001Um, it is 5:13 p.m. and we're going to go ahead and get started. At this time, I'll convene in open session this meeting of the Arlington IT Board of Trustees on April 23rd, 2026. The first item on tonight's agenda is a priority 3 workshop on safety and discipline. Um, Dr. Smith is coming back from a meeting and we have a couple trustees who are representing us in different capacities, also running late, but we're going to go get started tonight and so I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Thomas. >> All right. So trustees, we're excited to come to you tonight to do a workshop on safety and discipline. Several times over the course of the year, we have brought data regarding safety and discipline, but what we really want to do tonight is to engage
002you in some dialogue and to get some input from you. You know that this will continue to be part of our strategic plan and we've been having lots of conversations about what our goals look like moving forward and so we're excited to talk with you more. So over Dr. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Collins and the Ch. uh appreciate the opportunity to be here to actually discuss this and have a lot of dialogue about it this evening. Uh first I want to start off by introducing some guests. You may or may not know Travis Nim for research and accountability. >> Welcome Lopez for research and accountability. Uh you all know Dr. Jar Cove OSL and Kina Henson, director of student services. They're all integral part in in pulling this together. Of course I can't.
003>> Yeah. Thank you. So all right. So we'll get right into it and uh I will kind of reenter a few times about this. Uh this is just a snapshot of where we are in time that we progress through the years. Uh and discipline in itself uh while the data will look uh to be progressing in the right way, it will never be where we want it to be because it's just we want it to be perfect. And we know in a system with as many kids we have, as many varying whatevers we have, it it's going to be some challenges. But what we try to look for is trending in the right direction. And so we'll we'll try to get right into that and review some of that. So again, provide you overview of
004where we are with regards to safety and discipline. Again, this is our safety and discipline priority. We're really looking at this uh KPM on increasing the procedural effectiveness score. And again, this is the challenge with this is that this is a lab measure and that we only get to see it at the end of the year once the survey is completed. However, we put things in place throughout the year that we feel like will really impact this, but we won't know truly the outcome until uh until the survey is completed. What we can measure though is how how much uh fidelity do we have with regard to the things that we put in place and that that's where we we try to get our lead measures with. So, uh just a little bit about foundation.
005We all know this Texas education code sets out what we must do with regard to student discipline. And that's in chapter 37. That's all the legal requirements. TPA gets a little bit farther and talks about what we should do and provide school districts guidance on how to uh implement what the law says. And then Arlington ISD gets a little bit deeper to talk about how how we might do what is required. A lot of this will come to you and in and earnest as board with uh code of conduct and things and things like that that you actually uh voted approved. Uh just a little bit about safety and discipline. Uh we've had a lot of discussion internally about what's the difference in that and really parsing them out to make sure that people understand
006that they are two separate different things. And safety is there on uh about creating intentional being intentional by creating school learning environments for students and staff to thrive. And that's what we're trying to do with regard to safety and how we do it. Just three bullets of many other things that are in place with regard to how we do that. threat assessments, clear protocols for emergency responses and installation and updates of physical security measures. That's the safety part of it. There's this psychological safety is another one, but there's this harsh physical safety is another piece and we really need to look at it through those legs. And then discipline is basically a structured system of behavioral expectations that we try to implement with fidelity across all campuses, across all grade levels. And that's the challenge.
007But that's what discipline is in general. Uh how we maintain these safe and working environments for students uh to learn and staff to do their best work. And then how we do that again is setting the uniform expectations and consequences across the system. You know, we got 70 plus campuses and the challenge is consistent across all campuses uh where we may uh have some opportunity. So with that being said, just what do you see that might be missing from what we define safety and discipline as and then what do you see as maybe these are good points that we may we need to try to accelerate. So just in general dialogue with us is just just one little feedback. Can >> I ask you a question Dr. Hill? >> Yes. When we talk about consequences,
008are the consequences the same for a student who does something in elementary and a student does the same thing in high school like like you know um bringing a gun or or something or or the way they act, you know, is there depend on their age group. >> So that that's it's kind of yes and uh consequences for certain behaviors. I mean the state TV ed education code chapter 37 says you shall if you do this then you shall have these consequences and most of the time those are felony offenses and things like that on or off campus. There are other consequences where we use what we call progressive discipline and that is basically is this your first time that's doing that or is this your second time or how widespread or how much disruption
009did this first or second time incident cause. So there could be situations and here's a challenge but then there could be situations where administrators at this uh issue different discipline for the exact same incident but it may be my fourth time doing that and it may be your first time doing and so that's why we use this progressive discipline matrix to try to get there when there's flexibility uh that allow for the administrators. >> Okay. So a fight in elementary would be the same consequences as a fight in high school. Let's say if it's your first and your first, would the consequences be the same? >> It could be. And again, there are always some things that I I I hate to get to extremes because there are IEPs and things like that that may
010or may not be in play, but in general, uh when there's uh progressive discipline, we try to start at the lowest level >> for all of when we can. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I liked the definitions on the last slide. I appreciated how you said they're they're word there are it's safety and discipline are two different things and even though um an escalation in discipline issues does threaten safety in a lot of cases they are two separate things. So I I think that that was >> all right we'll keep keep moving. So uh we all know like legislation every time they meet the legislators meet something changes and uh whether it's academics behavior or discipline and all uh we feel that in every uh aspect of the organization. Uh we feel like we have
011a good legal foundation a strong foundation for these things but again the code keeps changing and we have to respond to that. Most recently, House Bill Six builds on existing law and increases expectations around prevention, threat assessment, and coordinated responses. And what you'll see in the data is that while things may be the same, the law requires so much more attention to reporting. And so it may feel like things are getting a little bit more heavy, things are are getting, you know, uh, worse or whatever, but the law requires much more reporting now. And so it could be the same number of things that are happening, but last year we didn't have to report on it. This year we have to and it's just that field. So as an example, teacher removals in school suspension,
012out of school suspension, all of these were come as a part of House Bill 6, the changes from the from the most recent session. Uh just kind of glance over that a little bit and see if there are any questions about it. In school suspension, as an example, allows for extended inschool suspension where in the past there was only a set number of days that an administrator could administer school suspension. Uh but now it's it's unlimited with 10day increments with the constant followup. That's the part that we have to have that constant followup to check in to see make sure that the student is continuing to get uh get the academic uh structures and supports that they need. The real balance is when appropriate removing a situation or a student that is causing a disruption
013from the learning environment so that learning can continue. However, trying to balance it and say breath this student that caused that needs to be educated as well. And that's that's the balance right there. But we don't want to sacrifice learning for all because of behavior for one. try to remove that one from the setting, you need to know, mitigate it, help him or her out, and then get back in the setting when they're ready to go back. >> What do we do if a child is going to be in in school suspension? If they have an IEP that says they have to have an an aid or somebody with them, does that aid stay in ISS with that student? >> To the extent that is possible, we still have to implement the IEP. And so
014there may be an aid assigned or it may not be that aid but it may be an aid in there to give them that that continued support to that continuing house six changes. Uh the campus behavior coordinator uh the threat assessments is another one that is huge. Uh changes in the student code of conduct for first time nicotine and cigarette offenses. Uh ecigarette offenses as an example. you will see uh we see that there's a spike in that because now the state says that that is if especially if there's TAC in it that is a felony. So we see those cases going up uh tremendously. Uh the new return to class plan if the student's been uh removed from class teacher has to be involved in that return to class plan to make sure that
015there's seamless transition and that the uh disruptions that whatever caused that student to be removed from class uh is addressed. and law enforcement notifications is uh is is continued to be a problem. So now we're going to take a look at some discipline data and again these are these data sets that Travis and his team helped pull for us. Keep in mind there are many other data sets that we could have pulled and we still can but we thought that these were some high lever data sets or some high visibility ones that would be uh good to look at now but again if there's others that we want to pull then all mean we want feedback. So we look at threat assessments and we're looking at 23 24 school year 24 25 and current year
016through the data was pulled on March 13th. And so you can see in the elementary level the threat assessments the junior high level the threat assessments and the high school level the threat assessments. What we're looking at is a trend line with the exception of elementary and junior high in those two cases the trend lines seem to be going decreasing. And so what does that mean? Does that mean that uh there's less reporting? Does that mean that there are less threats? What does that mean? We try to look at bottom line, but then we also look at like what's what's the driver behind that? And we truly believe that that some of the things that we're implementing that you'll see on some of these later slides lead to this data uh training and wages. Uh
017fighting and bullying by campus level. fights on the left, bullying incidents on the right. You can see that trend line again continues to show a downward trend with regard to all of our uh incidents. >> Is that for elementary school? >> Except for elementary school. >> No. So what do you do we think what is the reason behind that? >> We really don't know. Uh what we do feel like though is that again there was a change in legislation and the whole thing about bullying that term just kind of blew up. It it was kind of used a lot and so what we find ourselves doing is uh whether a parent calls in or student calls in that word bullying is it's a trigger and so we're having more of those to to investigate and
018we feel like that it could be that could be some of the things that are going on in elementary. We also tightened up we also tightened up um our bullying committees um that we did each campus and again I can't speak to high school and junior high often times that will have an impact on actually there's actually better reporting and more opportunity for corrective action because we're identifying some things that may have been kind of um a moment of >> normalizing norm yeah normalized that may have been normalized like it's it's being elevated. There was an intentional effort at all of our all levels of schools, but that may again these are all just theories, but that may be a part of it as well. >> Well, and that's kind of actually what I was
019wondering about is now that we talk to kids more about what is bullying, what does it look like? What does they and kids in my opinion have more of a voice than we've ever heard before of speaking up and saying where before they might have so and so picked on me or so and so, but now they're using that term because they have been educated. So I wonder if it goes up just because of education >> and maybe that actually an increase is a better result identifying and handling the situation >> and you mentioned student voice. You will see that as one of the things that we're really hyperfocused on and then I want to add one other point here with regard to what could be potentially there the law change and they require an
020ease of reporting. So we have to make it front and center and we have to educate students and parents on how you can report that whereas in the past that wasn't there. So all of these are theories as to what may be leading to that in elementary but in general it's trending in the right way. Now I will say like for instance in high school it doesn't mean that we've only had five n or four bullying cases. It means that we probably had many more that are basically violations of the student conduct code of conduct possibly but not bullied. These are the ones that actually went through the the uh checklist and yielded an outcome of both. So, OS OCS ISS homebased again the same thing. Uh you see here on the ISS placements, we
021believe that again a new law change with the uh away for day uh use of cell phones and technology. We believe that that could be the trigger as to why that that increase in in uh OSS and ISS placements uh in the high school could be. Again, we're trying to implement the new law and to the best we can keep kids in a learning environment and in school for for the officer. But for the most part, suspensions are trending in the right way. um data system. So here's just kind of how we compare with the state and the region. And so we'll just kind of orient to this. So the first uh charts up top dealing with uh fighting as a district. In 23 24 we had 894 fights. We decreased to 722 which is
022a decrease in 19%. If you look at the region, region 11, they had a decrease of 11%. And if you look at statewide, there was a decrease of 4%. And so, while all of them are trending in the right way, some of the things that we're doing here have us trending in a much more aggressive or positive rate. And the same thing with bullying, 20%, 5%, and 10 across the state. And again, this is not AISD data. Travis, you may want to speak to this if you want to, but he pulled this straight from uh TEA and region 11 data sources. So, >> yeah, that's where the region and the state data comes from. that we've looked at. Obviously, we don't have 25 26 yet because the state hasn't reported that and we haven't looked
023that up yet either. But what we can have access to comparatively to what you saw in the previous slides, you kind of see there um the more positive rate of change for AISD compared to people around us as well as at the state level. >> Uh same thing here with regard to OCS, ISS placements and home bases. home base. We're at on the top one uh 15% change versus a 2% region and a 5% at the state and home base. 31% change versus a 10% region and a uh 9% across the state. So again, everything is trending uh toward there's some improvement that's happening with regard to safety and discipline in our schools. So at this point, I'm going to turn to Dr. Lopez and she's going to talk walk through this uh student uh
024experience and wellness well-being index or SUI as she calls it. >> So each year you all know that we give um an annual districtwide student survey and that's comprised of a variety of items across three domains or categories and that is um three categories are academic development, social emotional well-being and then school culture and climate. And so based on the student responses, we are able to calculate this metric, the student experience wellbeing index. Yes, we call it the SUEI. Um it's a comprehensive measure and it's designed to assess various dimensions of the student experience in those three categories. So what you can see is for the 2025 school year, our CB score is a 2.8. That's on a four-point scale and that's an improvement from the prior year. So it was already it was up
025across uh for the overall for the district and that actually occurred across all levels of the district. So it wasn't just in one pocket. So elementary, junior high and high school all in uh fed into that overall district increase. Um what we what we see from research is that a better student experience is typically associated with lower discipline. So um not getting into a cause and effect relationship there but generally speaking the better the student experience the lower the discipline outcomes. So we'll now move into um just some specific growth spotlights related to the Sunni and just the student uh survey particular items. So 65% of our campuses with two years of data experienced that sui growth from 24 to 25 school year. So well over the majority that's fantastic. So, it wasn't just that
026the levels each grew, but the majority of campuses within each of the levels grew. Um, recall that I said it was a fourpoint scale. So, when you look at these campuses here on this first table, what you can see is their 24 sooie, their 25 sooie. So, Duff Elementary had 510 of a point of growth in their SUI score from one year to the next out of four points. So, that is that's large um and extremely significant. and Frell Key and Patrick also were highlighted because they have a 410 growth. Michael's going to talk about some intentional strategies that the campuses implemented um with their students in order to better that experience that led to them reporting that they had a better experience on the student survey descriptor items specific to kind of safety and
027discipline beyond the campus level. Um, specific items reported were that had a positive increase were three specific things. I'm good at managing my feelings. Kids at my school are kind and treat each other with respect. And then verbal bullying, which means saying mean things or teasing is a big issue at my school. So, just want to note this one has growth positively, which you might think, well, you don't want her belonging to increase. It's a reversecoded item. So the growth that you see means less verbal bullying is occurring. And so these three specific items are more related to this kind of safety and discipline umbrella. So it's good to see the increase there and then the increase overall of the campus level. some of these internal factors that might be impacting the discipline um outcomes
028and then the external factors of the school environment also related directly to a positive student experience um which again lead ideally to experience. >> All right, any questions from Natalie on this just research? while chewing. Natalie, thank you for clarifying that last collectively. Everybody just kind of leaned forward and like, "Hey, wait a minute. That doesn't make sense." >> Thank you. >> So, we're highlighting during >> and it's great that we look at the positive. >> Can we also see data at some point? What do other scores that maybe didn't have that massive improvement but were either at the bottom or maybe did not go in the positive that way? because I want to make sure we're not just looking at the southeast side. >> As a followup, this is on our PowerBI. We need
029to look at >> but I mean there are like you mentioned there there is growth and then sometimes there is decline and so um what what might be um impacting the growth is the fact that if you look at these 24 student scores they are pretty low on that two or that four point scale which might have been why they were able to experience the growth. In addition to the very intentional out of uh tracking implemented by the principal, I think well I don't they we reached out to them and we asked and they they were kind of surprised a little disappointed by the results for 24 and so they they put it in their campus improvement plan and intentional efforts and then the campus staff um was supported in the things that they did
030to then drive this score. And then if you look these two campuses in particular are above the the district average. So, and these are just kind of right there beneath it. So, >> but yes, there would be I mean certainly the PowerBI report could show you there are those that are not showing that problem. >> The same. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Brett, do you want to add a little bit about what we do in reviewing student and it it same thing applies to staff data when we did the surveys with our principles. So, um, one of the the pieces we work through, um, whenever we get all of our data in preparation for our canvas improvement plans is we we do deep dive data dives, um, on exactly the kind of things that you're
031you're talking about, for and now team does a great job highlighting some of the places where we did see exemporary growth and and having some conversations about what what were those things that they did um to to show that growth so that principles are hearing other principles about what that looks like. Um so it's it is it's um you you treasure what you measure um and measure what you treasure and so we we believe that the data we bring forward um is important and we need to monitor it and continue to look for it to grow. >> All right. Thank you. We'll continue. So what we want to work on now or just try to have a little dialogue and dialogue on is basic communication and storytelling. We see what the data says. I mean
032the data says what it is and to your point there are some other data sets that may not tell this story but as a system and when you look at it even compared to the region in the state that that is what it is perception versus reality. And so despite all the data showing that the improvements of sage and discipline uh you know there's still this this horror about that out in the community about hey this is not what y'all say it is. this is not good. And so what shapes perceptions of safety and discipline in our schools for our students, staff, and our community? What can we do to continue to uh impress or improve upon that? There is this thing about perception versus reality. Isolated incidents amplify impact. We know that if one
033big incident happens, you can have had a great year and one thing happens and then you have this stigma about it. So information can spread quickly. uh communication mediums uh channels media amplifying individual events and influencing the broader perceptions. We know in the advent of social media the word can get out before the facts can get out. Uh evolving expectations again we talked about it earlier the changing the law including house bill 6 requires schools to respond earlier and more formally. And so from a teacher's perspective, it may be that I've got to report all of this stuff where it's the same stuff that was previously happening, but now not now that I have to report it these new laws, it may feel like it's more. And then increased reporting, documentation, clear expectations, and more
034consistent practices ensure that the behaviors are addressed and documented in a uniform way, which is kind of what you alluded to earlier was found across the system. So uh how we do it at Arlington ISD. If perception does not always reflect reality, it is important to understand what is driving the outcomes that we are seeking. These improvements are the results of intentional systems, consistent practices, and a district-wide commitment. Districtwide commitment to creating this. I think Rick mentioned it earlier in that when this data is presented to the principles just like academic data they dive in and see what's root cause what can we do intermediately to to address these things and so it's it's a systemwide approach so so we talked about in Arlington ISD how we do several campuses have demonstrated the greatest improvement
035in the sooie by implementing these things and these kind of align with our district priorities and our values and beliefs uh that were intentionally or unintentionally. It's just good practice. Here's where we are. Culture belonging. And there are some campuses that they are dogging about. I want every teacher, every administrator, greeting students in the hallway to good morning every day. And that is you walk in the buildings and you see it, you feel it. uh the skill building weekly lessons through guidance and counseling or otherwise that talk about how do you build uh muscle memory around the the right way to handle uh disagreements or whatever it's just directly intentionally about that student voice I think is what I was talking about earlier students now are more equipped with how to articulate or how to
036advocate for themselves and that's intentional that's not that's not by chance uh We did a survey with Tyne and her group that went out to campuses earlier and talked about the student experience and and talked to students about what it is that you're experiencing, what what could be better, what could, you know, what could things be. We're actually getting ready to launch, we talked to athletic coordinators this morning, getting ready to launch a a student athlete uh experience survey basically to hear from the student athletes about what they're experiencing all in an effort to understand this and move the needle in the right. Uh collaborative staff um PLC's uh they have uh discussion at PLC's about behavior as well. It's not just all academics uh when when appropriate. And then this positive reinforcement uh student
037growth, student effort and character and action. Kind of related to this, Miss Henson uh with her team were out with Aaron Carllis in the family community engagement actually doing a workshop to parents about student to try to really be concrete about how parents can take what we're trying to install in school and and extend that beyond the school walls so that the students are hearing the same thing. TJ might be able to talk a little bit about like we're we're starting to work with the behavior team and with our counseling department on this this notion of the second the second section now both that skill building intentional skill building. Um can you talk a little bit about character strong how we're we're prep we've done this year and what we're prepping for next. >> Yeah
038absolutely. So that collaborative the staff piece and the positive reinforcement piece up there I think are super important. We've just been really working to try to build capacity across all of our schools um to make sure that students um are having proactive services through you know carriage strong and we've increased the number of lessons I think last time I checked by a couple thousand lessons across the system like five to seven and usage is continuing to go up. That's because we've got a team of people um as one part of a much bigger system that are building capacity at the campuses. They're there to serve um principles and teachers and leaders, but also there to serve there and build capacity around the different teams that are at the campus like a level one PBS team
039and 10 teams that we're working with as a pilot for level two an effort to to make sure we're building capacity of the people on the campus which you know goes back into that professional learning also into both the proactive and the reactive. you know, we got to get the kids that are in that tier one, but then we also have to make sure they're reacting. They don't do what's right in the building capacity to do that. It's one small piece of a much bigger project, but um that work has involved counseling. It's been crosscurricular, cross departmental continues to get better each week and each day. >> Can I add something, Dr. Hill? So the culture of belonging, that's one of those things that you visitors feel when they when they visit a school. And
040the more you walk around and the more the more people, kids and adults, the more people you interact with, you can really gauge like, you know, you can feel that culture of belonging that's going strong through school. And I've just heard such positive feedback from our campuses that have been doing eager in me. I think that's given a lot of our campuses a toolkit that has helped every adult in the building be have a really solid strate set of strategies to create that uh and sustain that culture of belonging >> and I I think to that to that point I think that that leader in me does if if leader me has has a lot of components and one of the things that we're evaluating right now Sarah because um they're very they have one
041there very aggressive people sell leader in me >> and so you can kind of surface level leader in me and and it doesn't quite have to be the same feel but I totally agree with you when it's strong and deep in campus it's strong deep and it like kids are greeting you all the time and they can talk about their agendas and stuff so just I just want you to know that we're it's one of the things we're talking about is we're not a leader in the district but if if campus is going to do it then we're going to do it and and so and if we're it's just surface level we're actually pull back a little bit because we also don't want dist distractions if if it's not something we're going to be
042able to do. That's some of the conversations. >> Is leader and meat and capturing kids hearts the same thing? >> No, >> it's not the same thing, but there are some. >> Sure. Sure. There's definitely a vin diagram with sure. The the leader in me takes all the the Steven Cubby seven habits. Okay. And teaches them kid with kid-friendly language. Um what they both have in common is student leaders. um the notion of this line from well you got before you can capture their mind you got to capture their heart and so there's a lot of teacher training with it leader to me is very kid kid leader focused >> well your greetings and engagement made me think trusty Haynes and I are going to go tomorrow to Fitzgerald and we're doing fist bump Friday
043and they invited us to come out and they greet all their kids walking in on Friday with fist bumps Right. I was like, "Yeah, we can do that." >> Get ready for sore knuckles. Some of those elementary kids take that serious. >> Yeah. >> When you talked about how some campuses are taking that really seriously, that's Gerald comes to mind. >> The intentionality behind. >> Yeah. >> So again, safety and discipline, they are different yet they all lead up to how we do it within Arlington ISD. On the left side, you just just see four or five uh opportunities of some of the things that we do to address uh safety, whether it been threat assessment team on campus security, SRO's or physical updates or the intruder detection audit. All of those are hardens physical
044safety things. And then on the dis on the right side with the discipline just four or five of some of the things that we do because there are many many more uh including guidance and counseling and athletics and fine arts and all those things that are involved that that uh yield that. But again, all we're trying to do is to create a safe and productive learning environment through which kids and staff can do their very best. We know that I mean despite how much we really want it just to not be an issue, the reality of it's going to be an issue uh because we're dealing with undeveloped minds of young kids and and they're they're doing what they do. Uh what we've got to do is try to put a structure in place to
045kind of help them navigate the right way and train this data toward the right way so that this doesn't impact negatively what's going on in the classroom. Any ads uh schools are becoming less safe. The reality is the data shows different uh nothing has been done about discipline. Reality is we have structures and systems in place that are aligned to to address that method incidents are being ignored. The reality is reporting and responding systems are stronger than they've ever been because the data is there. Yes, sir. >> I one other TJ if you can talk. We just had a couple members of our behavior support team um Marie our um principal supervisors on this notion that second one right nothing's being done about this one of the areas where we're seeing some real struggles is
046in our with our youngest learners and they're coming to school and it's it's a struggle and it's a struggle about that the other day >> yeah exactly and so TJ can you talk a little bit about some of the things we're we're trying system to support that. >> Yeah. So for early childhood, you know, we have different groups in our in our school district, whether it's special education, early childhood or behavior support folks. And we know we try to make sure they're young, youngest of kids are coming to school um successfully, ready to engage in a classroom. Sometimes they're not. So what process do we engage in where everybody is working together as a team whether it's special education, early childhood behavior support and to build capacity with those that have to engage with that
047kid every day and have the opportunity to to get better. So it's the idea of you know developing a process we spent about 6 months on when we curricul to elementary that clearly gives the elementary staffs and um principles and their leadership teams guidance on what process they would follow, what steps they would need to take. Everybody has to be a team from the classroom teacher to the administrator to the special ed to the early childhood special ed to our support team members. They all have to work together in team to help build the capacity around that kid. That's the idea around it to help make sure you shape. >> It's an actual flowchart as I recall that that because a lot of times our our principles and leaders have a and they're not sure
048like what do we what do we do? Should special education be involved or not? So actually flowcharting it out um yeses and nos and and who to call just in terms of that's an example of a system that we're we we're getting into place. It's a clear need and we need to have decision. >> Here's I'm going to add one thing. When you have free prek for all in a district, guess what? You get more of prek behaviors because you have more kids like and we've done a good job of expanding that. We just also need to remember, we know what the data says nationwide during this time about students that are four years old that are coming out of CO that they they had a different experience during that time. So, it it is
049natural when you add more prek, you get more prek behaviors, too. And we're just trying to equip our staff to work well in that. >> All right. So again, uh, want to thank the team over here, Travis, Natalie, TJ, Patina, Brett. Appreciate y'all, uh, pulling all this together. Again, a holistic view of what we're trying to accomplish and and trying to make trying to help tell the story that the reality isn't what sometimes is perceived to be. So, just discussion, questions, or anything. Matt, turn it back to Jennifer to close it off. >> So, one of the things that we struggle with a little bit is what do you want us to measure? And we think we've got some pretty good measures and things that we're looking at in all of this. But we also
050know you as trustees are the ones that hear some of these things and you hear well nothing's being done about discipline. You hear that lefth hand column over on the that last chart u and you hear some of these things. Our data that we've been tracking shows different than these things. Are are there other things that you're hoping that we would be measuring? Because we feel like this is a priority of important and we're going to continue measuring progress in this, but this is an opportunity for you to weigh in. If you have a different way for us to look at measuring these things, it's a great opportunity for us to think about that. Now, I wonder if there's a way, of course, without any names, but students who used to be a a real
051problem, could we measure from that point to where they are now? And hopefully we've seen better behavior and less office visits and all of that. I just wonder >> like a case study progress, >> like the story of the student as they go up to grade levels. I think that would be a great one of the things that that we have it's called acidivism and that's how many you offend once do you and then you put these measures in place do you offend again >> and so we have that information we can pull that and >> okay >> I would oh sorry >> yeah I was going to concur that I would definitely be interested in that >> one thing I was going to say and I was thinking this um earlier when we were
052talking about the elementary versus junior high versus high trends and we saw um surprisingly um some more bullying situations at the elementary or reporting at the elementary level. And I I was just thinking since we're exploring the sixth grade move potentially. It would be really interesting to see how sixth graders fall on some of those indicators and how that compares to seventh and eighth graders and also the rest of the elementary school >> findings. I think that'd be interesting. >> That sixth grade cohort versus the rest of the city and not heads over there. We something we can sixth grade results could differ once they are in a different um said. >> Mhm. >> So, >> but we can see what >> Yeah. I just think it' be interesting to see >> So, here's one
053thing I have heard twice, well, repeatedly on the campaign trail from somebody. >> Oh, yeah. >> Is teachers are not reporting incidents. >> That's why it's gone down because teachers don't want to report because we do nothing. How can we combat that narrative? Because in my opinion and the way I understand education as a non-educator is we are required to report those things like you're actually not doing your job if you don't report it. How can we combat that narrative that's being told to the community? >> So I think there's two things in place. One, the the data that Michael showed you on the charts, we're not measuring in our key progress measure the reduction in number of incidents or discipline. >> That's not what we're saying. The Archie progress measure is arching progress measure
054is actually how do teachers perceive our responses to this and that is improving as well. This what you're getting a a background of is all the other data that we monitor and look at but our job isn't to say we're lowering discipline referrals. In fact I with with 51,000 kids we are going to have discipline referrals. We're it's it happens. It's how we work through those things. And the question is on the staff survey, Natalie, can you remember how we how we phrase those key things for the safety and discipline measure? >> Is there four items and them up right now? >> Well, Natalie's pulling that up, but that's Brooklyn. That's the exact reason why we didn't put a key progress measure in to say we're just measuring the reduction in the number of discipline
055referrals or the number of incidents. We're actually measuring what are the what's the teacher perception on our campuses because that's what we're trying to address. Do we think that if all of this stuff should go down? Yeah, we have the right systems in place. It should go down. But that's that's why that's the key. >> Thank you. So the there's actually four items that um are calculated in order to create the factor score which is procedural effectiveness and that's under the camp safety working conditions domain. So the four items in procedural effectiveness uh factor I'm confident I know exactly what to do in a lockdown threat or hazard inside the school building. My campus is functioning functioning collaborative approach to discipline that provides adequate support for safety issues. my campus leaders ensure safe campus conditions
056and then the campus approaches to discipline issues are sufficient. So by taking a look at those things, you're looking at both the like the external safety things, the threats against the school, but also are they getting the support from a teacher perspective and staff perspective, from the administrative lead, do they have the right systems in place and is the administrative team supported? And I think another factor, and I'm not trying to blame teachers because we're teachers, but I wonder if there's a way to study, are more referrals done by newer, younger teachers compared to teachers that are, you know, more established than >> experienced. >> Yeah. Experienced because I know as an older teacher, I can I can give those looks or I can say, "Okay, stop." And they do. But sometimes with inexperienced newer
057teachers, they test it and they test it. And I wonder if that could be a factor with this. Also, >> I definitely think that was some of uh an impact from some of our data in the past. Remember, we had a large expansion of number of teachers who didn't go through teacher prep programs even that were in our classrooms over a number of years and you get some of that in all of those prep programs. So, I do think that that is part of all of this. Um what I can that I can also promise you is when our staff, our campus administrators are working through an evaluation process and visiting classrooms, those classroom management systems that are in place in a in a classroom that the classrooms that don't have those systems in place
058hands down are the most referrals always, right? You have to be able to manage a classroom well and there are campus administrators who are always looking for that. In fact, I knew this for a fact because we just went over chart too long ago. >> I think it would be important to have a mentored teacher close to a new teacher, >> you know, and that way if there's something going on, they can, you know, go next door and I can't get them to stop doing. And I think that's something that that I don't I'm not sure all campuses do. I know my my daughter-in-law at Lamar there's a teacher next to her that has more experience and you know if something's going on like there was kid with vape anyway so she went next door
059and said you know come help me I've never experienced this and she went right in there and and took control of it >> totally agree with that that collaborative nature of teachers matters >> it's needed so I was wondering is this time that we would talk about adding a question to the KPM and the one that the question that I would have is not knowing the phrasing but to say something about do you feel like you are able to provide an effective educational environment without distractions of discipline something asking because we talked about safety lockdown security has those things but do you feel like you can teach effectively mitigating the the behaviors in the classroom >> I don't know what the appropriate way to word that is but I would be curious if they feel
060like they have the tools they need. >> I think Natalie's taking notes. We can explore that. I don't know about timing it because this would be you're asking for a survey question, correct? >> Right. Could it be added in the future? Not now, but just in the future. Is that something that can be looked at? Because >> it's good that you know what's new down here during a lockdown. It's good to know that those things. But what about just the everyday features? >> You know, the only reason I say is our staff survey is currently out right now for our teachers to respond to. wouldn't be able to change it for this year, >> but I hear I hear Natalie's uh keyboard clicks. So, uh we will absolutely expose some >> because it is discouraging
061when you hear people out in the community that don't know that, oh, it's terrible. Teachers are leaving every day. Y'all's disciplined. Y'all don't do anything about it. The kids are just No, that's not true. But, you know, you get some of those out in the community and it kind of spreads. And so, I don't know. >> It's hard to, you know, one of the reasons we changed to the state of the district event that we had this year is we realize we have a population of our community that doesn't get to see in our schools. Cuz when you walk schools, you go, "Oh, wow. I'm walking a 30,000 student high school and there's nothing >> crazy going on in every hall." But on Facebook, you hear how crazy it is. And it's often people who
062haven't been in schools for a while. >> I think we just have to keep telling the story, keep monitoring the things that we're monitoring from a board perspective. Hopefully, we're providing you with the right information. So when people say to you, you say, you know, over the past 2 years, we've received numerous reports and we keep showing trending things and we monitor actually the teacher perception in all of this. So, I can promise you we're interested and we're addressing things, but what you're saying doesn't match up with the experience that we're having. Um, and we'll keep plugging away at that, but we need more people in our schools to see what's going on cuz our teachers and staff are knew. >> Yes, it is. >> Anything else for Michael? >> No, this was good, Michael.
063>> Yeah. Thank you. So we'll plan on as we're writing our improvement plan. So again, part of this feedback was to give us feedback as we're looking at targets and things for next year. We're going to continue monitoring staff perception uh is probably a key progress measure in all of this and we will continue using these data points along the way and explore some of the things that you mentioned in the workshop. >> Okay. All right. It is 601 and at this time we will recess and reconvene into close session in the board chambers pursuant to sections 551.071 through 551.084 and 551.09 of the Texas government code in accordance to the Texas meeting act for this topic set forth on our agenda. >> Thank you all.