001Good evening everybody and thanks for coming out to the student services and um curriculum committee meeting tonight. I'll call this meeting to order. If we could please rise for the pledge of allegiance and moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Again, and good evening. Sorry for the delay, but we'll get started here. Um, public comment period number one. I don't see anybody signed up for public comment period number one. What's Oh, so if I could have a roll call, please. Thank you. Mr. Brad Upgrove here. Mr. Roger Upgro >> here. >> Dr. Dr. Reer >> here, >> Dr. Wy >> here, >> Mr. Broofphy, Miss Connor,
002>> Miss Katz >> here, >> Miss Nyman, >> Mr. Penello >> here. >> Six members present. >> All right. So again, uh, no one signed up for public comment period number one. So I will turn it over to Dr. David Heiser. >> Thank you, Dr. Wear. this evening. Uh thank you for joining us this evening. And this evening we have the pleasure uh of a presentation from our director of the office of teaching and learning, Mrs. Stephanie. Uh m Mrs. Stephanie Petri um who's going to talk a little bit about just inform a little bit more about the curriculum review process. We've talked a little about that as well as act 135 alignment. Um, and there's a lot of things here in the next couple of years, uh, related to this act, and we want
003to make sure you're aware of that as we walk and talk through this over the coming months and years to come, um, with some of the changes that were going to be necessary. So, Mrs. Petri, uh, you're going to remain there and engage with us at the table, right? Okay, perfect. >> Yep, that's correct. Um, I just wanted to be a little more informal with tonight's conversation. Um, so at your spots there is a packet, a paper packet of the information that we're going to go through for you to to look at as we discuss um, take notes on. You'll notice you have a pen um, at your spot if there's any notes you want to take for any further consideration or things that you'd like me to follow up on. Um, but really our
004goal uh, today is to provide an overview like Dr. David Heiser said of our ELA curriculum review process, how it's aligned to Act 135, and also to our schoolboard policy to kind of give you an update of what this process looks like. Um, we're going to take some time to review the code related to the updates that were provided in January at the um at our presentation, talk a little bit about structured literacy, um providing some background knowledge of the science of reading and how that is impacting our current curriculum work. um the the work the curriculum team is currently doing and how that is aligned to the science of reading looking at our horizontal and vertical alignment. So ensuring that our students in all classrooms receive the same quality education and those that education
005then is vertically aligned so that skills are growing and building on each other as it's all outlined by the Pennsylvania state standards. And then also uh importantly I want to make sure that I'm communicating this process and how along the the road it will be shared with you and our community so that you're aware of the process that we are working through. So I'm going to start in my second tab which starts the second page of your document. Um just to kind of outline a few things like I discussed and like I said this is a little u more informal with the presentation. So, please stop me if you have a question along the way and we can refer to some of the links that are provided within this document. The first link is a
006just information for you to go to if you felt like you wanted to get a little bit more information about act 135. And in this site, it does outline some of the requirements and resources that are provided to school districts related to professional development. the the process for selecting curriculum materials, for selecting reading intervention materials, and information related to universal screeners. Um, I don't expect that this would be things that you would spend hours on, but I wanted to provide you with this resource in case you wanted some additional information from what the Department of Education is sharing with us and how that guides the decisions that we make. But in act 135, what was outlined is that each LEA, so each school district must adopt an evidence-based reading curriculum. And this will be the
007year one of imple implementation of the new resource that our current curriculum teams are reviewing and working on, which I'll talk through a little bit as we go through this document. We need to identify a lead educator to assist with curriculum implementation. and eleas have the ability to identify what that person who that person is and what that role looks like. Uh we have to adopt a professional learning which is structured to um structured literacy so that every educator receives that training by the 2829 school year. And we need to identify what universal screener we will be implementing in grades K to three three times throughout the school year. And that screener is used to identify any students who have a reading deficiency. We need to develop a plan for that student and then submit
008annual reports to PTE. So that's just a summary that was outlined. Um we did review earlier in the year, but I felt it was important to bring it to your attention again so you know kind of some of the the root cause of the work that we're doing right now. So as we talk about curriculum review, we are in year one. So, the big idea for our review process right now is know where you're uh know where you are before you decide where to go. So, our teams are currently really looking at our current pacing guides and curriculum documents, making sure that there's alignment to the state standards and making sure that we are understanding that alignment to the science of reading and understanding how that is all connected and building our our students as
009literate um and and well-rounded readers. So if you look at on the left hand side, there's an image there and this is actually comes from uh a document provided in your packet. So there's a bigger version of that in your packet if you'd like to see it a little bit closer. But this information is coming from learning to read primer one. So this link is also provided to you if you wanted to understand a little bit more about the science of reading. Um this is provided by a company called Amplify. I'm not going to go through the whole document, but the reason I wanted to share this with you is it really is a nice overview of structured literacy and the science to to of reading and really outlines what that process looks like. Um,
010so that you understand kind of the process we're going through and how we help develop readers at a very young age. So that image that I was talking about really outlines it well. Um, so thinking about how do students learn how to read and how does that start foundationally? Students first need to learn how to decode text. So they need to be able to break apart a word and identify what that word is. If that's multiplied by comprehension of language, that then equals that there's reading to gain meaning. So those are the foundational skills that we are developing in our early readers in K1 and two and being able to help them develop them as future readers as they learn they move through their education. So on February 13th was our first day with our
011curriculum review team. We had about 50 teachers and coaches spread across the district as well as administrators. Um, and we really spent some time defining what structured literacy is and starting to just develop relationships and conversations K to 12 so we can see that progression of skills from one one year to the next. Um, on March 11th, which is tomorrow, uh, we will begin our continue our work and we'll be looking at our standards and our current curriculum guides and starting to draft a vision statement for a for ELA curriculum. So what we're really looking at is and I see my must have hit enter here along the way at some point. Um we're looking at what is our vision of our students as ELA as readers. Um all teachers of English and um reading
012will be doing a curriculum audit using something called the Pennsylvania um Department of Ed's digging deeper guides. So in your packet there is an example of the digging deeper guide and this is just K to2 questions. So if I opened this document it is a very lengthy document. There's multiple areas that you can use to help guide your curriculum work. Our focus for tomorrow are just the questions related to curriculum. So every single teacher will have the opportunity to provide feedback on our current curriculum, where our strengths are, where our needs are, and then we'll be able to take a closer look at that to identify what are the areas that we really want to focus on when we're looking at resources. So we will be able to provide that that input to our teams
013and really take a closer look at that. So the next section that I want you to think about and there are images in your documents is thinking about the process of reading. So learning to decode and then adding comprehension. And I pulled this excerpt out because I think it's a really important piece to kind of understand as we think about our students as readers and also when we think about comprehension. What are the factors that contribute to comprehension? So many students are able to decode words. So they can break apart a word and read it and you understand it. But when you ask them questions about what they've read, sometimes they struggle to be able to tell you that. And when we really dive into the science of reading, a big piece of that is
014background knowledge. So the example that I have in your packet and it's um in these double pages and you can see the image on the overview um is about a study that was done in Wisconsin and it's a small town that they did a an excerpt of reading related to baseball. So in the study they looked at how did students perform on this assessment for comprehension. So when you think about who might have done well, you'd think of course the strong readers would have really done well on the comprehension. Um you'd also wonder students that have a solid knowledge of baseball would do a be able to perform well on that assessment. Um or there might not be a big difference. A strong reader should be able to comprehend that whether they have the background
015knowledge or not. But interestingly when they conducted that study they found that the poor readers who knew baseball did the best in this assessment. So I one of the conversations that we want to have is when we are teaching our students to read the piece we cannot forget is that background knowledge. So we have to remember that not every one of our students comes to us with the same experiences. Not every child has traveled out of our community. So when we are teaching our students to comprehend, we need to make sure we provide those opportunities for background knowledge and if they don't have that background knowledge, the resources or skills of how to find that. So how do they find that information that they don't know? So I shared this study with you because I
016found it really interesting in how we think about the the the text that we choose, how we think about the inter relationship between content. So, how does our reading in the content areas, whether it's science or social studies, connect to that background knowledge? So, when we think about how our students are performing, are we providing them with those opportunities to gain the understanding to understand the context of what they're reading? Are there any questions about the the science of reading pieces and the comprehension? Um, but I I felt it was important that we talked about that a little bit so that you um kind of hear what we're the conversations that we're having at the curriculum level with our teams. Okay. So, as we move forward in our process, um, on May 1st will be
017our final professional learning day for this school year. So at that time the teams will have the react the responses from our digging deeper input from their colleagues. So our team of 50 will look at all of the responses um by grade levels to be able to look at where are the key areas that our students um are doing well where they might need um we need to be looking at filling in some supports, what professional learning might we need. So that time they're really going to analyze that feedback and be able to identify what are some key things that we need to be looking for within our resources. We're going to finalize our belief statement and mission statements related to ELA and then we're going to start to discuss the curriculum review process uh
018excuse me the resource review checklist and process. So, um, the Office of Teaching Learning is currently vetting some resources that were provided by the Department of Education to identify resources that we feel would meet the criteria that we want our teachers to take a closer look at. Um, in on that May 1st meeting, our goal is to have some resources, hard copy resources from the different vendors for teachers to be able to start to take a look at and ask some questions and look at are these resources starting to fill in the the gaps that we may see or address the needs that we're seeing as far as um what our what our students need. So that will be, you know, really give us an opportunity to um start to really paint a picture of
019what some of the our needs are. May 12th is the next education and student services committee. So at that time I will be providing you an update related to what the the some of the overview of what the digging deeper documents have um have gleaned for us as far as our curriculum review process and also an update related to the resources that we're looking at. Um so that you know kind of where we are within the process. In June after the school year is over. We have two curriculum days where the teachers will be back in the building. um to take a look at those the our data and also take a look at our vendors resources a in a in a little bit um more detail. So on June 8th uh we're really going
020to be taking a a deeper look at our data that we have collected over the course of this school year. So taking a look at our local data. We will not have our PSSA or Keystone data at that time but we can look at the data we've collected from our LL diagnostic pieces and look at the trends across the year. um we can take a look at our CDT and Firefly data, look at those trends that we've seen across the year and um make any other um observations related to resources that we may want to be taking a look at. >> We're Yes. >> question um the resources that you are referring to, can you are you talking about >> um reading um curriculum? >> Correct. Are you talking about uh the assessment pieces? >>
021So >> the yeah to clarify the resources um depending on the vendor some of them have a an assessment component built into it. Some of them um have some of the pieces that we use in other um capacities that are embedded into that resource. So, not all of them have maybe an assessment and a a a curricular or resource um like like piece of information. Um most of them have a digital component and a like hard copy component to them. So um and that leads to what's going to happen on June 9th with our teachers. So many of them do though offer some type of assessment piece so that it's aligned to if we're assessing what students are learning to read about, we need to be assessing that comprehension related to the content that they
022read. So most of them have an assessment piece aligned with that as well. >> Is there also a professional development component to it for the teachers as well? >> Yep. Yes. Yeah. So the professional development piece will fall as we're looking to implement would be continuous throughout that 2728 school year because we want to make sure the teachers are supported throughout that year with implementing the new resource. Any other questions about that stop of the process? Okay, >> Mr. What >> if you would just summarize for the board and maybe for those uh listening in public a few sentence of the of this large change that has happened with regard to the science of reading and how is it different from the last >> you know 30 40 years to which we've we've been doing
023something differently and now regulation has come in that um is highly regul ating now for the future the types of resources that are allowable when it comes to reading and the types of programs and actually directing personnel as well in that. So if you could just kind of summarize the big change what what what is the drastic change from what we were using and how we were evaluating to now the diagnostic of what we're doing now with and expected to do with students through the science of reading. >> Yeah. I'm I'm uh skimming through this primer real quick because I don't know if it's in this visual or another one. Um so basically you know what we're looking at um in the past and it's to no one's fault it was this was happening across
024the country um the strategies of teaching reading were teaching um a lot of memorization or like a sentence stem um the dog is and then they would maybe have to identify a a a whatever the dog is doing sitting and the picture would help guide that that reading skill if that makes sense. So there was a lot of sentence stems. So students would learn the sentence stem and help use pictures to guide what that word is that the the dog is doing. Um what the science of reading really is um the difference there is it's really looking at what a child's ability to break apart that word using phonics phmic awareness and developing the foundational skills to so that they're not guessing at words but they're able to attack a word and then as that
025progresses through the older grades we're looking at those Latin and Greek orient um orientations and being able to identify what's happening by understanding the prefix or the suffix of the word and being able to break apart a bigger word. So, it's really making sure that students have the foundational understanding of the those letters and how they are developed as sounds and then as words before putting them into text that they're not guessing, but they're able to really break apart what the words are that they're seeing on the page. Does that make sense? >> Similar to way it was like when I was growing up. >> Correct. So, the science of reading has been around for a long time. Um, so yes, so probably very similar to maybe how some of us have been taught how
026to read. Um, and you know they you might hear in the news about the the reading wars. So there are arguments over different um ways of reading and how students read. And I am going to scroll again because one of the things that I um am very fascinated with is the thing that's connecting now with the science of reading is they are there they're there are neuroscientists that are um putting mats uh and my exact terminology on children's brains on a like a hat and watching at when a child is reading and when they are learning those skills what parts of the brain are activating and then when they are using um that that connecting to prior knowledge when a child is speaking what parts of the brain is activating. So there's now there's a
027lot of um neuroscience that is connecting to the science of reading. So there was a lot of research in many years and now it's um the neuroscience world has really taken that to a whole another um level of research which I find fascinating um to really think about you know what are some some scientifically proven ways that that children read and learn and how can we connect those experiences within our school system. So this this document I keep um going through is linked in your uh in your handout now I did I um which I would encourage you just to look at. It's a it's not anything uh like that that's daunting but it's very fascinating to think about you know understanding that science behind it. then how do we develop our curriculum, our lessons,
028our instruction to support what's really physiologically happening in the brain to make those connections with learning. So you're you're right, Mr. Panell, it's very similar to maybe how you were taught to read. And um the other key piece is that um you know that it's not re that those moments are not in isolation. So if I'm teaching a student to read cat and I'm saying cat, but if I just teach them those sounds in isolation, but I don't connect them to what is a cat, they're that memory. So looking at that those brain scans doesn't move transfer into that long-term memory. So making the connection between the sounds that the students are learning and then providing them the experience to see that in a text helps build that reading capacity. If we learn just the
029sounds and the phone names and all that in isolation, the likelihood of the students transferring that into long-term memory is not as great. But if I teach them those skills and then I provide them with a decodable text that they can break apart those words and see that in a book, they're more likely to develop those skills as a a longer time learner. Does that make does that make sense, too? It's and it a lot of the that science is showing those the the brain firing which is just fascinating. You know, that as they're making those connections and those that then transfers into long-term memory. just just to speak, Mr. Panella, a difference because I think about that too. I've been in education long enough that now I've seen a true cycle of events, but
030I think something that is distinctly different is building that experiential background. And to um Mrs. Petri's point about the baseball example. Um one key component is the ability to actually read and decode the text, but to actually have the comprehension behind it requires experiential background. if you don't have any experience in baseball and the whole text you can decode the word but you don't have any meaning in context. Um so one of I'm going to predict Dr. WY. Um some of the new materials will be very high um in building experience for kids to have that exposure to um language to concepts to different things. Um and I think of it too as like taking science and social studies and those things and embedding that in what reading instruction would be about. And I'm not
031so sure when when we went to school stuff was taught more in isolation. So it's connecting the whole big picture together. So those new materials, I think, are going to really do a wonderful job at building that experience because a lot of our kids today don't have the experiences that, you know, they might have had 20 years ago and going on vacations and all those kinds of things that people might have had exposure to that they they might struggle with that you make an assumption that they have it, but they miss a lot of context behind it. So I think that might be a a big difference that the new programs will have. The other thing just to highlight on June 8th the team will be developing questions for the vendors um because on June
0329th I'm inviting the vendors to participate in an opportunity for for our staff to ask questions to them to take a look at the materials ask about um how it's used excuse me look at the the teacher resources ask questions about the professional learning but the teachers will have an opportunity to actually interact with those vendors and so we can make an informed decision ision about what is the the resource that we feel is best for the Boren area school district and what is the resource that we want to pilot. So during the 2526 school year there will be a select um not all of our curriculum team will be piloting resources but a handful will. Um, and the re the goal of that really is not like by this point we should feel pretty
033confident after reviewing those resources, vetting what our needs are that the resource that we're saying we're going to pilot is the one that we are ready to implement in the 2728 school year. So during the pilot year, the goal really is to identify what kind of professional learning needs will my colleagues need in order to be able to successfully implement this as a a whole group the following year. Are there areas that we do need to backfill with other resources or other um the maybe some of the resources that we have we want to continue to use because we don't feel like a new resource is um getting everything in that com that area that we need. So ultimately that goal is to really look at what are the ins and outs of that resource
034and then how do we put a plan together for really solid implementation during the 2728 school year. During this process the team is also going to be taking a look at um AR 108 AR-0 and is the regulation that is currently in a draft form from PSBA. One of the things we discussed about at the policy meeting uh a few weeks ago and that draft is is very is very comprehensive recommended from PSBA. They have a lot of really um important pieces related to accessibility. So for any of our our vendors that are providing digital resources, there are questions about how are they providing that to us in a way that will be accessible to our students depending on their needs. So that draft is something that will be coming back to all of you
035for potential adoption. Um but we are you know looking to use that as a guide to help us make some decisions related to uh our curriculum. So during the 26 27 school year I've addressed this a little bit um but that begins year two of the curriculum process and that big idea is design and test what excellence looks like in practice. So again, that that team that's piloting will be really testing out the the resource and being able to make sure that we are putting a solid plan together for everyone's implementation the following school year. Um we'll be making at that along that year also need to be making revisions to our curriculum maps. So what is the pacing? What are the the skills that we want the students to know and be able to
036do throughout the year? So, we're making some of those curricular adjustments and um we'll be gathering data based on the students within the pilot and and really looking at what where are what are they learning and are there additional things that we need to be considering as we look up making adjustments to our curriculum plan. The last tab on my document is just the resources of what we've been using to kind of help guide this process. I just wanted to share that with you as a reference. Any additional questions about the process and where we currently are? And I realized there was one other thing I did want to share with you. Do >> you have a question? >> Um I did miss this. Um so June 9th there is a committee of the whole
037meeting. So at that meeting I would like to share with you the resource that we have um that we're we're planning to pilot after the work that the team has done. So, typically that information is provided in advance because we're working ahead, but I don't want to wait to let you know that. So, I'll be able to provide you some kind of a final update uh on the 9th because the 9th is the cow meeting and that's our final meeting for this um particular school year for the the curriculum team. Dr. Wear. >> Oh, you were good. You had on. Yep. >> Sorry. Thanks. Um, so as as we're looking at this new curriculum, these new guides that we're that we're going to have the vendors come in. So we we have some diagnostic tools.
038We use the EXL, we use Firefly, we use Dibbles, all those kind of things. Is that data that we've collected now, are we going to use some of that data into more conversation with those vendors and those resources like um how are those resources going to improve, you know, our our our data sets? >> Yep. Yep. Uh we are so when our teachers are that that that January or excuse me June 8th uh part of our work will be that final analysis of our full year of data and developing questions for the vendors. So if we see in our data a trend that is concerning we want to be able to say to the vendor this is an area of need for us and how can you address that within the resources that you're providing
039to us. So the team will be able to develop those questions to be able to directly ask based on what our specific needs are. >> Now, do any of these resources that we're going to look at the vendors, do they hold any diagnostic tools? And I and I know there there's there's two trains of thought, right? Use the the diagnostic tools from them, but also use a diagnostic tool that's a third party like like our EXL and all those kind of things. I think that that we have to really take a look at the examples of that and have some test data from them. Um, one of the things that part of this process from my end is communicating with the vendors about local districts in with across the state that are using them so
040that I can also do some inquiry with those vendor but other districts using the resource and ask some of those questions because um, you know, especially when you think about you know reading comprehension if we want to assess the students comprehension we need to make sure that we are asking them questions that they've received instruction about, they've received that background knowledge. So the comparison from the the vendor's assessment to an assessment, we have to look at what are what is what's the information we're trying to pull from that and are we providing our students with the appropriate support to be able to answer those questions or the skills to say if I don't know the answer to that, if I don't have that background knowledge, how do I find that. >> Yeah, this is uh
041not I I I kind of put this in a phrase of this is not if, it's how, right? The if is over. The if is we know what's what's required. As I said, this is going to be a highly regulated >> component in schools. Something pretty seismic that we've not seen in quite a long time. We're having to um select resources from a depository of repository of of of literacy resources that have been vetted through um various consortiums at the state and federal levels. We are um going to be required to uh send literacy uh evaluation reports on students that may not qualify at certain levels. So, you know, this is pretty seismic in the change. I think it was really recognized and has been recognized on a national level for many decades of how
042reading itself and the results of reading have trended downward um across the really across the nation. And I think this has become now a very um aggressive approach to it and one that's really been expedited um quite quite rapidly and um written into law, written into code and and you know we're we're we're eager to see and follow this and and see it through. The big pieces are is a real triangulation, right? You've got data, you have your your resources, but you have your professional development. all the three intertwine and how we evaluate the data types of resources we're using we're using and then how um we should be using those resources to the best of our ability through all the training that's going to come with that and then with any new resource. So
043um this is a heavy lift but it's it's an it it's one that really melds well now into the MTSS system as well. So, it's a neat time for it to be um being part of the the learning sphere, so to speak, of of where we are in in today's education. So, we're eager to to really get it going and teachers have been really respondent to um being part of being part of this process. >> And just to add, Dr. David Heiser, you know, next school year is not the implementation year of the new resource, but it is a a really heavy learning year. So, uh, the the office of teaching and learning along with our instructional coaches are really looking at developing a a plan that is consistent across the school year to provide
044the background knowledge, the connections between the shifts of instruction because, you know, like you said, Mr. Panel, this is what you remember, how you remember being taught reading. Many years we have not been doing this. Um, and and it's just been a different school of thought on how reading instruction should be delivered. So, we have to relearn some of those things and and help our our staff feel comfortable with that shift as well. Um, it's nothing that they've done wrong. It's just that um, you know, the the thought of how that instruction should be done. Um, we have more science to show that that going back to those those foundational skills is really where we need to start to build to build that foundational knowledge of reading. The other piece I did want to share
045with you in your packet is um, some like looks like spreadsheets. This would be the this says and it says draft. So you can see the questions that the teachers would be looking at to assess the resources. Uh there's also one that OTL would be looking through and then there's also questions that the vendors would need to answer. So just so you have an idea of how what that draft of that AR um will look like some of those pieces. Um, and the other piece really that is important and I don't want to neglect to discuss is the final CA pages. I think it's at the very back. Um, the the final part of the teacher questions also brings the conversation back to is this re resource aligned to our our goals of a district
046of a portrait of a graduate and is aligned to what we've determined is our instructional model. So those pieces are I'm seeing a page. Is it? It is in there. Okay. I I was afraid it wasn't in the back there. Um so those those are really important pieces that we don't lose sight of as a district. We've we've set that goal for our portrait of a graduate and our instructional model. And um when you read through those, you'll see that they're really important skills and pieces to have within our all of our curriculum. So that final those final questions are making sure that whatever resource we we go with is also supporting what our district goals are and where we want to go um in in regards to our strategic plan in in 2030. >>
047That's everything I have. Yep. Go ahead. I would think that this is certainly going to be a huge uh shift for teachers in uh being able to uh adopt this new culture of teaching because prior to this they've been able to kind of do their own curriculum to some degree. Um >> I think that the the biggest difference is the methodology. Um, so we have a we have a curriculum. We have a resource that we've been using. Um, but I think we've we've seen that we're, you know, we're not getting the results that we would like. And I and I have to wonder, you know, is it that that root cause? Is it truly that foundational piece that's been missing across our country when you look at reading scores? So, you know, I think the
048shift is making those connections for our our primary teachers and understanding those those foundational pieces, but then also having our intermediate and our middle school and high school teachers understand that connection between if a student's struggling, is it that they might be missing some of those foundational um literacy skills or is it that the comprehension they're lacking in the in the background knowledge? And how do we make those connect those dots for our staff to make those instructional decisions to support students? um the fidelity issue I would think would also be a huge concern because we're you know we're creatures of habit and certainly teachers um those that have been teaching reading for years have developed uh an understanding and a practice of how to do that. So, it it really is a huge shift
049to take on the fidelity of this and trusting that um it it will come through. >> And that's an excellent point. And one of the things that we're also doing is supporting our building leaders in this shift. So, the building principles are also um having conversations about reading instruction looks like. We're um you know doing a lot of work around our evaluations and what are the looks, what are the things that we should see. So our building administrators are also a part of this process so that they can help support that transition in their buildings. >> Mrs. P you while we have uh a few minutes why don't you update the board and this was not on the agenda but a little bit on the uh latest uh law that was >> placed into with
050regard to cursive writing. >> Yes. So um cursive writing did pass um and the legislation is is saying that it must be taught starting the 2728 school year. Sorry. Yes. Thank you. 2720 is is the ELA uh resource 2627 school year which is next year. Um, most of our second grade buildings are doing some type of cursive instruction, but part of this process will be me communicating with our teams to talk about what does this look like in connection to our ELA and writing instruction. So, writing is a part of reading, right? So, it's not isolated. So, how do we connect that? What does that look like beyond that second grade piece? So, we will be looking at what does that look like for us. Um, I anticipate the state will come out with some
051more guiding documents related to uh recommended like kind of scope and sequence of timing or what the expectations are. Right now, it's a very um kind of generic statement that cursive writing must be taught in all in public schools starting next school year. So, it doesn't delineate how often, how long, how much. Um, but that is up to our discretion and how we want to build that into our curriculum. Thank you for your time. I look forward to our May meeting. >> Yeah. Any other questions from the panel, from the board? No. Okay. All right. Moving on. Uh public comment number two. There is no one for public comment number two. Uh upcoming meeting dates. Um, we have one on May 12th, 2026 is the Education and Student Services Committee meeting. We'll meet again uh
052here in the ED center at 6 PM and adjournment. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Huh? All in favor? I meeting is adjourned. Thank you.