Board Meeting 10-13-25

001All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's get going here. I'd like to call this meeting of the West Alice West Milwaukee School Board to order. Uh we're going to start off with the pledge of allegiance and board member Lee, would you lead us? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. And then Sarah, would you call the role, please? >> Yes. Board member Carr here. Mr. Lee >> here. >> Miss Kaiser >> here. >> Sorry, Jane. >> Miss Deal >> here. >> Mr. Becker >> here. >> Miss Lee >> here. >> Mr. Verbos >> here. >> Mr. Color >> here. >> President Burns >> present. Uh so proper notice of this

002meeting has been posted in accordance with the open meeting laws of the state of Wisconsin. Uh are there any modifications to our agenda tonight? There are no modifications. >> All right. Well, then that will lead us right into the superintendent report. So, Dr. Robinson, take it away. >> Good evening. The first thing we have on our agenda on this evening are the impacts of govern the government shutdown on Wisconsin schools. As of October 1st, the federal government officially entered a shutdown. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction will maintain operations. DPI will continue to pay claim uh reimbursements from local education agencies for uh most federal grants. DPI will reach out to eleas that will be affected in uh by impact aid. Lastly, DPI will be able to pay September claims on school meals. Our district

003recognitions. Last week, we recognized and thanked our school board members for their dedicated leadership and commitment to our students, staff, and community. The vision and service help ensure that every decision supports learning, growth, and opportunity for all. I want to personally thank um my nine bosses. I I say that jokingly, but I really have nine people who I I have to answer to that I I truly truly appreciate and uh enjoy working with and for. And so uh again, thank you for the work that you're doing in our district and for leading. This is principal appreciation month and we want to personally uh recognize um those who give their time and we're grateful for their incredible leadership and dedication uh for our our principles in our schools. Your hard work, vision, and care make a

004lasting difference in our schools every day. So, thank you to all of our principles for all the work that you do. We have several celebrations in addition to principal appreciation u national princ principal month I'm sorry we have our October celebrations and so we do have them on the screen we have Hispanic heritage heritage month we have young kapor uh thank you for our custodians we have national fire prevention week our national instructional coach appreciation happy world teachers day as well as amplify indigenous voices and Today happens to be Indigenous People's Day. And so I did a little little homework, went back in time, and on October 8th, 2019, Governor Ivers officially declared the second Monday in October to be Indigenous People's Day in Wisconsin. and it's to recognize the immense importance of native uh

005native nations to the state and reaffirm the significance of native nations sovereignty, culture, and history. Um, board member Kaiser, you want to add anything to that? I'll give you this opportunity. >> Um, yeah, this those were my right before I got to uh Indian Community School. The shirt I'm wearing today is actually um our shirt for Indigenous People's Day this year. This four is a real tree on our grounds. was considered like a marker tree and it was very important to native nations. um for today my students you know online unfortunately we saw the line negoti about like oh well it's another holiday before that but I want to celebrate always indigenous and amplifying indigenous voices that they were the first doctors the first engineers the first inventors the first um leaders all those people

006who came here who were removed from their lands still want to be here still are fighting for their culture and their language and they're still here and it's a beautiful thing to be able to work every day with my native students and be able to say, you know, you're still here. Someone in your family fought very hard for you to be here. And it's also wonderful being in a state that currently recognizes the 12 tribal nations and uh Brotherton. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I knew you could add more context and I I'm qualified to add, so I appreciate that. A transition res readiness grant. Last spring, our community transition services CTS program submitted a transition readiness grant application to the department of public instruction, specifically requesting funds to to purchase a vehicle. Uh

007the TRG is designed to support Wisconsin students with disabilities as they transition successfully to competitive work in postsecary education environments after high school. So, we want to um send a special shout out and recognition to to our CTS program on um the successful application of their grant. West Milwaukee Intermediate Administration would like to recognize the following staff members. Miss Bush, Mr. Grabner, uh Miss uh Kung Gierro, I know I was going to mess it up, and Miss Slate. Each of these staff members assisted the leading differentiating staff PD on the afternoon of September 19th. Their leadership at the west at west is greatly appreciated. Our recreation and community service major league soccer the n the national recreation and parks association and the RCX sports foundation announced the West Alice West Milwaukee Recreation and Community Service

008Department is a recipient of a $10,000 uh $10 $10,000 grant through the MLS GO Play Fund, the NRPA grant. When athletes register to play with us, they will receive a reversible MLS brand jersey, shorts, and socks in their player pack. Congratulations and thanks to Bobby Foreman for his efforts and work in securing this grant to improve the game of soccer for youth in our district. And I know there's a picture up there. It says LA. We we will only mention LA and when it comes to soccer and not baseball, right, we agree for that, right? Okay. All right. I just want to make sure I I that that did come up. Knights of Columbus uh coat delivery. I'm going to ask uh Mr. Jerry to come up today. The West Alice Knights of Columbus gen

009generously delivered jackets to Persian Elementary School, ensuring that every student will have one to keep them warm this season. The jackets will be distributed um this Friday to all of our students. And we're asking all of our board members if you have a couple of minutes and you're available on Friday, please come out. This is the second year I I I can remember. I know last year we were at Horse Man and Knights of Columbus at the same thing. I want to go ahead and allow Mr. Jerry the opportunity. My my good friend Mr. Jerry from Rotary. Come on up. What What do you have to say, Mr. Jerry? >> Okay. Well, thank you, Dr. Robertson. And thank you all for inviting us here. First off, the other gentleman with me is John Richter. He

010is the treasure of our consul. I want to make a comment about the indigenous uh people's day. It's also some it used to be called Columbus Day. And we always wonder why uh the Knights of Columbus was started in about 1880 by an Irish priest, Father Michael McGibney. He had a he was a a a associate pastor over in New Haven, Connecticut. And at that time the Irish were the European uh immigrants coming in from uh the United States. And as the case would be, a lot of these initial immigrants would get the worst jobs. And in the case of the Irish, uh uh they were discriminated against too. I mean there would be signs uh help wanted but Irish don't apply. So anyhow, a lot of the guys had terrible jobs and were killed

011in their jobs and being good Irish Catholics. They had big families and the poor widow was left without any help and whatever. So that's how Father McGibney started the Knights Columbus. But for the life of all of us, we don't know why he named it after an Italian. I mean, it should have been the Knights of St. Patrick, right? So, so I just wanted to get that in, you know. Okay. Um, well, first off, yes, we are doing the jacket sunset, uh, Friday over at Persian. Uh, there are about 350 of them. I want to thank the administration. They sent a big truck over today. Sarah set it all up and thank you so much. And and also Carolyn, I'm sorry, set it up and it worked out perfect. Um, last year we did also

012uh donated a check of $7,500 for maintenance fee. But in the meantime, I want to compliment first off Dr. Robinson and all of you school board members. You put a referendum out and it passed. Overwhelming. You know what that tells me? That the people of West Dallas are appreciate a good school. I mean, if you want to sell a home and then you got lousy schools, people are going to go away, especially younger families with children. So, you've done a great service by getting that referendum passed and keep the keep the fine school district that you have going. So, I really want to thank you uh for that. Even though I live in New Berlin now, I know there is a a West Alice school in New Berlin. The other thing though, in the meantime,

013uh what we did recently in the city of West Dallas, the terrible flood that hit, uh so um there was a program put out uh recently. So we donated $5,000 toward that. Also, I don't know how many of you are familiar, but down on National Avenue, there's what's called the Homeless Vets Initiative. They were flooded out and lost a lot of things. So, we donated $5,000 to that group. And then finally, we uh take care of the um West Dallas Christmas parade. We donated $4,000 to them again to keep that going. And finally, the the various food f um pantries throughout the city. Uh we donated $10,000 to that. So, that's sort of what being that we So, that's a little bit about what we're doing. And uh I'm going to just sum it up

014by saying uh you guys are doing a great job. I mean I grew up in West Dallas, went to Woodro Wilson for kindergarten about 1947. I think I passed. I don't know have my diploma but whatever. Uh but I we do have one other thing we want to present and I'm going to have my friend John bring it up. And uh you know Dr. Robinson and I do >> I came prepared tonight already. What What do you have >> our our baseball teams? I mean, don't get me wrong, he's got a fine team that he support. That's the thing we And but you know that you can only wear on certain occasions. So this year I brought you a brewer. >> All right. All right. You can use every day to like hot chocolate or

015coffee. >> Whatever. Thank you. [Music] >> Can we get a picture real stand over here a little bit? >> All right. One, two, three. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. So, we're gonna >> keep up the good work. We'll uh he he'll give me a school for next year. We We want to keep this program going for the kids. No doubt. Okay. Nice meeting you all. Thanks again. See you Thursday. >> I'll see you Thursday. Rotary. >> Okay. You bet. Mr. Jerry is um he's even a conversation in my house. My my wife says, "Well, you're going for the Brewers." I say, "I just want them to win for Mr. Jerry." >> So, it's all good. Um our community events, uh visits and and meetings hosted Representative Vining at the recreation center on the

01623rd with boys volleyball match at Whel on the 24th of September. Recreation department leadership retreat. I participated in uh for a little bit. With that, I want to send a special shout out to Shelley and the rec department for an outstanding retreat uh with her team. Uh WAWWM PTA council meeting, our CISO number CISA 1 superintendent meeting, uh Walker Elementary School Halloween harvest dance as well as the athletic director's meeting, our WAWWM retiree breakfast, outstanding event with over 150 retirees. I know board member Carr and our president were in attendance. Uh just just outstanding and it was just so good to see all of our retirees uh being able to get together and and reminisce. I heard so many stories uh of their time in the district. Uh our supervis superintendent advisory council meeting uh

017with our students uh the voice on 10:10 we held the central high school homecoming festivities parade and football game. 10:13 which was today I actually had a zoom meeting with Thomas McCarthy who is the deputy state superintendent uh for DPI. It was a request u of myself and Aaron Norris, our superintendent, joined me for that meeting really talking about detachment and um trying to get a a follow-up meeting with uh state superintendent underly very soon to discuss some procedural concerns we have uh regarding the process and making sure that that we have things that are down and and and have a clear understanding instructional rounds at Franklin and Hoover as well as the West Alice Rotary Club, our student voice. We met on Friday, as I I said earlier, and we have tonight who I

018the person who I would consider the captain. She's our captain this year. All right. Elena May. Elena is a senior at Nathan Hail. She's involved in cross country, track and field, Renaissance leadership team. She's in the orchestra. She plays the violin. She's a member of HOSA National Honor Society and Spanish National Honor Society. Elena, what's going on in Nathan Hail? >> Hi. Um, uh, so Nathan Hail, excuse me. Sorry, I was around a cat last night and I'm allergic to cats. I'm sorry. Um, um, Nathan Hale, I think we got a pretty good kick to the year within early homecoming. So, um I think our first four or five football games were home games. So, there was a lot of um school spirit coming right into the year. Um I was on senior counsel who

019kind of helped plan up the homecoming theme and um put it all together. Uh we had a pep rally that um some of our council members helped lead um for school spirit. Uh and we made floats. We had our little um homecoming parade. We homecoming was I think a success. There were a lot of tickets sold. Um then getting it more into the school side of things. Um, we've had our beginning of the year ACT testing, um, like ACT practice testing, so students got a baseline for where they're going to be around the ACT. Um, and I know some people like that cuz especially the juniors are really getting nervous for the ACT. So and then we also did fast bridge testing um which is another standardized test. Um we have just started our Renaissance

020team up again from last year. Renaissance is a group that is focused on the culture and the climate of our school. So, right now we have up in the Commons uh Hispanic Heritage Month um display with like some facts and some decorations. Um we are working on starting up some new school spirit things. Uh we might have a high five Friday, which we did last year. It's where um people stand at the doors in the morning on a Friday and they give high fives to everybody and that's like something to pump you up on a Friday morning. Um, we're also going to do something called the pulse survey, which is a Renaissance just um survey um that could help you get a certain level in like the national Renaissance um ranking. So, we're trying to

021we're trying to um or excuse me, we're trying to not apply uh qualify, excuse me, qualify for that this year. Um last year, we actually would have qualified if we would have had a um social media uh platform following Renaissance, but our teachers didn't know. So this year we're really trying to qualify for that um and get an award for our school spirit. Um other things going on for HOSA this week we have a blood drive where um students and community members can donate blood um to help save lives. And then at Rotary um we are having we already started our lunchons and food drives our lunchons. We go and we visit um West Dallas Rotary and we update them about what our Rotary Club in specific is doing. Food drives. We go to a

022church and we help put together bags and give food to people who need food. So students, I think it's two students um every week do each one. And then Hoover Harvest Fest is this weekend and I know we have some of our Rotary people volunteering for that. I'll be there painting faces, face painting. >> Cool. >> And then I think we also have like a Rotary bake sale. I know we have actually a couple bake sales going on. Sophomore council has a bake sale going on to start um fundraising for things. Um so I think we're off to a pretty good start. >> I know this is uh senior year for year. So what what what are your plans? What are you doing right now? And what are your plans for next year? Like what

023are you doing to get prepared for that? >> Sure. So right now I am working on my college applications. I have already finished my direct admit application. Um because once you get direct admitted you have to go in fill out some information so you can get the letters back. So I'm already getting those letters. Um I have a draft of my essay written. It's almost done. Um and I've kind of filled in some stuff for Madison. and I filled in some stuff for one of the Minnesota schools. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going next year, but I am applying. So, um, and then I'm kind of, yeah, I'm kind of undecided major wise, but I'm I'm very into like science, the brain environment. So, >> we'll see how that was a lot. Thank you,

024though. Thank you for sharing. All right. Okay. That concludes the superintendent report for tonight. >> All right. Great. Um, at this time then that will take us to our public's comments section. Uh, so if anyone would like to address the board, you may sign up in the back of the room or in the Zoom link in the Zoom chat. Uh, introduce yourself with your name and address and you have three minutes to provide comments. The board cannot discuss, debate, or act upon any item addressed during the public comments portion of the schoolboard meeting. However, follow-up may be provided by the superintendent at the next regularly scheduled work meeting. Um, at this time, I do not see anyone signed up. I'll give a moment for them to rush and sign up. All right, seeing nobody, I

025will close the public comments at this time and we will move on to board reports starting with the review of our board calendar uh which tonight is October 13, 2025 and we have a regularly scheduled board meeting with the teaching and learning workshop with the fall screener uh as well as fastbridge beginning of the year screener data. On October 19th, we were going to be having a board retreat uh at the activity and fitness center in the boardroom. October 20th, where there was a board workshop scheduled at 6 p.m., it has been cancelled, so there will be no board workshop on October 20th. And then on October 27th, we have again another regularly scheduled board meeting uh to improve our 2025 2026 uh final budget and tax levy as well as the financial stability and

026efficiency workshop. uh working on the compensation model draft number one. Um so that is our calendar upcoming and so at this time we will move on to 8.2 for our board committee reports and to start us off uh 8.2.1 we have college and career readiness school board member Becker. >> Thank you Stuart. Uh the committee met tonight uh right before this meeting. We focused on the library plan proposal. Um it's we were just coming out of a three-year cycle. Uh now we're going into a fiveyear cycle. Uh we got to hear a little bit about some of the some of the focus for the future. Uh basically future ready tools. Um the the committee had met. They have a short list of to of uh items to improve on. Uh one of the questions I

027asked right away was about budget. is is the is the budget concern an issue for the library and it fortunately is not. So that was really nice to hear. Um they were talking about some of the nice changes they made in uh the 22 to 25 um cycle. Uh the higher level look there was uh looking at updating materials. Um I think the most uh sorry bear with me guys. I'm reading my notes here. the the biggest takeaway from the 22 to 25 was joining the the Wisconsin School Digital Library Consortium. Uh that was focused on closing gaps and resources, making sure we have a little more variety, making sure there's a lot to choose from. Uh for the 25 through 2030 goals, I won't go too deep into detail there because we will be

028hearing from them uh by the end of the year, I believe. Uh the the three main goals to take away were personalized professional learning, collaborative learning through play, and equitable access. Uh after we got done with the library presentation, we spoke a little bit about further refining the KPIs for our board committee. Um really making sure that they're tied back to specific achievement goals for the district. And that was the end of the discussion. >> All right. Thank you. Uh any questions for the group? All right, seeing none, we will move on to 8.2.2, which is our employee engagement and culture school board member Car. >> Thank you, President Burns. The employee engagement and culture committee met at 5:00 on Thursday, October 9th. I have nine items that we have to go over, but I

029just want to say it's because we did not meet last month, so it's kind of a two months worth of of work. Um, Darcia gave the board members an update on the Kelly staffing timeline. Kelly staffing is a company our district works with to fill the growing needs for substitute teachers. At this time, we are piloting this in elementary school and West Milwaukee Intermediate School. There are many benefits for anyone seeking to work for the staffing agency. They're able to work full-time. They're they earn benefits. Retired teachers may work additional hours beyond the WA agreement and they have access to professional development. We're extremely excited to be partnering with Kelly Staffing and we hope to include all of our schools in the near future. Our next area of business D provided an update on educator

030effectiveness. Educator effectiveness is an opportunity for principles to observe and give feedback to staff. However, it's important that all principles are in agreement as to what they are observing and what feedback will lead staff to highquality universal instruction. So, the admin will be providing opportunities for principles to calibrate and practice. Next, D. Garcia informed the committee that they're working on some muchneeded job descriptions updates and this will be an ongoing process until everyone involved has a job description that truly reflects the work expected. Miss Garcia then shared the exciting announcement of the human resources newsletter that will hit our inboxes and website the first week of every month. The link, it's called betteru, which is the letter U, and at WAWWM-HR. Um, but we did ask D to share the link with all board members

031and for the communications department to herald this so that they're um at on all their various social media spots too. Uh, it had some really interesting things. The thing that I liked about it a lot was that it was short, to the point, down and dirty. look at this. Here's something that you might be interested in. And so it wasn't a huge time commitment for anybody to read, but it had really great information. Uh we were also given an update on the new and improved employee engagement survey. Staff will be given a two-eek window starting October 15th with time offered to staff during the school day to fill it out if they so choose. We will also disagregate data in additional ways than we had before uh to help us find any nuances that we

032might have missed. Our committee has asked employee engagement staff to conduct stay interviews as well as exit interviews and this work has started. So, Miss Garcia meets with employees that have longevity in our district and and asks them, you know, why do you stay in West Milwaukee school district? What is it? And other questions just so that uh we can hopefully improve employee engagement. So, it's just one more thing that we're trying to do uh to to um increase longevity in our district. And lastly, we were informed that the cabinet directors have done an audit of our health and wellness program and we will be informed of some action steps that will follow. And that concludes my report. >> All right. Thank you. Uh any questions for the employee engagement committee? >> All right. Seeing

033none at this time, thank you for the report. Uh we will move on to 8.3. our board member reports of community events. Does anyone have anything that they would like to share uh for participation and what? Yeah, board member Carr. >> As Dr. Robinson said, I did go to the retiree breakfast. I went as a retiree but also as a school board member and I it was delightful because of course I knew I would say of those 150 I knew at least a hundred um people because I had been through the trenches with them and uh had great conversation and I think the message that I believe that the retirees walked away with that Dr. Robinson was very clear with is that this is not just let's get together and chitchat and like old times.

034It's a hey, you know what? It takes a village and you're all part of this and we would love for you to come back and give back through your time and expertise. And I think that a lot of them, you know, I I watched the audience as they shook their heads and said, "Yeah, we understand that." and uh things like coming um on the first day of school and just greeting kids as they walk through the doors. So, um I did enjoy it tremendously and I hope that that will continue. >> All right. Thank you. Any other events anyone would like to share? >> Oh, sure. Go ahead. >> I guess I can do something. Uh well, one I went to the uh the West LA Central homecoming game and uh it was fantastic. Uh

035mostly I was there because my child was in the band. But however, I will say like the additional things that they were doing, the fun stuff, the uh the race between the the mascots was fantastic. Uh the dance team's always spectacular. Uh it was a really really fun time. Uh seemed, you know, in the the two years now that I've been going to these games, uh a lot more people. I think there's a lot more involvement. It seemed a lot more exciting. seemed like a like there there's just a lot more invested in in it which I thought was really really great. Um I also did the uh I did the tour of the West Dallas Central Fieldhouse uh project with President Burns. Um which uh it's fantastic. I mean it's it's on track. Everything's

036looking really really great. There are a lot of details in there that I didn't know were going to be involved in the in the entire project, but it's definitely something to look forward to. If uh anyone else has the opportunity to do that, I would recommend that you go. Um I I'm really really excited for the the soft open, the soft open. Um I think it's going to be look really fantastic. >> That's about it. >> All right. Thank you. Anyone else before we move on? >> Sure. >> Member I happened to catch an email on my way out to the office on uh Friday a couple weeks ago. Uh uh it was about the Wisconsin Automobile and Truck Dealers Association. Uh they had a transportation showcase over at Hail. So um looking back at

037the email, it did say 20 representatives, but it sure felt like more than that. There were uh there was about 100 200 kids it seemed like out at the time. Um I think there were a dozen schools represented. Uh ran to Mr. lesser and he was telling me uh about how he was having conversations with students about all the different components and the different disciplines involved in building some of the custom trucks. Um uh there were uh auto body shops just a just a whole range of different possible professional opportunities. So it felt like it was a walk in the walk kind of a moment because we talk about not being only centered on college as a future. So that was really nice to see. uh just took a quick lap and got to have

038a couple conversations uh some of the Diors that came from Madison and I simply asked them was it worth the trip and said yep absolutely. So that was a really nice event. Great. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? I'd share but I got sniped by Dr. Robinson and uh Mr. Verbos over there. So um uh beyond that, anyone else have anything else to share? No. All right. Well, then we will move on to our other updates and information items. So, the only other update that I wanted to be sure I spoke about was mentioned already, but uh if you have the opportunity uh on Friday to go and hand out coats uh with the group, that would be wonderful. If you there should be an invite in your uh calendar uh but I believe it

039starts at 9:30 and runs until about 2:30. >> 9:30. >> Y Okay. All right. So beyond that, that is all I have for that. And so then we will move on to our consent agenda. If I could get it back pulled up. And our consent agenda uh includes 9.1 our approval of minutes, 9.2 our employment summary, 9.3 our supplementary contracts, and 9.4 the rename of communications and community relations committee to the communications and engagement committee. Does anyone need anything separated out? I do. Please separate out 9.2 employee summary. I do know one of the employees that we will be voting on. >> Okay. So, we'll need to separate that out. So, then at this time we would need um to go two votes on this. So, I would look for uh at this time a

040motion. >> Move to approve 9.1, 9.3, and 9.4. >> All right. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Is there any more input on that motion? >> No. All those in favor? >> I. >> Those opposed? All right. That will pass. And then we will need I will entertain another motion for our separated item 9.2. >> Move to approve 9.2. >> Second. >> All right. Any further input on the action or on the motion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Those opposed. All right, that passes as well. Thank you very much. And that will take us into uh our action items for this evening, starting with 10.1, our post 65 retirey health insurance renewal, which will be led by

041Mr. Norris, I believe. >> Yep. >> All right. Go ahead. >> Good evening, everyone, and thank you for having us back. This evening, we want to talk about um our post 65 health insurance renewal. And so before I jump in to do an introduction, I'll just introduce who's here this evening. So to my right is Don Marking from Innovative Benefit Solutions. She'll be leading the presentation that you'll see tonight to my left is Jill Rowski, our retiree benefit specialist. And to her left is Lorenzo G. Mattail, familiar face from um Brown and Brown, our health insurance consultant, and behind them is Jessica Johnson. She handles uh benefits for all of active employees. So this evening we wanted to provide you kind of an overview of our post65 health insurance renewal. And typically these come packaged

042together. Um but you know RFPs and timing things don't always line up that way. So these were separated uh only because one happened just I guess in order of the other one. So this evening what you'll hear from Don is kind of the process. And so what that looks like is um getting bids, trying to compare plans, consistent proc procedures that we use for all RFPs and specifically consistent um considerations that we would have for any employee or post 65 retiree. So cost disruption, enduser experience, things like that. So as Don presents tonight, you'll hear about kind of what were the options, what were the cost of the employee, what are the potential changes, buy up base, and kind of what are the next steps. So with that, um I think Don has about 15

043slides and then we take any questions you have. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um the renewal for the 2026 plan year for the >> um >> Kathy's going to pass out some hard copies. Um the renewal we have this year for the 2026 um post 65 medical and prescription drug program renewal for the retirees. Let me move next slide. Um the retiree program is comprised of two components. We have the Anthem Medicare Advantage medical component and the Humanana prescription drug plan. Combined the renewal for the 2026 plan year that was delivered was a $90.77 or 632% increase. The current combined premium is 14373 and that would be increasing to 23450 per member per month. Reasonings behind um the substantial increase um there are multiple factors uh that are used to determine the rate increases by

044those carriers. um limited to um but not all inclusive. We have claim trend. We have benefit changes which we do have some benefit changes. We have CMS changes and reimbursement changes. Um there are no major benefit changes that are being recommended or implemented by CMS. And CMS is the center for Medicare and Medicaid services. For those of you who may not be familiar with that, that is the arm of the federal government that oversees Social Security and Medicare and Medicare prescription drug programs. Um, changes under the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act was signed in 2024 and was implemented in January of 2025. Um, and some of those changes were rather significant changes that are having a direct impact on cost. It was a huge benefit to the member, the retiree. Um, from the

045aspect that prior to this year, if a member, a retiree had an out-ofpocket maximum under pharmacy that they faced of $8,000 of their personal spend. So, as a retiree, I could potentially spend up to $8,000 before I would get to that catastrophic level where I was then paying just a small portion. That changed in January of this year, and that's one of the biggest impacts on this increase this year. Retirees now have a $2,000 incurred cost out of pocket, not their personal spend, but incurred. I mean, if you're familiar with specialty drugs, there are drugs out there that you could easily incur $2,000 in January, have your personal co-pay be, let's say, $50, and that retiree is now done for the year. The remaining cost for that particular retiree is picked up by the plan.

046So, that's one of the impacts that we're seeing on um the retiree benefits for the new year. And behind that, we also have um the trend that they're projecting for the upcoming plan year for group retirey benefits is at 8 and a half%. Um I've been doing this for quite some time and I can honestly say it it's been a long time since I've seen 8 and a half% trend. Some of the key drivers behind that trend increase, I think we hear about it every day. We hear it on the news. We read it about in the newspaper. Hospital and provider costs. They're driven by wage inflation, staffing shortages, rising supply costs, and obviously hospitals seeking to increase revenue. Prescription drug spending. This is a a big big area. We have the continuous ongoing development

047of specialty drugs. Each year there are more and more specialty drugs that are becoming available to the general population um and especially in the retiree population. So we not only see additional specialty drugs becoming available, we are seeing an a substantial increase in utilization of those specialty drugs by retirees. As an example, in 2023, um this particular population had 193 specialty prescriptions. In 2024, that number is up to 234 scripts. We don't have any information on 2025 and we won't until next year, but we saw a substantial increase just between 23 and 24. The other area we're seeing big increases in is in behavioral health utilization. It has become the focus of CMS uh several years ago to begin focusing on the retirey population and behavioral health. uh they really do. When I go to

048see a personal physician, I'm even asked to fill out um questionnaires asking me about my personal my mental health. How do I feel? You know, do I feel threatened? Do I do I have a home? Can I make my payment? Do I have groceries? Can I afford those groceries? So, they're really focusing and have been focusing on behavioral health in the elderly population. And because of that, we're seeing a big surge in behavioral health services in this particular population. We're also seeing for the upcoming plan year 2026, there are two regulatory changes that CMS has put forth that plans must abide by. Both of those regulations, CMS, not the carriers, but Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services are projecting because of those two changes, they're going to see an impact on additional inpatient hospital services.

049So they believe when 26 plan year comes through we'll see an increase in cost and inpatient hospital stays due to those two regulatory changes that are coming through by CMS and we have to abide by them. The medical plans have to the Medicare advantage plans do. So what we did is we looked at the renewal um and then looked at all of the opportunities and advant or um opportunities to make change both to the plan structure we have today as well as the benefits that we have today. Um and it would be my recommendation that we have the two components today the anthem for the medical component and the human for the pharmacy component. I am recommending that we combine them all under one umbrella with Humanana providing both the medical and the pharmacy. Um

050they provided us the quote as did Anthem but they had the more compet most competitive quote as far as cost and benefits were concerned. So it's my recommendation to move everything under one umbrella medical and pharmacy with Humanana. Um, I would also suggest that we continue with the base plan offering as well as a buyup opportunity for those retirees to make that decision based upon their personal needs and their budget needs. We can't possibly know what fits every retiree. So, I would recommend we stay with a base and a buyup option for the retirees. Okay, these are the numbers. There's going to be a lot of numbers. So, if if you need me to slow down or explain anything, feel free to interrupt. This is the base plan. This is the plan that is uh

051that is supported and and recommended from the school district. So, the school district's contributions are based upon the base plan. So, currently the base medical is $4.99. The base pharmacy is $13874 for a combined total of $143.73 per member per month. The district pays 50% of that or $7186. That's a monthly cost of just under $60,000 with an annual cost of $718,313. The renewal we received, the medical component renewal was $4.99. The current was $49.99 moving to $51.99. Pharmacy was$1 13874 moving to $18251 for a combined premium of $234.50 or a $90.77 increase 63%. District's 50% would have been $117.25. That would take the monthly cost of just under 60,000 and move it to just under 100,000 at 97,669 with an annual cost of 1,172 031. Humanana put forth an offer matching the current base

052policy, the benefits that are available to the retirees today under the base plan. their number came back at $215.74 versus the $23450 that was offered with the renewal. That results in a $721 increase or a 50% increase. That would have resulted in the district's cost share moving from 71.86 to $107.87 monthly just under 90,000 annualized just over $1 million. Then I asked Humanana to put forth an option keeping the premium as close as it is to what we have in 25. What would those benefits look like? So they came through with a renewal premium of $14522. That results in a $1.49 increase per member per month. The district cost share would move from $71.86 to $7261. monthly premium 60,484 annualized $725,810. The WE just as a point of reference, the WEA premium we had back

053in 2022 when we moved from WA to this program was at $330.76 per member per month. It's It's not an attractive renewal, but we are still well below where we were starting back in 2022. Are there any questions on the base >> the buy plan? >> Oh, >> any questions before we go? Okay. >> One thing one thing just to clarify. So the current 7186 that's the 50/50 split. The renewal at the 11725 is Anthem. That's 63%. The Humanana match, when we say match, we mean plan for plan. Apple's same plan. What's the renewal? Right. At Humanana, it's 50%. And then Humanana gave an alternative saying, "Hey, if we make changes to the base plan, lessening the benefit on the base plan, we can get it close to the 71.86." That's the 7261. So the

054base plan, the recommendation is to do the alternative to cap the district's cost essentially. Okay. So now we're going to shift to the buyup because it's a different line of thinking in a second. Go ahead. >> They did, but it was not as competitive as Humana. Um I have a lot of options I could have presented. We would have been here for more than 15 minutes. Um, so I I we go into the market, we review all of the options that are available, both carrier-wise as plan design options are available, and then I present and put forth what is the best option for the district. >> And and some of the reason that Anthem's not on here for the base is because when you get to the buyout, part of it, part of this is

055you can't say like, let's go alternative base or I'm sorry, go with the base plan with Anthem and then the buy up with Humanana. You have to pick one carrier. So when you get to the buy up, that's where the big savings was to maintain the benefit to provide our post65 retirees with um like for like Apple for Apple. So when we get to that, it might provide more clarity to on that. >> Any other questions before they continue? >> Okay, the buyup renewal. So the currently the buyout plan has a medical component of $14.99. The pharmacy is 155.40 for a total premium of 17039. The district's cost share is the same all the way through. They they remain at the $71.86. The retiree who enrolls in the buyup plan pays $9853. What that is

056is their 50% their $71.86 plus the cost difference between buy up and base. So I take the cost difference, I add it to my 71.86 and the retirees are paying $9853. We have roughly 830 retirees. 701 retirees have the buyup plan today. So the majority significant majority is in that buy plan today. The renewal for the medical component was 61.99 pharmacy 199.84 84 for a total of $261.83, $9144 increase or 59%. The district cost share 50% of the renewal, the Anthem renewal was $1725. If we did the renewal and made no changes, the retiree is paying cost difference between the buyup and the base plus their $117.25, 25 they would move to $144.58. Humanana came back with a plan matching that buyout up plan. Their premium is $239.24. It's a $68.85 increase or 40%. The

057districts, if they take the base plan with Humanana, that contribution to the district is $72.61. We take that add it to the cost difference between base and buyup with Humanana. The retiree would be paying $1663. Humanana put forth an option for the buyup plan with a premium of $200.19 just under $30 or 17%. That would have result in a total premium to the retiree of $127.58. I then asked them the same thing I asked for the district. Give me a plan that keeps that buy up premium the same and let's see what that plan looks like. So the third alternative that came through it's $16926. It's a $113 reduction. The retirees contribution would be 96.665 for option two. Any questions on buyout? Okay. All right. So, what I did here was to give you an

058idea of what we know what the premiums are. These are what the plans are. So, this is the base again. This is the program where the district pays their 50% cost share. On the left is the current combined program today with Anthem and Humanana. And on the right would be the combined Humanana program. Those items in red are the changes to the program that allows us to keep the premium basically where we are today. So we we have a $500 deductible. That's not changing. For inpatient hospital stay, we would have under the new program a $250 per admission co-pay. Urgent care has a $35 co-pay. Skilled nursing, there would be no change. For physician office visit, it's a $10 co-pay. Specialists are 20 and outpatient care is a $100 co-pay. All those items noted with

059the asterct, those are co-pays that would begin after that $500 deductible is met. So, I would like I do today as a retiree, I have a $500 deductible. I must meet that first $500 today. When I get to $500 today, I essentially am done with my office co-pays, etc. Under the new program, I have a $500 deductible, but now I'll pay some various co-pays. So, the deductible and all those co-pays combined will cap out at $3,000 under the the proposed program. Today, they have a $1,000 out of pocket. Under the proposed program, they would have a $3,000 out-of- pocket calendar year. The one change that we do have is there is a a benefit today. It's called over-the-counter benefits. It was introduced in January of this year. It just began in January. It provides a

06070 $75 per quarter three $75 per quarter $300 per calendar year benefit to the retiree to present a card where they can go and get vitamins, cough, syrup, um just general pharmacy over-the-counter benefits. That is not included in this program. They gave us the option to add it and I do have those costs, but it is not included in this program. Um, and I can add, I'm not sure if it's in the presentation, we did find out, we got information from Anthem that during the first eight months of this plan year, less than or about 25% of all retirees actually even used that over-the-counter program. So, it's about 25% of the folks used it. This these are the two options that were shown to us for the buyup. So, on the left, we have the

061current program. It's a $500 deductible. Everything's covered in full after that. That program, that $500 deductible with zero after that and a $500 out-of- pocket maximum matches what the retirees had with the WA trust. So that's the program that was there in 2022 and it is the buyup today. So the two plans, the option one and option two are alternatives that allow us to add additional cost to the retiree and bring back down some of their cost share. Um my recommendation would be we leave the buyout plan as it is today. And I say that because if we look at option two where the retirees paying the same amount of money today than they would with this renewal, that to me, in my personal opinion, that plan looks an awful lot like the district's base

062plan. It's a $500 difference. The out of pocket under the district is 3,000. These folks would have 2500. So, as a retiree, I'm looking at that and I'm thinking, well, that's not really a buup. um option one and again my personal opinion there's not enough savings there with the additional costs that I'm facing and and and again I'm looking at this is from the retiree aspect that doesn't say buy up to me to me my buyup is the plan that I had the $500 deductible and I'm done after that I have 100% and and some a lot of people like today are willing to pay that to have that I pay 500 and I'm This is current plan compared to the Humanana buyup. And as you can see, it's the same thing they have to

063date with the exception that the OTC program is no longer available unless we add it in. But we're leaving everything else the same medical and pharmacy wise. This is what the offering would look like to the retirees. Um, if we took my recommendation of amending the base plan for the district, keeping their costs basically the same, making no changes to the buyout plan, and giving the retiree the option to maintain the benefits they have today. They'll pay additionally for it, but they'll have the benefit they have today. So the base plan would cost the retiree $71.87. The buyup plan would I'm sorry it would cost the the 7261 for the retiree. The buyout plan will cost the retiree $1663. So today retirees pay 71.87 if they're in the base plan. That would move to 7261.

064The retirees in the buyup plan today pay 9853. that would move to 16663. The key differences between the two programs, um, one again, the elimination of the over- the-counter program, the drug card, uh, the over-the-counter benefits. There's two benefits available with Humanana. Uh, the benefit that matches what they have today, which is the card. If it's $75 on a card and the member can go into a pharmacy and purchase those items and swipe the card, that would cost an additional $14.29. There is a limited a more limited benefit available. And by limited, I mean it's not a card. They would have to shop online. Um, and they would have to go through the Humanana program to purchase those items online through their catalog. That is $7.23 um per member per month. If we add that,

065we were just notified that the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and their associated facilities will no longer participate in the Humanana Medicare Advantage network beginning on January 1st. So, that is a change and that's a change we were just notified of. And then the only other change is there are ancillary benefits available under the Medicare Advantage program today with Anthem. It's dental, vision, and hearing benefits. There will be dental, hearing and vision benefits available with Humanana. Those networks will change because those ancillary benefits today utilize Anthem providers. The dental, vision, and hearing benefits would utilize Humana providers. Implementation. Um we're ready uh to make the change. Um our suggestion is we enroll every retiree as they are enrolled today. That keeps it pretty basic for the retiree. The only thing the retiree would have to do

066is if they decide they want to change their plan. I'm buy today and now I want base. That retiree retiree will be required to complete a form which will be provided to them. They will return those forms to Jill. We'll have one central point and Jill will be that central point. Um and then we'll submit those into the carrier for the change for January 1st. So if they have what they what they have today is what they want and they like it. That retiree needs to do nothing. It's only if they want to make a change, they'll have to provide a form. If they choose not no longer to participate and they would like to opt out, then they would have to also complete a form for opting out. Um same as today, married retirees

067can choose their own plan. So husband and wife do not have to be enrolled in the same plan. And we do have retirees who are split. Um, I've spoken to a lot of retirees as my office has as well during this last year when they were trying to make choices and we have a lot of husbands and wives where some someone's on the base and then the spouse sits on the buyout plan. All members will get new ID cards and all members will get welcome new welcome kits because of the combination into the human program. So, moving forward, um we'd like to be able to send out a notice. Jill would send out an email blast tomorrow to the retirees letting them know what's forthcoming. Um we have mailings that we're working on and prepared

068and ready to send out this week. So, the retirees would have them probably 7 to 10 business days following that mailing. That information will be sent to their homes. And then we have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 4th at Nathan Hale High School. um representative from Humanana will be there to do a presentation as will everyone from my office and the folks from Brown and Brown to answer any and all questions. >> So I think that's a kind of a overview of the process and kind of all the details that go into kind of a recommendation pending questions and your thoughts around kind of where to proceed with post 65 benefits. So kind of I guess to summarize the recommendation is to um seek approval from you guys on the alternative base plan to

069minimize retiree and district costs and then the keep the benefit for the buyout up the same with the increased cost uh to the end user. Look for questions or thoughts from the board. questions. Board member Lee, >> one question. I don't know if I missed this in the beginning with with the um standard health insurance we go through. We always talk about like, you know, the they initially gave us a renewal of this amount and then we negotiated and we got down to this. I presume the same thing happened with these as well. I just if you said it, I missed it. And if you if you did say it, say it again. It's always good to hear it. >> Yes. Yes. No, we we do this every year. Um we do a thorough review

070of the marketplace u not only within the carriers and the opt options available with those carriers but other carriers as well. Yes, that is something that we are required to do every year. >> Just out of curiosity, they came back with a 63% increase that we ended up with. What was the initial increase they provided? >> The initial increase is the 63.2. >> Okay. Is there not a negotiation? He's saying like they start at 63 and it's like that's just what it is. >> No, that that was the 63.2 is the 60. There was no they were not willing to negotiate and I think that a significant portion of that is because of pharmacy and the uncertainty of where pharmacy is. We are in year one of um a three to fouryear transition >> of

071cost shifting. In addition to the cap that was replaced with 8,000 per retiree to 2,000 of incurred, one of the item other items that took place in beginning in 2025 is CMS actually cost shifted 20% of their cost share. They they were responsible for 40% of cost share. They shifted 20% to the carriers. So in 2025, the carriers not only are looking at every dollar over a $2,000 incurred, they are also taking on 20% of CMS. What CMS used to pay is now part of those carriers. >> Okay. So this is something that wouldn't be unique to our situation. This is something that's happening um systemwide because these changes that being made in the Medicare marketplaces. >> Yes. It is not it's not inclusive just to you. It's It's all of my groups. Um, and

072I can say you're not even my highest renewal this year. >> You're not. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Other questions? >> No other questions. Okay. I don't think I have any questions either. Just want to clarify for you know myself with all of these numbers in here that uh right now what we're looking to do is to do the combined Humanana base plan. Is that and then we're looking to utilize the current Humanana MAPD >> is that that's what we're looking to do. Okay. And the reason that we're sticking with that one versus the other two is just simply because with the increased costs for deductibles and then the out-of- pocket maximum, there's not enough savings from those to actually like counteract the current plan as a >> buyup. >> I do not

073believe so. >> Yeah. >> And and I think last year when we spoke with the retirees, the post 65 group, the overwhelming resounding feedback was they want to keep the buyout plan intact. people like the benefit and even when the cost went up not as substantially as last time 700 people stayed on it. Mhm. >> So, I know the percentage is a lot and it's, you know, 68 bucks a month. I My assumption is when we're back here next year, it'll still be 700 people on the plan. Like the 68, they're just going to want to keep the plan. And so, changing it to minimize costs, >> you know, few might might dislike that and choose the base plan, which is their choice, but many, I think, will still pay for that and keep it,

074fortunately, >> or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I suppose. So, >> okay. And then just because with this plan and everything when we're talking about the premium of the $145 for a total premium is that the total for the year or is that the total per month? >> That's per month. >> Per month. Yeah. Just making sure. >> Yep. 145. Okay. Y Okay. That's all I have. Is there any other questions from the board? Um, >> I just want to clarify that's the total for the month of we pay 50% of that. Yes. The total for the member is 7261 per month. >> Right. Right. Yep. I was just looking at that overall cost is monthly cost. >> Yep. Yep. >> Yep. Okay. Thank you for the clarifier. All right. Well, then

075at this time I'd look uh I'd entertain a motion. Move to approve uh 10.1 post 65 retirey health insurance renewal. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Is there any further input on the motion? >> See none. All those in favor? >> I. >> Those opposed? >> All right. And that carries. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. With the end of that, that brings us to 10.2, two, which would be our Knights of Columbus donation, and this would be led by Dr. Robinson. Thank you. So, we we we do have a um a donation of the jackets that I'm asking for the board to formally approve. When there's according to uh policy 7230, when there is a contribution given to the district that totals over $5,000, the board has

076to approve it. And so, um, with all of the calculations, this comes over that particular amount. And so, we're asking for board approval of the jackets that are being donated to Persian Elementary School. >> Move to approve 10.2 Knights of Columbus donation. >> Second. >> All right. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further input on the motion? >> All right. All those in favor? >> Those opposed? >> All right. That carries. Congratulations on that. And that will take us to item number 11.1, our teaching and learning workshop, the fall screener data data presentation by Miss Barrage. Um, are you all set to get going? >> Okay. >> Can we take five minutes? President Burns. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. I'm joined by Corey Sack, who is our manager. uh districtwide

077for all things data, our data expert. And so we are grateful to have the opportunity to be with you all again to talk through our beginning of year data review. Um we'll be reviewing our FastBridge data, which is our screener for um our district. And so to ground us this evening, I want to start and point us back to our district theory of action. This was updated this past summer as a district leadership team. Um, I want to point us here for two reasons. One, it helps us stay really focused on our core work. Um, we know that if we're trying to do everything, we're not going to do anything really well. So, the the point uh within our theory of action is to stay focused on our core work as well as our core

078goals. So, those are highlighted in the blue below. So if we implement really high quality universal instruction consistently, we are expecting and these are our goals on the bottom um that uh we will see growth for our students per FASB bridge. So that's the data point we're going to be looking at this evening. And then ultimately we want to see increases in achievement uh for all of our students across literacy and math. Um, but again, the data we're going to be looking at this evening is focused on our fastbridge screener data. I also want to point us to our new um, schoolboard goals that you all approved recently and highlight that early literacy, mathematics, and our goal around um, for our students with disabilities is all connected to this goal around uh, growth in literacy

079and math for our students. So again just kind of our grounding for why this data is important. Um I would also add that the purpose of beginning of year data collection analysis um are these four core areas. One very important it's an early check on where students are beginning the year. So, it's an important data point for our leaders, for us as district staff aligning supports as well as for our teachers and families to know this is where your student is beginning this grade level. Um, it helps us identify support that uh students need additional support as well as our schools need um from our district uh team. It also points us towards trends. So we are trying to analyze and see how are we trending across literacy and math from year to year. So

080the ultimate goal is that we're beginning the year with student more students who are proficient in literacy and math. And then we also use this data to analyze for growth. And so this establishes a baseline to monitor growth across the school years. And so we are going to be looking at two different types of data that really point towards trends and growth. Some key takeaways I want to share um before we get into the data and we'll circle back to these at the end. Um we're seeing in terms of trends in proficiency, we have more students beginning the year on grade level and literacy um the up to 50% uh from 46% in the past three years. And then we also are seeing small yet steady growth in the percentage of students beginning the year

081in grade level in math. So a 1% increase over the past three years. We'll see a visual of those two trends, but those are important district-wide trends that we're paying attention to. And then we're also going to be looking at data points related to student cohort growth. So when I say cohort, I'm talking about the same students that were with us the year prior and how they're performing the next year. So the trend data, we're just looking at the students in that grade level that tested that year. We're not looking at the same exact students because every year we'll have students graduate and every year we'll be welcoming in new students. So again the trends is just overall what are our levels of proficiency and then the cohort data I think is data that all

082of us like to see how are students that are with us growing from one year to the next. And so we did see growth um for grades 1 through 11 of literacy. Nine out of 11 student cohorts did increase or maintain proficiency. I believe there are two grade levels that maintained proficiency. And then in terms of math, um, eight out of 11 student cohorts did increase in proficiency from last year to this year as well. So, we're going to dig into that data and first we're going to look at literacy. So looking at the district trends, this is what I noted um on that previous slide that we are seeing now an increase of our students that are beginning the year on grade level up to 50% for the fall of 2025 up from 46

083which remains stagnant the last two years and then broken down by schools. You'll take a minute to just kind of orient to this graph we here on have on the left. You have three different years of data there to look at. So fall 2023, 2024, and 2025. 2025 is the orange column, the most recent year. And some key takeaways to look, we're talking about our K5 literacy, is that six of nine schools have increased from last year to this year in terms of their baseline of students um beginning the year proficient. Um you will see there were some more significant jumps at Mitchell, Wilson, Hoover, and Horus man. We're going to continue into our secondaries. Again, we're looking for trends across these schools. These are not the same students. Okay? So, we have new sixth

084graders that come in, right? New um at each of the grade levels. And so, what we did notice is that four out of the six schools also increased um their beginning of the year data. And now we're looking at cohort data. So, again, this graph does look different. So, I'll let everyone take a second to kind of uh notice what they see in this graph. So, we did pull it apart looking at kindergarten first and second in this first graph. Um there's a lot of different ways you can represent this data. It can be kind of difficult when you have six different lines on one graph to really see what uh we're looking at here. But we did see first you can notice this gray 70 up here. That's our kindergarteners. So that's really promising

085that we have kindergarteners coming in with good strong skill sets in terms of literacy. Now the thing to note about FastBridge is it's based in skills that are on grade level for that grade level. And so the the test is going to increase in difficulty of course from K to one to two. So some things that in our analysis we've um discussed with some of our principles are some of those leaps from the what's expected of a kindergartenner coming into the school year versus what's expected of a first grader coming into the school year. That can be kind of a big jump in terms of the skills that we're expecting. um or what a fast bridge is noting as on grade level or above grade level. Um but you'll see that our first graders um

086went from 43 to 41% um but our second graders did increase by 9 points um which I think is a testament to the work around early literacy that we were focused on last year in in our first grade. You'll also see that trend kind of continue with these cohorts of students. So, our second graders going into third grade increased by 7%, fourth graders by 8%, fifth grade did maintain. And then looking at our secondary cohort, our fifth graders going into sixth grade, again, a 9% increase. Um our uh eighth graders also seventh going into eighth increasing by one and then a 1% decrease with the sixth into seventh graders. And finally our last three cohorts of students for literacy. Looking at our 9th, 10th, and 11th grade cohorts, we see increases of 4% for the

087ninth our current 9th and 11th graders. And then 10th grade is staying stagnant. This is reflective of data that we did discuss also earlier this summer. We're looking at beginning of year to end of year. We talked about that dip within 9th grade going into 10th grade. Um and so those are some areas that we're currently focused on with those uh teams at our high schools. And then looking at our math data, this is what I noted again early on. trends in math data. Slow but steady increase of 1% of students on grade level. Again, not the same students as some students graduate or move beyond this uh testing. And we welcome in new students every year, but it's important that we want to keep seeing this increase. And then when we're looking at the

088school level, you'll see there were increases across five of our nine schools um from fall 24 to fall 25. And then where we saw decreases, it was 1 to three percentage points. And again, every year we're there is going to be a level of fluctuation with new students, right? Um and some of those could be our new uh kindergarten babies coming in or it could be students that transfer in as well. So we're this number again our goal is that we're always seeing an increase of course the trend line we want to go up but we also know that there's going to be different challenges each year um and yeah new new challenges for our teachers to tackle and that's why we're working really uh closely on planning and analyzing this data and creating plans

089to support students. Then we look at trend data for our secondaries. Um again seeing positive increases um across secondary with the exception of DOC key. And then looking at cohort data. So again once again breaking it down you'll see the same trend. Our kindergarteners are coming in with some strong skills which is very um exciting and a testament to our families and our community. Then we're also seeing increases. Our kindergartens going to first grade a 5% increase up to 58% a second um our current second graders a 7% increase. So those are encouraging data points to see that the students who are with us were seeing the increase. Um we did have a phenomenon across our our district with our fourth grade group. Um the cohort of third graders going into fourth grade. I was

090just at um one of our elementaryaries this afternoon doing walks and um they noted that as well. So the like I said we're very aware of the data and using that to inform our individual plans for students as well as districtwide supports um and analysis. >> Miss Barrage, before we continue, uh Mr. Lee, did you have a question? >> Do you want questions at the end or >> I'm almost to the end, so if you want to hold for that, that'd be great. Thank you. Mr. Lee. And then secondary math cohort data. Again, same students, we did see an encouraging increase from our fifth graders going into sixth grade. Um, but as we noted in the summertime in that data review, and you'll see it reflected here, across seventh and eighth grade, there was a

091a dip in proficiency for that cohort of students. And so I'll talk about some specific action steps. And in general, we're just not seeing the same level of growth in the cohorts for our students within math at the secondary level as we would like to see. So next steps, again, pointing back to our theory of action, I did share with you all in the summer some specific steps that were connected to our theory of action. And so um a lot of our work that we've been doing with ASA and our continuous improvement work is to try to stay very focused on what we're doing to progress monitor the impact of our areas of focus and then adjust strategically. And so you'll notice a lot of repeated language as we look at what we're focused on

092and going to continue to focus on because we are seeing increases again across the majority of the cohorts. We did see an increase in growth. We are seeing trends in proficiency with more students beginning on grade level. So that is telling us that we do in some ways need to stay hyperfocused on the ways we are. And a lot of this work, as you all know, as you do change work takes time because we are building muscles and it does get easier over time. And I'm seeing the um the amount of muscle and effort that our leaders are putting in and working with their staff. Um our staff are really able to support our students more strategically as well. So on the district level, we've been supporting and coaching and working with collaborative teams and

093then at the school level as well around our guaranteed and viable curriculum planning guides. So understanding what is grade level learning um getting consistent coaching and feedback around that, but also working with each other so teachers have the expertise, have the knowledge and them being in the same space and being able to talk with one another about that. um and strategically adjusting, bless you, their supports for students. So, number one and two really go hand inand in that way. We're also um making some big strides in terms of just refining our EMLSS system and getting more strategic with the layers of support we're offering to students. So that goes from offering more accelerated access to accelerated programming and highquality resources but also making sure we have personal support plans in both literacy and math. Previously

094we had that in literacy and we are seeing how that is is paying off um and being able to really target specific lagging skills that students have and support them in closing those gaps. um with that work uh we've also spent a lot of time on progress monitoring um our our data system. So coming to you and speaking with you our schools if you joined any of our leaders they know their data um they understand where students are and also data is not just a number but it's a student so they know exactly where their their students sit. They're working very closely with their teachers. Their teachers know what students need. Um, all literacy plans have been completed at this point and they're moving towards many math plans have been completed already, but those are

095finishing up this week. So, getting into really having a strong start to providing that strategic support for students. And then we're also again aligning continuing to align around our goals and being really specific with the student learning objectives and goals that teachers are setting and monitoring their progress towards that. And finally, it's really based in our adult learning framework, our theory of action, that top line. If we implement highquality universal instruction, that is going to solve 90% of the challenges that we're seeing in our schools. We have to ensure the most time we have with students is the first time, right? There isn't enough time to make up for lagging skills afterwards. We have to make sure the instruction we're providing students on the daily, the first time is our best best work. And that's

096what our teachers have been working endlessly to do. and our leaders are supporting them in that. And so we know that if we can do that, we're going to also continue to see immense growth with our students. And so the next update you'll hear in regards to data, um a more formal update, if you will, will be around our state report cards in November, um November 17th to be exact. Um and then we'll be coming back midyear to look at midyear data and dig into dig into that. So, I will pause there for for questions. >> Great questions from the board. Okay. Board member Kaiser. >> Um, being a fourth grade teacher, I'm kind of fascinated by that drop that kind of happened. Do we know if the math curriculum that we have, does it

097cover what a spec like those uh those key target learning targets, you know what I mean, well enough for the beginning of year? Because I've noticed with my fourth graders, beginning of the year, grades are also um data is struggling, but then midyear and end of year it gets so much better because the curriculum just doesn't catch them up quite yet to the beginning of fourth grade. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. >> I think what we're seeing in the analysis and the conversations I've had with leaders and teachers is that so the fourth grade assessment is teaching fourth grade standards, at least beginning of year standards. And so it is a jump from third grade. So that's one thing that our leaders have noted right away. They're like the skills that they're being asked

098to do are just more challenging, more complex. Um but also we've started to have not I don't want to say started, but to be more strategic with conversations between those grade level teachers because I don't think it it sits within just fourth grade. It's what is happening prior and what are those skills where they know they can start the year there, right? They know they need to focus in on fractions or multiplying fractions and division to get into the more complex um math work that they're going to have to do in fourth grade. So, it's it's a combination of I think more strategic collaboration between grade levels um and I think an increase in uh the rigor of what's expected in fourth grade. >> Okay, >> good. Other questions or member Lee? >> Yeah, I

099I'm just curious a couple things talking about our our kindergarters >> and um you know they're coming in at level wise. Do we know what percent of those kindergarteners were listening for? >> I don't I would have to get that for you >> because um a good question. >> I somehow would think that might play a role in their abilities >> compared to our our Kers who come in fresh, never been to school before. >> Um and you know the expectations and how that works and there's growing pains. business here and you're trying to do things you've never done before because you were with home with mom and dad or at daycare or wherever you weren't in K4. >> Yeah. >> So, I think that might be interesting. >> It may not be an actual

100causation, but might be interesting to know something we can use to help encourage >> families to attend >> foury olds to come and hey look, we see this increase at our test data for those who attended our our K4 versus those that didn't. Yeah, >> it might be interesting to look at that and see if there is any correlation that actually can be determined to be positive. Um, am I saying questions corre what do 100% of our students take this test? What is the percent? Is it 100%. >> Uh, yeah, that is the goal. It usually hovers >> is it 100%. >> In in majority of our buildings, it is 100. There are some that it would be >> 96 97 >> at the lowest. August >> and that's just because they're not there. I

101know there's makeup days and there's it doesn't always have to be on the day but >> correct it's a window >> long period of time and they're not able to >> make this. Yeah. something to keep in mind too. I presume that those students weren't tested, you had something in place for them because obviously you don't really know where they are, right? And so if you don't have that test, you don't have that baseline, it's harder to help that student if they need help whether up or down, right? Whether they're gifted or they need more support to try and get up to grade level standards. Um for those who don't take this test, what are the plans for those students? How does that look? Well, there's still I mean all of the the teachers are

102doing collaborative meetings or roundts around students. So, it is one data point. Um if they're new to us, they would have cumulative records from wherever they've been previously. Um they would have student work and data to analyze from the beginning of the year to assess if there's more more supports needed. Um, but again, I'm just I think that across our elementaryaries, I could pull it up right now, but I I think it's largely like at 100% where we tend to have those lower lower of like 96 to 97 is at the high school level >> where it's more difficult because we do this through 11th grade. So, it's more difficult sometimes to get students in in the building. >> Okay. >> Yeah. But but we often do um we often do outside of the window

103if we have a student who wasn't there during the window. So we don't necessarily count their scores within the official. We can't get percentiles. >> Sure. >> But they can be tested at any time. And so I'm often getting emails, can I test him? He's here. Do it. Please get him in there. So we at least have something to go off of. But then we also strongly encourage like >> get those formative assessments, get some information from class to make the decisions on your next steps. >> Okay, that's good. I don't want see people fall through the cracks in this regard because I think this is very powerful to be able to help >> direct the education for each student and where they need to go and but you know stuff happens illness or whatever

104else are they coming in halfway through the year and so I think that um when you're lacking that having that ability to do things at hawk so you can at least in the interim maybe they're not included in this in these data points but um overall they're still directing their individual education appropriately. Yes, absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. Thank you. >> Other questions from the group? >> Yes. Board member car. >> The data is is the data. I um am more um intrigued by our plan. >> Yeah. >> And uh the continuous improvement. So um I love that we have a plan. I think that that that's half the battle >> is having a plan. I love the shared ownership of that plan. It's very strong. Um I have a couple of questions just

105for you know clarity. I I think just to wrap my head around it. So the collaborative team cycles >> that we've been working on. So the teachers are meeting you they have priority standards. They have success criteria. They talk about the lesson itself, the exit tickets, then they come back and analyze that data. It's a it's a cycle, right? >> Correct. >> My question is who is deciding on that priority standard, the success criteria, the exit ticket, is that provided for the teachers or are they coming together in the meetings and saying, "Okay, let's whip up an exit ticket." Like, are we and I I have a feeling about either one. So let first let's answer that. >> Well, let me provide the clarity and then see where you want to go next. But um

106what we have provided in the GVC planning guides is we brought together teacher teams as well as our instructional coordinators or schoolbased coaches as well as district support to prioritize the standards. So we've said the this is priority learning at this grade level, right? >> Yep. just also to help our staff stay focused once again because as we talked about it would take I think it's 26 years to get through the 12 years that we have students with us right so but then once they're in those collaborative team meetings most of our um schools are focused on learning intentions which is the goals of the learning success criteria how do students know they'll be successful by the end of that day and then how are they going to check for understanding which really is like

107how do I know every single one of you I get feedback from you on what you're able to do right >> so that's where they're focused and that's what they're discussing in their collaborative plans so in those meeting times so they're saying okay this is our priority standard for the week a lot of our resources at the elementary level are weekbased so Scholastic is an example of that so they'll say this is the priority learning so they don't have to do the guesswork around that. They're then they're in the the core resource and they're talking through okay often the core resource provides a learning intention. So they don't necessarily have to come up with that on their own, but they can tweak it if they want to use different language. And then the success criteria,

108they're really breaking that down as a team for their students. And that's where the I can statements are really studentfriendly language of students then know like I'm going to be successful when I can do this one or two things. And then as a team they're deciding what is the the best check for understanding or do we want to do uh I would say a more a little more formalized check for understanding which would be a common formative assessment. So they determine that in teams um so it's a it's a balance of we provide kind of the overview of like this is the priority. Um, and we also want to make sure, and this is important, part of the prioritization of standards is to make sure it's actually doable within that grade level. And sometimes we

109haven't been able to get to all the core concepts within a grade level because of pacing. And so that's something that our teachers and our leaders are really talking a lot about um, right now of just how to stay focused on the priority learning. So um, that's what I would say. They're doing a lot of that work together in teams. >> Yeah. And I I and I think that um there's there are drawbacks to I'm I'm looking for continuity among the buildings. The minute that we say any I can see both sides. If you provide that for teachers, if you give them everything, then it's not their own. They haven't lived it. They haven't written it together. they haven't really come together and said look at our students and this is what you know let's

110let's use this to see what they need and I so I tend to go with that model but on the other hand I can't see Wilson and Walker's third grades being the same like as far as they have the same learning intention are they does it stop there then no so that's just the planning side of it so when we talk and this is these are the conversations we've been having with leaders a lot is a lot of them have been leaning into the collaborative teams and making sure those are strong both from like the we're actually collaborating together we're actually internalizing what we're teaching I'm not um it's not that I just know it up here I've thought through how I'm going to facilitate this what students are doing when I'm doing X right

111so they've really internalized their their learning for students. But then that's where the adult learning framework comes in. That's where we're saying as a district, this is the type of instruction we want to see across all of our classrooms. >> That's what I'm getting at. >> And that's where we are also really focused. So my team knows like we're building collaborative teams so people so teachers own it and also feel like they have the support and the place to like learn from each other. and we're also providing really important feedback focused on what we say is best instruction and that's what the adult learning framework is. So, it's happening in more formal ways through instructional rounds as Dr. Robinson noted. We are at Franklin um last week as well as Hoover, but it's also happening

112every day with members of my team, with me, with Dr. Robinson. We just go on walks and we're like, "Okay, this is what we're seeing." And we're staying very focused. So, like I said, our schools are getting really, really good at naming and having clarity on what they're teaching, students having clarity on what they're learning. >> Mhm. >> And then teachers checking to see how students are progressing towards that because that is really important. We need feedback from students. Students need to tell us like where are they where do they got it? Where are they ready to move on and do it on their own independently or where do we need to provide more supports? So that is the inperson part that you're speaking to, Miss Carr, of like I need to see this planning

113in action. >> Is it translating into the class? >> Yeah. >> And that's a lot of the conversations our leadership coaches are having, we're having with leaders. Um, and just a big shout out to our teachers are working tirelessly on both the planning and like the executing of the lessons, but like our our our leaders are really in the work too alongside them. they know where where their teachers are, what they're teaching, when um and how. >> So, just one more question that leads me into that's talked about. >> Yeah. >> Um so uh the individual plans, >> yes, the personal support plans, >> can you tell me more about those? What do those look like? And who's writing those and when when are they working on those? >> Yep. So the personal support plans

114um is a journey we started last year. Um and last year we uh received guidance from the state on like what needed to be included in that. Right? So this is part of act 20. >> Um but then we have taken that and made it a more succinct system within our skyward system. So our student information system, many of you are parents. You can log into Skyward. You can see now your students personal support plan in Skyward. And so Corey here has done a beautiful job of designing that for our teaching staff for that to be really easy to input the personal support plan. So, previously we didn't have that as a plan because if you remember last year um we received information and then had to turn it around within like a month or

115so from the state. And so we had great plans that were um laid out but just in a Google doc. So now it's a drop-own menu. Okay, I'm working on literacy. This is the skill that I know I need to hone in on with the students. maybe phonics for a lot of our K2 learners and then this is how I'm progress monitoring it and this is who is progress monitoring it. So we have different um people supporting our learners from reading specialists to our multilingual specialists um reading core. So we have a lot of different people that can pour into those plans as well. So again that's like another change and system we've had to adapt to. So we walk through it with leaders in the summer. They did a beautiful job walking their staff

116through it in August um or excuse me in September. And then they have been working they had um all of the their planning day if they wanted to use time towards that just because those were strategically positioned knowing they would need to do plans for literacy. um they could use that time or uh our principles have kind of cleared some of that those planning hours throughout the weeks to to provide opportunity for that. So like I said, we we really focus on literacy first um to meet state guidelines for the date for that. And now we're a lot of teachers I heard they were done with literacy within within um a few hours on that day because a lot of those skills are repeated that students need support with those early levels. Um and we're

117moving on to math. >> Alyssa, can you tell tell us who needs a plan? How do you how does how does a kid flag for needing a plan? >> Yep. So this um every all of our students in K2 will take the AS web which is the state screener. Um they also are taking uh our fastbridge to help measure their growth. Right? So, and we're always continuously reflecting on what are the assessments our kiddos are taking. What do we need um in terms of data and then if they fall be below there's two different markers for K1 versus 23 but the 25th percentile on there then that would flag we need to have a conversation sounds like a segue. we need to have a conversation around the student and maybe do an additional diagnostic. And

118so we do use FastBridge has tools that we can use a diagnostic which is really diagnosing like to go a little bit deeper. Um how do we support that that student? So um I don't have the updated numbers quite yet on the percentages at each school. Um but that's how the 25th percentile. Yep. >> Yep. So, and then our families will receive a letter this week um notifying them if they had a student previously on a plan, if they're going to stay on a plan or they maybe weren't previously and we're going to add in some additional support. So, they will receive communication um this week regarding that and the supports are are happening for our kids. Um I just guessed I want to clarify because being having kids in the district still and looking

119at just from my oldest now to my youngest how things have changed which isn't that many years in between but like >> this is totally separate from like an IEP >> or is it included in an IEP or can you speak to that just cuz like as a parent where like I say when I my oldest was the one with an IEP it was IEP and that was it >> and then there came in the 504 and now there's you know this personal support plan and just the differences cuz I'm I'm sure there are parents that might hear about this and be like, "Well, is that part of the IEP? Is this, you know, how does that play together?" >> So, let me be clear. Your personal support plan has nothing to do with being

120identified as having a disability or needing an individualized education plan. Um, but it is a measure for us when we do see students who maybe need additional support and like bolstering in literacy or math. We're going to not only provide that but be really strategic with what we provide to that student based on the skills they need. Um, similarly we have multilingual students. So students who speak multiple languages, we provide um language plans as well for them focused on um their access scores and um different literacy standards that they're working on. So it's just another layer of support. Um, and it does not mean just because a student has a personal support plan in literacy or math, it does not indicate anything of they may need um an individualized education plan. It's just a measure

121for us to make sure we're providing your child with everything that we we can um to support their learning. No, that's Thank you for that because I I know of parents in our district that, you know, are like, I can't get my kid qualified for this or that, but they need the extra help. So, I like the sound of this cuz that's that that caters to that group that they're like, well, they're not bad enough to >> be labeled with a learning disability or whatever, but you know that based on scores, they're not quite where they need to be. So, that I think is going to be very helpful. >> Yep. Again, just being really strategic with those supports and hopefully early so we can close those those opportunity gaps and then >> and they

122don't need it anymore, right? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay, other questions. Um I had two questions that I just wanted to quick um these the numbers that you've gen actually three sorry the numbers that you're generating as far as how much they've grown or how much they've gone down um are those are we calculating those or is that coming from the software and everything that we're using for the testing and and what's going on? >> Yep. So that is coming from our database wise-lo and so that's pulling directly from fastbridge into that database and then Corey does a lot of data validation to ensure that that information is accurate within that system. >> Okay. And then along with that evaluation, are we looking at the statistical significance of this as far as like whether

123or not these changes are real or if they're just due to chance, you know, because like a 1% change is likely somebody just had a slightly bad day and like >> Right. So like do we know which of these growth measures and which of these lack of growth measures are actually significant? >> Yeah. Are you going to say >> no? I was just going to say that this is just one piece of data. So when you look at this along with grades and you look at forward, there's a correlation that we're trying to figure out if that exists. And so this is just one piece of data, it's not uh the only piece that we actually look at. So trying to figure out if if this if if there are any signs from this particular

124data and how can we uh prog how can we progress monitor after the data comes out is where we we dig in deeper with each individual kid around skills. >> Sure. Well and and for each individual kid I think that that's that's great. I like the personal plans more. I'm thinking of overall >> if we're seeing where like uh that 5% increase is statistically significant, then we can look to that school and maybe break it down a little bit further and look at where who's having success with getting their kids year-over-year. And so then we can look to that teacher as a leader to help during the collaborations, during the other things to help pass on their the pieces that they're using. So that's that's why I was asking >> it. It it's it's kind

125of it's it's something that we're still trying to figure out because if you get if you think about it, this is the beginning of the year. So you can't really give a teacher credit for this because >> this is they just had the kids a couple of weeks by the time of this test. So I think the the more the correlation that can take place in giving more credit and seeing comparisons be more of the middle of the year data where you can kind of look at the more trends. right now at the beginning of the year, it's kind of hard to look at trends. Sure. In that particular manner. Sure. Now, I don't want to misspeak, but go ahead. >> I was going to say I will say at um in my conversations with

126leaders, they're they're aware of grade levels or classrooms where they are looking they you know, as we analyze the the data in the summer where you saw significant growth. So, we're aware of like different spotlights that we can point to um and strengths. I would say in teaching practices that are consistent. I would um my what I would highlight is I don't think a lot of our math changes is stat statistically significant yet. >> So that's why I said like slow and steady it's positive to see the trends. I do think seeing a four um% increase for literacy across a system of our district is leaning more towards significant um that that is different than what we've seen in the past. We actually had a decline prior to 2022. So I think that um literacy

127I would say we could point to maybe some areas or grade levels where there is more we're finding more success. But math is an area that I'm really excited to come back next the end of next year and for us to see some of those those changes. So I'd agree the one to 3% to me is not significant yet. >> Okay. And and part of this too is just for the community at large when they see those and it drops it's like well that's not necessarily significant. >> This is you know >> and across one school too, right? Versus a system, >> right? So just a couple of those pieces. And then um the other piece that I wanted to ask um we mentioned that third to fourth grade and then there was kind of

128a we're seeing a drop and >> yes >> um and then we're talking well the fourth grade has certain skills and the third grade has certain skills like are the end of the year skills for third grade the beginning of the year skills for fourth grade like is it overlapping that way or are we like being like hey you should get these skills in the first two weeks and good luck like how are they actually setting that up >> often the resource so our resour source. I don't that's why I was saying the conversations have increased between what end like end of year third grade into fourth grade looks like because you can start the year there, but those are skills that are going to need to be woven through and repeated. Um, so that's

129work that I'm doing with Keith Ruffalo on our K5 math supports. Um, and I think that we have again a a strong plan to kind of tackle and make sure that when we do revisit those, we need to make sure that we're also not staying below grade level on legging skills. We need to make sure that those are placed strategically and woven strategically to get at grade level learning. >> Yeah. >> Great. Um, that's all the questions that I have. Does anyone else have anything else? No. Well then, thank you for the presentation very much. >> Thank you. Go Brew Crew. >> Um so at this time if there is that is the end of our um agenda. So if there is no further business and there is no objection the meeting will be adjourned.

130There being no objection, we are we are adjourned.