in these books and the graphic novels are there's a there's a wide range there are
041and we've worked hard to try to choose texts that can be read on multiple levels yeah so the conversations that we might have with freshmen might not look the same right as the the conversations that we have with seniors but with all of our students um we can give them at the end of the year uh these are books that we think are gonna read these are some some suggestions of things that we would love for you to explore on your own but I think we've learned the lesson that forcing or trying to force students to read texts that we have chosen over the summer that might be a stretch and a challenge for a segment of our student population does not set students up for success in August and September and so we're much
042better to do something like this where you know everybody on the football team the soccer team the band or whatever is reading the same book and I can share them around and we and honestly other departments kind of piggybacked on what we were doing and started assigning summer stuff and some of these kids were really they were really bogged down in the summer I mean I remember when I came here a long time ago I mean my honors freshman were in three books on their own and I'm thinking oh my God why did I do that to them you know like that was that was kind of it was a lot and especially now then history started doing something if you're an art you're doing things we want them to also enjoy their time but
043this way we hope we have a little bit of choice this summer that's the plan this summer so who knows what it'll look like I would imagine we're going to stay with a little bit of choice but sticking with different genres trying to expose them freshmen and then Juniors what's the way with kids who aren't necessarily already in the honors English construction have some exposure to literature or some aspect of it that gets them excited or has them believe that this is something they want to come in um well I think our I teach I've taught the College of prep 9 and honors nine and um we haven't we have worked pretty hard to have a good deal of overlap particularly in the novels that we're doing at both of those so we do feel
044like there's a common experience there for them um I don't know I I just think we encourage them like crazy to teachers will because when scheduling starts to happen you you will find English teachers approaching kids saying I really think you should you should consider the challenge yourself it's time to challenge yourself and every year we find more and more kids making that jump we ask them to write a sample essay for us we we evaluate it it's not just the one teacher who has them that year who's making the decision it's sort of a team decision um and students can always say you know what I don't agree with you I'm going in there and you say great but all of our classes have a mix of you know both the honors and the
045college prep classes of texts that would be considered part of the traditional Western Buchanan you know Classics if you will and texts that are more contemporary at the younger grades at freshmen and somewhat sophomore level there's a little bit more of young adult literature um levels we have texts that are are contemporary and and that adult reading levels that are still very high interest and we've worked very hard over the last few years of making sure that we have real variety there that that kids can really find something that interests them um different authors time periods uh contemporary not contemporary we have worked really really hard to make sure our lists are diverse um enriching And Timely um I get to teach the more like Henry Lacks it's incredibly cool book right which leads to
046an eye search paper you know I mean we've been able to really add some new titles to our our works and um some more choice for them over the last few years I think we've it was for me not knowing all of the school too like when you talk to me like we asked for Middle School how much writing is involved in those aspects I know we're talking 18 but just uh General nine to twelve um writing no yes yes there is I would say with each unit that we do um there is a a writing component and it builds over the course of the year um we work on argument literary analysis um synthesis uh and then um maybe we kind of move from literary analysis to rhetorical analysis looking at the craft of
047a writer and then trying to mimic that crap sometimes um and then you guys are doing AP let us just straight literary analysis yes um there is a discussion of rhetoric but it's a higher level of critical thinking I mean it's the the exam out of all of the AP exams believe it or not that has the lowest pass rate not in our district but nationally and um you know everything that our other classes do builds up to that and there are students who come into AP Lit and find success because they're really interested in Reading who have never been in an honors class 9 through 11 and I think that's a testament to the work that all of our department does at those levels in the college prep classes as well that that a
048student who has not been in honors can still get a three or higher on the AP exam and we like sophomore year we spend a great deal of time sophomore and Senior year on research and synthesis I think those um those are the two big hits those two years um we do little mini uh activities when it comes to those for freshmen and junior year and our new media specialist is fantastic with helping with the writing um she comes up with I mean she's off Amanda is great have you not met Amanda you need to spend a little time with her because she has just well she conferences with students she is I the greatest compliment I can give her is that she teaches research the way that I want research to be taught the
049way that I would do it myself I feel very comfortable um teaming with her and co-teaching and she's very knowledgeable and it's just a joy to be able to share that with her so I would say at each quarter you're talking two pieces probably that are pretty significant in every at every level now sophomore year you're obviously working for the uh online efcs they changed every change in a couple years but that you know it's a lot of call them cerc paragraphs it's essentially looking at a text finding evidence and then um building reasoning and commentary in order to explain why you choose that evidence and students need that skill in all of their classes across the competition areas and then I know you just mentioned that you landed on AP books with that just
050because otherwise I just can't remember where we are in the rules but honestly we just feel like with our college prep classes there's so much available in the public domain that we didn't want to be tied to just the typical traditional things that were that tend to be in those textbooks we wanted more flexibility um and ability to bring in outside resources and and to be honest next year we're looking at curriculum revisions and so we didn't want to build our curriculum around some Publishers choices right we want to make sure that we have flexibility so that we can build a curriculum that is right before our district and we do change novels in most of our supplemental material connects to what they're doing we're doing in there so to be tied into something for
051six years just doesn't seem right for all of our horses and this the AP class the AP curriculum has been Rewritten so now we are and like Alex said it's very prescribed we don't have a ton of leeway instead it is AP exam season and you had mentioned that uh at least nationally the exam scores for EB litten Lang are lower than perhaps other only for well I don't know about lying but I can tell you the eight and lit nationally is the exam that your students pass nationally then I mean they're always students are always shocked to hear that that's not true for physics or AP calc and part of that is because more students nationally take AP Lit than the rest of the exams um but here at Wyoming our students score very
052well I think last year in AP lab we had um was it 80 I have to double check I think it was 86 or 87 percent of our students four to three or higher so and Lang is the most tested subject across the country like it's the most that more people take that than any so it just goes all over the board every year so we're not finding that we're behind at least comparatively with the other AD we are always ahead State and National thank you all right well thank you very much uh this is a first reading and therefore we will vote on it as an after putting it yeah if anyone wants to um well I guess yeah online actually all right all right thank you we'll go on to the board oh
053no sorry sorry the gifted Services study our CAC our second CAC presentation um gifted Services Branch for a lot better work and the CAC um that includes Ross Bartels Kelly at church right Lauren Fernandez myself Ashley Lang Nathan Lee Haley parks and Toyo wall um our resource for this study has been Dr quatron I'm director of tubal Services here in Wyoming um tonight we have a lovely little presentation for you um we will talk about definitions of a gifted student um by definition in Ohio different areas of giftedness that students can be considered gifted in Wyoming stats some of the common challenges and implications that gifted students typically face our research findings for what we call Smart practices for specifically gifted students um be focusing on emotional and academic and primary middle and high school
054we'll go over Wyoming's Continuum of support and talk about what similar districts to Wyoming do um and then we'll have our additional information in the paper and our recommendations so there we go um the big topics in our presentation tonight are what are the best practices in providing services to support the academic social and emotional needs of addicted students what options related to content and the scope and sequences of services best support the individual needs of those students and what do similar districts to us utilize to address these needs as compared to what we do and then in addition to what we'll be going over in our presentation you can also find in the paper the methods and criteria that is used are used to identify students for gifted Services information on the content instructional
055design and differentiation for gifted populations and then more information about all of the things that we're going to talk about that's like you'd have oh yeah thank you thank you hi everyone so we'll we're going to start with a definition of get good students the state defines it for us as one who performs or shows potential for performing a remarkably high levels of accomplishment that's as compared to other student better their age and their environment or of their experience and public school districts in Ohio can assess uh gifted students in four different areas of ability Superior cognitive ability specific academic ability so that's your math Reading Writing science social studies creative thinking ability individual Performing Arts ability so that's your music dance drama Visual Arts so so now we'll take a look at Wyoming specifically
056it's a little bit cut off there but um this slide is basically showing the number of gifted students that we are have identified in Wyoming and how that compares to the services that the students are able to access and so it took there's a cumulative effect here so if you are identified as a gifted student in Primary School you remain in a gifted as a remain in that category throughout your school career and you continue to access services and so you can sort of see that play out um in the data here one of the things you'll know is that Wyoming has a significant number of gifted students so it's in no way should shape or form a really small or Niche program it's a significant part of our student body and our ratio of
057services provided to students identified is really high so almost all of our students that have been identified as gifted receive services and that's not the case even in some of our peer districts here locally so I think that's a really something that we really should be be proud of one of the things I'll note is that um you'll see that creative thinking social studies the academic and Superior cognitive those are just some of the ways to assess giftedness so there are other ways to assess giftedness that we aren't um utilizing in Wyoming and then as I'll share on the other on the next slide there's a number of challenges for Wyoming and virtually every other school district in the nation in terms of identifying gifted students that's just noting that you see some of the
058drop-offs there because we don't um we don't we no longer test for social studies science and creative and so where you see there's no red red band at the bottom there okay so in terms of challenges um the first is around diversity equity and inclusion historically and this is the case Across the Nation especially because the lack of proportional representation of racially of diverse students within gifted programs and that that's for a variety of reasons so there are a lot of environmental factors that come into play there that ultimately um compose that that ultimately determined the makeup uh um gifted programs but they're also institutional factors so evaluation tools um identification tools and supportive structures that um have some bias built into it or some cultural incompetency built into it and so when you combine
059those things and you think about um some of the economic disparities that persist outside of the classroom alongside not have having a lack of robust and Equitable evaluative tools and support structures you can really easily Overlook um Talent that's related to the next um challenge of under achievement um so here we Define underachievement as the incongruence between ability and performance so forgive to students that could look like they are actually performing at this at a similar level to their peers but beneath their own ability and um I think there's a there's a there's been a perception of gifted students as an overly eager hand up in the classroom high performance High grades High excellent test scores and that image of a gifted student really distracts from the reality that gifts aren't automatically transformed into exceptional
060achievements and not every gifted student is academically motivated um and motivation is one area that's particularly important we we point into a couple of different resources in the index or in the list of research and what a couple of different Studies have shown is that it isn't academic intervention that helps underachieving gift uh gifted students but it's more about helping them identify their intrinsic motivations for Learning and help you to helping them to find school more meaningful that really makes the difference the last one I'll touch on is social emotional difficulties and we're gonna talk a little more about this on the next slide but um the big Point here is that there is a direct correlation between the ability to regulate emotions and the ability to thrive academically to to um have social relationships
061and to manifest latent gifts and talents and so for this group of students in particular they are they can be particularly prone to uh social emotional difficulty it's all of the things that are listed there but a host of other issues and so this is a pretty critical area of intervention both inside and outside of the class um The Good the good news is that there's been a lot of in the last decade or so there's been a lot of um experimentation and Innovation and new approaches to addressing all of these challenges and we're gonna talk a little bit more about this now turn it over to hindley I know you're not surprised I'm the one talking about social emotions um so on top of what Toyo was discussing with you know the anxiety the
062depression and the perfectionism there's two that people may not know as well so there's intensity so this is gifted students sometimes have this driving passion or they see the world in a specific way and they can um be in Conflict sometimes with their peers or even adults if they don't understand why everyone else is not saying things their way or are not as passionate about things as they are uh asynchrony is common so this is where if you have a child who is extremely gifted um cognitively they may not have the social emotional intelligence that is as high as their cognitive ability so people sometimes mistake that they will be just as mature as they are gifted in their intelligence and that's not always the case it doesn't always develop in the same rate when
063we looked at our best practices and we'll explain more on the next Slide the tiered approach was really most effective so tier one interventions for anything social emotional with classroom guidance for tier one small group counseling for tier two and individual brief short-term counseling third grade during our research we found specific areas to Target for specific grade levels so four gifted students in particular grades K1 they talked about really focusing on cooperation respect uh self-image and responsibility for grades two through four that self-regulation pace self-esteem and empathy uh grades five through eight it was grit intrinsic motivation curiosity Divergent thinking and self-efficacy and then grades 9 through 12 was growth from failure acceptance of ambiguity goal attainment and Passions when looking at smart cruxes for academic we split this up in primary middle and high
064and you'll see some go across the band and some are more targeted for a specific level so for primary our smart practices or our research pointed to early admittance and accelerated grade to really be beneficial for gifted students in Middle School acceleration of courses so that's you know the Middle School our math classes and that High School advanced placement AP classes honors and accelerated or cccp across all three bands cluster grouping that is where gifted students are scheduled together so that they're with other gifted students uh professional development for teachers and curriculum compacting modification and differentiation there's a lot more detail in the paper on differentiation and modification we just didn't have time to put everything in the presentation for primary there was a lot of research for bull out programming um in some contained
065classrooms for high school internships and mentorships which we will speak to in a couple slides in independent studies and then special enrichment programs across all bands and that could be summer camps um or any other types of opportunities outside of the school we talked to similar districts in Cincinnati and then we also talked to some similar districts from the GAC which I'll talk about in the next slide but we spoke to Madeira Indian Hill Marymont Princeton Loveland and Lakota what we asked them was do you participate more in intervention Specialists pulling students out of the classroom or do you do um the in class Services only uh we also ask them if they engage in advanced courses if they do any differentiation in class services and if they cluster group so what's interesting is it
066was really an or situation and it was completely split down the middle so three did pull out three did in-class Services um all six did Advanced courses and cluster grouping what is great about Wyoming is we're an and situation so we're not in ore uh we would appear in both areas because we do the workshop model in the primary which is an in-class service and then we also do pull out opportunities of the primary middle when I spoke to the members of the GAC I spoke to North Canton Lakewood city schools Clinton Massey and Milton Union uh in additional the same Trend that it was really split half and half and it was an or situation so half did the pull out services and acted in-class services and all four again were Advanced courses and
067clusters the Ross is going to speak English internships I'd say we mentioned um there's these partnership programs that we popped up through our research right so these are just two schools um in the Atlanta or Georgia area um that offer internship programs basically so what they do is the last period or two they'll set aside an opportunity for the students to go to either a local business an agency an organization and learn um actually actually learn hands-on experience from professionals experienced entrepreneurs whatever it might be to build um their knowledge on not just book smart but kind of Street Smart annoy so they're they're able to um they do offer it as a a grade or a elective they do it does enter in their transcript they are required to hold a GPA as well
068as have a specific number of credits school credits by a certain period of time um they do offer these internship programs they're Junior and Senior year and they uh they allow for one per semester right so you can have up to four uh potential internships once you upon graduation now the cool thing is again you get that transcript you get the credit right you get the high school credit or uh but you but you also get that experience that you could write about in um to a when applying for job positions or um going to colleges like you get that experience where you don't typically normally would get that opportunity in a school setting and so um so then we started looking at partnership programs in the local area and we are lucky enough in
069Cincinnati to be surrounded by a lot of businesses right we have PNG Pro and Kroger in our backyard um olds fiber I mean all these are in our backyard that that we could partner with these programs to offer High School internships so co-ops or whatever it might be so that's one opportunity for the the partnership program there's also a jumpstart class programs where could incorporate you know you have your own class within Wyoming that brings in these presentations from these companies in the local area and it's like a jumpstart class where they can be whether it's trying to be entrepreneurs whether they learn a little specific on on what those um organizations do what they what the questions do whatever it might be but it kind of gives them that business perspective um I mentioned
070the corporate uh class sponsorship where maybe there's a project that these businesses have um that they want to offer the students and then the students work as a team to work with uh in solving these problems at these these corporations virtual robotics is another thing that popped up in research many of you may know what first robotics is but I've I've had experience with it and basically it's a it's a program where you can work with a partnership whether that's again any of these businesses there's plenty of other businesses out there too I'm just these are just a handful that are in the local but you work with them and you build these models these uh these um robots and then you enter them into a competition it's Nationwide um a lot of uh build
071science engineering technology skills there's also summer camps where we do have the 1819 building or the University of Cincinnati which is the Innovation Hub which is in our backyard that also could be an opportunity for our partnership program with Wyoming high schoolers school districts so those are kind of that and I am going to pass this over to um perfect we're going to click right there and you're going to see Nathan videos good evening this is Nathan Lee Wyoming class of 99. I'm very sorry I could not join you tonight I was really looking forward to presenting with the CAC I've enjoyed working with them and I hope this is almost as good I will be sharing some information on Wyoming's Continuum of support and how the Wyoming City Schools compares to some of our
072peer schools in smart practices these are the practices we have found in our research and are recommending for consideration first let's start with the Continuum of support in our primary schools we begin with cluster grouping differentiated learning within the classroom our teachers are trained to to deliver different lessons that can serve gifted students within the classroom we also offer pull out instruction with Discovery at the second grade level and reach for third and fourth graders at the middle school we continue the cluster grouping and add course acceleration with the advanced math program pull out instruction continues with the cowboy class in fifth and sixth grade at the high school offerings are primarily in self-differentiated learning through AP classes and course selection Wyoming is fortunate to have a large number of AP classes available offering college
073level instruction for high school students let's move on to the next slide this chart is showing us the smart practices these are some of the actions and practices that we have found recommended in our research and have chosen to highlight as our own recommendations for consideration regarding the workshop model here on the Top Line This is in class differentiated learning this is the direction that more gifted education is heading it's more efficient it requires less faculty and facilities and it helps offer gifted services to a large number of students the individual model which we practice at Wyoming through our pull out classes in the primary and Middle School levels is becoming less common but it's the best way that we've found to address the social and emotional needs of our gifted students who may struggle
074with these challenges more than others at many schools the workshop model is starting to replace more of this individualized pullout instruction Wyoming offers both through our and model we have differentiated learning and we have pull-out services this is uncommon and we're fortunate to have it here we have gifted intervention Specialists and we have teachers who are able to deliver high quality gifted education because of the professional development that we invest in having both of these allows us to deliver our gifted students allows us to deliver our gifted services to a wider range of students and we want to make sure that we continue that Trend to deliver to a wider more diverse and better served range of students it lets us deliver on anti-racist advocacy and by providing culturally sensitive identification having our dedicated and
075trained staff will allow us to better identify students whose cultural and linguistic backgrounds may make them less likely to be identified as gifted it will allow us to provide earlier and continued continued access to gifted curriculum our recommended next steps build on the strength of this and model and of our staff and faculty with continued investment and the facilities and resources that we need we can ensure that culturally and linguistically diverse students are all served we can provide effective involvement between the school home and the community especially with diverse students and Families and we can improve our support for everyone thank you very much and let's move on to the next presenter all right um I wanted to um just complement the the committee's work um prior to our recommendations uh this is our slide
076that just shares all of the diligent and thorough research and um diving deeper into some of the topics that were presented tonight um you can see that was in the paper the identification assessment service offerings and evaluation uh diving deeper into program descriptions here in Wyoming uh information about our similar districts and then more on Equity differentiation instructional design gifted to the Performing Arts and internships So based on everything that you've heard this evening and um our committee's work our recommendations include topics such as assessment and identification taking a bird's eye view and really examining the practices for including group uh groups traditionally underrepresented and gifted programs um considering the stigma of being labeled or not labeled as gifted and low programs or and how programs are communicated so really examining those social and emotional
077impacts continuing and expanding upon our service offerings considering opportunities for Creative giftedness and Performing Arts Partnerships and internships professional learning opportunities for educators in our general classrooms and consulting or continuing pull-out programming and then really touching base with all the stakeholders for evaluation Gathering feedback from students families and Community especially pertaining to communication identification and service and with that our committee would be happy to answer any questions you may have thanks like I always jump in there so that's something else on the initial assessment that early primary assessment period and this may be in the full report as well is it true that this is a pure test based accounting that determines whether you're identified as gifted in the early years Primary School is there any way to get into a identify as gifted besides
078the test so in order to be identified it's gives it a superior cognitive specific academic therap tests yeah but is there a way beyond that that we could do in Ohio it's different so for Performing Arts it could be a portfolio a Performance Based On A rubric something like that but the other areas of success but that's essentially the tennis yeah that's essentially the test it just doesn't look like a yeah sure but for the primary schools that Performing Arts category is not something that would be applied or was it possible if if you're identifying Performing Arts that would be dance drama uh Visual Arts or performing arts and so your service would follow in such a way that if you were identified in the area of Arts you would be served in the area
079of Arts um so when we were thinking about that differentiation in the classroom and are are in reading or math you would test on our map assessment in that 90 percentile and so uh in those academic areas it is a test and that's what the state requires to be identified in those areas what is the best like from the state's perspective what is the benefit like we would do something that was different from what the state required would it be consequences are we getting funding that's tied to this this is kind of singular method of assessment um we can choose our service model um and that's part of the reason that we're choosing the am service model because we do believe that tests the vitus net but in order to identify a student and call
080that student gifted and talented by the state definition you do need to follow that identifier correct that's like State Statute yeah which as you might imagine doesn't fund anything close to what we do sure yeah which is the whole moral of the Ohio school funding formula but if we can go to more yeah for example in that earlier presentation the Steadman's noted that like our 8D is open to everyone we encourage everyone to participate it's more inclusive way of kind of participating in gifted experiences and then as we've seen in recent years colleges are doing kind of a test optional assessment for many applicants not all but it seems to be most colleges and so we seem to be moving towards a more holistic assessment of Excellence of giftedness things of that nature it just
081seems like in the primary uh levels we're very much uh kind of a one-dimensional test-based oriented uh approach to this and just wanting to if we could go to a more whole holistic whole child consideration that would account for other Sparks of Brilliance that could then create a more inclusive participation what the consequences of any truly would be if it's not that much money that we would lose or could we move into that realm with without too much we have about 50 of our student population identified as kids did um and that's actually why we look at the workshop model to allow for students to be grouped and regrouped um and so by training staff and um having our regular education teachers be the ones who are delivering that type of service day in and
082day out um they are casting the widest vet and there's no rule or law that says you can't um be giving that same great instruction to every student um and we talked in that that conversation last week about those programs of promise and providing that sort of just really good instruction to every kid sure in anticipation of great vocabulary great pre-teaching um to you know have students you know rise to the invasion and have potential um because one of the things the state of Ohio does do is allow for that um student to show the potential of um and that's part of the definition of the business in Ohio so it's the ability to show potential and or true um tested giftedness and so we like to think that and model allows us to look
083for the potential of sure um and not just by saying the only service we have is if you score and they get to come to the secret you know they say that um in the idea of the potential of you would look at ways in which you were trying to kind of prime the pump and so rather than saying hey you can only um test once and never be tested again or once gifted you have to re-qualify each time to just stay gifted um that state um years ago said once gifted always gifted so you don't have to re-qualify to keep your gifted status like you would for um an IEP but we were talking about in our conversation when they um did the presentation last week just especially at Jimmy snow today but in
084primary that challenge that you were kind of saying of um there are um so many gifty kids and at that age but there's this parental push here and a lot of other places where the kids even knew it that other kids were practicing to get into gifted where other kids weren't and it was just kind of like a thing and so you're like how do you how do you level that so you'll get some of those kids who are hip and kind of helped to get their practice to get into debate practice there's different interested I mean it's just something that happens I know but yeah once you get gifted you're always give kids right right and I'm so happy that we're having this conversation and I wanted to ask something or put something out
085there in the context of this conversation because I I love that you all made actually pretty specific recommendations it seems like you want to continue the and the pull out and the workshop and I'm kind of surprised by that I I given that the trend is moving more towards Workshop I'm actually surprised so I want to hear a little more inhabited maybe we can have a little more in-depth discussion as to why we value the pull out when so many of our kids are identified as gifted because I feel like we might and I don't want to seem like I'm against it I've had kids in the program and one who was not so from a personal level I'm just thinking about all of our kids and how do we address that The Have and
086Have Nots and you don't want to take away and not address things that clearly gifted children might need and but there's a reason that many schools are moving away from the pull out specifically so I really would love to hear why you all believe that the and approach it is something you really are are for I'm Ashley Lang I teach second grade at Elm um and I'll speak a little bit just as a classroom teacher and being self-contained and what a wonderful beautiful thing that is to see kids shine in different subject areas and different Realms of of the classroom um and I feel equipped to differentiate within my classroom but for for students that are identified as gifted providing a specialist to do that they're getting double dipped you know they're getting targeted intervention
087um specific to them I can do as much as I can with 20 some students but I feel like it's really important for them to get that extra push and extension from a specialist that is trained within you know that that Arena um you know my background and my training and my own personal experiences like I said I feel equipped but um you know I'm very thankful to have a specific person that they can also get extra time with to enrich them the district's two that we spoke with that are transitioning more to the workout model wasn't necessarily because they found the research was Best Supporting that it was really just the lack of funding and a lack of Personality was most of the decision making behind that um there was one District that I
088spoke to that said that that was just the research they were finding that was the way they wanted to move but other districts it was more of a logistical kind of shape and what do you do in that District were so many of your kids are identified as gifted but a small percentage are pull out like I know you're doing the workshop but you're also sending a message when you talk about social emotional learning and I'm playing I want to hear what you say so I I like what you're saying but when one kid okay they're identified in the paperwork and maybe they're getting some work shopping but they see these five kids go off and get the things that they do in the gifted class that's a message to that child and there's some
089there was some pros and cons and that's why one of our recommendations was to look at the statement behind the labeling because a pro was if you do the pull out Services they can get really targeted intervention for social emotional needs that are just really kind of plaguing our gifted students and maybe not the general population but on the other hand there could be a stigma with the labeling you know what I mean so it's kind of this pro and con that there's some pros to it there's some cons to it on either side but it's needing some further digging in to decide what is best yeah because if you if you pulled out a student because they need it they just needed additional help but they weren't gifted there's nobody real no one do
090students kind of feel that's unfair do you know what I mean like if if we just didn't if it wasn't gifted and I'm pouring out um it has a different it feels different than if you're saying someone it's gifted and pulling them out but it has the same effect which is that personalized trying to and I I think one of Nathan's points was that the reason for the both and is that we haven't found a a model the workshop model that can address the social emotional pieces like the pull out does and so don't you want to don't want to leave that part on the table is there something new being done and pull out with social emotional different from the past we teach a new program at the middle school at least um Lions
091plus is two years old and a lot of what is on there for what's recommended by the grade bands is being addressed in that program there's different units for each grade and they're the same so there's you know the personal development and things of that nature in every grade but it looks different for what topics are being done and it's taught by the cat Webmail teachers because I'm an older board member so my experience with it is it was a social emotional piece which I do yeah importance absolutely [Music] and I don't mean to be challenging but like I I feel like it's a discussion that you know we value our gifted programming in Wyoming I certainly did as the parent but the competition starts early in second grade your kids in the Discovery program
092you think boy you have a lot of anxiety on on the test and if they don't get into the gift Department then they're not gonna and all their friends like something about that doesn't feel right in terms of what a great educational um system that I feel like we have and I you know I'm glad you're telling me about lions Quest and and hearing your perspective actually as a second grade teacher but maybe it's and I learned something I did not know that students were ident that the way you had to identify was just designated by the state I actually thought that was sort of a Wyoming thing um but you know my understanding is it's a test like you take a test and there are kids who have test anxiety and they're you know
093so it starts creating it I don't think we've cracked the nut on that and I don't know that we will here but I just I think you know I just want to add those thoughts as a parent with a handful in the grade school I think it's I think it's it was a shock to me honestly like knowing knowing that people are coaching um their students they're their children who do well on this test um I understand why they're doing it I it's uh it's just in a way it's uh surprising a little bit in my eyes but but then once you're gifted you're gifted right which is I I'm not a full believer in that because I think um people grow at different levels and you you could be gifted early on and then
094not as gifted later on because you're not implementing your skill sets or whatever you think oh I'm gifted so I don't have to work as hard per se um so I see challenges I I feel like the stigma behind gifted is um or creating that environment a little bit um and or enabling it you might say um by having the terms and I mean from experience having a student that her best friend was gifted and she didn't get she isn't considered gifted but she her teacher has identified her as she teaches her like a gifted student so it's you're you're battling you're like kind of fighting that's that label you might say so it's just really interesting emotional yes confidence building you know I can remember one year we were at a graduation and the
095person who is a salutatorian Her speech was about I didn't get into the gifted program and at this time it's when you had to test in again in Middle School and I decided that I was going to show them that I was gifted yeah and like in not the motivation we want to give but her speech was about the motivation she got for not for years of not you know in the fifth and sixth grade years of not being in that program yeah so there's something not like that you know but I'm not I I know I sound like I'm advocating against it I just known as a community and as a school system think about in the context of this discussion you know is there something better than just the pull out not where
096we not have our teachers we use the gifted specialist in maybe a different way I also think that you can be extremely bright and extremely ambitious about education and not necessarily be gifted the primary gifted program IT addresses things in that pull out program like uh challenge math where these kids some of them for the first time have the opportunity to actually get something wrong and learn how to deal with that and they don't have that opportunity within their normal classroom even I haven't seen that yes so I think some of them I think we have to point out that's a new aspect of a pull out that was not previously really a part of it when I say previously maybe I don't know Tracy tell me how many years back but um I know
097I've only been here five so I probably can't speak that far back it's probably about 10 years I mean I I believe that the like the state changing that once you're identified you're always identified that's been around 10 years ago yeah that's been around since before 2000 yeah the definition slide earlier and I just I just I I wanted to just validate what you're saying like I don't think it sounds challenging at all I think probably we all probably started I mean I think that's the question in everyone's mind starting with this project is like how do you do like what is gifted like where's that fine line it's like are we talking about you know some rare genius are we talking about someone who's like studied really hard and just prepared I think I
098think that just like is inherent to this whole thing and so I don't know I think it was important for us to kind of start at a place like this is what the state says and and we weren't necessarily taking on the in like the phenomenon of like gifted students but I I think that is something that was in the back of all of our minds probably as we not to speak for everyone but as as you approach that naturally you're thinking about all of those things so I just well then to validate that and I think the part of our recommendation that focuses on stigma how we communicate what type of services we provide and how we try to provide Equitable Services to that Equitable means right and meeting someone where they are and
099providing what they need if they need extra push because they are Advanced as compared to their peers that's that's a fair thing but how we how we discuss it and how we share it with our students I feel like that's where a lot of work needs to be done because our when me and my husband talk about it we had the same conversation of you know we we definitely we don't want to try to over prepare what what would be the benefit if if the reality was that Wyoming was going to somehow cheat Samara um and not provide her all of what she needed because she didn't get gifted that would be a problem but I don't think that's the case I think that there's still going to be a very robust education provided that
100meets our expectations and so that that felt good enough to us so uh whether or not she gets gifted and that's something we want to communicate to her so I just wanted to validate so one of them was in a station definition so it says say there's a test that's how we determine it is they said the student I guess on the test either performs or shows the potential for performance how is what is the assessment of the show's potential for performance is it like a cut off for performing and then a degree a number of shows potential for performing or what's that part no holistically speaking the definition is uh the definition of a gifted student is one who shows potential so meaning you don't have to retest or we qualify to be gifted
101that change from Once gifted always gifted or if you if you show potential you can you can be your business if you talk about the holistic assessment potential that you said it's just a test it's on our assessment of the students they either they either demonstrated but how do we determine if they show potential no what I'm saying is when they slipped that definition they changed it from you have to re-qualify to once you've you've demonstrated that you're not Ungifted second question for me but the definition says a given student is someone who is performing or shows the potential to people yeah I was just trying to understand it the test is the measure or gifted or not how do you on the test show the potential for performance I think that so the state
102does not I I had the same question and scoured so the state doesn't it kind of just leaves that they they find it that way and it's it's not like they provide any additional and so I I mean I interpreted it as we were talking in the last meeting about referring students to them being assessed and I interpret it that way that if it was a student that I felt had some potential maybe I would refer them to be assessed versus as a teacher yeah or a teacher whoever can recommend versus the assessment shows potentially but we don't do that right we we do no I mean a teacher okay I'm thinking for like for the pulling out but they recommend for an assessment so ultimately it's still a test that will determine whether there
103is yes at the end of the day it's still in test yeah that's what I'm talking about it's like saying you see this child in your classroom you see maybe not Arts creativity but you see like a creative mind and they're clearly out of the box and intelligent but they get in front of the test and then maybe their mind wanders or their um anxious and so they don't they're not a good test taker per se the teacher doesn't have the ability to then identify them and say look you know this there's something different about this kid that isn't measured well on a cog on an on an IQ test we don't have a way and the state doesn't give us a way is that what I'm understanding like the state gives us um different
104parameters in which um a list of state approved assessments could be administered so um a student who doesn't speak English could be administered a test in their native language a student with um who um but still the test is there a way to bypass the difference not for if it's Superior cognitive teacher could say nope teacher nomination or teacher um checklist or um teacher override is actually a line in the rule that says cannot be used and if it is that's when the funding gets pulled is that the is that the concept sanctions that could be weighed against the district so funding could be one of them so what it says to determine that they argue is because they're performing at a remarkably high level of economy in accordance with one of those four areas
105based on the way in which you identify in one of those four areas sure so then the idea that they're once tested at second grade that they're always gifted what's the logic of that logically speaking you can't be smarter than you are not be smarter than you are but so you can't fake a high on a test well I'm just wondering that second grade your assessment is high relative to their age or the environment or the experience but at sixth grade that isn't still the truth well it's normed based on your age that the tests that you take at that grade level at that time is Norms based on your age and grade so your test at at age five is normed at that in your test at age 15 it's normed at that sure
106for each one I understand there was a point where in Middle School you had to retest and they decided to switch that they change it from that retesting to Once get that always give them right for identification so I'm trying to understand what's the logic behind that what drove that change or should be because she can't be high and why why would you be but why would you say you're once gifted and then you're on gift you never understood yeah it doesn't make sense like if if we designate someone as gifted and then they can underperforming at some point is there is there any like repercussions for that I don't or like does anything happen if a student that is gifted there are no sanctions against the district I mean the The District in itself
107should question that I'm actually feel more concerned because I could think of you lots of reasons why gifted children might underperform like in your presentation you talked about but I'm more concerned about those kids weakness and I know you said people could ask to be assessed along the way um so the state was worried about that too in the last iteration of the law um there were two mandates that were put in and so you have to blanket test now that that was new um in blanket testing we have to test all in a grade level that was the first time that ever happened um it used to be that the districts could choose and there were many many districts that never ever tested low grade levels they were like we won't do that um
108and so they were they were not doing any sort of trying to catch every kid and look for the potential of every child Wyoming always looked for the potential in every uh grade level every so often of every child right um so we were not a district that was like we're not going to look for kids um but they said in in primary grade you have to look for every kid at least one grade level and the intermediate grades you have to look at least once so we look in second and fourth grade so that's what we've chosen to you so I was thinking when you were talking through the discussion if there was any dimensions of giftedness that are benefited by doing something other than more or doing something other than faster you know
109relative to 18 level or kind of we only get an eighth grade versus tenth grade so I was really excited to come out the internships and things outside the classroom the example of places where that happens the record you say I think it's consider Partnerships or internships in our district as a way that certain students would be challenged or expanded is that how I interpret that from the team as a recommendation for us to do that yeah okay that's helpful verification and then on the recommendation on examining the practices what is what what are some of the ways you would suggest we look at the practice or what were some of the things that got that on the page as far as the recommendations for us examining our practices a lot of that is referring
110so some of that is referring to this assessment so the state does recommend I don't know do they recommend or determine they recommend a list but then from that recommended list we must choose from right you're only allowed to use the test on that list and then we choose from that list the most appropriate um for for our population so it's so a lot of the research is saying so one way you could diversify writers to work on the assessment we know we have a lot of problems with tests and to your point how kids but given that we don't have a lot of control there some of the support structures that we we offer our approach overall to providing school students with the best experience so that they can show their potential training for
111teachers to better identify there was one research study we we looked at that said like African Americans do T teachers for example are more likely to identify an African-American student as gifted than a non-african-american student so they're training on implicit bias and all of these things that just supplement um some of these but those are some examples foreign I'm really interested to hear that you all say that um parents are preparing kids [Music] sorry is that a thing like with the primary kids like you as a primary parent everything I've ever heard is there's literally no way to prepare for that yeah other than a good night sleep and breakfast in the morning so yeah and for the kid that is gifted and does badly they have an opportunity to retest in a previous School
112District we were in and I think most gifted programs consider gifted 98 percentile and above so I actually think Wyoming's program is extremely generous uh yeah and that's what the state says versus Utah which is 98th percent I think there's 10 other states that are all at 98th percentile I don't actually have to date Kentucky so yeah the school district I was in Kenton County it was 99 percentile I wanted to date on it but it doesn't surprise me at all that people would be dependently and it shocks me that you say there's no way you can take a test prepare for the test right because I'm sure on the internet if I type in like tests to assess giftedness there's things you can do for the kid and if you test it early in
113the district where people move to because of education is great and there's this esteem around being certain and there's this positive stigma associated with being gifted and we know that people pay for their kids to go to do ACT Testing so that they can get better scores and the results show it's a four to five point you know kind of impact why would parents not do what they could do to prepare their kids together to become always gifted or accepted the question is if there's a desk that prepares you why aren't there more kids in the primary testing into it preparing them and to give them is better on active I'm just saying you know I would believe that it does happen I'm not saying it happens here I'm not saying it's happened 80 of
114the people but if it's possible to do that in a space where in the state where the assessment says once you're especially to get bitten you're always gifted and that always goes with you people parents I would imagine like it mattered to the parents if their kids are gifted because that reflects on them in these ways so I'm not saying that they're going to be negative about it it would just surprise me that some people aren't doing it I was just wondering for my own notification anecdotally like if you if you're preparing your and because I have a significance you're preparing your child like what's the incentive like what why do I want my kid to be because the language [Music] point of esteem for them they see themselves as gift because they believe themselves
115early that they're the age kind of student they're a Wyoming kind of student they're they fit here it matters that they they're one of us and I think something we believe in as a district and the pull-out piece of it is important for all the reasons you all have um stated that we do have to spend some time looking at um how we are uh making all the students not necessarily just being sensitive about their feelings per se but it does send a message in and can work on confidence of children um and I I do think we have addressed that in in some of the years I mean they you called it the cowboy class as opposed to something else and I think some of the changes that have been made with cowboy Bell
116to make it a little less of an advertisement than here Mr Allen's kids going this way and they're all the smart kids because I can tell you my my one child that wasn't in it all the Mr Allen kids went to a a play or of some sort which left all the kids in the math all the girls left in math class except for mine and a kid turned her and said Oh I thought you were one of the Smart Ones this kind of stuff happens now she did fine with that kind of thing these kind of things happen to all kids but I do just over the years hearing from parents like I just feel like we have addressed some of the the stigma of not being in it and the Haves and have-nots
117we've we have addressed that in the middle school and I just wonder if we can just keep looking at ways that first of all that we are addressing the number of kids that are identified as gifted not just those who scored 95 on the IQ test and it does sound like we are are doing that and actually I do appreciate what you're saying about as a teacher in a contained classroom there are kids you're not going to be able to meet all of their needs so I think that's a very important thing to realize but talk about the gifted um professional development uh if you would because I want to speak to somebody yeah I think I think that would be that would be helpful just to talk about how you were you know and
118you can go miles Beyond this but um helping people understand the social emotional needs of students who have been identified and skilled because in a lot of this conversation in my mind I'm thinking the perspective that they get by being with kids students that are are unique in in that kind of a way and sharing that experience is is probably one of the big things that you you can speak to with generalized folks uh so one of the first things that I do when I have a parent meeting or when I'm giving PD to the staff is to discuss the differences between a bright kid and a cognitively gifted kitten because a child that's really good at math and reading don't necessarily have the same traits as a cognitively gifted child there's cognitively gifted children
119have those intensities with the high emotions the passions um that you can't really think or are sometimes channel so when I get to see my students I have anywhere from 2 to 14 in a group um they finally have people that kind of understand them and they have a teacher that kind of understands where they're coming from um and they get to be their little quirky weird gifted selves um and they get to go beyond what is available to them in the classroom as far as the pdps um when the state changed their law six seven years ago they also put in requirements for um General Educators and we can't claim gifted Services unless we are providing professional development to our Janet um so several years ago there was a requirement of 15 contact hours
120a year with um agis gifted intervention specialist um that hit that was three years four years and 15 hours so they've had 60 hours with me or someone else that is a yes since then it it's kind of just Refreshers so we're now at two two hours every year uh with me um but what that is the kind of the trickle-down effect of that is that now we have this workshop model in the primary in reading and math and that is where you're really going to catch those kids that maybe didn't attest so well but if they're performing really well in the classroom Ashley's going to pull that kid to that cluster group it's not like it's just the identified math kids that are in that higher um and it's the same vein if a
121gifted kid is not performing well they may not be in that highest math group every single unit um so with all of our robust assessments that we've added in the last couple of years and all of our progress monitoring that we use those groups within the general classroom I think have really come a long way and we're going to continue that work next year really focusing in on that so I would say that the kids that come with me um I don't think I don't know I'm very passionate about this because I've been in many different roles as a GIS um 18 years in different districts and being a coach and being full out being pushed in I will say that absolutely emotionally and socially for these bright students having a safe place for them
122to go is very important any other questions I'm so happy to be having the discussion because it's an honest discussion and I I as board members we need to hear we can start formulating our own opinions based on our commercial experience and what we hear people we know and and people that talk to us but um that's why I'm just so appreciative of this study and to hear from people actually in the trenches and and and doing the work and it's just so valuable so thank you I you know I'm curious too about student feedback you know we talked about tailoring feedback students families and Community student voice um you know we've capitalized on student voice stuff like that continually keep doing that and talking to students about their experiences get in the vehicles because
123now I learned something on our end CAC you know how we were together with you all were like this is our time limit and then we asked like 45 minutes but I just know that it's something that we will then dive into more I think is always why we are thankful for the um work that you all do and what that looks like for us they picture and they get feedback and we'll just make sure probably the work of the CeCe Tim has directed it to we want your opinion we want the report we we are curious about something we asked we said we want to know how other people do gifted you know is this pull out a good idea is it not is a combination what are we even doing now you answered
124all those questions so that's I'm so glad you made the CAC is a meaningful group to the sport so and because there are changes all the time I think it's nice to to have a mark we've got ourselves up to what is happening today because many of us have had children in the schools and we know a different form that isn't actually used anymore so it's good to Orange today and it's evolved and that's nice to know thank you thank you very much okay if somebody told you you'd be home by eight I'm sorry oh yeah important the very often but yeah it released it absolutely yeah to me when we started doing shifting professional development I mean there is a lot [Music] of the way back to heaven and childhood when you're going to
125skipped in the next you're learning right you know that's how I used to do it well it definitely in a small community we really have to think about in a small community where so many kids are um need a challenge and it could you know be I like how you distinguish between right and like super hard working or have you said it in the cognitively yeah there's some different elements that could be to send you my hair at night thank you [Music] all right we will um go on here um with the board committee reports financing that this evening and we covered a lot of drowns so can I turn it over to you that'd be great we did meet earlier today remember finance committee the superintendent director of support of members here at Takara
126and DD and then two members of WEA it's outside or in bed set and we um as always we reviewed our salary benefit analytic with no variances we did look at a recently released auditor of State bulletin I get lots of bullets in compatible state they're normally very technical and open slow things and Bible sayings and expertiation schedules and that kind of stuff this one was about compliance with college credit plus requirements and the compliance bulletins are they don't issue those very often and so can we just talk a little bit about college credit plus you know when we heard the way the grades we've been through from CAC last meeting so just wanted to kind of highlight with the finance committee what Batman and its implications so we'll be working through that we talked
127a little bit about um the rates that are on the recommendation under my recommendation to approve the amounts and rates and our bond rates talked a little bit about that I ensure that was supported me update so we reviewed the um four-year real estate collection and again we had been tracking that again from when we passed our last Levy in 2017 and just watching making sure that um those collection years making sure we understand what's causing the little fluctuations and those you talked about that we talked a little bit about the two Outsourcing contracts that are on the agenda tonight both uh Transportation with Peterman and Scarlett gray and how those impact our budget and then um just to real quick legislative update the Ohio legislature has been on spring break for the past two
128weeks they are back in session today so we just sort of reviewed the schedule we're monitoring them by any budget monitoring House Bill one in the both of the uh vouchers voucher bills one in the house and one in the Senate we did great meeting Unfortunately they didn't go to Florida instead they worked they did which may come back to haltia they did well thank you well we'll hit we'll turn from those contracts later then too thank you uh citizens advice we have had their report so much I'm going to say about that for that uh May 9th that was our last meeting where we'll do um what we did last year like a celebration with everyone we're laughing at two we asked for feedback from CAC decide um they thought were well it was
129a nice team building today yeah and they secured um a good little thanks are we invited or alive yes yes of course well I mean well you know more than two people yeah all right but I can go and change this translates we did I can't remember there were three of us maybe they want to lead to alcohol yeah I think so all right so maybe someone should think that through a week at home yeah reflecting on the studies and thinking about computer studies perhaps they know right right yeah so we'll go with the two okay for some reason you can't let us know okay okay uh superintendent committee liaison reports the belonging committee we had a belonging exclusion collaborative meeting on April 4th and during that conversation our committee members um just reflected on
130on practices of creating belonging classrooms and so it was great that these individuals are representatives from their schools and so they shared strategies um and um we created a document just to take back to buildings just to share what's happening at all of our building levels as a way to just continue to impact others and share great ideas yeah in the conversation thank you community engagement funny is still happening right now High School play Just fast and the middle school has one coming up we have lots of opportunities coming up tomorrow it's going to be warmer which is great Community programs over um so that is at 6 00 pm and that will be followed by the r factor parent session at seven o'clock that will be inside pendry um and so um we're hoping
131we get lots of lots of people there to uh to enjoy a nice cookout and then to hear lots about what we're doing in terms of building equipment in our in our schools yeah so this is uh one of the things that we'll be talking about with ours with the r factor is the culture blueprint and the way that staff has lived this this year and our idea that we're rolling it out to students next year and this gives parents an opportunity to hear all that information to hear what what it what it is we asked so that we get a general idea of it might be nice to say it here too and RSVP is never meant to be a hurdle it is just used for planning purposes and if for some reason somebody
132finds an opportunity that that day had like come to whatever it is we will split the hot dogs not just as somebody looking at other people's things but maybe a post I think it's my personal been on Facebook in a year where I posted something posted it okay spread awareness probably at least 11. and I send it out so on the 19th um the very next day we do have principal search our Wyoming Middle School principal search focus when it's happening so we've got an early opportunity at 7 A.M that will be in the barbiera PD room at the middle school and then at 7 pm that's for Community parents and community members 7 A.M 7 P.M same location uh we are being with staff after school 3 15 and I'm organizing uh student focus
133group also which will be either later this week or early next week for all of our randomly selected fifth and sixth grade group seven eighth grade group from middle school so the parents are invited to the personal discussion are you focusing on Middle School parents or high school it's really open wide to the entire community did an email go to them or yeah and it went to all all families and it went to Golden cowboy club and then we will we will also um put it out again through social media channels so um but it has it has blanketed yeah in China about buildings but I think it's also the community kind of falls under about Communications model facilities right coming up that we can talk more about until we get um but I do
134think that just is the season right of all the concerts this is um City related but in supporting their um thing too with the school's upcycle day on Friday which I think is really cool to be with the city has started and encouraging people to do that since we're really looking in this environmental family like you can bring us down down and then they have so many different community volunteers so I think it's a cool Community Day for people all right the wheel-a-thon that is on April 23rd from one to four so psa's wheel-a-thon is back okay um I guess planning and goal setting we have we talked about last time policy review is coming up so we're down to student achievement um yes and um we we did have it seems like before spring
135break March 23rd we did have a district leadership team meeting and really during that conversation we focused on our 2012 through 2024 Mr Bowles okay and we solidified those goals and so now buildings are using those District roles to fuel their conversations on Bill what was an accidental building on it so that's the work between now and later the school year and we're really excited about the online news the world started buildings but then they also been alignment who are strategic plan foreign Board of Education report we have a first reading of a policy um 7540.02 with accessibility is there anything anybody would like to ask about them explained it well in that it was not something we could deal with when we met as a policy group until the tech people had taken a
136look at it now and um as I've shared it's really about how we guided we understood the district and student websites that are created through on reports were popular with kiddos yeah yes and there's some new verbiage on accessibility yes that was a big one and yet a number all right so that because it's a first grade will sit for 30 days and then we'll vote on it next um B approving all the policies that we went over last time I'm just anyone have any further discussion or questions all right and then the next item is to approve the primary textbook adoption which Gina presented to us that delivers representatively last month so it is good number of days once we heard tonight were first reads so we'll have to act on them in a
137moment or so um if there are no comments then may I have a motion to approve the Board of Education report so removed in a second thank you and welcome Mr Paul Myers yes Mr comments yes Mr G yes Mrs dollar yes this is Treasures thanks Jeannie item a approval of the minutes for my meetings on March 20th and April 4th itemb approved the statement of revenues and expenditures for month ending March 31st and then C except with appreciation the donation from the Wyoming School Foundation line of D appropriation adjustments for the month of April and item e except the imbalancing grades that's determined by the commission and authorizing the necessary tax level you can certifying them to the county auditor and F approval order all right I have a motion in the second second
138Mr Thomas yes Mr G yes Mrs holler yes Mrs Roger that's Mr paulmeyer yes thank you all right superintendent okay thank you I have a number of personnel items on the first that I'll I'll share and it's for your um my approval for um number one approval for resignation that we have received number two on our approval for or the appointment of an interim administrator and this is Kathy Ryan who um we're excited to invite into the Middle School uh today and um Kathy's background she's taught in the district as a special educator um she has been at the high school or middle school and teaching Hills I believe counselor at the high school assistant principal at the high school and was principal in 2008 to 2003 to 2008 here at our middle school and
139I know she is very excited about supporting our students and our staff visiting for which the year so exciting for for Kathy um number three um new Personnel we have Linda Adams who's being recommended as a middle school maintenance specialist she filled in this this past year it's a long-term subject in that role it's done a fabulous job and then uh secondly Chloe Cooper Rider who has been teaching primary but this would mean more solidifying her role as a third grade teacher and that would be a good time so what I said about those individuals number four is a recommendation to approve the renewal of administrative contracts and you can see and there are four contracts that we are recommended in renewal for and we appreciate their support of students staff and our families and
140the great work that they do um number five is the recommendation for to approve the renewal of certified limited contracts again with these individuals do incredible work to support our students all all day every day so to say thank you to them is on number six this is a recommendation to approve three continuing contracts one for Elizabeth denim one for our own Jen gerstner who's here with us today and one for CJ langenha and I don't know if you want me to come back to these I did want to share some some fun information you want me to share that now we're coming back yeah okay so let's start right now okay so this is feedback that has come from um from individuals just on the impact that these individuals make and really the excitement
141around the continuing contract uh status that we're recommending so I'll start um I'll start with uh Jen Gerson because you're here with us so I'm just going to read some of these highlights and that have come from other individuals outstanding teacher provides engaging rigorous high quality high quality learning experiences for her students exemplifies what it means to teach the whole child engages with parents regularly Works closely with the principle to ensure growth of our gifted Learners provides professional development to classroom teachers and on a regular basis and that's through Benchmark meetings through staff meetings throughout the professional development opportunities but Finance professional development with the principal data driven teacher consummate professional one-on-one conversations with staff in order to advocate for her students embrace's leadership opportunities primary building leadership team member primary Master scheduling Committee Member
142leads in interview testing asset to our entire Wyoming primary team foreign art teacher CJ might not team player served as the art Department art department chair thoughtful conferences with students great rapport with the students passionate about his content area his creativity is one of his greatest gifts always creating new projects for students as a worker he's punctual dedicated and reliable maximum effort every day values teaching and learning culture and belonging and communication and knows that art serves a valued spot in the social emotional needs of our students great asset to our Wyoming culture congratulations CJ and Elizabeth Donovan primary counselor instrumental in shaping our support of the whole child at Wyoming primary schools developed and implemented a comprehensive tier one to meet all primary primary students social emotional Wellness needs provides consultation coaching and support
143to classroom teachers provided staff professional development exhibits the utmost professionalism very involved in the primary and has facilitated the ncss process for scl she has helped improve and grow Wyoming primary schools congratulations to Elizabeth great that's awesome and so again we have so many great things happening and the district is it is really nice to just take a moment to some of them do certain things are happening okay so um number seven continuing with great things and people who really make a difference this is a recommendation to our new educational AIDS Library aids clinic AIDS Health Specialists and our parent resource liaison or Mentor again these roles are critical and in the overall School process number eight is recommendation to approve two workday calendar changes that you see on the agenda number nine is a
144recommendation to approve an unpaid leave request number 10 also is a recommendation to approve an unpaid leave request a number 11 is a recommendation to approve staff members uh children who are attending Wyoming City schools for the 23-24 upcoming school year a numbered 12 is a recommendation to approve our newest active Raptor volunteers which represents just an incredible body of individuals who support students and are our educational staff all the time number 13 recommendation to approve these athletic supplemental contract changes and what's happening is it's important supplemental is being used across three individuals to support students uh number 14 recommendation to approve the LA bus curriculum work and these are Middle School staff members who are working on curriculum changes that come with a schedule change so we're we're reading up in the middle school
145schedule a little bit and then changes uh so the the ways in which Ela works and so we're creating those changes to make sure that they work best for students a number 15 recommendation to approve mtss primary committee members and it's for their work to improve upon the mtss model it's number 16 is a recommendation to approve primary committee members who are working on their PBIS positive behavior and intervention support uh not only there at the primary level uh and number 17 and well number 17 right okay number 17 as a recommendation to approve resident educator realignment and this is because there's been a state change to move from a four-year program to a two-year program so that's the work to realign our model to support new teachers okay so shifting over over Item B
146is a recommendation to approve classified salary schedules uh at three percent for the 23 24 24 25 25 26 uh school years and this matches up with certified staff um items C D and E are recommendations to approve this uh School fee list for each building level and items e f and g I'm sorry f g and H are recommendations to approve the new handbooks this is the draft cables for the 23 24 school year thank you for offering the Summers yes and there's getting small the changes are getting smaller and smaller but it does help to see the summary of those changes um item I is a recommendation to approve the contract with Hamilton County Educational Service Center and those are for all the services that we need received through the county that also
147seems to be doing a smaller appreciate it and item J is a recommendation to approve two new job descriptions and we're really looking for support within um supporting our staff at developing a 504 process and continuing to support our staff and understanding the best practices on mtss models and so those two job descriptions will help you know in finding individuals who can support within both of those rounds but this could be one or quickly it could be separated into two different computers yep okay item K is a recommendation to approve the extension of the Peterman Transportation agreement Rhonda spoke to that a little bit in The Firm or update right and um item L is a recommendation to approve the Scarlet cleaning services contract and you can see that is a three year agreement and
148I think we thank you very much for getting both those agreements under um your wraps and um doing a bike job in negotiating a fair and good esthetician system and a five-year contract on the bus is great that's all I have okay it's nice to see that um but just back to the handbooks real quick another question just a comment of being a part of it over the years of really like they weren't as aligned and just a lot of questions on how we did it with language really how hard everybody's worked over the past few years to get those more cohesive I guess over that different great bands and having them read similarly and I think the work will continue and and really even those go back to and should go back to a
149strategic plan that aligns our district right so we'll continue to to be better and better at aligning those tools with the vision of our district [Music] unless it a second and welcome Mrs you yes this is Allard yes Mrs Star Trek Mr bellmeier yes Mr Thomas before okay I do have one more uh recommendation to approve the renewal of a certified limited contract and that is they have a motion to approve so many seconds roll call Mr salary I'm spinning all right yes it's like that Meyer yes Mr Thomas yeah Mrs Gene yes thank you thank you superintendo's update just uh you know it's a busy time of year it's an exciting time of year six weeks to go and it's filled with all kinds of wonderful emotion and I know it's a busy time
150and we're asking for a lot we're asking for a ton of Engagement from folks but really just a reminder that uh that engagement matters to us and it's really important to receive feedback so uh that's why we're hoping that people are able to to find a time if at all possible to come to that that Community cookout tomorrow um go see what uh building a culture through our culture blueprint and talking about art factor is all about right after that uh join us through our primary facility conversations lots to be involved in and we're hoping that those are well attended oops one thing anything else it's only 9 15. anyone else no I keep following in here one thing that we talked about in our finance committee meeting I don't know if you all know
151and correctly if I say this wrong or do we have five bus drivers there's very little turnover they are so good to our students and you know we're really lucky that they want to continue because they're part of the family and I I just didn't think about that we only have five and that they don't need very often we had one leave this year and it was an adjustment but you know so it's great that we have you know our contract with Peterman established because we have a really good group of people supporting our kids to um you know when Scarlet writes no difference they connect with our staff they connect with our students they are part of the team and they get excited about the accomplishments that happen and and that's that's just what
152you wanted the drivers are a super humble little group they would shy away from any form or recommendation we've actually tried to do that yeah and they were horrified so it would have to be we just need to brainstorm some ways that that they would appreciate being recognized yeah yeah in the morning yeah yeah yeah yeah you might even see them at some of our events that they're they take our students to because they March absolutely and they're wearing their Wyoming blue I think absolutely thank you all right well I guess a motion to adjourn is in order yes thank you all right thank you