001Testing one, two, testing. Good evening everyone. Meeting to order. Um if we will everybody stand and Dr. Ward's going to say our prayer and our pledge for us to get us started. Please join me in a moment of prayer. Dear father, we thank you by many blessings. We thank you to be able to gather this evening. guide us as we make our decisions that affect everyone in our school system. We continue to ask you to bless and protect our military, our first responders, our teachers, those people who may be suffering and need comfort. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Attention. Salute. Pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
002All right, Sandra, if you'll call the role, please. Kim Shazo, here. Sherry Tolbert, present. Kathy Brown, here. Steve Ward, here. Jason Daniel, here. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for being here. Welcome everyone. and y'all come on in. Um we are glad to be here tonight for our May meeting. Um I will y'all have all had an opportunity to um to look at our agenda for the evening. Um I'll entertain a motion to adopt tonight's agenda. Motion second. Second. Um any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carried. All right. Uh Lisa is here. Yeah. Lisa is our city council leazison. Come on tell us what's going on with the city, Lisa. Oh, nothing. just anything. No, I do want to let you know because of Memorial Day, we did move city council
003meeting to this Thursday. Workshop will be at 5:30 and council will follow at 6:00 if you would like to come. Also, I want to give a shout out to our first responders, our storms that came through on Sunday morning. You know, Trustful was hit pretty hard. Um, our public works people were out all weekend trying to clear our main roads first as we develop a a plan to get out into the individual neighborhoods. I know several neighborhoods have a lot of debris, but I do want to give a shout out to first responders and public works for the great job that they did and continued patience as we move forward with getting the large amounts of debris removed um from your front yard or wherever that might be. So stay tuned for that. Also, I
004do encourage you if you're not on textmygov.com, which is our communication system the city has to let you know, give you alerts on things like um power outages and um storm damage and that type of thing. Go to trustful.org and sign up for that. It's super easy. It's a text message. You can sign in and sign out as much as you want um in that process. So I encourage you to do that. And then also uh Memorial Day, we have the um Veterans Association is putting on a program at Veterans Park at the Fallen Warriors Monument at 11:00. If you would like to come by and visit with that, it should be um spectacular. It's always a great show of why we have Memorial Day. So, I thank you for this update. Unless there's any
005questions, we'll get on to what everybody came here for. Thank y'all. Thank you, Lisa. All right. Um Dr. Martin, I'll turn it over to you with some great recognitions. All right. Good evening, everyone. We have three recognitions this evening. The first one, I'm going to ask two very special students to come forward. Uh, Lilianne Campbell and Conrad Jones, if you join me here in the front. [Applause] So, these are our two national merit finalists for Huitt Trustful High School. And and just a couple of items that I put down. In order to be named a national merit finalist, both of them had to perform well on the PSAT, which they did. Uh complete a detailed National Merit Scholarship application, and have their academic re record, letters of recommendation, and SAT SAT scores reviewed. Uh last
006year 15,000 students were named national merit finalists out of 15.5 million students in the United States. Uh we anticipate another 15,000 this year and both of them receive the scholarship which knocks that 15,000 students down to 2500 for the entire country. So out of 15.5 million students in the United States, these two were two of two 2500 students, which I think deserves an applause. So, and Lilianne, you're going to go to the University of Alabama, correct? And then Conrad, you're going to Dartmouth in the fall. Is that correct? anything any words of wisdom you'd like to bestow on future students who be will be taking the PSAT or um who will be trying to be a national merit finalist. What are words of wisdom or advice? That's right. That's right. Seriously, question I have. What
007are your plans? What do you plan to study at Alabama and what do you plan Conrad to study at Dartmouth? Right now I'm majoring in accounting with a minor in natural sciences. Okay. All right. Well, congratulations to you both and congratulations to your parents that are here. So, great job both of you. You got a picture. Okay. All right. Thank you both. You guys Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you'd already take the picture. All right. Thank you both. All right. Well, is that time of year where we get the opportunity to celebrate our mountain bike teams, both of them. Come on in. We have our high school team and coaches coming in first. The HT Mountain Bike team won the 2025 Division 1 state championship. Uh, congratulations to the riders and coaches on an undefeated
008season. As I was looking through this, um, I I wanted to share with you the course that they had to ride in order to win. It is by far the toughest course. It is the most grueling course, 23.2 mi and all other divisions, 17.4 miles, featuring several steep climbs and uh varied terrain. So, this would you guys agree this was the hardest course that you had to ride all season in order to win the championship? I'm going to turn it over to the coaches here in just a second, but most improved riders for the race, two seniors. We had Noah Williams who moved up eight spots and Noah Clark who moved up five five spots from their last race finish. Congratulations to them. Coach, can I turn it over to you for a few words
009about the team? Okay, absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Martin. Well, thank you all for taking the time to recognize these these kids. They've worked hard for the past six months. Uh it's been a long long season. Uh we had some some challenges along the way, but they pulled through. Uh like you said, undefeated, won every race uh this season. This is their sixth state championship in 10 years. Um we have 24 kids on the high school team. We're the largest team in the in the league. Uh middle school, high school combined, we have 49 kids and 23 coaches. So uh anyways, they did fantastic. Um and uh anyways, thank you guys again. Sure. Absolutely. So, uh, we're a little under reppresented because of other school activities today, but, um, present coaches and present athletes, we have
010Ray Mock. Uh, we have Guy Jones. We have state champion Evelyn Lai, JV1, individual state champion. Who do we got over there? We got Bailey Odell. We got Aiden Wardell. We've got Conrad Jones, Eli Leighton, Cade Williams, John Tusco, Jack Smock. We have team uh director and school liaison Rhonda Britain. We have the great Greg Williams. And we have Shayy Bryant. And and coach, I know a couple of us have been asking about are are there plans for maybe a course here in Trustful so that you could host and we could come out and and see everybody compete. Has there been any discussion on that? All right. Okay. All right. All right. Yeah. I I uh I anticipate me needing to put on some jeans and boots to help you with creating that course. Is
011that what it sounds like? Fantastic. All right. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, congratulations on a job well done. Thank you. [Applause] Yep. Coach, I'll have you go this way so that you guys aren't closed. Congratulations. Great job. There you go. Thanks, guys. All right. Congratulations. Great job. Great job, guys. Congrats. All right, coach. Thank you. And you're with middle school as well. Okay. All right. So, entering the room, we have our our middle school team, different school, but same Husky story here. The state champions for the middle school division in mountain bike. Correct. So, congratulations them. if we can give them a round of applause as well. The league awards the race and the season at this race. Um it's a 7.8 mile track throughout beautiful hillside of Tanahill State Park. Um let's see. It says Tanah
012Hill is the perfect end to the showcase for the riders for their hard work throughout the season with a lot of climbing. Would you guys agree there was a lot of climbing on this track? Okay. All right. Our most improved riders for the Tanahill race are Hayes Florenoi. Is Hayes here? Okay. Who moved up eight spots? And then Alex Wyek. Is Alex Okay. Not here either. Coach, tell us a little bit about the team, please. All right. So, the middle school team, we have 25 riders on the middle school team. Um, almost undefeated. Had a little hiccup on that last race, but they got second. Um, but that said, there's only been three middle school state championships ever in the history of the league, and they've won all three of them. So, [Applause] um, we
013had two individual state champions. We had Isabelle Garver, 8th grade, and we [Applause] had Lynwood Jones, eighth grade, as well. So, we have the same coaches here. So, we have Ryland Spence, we have Logan Odell, we have Pate Williams, we got Eli Moes, we got Jude Lai, we got Riley Higgins, Isabelle Garver again, we got Madison Anthony, Balam Munoz, and that's it for the riders. Um, again, we got a lot of kids running and doing other activities this afternoon. So, um, but anyways, thank you again. Uh, they've worked they've worked three, four days out of the week for the past six months non-stop. Coaches, too. It's been a long season, but we got through it alive. So, thank you guys very much. Thank you. No problem. And then squeeze in each. All right, no pressure,
014but we're going to look forward to seeing you next year when you win another state championship. So, congratulations, [Applause] guys. Thank you very much. Congrats. Great job, Coach Williams. So good. When I run, you know, got okay. Oh, I'm up. Sorry. All right. Next is Mr. Kirkland with our financial report. Sorry, Mr. Kirkland. I got distracted. I was just happy with mountain bikers. I was the door holder. Um well um board members uh Dr. Martin we're pleased to present the monthly financial report for the month of April. Uh all bank accounts have been reconciled to the general ledger. Uh the extract has been uploaded to the state department um of education with all necessary edits corrected. Our total expenditures and transfer out uh for the year are at 53.8% 8% of the budget compared to
01553.98% of the budget this time last year. Uh Avalor revenues are at 88.47% of our budget uh and uh about 2.9% higher than receipts uh this time last year. Um receipts are expected to u meet or or just be right at budget. um projecting it out through the years. So, I think we'll be fine. And uh as normal uh upon board approval, the financial report will be posted on our website for public review. Thank you. All right. Next is um the consent agenda. Have y'all had an opportunity to review those? I will entertain a motion to adopt the items listed in our consent agenda. So move. A second. Second. Um any discussion? Dr. or anything. There are there are a couple of items that I'd like to to bring the board's attention to. Uh the
016first item under consent agenda is item number six, which is a letter of agreement with Baptist Health. This this is a supplement or a they're going to come alongside our current PT services um which is ATI, but this this will allow them to support Trustful City Schools in this first year. and then we'll see what our PT services look like for the next year moving forward. So, this look at this as a supplement to our current service. Um, and I feel like we get a lot out of this. Um, both Mitch and Cody are uh true assets to uh to Huitt Trustful High School. That next item, I want to make sure that the board members uh pay special attention to item seven, which is traffic study with S and Associates. This was done last
017week. So, it's a recommendation for approval in a rears. Um, we we are looking at softening traffic at Huitt Trustful High School, mainly the road as you go into the high school, maybe a speed bump or speed hump there, as well as an additional one as you go out to the light on uh Husky Parkway as you're exiting the campus. Uh, going down, you'll see item number 13, the 2526 parent student handbook. have had this on the um agenda for the month of April. It sat on the table for the month for review and so we bring that final recommendation to the board of education for approval. Uh same with you at Trustful High School school fees. Item 22, ACE tree service. Uh we have worked pretty extensively with the Trustful Building Commission. Uh this
018is for service over at uh Huitt Trustful High School. We are looking at removing a few of the trees as well as thinning them back quite a bit, but we did not want to move forward without working with the tree commission first. And so I feel Mr. Kirkland feels that we've received their blessing in moving forward with this process. So, um, I I just want to make sure that board members here, while they're removing some of the trees or scaling back on some of the trees on that campus, which is beautiful, just know that we did that in conjunction with the, uh, the tree commission for the city. Item number 24, approved beverage contract. Uh we for the last couple of cycles have worked with Coke as the officials drink of Trustful City Schools. We
019were approached by Buffalo Rock uh here recently um Jim Kirkland, Coach Walker, and myself, and they have proposed doubling what we were to be provided by KO uh as well as providing some other services. And so, at this time, we would like to bring a 60-month uh recommendation for approval for a contract with Buffalo Rock for all of their uh beverage services for Trustful City Schools. So that's part of this consent agenda as well. And then finally, we have facility use agreements, field trip requests um as part of consent agenda as well. So that is the consent agenda for this evening. Okay. So back to the tree pruning, that was also part of safety recommendations too, right? It was. It was. What we're seeing is that cameras, our SRO's are having a difficult time seeing
020through limbs and whatnot. Um it's just time. It's it's a beautiful campus. uh love how much nature is out there on that campus, but we do this is part of the management of that of that campus. Okay. Any other discussion? All right. All in favor of approving the items listed on the consent agenda, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carried. Next is personnel. Dr. All right. Under personnel, uh members of the board have that report there in front of them. The first item under personnel are resignations and so board members have an opportunity to see those. We uh item number two do have a recommendation for um a few of the resignations of a supplement. There is one generally we don't discuss a lot of the names with personnel but I felt
021like this did warrant um highlighting this one individual and I would ask coach Tanya Hunter if she would stand at this time. Um, I gave you a heads up that we'd ask you to. So, um, Coach Coach Hunter has been a staple in girls basketball in the state of Alabama for a long time. Um, and I would say that I love the fact that both Cedric and Jordan are here, too, because this truly has been a family affair. Um, Coach Walker, and I'm going to ask him to speak here in just a second, uh, had a conversation with Coach Hunter about maybe expanding the scope of her role, and instead of being the coach of young ladies, would you be a coach of coaches and ask if she would step in and support the athletic
022department um, and work as an assistant athletic director? When he first approached me at a soccer game, I said, "There's no way that's going to happen in a million years." Coach Hunter is a girls basketball coach, but I think to support family and support daughter who's a tremendous athlete who'll be playing at Memphis next year. Is that right, Jordan? Okay. And had a tremendous year um at Auburn this past season. Um you know, this gives an opportunity for Coach Hunter to uh support our athletic department and also support Jordan. So, Coach Walker, would you talk just a little bit about the successes that Coach Hunter has had over the course of these many seasons as a girls basketball coach? Yes, sir. Thank you. I want to thank Coach Hunter. I've really enjoyed working with her
023over the last eight years and looking forward to continuing that. A few things about our girls basketball program. Uh, Coach Hunter has led our team to three final four appearances where the state runner up all three times in 2019, 2021, and 2024. And I think all of us that were at those events and saw the the community rally around the team is something that we will never forget. She's led the Huskies to the Elite 8 times and we won four area titles under her leadership. She was the 7A coach of the year in 2021 and she sent countless young girls on to play college. One of them Dr. Mark mentioned Jordan who will be at Memphis. You know we don't wear a lot of blue around here. We wear we will wear blue for sure.
024And I also want to thank coach Cedric Hunter who has been by our side every step of the way and has helped us tremendously. The other thing Dr. Mark didn't mention, you know, that relationship has stayed in between coach Tom Hunter and referees. Coach said, but what I've seen working with coach Hunter is just the impact she's had on the girls and our girls basketball program has been a tremendous impact. So, I see this is this is a way for her to impact now across 23 sports and all the students that we have. I'm really excited to work with her. Thank you. Yeah, I'll watch. [Applause] I I love it because when I talked to coach Hunter on the phone earlier and told her I was going to ask her if she would stand so
025we could recognize she was even coaching me saying now let's not make too much of this. All right we're not going to do this too long. So she was already coaching me as superintendent in that conversation. So congratulations coach and we're excited to have you in this new role. Um moving back to the personnel report we have a couple of retirements on here as well. Um, I don't I don't see uh I don't see Mr. Posey, but I do want to make sure that we mention what a wonderful asset he has been to Trustful City Schools as our transportation supervisor. Uh, we have a few amendments as board members can see to salary schedules for some of our employees. One recommendation for a leave of absence. We have several recommendations for employee extra services agreements.
026We have contracts for assistant principles and I would like to go through our assistant principal assignments for next school year. We do have Dr. Maggie Jensen who will be assuming the assistant principal role at Magnolia Elementary School in the fall. Don Kilgore who will continue to serve as assistant principal at the alternative learning center. We have Dr. Corey Hall who will be stepping over to Payne Elementary School as an assistant principal. Uh Mr. Ed Lane will assume the role of associate principal at Hwitt Trustful High School. Aaron Maguire will continue her service as assistant principal at Hwitt Trustful Middle School. Angela Patix continue her service at Huitt Trustful High School. Mr. Goodwin Scott will assume the role of assistant principal at Huitt Trustful High School. And then Kelly Shirley will continue her role at Payne
027Elementary School as an assistant principal. We have a few recommendations here uh that I bring to the board of education for nonrenewal. We have recommendation for five transfers reassignments for the 2526 school year. We have recommendations for employment. A couple of those individuals are here this evening. I'd like to uh to introduce Trey Stowe who's in the back. Um Yep. That's right. That's right. and his lovely wife. And let me just say this. I'm very proud to have Trey coming here. Um, some folks think I named my fourth son after Trey. That's not the case, but I did steal Trey from Vestavia Hills, and it feels really good, Trey, to have you come to City School. So, yep, it's good to have you here. We have a couple of other new uh employees coming as
028well. Aaron Piper sitting to her, yes, sitting to her left is Aaron Deck, who will be stepping into our special education department. So, welcome Aaron. Nice to have you joining us also. And then, Kelly Mcu, would you please introduce who you are bringing to Trustful City Schools as a new employee? My daughter. Yes. Yep. Yep. So, congratulations All right. So, second generation here, Jordan Hunter. I want to make sure that you heard that loud and clear. No pressure. So, I have recommendations for stipens and then one recommendation for a long-term substitute. And that is our personnel report for this evening. Okay. All right. I'll entertain a motion to adopt the items listed in the personnel report. I'll make a motion. Second. Second. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor of adopting the items listed
029in the personnel report, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carried. We get back to my agenda. Okay. Next is new business. Dr. Martin. All right. First item that we have for new business is an information item and that is a certificate of affirmation and congratulations to Kathy Brown who will be assuming another term as a board of education member and we are thrilled. So Kathy, it's so nice that you're here. I appreciate that. I really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you to the city council and thank y'all. I love working with this board. It's a great group of people and uh it's an honor. So, thank y'all. All right. Thank you. Uh second item that we have under new business there, similar to what we did with the high school, we have our
030middle school fee sheet. Uh this will be the first reading of that fee sheet and then bring that back to the board on June 9th. Um, and so that will need a motion and approval if the board so chooses. All right. I will entertain a motion to place the fee sheet on the table. So moved. Second. Second. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carried. All right. Thank you. The third item that we have here is to place on the table the 2526 salary schedule with amended job description title updates. This is something that uh Mr. Kirkland and I have been working on really since since I arrived looking at our um our our our salary schedules making sure that they are competitive and I've asked Mr.
031Kirkland if he would give just a little more information on that for us. Thank you Mark. Um like Dr. Mark said over two years ago we contracted with a company other name to do a compensation study uh for the district. So, we started with our 23 24 school year salary schedule and they went out to neighboring districts and and began comparing uh our positions to their positions and and seeing where where we were competitive and where we were not. Um and so they they came back with a recommendation uh of how we could fine-tune our salary schedule. Um and so we had several goals in in in what we wanted to look at. number one, become more competitive with our neighboring districts. Um, develop a salary schedule that was similar to the the platform that
032the state department changed to several years ago. Um, help our support staff by adding additional steps to some of their salary schedules. Uh, but as always, stay within a set uh um financial constraint. Um, so the salary schedule that that we're putting on the table tonight, um, we feel meets all those goals. Um, I would like to point out, um, that at the point in time that we started our salary schedule with neighboring districts, most of them were starting a salary schedule with us. So, we were all kind of going through the same process. Um, that to say, a salary schedule is always very fluid. And so, you know, ours has been pretty much what it is for many, many years. So, it every three or four years, you have to take a major look
033at it. And because we want to stay competitive, we have phenomenal teachers. Um, we want to keep them and we were we were having some situations where teachers were leaving us, going to other districts, and and we got to put a stop to that. uh we want to keep the teachers that that we have because you know we value each and every one of them and and hopefully the salary schedule will go a long way in doing that. Thank you. And Mr. Kirkland, we looked at several Wouldn't you agree that just about every schedule was was reviewed and and the majority of those were adjusted to be competitive? So, not just teachers, but all of our schedules in this situation. All right. And that's more of an information item than it is an action item.
034Okay. So, we're not putting on the table. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yes, that one is. I was looking at the next one. Okay. All right. I will um entertain a motion to put on the table the 2025 2026 SC salary schedule. So, moved. Second. Second. Any further discussion? Thank you'all for all I mean that's that's been a a big we've been working on that for a while and doing surveys and doing working with people. So, that that's Thank you'all for for doing that. Um all right. Um, all in favor of placing it on the table for 30 days, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carried. All right. It's this next item that is also an information item. Uh, evaluation process. So, board of education, if you recall, contracted with the
035Alabama Association of School Boards for evaluation of both the CFO as well as superintendent. And so, we have information related to our goals for the school year. And in June, AASB will be here to review the evaluation product. Okay. And with that said, item 13, election of board officers. This is where I will turn it over to board of education uh council Whit Coleman. Thank you, Dr. Martin. So, state law provides that a city board of education will elect a president and a vice president at its first regular meeting in May. We call that the the annual meeting by law. And so each year in May, we go through this process. So this is the first regular meeting in May. So we'll need to proceed with the election of a president and a vice president
036of the board. Dr. Martin has asked that I preside over the elections for these offices. And I would ask that uh President Kim Dezo designate Sandra Vernon to serve as clerk for election purposes. Certainly. Um we will observe Robert's rules of order in conducting the election. So nominations will be taken uh from the floor for both offices. Under Robert's rules, no second is required to make a nomination. Of course, the same person may be nominated for more than one office. Elections will be by roll call vote with an with a yay vote of a majority of the full board required to elect a candidate. Are there any questions before we begin nominations for presidents? Okay, hearing hearing no questions. If not, then nominations are now in order for president. Dear board members, I want to
037s sincerely thank you for the outpouring love and support during this difficult times following the loss of my mother. I'm especially grateful for the beautiful flower arrangements sent by the board. Your kindness meet more than words can express. After much reflection, I've come to the decision that I am not able to serve as the president of the school board at this time. This is my deeply personal and emotional season for my family and I need to prioritize being present with them right now. With great confidence, I would like to nominate Dr. Steve Ward to serve as our board president for next year. I trust he will be dedicated and he will lead us in the right direction. Thank you for your understanding and support. Thank you. Okay. Well, we have a nomination for president. Are
038there further nominations? Uh, hearing none, then the clerk can now uh call the role uh for the vote. Kim Dezo, yes. Sherry Tolbert, yes. Kathy Brown, yes. Steve Ward, Jason, vote yes. I'll vote yes. Jason Daniel, yes. I want to thank each of you very much and Sherry, thank you for that great testimony. I appreciate that. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. I'd like to add that uh being nominated and for being president is quite an honor. Of course, very humbling. Uh, I look forward to working with each of you as we have every years over the years, but I can only hope to maintain the standards that have been set by Kim Kim Dazzo, Kathy Brown, Bill Roberts, Sid McNeel, and others I can't I can't name at this time, but it's it's I appreciate it
039very much. Thank you. So, we have a new president. So, congratulations, Dr. Dr. Ward. Um, so we now need to take nominations for vice president. Those nominations are now in order. Um, I would like to nominate Sherry Tolbert to serve again as vice president. Okay, we have a nomination for vice president. Are there further nominations for vice president? Hearing no further nominations, uh, the clerk can now call the role. Kim Dezo, yes. Sherry Tolbert, yes. Kathy Brown, yes. Steve Ward, yes. Jason Daniel, yes. Congratulations. We have a vice president. So, congratulations to both our new president and vice president. So, now it is time to pass the gavl and the president can now uh the new president can assume uh to preside over the rest of the meeting. I would like I would just like
040to say thank you all for the opportunity to serve as the president these last two years. It's been an honor. It has been it has been a journey. It's been fun at times. It has been hard at times, but but I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve continue to and can look forward to continuing to serve on the board. So, thank y'all. All right. We do y'all want to I'll just pass it over. We won't have to switch seats. We have official This is This is the most important thing. There you go. You pass this pass this on. Let's go back. Uh, have we confirmed board secretary? Is that the next item? That's the next item. Confirmation of board secretary. We will need to do that to confirm the board secretary and the board secretary
041is uh by law is Dr. Martin. And so that doesn't require a formal vote, but we do need to make sure that it's clear in the record that Dr. Martin will continue to serve as the uh executive secretary of the board of education. Okay. All right. We will continue to administrative reports. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Ward. Um we have one administrative report this evening and that is our teaching and uh learning team that is led by Dr. Puy uh to talk with us about Amstai. Good evening. So last year when we took on some reorganization and a variety of things, we really looked at our test scores. We looked at ways we wanted to improve and we noticed that we have some outstanding work going on in creating a math curriculum that's been going out
042to our schools, but we still need some support on that to make sure that we are always getting the most up-to-date information and teaching our teachers to the best of our ability. So, um, tonight you're going to hear from Amst, from Cynthia Wyman, from our ladies, and from our teachers about the support that Amstay has given us this year and how we're going to continue in that manner. So, thank you, Miss Leechman. Good evening. I'm Katie Leechman. I'm the director for Frammste UAB. Uh and this is Katrina Hugley. She's our assistant director. Um we are both uh fairly new to our role. So I um about seven months ago, I guess. Um moved from being a mass specialist with Amsty. Uh Katrina in February. um she came over from her role as a science specialist.
043Um and so what Amstai is is Alabama Math Science Technology Initiative and we work with uh K12 schools in Alabama. Um we have regions all across the state. We're region five. Um and what Amstad does is the best way we describe it is kind of a three-legged stool if you think of it that way. We provide training for the teachers. um and that is pedigogy um uh around their instruction and it's also that content understanding um I always kind of relate it my husband's a firefighter and he is the uh director of EMS for his department and he can get the training he can read the textbook but where does the best learning come from and that's on the job right in when he's out there doing it and from the experts around him, his
044co-workers. And the same thing happens with teachers. Um, so we not only provide that training, but one of the things that stands out about Amsty is then we go out into the schools and we have math and science specialists um and they go into the schools and work with the teachers and help them to implement that training that they've they've gone to and and implement it in the classroom. Um the other aspect of that is that we also provide all of the materials that they will need to teach their content standards effectively in the classroom. All of this we are a state funded grant so it is free of charge right that's always a wonderful thing. Um if you have noticed over the um this past year our math scores in the state went up.
045We are on the move. Um, and a lot of that, um, we've gotten to be a part of, um, a huge part of that, uh, and that is working with math coaches. Um, all elementary, uh, schools will have a math coach in their building by the end of of 2026, 2027. Um, and one of the main things that we get to do is work very intensively with those math coaches. We have a coaching academy that they come to. they get to come to those trainings and then we work with them to to um incorporate coaching cycles um into their schools. We know that we can't be there every day, but they get to be um and so we work with them on how do they they take that knowledge that these teachers get um and
046make sure it's implemented in the classroom and they feel feel supported doing that. Um so that's one of the um really it's been an honor to get to do that and we've really enjoyed it. Um, and I'm going to see if I can do this. Uh, click forward. So, we are a, um, STEM initiative. Um, and we do do provide training for math, science, and then also for digital literacy and computer science. Um, and I'm going to, this is kind of what I I talked through a little bit of that three-legged stool. um where we provide the professional learning, those instructional materials, and then that ongoing educator support right there in the building. Um this is a a menu of our services. If you go to our website, which is amsty.org, you can see a
047list of all the different professional learning that we offer. So, these are trainings that we have scheduled u for our K5 math teachers. These are happening this summer um and are open to all teachers. These are the 612 courses that we are offering this summer for teachers and again when they attend these trainings we then can come in and support them in the classroom uh the following year. These are our K12 science training and we have added some additional training to this which are available on our website as well. One of the exciting things is that we've gotten to collaborate um and really provide some training that's not listed here because it's exclusively for trustful teachers. um all of our our training um it once these are um what we call Amstai for all anyone
048can attend but we also have content training which is narrowed down to meet the uh course of study uh standards and the content that's specific for those grade levels for both math and science. Um and before teachers can attend that we have a math foundational training that kind of covers that uh base understanding. It also uh addresses the uh math teaching practices. Um and and that is which are K12 in our uh standards, the Alabama courses study standards. Um and so they attend that math foundational training which then makes them eligible to attend any of the content trainings. Same thing for the science, we have a science foundational training. So what we've had the opportunity to do with these wonderful ladies is to um collaborate. We have um already hosted a couple of those trainings
049for trustful teachers and we have uh let's see five math scheduled uh for this summer I believe. Is that right? Five uh for trustful teachers alone. Uh and then uh four of the science uh foundational trainings scheduled for trustful teachers alone so that we can get every single teacher foundational trained this summer so they're ready and good to go. they can attend any of the trainings that we have to offer. Um, and so we're excited about that. They've already registered. They're on board. Um, and so it's it's been a great start and that will get us ready for all of them to to uh attend content training. Um, Cynthia has done an amazing job. We've had a a great uh great opportunity to get to work with her and I know she's going to share
050a little bit of what that coaching looks like uh in the classroom. Well, I I want to thank Miss Leeman for being here and I know she's here on a Monday night because she knows if we have the full district support that that's going to result in more teachers getting training which is going to then result in us producing more problem solvers and great mathematicians and not just increased scores but a better trustful and better Alabama tomorrow. And I just want to thank you for that. And you may be saying, well, how do you know that about her? Well, that is because Amst has provided me with 104 hours of training this school year alone as a math coach so that I can be better support for teachers that they've given me that training. And
051when I was a classroom teacher, I took advantage of Amstay's training and um just saying Conrad Jones was in my math class going to Dartmouth doing physics and math and but in all like seriousness that we are asking trustful teachers to do a lot. We're asking them to take every student in their class and wherever they're coming in at whatever level that is and whatever learning exceptionalities they may have. And we're asking these teachers to grow them to their maximum potential to prepare them for the future. And that can be overwhelming. And Amsty gives them the training. This is not just something else for the teachers to do. They leave, you know, I don't know if you noticed their slogan, you know, learning by doing. They train the teachers and the coaches the same way.
052So you leave empowered to do that. And it's also a system of support. So when they feel they need support, they have me, they have AMSI, and that's just a system of collaboration that if I don't know, I have people that I can ask and I have a mentoring specialist and um we're all better working together to give our teachers the training and the support that they need. And I'm just very thankful. But I don't want to take away what you're about to hear teachers in the classroom say about their training and how it's been impactful. And you're also going to see um some students participating in some learning that has resulted from the training and a video that was created. I don't know. Are we supposed to do it? Yeah. We are working with
053numberless word problems. And so I have this word problem that I want to think about and we're going to try to put it into a order of operations problem using a numberless list expression. We can do that with variables or with the words to describe what we're trying to do. Okay. AMSI is an acronym that stands for Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative. And it is basically a big umbrella organization in the state of Alabama. an initiative that um supports math, science, and engineering teachers with um basically resources that help us learn science or learn STEM through doing STEM. Obtuse is bigger than 90°. What else? There's a there's a like a definition of a trapezoid. It only has something. How How do you tell it's different than a rectangle? that that it has to
054have one side of parallel lines, right? It has one pair of parallel sides. This one and this one will never ever ever ever ever ever meet. So, we generally start with some kind of a hook or investigation to get the children excited about the topic. So, you're going to do area. So, you want to do something to get excited about area. And then, as a teacher, you start to guide them on that journey. Again, if you were going to the Grand Canyon, let's pretend we've just gotten to the park. And we're at the park now and I've got to tell you what some of the rules are. Don't feed the animals. Stay on the trails. I'm your guide. I'm telling you what some of those rules are and helping you discover what those rules are.
055Manipulatives, a lot of concrete work with hands-on. And then as we go further on, it's my job to help you determine your own paths. Are there other little places? Do you want to run down to the river? Can you Are there two ways to get to the tree? are there five ways to get to the tree? Um, and so that children learn more and more different ways. To me, Amsty really, really helped that with me. That was really a turning point. I would go to training with them and I'd be training with another adult and we would both be solving a problem. Always in a different way. Always in a different way. And it really made me realize I was brought up thinking that there's one answer and there's one way to get that answer.
056But that is totally not true. There's still usually one answer, but there's five, six ways to get there. I thought math was boring when I was a child. Now I think math is all about creativity and problem solving. And that's what I think is great about the Amsterd. [Music] There's five class. So is that same or different? That's the same. So there's five for each. I'm going to put five and five showing that both have five. What would you like to share? Both of the boats have um wings. Both of the bugs have wings. So you use the word both so that I know that that means same. The chance to let them show their thinking and that especially with the number talks. There's an entry point for anyone. Even if it is them just
057starting out with saying they noticed the wings look different in the number talk I did. And it's fun cuz I always sit and look at those number talks and try to predict what they're going to say and they always come up with something I don't predict. They always come up with something new and different. 5-year-olds, first of all, I think we forget how much 5-year-olds can do. They can do so much. We don't always give them credit for what they can say, think, and say, and do. Um, but it's it's so important on all grade levels, but 5-year-olds, they've got to touch it. They've got to feel it. They can't just know that five is three and two. They need to take that shake and spill. It could also be four and one. It can
058be five and zero. And that zero is a number. That is an amount that and they have to touch that and feel it to understand it. They it they they need more than the abstract. They need that concrete. They need to build it with their hands. More they touch it, the more it comes into their head. MSI math uh has just really changed the way that I teach. So, it's more about um learning the why behind the content and so having that strong conceptual understanding than just delivering the content. I think it's so easy as a teacher to just worry about making a lesson engaging or getting the content in. And Amstai really breaks down why are we teaching the way we are and those best practices so that we can deliver the content in
059a challenging and engaging way that allows the classroom to be more student centered. You have the photo album and you're going to have to add the beach and the hiking pose together. You're going to have to time of that and then you'll be able to buy two. Yeah. I love it. I like how some of y'all fit too and some of us have scrapbooks, right? Because we we already know there's two scrapbooks. Um Amst has been great. Uh they have a lot of really cool labs. You know, they have a lot of really awesome resources. One of the biggest things that I really appreciate about Amsty is the professional development that that they offer. Um you know, a lot of a lot of PDs that you go to can get kind of boring and dull
060and you just end up getting talked at for for 8 hours. But with with Amstai, especially with science, they do a really good job of incorporating the labs that you're going to be working on, the the kits that they have. You get to actually do the labs. They talk you through it, talk about some common misconceptions, talk about some issues that they typically see in the labs. And so, um, it's just a really awesome resource to have. here at the high school. I I can speak for the science department in that um we use an organization that falls under AMSI called Alabama Science in Motion and it's another acronym ASIM. We use Alabama Science in Motion. Basically, it's a regional um expert in say I use the ASIM physics expert um on occasion, especially in
061my AP physics 2 class and I basically will schedule that person to come to Huitt Trustful High School on occasion to support me through uh lab equipment that I may not have in my class. So for example, we do um an electrostatics lab with a vandagramraft generator and the Amstai or the Amstai ASIM expert comes to you at Trustville High School and helps me with that lesson, helps me with providing equipment to do um a hands-on highlevel college level lab with that equipment and also can provide laptops and software that we might not have at the high school. What AMSI helps children realize is how many different ways there are to get an answer. One of the things about AMSI and learning math through different methods is figuring out what your brain does the best.
062But the one thing I don't skip on any day is my number talks because they get so much out of it. That is um a huge part of their day. As you can see, they were super excited about it. They love number talks more than anything. And it's hard to get them to stop. we are working with numberless word problems and so I um in conclusion I just want to say that right now thank you so much for coming um we're excited about this partnership to continue uh at the elementary level we have about 65 to 70% of our teachers that have already gone through the foundational piece of math and science training our new teachers coming in are have already gotten this training. So, that's exciting. They're not going to have to have that.
063They can go straight into the content training. So, that's exciting. And thank you for working with me this summer. I'm excited about training the rest of our teachers who need it as well. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us again. Thank you. Um for our secondary, um we have almost all of our middle school teachers um have been trained in foundational math and science. Um same with our high schools, I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for providing professional development to our teachers that is also teams approved. So our teachers are not having to go out and get nine additional days outside of um outside of what they're already doing for professional development. They can use this professional development towards their team contracts. And thank you again to Chad Summers
064for putting this video together. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, I'd just like to thank Dr. Puy and her team for this initiative and partnership and I think it's going to be very beneficial to our students going forward as well as our staff. So that is our administrative report for this evening. Seeing we have no public participation make a motion that like to entertain a motion that we adjourn. All in favor please say I. Second second all stand. That's it.