001All right. We're going to call the study session to order at 5.03 p.m. Item 1.2. I'm going to turn things over to Superintendent Tenias. Thank you. President Nelson, governing board members, staff here this evening, and community members here joining us either virtually or in person. I am excited tonight to... get the study session started. One of your fellow board members had asked that at some point we come back and talk a little bit about outreach opportunities that we have in Kyrene for staff and families and students to get involved. So I'm going to give a really brief overview and then I'm really going to hand this presentation off to our guiding coalition, which will be really doing most of our outreach activities for the remainder of this school year. So maybe try that again. Whoops.
002There we go. Now we got it working. So I just want to kind of talk about, you've seen this slide before. It's been a few years, but just to bring it back and share some of the annual superintendent outreach items that I've been focused on or my team is focused on. Up at the top left, you see really the things that we do around student recognition. Obviously, the board is very involved in this, and that is archiving super students. And so one of the things we do annually. is recognize our Kyrene Super students for exhibiting the competencies and traits that are identified in the portrait of a Kyrene kid. Schools make the nominations. Either school leaders or staff at the school submit them. They are submitted to the district office and every school has opportunities
003to participate. And then, of course, you get to read their nominations. When it comes to outreach for employee recognition, we do what is called hiring values. We've been doing this for quite some time, and I think we're going on year two or three now of peer nominations. And I was actually out. this week doing Kyrene values. We do them quarterly. I go out and I recognize either support staff, school leaders, or certified teachers that are exhibiting our Kyrene core values. And the peer nominations, you know, after a couple years in, we were a little worried, would they start to slow down? We get a ton of peer nominations every quarter. It's really exciting. Just like with our Kyrene Super students, we have sponsors that help support our employee recognition. So some of our business alliance
004partners help sponsor specifically Kyrene Values is core and they offer a hundred dollar gift card to every employee that gets a Kyrene Values award. So that's really nice and exciting. And I think we do about 12 or so each quarter. So that's lovely. Then when you start thinking about our partnerships and the opportunities we have around partnerships, we have something called Kyrene Business Alliance. This is made up of business partners in our community that support the district in multiple ways. Many of them are out supporting schools at different events, but they're also supporting the district sometimes as we have ballot initiatives and things. just anything we identified, like some of these recognition events. And so we try to continuously build our business alliance partnership. One of the things that the business alliance, for those of
005you that were on the board, when we developed the portrait of a Kyrene kid that I so appreciated is their voice in building that and helping us build our strategic plan and having the voices of the people that own businesses in this community was really, really important to, for them to be able to share what is it we want. from our kids when they leave us. And so that was exciting. PTO roundtables sounds just as it is. It is representation from every one of our PTOs or PTAs or PTSOs at each campus. It's usually one to two leadership positions from the boards represented, and they meet quarterly and come together and share ideas across PTOs. That way, you know, because PTOs, if you're just at your site, only know what's happening at your site. And
006so it's given them an opportunity to come together and hear what's going on at other campuses. So cafe style meetings started a few years ago as well. And what that has merged into and we found to be really successful and we actually have one this Thursday is what we call our KBA PTO roundtable together joint meeting. We do that once or twice a year. And what we do is we found that our business partners want to be connected to our schools and our schools are looking for business partners. And so it was a way for us to bring them together and almost like a speed dating, if you will, activity where our business partners are getting to know all the different PTOs and schools. It's been really successful. I usually share a little bit of
007an update. This week, our guiding coalition is going to share an update with them around our hiring forward and long range planning. And then they're going to have an opportunity to get into their cafe style where they get to interact with each other. So that is partnerships. We are always looking to expand our partnerships. And so any help there is always greatly appreciated. And then as far as stakeholder voice, and the partnership meetings have been going on all this year as well. This next area, our stakeholder voice, was put on pause for this school year, but it's been pretty robust over the last few years, and it will pick back up for next school year. And that is my advisory councils. And the advisory councils are used to really seek feedback from some of our
008key stakeholders in the organization. And that's our students and our families, employees, and even our community. And so that group has evolved. I have two advisory councils. I have what we call a student senate. And I invite two eighth graders from every middle school campus to meet with me on a pretty regular basis and really to share the student perspective of what's going on in Kyrene. Give us feedback, maybe make me aware of something that I maybe wouldn't have been aware of without hearing it from the student voice. So I've really appreciated that. I'm also working to really expand the Student Senate to be more civically engaged. And so this next year, you'll probably see them in a board meeting or two. And they have gone on a few field trips with our business alliance
009partners, which has been great over the years, things like that. So they start to really understand how does a community work? How does the board work? How do I fit into all of this? And so Student Senate will pick back up. The challenge with our student senate truly has been a little bit of a transportation issue because they come over here during the middle of the day. This year, obviously, with everything going on with long-range plan, it was a little much to try to fit that in and with some of our transportation issues. So I'm trying to think of some creative ways that... we can address that and not impact transportation in a negative way. The superintendent advisory council is really, has evolved. It used to be like four councils. There was a student council.
010There was a parent council. There was a community council. There was a teacher council. There was a support staff council. What we found is as we were going through strategic planning, at that point, it had been down to a parent and a... and a staff council, if you will, is we brought the two together for a lot of the conversations when we were collecting feedback on the strategic plan. And what we heard was, would you keep us together? Because when we're isolated and we're not in one group like this to share our feedback, what happens is, while it might sound great to a community member or a parent to say, yeah, let's do this in our classrooms, our teacher's voice missing in that conversation is critical because sometimes they say, yeah, well, that sounds great
011in theory. In practice, that isn't going to work so well, and here's why. And so it really opened the doors for our families to hear the voices of our, you know, people who are most directly involved with our students, and it opened the door the other way. for our staff and our teachers to hear from our families as to maybe what's not happening that they would really like to see happening. So it's been really effective to merge those together, and I will continue to do that. We did pause the advisory council for this year because of the amount of meetings with long-range plan and that committee taking up such a significant amount of time and a lot of volunteers. And a lot of times the reality is the people that serve on these committees serve
012on all of them. And so just being cognizant of the time commitment that was. So that committee will pick back up in the fall when we come together. And then those are things that are done annually. And then I just want to also talk about a few other additional outreach activities that maybe I don't directly. interact with, but that somebody on my team is interacting with. That is our curriculum council. I know we have board member Davis also observing in the curriculum council and participating, but that is an annual activity as well that also involves staff and families, community involvement as well. Council will meet annually and has some very specific responsibilities. Some other outreach activities that occur that are more initiative driven, and we're going to talk about one of those here in just
013a minute, but our opportunity reviews, right? So there's lots of opportunity for families to get involved, such as when we did the special ed review and when we're getting ready to do the gifted opportunity review. So that's what that means. Other initiative-driven activities have been the strategic plan. We had a lot of support and a lot of feedback, hundreds. people participated in the strategic planning process that we did for this current strategic plan. Some of that does happen through focus groups. Some of that happens through individual interviews. We continue to do those types of outreach activities whenever we have a big initiative. When we did the diversity, equity, and inclusion policy, we did that. When we do the SEL. So any other big initiatives that we bring forward in the coming years, we'll also have
014that. And then, of course, we do surveys. So we have initiative-driven surveys, but we also have our annual school quality survey that goes out to everybody in the community, both external and internal. So staff have an opportunity to participate in the survey as well as all of our families. And then, of course, at a school level, the outreach activities are... plenty. There's a lot that goes on, but some of the big ones that happen, of course, are the parent organizations. And then every school does have a site-based council that's making decisions and helping weigh in on big initiatives. And then the one other one that I thought about that doesn't happen often in this past year with the Long Range Plan Committee, we combined the two. But typically, if the governing board prior to the
015governing board making a decision whether or not to go out for a ballot initiative, we will pull together what has historically been called the Citizens Budget Committee. They will come together to really have a deeper understanding of our budget and the process, and then they make a recommendation to the governing board as to whether or not the board should call for a ballot initiative. So we will do that prior to any time we make a recommendation for a bond or capital or M&O override. So those are some of the The bigger things that we do around outreach, most of these are in process this year with a few on pause for one year and will resume next year. And with that, one of the biggest ones that's happening right now, of course, is our Kyrene
016Forward Guiding Coalition. I shared the email with you that initially went out for the call to action. And so we've got members of the team here that are going to share the work the coalition is doing over the next couple of years in getting our community involved in consolidating our schools. So with that, I will hand it over to Mr. Eric Bailey to lead us off. I want to share a couple things. We have some members of the Guiding Coalition, our co-leads, me and Nick, are going to share some key information. I want to share with you about why this process and why it's so important to do this process. And Nick's going to share some of the amazing work that's already come out of the Coalition. Does this clicker work? If I turn it
017on, it does. All right. I start every session I do with Albert Einstein's quote, we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. This is often misquoted as Einstein's definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. He actually never said that. He said this. And what it means is that... As humans, as adults, we have this natural tendency to develop patterns of behaviors and create habits. And if we get in trouble, we instinctively employ the same habits that got us there. And if we want to try to do something different, then we need to do something different. And that's really what we're doing. So I actually want to start this little presentation with something different than you're used to. I want to give
018you a little puzzle. When we do puzzles, it stimulates a part of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the frontal lobe. So I want to give you a little stimulation of that part of the brain. We'll do a little puzzle associated with dopamine production, productivity, short-term memory, etc. So let's say you walk up to a table and you see a bunch of matchsticks laid out on the table and a little kind of Roman numeral math problem And I want you to tell me what is the fewest number of matchsticks you can move to make this an accurate math problem so right now if you don't know Roman numerals this says This says 10 plus 1 equals 9. So that's obviously an incorrect problem. What is the fewest number of matchsticks you can move
019to make this a true mathematical statement? What do you say, Kevin? 1. 1? A lot of people kind of consolidating about that. Okay. All right. I'm going to challenge that answer. Challenge that answer. What if instead of moving any matchsticks, what if you just went to the other side of the table? And from the other side of the table, you looked at it, and the math problem says, we're spinning too many times, the math problem says, okay, it says 11 upside down, upside down, it says 11 equals 1 plus 10. So without moving a single matchstick, just moving to the other side of the table, getting a different perspective, we have a true mathematical statement. And that happens a lot of times. Oftentimes, we think that the way that I see it is the way
020it must be. But that's not necessarily the case. And that's kind of what we're doing here. The only way I can see it is the way it can be seen. So who am I? I am Eric Bailey. I run a firm called Bailey Strategic Innovation Group. We're based out of Chandler. We're one of the fastest growing human communication consulting firms in the United States. I also happen to be a Kyrene dad. My middle son just moved up to Corona from Apprende, and my daughter is now currently at Apprende. I am a volunteer track coach. I'm the hurdle coach. And since I started coaching hurdles, we have won all three places in girls' hurdles conference every year. So just wanted you to know that. My kids love Kyrene. We love Kyrene. In fact, my daughter plays
021on the volleyball team at Apprende. And also, my wife is a Kyrene kid, and she played volleyball at Centennial. So we have this really fun picture of my daughter in seventh grade playing volleyball and my wife in seventh grade playing volleyball. Love Kyrene. It's part of my heart, and I love that I get to do this work with you. I got my start in consulting doing international change management work with a firm called Cotter International. If you study change management, it's named after Dr. John P. Cotter, Harvard professor of 50 years, literally wrote the book on change management. I got to study under him for a year. I got to run world-leading change initiatives across the world. And I learned a lot of amazing things from him. The first thing he ever taught me was
022that consultants are the enemy. which is tough because he hired me as a consultant for his consulting firm. So I was like, what are you talking about? He said, no, no. He said, they come in and they tell you what you already know and they charge you an arm and a leg. He said, I want my firm to be the anti-consulting consulting firm. I'm not going to come in and pretend to be an expert in your business. That's your job. I'm an expert in my methods. And if we can marry your expertise with mine, we can have powerful results. And that's how I learned how to do this. I do not know how to run a school district. I'm not an expert in education. Where I am an expert is the brain science and psychology
023of human engagement. And that's what I get to do with the guiding coalition. They're the experts. They're doing the real work. I'm just creating the environment where their expertise can shine, where they can work well and get things done quicker. So what are we doing here today? We're talking about change. There's a lot of change happening in our world, especially in your world right now. And if we try to approach that with our old thinking, we likely would fail because the problem is so big. And so we need to find new ways to think about this. Dr. Cotter found that 70% of large scale change initiatives will fail, 70%. And they fail for predictable reasons. Now, number one, there's no sense of urgency to achieve a positive future. There's not a sense of urgency. What
024is a sense of urgency? A sense of urgency is an overwhelming compulsion to action that consumes your thoughts, consumes your emotions, consumes your behaviors. And that's what we want to try to create. It's a sense of urgency to create something positive in the future. And that thing that we're trying to create, this is when I think of a sense of urgency, that feeling. So when we're doing this, what we're trying to do is we're trying to affect change. Now, this is Ever Roger's diffusion of innovations. On the left side, we have our innovators, the 2.5% of the population. They're ready to go. They bought the first iPhone when it came out in 2007. They're lined up. Then the early adopters follow them those people about the second generation and then the early majority bought maybe
025the fourth generation the fifth generation When an organization is urgent quote-unquote we have 50% of the population plus one so a majority of the population is on board with this new change and That's part of what the guiding coalition is trying to do is get to 50% plus one excited about the opportunity now What is the opportunity? Well, first of all, our guiding coalition is a diagonal slice of our organization. We had a very unique way of finding them. We did a blind application. We let anybody apply, not just picking the usual suspects. And I took all the information, removed any demographic information, and we just scored on merit of passion and alignment with the district. And then based on that, then we unblinded and we made sure that we had proper coverage. It was
026really powerful. And we had a lot of people like, I didn't know they were so passionate. And there's a lot of passion in that group. They're responsible for leading the strategic initiatives of the rows, the results oriented statement, which Nick will talk about in a second. So do you want to read the rows for us, Nick? So here's our rows. This is a statement that we took about half a day to create. This is our North Star, where we're pointing to. All right. The education landscape is shifting and we have the opportunity to support our community while guiding Kyrene through meaningful change. It's okay. I got to memorize. No, I don't. Our greatest strength is our people. We are bold and we are caring. We are uniquely positioned to protect and improve the Kyrene experience
027because of our deep historical roots and unwavering passion for both our community and for public education. Through empathy and open-mindedness, we will honor the rich legacy of our past while courageously seeking new opportunities to make Kyrene even more exceptional. We will ensure transparency and clear communication, allowing space for all voices to be heard. We are ultimately successful when all of our students are successful. Over the past 135 years, our community, students, staff, and families have made us Kyrene Strong, and now we have the opportunity to unite and make Kyrene Strong. If you don't have chills, it's so good. It's so good. So this group came together, and within a half a day, they put that together. And I'm telling you, the work that they did is incredible. And so what we're doing is we're using
028that rose statement. That's where we're going. Any initiative, if it doesn't get us closer to achieving that, we're letting it go. It's not for us. strategic initiatives. The group has come together and identified some strategic initiatives. Cabin actually came in and proposed some, shark tank style. And the coalition got to pick which ones they were going to jump into. And they're really trying to move this whole thing forward. Like all the stuff is going to happen within the next couple of months. And if we can create the right cultural environment, we can be successful here. We can make Kyrene stronger through this process, not just running on the back of the treadmill trying to stay on. Okay. So do you want to talk about the subcommittees or do you want to just go for it?
029Are they on the next slides as we go? Okay, perfect. There we go. Okay, perfect. Okay, so jumping in there. Of the guiding coalition, there's about 30 of us that are the main core group, and we're branching out from there. Of the 30 of us, we've kind of split into three main categorical groups to tackle the work and move the work forward. The first group is the I&I group, which is Inspire and Invite. And I'm going to read the slides, but I'm also going to put it in a metaphorical context as well to kind of help bridge the pieces together. So on the business side of things, so to speak, we're the ones getting creative of how can we get people on board with this? How are we inviting people into doing this work and
030inspiring them to want to go do more? As it says in the bullet points there, where are we going? How are we going to achieve the rose? If we're starting every day with the rose, how are we achieving the rose? How are we pulling people more, pulling more people in for this? Letting people know, hey, we've got ideas, we've got projects, but what do you have to bring to the table? How can we utilize your skill set and your strengths? This is the space that you belong. Please come join us. The metaphorical way I will kind of put that is I and I group, we're the ones where when you're walking through the mall, they're like, hey, no, hey, let me clean your shoes real quick. Hey, come over this way. I got you. Or
031the sign spinners on the side of the street of 20% off over here. Come this way. We got you. So we're the ones that we see the gifts and we start pulling in the gifts. OK, we need more of that. We need more of that. Let's pull you in. That's the I and I group. All right. Next group, E and E. So E and E being engaging and empowering. OK, they're the ones that are kind of looking at these people that have been pulled in and seeing, OK, this person has these skills. What can we utilize them best for? This person's really passionate in this avenue. Let's direct them over here to do this type of work. Starting to take all the people that have now come in the door and put them put the
032aces in the places, so to speak. So they've got the list of all the ideas and all the work of, OK, here's what we're working on today. Here's where we start putting these people to best get that work done and get that work moving. They're sharing the ideas. They're getting all of the information now out there of thanks for coming in. Here's what we're going to do next. To put it back into the metaphor side of things. The I&I has pulled all the gifts in and now E&E, they're looking at the gifts and it's this gift would go great in this area. This gift would go great over here. This gift goes great with this person. I was the kid who wanted video games. E&E makes sure I get to video games and not the
033dolls. But then if I had a sister, they'd make sure that person goes over there. They're putting the aces in their places. Make sense? Perfect. And then group number three, O&O, is the Organize and Opportunities group. So they're the ones also tracking, okay, we've got the people in the building. This is what they're working on. How is that work going? Is that work getting done? Are we reaching our benchmarks? Are we completing our goals and tasks? Is everything we're setting out to do, where's the tangibility in it? And is the tangibility being met? They're keeping track of milestones. I wanted to go ahead and quickly highlight Akimaw. One of our first initiatives was sending out an interest list of who wants to come in and start working on this. Akimaw has reached almost a 50%
034response rate in terms of just the information we've already set out. So props to Akimaw. There's a lot of other schools that are getting their percentages up there. As Eric mentioned, the 50% plus one. Aki Mall is already well on the way and there's a lot of other schools that are quickly following behind or following along, I should say. So, O&O is tracking that of we got the gifts in. We figured out where the gifts are going. Now, let's make sure the gifts are getting delivered on time to who needs them, when they need them, how they need them and why they need them. They're keeping track of, you know, all the notes of everything that we're progressing on. That way we can present that stuff to you guys, present that stuff to the community
035as a whole of, hey. Thanks so much for what you're doing, how you're contributing. Here's what's going on. Here's what it's looking like. There's that information for you. So we ask guiding coalition members to wear four hats at the same time. Obviously, they're a member of the guiding coalition. They're in one of the three subcommittees, as Nick just talked about. They're also an employee. I don't know what those acronyms are, how that got mixed up. But they're a KSD employee. They work. They have a full-time job. And they're also a member of a project team. Now, the thing that we have to watch out for is overload. We're asking a lot of these folks, and which is why in our initial application, we were looking for passion. People were really passionate. If you say, okay,
036you're really passionate and you have the opportunity to do this thing. If they're really passionate, they will get their day job done very, very well so that they're cleared to go do this thing. And we find this happening a lot as people are getting their work done better now that they have more with this guiding coalition than they were before. We see people doing work in the subcommittees, and now it's time to do the work of what comes next. So we're inviting people in. What are we inviting them to? Well, we have these project teams, these initiative teams, and they're the ones that are saying, okay, here's how we actually get this done. So I'm going to introduce the six initiatives that we started, but we decided actually this morning, in our meeting this morning,
037that we're going to focus on only three of them for the first few months, really to get to the end of the school year, focusing on three, and then we'll bring in the other three. So we have employee communication, Kyrene Idea Labs, family connection. career pathways, connecting schools, and staff connection. Those are the six big initiatives that we're really working on. But starting for the next couple of months, we're just focusing on employee communication, family connection, and staff connection. So Nick, do you want to share what these are? On the silly side of things, there's definitely an easy version of employee communication. Okay, employees communicating. Great. That's awesome. What does that look like? It's really diving in deeper along the lines of, okay, we have campuses that are starting to combine. We have campuses that
038are starting to experience transition and change. How do we make sure we're guiding those changes in the right way, making sure everybody's voice is being heard in terms of what they need to express or what their needs are, and also make sure everyone that is utilizing their voice is also being heard. They're not just speaking into an empty void, getting... the schools and the employees within them to start coming together, which kind of ties together with staff connection in a lot of similar ways. Planning events that can take place within the district and within our schools, within our community of staffing and employees of, hey, you know, you might be the new kid on the block over here, but that doesn't mean you're new in the building. It doesn't mean that you're alone. It doesn't
039mean you're on your own. Let's start bringing more staff together. Ultimately, all of this ties back into the rose of how it filters back into our students and our communities and our families of the better we're connecting our staff, making sure the employees are being communicated with. There's obviously a million questions that have been on everybody's mind every month for the past so many months. And we answer a million questions and then. There's a million new questions and that is how it goes. But as long as the connection pieces are being built and the communication is taking place, that's where the comfort comes in. That's where people are able to say, okay, you know what? My school district is looking out for me. And if they're looking out for me, I can best look out
040for my kids and we can all look out for each other. The dominoes kind of all fall back into place around each other. So those kind of echo similar beats in certain ways. And then the family connection piece, obviously. At the risk of sounding generic, our communities are made up of the families that inhabit them. And so it's a very important piece to make sure all the questions that we're making sure the staff have answers to and the moments that they have to come together and, you know, intermix, intermingle. I don't know if that's the right verbiage. Making sure families have those opportunities as well. We do have... A kid who's in second grade right now at school A that's really nervous about going to school B, where is that kid's opportunity to start making
041some connections? That way, when they walk in on that first day of school or later on in the year, whenever that transition happens, where's the comfort? Is the comfort there for them? Is the connection there for them? Is there a familiar face? Some kids have the benefit of, oh, okay, I'm on the baseball team with Josh and John, and they go over here, and I can't wait to see them. But not every kid has an opportunity like that. So making sure, you know, at the risk of sounding cliche, all the voices are heard. But not only are they heard, but they're uplifted and recognized of here's an environment where you can show up and we are going to do culture building activities, culture building ideas and start bringing those things together. Is that making sense-ish?
042Okay. Kind of hit the right beats. And then also building off of that, like I said, or like, like we mentioned, these are the three main primary focuses right now, but the other ones on the docket, the idea lab, the idea labs, as well as the career pathways and. connecting schools. So those are also very big topics for us. There's also probably another 20 that are also somewhere along the list, but they all kind of filter into these umbrella of ideas, so to speak. And we're getting moving and grooving on all of that. So. As we continue this process, you'll notice that it's very ambitious. It's absolutely ambitious. And a lot of things that we're doing, if you see these initiatives, they're really about creating the right culture for this change to pass through. The
043change is happening. And right now, one of the things we're hearing from a lot of staff at all different levels, certified, non-certified, is that we don't know what's going on. We don't know what's coming next. There's a lot of fear in that. And actually in the meeting today, they discovered that a lot of the answers are already out there. It just, they didn't know that this FAQ existed or that one existed. And so the employee communication initiative group, they're going to try to consolidate that. And right now they're actually working on trying to find a point person at each site that is the communication pinpoint so that everyone knows, okay, if I have a question about this, I can talk to so-and-so. ease that fear of, I don't know what's going on. They're going to
044really work on those FAQs to make sure that everything is out there. The questions that we're getting that we're, hey, if you asked, that means that 10 other people are wondering. So we're going to really focus on that. And when people have information. their anxiety goes down. And that's really want to have low anxiety as these changes are happening so we can focus on the stuff that really matters. A lot of folks realize that Kyrene is a collection of people and some buildings, right? And so we really want to focus on treating the people well, the families, the staff. the kids, of course, the kids in such a way that they feel like, yes, we're doing this and coming out on the other side with Kyrene even stronger. So I imagine you have a lot
045of questions. I'm here. We have some other Guiding Coalition members here. We can answer most of your questions. Board members, I don't put up to any questions for our presenters. Member Davis. Thank you. Thank you so much for all that. Very impressive and very exciting. It's great. I have some sort of generic questions just for my own information because I worked in the mental health field for a while at one point in my life and taught communication skills and stuff like that. One of the things that I wonder about, you mentioned that when you looked for folks to be on this committee, you look for people who had passion for public education and you all believe in public education and public education is important. Has there been any articulation as to what that means and
046why? Yeah, that's a great question. The way that we drew folks in is we invite them and we ask them just a series of questions. And what we're looking for is as they express their answers to the question, did they express it with, it felt very personal or felt like they really cared about their answers. Not necessarily the length or brevity of answers, but rather did they go into some detail of why this matters to them? Did they bring some heart to it? And so. We actually asked many folks on cabinet to do the review. Each question by a person was reviewed by at least three folks. And each person reviewed that answer. Did this answer seem like there's passion coming out of it? And it seemed like it was aligned with Kyrene's vision and
047values. And so... answer is that all three folks said, yes, these are very passionate and they're very aligned. Those are the folks that lifted out of it. So there wasn't necessarily a definition for what passion was because each person who is scoring them may have a different definition. I didn't want to let that squash, but. folks that had all three scorers say, yes, that was passionate, those are the ones that lifted up. Yes, and I understand that. My question is a little bit different. I'm asking about the notion of public education. Why are people passionate about public education specifically? I think it's a really important question. I'm just throwing it out there. You don't have to... Give me an answer, actually. But from my perspective, I would appreciate, especially a group that's so passionate about
048that thing, that if there could be, it would help me to understand your work better. If I understood what about public education makes them passionate. That's great. So every single member of the Guiding Coalition works for Kyrene. As we were talking about the first maybe 15, 20 minutes of the Guiding Coalition launch retreat was, why is Kyrene the best? Why work in public education? And there was actually specific questions around why stick around? Why do you continue doing what you're doing? How many years of experience? Why have you done it for so long? And we actually discovered that, I don't remember the number, but I believe that in the Guiding Coalition, we had 200, no. 350 some odd years of experience collectively. We all talked about why public education is important, why hiring specifically is
049important. I don't have all those notes with me to share with you today, but it was absolutely a founding bedrock of the work that we did. Yes, that's great. I appreciate that. I'd love to know what some of those answers are. Yeah, it was, as they mentioned, it was in the Rose, I believe the second stanza. There's a shock. Okay. Okay. I'll, I'll. Yeah. And this one here, our greatest strength is our people. Can we get a copy of this? Can we? Yes. Thank you. Yes. We'll get you a copy of it. Absolutely. Everyone has to have patience with me. I'm a little slow on the uptake. That was one question I had. So thank you. That's a great answer. I really like the communication piece that you just spoke about of being able to
050have a faster and more direct way of staff knowing what's going on. Because as you say, I think that uncertainty is really the biggest problem. And just knowing that something is actually happening can alleviate so much anxiety. So I really like that. And I think that that may be it. For now, if I think of something else, I'll raise my hand again. Thank you. Great presentation. Vice President Cetri. Yes, I have more of a comment than a question. I just want to say bravo to the district and to you, Mr. Bailey, and your team. I feel like this initiative is taking something, like you said, that's fearful. and overwhelming for a community and our staff and turning it into something that's manageable and maybe even seamless, which is the hope, right? And I'm excited to
051see where we're going to go with this. I'd like to see in the future, maybe some case studies or success stories would be great just when we get further along, because I think that those stories will be meaningful and kind of show that. we're moving in the right direction. So thank you for that. I appreciate it. Board member Walsh. Before you answer, uh, we may have actually a success story that was shared, uh, this morning that may think that. Yeah. Yes. Um, a couple actually. And one of them was actually from just maybe a couple hours ago. Um, I'm building off the communication piece. One of the already tangible things we've done is in response to the people who already filled out the form saying, hey, I'd like to help out. I'd like to contribute.
052We sent handwritten thank you notes with, you know, a appreciation message to those individuals. Already got a message back today of, oh, my goodness, like you guys are paying attention. Thanks. This wasn't just the email in a form that went into the void. There was a return on investment on this and there was a mint. So maybe they just really liked the mint. So there's a success rate there. Also, word of mouth and providing that comfort blanket. We've all got to go to sleep at night and we sleep a lot better when we know there's a blanket. Sometimes we have someone to tuck us in. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes it's the idea of someone being ready to tuck us in. Even going back to my peers in my department, I work both at Cielo and
053for Community Ed, being able to go back and have conversations with people of like, hey, we know things are about to change. We know change is a really uneasy and uncomfortable subject, even the best of change. I think about getting married one day and I'm terrified, you know, like change can be really scary. Even the best of change can be really scary. But being able to have those conversations with people and have them know, oh. There's a group in the district that's thinking of us, that's looking out for us, that's representing us. That's the blanket right there. So I'm not trying to be in everybody's room when they go to bed at night, but. We are that safety blanket that's starting to come in if people are able to go to bed or will eventually
054start being able to go to bed and know, hey, when I go to work tomorrow, there's people thinking about tomorrow and the day after and the day after and how I'm going to adjust with that, how my kids are going to adjust with that. And then that allows them to focus on their immediate things as well, which propels everything forward. As we talked today, people were sharing different stories of, oh, well, this person watched this video and they knew, oh, I recognize that face. I'm glad they're looking out for me. What can I do to help? How can I join this? Starting to just get those first dominoes to start falling over in the right direction. And I want to be very clear, the mints that people are being given in the headroom notes are
055commitments. The coalition is very creative. Thank you, President Nelson. Mr. Bailey, thank you for your presentation for the work, Nick, as well. I'm excited for the work you're going to do. A lot of what I heard tonight was engagement with our staff, our teachers, I think our parents, which is so important. One of the things I wanted to ask you and maybe Superintendent Tenius is the student voice and how and where we're getting the student voice. As they're thinking about this, and Nick gave a nice anecdote about, you know, a second grader moving over and how do we help them. Where are we engaging with the students to hear it from them? Because as you know, with your work with the Student Senate, these are brilliant minds. Absolutely. So again, the Student Senate will pick
056back up in the fall and we will utilize the structures that I shared. The Guiding Coalition will then have access to those voices for input as well. But in addition, we're also doing some work with Hanover and getting ready to go into some focus groups and interviews. And I'm going to let Ms. Gibson share where we're headed with that. That specifically. will also impact students. So we actually just solidified that plan today. And after April 6, Hanover Research, we're working with, they are going to provide us with protocols for interviewing and the interview questions and the protocols for interviewing. And we're going to have either members of the guiding coalition or members of our team go out and interview kids. Because when we were looking at, you know, feedback. the kids' feedback is really the
057most important. We really want to know how they feel, what are some of their fears, what they're happy to see, and then what are some things that went really well or what are some things that they felt didn't go so well so when we get to school closures again next year that we can look at the data and just kind of pivot based on our feedback. So kid interviews are coming up soon. That's excellent. Yeah. Are we going to be working with, in particular, maybe a focus on the schools that are impacted most directly next year? Yes. So like for this year, we'll be working with the sites that are closing and merging. And then hopefully the following year, we would work with those sites that are closing and merging as well. Thank you. I'd
058love to hear some of the takeaways from that. Yes. We'll compile all the results when we get them. And we'll also have some additional survey questions as well as we think about our quality survey this year that we'll be able to capture some of those results. Thank you. All right, Mr. Bailey, Guiding Coalition. You know, when I read the ROSE statement, I don't even know what the acronym for ROSE stands for. I mean, I'm sure I was told it, but I don't remember it. However, this is just... I find that mission statements or things that ground any kind of group with an initiative, like that they come up with together is, those are some of the most impactful groups that I've ever been a part of. And I know anytime I've volunteered, like I have
059been on the superintendent community council, several citizens budget committees, like I've done all, all the things. And I've always found that when we were really successful, it was because we were grounded in a commonality. So. The Kiting Coalition, this is probably one of the greatest things that I, I mean, I love the portrait of a Kyrene kid and the Kyrene promise, but this, I think, really just speaks to the moment that we're currently in. And I just, I love it. And the work that you're doing and the way that you are kind of breaking up the work is really, it speaks to my heart. It's kind of... In my life and another education sphere, that's kind of how I organize my team where we all have these different strengths where some people are really great
060with wonder and invention. That is not me, but I am more of, you know, a discerner or enabler. Like I can like see like you're engaged and empower. I can see the pieces if you give them to me and here's how they should all work together. And so finding pockets where everybody doesn't have to be an extrovert, but everybody's. talents are brought together is just really thoughtful and really well done. And I just, I appreciate you sharing this story. I have seen a few little anecdotes online about different campuses who are already starting to welcome some of their newer learners for next year and how powerful that's been for those families who have approached this with a lot of trepidation and leaving, coming away feeling like, oh, we were welcomed with open arms. My child
061is so excited. They were like, this might be my new classroom. And just really that communication and that invitation, that welcome, so important. So I just thank you for your time today. Yes. And I just again, I want to thank the coalition. I was not on the selection committee, but I did get the honor of acknowledging those that were selected. And I asked for them to RSVP and I shared this with the coalition already. But I said, oh, my gosh, I knew the team did a fantastic job. If you could read the emails I got back from everybody that I told you've been selected. It was unbelievable. I'm like. these are some really passionate people. So I'm very excited. But what excites me the most is, you know, so many times in a big change
062initiative, it becomes very top down in a lot of organizations. And we just really felt this was an opportunity for it not to be that. It shouldn't come just from the principals. It shouldn't come just from district leadership. It really needs to come from our community out there that are boots on the ground doing this day in and day out. And I want their voices to lead this. And really, you know, our job to me as the district leaders are to remove as many barriers as we can for them to get this work done. How do we support them? How do we make sure that they're able to move this work forward and get people excited about what's coming for Kyrene? How do we get stronger? And so I'm super excited because, again, I just
063peek in every once in a while and I try to stay out of their way. But it's exciting just to sit and listen. be a little bit of fly on the wall and just hear what they're saying. So, you know, there really are ambassadors. And so I think that that's exciting. And, you know, I hope that I know it's overwhelming. I know it's a lot of work. But I think what excited me even the most was that while we're going through this change and addressing the consolidation is critical. This is actually I'm seeing it take a whole lot of other avenues, if you will, that. even make us stronger as an organization. And it's not just about school closure. How do we get away from that? And it's about how do we make our district
064stronger? And that's what excited me is that you can see it in their statement, in their Rose statement, and you can see it in the conversations they're already having. So I'm very proud of this team and excited about the work they're going to bring forward over the next two years. But, you know, it's going to be some things are going to move really fast and some things might feel like they're moving a little slower. And I think that's OK. Any additional questions? Thank you, brothers, for your presentation. And like Superintendent Tennant said, I'm very excited to see how we can get this done collectively for everyone, the best possible solution. Thank you. And President Nelson, it stands for results-oriented statement. It was not in the notes. Thank you so much. Okay. Well, thank you so
065much, gentlemen, for your time today. Item 1.3 is conclude study session. The study session is concluded at 5.53. Okay. Welcome, everybody. We are going to... The regular meeting is called to order at 6.01. At this time, all blue cards need to be turned into our board secretary, Ms. Nancy Mosier. School board meetings are held in public to conduct the business of the district. We believe that education is a partnership between schools and home, and we respect the rights of parents and guardians and value their role in our district. As always, board meetings are streamed live on the internet. For those who cannot watch the meeting live, recording will be made available and posted. online within 24 hours. Board agendas may be attained from the district office and the Kyrene website 24 hours in advance of
066the board meeting. Our superintendent is here tonight, as well as senior leadership. Item 2.2, roll call. Will board members state their name for the record? Cedric Collins. Bunny Davis. Kevin Walsh. Amy Satry. Trina Nelson. Let the record show that there are five members present this evening. Item 2.3, a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance. I see Principal Jaime Soto in the audience and would love to have him lead us in tonight's pledge and moment of silence. Item 2.4 is our land acknowledgement. Kyrene School District acknowledges that our community of schools is located on the ancestral lands of the O'odham and Peeposh peoples who have inhabited these lands since time immemorial. With this land acknowledgement, the district formally recognizes the traditional care and keeping of these lands by Native peoples allows us to be here
067today. And item 2.5 is archiving promise. We promise to provide welcoming, inclusive learning environments in which every student is honored, valued, and feels a strong sense of belonging and purpose. We promise to provide rigorous, responsive learning environments in which every student is given what they need to develop knowledge, skills, confidence, and a passion for learning. We promise to provide vibrant world-class learning environments in which every student believes they are empowered and prepared to make meaningful impact on a rapidly changing world. Item 3.1 is preview and approval of agenda. Are there any changes to tonight's agenda? Member Davis. Yes, thank you, President Nelson. I would like to move the suspension report off of the agenda. I have a couple of questions. Can we offer the consent agenda? The hearing officers. The hearing officers. Okay. Yes. Yes.
068Wait, wait, wait. One second. Didn't. Yes. No. Yeah. The hearing officers. So item 7.7, you'd like to remove. No. Oh. I got confused. For a change. Sorry. I'll drive us all crazy. I promise. No problem. Okay. So are there any changes? Any other changes maybe to tonight's agenda? All right. Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? So moved. I will go ahead and second that motion. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Item 4.1 is our superintendent report. Superintendent Tenias. Thank you, President Nelson, governing board members, staff, and families here this evening and watching online. I just would have a little short update this evening to share about some things going on across the district. So last week, we received the very exciting news that Kyrene is now home
069to three more A-plus schools. So please join us in congratulating Kyrene de los Lagos, Kyrene del Norte, and Kyrene del Pueblo for being awarded the 2026 Arizona Education Foundation A-plus School of Excellence Award. Schools that receive this award undergo a rigorous application and evaluation process that involves staff, students, and families. receiving this award is a testament to these communities and their hard work. And over the weekend, Kyrene hosted the Maricopa County Regional 1 Spelling Bee. Please join me in congratulating Ismael Aslam, 8th grader at Kyrene Akimal A. All Middle School, winner of the bee. Ismael will advance to the state bee along with the runner-up, Marcelo Garcia. The championship word was, and I am not certain I'm going to even say this correctly, toke. Congratulations to all the spellers who competed. And last week, Arizona
070Goat Yoga brought a few friends to do some poses with the yoga classes at Akimal Ayal. You can see our students participating in some goat yoga. Also excited to share that our Colina Coyotes have reached the Elite Eight. Third graders at Colina recently learned that they have advanced to the Elite Eight round of the Read to the Final Four Literacy Challenge. The Read to the Final Four program is an annual literacy challenge aimed at creating a lifelong love and interest in reading for students across the state of Arizona. So congratulations to our Coyotes. We will be cheering you on to make it to the Final Four. And just a reminder that it is really hard to believe that we are coming to the close of our third quarter. As this is our last board meeting
071before the end of the quarter, I would just like to remind everyone that spring break begins March 9th and runs through March 20th. There will be a teacher plan day on March 23rd, and we're back for our final quarter of the school year on March 24th. So I hope everyone has a lovely spring break. That concludes my superintendent update. Thank you, Superintendent Tennant. Item 4.2 is board member statements. Do any board members have statements tonight? I also can't believe we're... towards the end of third quarter. I know right now we are in the middle of playoffs for, I believe, flag football, volleyball, girls softball, and then riding around the corners track. So really excited for our athletes. This past week, I had the opportunity to visit our friends at the Cielo and the Wagner campus,
072which was really fun. At Cielo, they have this. their book vending machine. And I tell you, my little eight-year-old heart would have loved something like that to earn some little gold tokens and go get a book. They had, there were some Harry Potters in there. There were like the give a mouse a cookie. So it had it for all levels. It was really cool. And then Wagner, I just love because that's the school. It was fun to kind of go to the classrooms where my son was in kindergarten and see little kindergartners in there, but now he's a big senior, but Wagner is a really special place in my heart. And then also had an opportunity to meet with the Tempe leadership class this past week and talk just about the role of governing boards
073and our partnership that we have with a lot of our city officials. And so that was really lovely to kind of meet with them, answer some of their questions about things that have been happening in the district. So item 5.1, which is why we have. Best part of the night is our Kyrene super students. Now our super students are nominated by their principals and they're chosen based on the competencies in our portrait of a Kyrene kid. And those are adaptable learner, a self advocate, a community contributor, a critical thinker, a problem solver, and a collaborator. Now, you are here because your principles saw some or all of these traits in you. And we want to recognize that. All of our Kyrene Super students are going to receive a certificate and a token of congratulations from
074some local business partners that include KTR in Ahwatukee, Jeremiah's Ice, Zeke's Pizza, and then the Kyrene Foundation. So students, when your name is called, what you're going to do is you're going to come up to the front and Superintendent Tenius is going to give you a little certificate. You're going to turn around and one of the board members is going to read what your principal wrote about you. Make sure you find your people in the audience. They can take your picture. picture and just let us really celebrate you. Now, after all of the nominations are read, we'll come up and take group pictures. Parents, feel free to come out of your seats so you can get like the real good angles up here. And as well as our teachers and our other special guests that
075are here. So I am going to kick us off with Avery Murphy, who is a third grader at Kyrie De Los Lagos. Avery Murphy, a third grade student at Kyrene De Los Lagos Dual Language Academy, is being nominated as a communicator, one of the many important attributes of a Kyrene kid. Avery is a quiet and thoughtful student who approaches her learning with great care and conscientiousness. She speaks Spanish fluently and demonstrates that communication is not only about speaking loudly, but about listening, understanding, and responding with confidence. Though soft-spoken, she carries herself with quiet strength and is always willing to lend a helping hand to classmates and teachers. It is truly a joy to be her principal. I am so proud of you, Avery. Congratulations. I am super excited to introduce from Kyrene Del Norte, fifth
076grader Jasmine Santiago. Jasmine is being recognized as a communicator. We are proud to recognize Jasmine as a Kyrene Super student. Jasmine truly is a Kyrene kid. She does an excellent job sharing verbally about Norte with future Kyrene families during our Friday school tours. She is an attentive listener both in class and in her peer relationships. Her positive attitude is contagious and makes her very approachable. Others are comfortable asking her questions as she is patient and kind when working with anyone. Jasmine shows model packs behavior everywhere she goes. Congratulations! From Kyrene De Los Lagos Academy, please help me welcome a fourth grader, the amazing Alexia Marquez. Alexia is being recognized as an adaptable learner, one of the many outstanding attributes of a Kyrene kid. Alexia consistently demonstrates a strong work ethic and approaches her learning with
077determination and focus. She embraces new challenges with confidence and adjusts thoughtfully to different situations in the classroom. In addition to her academic dedication, she is incredibly friendly and kind, building positive relationships with both peers and teachers. Her adaptability, perseverance, and warm spirit make her a wonderful representative of our school community. It brings me joy, being your principal, Felicia Williams, to be proud and give you this great pleasure to recognize you with this award. Congratulations, Alexia. I am very happy to introduce you all to Luke Skousen, an eighth grader from Kyrene, Altadena. And Luke, I hope I said your name properly. Did I say your name properly, Luke? Good. Okay. Luke is being recognized as a community contributor. Luke is an exceptional student, multi-sport athlete, and truly outstanding young man at Altadena. He consistently demonstrates integrity,
078humility, and a strong work ethic, both in the classroom and on the field. Luke goes out of his way to greet staff and students with a sincere hello, thank you, and goodbye small gestures that reflect his remarkable character. He treats everyone with genuine kindness and respect. and his positivity makes a meaningful impact on our campus each day. We are incredibly proud of the example he sets and the leadership he shows through his actions. Congratulations, Luke. I have another one tonight. I am happy to introduce you all to Kaylin Lind, a first grader at Kyrene Del Norte. It's okay, sweetie. You can sit there. They can hear me anyway. I'm going to read about you. Kaylin is being recognized as a community contributor and a communicator. Well, she's certainly communicating what she wants now. Hi, sweetie.
079We are so proud of you. We're proud to nominate Kaylin as a Kyrene Super student. Kalen has a strong character and is consistently a positive leader among his peers. He demonstrates all of the positive expectations each day. He is respectful and kind to everyone around him. He produces outstanding work and actively engages in his learning. He is always willing to help others without being asked and approaches each day with thoughtfulness and integrity. Thank you for being you, Kalen. Congratulations. All right, all right, all right. I have the pleasure of introducing seventh grader from Kyrene, Alta, Dania, Ariana Olaya. Ariana is being recognized as a self-advocate. Ariana is a stellar student athlete. She is always doing the right thing in class. She works hard and is never afraid to ask a question or share a mistake
080with the class. Ariana does not just care about getting good grades. She truly wants to investigate and gain a deeper understanding of math concepts. Ariana is incredibly respectful to her teachers and peers. She almost always says good morning as she enters and thank you as she leaves. Ariana Olaya. Congratulations to our super students. So we're going to pause the meeting now so we can take a quick group photo. We invite any principals, any teachers to join the board as we take a picture with the students. I know families afterwards, you're free to go as well. We'll have a station set up outside for you as well to take photos with your super students. Yeah Okay. Item 6.1, everybody, as we settle back down, is request to speak to the governing board per board policy. The
081Kyrene Governing Board invites a few points of citizens throughout the district. Typically, if we have members who are in person who want to comment, they will fill out a blue card. Ms. Mosers, let me know that tonight we have. no blue cards. However, we do also accept written comments that can be submitted electronically through a link sent out through our board meeting notifications for those who want to participate in that way. So maybe next time. Item 7.1 is our consent agenda. Are there any changes to the consent agenda? All right. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion to approve. Okay. I'm going to take the motion from Board Member Vice President Satri and a second from Board Member Collins. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Item 8.1 is
082Strategic and Mid-Year Update, Superintendent Tenures. Thank you, President Nelson. This evening, we are going to give the board an update and give you a chance to ask some questions. Just for the sake of some of our newer board members, although you're not new now, it's been a year, but a few years ago, your previous board members had put into policy and procedure. This idea that we would do data reviews once to twice, sometimes three times a year we've done them. Typically, we definitely do one at the end of the school year that kicks off the beginning of the school year, which is all the end of the year assessment data. And we tie it to our strategic plan goals. And then mid-year, the data review is really focused on how are our students doing? What
083are those indicators that are telling us they're on track to do well in the state assessment? compare our beginning of year data to our middle of year data. Typically, we would have done this a little earlier in the year, but with everything we had going on with long-range plan, some of this had been postponed. So this year, what we're going to do, instead of having the retreats where we pull all the data out and we go in depth, you're going to get more of a presentation and then a chance to ask some questions. And so with that, I believe... Well, Dr. Bolnick is kicking us off in this presentation, and I believe Dr. McDougall will be joining her for the presentation, who oversees our assessment department. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Good evening, board members.
084Wow, that's really... I'm Dr. Rebecca Bolnick, Director of Research, and I'm joined tonight by Dr. Christy McDougall, Director of Assessment and Student Outreach. As always, tonight's presentation is grounded in our strategic plan and the Kyrene Promise. Our four district goals, as a reminder, are 85% early literacy, academic progress at 70%, sense of belonging, increased 10 points, and equity to be more proportional. This is the lens we will use to evaluate our progress and keep these in mind as we walk through tonight's data. This table reminds us of where we ended last year. We saw this in the summer and shows the goals as well as our progress for each area. For tonight's presentation, as mentioned, we'll see the results for the beginning and middle of year for DIBELS, and we'll see that actual data, and
085that will give us a direct indication of progress for the early literacy goal. Academic progress will use a state assessment results of measure and that comes in June. So tonight we'll be looking at BOI and MOI results from our district assessments, which will give us an indicator of how we should anticipate performing on the state assessments. This year, the timing of this meeting being a little bit delayed actually was great because this gives us the opportunity now to share the spring 2006 results for our social-emotional survey, the SEL survey, and we are able to share the first update for the strategic plan metrics of the year on sense of belonging for students in grades 6 through 8. So we'll look at that later. Lastly, the equity goal data is not available until the school year
086finishes, so we will look at those results in our summer update. I will now hand it over to Dr. McDougall to take us through some of our data. Wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Bolnick. Our early diversity goal is for 85% of K-3 students to meet end-of-year DIBELS benchmarks by 27-28 school year. Tonight's DIBELS data gives us our mid-year look at how students are progressing towards this goal. As you can see, overall, K-3 students at benchmark grew from 61% at the beginning of the year to 68% at mid-year, a seven-point gain. The most notable growth, as always, is in kindergarten, where benchmark rates jumped from 32% this year to 63%, reflecting the rapid literacy development that happens in the first half of kindergarten. Grades 1, 2, and 3 are holding steady. We are continuing to monitor progress
087and identify students who are struggling to be able to provide appropriate levels of additional support. Digging a little deeper, this slide shows DIBL's results by student group. Most groups are showing growth from B.O.Y. to M.O.Y. English learners gained four points, while students with an economic disadvantage and students with disabilities continue to show gaps with a slight decline. Schools are also engaging in this analysis at the site level. The middle-of-year data dive just after winter break gives every school the opportunity to organize data by grade, classroom, and individual student to drive targeted instruction. Now we will turn our attention to academic progress. The assessment results you will see on the next slide are our district-level assessments, not the state assessments that we use in our official metric. We use these as leading indicators of state assessment
088performance, and they give us a valuable mid-year read on growth. Across reading and math, we are seeing positive movement in most areas. NWA reading for grades 3 through 5 moved from 52% to 55% at benchmark. Similarly, grades 6 through 8, reading moved from 50% to 54%. I-ready math for K-5 showed a strong gain with 20% to 40% on or at grade level. NWA math for grades 6 through 8 is an area we are watching closely, although this year is trending in a positive direction as compared to last year at the same time, with overall stronger performance and a fewer percentage point for the mid-year change. Taken all together, the data points are moving in a positive direction as we head into the second half of the year. This positive direction is very encouraging and in
089alignment with what is being seen nationwide in post-COVID learning recovery studies. Federal recovery support was offered for two to three years. However, recovery for student learning is taking on average five to six years and even longer for the groups of students who are most impacted. Now I'll hand it back to Dr. Bullnick for sense of belonging. Dr. McDougall, before you do that, can you just go back to the Dibble slide for one moment? Sure. This one? Yes. Would that hold true for our DIBELS assessment as well, that if you were to compare where we are at middle of year this year compared to where we've been in the past with the growth between BOY and MOY that we're seeing more positive growth? Across the board. Thank you. I just wasn't sure if it was just
090NWEA and iReady. All metrics. All metrics. Right. So even though, for example, on NWEA math, this is pretty much holding steady with 49 to 47 percent. Anything within about a three percent is a very similar result. But our performance was lower last year in math. So it wasn't as high as 49 or 47, even middle of year. And the gap was larger. It was a 4% decrease last year in middle of year instead of a 2%. So that is even a negative, but it's trending in the right direction. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Student sense of belonging is central to the Kyrene Promise, the commitment that every student feels honored, valued, and connected. We are happy to share the first update to the actual strategic plan metric for the 25-26 school year in this
091area. Let's take a look at where we landed. This is a slide that I am honored to share. For 25-26, our sense of belonging results for grades 6 through 8 is 49%. This is a two-year, year-over-year increase from 24-25 and a 10 percentage point increase from our baseline of 39%. That means we have met our strategic goal target a full two years ahead of schedule. That is a meaningful accomplishment and a testament to the work, dedication, and leadership happening in our middle schools every day. Looking school by school, every one of our eight middle schools is above that initial baseline of 39%, with four of our eight already at or above the 49% target, as seen in the green bars. You can also see the prior year results for each school shown in the black
092tick marks to see the year-over-year change by school. The district trend year-over-year shows consistent growth over the past three years from 40 to 47 and now 49%. So this is not an isolated result, it is a district-wide improvement and reflects intentional, sustained effort from staff all across our campuses. That concludes our presentation. Tonight we shared Windier data results across early literacy, academic progress, and sense of belonging. Overall, we feel students are making progress and we are on a positive trajectory. We are proud of the work that is happening across the district and grateful for your continued partnership and support. I'm happy to take any questions. Board members, any questions? Member Davis. Okay. Thank you very much. Very impressive. Good work. I have, I think, two questions. I'll start with the sense of belonging. Congratulations on
093getting 49% of middle schoolers to feel like they belong to anything. I think that's fabulous. Yeah, really. Congratulations on that. Can you tell me a little bit more about sense of belonging, what that entails? How are you doing that? What does it mean? Yeah, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Lane, whose area oversees this work. And Garth. And probably Dr. Kupp too, and anybody else that would like to chime in. A sense of belonging really measures how connected a child is, not just to the school, but to their peers, to their teachers, et cetera, and how they're feeling about their day-to-day. Is it just, you know... Do they have friends? Is there a particular teacher that they feel as if they can go to if they have questions or concerns? Somebody that also
094cares about them in the school environment. And so that's really what this measure is about, is making sure that our students feel as if school is a place that they not only want to be, but they belong. Dr. Lane, can you speak specifically to last year, really the initiative with the social emotional curriculum at the middle school level as well that helped? get these results. You're a rock star. I was just thanking Susie for an assist. So if you're interested in the questions, I can certainly share those with you. But last year, we adopted Character Strong at the middle school. You all approved that. No, previous board approved that adoption, I believe. And it's an SEL, a social emotional learning curriculum. And it is different than what we were doing before and has been very
095engaging. Our middle school principals and our middle school students have all responded very positively to it. And so we have, we believe, noticed some of this bump from that implementation. It has been a very... consistent rollout and consistent implementation of the curriculum. They use character strong during advisory. And so that is something that all kids at middle school participate in that instruction. Thank you. You're welcome. I think that's all for now. Thank you. Vice President Cetri. Yes, I just wanted to congratulate you on these results. I appreciate seeing the improvements. But of course, the math, the junior high math, it just stood out a little bit for me. So I just have a question on that. I know that you had mentioned that it looks negative. We're trending in the right direction. I'd like to
096know what we're doing last year versus this year, like a year over year change. even though, you know, what are we doing to make sure that those numbers continue to go up and maybe it can get us more in the positive like all the other metrics. Right. Our continual improvement is really through our professional learning communities. So it's really through looking at data, identifying class. course and individual student needs and then planning for instruction. We've been implementing these models for several years in professional learning communities, but then elevated that to looking at data with a regular basis and a regular cadence with expectations to do so. And one of the things that's really happened this year, which was really neat to see, is that schools are really asking for more resources to be able to
097do class goal setting. and individual student goal setting. And I really think that that's what we're seeing these changes come from. Okay, we're still offering intervention classrooms. Intervention for most courses is embedded within the course. So you will take something like a unit assessment result, and you'll item analyze that assessment result, and you'll determine which of those items need reteaching for like a whole class or a small group of students or even individual students, and then we'll engage in cycles of teaching and reteaching. to ensure that students are getting what they need on the content that's been taught. And that's at the grade level classes? The grade level and the course. Okay. So there's not a separate classroom for... There is for a small subset of students with very high needs. Okay. And so for
098those students, is there always enough capacity for those students in those classrooms? That is an interesting question. So when you look at these kinds of numbers, right, how many students would it be that would need that individualized course according to, like, our state assessment data or this data, right? And then what would students need to, if you will, give up? in order to participate in that opportunity. And in most cases, a student in consultation with their parents and their teachers are deciding that a student needs so much academic support. So think about kind of the lowest end of need here in terms of like students that are significantly below that would need that level of support such that they would miss an elective to have that kind of level of support. Otherwise, the supports are
099offered within the classroom for the majority of students. And it is a little different for middle school than elementary. So at the elementary level, the intervention is really targeted on early literacy in our younger grades. But as for our state results, right, we would think that we were doing not very well, whereas this data really shows that we are on par when you look at a national benchmark in terms of our performance in mathematics. So we are trending, but we also have that comparison to try to then reach even higher and can focus on student growth, which allows us to then to start to look at performance, right? If we can't get to growth for all kids. we'll have real trouble getting to performance for students that maybe aren't quite at the level of performance
100yet. Member Davis. Yes, it just occurred to me, are the measurements for this curriculum aligned with the state testing? Yes. Psychometrically, the items would not be identical, though, because they're not necessarily tested and retested and sorted in the same way that a state assessment item would be in terms of multiple levels of difficulty. Most of our items in our math curriculum are going to be depth of knowledge, level two and level three, which gets up to application. levels of mathematics, which is in alignment with what we see on state assessment, but the main alignment is with the standards or the content that's being taught, and to the level that that content is being taught is where the alignment comes in. Am I correct in hearing that there is a difference in performance level when they're
101tested for the state test? As compared to this national benchmark, yes, it's lower. Okay. Thank you. Dr. McDougall, would you be able to talk a little bit more, I think, for the community as well, like the difference between when we see something on NWEA, which is a nationally scored assessment, what that portends for us to be able to see at that state level? Because I know... At the state level, we all get our little mailers in June or July saying, your kid did this back in May. And so if I were looking at this, and I'm looking specifically right now, honestly, at the middle school section, because it's not up here. I'm looking at these ones. We have it broken down by school here. So if I'm looking. at these, I can see, you know,
102growth in a lot of areas around the I-ready in kind of that K-5 setting. But if I were to just, and this will be, anybody can see this. If I were to look at this and look at the middle school, I'd be like, oh no, I mean, it's, I mean, we can always do better. Absolutely. But if we are using that national standard, how can we help people understand? If I see this at the district assessment level, what should I expect to see, you know, in June or July when I get that result? So from a parent perspective, the easiest way to kind of, if you will, look in the crystal ball for the end of the year results, and these are pretty reliable predictors of assessment. What basically happens is these results for all
103of the students that take, for example, NWEA in the state of Arizona, are linked through a linking study to all of the state assessment results for students as well. And so those are compared and psychometrics are done to tell what score a student would need to get on this assessment to get a proficient score on this assessment and so on and so forth. So these linking studies are about 90% accurate, so 9 out of 10 students will score the same. or better on their end-of-year state assessment results as they do on these results. The family reports have that information on them. So from an individual student level, that linking study is pulled through and is published on the results. We actually knew these results at the beginning of the year based on student performance. We
104know it again at middle of year. We then know it again at the end of the year and then can do kind of our own comparisons. for longitudinal study. And also when we think about the results for schools, schools have access to data files where they can get the same information for all of their students, right? So parents can get it for their student. Schools can get it for any student. Another thing, one I always love. the data deep dives. And typically this isn't how we do this. Usually these are three, sometimes four hour retreats. We have papers everywhere and we really dig into the data. We're able to kind of talk about things that. have surprised us or pieces like that. So I look forward to kind of revisiting that format later this year
105because, you know, it's really important. It gives us insight to also what's happening, you know, at the individual site levels and how our school leaders are kind of working with this information. Yeah, we also enjoy those. Oh, good. I mean, I remember the first one I did was very overwhelming. I think I, yeah. I glitched a lot, but like it's really valuable information, especially, you know, we are here for our students. We want them to be able to to. achieve. And I can see that we are on track. And I think like Vice President Satri, especially looking at that middle school math and how a lot of that is pre-algebra, algebra, like just very foundational math pieces for our students. And I know that a lot of them, you know, they might, some are in
106co-taught, some might have the intervention class, but looking at the numbers, you know, have we given thought to other areas of opportunity for remediation? Like I know, um, I remember, I remember I was math was always a struggle for me. And I always remember I had to spend a significant portion of my summers doing math remediation because my parents were always throwing me in, uh, in that. And so those opportunities aren't necessary. I mean, we have summer Academy and things like that. And I know we have opportunities for students who want to advance, but have we given some thought to maybe, Hey, I might. my kiddo might need a little bit of help not to slide over that six to seven week summer break. Just curious. And so Dr. Lane, would you like to speak
107to that a little bit about just what's in discussion and what's on the horizon? Honestly, there is less of that during, and we do not have summer academy moving forward. The unfortunate part is our summer is shrinking. You know, there's not a lot of time for that remediation. Our summer, you know, it does consist of some opportunities around early literacy. We have our move on when reading academy. We also have our extended school year. But some of the things that are offered during the summer are some opportunities for kids that are thinking about, if algebra is in my future, what do I need to take or in my future in middle school? What do I need to take to get to that point where I can take algebra in seventh or eighth grade? So there
108are some courses for that type of thing, but they're not specifically designed for mediation. So, and I've heard that, and I had a kid who took advantage of that and served him well. I think the concern is not so much, I just... I, again, I'm only looking at this middle school data and I do think that's a great opportunity for those K-5 kids, but the kids who are like, I am in sixth grade math, I am in seventh grade math, and I am struggling with like certain key concepts. The idea that. And I understand limited resources. I just worry that we know that that is in their future. That is what will happen to them when they matriculate over to our friends at Tempe Union. And so how can we really help support and bolster
109them or maybe even build their confidence a little bit more in those spaces? Just something to think about. And I do think it's important to recognize that what we see in mathematics here. And what we see in mathematics nationally, like this is not different than what is seen kind of across the board. And you see the elementary, right, the K-5. And by the end of the year, we will have more students on or at grade level, but it won't be 80 to 100 percent on or by grade level. So this is really a K-8. kind of building of those foundational blocks. So as much as middle school is foundational for high school, right, those fourth and fifth, when you start getting into fractions, third grade, you start getting into multiplicative thinking, and kindergarten to first
110and second, you move from numeracy to place value concepts in addition and subtraction with regrouping, right, that whole kind of progression of learning. is really built upon itself year upon year upon year. And so we would really need to look at what are we doing as a system versus looking at the outcome. Any additional questions? Board Member Walsh. Thank you, President Nelson. Just a little more curious about the summer remediation. inability to provide it going forward. I know you mentioned the timing. I know resources is also a challenge. I think in the past, I believe we used some COVID recovery funds to help with some of that, which I know are no longer available. And I know staffing is always a challenge. So I just wondered, is it a combination of those things that's contributing
111to that? And yes, that is, you've summed it up, actually. It is a combination of those things. Our summer is very short. And so with a five-week summer, not as many teachers are as inclined to teach for three or four weeks of a summer school. We have seen less families wanting to participate, which is why Summer Academy is not occurring anymore. collaborated and provided some opportunities through that opportunity for families for summer care. We still have kids club and those types of things, but it is not the formal course structure that we have had over time. And yes, I mean, truly, that is a concern as well. We are using our intersessions for early literacy. And that is also you know, a significant amount of cost and part of our budget. Right. So another thing
112I'll just add on to what Dr. Lane is saying is that, you know, I do think we have an opportunity though, right, with the forward trajectory that we're seeing and the things that we're doing that are working to really amplify those practices because students shouldn't need to come to school longer. or during the summer, or those sorts of things. What if they can't make it? What if they need to get the support during the day? They can't stay after school, right? They take transportation. We should be providing these supports to students within the school day and really need to use our data to inform us how to do that. And with this trajectory that we're seeing, we really have the opportunity to capitalize and double down on that strategy. Thank you. My other question had
113to do with the early literacy work, and I know several years ago in connection with the strategic plan, the district made an investment in having smaller class-sized targets for our K-3 grades. I know that we are still in the middle of measuring our progress, but have you gotten feedback from our K-3 teachers that the investment is having the desired effect? I was going to say that was one of our AORI projects, academic return on investments. I don't know if anybody was on that committee. Was Lisa? I was, but I would need to go back and look at my notes to kind of refresh. But I can include some information in an upcoming board memo. And I think we wanted to have a few years of doing it before you try to make some, if I
114recall correctly, when we started that academic return on investment, we were only maybe going into year two of that. And so there was a consensus that you need at least, you know, three years of that data to be able to really make any meaningful decisions from it. And I also just want to, I think that's a layer of the strategies that we have provided, you know, and that we have implemented. So everyone took letters. We've lowered class sizes. We are continuing to reinforce planning with further instruction and letters on a regular basis with our literacy facilitator. So we've done a number of things to get to these, to improve literacy results. That is just one of those strategies. There have also been coaching cycles as well as a change in our methodology of how we're
115tracking which students are making progress or not towards DIBELS on there. DIBELS is special in that way that we have an every-other-week measure of how students are progressing towards benchmark. And so we use that data to help us understand in real time if students are trending towards their benchmark. Thank you. Member Davis. Yes. Is there a belief or a practice, I don't know what word to use, that more time results in better scores? Or are there other factors that might be used with the same amount of time to do something different? Yes, and. But it also matters critically what we spend that time on. Right. So if we are spending a lot of time on something that's not like the root cause of why we're seeing our data show up the way that it is,
116then we are unlikely to see a change in what that data is. But if we spend the time to really deeply analyze the data, to provide individual supports, to really understand our root causes, and then we address those. With our time that we have, our limited time that we have every day with students, then we're more likely to see fruit for our labors. So it's, you're aware of this dynamic and you're factoring in it. Both matter. But when you look at COVID recovery specifically. Time also matters. Yes. Because for some students, it was anticipated to take a year and a half to two years of additional instruction, hours and hours and hours of additional instruction for them to be able to recover COVID learning loss. Okay. So yes, and. And, thank you. Vice President Cetre.
117Yes, Dr. McDougall, I want to thank you for recognizing that there are opportunities and that we're seeing that. And I don't pretend to know about how, you know, how that is administratively put together. But for me, I have a big concern with high school readiness because the opportunities that are available to in. in middle school and elementary school are, in my experience, are just not the same. It's kind of like sink or swim once you, you know, move on. And I can understand that. I mean, the kids are growing up and this is learning about responsibility and all that. You don't have as many chances. But I think it's really important that we meet students where they are. And if I don't know if we can do tiered instruction based on their. knowledge level. It's
118just, I'm, I'm really worried about, um, that we continuously, when, especially when it comes to math, it's just. You know, let's keep exploring those opportunities, keep coming up with ideas, going back to the drawing board, because I know we're meeting nationwide or state. We want to way surpass those benchmarks. And I think that would be an amazing goal and it would make us even stronger. Kyrene's stronger district. So we share your concerns. Good. OK. Yeah. So and I do think when we go back to the development of our strategic plan, that was a big. part of our conversation because the data was, you know, even more alarming three, four years ago when we were having this conversation. And really where we landed is, and I think Dr. McDougall alluded to this, is how important the
119early years are and how, if we can get it early, it will have the impact at middle school. It does mean that there's this period, right, where you're, when you're transitioning, but until you start to see the results in the early years, it takes a minute. It lags behind at the upper grades, but you will see it. And I've had multiple middle school principals reach out and say, you know, I'm glad this is what we're focusing on. You would think that I'd want us just you know, putting more and more resources in middle school, but truly if we get it right. This will have lasting impacts for all of our middle school students in the future as well. It doesn't mean we don't do and take advantage of opportunities for our current sitting students at
120all by any means. It just means we are limited on resources. There has to be some prioritization of where we're putting our resources and how we're utilizing them. And again, when the board adopted the strategic plan, we went very heavy on the early piece because of how important that is. Another thing I'll say is having been in a lot of different districts and I even worked for the State Department in school improvement for a number of years and what we're doing here is unique and special as far as our strategic plan initiative and our... planting the flag in the ground about early literacy, which will have impact for children across content areas and in their life. So that's really, really important. But we're also laying a blueprint for what it takes. And if we're able
121to figure this out for early literacy, which most other districts arguably have not, we'll be able to figure out how to do it for math too. Have an impact on the math for sure. As you mentioned, whatever we're doing in early literacy has an impact on every content area, regardless. And I agree with all of that, as long as we don't stop after those, you know what I mean? And keep continuing it and moving that focus as those. you know, as the years go by, you're still getting the same support, maybe not reinventing it for middle school, but definitely continuing it on and not just having it focused on those early grades. Right. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you, Dr. Ducal. Thank you, Dr. Bullnick. Thank you. Item 8.2, administrative contract language. I'm going to
122turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Lisa Gibson. Good evening, President Nelson, Superintendent Taneas, and members of the Governing Board. Tonight, I am presenting contract language for all employee groups for the 26-27 school year. Each year, when preparing contract language for the upcoming year, Talent Management works closely with our legal counsel, Mr. Jordan Allon. This year, the most notable revisions includes updates to any outdated language and date changes to reflect the 26-27 school year. At this time, all contracts will be issued at the same rate of pay as the 25-26 school year, and if the budget allows for salary increases, contract addendums will be issued later this spring reflecting updated rate of pay. Approval of contract language for each employee group will require three separate action items from the governing board. And tonight looks like I'm
123starting with the administrative contract language. So first tonight, administrative contract language, which also includes contract language for legal counsel. If approved tonight, administrative contracts will be issued on Thursday, March 26, following the issuance of certified contracts. I would be happy to answer any questions before the governing board takes action. Do any board members have any questions? All right. May I, seeing no questions, may I have a motion to approve the administrative contact language for the 26-27 school year and provide talent management with direction to issue those contracts? So moved. Motion by Board Member Walsh. Is there a second? Second. Second by Vice President Satri. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Item 8.3, we're going to move over to Educational Support Professionals Contract Language. Superintendent Gibson. So next, educational support professional contract language
124and compensation adjustment notices will be issued mid to late April. This aligns with talent management's typical timeline for releasing compensation adjustment notices for support staff. Again, I'm happy to answer any questions before the governing board takes action. Do any board members have any questions? All right. May I have a motion to approve the Educational Support Professionals Contract Language for the 26-27 school year and provide talent management with direction to issue contracts? So moved. Motion by Member Davis. Is there a second? I'll second it. Second by Member Davis. All those in favor. Not Member Davis. Member Collins. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Moving on to item 8.4, which is certified contract language. Finally tonight is certified contract language and if approved tonight, contracts for certified staff will be issued Monday, March
12516th. State statute designates March 15th as the first date certified contracts may be issued. And since March 15th falls on a Sunday this year, talent management will issue contracts on Monday, March 16th. This date... falls on the second Monday of our two-week spring break period, and typically talent management will wait until employees return from spring break before issuing contracts. However, due to school closures, we felt it was important to issue contracts as soon as permitted to provide employees with additional five days to consider their decision. The five spring break days will not count towards the 15 business day window employees will have to either accept or reject their contract. And if contracts for certified staff are issued on Monday, March 16th, certified employees will have until Friday, April 10th, to acknowledge their contract. Again, at
126this time, I'm happy to answer any questions before the governing board takes action. Member Davis. Yes, thank you. I just wanted to congratulate you on issuing them early so that people can relax. I think that goes along with everything we've been hearing tonight. Very good thinking, in my opinion. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. May I have a motion to approve the certified contract language for the 2620 school year and provide talent management to direction to issue contracts? So moved. Motion by Member Walsh. I will go ahead and second that motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Thank you. Item 9.1 is Board Committee and Conference Reports. Do any board members have committee or conference reports tonight? Right. Item 10.1 is Items for Future Consideration. Do any board members
127want to list any items for future? Items for any board members want to list any items for future consideration for. Yes, Member Davis, sorry. Yes, I have an item for future consideration. I would like if we could, I know we've had a bit of this before, but I would appreciate a reconsideration and just to understand the discipline matrix and some of the issues that have come up for me in that context. Great. Superintendent, I'm just hoping we can have that. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you. I have one. Yes. I mean, if it is considered one. Last year, we did the joint promotion graduation ceremonies with our big sister district. I say big sister, because it's high school, get it? I'm funny, I know. But anyway, can we, because it's here before you know it.
128I'm on the graduation committee at my school and we're already planning because it'll be here before you know it. So I wanted to know if we can do that again, where we offer them invitations to come to our promotion ceremonies and I'm sure we'll get their invitations. Yeah, I think we can definitely reach out to them and see what we can do. Thank you, Member Collins. And we'll be getting that information out to the board about the eighth grade promotion events here on our campuses and you signing up for the different events. So we'll make sure at the same time once we have that. figured out that we send it over to Tempe Union like we did last year. Perfect. Anybody else have any items for future consideration? All right. Meeting dates. Item 11.1, our
129next regular meeting is scheduled for March 24th. We hope everybody has a safe spring break. Item 12.1 is adjournment. May I have a motion to adjourn this evening's meeting? Motion to adjourn. Motion by Vice President Satri. Is there a second? I second. Second by Member Collins. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. The meeting is adjourned at 7.06 p.m. Have a good evening.