001I love the school. The students are really nice. The teachers, they really positive. And yeah. The teachers in my old school, I never asked questions with my teachers. And now at this school, since my mom went here, so I basically know all the teachers that's here. So now I can express to what I'm feeling and what I need to ask. My friends, you know, yeah, because, you know, the education is pretty good. The teachers are great, you know, but my friends is the best part. What I like most about Hammond Central is definitely the students, the people, you know, all the people I met since I've been here because I moved here from middle school. So, like, the people have been great. I've made a lot of memories since freshman year, sophomore year, all the
002years, you know. Some days you're gonna have days where you don't want to come. But the days I come, it gets funner and funner as I get in the older grade. But it's not easy, but when you do what you gotta do, it becomes easy. So it's really just chill for me. It's good. There's never any problems or nothing. It's always good vibes. Everybody's chill. I like the people. I like the community. I would definitely say it's fun. It's definitely creative. Like you definitely don't know what you're gonna get coming through the door every day. In a good way though. I would say it's safe. It's loving. It's definitely welcoming. The teacher is the most about the school. Yeah. To my experience, Sanborn is pretty good. I don't have any complaints. The atmosphere is good
003here. and there's good people here. Because when she teaches it actually makes me want to actually try the things she teaches because the way she does it is so inspiring to me. I love the school. The students are really nice. The teachers, they're really positive. And yeah. Like the teachers. In my old school, I never asked questions with my teachers. And now at this school, since my mom went here, so I basically know all the teachers that's here. So now I can express to what I'm feeling and what I need to ask. My friends, you know, yeah, because, you know, the education is pretty good. The teachers are great, you know, but my friends is the best part. I like most about Hammond Central is definitely the students, the people, you know all the people
004I met since I've been here because I moved here from middle school. So like the people have been great. I made a lot of memories since freshman year, sophomore year, all the years you know. Some days you're gonna have days where like you don't want to come but like the days I come like it get funner and funner as like I get in the older grade. But it's not easy, but when you do what you gotta do, it becomes easy. So it's really just chill for me. It's good. There's never any problems or nothing. It's always good vibes. Everybody's chill. I like the people. I like the community. I would definitely say it's fun. It's definitely creative. You definitely don't know what you're going to get coming through the door every day. In a good
005way, though. I would say it's safe, it's loving, it's definitely welcoming. The teacher is the most about the school. Yeah, to my experience, the morning is pretty good. I don't have any complaints. The atmosphere is good here and there's good people here. Because when she teaches, it actually makes me want to actually try the things she teaches because of the way she does it. It's so inspiring to me. I love the school. The students are really nice. The teachers, they're really positive. And yeah. The teachers at my old school, I never asked questions with my teachers. And now at this school, since my mom went here, so I basically know all the teachers I've seen. So now I can express to what I'm feeling and what I need to ask. My friends, you know, yeah,
006because, you know, the education is pretty good. The teachers are great, you know, but my friends is the best part. What I like most about Hammond Central is definitely the students, the people, you know, all the people I met since I've been here because I moved here from middle school. So, like, the people have been great. I've made a lot of memories since. freshman year, sophomore year, all the years, you know. Some days you're gonna have days where like you don't wanna come, but like the days I come, like it get funner and funner as like I get in the older grade. But it's not easy, but like when you do what you gotta do, it become easy. So it's really just chill for me. It's good. There's never any like problems or nothing. It's
007always like good vibes. Everybody's like chill. I like the people. I like the community. I would definitely say it's fun. It's definitely creative. Like you definitely don't know what you're gonna get coming through the door every day. In a good way though. I would say it's safe. It's loving. It's definitely welcoming. The teacher is the most about the school. Yeah, I think my experience at Morton is pretty good. I don't have any complaints. The atmosphere is good here. Those good people. Because when she teaches it like actually makes me want to actually try the things she teaches because the way she does it is so like inspiring to me. I love the school. The students are like really nice. The teachers, they really positive and yeah. Like the teachers. In my old school, I never
008asked questions with my teachers. And now at this school, since my mom went here, so I basically know all the teachers that's here. So now I can express to what I'm feeling and what I need to ask. My friends, you know, yeah, because, you know, the education is pretty good. The teachers are great, you know, but my friends is the best part. I like most about Hammond Central is definitely the students, the people, you know all the people I met since I've been here because I moved here from middle school. So like the people have been great. I made a lot of memories since freshman year, sophomore year, all the years, you know. Some days you're gonna have days where you don't wanna come. But the days I come, it get funner and funner as
009I get in the older grade. But it's not easy, but when you do what you gotta do, it becomes easy. So it's really just chill for me. It's good. There's never any problems or nothing. It's always good vibes. Everybody's chill. I like the people. I like the community. I would definitely say it's fun. It's definitely creative. Like you definitely don't know what you're gonna get coming through the door every day. In a good way though. I would say it's safe. It's loving. It's definitely welcoming. The teacher is the most about the school. Yeah, I've seen my experience at Morton. It's pretty good. I don't have any complaints. The atmosphere is good here. There's good people here. Because when she teaches it actually makes me want to actually try the things she teaches because the way
010she does it is so inspiring to me. I love the school. The students are really nice. The teachers, they're really positive. And yeah. Like the teachers. In my old school, I never asked questions with my teachers. And now at this school, since my mom went here, so I basically know all the teachers that's here. So now I can express to what I'm feeling and what I need to ask. My friends, you know, yeah, because, you know, the education is pretty good. The teachers are great, you know, but my friends is the best part. I like most about Hamilton Central is definitely the students, the people, you know all the people I met since I've been here because I moved here from middle school. So like the people have been great. I made a lot of
011memories since freshman year, sophomore year, all the years you know. Some days you're gonna have days where like you don't want to come but like the days I come like it get funner and funner as like I get in the older grade. But it's not easy, but when you do what you gotta do, it becomes easy. So it's really just chill for me. It's good. There's never any problems or nothing. It's always good vibes. Everybody's chill. I like the people. I like the community. I would definitely say it's fun. It's definitely creative. You definitely don't know what you're going to get coming through the door every day. In a good way, though. I would say it's safe, it's loving, it's definitely welcoming. The teacher is the most about the school. In my experience, Sam Warren
012is pretty good. I don't have any complaints. The atmosphere is good here and there's good people here. Because when she teaches, it actually makes me want to actually try the things she teaches because of the way she does it. I love the school. The students are really nice. The teachers, they really positive. The teachers at my old school, I never asked questions with my teachers. And now at this school, since my mom went here, so I basically know all the teachers at Siena. So now I can express to what I'm feeling and what I need to ask my friends. Blue Board, School City of Hammond, we apologize for this delay. It could not be helped. It wasn't an April Fool's joke. It just couldn't be helped. Y'all are supposed to laugh on that. Oh, well.
013We will now consider the Tuesday, April 1st, 2025 public work session. We will call to order Pledge of Allegiance. Everyone please stand. Isn't it by Lincoln? Oh, it's by Lincoln School. I'm sorry. Lincoln Elementary School. I apologize. I'm a little rattled. All right. We're going to have Lincoln Elementary School start the Pledge of Allegiance for us. Lincoln Elementary School. Give them a big round of applause, please. Thank you so much. Roll call of officers. Trustee Guerra? Present. Trustee Spencer? Present. Trustee Stanford? Present. Trustee Candelera? Present. Trustee Blake King? Present. Five are present. We have a quorum. We're ready to proceed. Superintendent Reed, please. Next up, we'll have PTA reflections. Put on my other hat now. So this year, PTA Council did reflections. We have a wonderful team who took this on with me. And I
014just wanted to share a little bit first. We've got many of the kids here. So I'm going to have them come up in a minute. We've got three performances for you. I just wanted to share a little bit about what Reflections is. I was very surprised when I took over the council and I learned about Reflections. I was very surprised. I had never heard of it, and a lot of people hadn't. So it's a program that National PTA sponsors. So I'm still out of breath. I'm coming down. I'm sorry. So we did it at the local level, and then we have kids, and we do have many kids who are going to the state level this year, and we even have a few going to national, which I will share later. The theme for this
015year was accepting imperfection. The themes are different every year, and they are chosen by students. So there's also a theme search that the students can enter ideas, and one student's idea gets picked. So there are six categories. One is dance, film, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts. And like I said, nationwide kids enter this, so thousands of kids enter this every year. And we had an exhibition in December where we showcased some of our kids. And we had, like I said, quite a few that are going to state and a few that are going to national. So I do want to start. We have one student doing her literature reading. We have two students doing their music composition piece. If I can get those three students up here. Ms. Emily Suwarty. Mr. Silas Glasgow.
016and Ms. Malia Wheeler. I'm sorry. Malia Christopher. I'm mixing two students' names. So Ms. Suwarty, you are playing the baritone, correct? And Silas is playing the trombone. So I'm going to go start from youngest to oldest. Ms. Suwarty, you want to go? The mic is over there. Okay. Thank you. So for music composition, they had to make their own piece. So they wrote the music and are performing it. Wow. So those were just two. And Miss Emily is fifth grade, correct? And Silas is seventh or eighth? Seventh grade. And what I was told by the state reflections chair was that we don't have a lot of younger kids typically enter music composition because it is harder. So that is a testament to our kids and to our school district that just the talent that it
017takes to be able to do that that young. And we actually had... Music composition, visual arts was our biggest category that was entered, and music comp was next. So that was huge. And then Ms. Malia can come over and read her literature piece. And she's high school year, a junior or senior? Junior. Okay, so for, sorry, for Accepting Imperfections, I chose to write a poem about the universe. So this is my poem. It's called Universe, I Am Tired. Within the boundless expanse of the cosmos where stars collide and take darkness away, imperfections weave their thread in the universe to shape everyone's grand design. The stars of the night flicker and fade, yet no one knows how or why they were made. To do the things we do, to think the way we think. I want
018to embrace the cracks of the universe, to accept and cherish it as it came to me. Yet I simply cannot look past every imperfection. Universe, I am tired. Tired of the earth itself with its jagged peaks. Tired of the imperfect harmony you never stop singing. Tired of the mismatched hues and the flaws in life's essence. Tired of trying to overlook your scars day to day. Though in my endless wonder about you, I find a sense of grace in the unknown. The stars may flicker in the dark, yet they still guide me through the night. In your scars, I find beauty. In every flaw, a story is waiting to be told. In the stars that shine imperfectly, there is a truth that can bring peace. So I cherish every crack, every ripple in the universe that
019shakes me. For in those ripples and cracks, there is a harmony, an imperfect harmony that never dies. Universe, I love you. Wow. Now can I get the rest of the students to come up here? So this presentation has all of their artwork in it so what I want is for when you see So miss grace be drawn from Morton high school Miss Kenya berry from Hammond central Miss Rylan Conno Coppage from Franklin. Malia Christopher from Hammond Central. Anna Gizinski from Franklin. Silas Glasgow from Eggers. Yamir Lewis from Franklin. Blessin Lloyd from O'Bannon. Logan Lukasik from Harding Elementary. Keisha Moran from Hammond Central. Jamila Nettles from Morton High. Stephanie Padilla from Irving. Jasmine Ramirez from Hammond Central. Thea Robinson from Franklin. Anael Rodriguez from Hammond Central. Luis Salas from Hammond Central. Emily Suwardy from Edison. Damian
020Jacques from Franklin Elementary. Asher Maltz from Franklin. Steven Sacramento from Lincoln. Lillian Tirado from Franklin. Angelina Wheeler from Hammond Central. That was our winter showcase, the program for our winter showcase. So what I have not told any of the kids yet, or the parents, is that all of the kids up here are getting awarded at state. So parents, check your emails because today you should have gotten an invitation to a luncheon that Indiana PTA is hosting on April 26th. All of the students are invited. I am not letting the students know what exactly awards they got because I will save that for them. But I did want them to know that they are getting awarded there. And then there's a few. that are actually being sent to national as well. And I did get their
021permission to share it. So if I can have these students step forward. Malia Christopher, Logan Lukasik, Emily Sawarty, Steven Sacramento, and Jasmine Ramirez. So we have literature, film, dance, and music all progressing to national. Can we get one extra round of applause because these kids did amazing. I'm going to babble a little bit, so I'll let you guys sit. I just wanted to, real quick, give some thanks because what we do for the kids is not possible without some adults. First, I wanted to thank my council board members. Like I said, they rose to the challenge, and they all have busy lives, and they... take the time, they make the space to help the kids. Second, I want to thank the building admins who put out messages on Parent Square for me, for the parents,
022and sent information to their staff. We had... Kind of another set of things we had a few teachers that I know really pushed this miss Vargas from Franklin miss Patty Barnes from Franklin and miss So already at Hammond central helped with the Hapa kids getting them involved And then I have a special thank you because if I can get miss Soardy up here Because without her I couldn't have done any of this she did all of the tech stuff for me For all of it throughout the whole process Even tonight sending everything to him and she did this presentation I told her I said I had done one and I liked hers better. So I went with hers And then I just wanted to make a little plug because We need help. Like I said,
023we cannot do any of what we do for the kids without the adults. Get involved in your PTA. This was the first year that we did this, and to have as many students as we had enter was amazing. And now we've got the framework to do it again. But the whole reason why we pay dues is because of programs like this from National, which is why we're a PTA rather than a PTO, because we get to plug into things like this. We get to plug into grants, things like that. So don't let that... stop you. You don't have to have all the time in the world. Like I said, we're all busy. But I would love to see more involvement in the PTAs going forward. Thank you. Let's give a super round of applause for
024Trustee Guerra. Her dual role with School City of Hammond. Her responsibility goes beyond. And somehow, Superintendent Reed, moving forward, we're going to have to capture these moments in a better setting. This should be in all of the news networks, the Times, all of the local papers, and moving forward, we're going to have to get a PR person or something because it shouldn't just stay here. I think we need this PowerPoint on our website as a beginning so everybody can, if you can put it in a parent square. This is phenomenal. This is part of our, you know, restoration elevation. And the young man taking photos. Mr. Sorority. I forgot to mention him. We want to see those photos on our website somewhere. And if you get them to me, I'll send them to all the
025newspapers and see if we can get them in there. Because it can't just stop here. It has to go beyond. Absolutely. Absolutely, Trustee Blake King. In total agreement with that. It's something that I talk to my staff about frequently about how a lot of settings capitalize off of hearing negative things and what I think, and I am just going to say it publicly. I know that... the news networks watching. We are always in the papers if something happens here in Hammond. But I noticed the last few meetings, they've been really great meetings. And when I look at the education section of those papers, I don't see anything happening. And so I challenge my staff to own your story. Tell your story. Tell your narrative. Don't allow other people to... Describe you or to characterize you
026you tell your story and you own it and so a big part of that is tonight But so parents can know Getting something out in newsletters. You can look for your first newsletter for me the new superintendent on Friday. It's a spring newsletter We highlight a lot of things that we We've highlighted a lot of things that we've seen here. We've highlighted some things that we just knew were going on. I just recently, we all just recently attended the military ball over at Hammond Central High. We had a ball. I don't know how much fun the kids had, but we had a good time. We shut it down. So just to start highlighting our successes, I absolutely agree with you, and aye, aye, Captain. That will be done. Thank you, Superintendent Raitt. Next up, Trustee
027Blake Keene, we have recognitions from CHESS by Ms. Cindy Murphy. Ms. Murphy. Boy, that's a hard act to follow. Sorry. That's all right. You got it. So tonight we're also celebrating CHESS. And as I'm going to talk about why chess and other things, I'd like the chess teams that are here, chess teams this year are Franklin Elementary, Irving Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, Burns Hicks, Edison Elementary, Morton High School, and Hammond Central. If you could start coming down over here, we're going to have your coaches introduce you. So, why chess? Chess requires players to analyze situations, identify potential solutions, and strategies to overcome challenges, thus improving their problem-solving abilities. Players must evaluate different options, anticipate their opponents' moves, and make informed decisions, strengthening critical thinking skills. Chess demands players to think several moves ahead, developing planning, foresight
028skills crucial for long-term success. Remembering past moves and patterns on the chessboard helps improve memory and recall skills. Chess requires sustained attention and focus, which can improve overall concentration and attention span. Chess allows for strategic approaches, creative solutions to complex situations to foster creativity. It also helps them learn to recognize patterns on the game board and develop strategies based on those patterns, abstract reasoning. character development, or what we like to call in Hammond, social-emotional skills. They are so important and chess pushes them. Chess teaches the players to manage their emotions, persevere through challenges, putting discipline and self-control first. Learning to accept both wins and losses fosters resilience and ability to learn from expense. It's not just enough to be a good winner, you have to be a good loser too. Chess requires players to make
029quick and decisive decisions, developing their ability to make sound judgments under pressure, especially if you're playing Blitz or Bug House. Players learn to take responsibility for their actions and decisions on the board, fostering a sense of accountability. One of the first things we tell players once they get on the floor, whose game is it? Is it mine or is it yours? It's your game. You are the one that's in control here. And my social skills. Chess can develop social skills, it's taking turns, learning fair play, and understanding. And my favorite is when the students become the teacher. So I sat with Morton High School in Martinsville High School. Yes, it was a long trip down there, as you all know. Probably about the third round this five rounds and then all of a sudden it's
030teams of four players against four players in another district and They're like, oh man, you know, you should have done this and they just started redoing the game And it's like if you had gone here instead you could have done this and you could have counted that and all of a sudden A junior is working on a seniors or freshmen and he's teaching them. And the other thing that's really amazing about this is not only when that student becomes a teacher of chess, but in some instance, and I'm not sure if he's here tonight, that one person becomes a teacher in our district because they want to bring back the stuff that made a difference in their lives across Hammond. So. Franklin Elementary School, we are going to start with you. This is one of
031my veteran coaches, Samantha Ferry. Please tell us about your team. So I only have two of my players here today, and they are two very special players because both of them went to individual state and they went to team state. One of them is only a second grader, and the other one is a third grader. So can we give a round of applause for Michael Casey and Thea Robinson. This is my first year as the Franklin coach. I've been the Lincoln coach for the past 10 years. So coming over to Franklin, I was lucky enough to take over the chess team. And this group of students, they are so dedicated and they're so compassionate about playing. And they just love to compete against each other. So it's really fun to see them. And I'm really
032happy to continue to be a chess coach in Hammond. All right. Do we have Irving here tonight? Nope. Burns Hicks. Our coach, Kristen. Ashley Carroll. You've got to yell at me. One of my students, Sergio, is also here. Can we give a round of applause for Sergio? Sergio is a sixth grader at Franklin, and it's been a pleasure to have him on the team also. Thank you. I am Ashley Carroll, the coach at Burns Hicks. I love these boys, this team, and this girl, Kamiya. This is my first year as the chess coach at Burn 6 or at all. I didn't even know how to play chess when I started coaching. So they actually, as you said, the students become the teachers. That is quite literal because they taught me how to play. So let's
033give a round of applause for first grader Jonah. We have Kamiya. We have Ephraim, Alan, Ryan, and Diego. We did have Alan who went to state for individual and these three that went for teams. So they did really well this year. We have Lincoln Elementary next. Hi, my name is Christina Steele and this is my first year coaching at Lincoln. I worked with Miss Ferry and she has been my mentor and again the students have become the teachers because I did not know how to play chess until this year. I also am not a public speaker so this is a little bit hard for me. So I have a lot of my players. We had 20 kids sign up at Lincoln and I think I have 12 of them. We had nine kids go down
034to team states. And then we have some additional players here that participated at Hammond Central for a team as well. I am going to let them say their own name because there's a lot of them and I am not a public speaker. So please go ahead and say your name and your grade. My name is Abram Aponte and I'm in fifth grade. My name is Johnny Gonzalez and I'm also in fifth grade. My name is Gerardo Esmitia and I'm in fifth grade. My name is Nova Rojo and I'm in fourth grade. My name is Isaac Salas and I'm in second grade. My name is Jordan Rogers and I'm in second grade. My name is Neymar and I'm in third grade. My name is Maximiliano Fernandez and I'm in second grade. My name is Alan and
035I'm in fourth grade. My name is Manuel and I'm in fourth grade. Hi, my name is Daniel and I'm in sixth grade. Thank you, Lincoln. Last but not least is Morton High School, Mr. Webster. Hi folks. First of all, you'll notice that my students aren't here. That's because each and every one of them is busy right now. Listen, each and every one of my chess players is one of the most multi-talented students in the school. Three out of the students that I have certificates for are in my AP Calculus class. The only reason the rest aren't is because they're like freshmen and sophomores. I am so very blessed, not only as the chess coach, but as one of the high mathematics teachers. I teach AP Calculus and Pre-Calculus. And most of my chess players are
036also sitting in my classroom every year. I have had so many students who are... athletes, scholars, the president of the National Honor Society, valedictorians, salutatorians. And I'm not going to take full credit for that, but I would like to take at least a little bit. A big thing that we are seeing this year, and Ms. Murphy, thank you for stealing my story. But in high school, it is that they become the teacher. Some of my students, once they are getting into 11th and 12th grade, I can't beat anymore. I'm not like the best chess player in the world, but I'm okay. And these kids are significantly better than me. These kids are students who get second in the state. Jason Polovina this year got second in state. at the individual tournament. Gabriel Vasquez also went
037to state. He placed, I think, in the 30s. But here's the thing. That means that we have two students who are amongst the 50 best chess players in the state under the age of 18. Furthermore... Over the past, in my time, in my time as the chess coach, I've been the chess coach here. I was the assistant chess coach at Clark. And I have seen over the last, gosh, 10 years, over the last 10 years, I have seen only a couple make it that far. I can name them. Janelle Hernandez, Noel Vera, and Jason Polovina. second in state three times. This year at team, again, I was able to see them sitting down together in between games. Oh, you did this? No, you should have done this instead. The plan that you should have done
038is this. I had the most amazing experience of watching my fourth board sit down with the coach from Munster and wipe him off the board. The chess players here in this city, world-class. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Webb. All right students if we could get some of you up on the bleachers because I am sure your parents want to get photos of you. So if Lincoln could come over here. Burns Hicks if you want to come. No you can stay in front. Come on you're one of the coaches we want you in the photo. Burns Hicks. And yes, Franklin, over there. So parents, please, come on down, get some photos. And I'm going to say a few more thank yous while they're doing those. Hammond Central, I cannot thank you enough. Since you
039opened, you have been hosting tournaments for us and continue, your staff, your custodians, everybody. They really take care of us over there. Transportation, you're always there when we need a bus, whether it's the big yellow bus or the short white bus. All the administrative assistants, office managers, all the lovely forms that we had to get filled out so we could go to state. Thank you all for getting that paperwork into the superintendent's office. And next year, Team State will be back at Morton High School. That's right. So the biggest chess tournament in the state of Indiana will again return here to Hammond and will be here next year. Now students, I got one last job for you. Chess season is over. But there's some very important people in the audience here tonight that needs a
040thank you. And that is your parents. Your parents make sure that they are the ones that need to applaud you. So students, give a big applaud for all the parents in here, for all the sacrifices they have done to make sure we have a successful year. See you guys next year. Thank you. Next up, Ms. Blake King would be yours truly, myself, but I'm not sure if I'm prepared now. I think they stole the show for tonight. But I'm going to get my team together, and we're going to come on up. All right, while they're exiting, hard act to follow. For those of you who don't know who I am yet, I am Dr. Talisa Reed, superintendent of School City of Hammond. And I know that a lot of people have been saying, where is
041she, where is she, where is she? Well, I've been working. And so I appreciate that the board allowed us tonight to come present to them some of the things that we've been working on. in that process, been working with our team of educators since I started to start putting some things in place and putting the pieces together so that we can move forward towards the board's charge of restoration and elevation. You got me? So tonight what you'll hear is I've been going to a series of meetings, interviews, focus groups, just doing a whole lot of stuff, meeting with staff, visiting buildings, and doing things. to try to pull it together and there's a method to the madness. And so just want to give you guys an inside peek. I know a lot of people want
042to know who this new person is and because I'm not local, you want to know something about me. So this is an opportunity. I'm going to start this out with just give you a snapshot on how I think and how I do the work and how we've led the work with the staff and how that's going to continue on as we restore and elevate. School city of Hammond so you'll hear from me, but you'll also hear from the office of teaching and learning notice the change in name The change in name reflects our purpose. We are an organization That our focus and our goal our sole purpose and sole goal is on teaching and learning So the name of the office of academics is no longer academics. It's the office of teaching and learning and
043it is led by our executive director of teaching and learning Mr. Anthony Salinas Within that we will have a presentation about a program a therapy dog program That's going to take kickoff and pilot next year in the district something I'm really interested in as a former special educator and the mom of a therapy dog The benefits of it, but we'll hear from mr. Adam Wyatt principal over at Edison on that Then we have some work that's been going on in our office of human capital. I want you to notice that the name and change Shifts and shows and reflects the purpose when we think about the old school thought of human resources. What do we do it resources people? Hey, we use them so we using our staff Let's not do it anymore Let you
044know I'm a walker. I am a teacher. I do teach collegially as well. So I did not want to stand at a podium and be tied to a podium because I am a teacher. And so work sessions for me are special because it gives me an opportunity to teach you how we make the sausage. And so I'm going to ask you to give my staff a little grace. This is probably some of their first time ever presenting in front of an audience like this. But give us a little grace. And so our Office of Human Resources would now be the Office of Human Capital. We use our resources. What do we do with capital? We invest. And so that reflects the shift in how we look at operating people's services. We will invest in our
045staff because our staff gives us a return on investment in what they do and the work that the services that they provide. And in turn, the profit looks like for us as a public school system, academic achievement. And so it's a process. And so now our Office of Human Capital will remain under the direction of my brother here, Mr. David Verda. Our transportation department is well oiled machines, so I'm not going to mess with them, but it's led by Mr. Ed Peterson, so we will also hear from them. And then I'll come back and I will close it. Oh, our literacy coaches. We have our literacy coaches in the house. I've done lots of work with our literacy coaches, and they're going to present to you tonight about your IREAD-3 and some of the work
046that they've been doing and how we're moving forward with a strong focus on literacy. Because as you know, the state came in and said, if you don't pass IREAD-3, they retain and so if that's the case we need to shift how we look at work and we already have our experts there and so let's position them to do the work but have them come forward with you to present on those i read plans and things all right path towards restoration elevation as you know the superintendent is the only employee of the school board and as such my directors come from them and i was watching a meeting in january as i prepared for My interview. I watched lots and lots of meetings, but Trustee Blake King said something. She said the year 2025 is going
047to be the year of what? Restoration and elevation. I like you did that. I liked it. And so my charge. is to restore and elevate the school city of Hammond. And that's a big charge when you look at it. And there's a right way to do the work and there's a wrong way to do the work. And so in order to make sure we're solving for the right problem, I needed to go back and say, all right, I know in the grand scheme of life what restoration and elevation means, but I always start with putting those words in context. Want to change the slide for me? Thank you. So I started with the question, what does restoration and elevation mean? What does it mean for the school city of Hammond? Root word, to restore, to
048return something to its former owner, place, or condition. Elevation, to elevate, to lift up, make higher, to raise in rank or status, to improve morally, intellectually, or culturally. I said to myself, myself, myself said, huh? Talisa, what does your board want you to do? My board wants me to restore Hammond back to its initial to its initial place and to its initial condition, and then it wants me to take it higher. And so who is the rightful owner of school districts? It's a work session, so it's not so formal, so you can answer me back. Who is the rightful owner of a school district? Students. There you go. Students. We exist for the sole purpose of teaching and learning. Unapologetically, that is my mission. That is my goal. I am never going to compromise on
049that, ever. Every decision that we make is made with the purpose of making sure we take care of our children, our students, and we take care of the staff who serve those students every day. So let's not separate the two. You can't hurt the teacher and think you love kids because you can't hurt the people that actually teach the kids. And so what place is Hammond going back to? I had to do some research. And a part of that, which became clearer over time, every week I spend time with people in Indiana Department of Education, School Board Association, everything, and the resounding message that I have heard over and over and over again is how Hammond was one of the best school districts in the state, but it was the absolute best school district in
050Lake County. And that's a great charge. Unfortunately, as we know, what's going on in urban school districts across this country. It's not, it's just not unique to Hammond, school city Hammond. It's not. It's just what's happening right now. And so my charge is to bring Hammond back to a place of being the number one school district in Lake County and among one of the best, if not the absolute best in the state of Indiana. It's a charge. I like a good, like a good challenge, a good underdog story. So I'm there for it. What condition are we restoring Hammond to? We're restoring Bahamian back to a pristine condition because we know there's a strong correlation people don't buy houses they buy schools Ever bought a house when you bought a house. What do you look
051at first if you got kids? I look at the schools. And so in order for us to make sure that we are restoring not just Hammond, but the city of Hammond back to where, to the condition that it was in and continuing to continue to make it better, we have to restore it back to a pristine condition. So Talisa, your charge is to do that. Now, how do we elevate? Another question. And how do we improve? And what does that process look like? There's a way I think through that work. And just so you guys can see, I'll walk you through that. I use an improvement framework entitled the Strategic Response Systems Improvement Framework. If you Google it, you will not find it. You know why? Because I am the author. It is an original
052high accountability framework, and it humanizes the process of teaching and learning and the work of school improvement. It removes the stigma that our students are butts in seats. and a head count for ADM, and it removes the stigma that teachers are only an FTE and a warm body in a body, warm body in a building. It decenters the central office by strengthening all of the systems that actually work together. So it strengthens the systems of student services. It strengthens the system of human capital and teaching and learning and all the things and finances. All the things that it takes to run a school system and that supports high quality teaching and learning. So it actually takes all of the teaching and learning and come down. and forces us to focus strictly on what's going on
053in the building. It moves away from a top-down model and a one-size-fits-all model that says all schools need the same thing. We all know that although these two principals right here are the principals of our high schools, do your two schools look alike? Absolutely not, but what happens when we are from the central office, I would say a little blind to that fact. We think everybody needs the same thing and everybody doesn't need the same thing. Our kids show us that every day the way they show up and so it differentiates the supports that the schools get based on their individual contacts, be it their goals, be it their data, be it their needs based on their demographics, their locations or whatever it is. It takes us up here out of the center and I
054say to you, Ms. Harrison, what do you need? You need an additional tutor? Okay, I go back to the board. I can go back to the drawing board and let's see if we can make that happen. It leverages our resources to respond to our building needs first. Not what I need here. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've asked for anything, so that's awesome. Other than a Promethean board on my wall because I just think it's cool. And it was in a box down the hall. And I got it, so yay. But it places our students first. It places our educators that are in these buildings, that are on the front line, first. If you need something, my job is to make sure you have it. Because I need you to be 100%
055equipped with everything you need, all the training you need, everything, so that our kids can achieve at a level. that they are able to achieve because what I have found here in Hammond is awesome educators and awesome kids. You can let any media article that I have ever researched, I've never seen a discrepancy so bad in my life, researching this place, watching meetings, and then being here physically and going into buildings and working alongside these people. It's so skewed. And so how do we change that narrative? But it's also a process in how we do it. And so we do this because this framework rests and resides within a continuous improvement process that starts with just engaging. And we usually call that a data collection, but I say engaging because we're doing interviews, we're doing
056focus groups, we're allowing people to tell their story, and we're looking at data. We're looking at all the data we can find. Everything is data. The fact you're sitting with a burgundy jacket on is data for me. But it focuses that back on having a clear process to work through the work. So we start with engaging our audience. Then we analyze our data. You know why we analyze it? Because we want to make sure we're solving the right problem. You want it done rushed or you want it done right? I want it done right, so I'm never in a rush to make a bad decision. And sometimes it's not the decision that's bad. It's just that we're short-sighted in how we do it because we want an answer just so fast. But we have to
057be cognizant that it took us a while to get here, and so it takes us a while to get back. And we have to be intentional. I don't like to work twice. I like to do it right the first time. I have a little incy, incy bent of a perfectionist in me. Just an incy bent. It's that bad, David. I saw you. That's true. Your karma is in the wrong place. And so we go from analyzing to synthesizing. Once we have all this information, what do I do with it? Let's think through it. Let's talk through it. It may mean one thing to me, but it means something different to him, and it means something different to him. None of us are wrong. We all see it differently, and we have to value that. Then
058we strategize. Okay, we have it. We know what it means. We've made sense of it. And what are we going to do with it? So that's where our planning comes in. And then we implement. And during the process and after we implement it, of course we want to make sure, is it working? We don't want to wait until June. to find out what we started in August wasn't working. That is such a waste of time. And it's a waste of our kids' time, and it's a waste of our teachers' time, it's a waste of the parents' time that's fighting with the kids at home to get their homework done. It just becomes a cycle that nobody wants to be stuck in. So then we assess it, and then we adjust accordingly. If we've met our
059goals, we either, we elevate. If we didn't, we restore and we start all over again. It is a continuous cycle of movement, but it works much like an IEP, where all of our schools have their own needs assessment, and they're able to come to us and tell us what they need in a prescribed fashion. So how do I think once I have my vision? I use a complex change model, Nostra's model of complex change. Nostra says that if anything, any initiative or change effort is going to be successful, it has to have five things. You have to have a vision. You have to have skills, incentives, resources, action plan to get success. In absence of any one of those things, you get a different result from your staff or from your team. In the absence
060of a vision, people are confused. I know how to do the work. I know why I'm doing the work. You've given me everything I need to do it, and I'm following the action plan. We're on step five. But I am so confused. You know why they're confused? Because Talisa did not do a good job setting out the vision. You see how Talisa owned that? I didn't say the staff didn't understand. I didn't say so. No, I, as the superintendent who created the vision, must have dropped the ball somewhere, so I'm owning it in the absence of skills. I know where we're going. I get you. I know how you want to do it. I have my why center. You've given me all the resources. You've given me the action plan. And in that conversation, I
061hear some anxiety. That's because that's a staff member that may have possibly don't have the skills. So, Talisa, you hear anxiety. How do you respond as a leader? I respond as a leader by going back to the drawing board and say, did I make sure that the employee had the skills and the competency and the professional development follow-up and coaching they needed to be able to do what I want them to do? Hmm, that's a leader problem. In absence of an incentive and a why, you get a pushback from your staff. And that's also what you see a lot of times in districts experience some trauma. You get a lot of resistance, but that resistance comes from a space that as a leader you just learn how to navigate to figure out is it coming
062from a place of distrust? Is it coming from a place of I just don't want to? Or is it coming from a place of confusion? But all resistance doesn't come from the same place. And we're charged with trying to figure out how to find that out because ultimately I want to be successful at securing high student achievement. In absence of the resources to do it, the time, the money, the manpower, you get people that are frustrated. I know what we're doing. I know why we're doing it. I got the skill set to do it. We got the plan, but I don't have. what I need to do it with. And then action plan, in essence of your action plan, you get false stars. You over there at Hammond Central on step five, and she's over
063there at Morton High on step two. Why are we not in alignment of where we are? But that's a leader problem, making sure that I have a detailed plan to pull that out. And so as I'm approaching this work in this moment, we're being very meticulous. about looking at our data and not making moves too fast, not pulling resources too fast, but really what is it that I'm looking for because ultimately my board has charged me with restoration and elevation. And so what you will see now is we're going to pass the mic. We're going to do some mic tosses. And then we have Mr. Salinas is going to talk about some of the work that's been happening in teaching and learning and how we're moving the needle and what things are rolling out and
064let's explain to you. And then he'll pass the mic accordingly. So thank you all. Thank you, Superintendent Reid. Good evening, Trustee King, board members, and community members. I'd like to welcome everybody who's here. We've got principals, literacy coaches, community members. And for those of you who may not know, we have our very own principal in training. Ms. Victoria here. That's why she's so excited to be here with us. She is a solid vested member of the principal team here in Hammond, and so we're excited to see her. So again, my name is Tony Salinas, and I am responsible for the Office of Teaching and Learning, and what I'm going to talk to you today is exactly that, teaching and learning in the district of School City of Hammond. One of the things that I want
065to talk to you about is that tier one instruction. We're going to talk a little bit about the CEL 5D instructional framework, HITS, and I'll be talking about some other things as well as what we're doing in our department. One of the things that's important for us to understand is that we are not going to be investing energy, time, and money in things such as remediations, interventions. What we're going to do is invest our energy, time, talents, and a strong tier one program so that we can make sure that we're... addressing all the needs of our kids across the district. Next slide please. So when we talk about a Tier 1 program and a focus on Tier 1 program, we're looking at equity instruction for all kids as they come into our school system. We
066want to make sure we meet them where they are. We want to make sure that historically marginalized students are not being left out. We're talking about English language learners, special ed kids, all kids who can come to our school district and learn from our amazing staff. One of the things that Superintendent Reed talked about is that we have to be aligned in what we have in terms of expectations. So what we're going to talk about is a strong implementation of instructional framework. A framework is a system of rules, ideas, or beliefs that are used to plan or decide. If we don't have a framework and we don't have a common system of rules and ideas, we're not going to have success. Back to Nostra that the superintendent talked about, it's very important that we don't
067have false starts. We don't want to create anxiety in our schools. We want to make sure that everybody understands what the framework looks like. Next slide, please. So when we talk about a framework, we're talking about the five dimensions of teaching and learning. We're going to make sure that in our classrooms there is a set purpose. High student engagement curriculum and pedagogy which we're going to be talked about a little bit later Assessment of student learning and also classroom environment and culture next slide, please So a question that I have is what does high quality teaching and learning look like in the school city of Hammond? What does high quality teaching and learning look like for the school city of Hammond? I can't get an answer, which lets me know that there is no alignment
068or cohesion or decision having made on what that is. I don't want to be misquoted on this. I don't want you to think I'm not saying it doesn't exist because that is a lie from the pits of you know where. It exists. It exists differently in every space. And what we want to do is bring those things together so that we can make them cohesive. and aligned throughout. So it doesn't matter if you go to Franklin or if you go to Lincoln or if you go to Annie Burns Hicks, guess what? You have a framework. Your teacher is looking. You should not drop a ball if you have to move across town because we are aligned and cohesive in what we're trying to do. So this framework answers the question, what does high quality teaching
069and learning look like for us? Thank you superintendent Reed and so when we talk about vision I think we have a clear vision of where we want to go instructionally right and so again if we're going to have the answer to what does high quality teaching learning look like we also have to make sure that we support teachers in terms of professional development so that they can deliver high quality instruction. Next slide please. One of the things that we are going to be talking about is the importance of high impact teaching strategies. Is what we're doing in the classroom having a high impact and producing high student outcomes? One of the examples that we're going to talk about right now is explicit teaching and some of our coaches are going to go into that a
070little bit further in the presentation. Next slide please. Explicit teaching, again, involves clearly explaining learning intentions, modeling the skills or concepts, guided practice, and then independent practice, right? This is the kind of teaching that leaves no confusion in our classroom. We cannot afford to have classrooms where kids do not understand what is being expected of them, what was I asked to learn. Again, explicit instruction, explicit teaching means that kids know exactly what they're expected to learn and be able to do. Next slide, please. Now in order to do this we want to make sure that kids also have strategies to be able to take control of their own learning. One of the high impact strategies is collaborative learning and in this situation an example of that would be reciprocal teaching where kids are working together
071to take turns to lead a discussion about a text. One of the things that you'll see is that it's not just the teacher doing the teaching, right, and the kids are sitting there passively gaining knowledge from the teacher. Kids are talking, kids are making sense of instruction, kids are predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. So when you talk about teaching and learning, these are high impact strategies that we're going to be talking about with our teachers in the near future. And here are some reasons as to why high impact teaching is extremely effective, right? Active engagement, critical thinking, student ownership. We cannot have in a school city of Hammond students who wonder why I'm in class, why I come to school, or guess what, I don't like coming to school. For us, it's a matter of
072making sure that these attendance rates go up because kids love coming to school through active engagement and ownership of their learning. Okay? Next slide, please. And so I'll give you some of the research behind that. I think it's Marzano. Marzano is the researcher that found that high impact teaching strategies, he identifies a lot of teaching strategies and he's measured them and quantified the results from these high impact teaching strategies are shown to have a high effect and to cause an increase in student achievement. And so by... Preparing our teachers by providing them with professional development follow-up and coaching on what these high-impact teaching strategies is we one hope to increase academic achievement But to also engagement because we know when we think about attendance. I don't want come to school because it's boring I mean,
073I'm not in that age grade where I'm not gonna say I'm scared to say I could school I cut school I cut it every time and I needed to go to Geography, you know why this is boring And so being honest about why I didn't, we have to be honest and real, and we want to humanize the teaching and learning process. We have to be honest. And so these high-impact teaching strategies keep our students engaged. Our framework... works and allows our teachers a frame to work within so that they can now plan our lessons and move forward and then continue to engage our staff. And so moving from that, next thing we have is we have our high school, we have summer school this summer. And I know a lot of people have had questions.
074I've gotten some emails about summer school, hadn't heard anything. What are we doing? And so I'm going to bring the principals up. who all have summer school in their buildings, and they will explain to you what you can expect this summer for summer school as we work to meet the needs of our students, even throughout the summer when school is not actually in. Ms. Wheeler and Ms. Harrison. Then we'll have Principal Reiser, Mr. Grimm, and Principal Hawkins. Good evening, everyone. I'm Ms. Harrison, Principal at Hammond Central High School. Christine Wheeler, Principal of Morton High School. We do have a... All right. Good evening. We do have a similar plan for addressing our students who are in high school who are credit deficient for summer school. We've taken a look at our data from really this
075current school year, semester one, and our third grading period data to identify the students that we plan to invite. to summer school to recapture some of those credits that they did not earn throughout this school year at this point. We will have classes. Those students will go into our credit recovery program with our licensed teachers to assist them in making sure that they can capture those credits. And we also want to get our ninth graders, our incoming ninth graders, off to a good start with high school. As you all may know that graduation requirements are changing for our incoming freshmen and their schedule is packed. So it's jam-packed, no wiggle room at all, and we are hoping that by offering them the opportunity to capture one, well really two, of their required classes during the
076summer that could put them in a better position as they move forward with high school. So for our incoming ninth graders, we are offering the opportunity for them to take PE, health, or speech in person with the licensed teacher. They can choose two of those three courses. Mrs. Wheeler has said it all. And I appreciate her. We definitely collaborate a whole lot. We talk a lot on the phone and meet together just so that we can be on the same page at Morton and at Hammond Central. But we are seeing that we have a lot of students who are credit deficient. And we're trying to, and we need the help of all parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, everyone who can drive this into our students' brains. That in high school, when you fail the class, you
077do not receive the credit. But the class doesn't disappear. the class is still there and according to the Indiana state requirements for graduation, you have to get the credits in certain classes. So I know that there are lots of students who feel that, oh, that class, I don't have to take it. You do. You have to retake it or you're in summer school doing credit recovery when you could just do it the first time and do it correctly. So we're trying to get our kids to understand the classes do not go away. They do not go away. So if we could push that with our students at home to make them understand that you really don't want to be in summer school. It will be offered, you know, as long as we can. We will
078do that because we want to support our students. But who wants to spend their time in summer school? So just push that for us. And we will have that for 9th through 12th grade, like Ms. Wheeler said. And I believe we are doing classes Monday through Thursday, no Friday classes. Okay. So parents. Everything will be coming out to you soon about how to get your students registered for summer school. Thank you ladies, I appreciate you. I want to point out a change, a shift that's happened just this year. A couple weeks ago, I walked into a conversation about summer school and I just kept hearing 11 and 12 credit recovery, 11 and 12, 11 and 12. And I was like, wait a minute, so kids don't get behind until they're in 11 or 12th grade?
079So what if I'm behind in 9th grade, then what? Do I have to wait until the 11th and 12th grade to make up my credit? This year you will notice that. when she talked about the grades that are served, all of our grades will be served 9 through 12 to provide students an opportunity to recover those credits at an earlier option than waiting where the dropout rate increases. Good evening. I'm Jennifer Reiser, and I am the principal of Scott Middle School. I'm Steve Grimm, the principal at Eggers. We are going to tell you a little bit about of summer school this year at both middle schools We have decided that our focus will be stem based and that is to encourage enthusiasm and participation Because from time to time we've seen a decrease in the
080number of students Especially at the middle school level who are willing to attend summer school And so we hope that by offering stem based programming and focusing on PBL components that will encourage greater attendance and greater participation. So the focus will be to remediate students and reinforce their skill set in the areas of math and ELA, but they will also have some focus in the maker space and using the STEM strategies. Yeah, so we really want the whole program to have that stem background as superintendent Reed and mr. Salinas pointed out a big part of high-impact learning is having high engagement with students and Believe it or not students don't always want to be school in the middle of summer. So we really want those students to be motivated. So this temp component, the students
081would be learning about English language arts and math but doing things like building catapults and planning a zoo while they're doing that planning a carnival. We're going to have students earn, we have them call it scholar dollars. I think that's going to stick if we change it, bear with us. But they're going to have an incentive program for having good attendance, for participating, for being members, where they can get special incentives. wait for everything to be approved and finalized. We're looking into funding and whatnot, but we want to have field trips incorporated into it as well that will be not just STEM focused, but have to do with the projects that the students are working on to really incentivize them to come out and spend their summer with us. Thank you. I appreciate you. If
082you notice that in the past, there's another thing that I noticed. There was no summer school for middle school. So there was elementary, I read three, and then there was high school, 11 and 12, but there was nothing for middle school. So I appreciate my principals for stepping up when I sent the call out and said, hey, we got to do something for our middle schoolers. And so just please welcome our elementary team. He's falling asleep. He's had a long day in first grade. I'm Miss Hawkins. I'm the principal of Burns Hicks Elementary School, and I am going to be hosting summer school this summer. We are only inviting second and third grade students who do not pass the IREAD-3. We are going to be working solely, strictly on IREAD-3 skills, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension
083in literary and nonfiction text. We are going to have some great teachers to help our students kind of get them over that hump, and hopefully we can get our IREAD scores where they need to be. That's really all we're going to be focusing on. That's the meat of it, so I don't have as fun, as exciting things as that. Thank you. This list is not is not all inclusive and this isn't the Bible because we are also still working with our principals to see if we can provide more enrichment opportunities at our elementary schools and seeing who steps up and has the manpower to do that for us. So please stay tuned to see what else may be coming for us. This summer we also will host ESY, extended school year services for our students
084who receive services as students with a disability, our special education students, students with IEPs. So when these students do not meet their goals by the end of the year, the state and the federal government requires us to provide them time. during the summer to help them meet the goals from the previous years because remember their goals are different. Their plans are called IEPs, Individualized Educational Plan. And so these students and these parents come to the table and they look at the data and they discuss the kids and determine what it is that they want, what goals they want their children to meet by the end of the year. And every quarter there is a metric where we take progress monitoring. And if by the fourth... quarter meaning the end of the year that student does
085not meet their goals and if there was an Extenuating circumstance then that student is brought back in during the summer and so that program will be going and all of our programs will be taught by certificated staff as well, so Our next one is all of our students will also receive breakfast and lunch breakfast 830 in the classroom 1230 lunch. They will also receive transportation services. Our students will be picked up and dropped off at their designated sites. And so that is what summer programming will look like for us here in the school city of Hammond. Next up, we'll have our literacy coaches, Ms. Crystal Nelson and Samantha Ferry. Crystal is our literacy coach at Lincoln Elementary, and Samantha is our literacy coach at Franklin. They will be sharing with us about a little of
086the work that they do as literacy coaches, but also updating us on what IREAD 3 plans look like. You are so welcome. I want to introduce, it looks like you guys put baby in the corner, but all the kids took up all the space, so we had to take up the last two rows. I want to introduce the other coaches, Melissa Mendiola from Burns-Hicks, Melissa Kuchar from Irving, Melissa Riley from Mass, Jennifer Christensen from O'Bannon, Tammy Ballio from Jefferson, Kelly Dumary from Edison, and Debbie Waykaser from Harton. So the cadre, we applied for to be a part of the cadre in 2003. It's a partnership with the IDOE and CEL. It's a two-year commitment. We're hoping that we can be a part of the next two-year commitment for cohort. four But we are in cohort
087two This placed a literacy coach in all of our elementary buildings. So we had 12 last year. We are now nine It's for grades K through three so we work with the teachers in kindergarten through third grade and We support the teachers and students and all of those are grades to achieve stronger reading outcomes We receive extensive PDS from the state IDOE cell We have TSS's training support specialists. Monica Sarin, she was a RTI specialist that was here. She's actually my TSS, some of our TSS's, but we also have another one that works with Hammond because we're such a large group. Mr. Salinas already talked about explicit instruction, but through the CADRE, you can go to the next slide, sorry. Oh, coaching cycles first, sorry. Each building, we collaborate with grade-level teams. Oh, okay, we're
088going to go back to explicit instruction. Okay. Through the cadre they provided Hegarty and you fly to teach phonics and phonemic awareness. Those are two of the pillars of science of reading and The K through three teachers receive ongoing professional development from us on how to implement these programs to explicitly and systematically teach those Skills then vocabulary fluency and comprehension. Those are the other three pillars of science of reading and those are taught through a core reading program, and we're looking forward to adopting a new program this year. All buildings have restructured their literacy blocks and win time to provide remediation for the IREAD test that we've talked about, for the non-passers using practice items in second and third grades, and we're also providing enrichment opportunities for those that have already passed. Okay, so now
089we can go to the coaching cycles. Thank you. So our role is to provide coaching cycles, and we collaborate with grade-level teams during our hour meetings and with the teams in K-3. We also give extra support to the grades 4 through 6 when they need it. The coach uses classroom data, so we use scores from ILEARN, IREAD, IREADY, KRA, ORF, Chorophonics. We use all of those assessments. We look at the data, and we use that to meet with individual teachers to plan coaching cycles based on the student needs during their ELA block. We build relationships with the teachers and the students so that we can support the classroom. And the coaching cycles consist of several check-ins. We model lessons, we co-teach with them, and we support the teacher. These cycles, we can have mini cycles
090or long cycles. They last anywhere from three to five weeks. And everything is data-driven. Okay, Sam's going to take over. Okay, so we've been talking a lot about IREAD 3, and it's a very important year because we all know that things have changed, and now in third grade, if you do not pass, you have to be retained. So the stakes are high for us this year. So looking back at our data, we have 57.9% passing rate in 2022-2023 school year, and we did see an increase of 5.2% the following year, so it went up to 63.1%. The good news is we saw that all demographic subgroups made... gains and we do have preliminary data that we can't share yet but we will have the full data after the summer administration we've been looking at the
091data we've been looking at kids absences teacher absences we've been tracking them back years actually and something that we noticed was attendance and attendance does matter and student attendance rates matter and if we're looking at our data What the goal is is 94% for our student attendance, which is about missing 10 days of school. And we have only about 46% of those students that are missing 10 or less days of school. So this is an ongoing concern, and it affects student achievement. So we do need kids at school. We already talked about summer school. Ms. Hawkins just talked about it. We are offering it to all at-risk second grade students and all third grade non-passers. Anybody who does not pass has to be offered summer school. In order to not be retained, they have to
092pass or if they have a good cause exemption, which like some of our LDP and our specialized students will receive. We're also offering tutoring, so it looks a little bit different at each building. They do have the plans out to Mr. Salinas. The schools should have already communicated that with the parents of the non-passers, but it just depends on teacher availability and student need. And tutoring will go till May 9th until the students are retested. And it is for both the tutoring and summer school, teachers have to have at least the 25 hours of science of reading training, which is good for our students. And like I just said, they will retest. Our second grade students and third grade students will retest at the end of or at the beginning of May. The testing window
093is May 12th. And then the students that do not pass in third grade, they will also be retested at the end of summer school. And we just wanted to add in there, because I believe that this PowerPoint is shared with the parents, just some at-home support. You can always reach out to your coaches or your teachers. We'd all be happy to help you. But here was just some examples that you can see kind of what the IREAD-3 test looks like. So it's a sampler and then some released items from past years. And that's all. Before you ladies go, I do want to, since this is a work session, I'm going to like to teach. We use a lot of acronyms in public education, like nothing means what it's supposed to mean. And so I know
094we talked about science of reading and all those other things. And since we are teaching right now as teachers, can you explain to our board and our constituents, what is the science of reading? So science of reading is the research behind reading. It goes back decades. So we talked about the five pillars, phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Basically, when we're training the teachers, they're kind of like the teachers that have been teaching for a long time. They're kind of saying, oh, this is the way we used to teach. It's going back to the way that we used to teach. We kind of got away from the basics. You know, A says ah, B says buh. Explicitly teaching what's happening in the classroom. We started doing reading running records and leveled readers and we've
095now realized and we're doing better that we don't want to be doing that. So we're explicitly teaching the basics. We're going back to the basics. And this research has been going on for decades and we're just, we're getting back to it. So it's called SOAR, S-O-R, but it's science of reading, but that's what it is. Yes. Thank you. And because states have realized that how we used to do it is no longer effective, a lot of states have actually mandated that certain ways of teaching literacy are no longer legal. And so a lot of states are adopting it and requiring that their staff be trained and certified in being able to teach the science of reading research way. And so I appreciate you all. Thank you for your service as well. And it's always a
096pleasure to serve alongside such lovely folks. Thank you. Mr. Salinas. Thank you. Okay, some quick announcements before we continue on. We definitely want the community to know that we are going to be embarking on our early childhood registration coming up soon here. Actually, this week, our preschool and Head Start registration will be taking place over at the Early Learning Center. And then also later on this month, we're going to have kindergarten roundup at the Early Learning Center as well. As you'll notice, we have two dates. The first date will be for Franklin, Irving, Burns, Hicks, and Edison. The second date will be for O'Bannon, Jefferson, Hess, and Harding. And so we're looking to welcome all of our early learners to the school city of Hammond. Next slide. And at the opposite end, we are also
097going to be celebrating our students that are moving on in their education and also completing their education here in the school city of Hammond. At the eighth grade level, we are having promotion ceremonies for both Scott and Eggers Middle School. The dates are, again, Thursday, May 29th, and you'll see we'll have two ceremonies at Eggers and two ceremonies at Scott. for our students that are going to continue their education over to high school. So they will be promoted from middle school over to high school. At the high school level, we are celebrating the graduation and completion of our students' education here in Hammond, beginning on June 7th at 4 p.m. at Wolf Lake Pavilion and Hammond Central on June 9th at 6 p.m. also at the Wolf Lake Pavilion. And we congratulate all of our
098School City of Hammond graduates this year. So we've talked a lot about academics, a lot about frameworks. What about the actual social-emotional health of not only our students but our staff, right? All of us in the room included. I have a question for you. Has people ever asked you the question, what's wrong with you? All the time. What is wrong with you? Has anybody ever been asked this question? What's strong with you? Has anybody ever been asked this question? What's strong with you? When we think about it, we think about that from a lens of strength, right? Not from a deficiency lens. When we talk about our social-emotional health of our students and staff, we're going to be embarking on an initiative with Thrively where we're going to ensure that all kids thrive in the
099school city of Hammond. And the first way we're going to do this is to assess the strengths of our students and staff. Make sure that we have well-being for our students and staff and thinking about hope as a cognitive function, not an abstract concept, right? So again, one of the things that we want to make sure is that our kids are hopeful, our teachers are hopeful, our community is hopeful, our administrators are hopeful so that we can definitely find success here in Hammond. Next slide, please. Very excited to share this information with everyone. We are going to be embarking on our inaugural State of Affairs site visits this week at our schools. These visits are an opportunity to provide differentiated supports, as Superintendent Reed talked about, based on individual needs and context for every school.
100This is the continuous improvement cycle to enhance and support high-quality teaching and learning. The principals and their teams will be talking about these key bullet points with us. And this is the framework and the format that we will be following. Each principal will be providing a school presentation and they will be telling their narrative, their story of what it is that their school is, their goals, and their needs. They will be conducting a learning walk, meaning that we'll be able to see evidence of what is going on in the school, anything that the principal would like to highlight. We will be having clarifying questions and answers, and then a debrief session and next steps to perform strategic supports for the buildings. And the key to this is that no support for every building will be
101the same. It will be based on individual needs for every building. So we're very excited to start our state of affairs visits. Next, I'm going to welcome Mr. Adam White, who is going to talk about a partnership. Partner with Pauls, Mr. White. Good evening. You just give me a wireless mic and an audience, and I'm going to break out midnight train to Georgia, so forgive me. I am very excited along with my partner here. This is Mrs. Jackie LaFave. She is one of our wonderful school psychologists for the school city of Hammond. I have to say I have never been more excited to present a program in all of my time at school city of Hammond. And we are here today to talk about bringing a therapy dog program finally to this district. So first
102of all, formally, I would like to say good evening to President Blake King, our Superintendent Reed, our wonderful administrative staff, and then of course our school board of trustees. Today, Jackie and I are excited to present a program that directly aligns with the school city of Hammond's strategic priority, which is student success and the district's core belief that promoting mental health wellness and safety within our school communities. Our focus is on implementing a therapy dog program to support students mental, emotional and academic well-being utilizing already approved school board policies that address the inclusion of therapy dogs. Specifically school board policy 8390 which is animals on school corporation property and 8405 which is animals in the classroom. As we know, today, students face increasing levels of stress and anxiety. Studies show that therapy dogs create a
103calming presence, helping students regulate emotions, cope with trauma, and stay engaged in learning. This initiative is designed to provide targeted support, ensuring that our students feel safe, connected, and ready to succeed. And let's be honest, it's for the adults as well. So, what are the expectations of this program? Research and real-world applications show that therapy dogs contribute to positive outcomes in three main areas. Emotional well-being, social development, and academic performance. First, emotionally, therapy dogs help students manage stress, anxiety, and trauma, leading to a more positive school experience. Second, they promote school engagement and empathy, helping students form positive relationships and reduce instances of retaliatory behavior. And finally, studies show that therapy dogs enhance academic performance, particularly in literacy and focus, by providing nonjudgmental support and motivation. Together, these benefits contribute to a healthier, more supportive
104school environment where students can thrive. This program isn't just a good idea, right? It's backed by strong research and successful case studies from across the country. A study by Kropp and Shupp found that therapy dogs improve social-emotional regulation, helping students handle stress more effectively. Grove highlighted how therapy dogs ease separation anxiety and support students through transitions. The READ, the READ program, a literacy initiative, found that Third grade students who read to therapy dogs improved their fluency by 12%, which is four times more than their peers. And at the University of Delaware, the Paws for People program found that 95% of students reported feeling less stressed after interacting with therapy dogs. These studies demonstrate that therapy dogs have a measurable benefit in improving emotional stability, academic achievement, and overall school climate. Thank you Adam. We've only
105got two slides left, so we're not going to keep you long All right, so let's talk about how the program will be structured to ensure success Trained handlers who will be district employees will oversee the approved therapy dogs and ensure that they're used effectively in student interactions Dog selection will include strict criteria ensuring that only well-behaved certified therapy dogs are chosen. All therapy dogs must be certified through an approved organization such as the AKC, Pet Partners, or Therapy Dogs International. This program comes at no cost to the district. The handlers are responsible for the training and the full therapy certification prior to applying with the superintendent or her designee. By setting up these clear guidelines and expectations, we can ensure that this program is both impactful and manageable within our district. Next slide, please. So
106where do we go from here? These are the next steps that are needed to pilot the program for the 25-26 school years. First, we'll begin by selecting handlers through an application process to ensure that they meet all the necessary requirements and certification outlined in our framework. We plan to launch a pilot program which will include Edison and Jefferson. These are my schools and they are selected and we are expecting to expand it district-wide, allowing us to work with the superintendent to assess the effectiveness to make adjustments as needed. The pilot schools will work to educate and communicate with staff, students, and families about the therapy dog, the purpose, and the interactions. This will be done through written communication, in-person presentations for the families, and families will be provided options to opt out of having their
107student interact with the dog. Additionally, the handler in each building will ensure that the dog is kept away from students who have known allergies. With a well-planned approach, we can successfully implement this program and make a lasting impact on student well-being and academic success. So in conclusion, Therapy Dogs offer an innovative and research-backed approach to improving student success by reducing anxiety, increasing engagement, and fostering a positive school climate. This initiative aligns directly with our district's commitment to supporting the whole student, and we appreciate your time and look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you. Next, we will hear from Mr. David Verda, our executive director of Human Capital. Good evening, everybody. I am responsible for slide 43 to 48. If you have any questions, you can call me. Thank you. All right.
108Just a little joke, try to wake everybody up. It's been a long night. A lot of great information. Very excited about the future of School City of Hammond. I'm here to talk about the Office of Human Capital. looking at priority number two retaining our students and our staff so on the first slide here 43 you'll see our goals that are currently in our strategic plan okay So we're looking to minimize the loss of students and turn that loss into a gain over the course of this plan, reduce the number of employees leaving the organization for reasons SEH can impact, no open position after 30 days of a new posting, and increase diversity of talent coming into the organization. Those are our current goals. Looking at slide 44. With that being said, we are going to
109make sure that we are finding the correct talent to fill positions when they become open. So we're going to be talking about new processes for when we need a building principal. Okay, and this will start effective immediately. A parent and community survey will go out, will be sent out, you know, Parent Square, social media, will be sent out and also to our staff via school email. open for 14 days. The hope is that the survey will help us create a profile for the next building principal. The position then after, so after we have that profile, we will then go ahead and post the position. The position will be posted for 14 days at a minimum. We will post it in Nimble, which is linked up to top school jobs, and then it goes out to
110other social media platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed outlets. Okay, so that will be open again for 14 days at a minimum. So after it's posted, we'll close the post and the superintendent and her team, we're going to review the candidates. We're going to select hopefully anywhere between three to five candidates, maybe more if there's more applicants in the pool. We will have a first round interview which will consist of round table interviews. We will have a teacher, administrator, parent, student, and community member at each round table. So for instance, if we have five candidates, we'll have five tables and we'll have those represented at each table. And then the interviewee will go around to each table. Then we will narrow that down to the top three candidates. We'll have a second round. This will be
111performance based. Okay, and that will involve a teacher evaluation. So after the second round is done, we're hoping to narrow down to the top two candidates. And then the top two will meet with our superintendent, Superintendent Reed, for one of them to be selected to serve as the next building principal. Okay, and the reason I bring this up is because we are actually in the process. We are looking for, I talked to Mr. Grim already, he is aware, as well as the Eggers staff. I went there about three weeks ago and talked to them about this process. We also shared the survey with parents, again, via ParentSquare. So everybody has been communicated with. We are in the process of looking for our next building principal at Eggers. So I have a timeline here on page
11245 here. Again, a parent community and staff survey was sent out on 3-17. We are going to, we left it open a little longer just because of spring break, so we are going to close it though on Wednesday, tomorrow, at the end of the school day. So we will take that survey again, we will review it, and we will create a profile. And then we are looking at posting the position the week of 4-18. The position will be posted. And then we're looking at the first round during the week, the first round of interviews that happened the week of April 21st. The second round that happened the week of 28th. And then a final round with the superintendent the week of May 5th. And then also the week of May 5th, having a new building
113principal named as we move forward. Okay. So I wanted to make sure everybody, the board and the community was aware of these new procedures when we're looking for, again, the building principal. if a vacancy becomes open. Okay, so moving on to slide 46. Again, priority number two, retain our students and staff. Again, this is something I'm extremely excited about with the vision of Superintendent Reed, the vision of our instructional coaches like Josh Craig and Miss Wendy and Miss Gladys. We are going to create a teaching learning league. We are looking for all of the literacy coaches that you met. Our instruction coaches will already be in it. But we are looking for an additional 25 teachers. What is the Learning League? It's a group of model educators that are dedicated to showcasing best practices in
114model classrooms, engaging in professional learning and refining instructional strategies, collaborating with colleagues and fostering a culture of learning, and providing insight and feedback to enhance student success. And then again underneath that is who should apply. This email has been shared with all teachers within the school district. We had about 50 people fill out the interest form and then we have about 25 that officially applied for it. Okay, so we're hoping, and that's going to close when, Friday, Josh? The 4th. So that closes Friday the 4th. We're hoping to have these people identified by May 1st so that we can start training them. Again, this is also being fiscally responsible because we're going to start, you know, we're going to send a group of people out and get trained, and they're going to bring it back
115and train in-house for free. And again, it's helping invest in our staff. It's helping them grow. It's helping teachers become stronger classroom leaders. So we're very excited about this initiative. And I also want to just thank Josh again, Wendy, and Gladys for helping kind of monitor the applicants as they come in and notifying us so nothing falls by the wayside. All right, and then going to slide 47, also going into the next school year, again, with Superintendent Reed's vision, we're going to have a summer charge. What that's going to be is a two-day professional development session in the beginning of the school year in August. It's going to be held at Morton High School. Once we have the TLL, which is the Teacher Learning League, those members identified, they're going to help us get ready
116for... this PD that's going to happen at Morton. Again, it's going to help us gear up for the 25-26 school year. It's giving us time to be together and learn together, which is extremely important, especially with the new vision from the superintendent. And again, connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity, and meaning in their job, which hopefully will keep our teachers here in Hammond. So we're very excited about this as well, the summer charge. Some more information will be coming up. I know we're going to meet with the calendar committee. We're going to identify some dates, things like that coming up here. So we will have that finalized here, hopefully middle
117of April. Then moving on to our last slide, 48, fill vacancies. We know this is a top priority with the school city of Hammond. If you go to our website now, you can see in some of our social media outlets, you'll see a hiring flyer. We have a lot of positions that are currently posted in Nimble, and they show up on topschooljobs.org. We will continue to post positions as we move forward to make sure they're all posted as we're heading to 25-26 school year. Something that we're doing here, April 2nd, which is tomorrow at 4.30, we have invited... Some of our Kelly full-time subs that currently have a four-year bachelor's degree or higher to here This is kind of the grow your own program that we're starting here in the school city Hammond. We want
118to get them connected with educational programs like Kelly McCollege, Purdue Northwest, Purdue Northwest And we want to get them into a transition to teach program and get them fully licensed Okay, so that's our goal. Again, these are people that have four-year degrees or higher, but we want to get them to pull them to be on School City of Hammond for the 25-26 school year. So again, we're going to help them get their license. We're going to help them understand those processes and procedures. They have been invited. We have about 33 that said they're going to show up out of the 52 that currently are in that position. So that's pretty good. Hopefully more show up then. Hopefully all 52 of them show up, but we'll take the 33 to start. And then we'll reach out
119to the rest as the time goes on, as the school year goes on. We'll make sure we connect with them. We're also participating in on-site interviews with Purdue and IUN, Purdue Northwest and IUN, looking for teacher candidates that are going to be graduating this spring. Then we're also working with our building principals that have student teachers currently in them and trying to get them to stay and be a part of school city Hammond for the start of their career and hopefully for the start, middle and end of their career. We're going to try to grab them early and keep them. So that's a lot of stuff going on in the office of human capital. Again, I'm very excited about what's happening. It's a great time to be a part of the community and a part
120of the school district. So thank you guys. Thank you, Mr. Berta. We're going to do a mic toss to Mr. Peterson, our Transportation Director. And just notice to the board that this is the only item in this work session that will appear on our consent agenda for board approval. So this is the only item that you will hear tonight that you have voted. We'll have a future action on later. Well, hi. Welcome, Madam President, members of the board. and everyone, superintendent. Hey, I'm here to talk about a couple of transportation projects that are on our table that need consideration. One of them is the BP grant that's pending out here to buy propane buses. and the other one is the uplift or upgrading of our underground fuel storage tank at our warehouse. Let's talk about
121the BP grant for a second. About a year, year and a half ago, BP entered into a consent decree agreement to improve some environmental conditions at their whiting plant. basically improving the water and the air around the plants that have essentially been polluting the four major communities around the Whiting plant. As part of that agreement, they also agreed to provide funds to the four communities for low-emission vehicle. programs vehicles and the each community was allocated a million dollars along with the another million dollars for the four communities for not-for-profits who may have a need to replace some of their diesel vehicles We work with the school city. I mean with the city of Hammond and agreed to split our million dollars. And we were fortunate enough to get $508,000 and some change towards purchasing some
122buses. So later on, I'll be seeking... approval to enter into an agreement with BP to secure that money as well as adding to it, hopefully, another $91,000 so we can buy three new propane buses. So the buses cost about 500, three buses cost about $585,000. We'll need to add some onboard equipment, GPS cameras, radios, for a total of just shy of $600,000. The BP grant would come up to the $508,000, leaving our share of $91,813. Of course, these prices are... subject, we have quotes now, but they're going to be subject to the tear steel tariffs or anything that could occur down the line here that we're not aware of. Yeah, bus, yeah, bus is about $200,000. Propane bus is about $200,000. The other thing that I'm kind of moving away from is the air brake
123buses. because the air brake buses require us to train drivers to to drive air brake buses. So our drivers can go to other districts and get jobs where they're just hydraulic brakes, but when we get a person coming over, we have to go through a bunch of training just to get them to drive the air brake bus. Almost as if they're just a new person coming on board. And it's kind of a disincentive for people who have CDLs trying to come into our community, because that's going to open up the doors, we hope, to begin bringing people in. that can drive just buses and come on in with CDLs. Okay, the underground storage tanks, a little more complex. Just as some background, the school city of Hammond owns four underground storage tanks. Three at the
124transportation garage and one at the warehouse. All of the tanks are over 50 years of age. The tank that stores unleaded fuel at the transportation depot and at the warehouse is made of fiberglass. Fiberglass back in the 70s was the big thing to have, but that was before the advent of ethanol that they now mix in gasoline. And so those tanks have become... compromised over the years by the ethanol that's been stored in them. Now our tanks are still tight. We have all the automated equipment that tests for leakage and tightness and we're required to do this daily. Monthly reports, quarterly reports, annual reports. So our tanks are tight. Back in November, the state came out and inspected with an unscheduled inspection. It came out and inspected the tanks and required some upgrades in the
125tanks. This is the first one that they came out on and made an inspection. Part of their report requires us to make upgrades. Go back one. I just want to hit the last one. It could affect also the... unleaded tank that's at the transportation garage but right now no one has been out to look at that but it is also made of fiberglass too and it's over 50 years of age okay so we went out and looked at getting quotes and options to fix this all the way from the least expensive to the most expensive. I'm not sure why it has one one one one one, but it's one two three four, okay? So number three and number four have some state funds that are available. Okay, to do it. They have a 50-50 matching
126fund for eligible costs. Now eligible costs isn't everything you do. Dispensers and things like that are not covered in it. So I'm estimating that it's probably going to be about 40% of the total cost of option number four. But let me walk through them very briefly. The first one, the first two are pretty similar. The cheapest thing to do is to dig down in the hole, dig a hole, put a hole in the top of the tank, go in and spray some epoxy in it. That would last probably about four or five years and we would be subject to state inspection to make sure it's tight. Option two. Would be to do the same thing drill down create a hole dig down create a hole go inside Sandblast the inside and actually lay in the
127in their fiberglass lining a much better option But with option one or two we're still you know doing a facelift on a 50 year old tank and if you can see option two is $81,000 is some change and neither one of them are subject to any state funding Option three, which is the option that I'm recommending, is that we actually just go in, dig down, remove the tank, and then in its place, put a 5,000-gallon above-ground storage tank in it. The problem, and that's about $114,000, and the construction to decommission the tanks, dig down again, is about $20,000, and I'm estimating about half of it. We could get paid for Reimbursed by the state for okay about half of that twenty about ten thousand dollars the problem with one and two though is that These
128tanks have been in the ground for 20 years. I mean 50 years We don't really know what they look like inside. You could actually go down inside of it find out that the walls are so thin That you can't do anything with them in which case we've spent the money to go down and dig in there Then we still have to go to option three and four So that's why I'm kind of gravitating to that option The last option is just to just remove replace and put a new tank in. Very expensive, $273,000. Both three and four will require some permits to remove it. We would have to remove all contaminated soil and bag fill. Option two and three is probably somewhere around six to eight weeks from the time that we move to do
129it. That's pretty much it. We've got two estimates for option two. Option one and two are pretty specialized services and I could only find those two companies that could do the work for them. A separate one for number one and a separate one for number two. Number three, I've got two estimates. The lowest is $114,000. And the last option is the most expensive option. We don't really know what the soil condition is going to be like in there. We don't know anything about it, but it's a very expensive option. I'm hoping that the state would reimburse about 40% of it, but we just don't know yet. So that's pretty much it. As you all can see, the work has been being done behind closed doors, but at this point, I would like to open the
130floor for any questions. comments, cares, or concerns from our board with the idea that remembering that this is a continuous improvement process and this is just the work that has happened in 30 days. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Peterson. Hello? Your estimate, is that for one tank? One tank. Okay, so the other three are still pretty old. Yeah, the other three have not been inspected by the state. Two of them are still lining, double-walled, so I don't think we'll have a problem with those. But the one that holds unleaded gas at the Transportation Depot is a fiberglass, too, and I suspect that that will become a problem, too. I have a question, too. I almost forgot my question. I'm sorry. What's the benefits, I guess, to having it underground rather than above ground? Great question. Underground tanks
131have the possibility of rupture. At all times. Okay, the older they get the more the probability. Above and they're heavily regulated by the State Department of Environmental Management. Above ground storage tanks don't have that regulation. Now the ones that we're proposing are ballistic resistant, so we're not concerned about weapons and someone shooting it and exploding it. So there is a lot of benefit to it. The other downside of it is it takes up space. But we've looked at the warehouse and we're looking to scale down the tank to about 5,000 gallons so it'll have a smaller footprint. And we think it'll work. I've talked to David Reyes, the... director of buildings and grounds and I think it'll work. I'm sure it will. Yes. They'll remove it, backfill it, put crushed rock in, compact it and
132then put it down. The company that has the lowest quote has been doing it for years. Mr. Peterson, do we need all four tanks? Another good question. As we move more and more towards propane, probably not. Right now, our diesel tanks last forever. We could probably go down to one tank, but of course we'd have to remove it, get permits to take it out, and there's a cost associated with it. You just can't leave it there. If we go to above ground storage, we need more space. That's going to be an issue. And since three of the four tanks are at the transportation depot, we would need space there, maybe expansion into the ACC area. There's still some area there, parking, that's not being used on that side. And they have parking on the west
133side, too. So we haven't really gotten to that. The other issue is that we have an above-ground propane tank as we're getting more and more propane buses. We're now taxing that propane, that propane pump, and we're filling it up once a week. More and more propane buses means we're either going to need a larger tank or we're going to need to move the tank so it's straight up or in another place. So we've got some tank considerations. I'm just curious because, you know, in the first part... You're gonna ask us to approve some money to purchase three new propane bus yes So I'm just curious if I'm not saying we are or not if we were to approve the purchase of three new buses I mean I feel like that maybe we wouldn't need all
134the tanks as you just said we're gonna need what we would not need all the tanks as you kind of just said well right now we have 17 propane buses that would add three so it's not going to be a Significant amount okay most of our fleet is still diesel, okay? We do fuel regularly, but we could probably, as time goes on, move to one tank. That's not tomorrow, okay? But as we buy more buses and the board and the Infinite Wisdom will grant us some money to buy buses, please. We could, but then we're going to have the consideration that we're going to dig the tanks up. We're going to dig the tanks up. We've got that cost associated with it. Thank you. I have another question. With the propane buses, forgive my naivety
135on this, I've never seen a propane bus. And, you know, I drive, so is there differences for the drivers, or what's the benefits of propane versus diesel? Oh, okay. It reduces the carbon footprint about 95%, okay? And that's BP is only allowing in the grant. Propane. compressed natural gas or electric. An electric bus right now doesn't seem to work for us because it's about $450,000 for one bus and with the length of our routes and the three-tiering we just don't. We'd have to charge it after every run. And the charging stations are very expensive if you want a high-speed charge. And one, it's probably best to continue on the propane path. Now, you say, what's the difference? They all look alike. They all look alike. They're all yellow. Driving-wise. A propane bus is really a
136gasoline bus that they've converted the engine just to propane. That's all they've really done. It requires our mechanics to have some additional training, but it's pretty much the same. The fuel price is a little less. But the miles per gallon are less too, okay? But it's still cheaper to operate a propane than it is a diesel, and it cleans the air too. Nothing else? Great questions. She's got questions for you. Do you have questions for Mr. Peterson? No, yes. I was waiting for you. No, no, she's got questions for you. I have questions for you. Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you. I don't see the page number. Well, anyway, I'm reading school city of Hammond and city of Hammond agreed to split a million dollar grant. Was that a mandate? No, it's not a mandate. No,
137it's not a mandate. Actually, the money is granted to the city of Hammond. But we participated, I participated in a committee with them and kind of just squeezed them to give us more and more and more and less for their ends. Of course, they wanted it all. And I wanted all. So in the negotiation, if they wanted all, then I want all. And so we kind of agreed to that. What year was this BP consent decree? Huh? What year was the BP consent decree? I don't know exactly, but it's been a couple years ago. I can look it up for you and get back with you. I appreciate it. The only reason I ask, I'm sort of familiar with this decree. We were supposed to get $250,000 for filters for our school, and I had
138been asking about that. So could someone please look into that? What happened with that $250,000 from a BP consent decree? Did we ever utilize it per what it was for? Because I was one of the plaintiffs for that lawsuit. And folks have been asking me, Ms. King, what do you all do with that $250,000? How long ago was that? About two years ago, around the same time. About the same. I'll check into it. I'll contact the VP people and see. I appreciate it. Contact somebody. The $91,813, where is this money coming from? Can somebody tell me? If we should approve it, where is it coming from? The microphone, please. Can you say it on the mic? You know what? We have a finance person. You have two choices, either the operations fund or either the
139rainy day fund. Two places. Rainy day fund. Either two places, either the operations fund, which is typically where buses will come from, or the other choice would be the rainy day fund. Two places. So we have the funding? Well, those are the only two places where it could come from. Operations fund is typically where it would come from, operations fund. But I guess what I meant, have we budgeted for this? No, we have not budgeted for it. Okay, that was my question. No. Thank you. Can I just point out that our fleet is an aging fleet. Almost 50% of our buses are over eight years of age. A third of them are over 12 years of age. And the maintenance costs are skyrocketing. And at some point in time, it's got to get addressed. Okay.
140Thank you. Any questions for anyone else from anybody? Yeah, one other question about the maintenance because that's been a, well, I just, it's probably not a question you can answer right now unless you happen to know. What is the cost of the maintenance that we need to do? Because I know the buses are getting really old. I can pull that number and get it back and get back to you on it. At this obsolescence of the buses, parts are breaking down. Warranties are off for most of the buses except for the newer ones. And it's a challenge. It's a challenge. I have two questions to that, Mr. Peterson. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You got my driver brain going. I'm sorry. The parts you mentioned, is it getting harder to find the parts too? No. We
141made a choice. Let me say this. Propane buses are now only manufactured by Bluebird. International has left the marketplace. Thomas built buses have left the marketplace on both that they don't make compressed natural gas vehicles and they don't make electric anymore. So we're pretty much captive to Bluebirds, which is the lion's share of our buses. Internationals are less expensive. Parts are readily available, so therefore the cost is less. And Bluebirds are a lot more expensive. Just to haul a Bluebird bus to get warranty repair, we gotta go almost to Fort Wayne with the bus. So, and then my last question, just a simple question. How many buses do we have? Yellow buses, we got 49. We have 13 white buses. We've been able, fortunately, to buy some newer white buses through some of the grant
142money in special ed and at CTE. But those buses largely are used for McKinney-Vento foster kids because they don't have stop arms and stuff like that. They can be used on those routes, but we try not to. Anymore. Thank you so much. We're finally done with you. Thank you. Thank you. I have a couple of questions. I have a couple of questions on page 48, Office of Human Capital Recruitment. Yes, ma'am. Your second bullet point, topschooljobs.org. Could you explain that? Topschoolsjob.org is an educational website where teachers go in and all administrators. So it's just the hot spot for educational job vacancies. So we won't be using Indeed? Yeah, our Nimble software actually, the platform that we use, actually automatically posts jobs to Topschools, Indeed, and all those other things through Nimble. Thank you. the April
1432nd recruitment day, invited all current Kelly substitutes. Would anyone within the district that has a degree would be invited to that? Not just Kelly? We're going to have another event just for our district staff because we're also looking at recruiting our teachers and developing a Grow Your Own program in conjunction and partnership with Gary. schools, school city of Gary, East Chicago, as well as Whiting. We meet maybe once or twice a month to discuss with Calumet College starting a program where we ourselves as educators and leaders with a certain predetermined amount of years of teaching experience can actually teach other teachers to help bridge those gaps in our vacancy. So at a later date, there will also be something for our staff. And we're also going through our staff to see who has what. I've
144made a couple visits to some people that did not know who I was walking in their classes or walking into their offices or where and I say hey I hear you got a degree in so and so how you know? It's my job to know. You ever thought about teaching? And so it's different when the superintendent comes and sits next to you and talk about the beauties of a district that you are already in. We have plenty of staff members with bachelor's degrees here in school city hammond who don't sit in classrooms and so we are approaching all of our staff members um to even go through that a lot of the piece of that is about support you know we like to hire people and drop them and say hey you're a teacher Now
145teach. Doesn't quite work like that. So developing a program for our new teachers and our EPs, those with emergency permits, where they will come to our district office once a month to receive training on things like lesson planning, classroom management, assessment, different things. And I think I feel safe enough to say this in this setting, but I've been in a couple buildings and seen some great work. And so I've tapped into one of our... veteran educators who is one of the best that I've seen so far amongst many here in the school city of Hammond and Miss Rena. Morgan has agreed to help lead our new teacher academy for us. It's not just about recruiting because the research shows that the issue is not just getting people, it's keeping them. And the number one reason
146why teachers leave is lack of support and money. And so if we can solve one of those problems, maybe we can close some of these vacancies. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Enhancing student success through therapy dogs. If I understand you correctly, we're going to start it at Edison and Jefferson. Yes, ma'am. In the past, I'm just throwing this out here, there's been issues when we have pilot programs that is decision always made by zip code. And some of the other schools never get to participate in these types of incredible programs. So to start it on, I'm going to use the term that's already been used, zip code, and everybody knows what that means. I'm sort of taken aback, and I would just hope in the future when we have these kinds of... programs that we would
147consider all of the schools at some point. Yes, ma'am. Because when you make the choice, it's just obvious. Absolutely. Let me see if I can help clarify that for you. Those two locations were actually chosen because the handlers are already in those buildings. And so it's for convenience that they're there. And a big part of piloting a program is making sure that you have all the pieces together and you can work out all the kinks and then go through that assessment and figure out what's working and what's not working. And so the goal absolutely is not to something like a therapy dog program. I actually have a therapy dog. My 14-year-old had a liver transplant when she was 2 years old, and we got her a therapy dog. Now it's my therapy dog. Because they
148just wonder if you've never experienced being in the presence of a therapy dog. They're wonderful things. And so to your point, yes, absolutely. Because what I don't want to do is start something, one, that we can't carry out, two, but making sure that it's, I also don't want it to be isolated to a certain group of people. Like you say, zip code. Not, yeah, not under my watch. And so you're welcome. The literacy and I read, I see percentages. Could we get the numbers, not today, the actual numbers of students that are affected by this that didn't pass? Yeah, later. I think it was mentioned in the presentation that because the test just happened. The percentages are always sort of screwed into here. And I have to go back. I know it's going to be
149on your, all of this in some way is going to address what we've been dealing with over the years, bullying within our classes. This all sounds wonderful, but we do have distractions. Students, or some students, they just don't want to learn. And how are we addressing? students the bullying situation where a teacher just can't get control of that classroom and oftentimes we've said in the past they had a little aid you know I know that's money we got to look at our we got to get our forecast and see actually where our dollars are going and how they're going to be spent but you know we got to address even on the state level some of the laws coming out they're addressing bullying if we don't do something about it we can lose funding so
150I would like to see that somewhere in this Absolutely. The Thrively program actually could help us out a lot with that. We know a lot of students don't know how they are alike or what their strengths are. They're struggling with just fitting in or even learning who they are themselves. And so we have to understand that the concept of bullying. comes from a place and it's up to us to discover where that place is coming from so that then we can make sure we're solving for the right problem and providing the student with exactly the service that they need and not the service that we think they might need. And so this would help us with bullying, but also there's another piece to that that I'm just gonna be honest about. Whereas our discipline codes
151and making sure that not that they're there because they are there but are we actually doing what we have on this paper? Making sure that these words aren't just living on paper and that we as the adults in the situations and I'm not going to say this group of adults or that group of adults. I'm going to say all of the adults in charge of teaching and learning and our roles in that are abiding by our district's code of conduct. making sure that it looks the same that a student is at Annie Byrne Hicks and they coughed the wrong way and they got suspended for three days and they coughed the wrong way over at Lincoln and they didn't get suspended at all. Making sure that there's alignment and consistency not just in instruction but
152also within our discipline policies. But my focus is... pretty much on how do we support these students and show them what's strong with them as opposed to what's wrong with them. A lot of that is perception and helping our students learn who they are. Because here I am, 44 years old, just popped up in a brand new state, and I'm learning a whole lot about myself. And so it's a process. Teaching and learning is not just what we do. It's a process. And so it in... it encompasses everything that we do, even our social-emotional learning. And so, yes, Thrively is one way we can do that. Thrively also has a really strong CTE component to it that will help us out with students and careers. It will help us out with advisory periods and what
153students are doing during those times. the high impact teaching strategies also will be a way to actively engage students in the learning process and the teaching process because as it's been said tonight the students are teachers as well and so how are we engaging our students so one sit one issue is multi-layered is why we say making sure that we develop a system that actually holds that thing that work thank you yes ma'am any more questions I had a question, just an acknowledgement. Yes, ma'am. I love seeing the systems work. Everything we've seen has been great, so thank you. Thank you so much. I'd like to thank my staff for that. You guys have been very patient, and you've seen my mood swings, and I've walked out of meetings and paced a little bit, and
154it's a lot. And so I know that I'm coming into a situation where you all have been here and gone through it, so there's a sense of... urgency for you all. There is also a sense of urgency for me to provide you with the answers and the structure and the systems that you need. It's just I need to do it right. And so I want to go slow so I can go fast later. And that's what this is. And just to show you all that we're doing that. Can we go to the next slide? Please. Thank you. Here's where you'll find my superintendent's guarantee. This is what you can expect from me as a superintendent. I have a moral and professional obligation to define, to develop, provide, assess, and continuously refine the systems that effectively
155serve and support the school city of Hammond's staff as they provide our students with high-quality teaching and learning experiences that guarantee that when they leave us, they have the skills. needed to read, write, compute, think critically, and have the social-emotional intelligence required to access meaningful post-secondary outcomes so that they can move on and become positively contributing members of the local Hammond community as well as the broader global society. That is what I can guarantee you. And so I ask for your grace. I ask for your patience as we work through this. It's a lot, and it's an onion, and every layer unveils a layer. And when I can breathe a little bit, I get... I find another layer, but it's fun work, it's great work, and I work alongside great people doing the right work
156for the right reasons. And so I'm excited about what's getting ready to happen in the school city of Hammond. I'm excited and proud about what's already happened in 30 days, a little over it. And so I also want to thank my board for bearing with me. I thank you for bearing with me. This is a journey. But we're going to do this. We're going to do this. And so before I close out, just a quick little activity that I did with my principals when we met. We want to talk about growth in itself is painful. Change is painful. Nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don't belong. And so where we are now, we seem to be in a place. And so let's get unstuck out of that place and let's just. Think
157past the pain and keep pushing towards what we know we can be and what we can become because Hammond was it. Hammond was it and Hammond is going to be it again three to five promise you that. And so what you hear behind me is my theme music. Baseball players have walk-up music. When they go to the mound, they have music playing, and that music defines them. That music tells you who they are and what they stand for. And so when you listen to the words of the song, she's saying she's here to fly. She's here to win. She's here to fight. She's here to survive. And you just need to get ready for it. So I'm going to let you let that sit down while we change this over and get ready to leave.
158and just listen to this. We still have public expression. She's like... We only have three. Oh, go ahead. Okay, first public expression, Josh Craig. Come on down. Good evening, Superintendent Reed, President Blake King, Board of Trustees. I have not been speaking before this board in a number of years, but I rise today to actually address a very specific group of people. I want to address my fellow teachers here in the School City of Hammond. What we heard tonight was the theme of restoration and elevation, and I've long enough lived in the School City of Hammond to remember a time where what I hear about investing in each other about focusing on Tier 1 instruction, about building a coalition of teachers in support of our students, it reminds me of the master teacher who brought me
159in. The Nate Fores of the world who taught me the ropes. And I just want to say to those teachers who have been getting my emails all week and who maybe are a little bit hesitant, they're not sure. I get it. I do. For me, and I will only speak for myself, this feels like the Hammond I remember. And I want to be a part of that. And so if you do too, I want to encourage you to consider participating in the Teaching and Learning League. I'm really encouraged about what this could mean. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, Cindy Murphy. Cindy Murphy. I have one four-letter word about the presentation tonight, and it is hope. Thank you. So with this presentation, I liked it a lot. But one of the things, when you bring
160it back to everybody, I like to see measurable goals. I like to see where we're at with data, because with the data... We have a lot of successes here in Hammond where you can point out, wow, that fifth grade over at Harding, how are they doing so good over there? And can it be put into another school? Summer school liked it about the enrichment at the middle school. And I want to tell you. Trebuchets, not catapults, because they're more accurate and they're a better seeds machine. And it ties into Science Olympiad, which wasn't at any of our middle schools this year. So you will already have students trained to go do that event for Science Olympiad next year. Science of reading. I love it. We should never have left phonics. Four out of five kids
161had phonics. One kid had whole language. And you can tell the difference on where the learning experience was. Recruitment for teachers. I've been talking about this since Dr. Watkins was here. We really need to visit those HBCUs. We can't keep going to the same schools that are predominantly white here in Indiana. We need to get out of the state and start going to the schools where the people there, the graduates, look more like our students. Now back to what I was going to talk about. At the last board meeting, I had a wonder and awe moment. There was a young student from an elementary school who talked about Katherine Johnson. And I was like, wow, he picked a woman who went to NASA, and she was calculating the trajectories for space missions. And so the
162restoration has to be getting these things back into our school, because my kids went to that period of time. When we were great, we had Science Olympiad, chess, Legos, we were going to state. Scott Middle School taught three foreign languages. Summer school, it was in six weeks of enrichment. And some of those kids went six days a week in the spring because they love school here so much. But we have no zip code envy anymore, as the song goes. It's a true thing. There's no school you can pick out and say, that's what I want to go to, and that's what I want to do. So for that young man... This is why I'm demanding and I'll be here meeting after meeting. I want to make sure that when he gets to high school, he
163has the calculus and the physics. So he's calculating those escape velocities. So that's my dream for him because last meeting he did so good. I don't have any time for the rest of it tonight. So until next time. Thank you. Last but not least, Wanda Puckett. First of all. I'd like to thank the presentation of all our students put on tonight. This is the first time we have students coming out to the school board meeting showing off their talent. And I loved it. It's been a while. This school board looked nice when it's filled up like this. Now, Frick and Frack. I love your presentation, but you left paraprofessional out of your presentation. We have kids in school that is artistic, because I know I got one, okay? They need one-on-one paraprofessional. Please add those
164pearls into y'all. Ms. Pluckett, you have to speak to me. Oh, please add. Those pearls into your planes Because we love our kids especially those one with the IEP. I got one. Okay, I can speak on it They need the help The teacher in the classroom cannot do it by herself They need that IEP follow-through Consistent if they need that one-on-one, let's get these kids to one-on-one Should nobody have a classroom with not enough parents in the classroom? We need this. Our kids have meltdowns. I call them meltdowns. They might need some time just to go out in the hall, a cool down time. If we got the right help and the right parent in the classroom with them, they can get that. We don't want to overwhelm the teachers. That's what I'm saying because
165you got the teacher in the classroom You are actually overwhelming the teacher without even parents in there to help them I know what we can go through because I'm a parent and a grandparent You got your hands full So let's get some parents in the classroom so our teachers don't get overwhelmed We got a lot of good teachers that is working with our kids and love to teach you all they ask us for is some help Fred Fred Add them in that budget. Add them paraprofessionals in the budget for those teachers. We don't want to lose the teachers. We want the teachers to stay. I'm speaking to the board and I'm looking at the board, but I'm also pointing over there at that table over there too. Y'all understand where I'm coming from. Come on,
166Frit and Frat. I think you're cheating. Let's get this down. Thank y'all. Thank you. Thank you. That was our last speaker. Well, the hour is late. The next agenda item is board announcement. The only thing I will announce today, I'll save it to our April 15th meeting. Since all of our principals are here, you know, April 16th, we are on WJOB. That is your time to showcase whatever's going on in your building. I don't think we have anything set up yet for April 16th. That's a Wednesday. We have to be at WGOB by 8.30 a.m. The show starts at 9.05. So anybody out there want to showcase anything that's going on in their building or with their teachers or whatever, let's get that to our superintendent and her assistant secretary so that we can get
167that on board. Thank you very much. So nothing else to address? Do I have a motion to adjourn? I saw Mr. Salinas. No. I'm good. Sorry. Go ahead. Yes, ma'am. Move. Yeah. Move.