State Board of Education, March 13, 2025

001e it's right good it's that third party auth my computer just let me in oh I CH testing yeah these are my people great good morning everyone welcome to the March State Board of Education meeting we appreciate you all being here today we will take a moment of silence to begin thank you we're going to start this morning we have a student from Batesville High School a senior who had a really amazing moment this year um Kylie Montgomery thank you so much for coming today thank you to her family and others from the Bates School District to come here and and share sort of about your sportsmanship and and what you've done and how you've LED this year we appreciate you all being here so I I think what we're going to do is is

002ask uh Kaye and I don't know if the athletic director or someone to up and introduce the story and tell us a little bit about the celebration and why we want to recognize um our young scholar athlete for showing some tremendous heroic effect come on up I told the coach I was going to put him on the spot and I think you begged me not to but now now he's here I didn't realize this was happening no Kaylee is a sweetheart as youall can tell um we are at the state cross country meet um in Hot Springs so this is the last meat that you'll ever run okay um and like I said she's just a great kid and she no she's not going to compete for winning the state meet but she wants to

003get her personal record that's what she always strives for is getting her personal record and uh she's in the last stretch the last hundred yards or so and um she sees a girl drop and we'll I'll let her tell what was going through her mind but uh she she picks her up and help I mean this girl is dead weight and helps her carry helps carry her across the line and I'm watching this and it was so crowded I only see a little bit of the race so I didn't see her actually pick her up but I was like Kaylee should be coming across now she's she's on track she's going to get a personal record and then I see Kaylee carrying a girl or or helping her up and uh I was like that's

004that that's that's Kaylee I mean no I'm not sitting there surprised at all that if somebody's going to pick her up this girl would um and I'll let her tell her story but real quickly and I told one of the newspapers um Kaylee plays basketball for me too great kid and uh we had our senior night the other night and I gets a little emotional uh with girls and I told him after the game um that Kaye makes me want want to be a better Christian that's the kind of character we're talking about when we talk about this little girl so I'll give it to her come on [Applause] out so as my coach was saying it was the last like stretch and I was just running on usually I was telling as I told

005everyone uh the last like stretch I usually just try to kick it in and I don't know what comes over me but I'm able to push it to the very end and I usually look up to the finish line but as I was looking up I saw the girl to the left of me and it was just I had no second thought but I was just like I have to help her so I went straight to her and as coach valer said she was dead weight like I could barely I was trying to get her arm around me but she was she could barely stand up but I was able to say Lord give her strength and she was able to stand up and get her arm around me and start able to take a

006few steps and it was difficult because um I was also tired myself after running almost 3.1 miles but as I was helping her she um I kept praying out loud for the Lord to give her strength and she was able to start running on her own and I was honestly just kind of there as a little bit of support so I I've told everyone else I don't want any glory to come to me because I honestly didn't even help her at all because the Lord is the one that gave her strength to get up in fin cross that finish line that's amazing that's amazing we we always start our meetings um highlighting amazing people in the state and you need to be highlighted for your leadership and your kindness and in that moment thank you

007for for sharing that too um I'm excited to see what's next for you and where you keep going and how you keep serving and and helping others you know teaching is a great profession to do that great PL well and I thank you for coming because I think um we've probably your humility is Honorable so I know we've put you I feel like maybe didn't a comfortable spot um but boy we really wanted to celebrate you so thanks for giving us that opportunity and also Kay you know thank you for letting everyone share your story and talk about it so much because it really is an inspiration to everyone to just a reminder of selflessness and how courageous it can be and what a difference it can make and I I I'm I'm moved by

008your story I really really appreciate you not only doing what you did but telling it to other people too even though I can tell you're quite humble and maybe it's uncomfortable but it's wonderful story thank you my microphone is well done I mean that is amazing uh it's not often that anyone much less uh young people you know give of themselves so selflessly so we're so proud to know that you're in our community I mean we need more people like you and then I'll also look at your parents and say wow I mean I'm guessing these are your parents didn't know that for sure but you know well done for you too I mean uh you must have a sense of Pride and uh not one of boastful in a boastful way but you know

009what an incredible young woman you've raised Kaye do you want to introduce your parents this morning oh yes um this is my dad Rob Robert Montgomery and my mom Amy mcgomery and then that's our athletic director do Smith and Coach fer Stan fer awesome do you want to share what your plans are for the future um I plan to go to our community college um at uaccb for two years um get my associates degree and then I'm praying that I can transfer to aate to get into their Radiology program to become an imri Tech wonderful thank you for sharing and being with us today you're welcome young lady you are normally I always have something to say but uh right now you know uh I'm just taking uh well done it's amazing U we're very

010proud for what you've done and what you're going to do thank you yeah I just uh command you so often we let our personal Ambitions get in the way of the greater good and you're just a great example of humility and service and thank you I don't know that I can say anything that hasn't already been said but just thank you for sharing your faith so freely and openly I know that's hard a bunch of adults that you don't know um but I just I commend you for just your work ethic and your heart um and I feel like if anybody from aate is watching that you should get a scholarship so I'll just like that for you might make some calls I think you should make some calls um I'll just second that I

011mean just awesome job I I do want to give your coach a shout out though so often um coaches are judged by wins and losses and the record um when we both know or we all know that our number one job is to teach young people how to do right in life and and be ready for the game in life rarely do we get to see that uh take place in the middle of competition and that that's because of the culture you've created within your program and also having a great young one like this right here so I'll I'll uh also add Kay thank you for sharing your story we're proud proud of you I almost feel like um this story is going to be a Netflix special a one point and one day we're

012going to celebrate your actions and and the character that you demonstrated I think often times as adults as coaches as parents as athletic directors school board members state board members our our hope is that um we're building character in in our students and life is kind of funny because you don't know how you're going to respond to adverse situations when they come across um across across you right in front of you whether it's in competition or whether it's walking down the street and when you are faced with a moment it it's a true Testament that your character showed that you are being taught the right values and it is a b was saying um it's a testament to the coaches the quality programs at Batesville because you know we we always talk about student athletes

013and I'm always super proud of our student athletes because they got to thrive in the classroom and then above and beyond the work that they do in the classroom they got to prepare themselves to be able to compete at a high level so even making it to a state championship is something to be celebrated while you may not have hit your personal record or went home with the first place trophy I still think you're the champion in all of our books so congratulations we're really really proud of you thank you absolutely thank you so much again for coming in today and for all you as well it's great yeah that'd be great if we could get a picture with you with thank you we'll come down to you is it in the way do I

014need to move it okay not thank want two I'm good you good to see you happy New Year it's been a while that was great it's great to that we can have a platform to get good stories out there and to share amazing students and things like that don't happen often so amazing that we could celebrate that today and hopefully because of that we'll happen more often um in that case with that we will'll move on to our action agenda I don't believe there are any changes to the agenda are they okay well then we will start with our first agenda item the Ashdown school district is requesting a waiver for their superintendent and I see Miss Debbie great house on Zoom here this morning good morning hope Oram assistant commissioner for public school accountability

015I'm bringing to you a waiver request from the ashtown school district um it's a request to wave standard 4-b point1 which requires a license superintendent uh to be in place for the school district the reason the district is requesting this uh waiver at the moment is because their their superintendent um had to uh vacate that position in January I do believe um and they have an interim and that person is not licensed at the moment however and they do not intend to seek ler because that is not their future path um and ashtown is currently seeking a superintendent so this is just to get them through the remainder of the school year um and that person is serving in that capacity and she's here today to speak if you have any questions thank you Miss

016great house would you like to speak um I think we've kind of told our story on our application but I'm happy to go through it with you if you would like for me to go but I think the most important thing I want to tell you today is we have hired a full-time certified superintendent um he will be coming on board on July 1 he's not going to leave his current school um so now I have two certified superintendant that I'm working with daily uh my previous superintendent Mr Nichols and my uh newly hired superintendent Mr Robert P uh from Prescot um I have all of my Co-op superintendents that are helping me um Mr Benny Weston director of our Co-op um lots of help have been offered and very graciously accepted well thank you

017for sharing through that and I know how long have you been in the district I've been in the district for 34 years I've served in a variety of capacities um however Administration was never my uh desire I liked working with kids um but I have been served as de of students for parts of two different years uh when we had administrators who became sick or ill um I've been Federal programs coordinator now for like 14 years I've worked extremely close with Mr Nicholls um I've handled all aspects of uh accreditation and accountability um budgeting um uh that's why Mr Nichols chose me uh to uh fill in this role until the district could have someone come on board um it was the least amount of disruption to our campuses to allow our administrators to stay

018in their current positions rather than full one off a campus this is testing season coming up and our campuses have very good plans in place uh for student achievement and we wanted that to continue very smoothly um uninterrupted and so I uh agreed to take this position well thank you thank you for your many years of service to the to the state students I'm going to open it up for board member questions I'm board member of Miss war of Miss great house to my left Mr well your the application for the waiver uh says that you're the most knowledgeable employee in the district with regard to budgets Personnel policies practices accreditation accountability you're extremely competent organized and pay close attention to details you got my vote I I hope that the next three and half

019months in ashown are the most successful three and a half months in the history of the school district for you and I hope you'll take all the credit for whatever gains your District makes in achievements I appreciate that but it's it's a very big team effort Mr R have a question I um also wanted to comment and just say the district is very fortunate to have you step forward and take this role for several months and it's a like you said it's a during testing and it's very busy time of year and uh I really appreciate you stepping forward I did notice that your school board was unanimous in this decision so I always feel um great about that as well so thank you again thank you four members to my right questions or comments

020is that anything else Miss waram no okay we will open the floor for a vote move to gr the waiver there's a motion by Mr wood to Grant the waiver is there a second second a second by Miss Rollins all in favor say I I any oppose motion passes thank you the second river request this morning comes from the Heber spring School District um it is a request of to wave standard 4-f point1 and Arkansas code 62104 um both of which require a certified library media specialist um in in this particular request the heaper Springs School District has been under this waiver for the past 3 years they have advertised for um the position and have received no applicants and so they felt like um since they have not received any applicants to this point

021in their efforts to recruit that they would want to come request the waiver to continue offering library media services in the capacity that they have been doing in the past three years um and I do believe we have representative from the district online um if you have any questions thank you um hubber Springs School District do we have anyone present yes um I'm Rita Lee assistant superintendent and our high school principal Shannon Martin is here as well thank you if you all could share a little bit more about why you're requesting this this morning you want to talk um so we currently have a par professional that has been overseeing our library and um maintaining it's used by students and teachers we have had the job posted since before Christmas and we've had no certified

022applicants for the position I think we we've had some internal interest in it um but library media is kind of like GT we also have an opening for that that had a hard time feeling but for library media there there's coursework and a practice exam required and all the people that internally were interested in it already had a master so getting the additional cour work wasn't going to move them up on the pace scale um and so they you know opted out after that um I'm not we have we kind of have a hard time recruiting teachers around here it's a great it's a beautiful place to live and we have great students and a great school but it's kind of an expensive area to live the cost of housing is is kind of high

023and so we we kind of run into that problem frequently here we open the floor up for board member questions to my left questions Dr Arnold yes uh could you comment on the duration of the waiver request is five years to uh not optimistic enough for finding candidates we certainly will keep it posted um my plan is just to keep that up um just in case we do have someone the PA of professional that we have in there right now if we by chance got the waiver and then we had someone apply that was certified we would move them into that position and just move the parpro into another um place in the district um it doesn't have to be for five years if we if we need to do three again that's absolutely fine

024too but um I just I I just put five as the that's our other waivers were for five years so I just did the same thing but we could certainly go less if we need to and we will continue to look we just I tried to recruit our former librarian that retired several years ago and she she didn't want she didn't want to come back to work fulltime she would do part-time but she didn't want to do a full-time job well I certainly understand the precedent of the five years so thank you for that I just hope it doesn't um reduce motivation Miss k um yeah so you said there was a pair of professionals in the role currently um can you talk about her progress towards certification she's not working towards certification at all

025she um has no desire to go back to school or anything like that she's been a long time I think she's probably been at the District 25 years at least um but she's just she fits into this role very nicely it would be good if she if she would do that but she just has no interest in doing that um and then you mentioned that the other internal candidates that were certified with the Masters um did not seek the position because it would require an additional Masters in the current pay scale they wouldn't receive additional pay who sets the pay scale for your District who's excuse me who sets the pay scale like who set that limitation that prevents you from hiring that sort of teach well the board of educ our our school board

026approved it but we and we do we do have a bump up for Masters but she all the people that were interested are had a master's so they're already topped out on that line item and um they she they thought it would just be a testing out thing that you would take the practice for library media and then you know that would that would be all but there's foror I think 30 hours of for work required for it thank you thank you so how long has the district been without um three years I believe is what what we've been wa you and tell me what's going on in neighboring districts with regard to this position um to my knowledge the ones that are around us kind are in the same situation that we were when

027ours retired like they have someone that's um been a long time employee just hasn't retired yet so I don't think they've had to try to find anybody new um and we we're kind of in our surrounding area we were the only one that has a separate middle school so we have to have three Librarians and that just makes it makes it hard for you know us to get someone we we lucked out last year Middle School our person retired and we had an elementary teacher that did not have a master's already and so she wanted to do an Alp and that you know kind of killed two birds with one stone for her it gave her master's pay U plus the bump to the library that she wanted so um well I yes I'm I'm

028I'm concerned because I I agree with you that hebra Springs is a wonderful place to certainly to visit I've never lived there but to visit I think it's beautiful and I can't imagine that it's hard to attract people to want to live in that beautiful part of the state um I I my encouragement is to double your efforts on this and and and to talk to your board about increasing the pay for that position to make it more competitive and more attractive for candidates I I personally given that it's been three years now and I think that I would be in a position to oppose this long of a waiver I I think I would go to a onee at a time plan at this point um and and hope that that would be an

029encouragement for the district to I I'm not I don't I don't say this in a position that y'all haven't made effort I don't know um but I just to to do everything can because I I I really can't believe that there's an excuse for people to not want to go to Heber Springs it's a it's a wonderful town so um anyway that that'll be my position I'll support a one-year waiver Miss Hunter and then go back good morning U I'd like to go back to one of the uh opening comments did I hear correctly that this position has been posted since Christmas right to so PRI prior to Christmas so has it been posted for three years or did it post just shortly before uh this application for waiver we posted it before Christmas because

030we knew the waiver expired in June and so I think it was I think it was around the 1 of November that we posted it for this time but no it has not been posted the whole time for three years yeah so I I'll just Echo um Mr Wood's comments um regarding the length of the waiver request particularly in light of the fact that it's you've been on waiver for three years and you know as that waiver was expiring then you attempted to to post uh as opposed to actively working during the entire uh waiver period but uh so I would agree U with I think I would go along with a one-year waiver over a fiveyear waiver for sure okay see I uh understand what the pair professional would do as far as their

031routines but what specifically would be shifted to the ELA U teachers what are those responsibilities they are taking on the research piece of it that the a traditional library media specialist would do um they are all handling that in their class room and and honestly when we had a librarian um they were still doing that because we were on toone school with Chromebook so it was just easier for them to handle research in their classroom without going to the library you know back and forth to do that so they're taking on that um she handles the prayer professional that we have in there now handles the technology um checkout or if um she had she does all of our Chromebook maintenance and and keeping up with that tracking that with students um and she takes

032care of the library check the book you know checkin and check out procedures okay and they've been doing that now yes yes they've been doing that for a while four members more questions Miss K yeah I wanted to follow up on something um so I'm concerned about the par professional um I feel like she's made a choice if she's choosing not to pursue the additional certifications essentially pulling herself out of the running um by denying the opportunity to meet the legal requirements regardless of their validity and um how strict they are she's choosing PA professional pay so I'm concerned that we're continuing to put someone in that position that has such high requirements um because of the importance of that position and they're choosing not I guess to have that growth mindset um and that

033we're putting additional burdens on say classroom teachers or ELA teachers um when that is supposed to fall based on requirements and laws and that kind of stuff so um that is of concern to me I just need to express that and um I'll turn it over yeah Dr Moore just I'd like to add to what I've said earlier I used the motivation word and I just wanted to comment that if I were the superintend received a five-year waiver filling that position would be the last thing on my mind and so I would also reiterate the recommendation of no more than a Year's waiver I noticed on your application um we have I will say we have strongly suggested districts when they're coming for a waiver that they've already held to give us data as to

034the effectiveness of that waiver I noticed that not only is there a lack of data or any detailed information you also clicked on the box the purpose of the waiver is to promote Innovation is that true and can you speak to why you have sort of no information as to the success of this position I know again it's different than if we were asking for a math teacher science teacher waiver but this is a position where students um in 9th through 12th grade you know deserve the opportunity to to go to the library and to get the those skills I think as far as data I really don't know what kind of data we could provide other than our Ela you know scores have been good and our kids are getting we're meeting all the

035standards we're still teaching all the standards covering all the research piece um and the library you know of course is still open and available for checkout or study time or anything else like it always was I think we have seen such a decline over the last several years in students wanting to go get a physical book in their hand you know they if they they consider it reading I'm still old school I like to have a real book but the majority of our kids that read for enjoyment or outside of the classroom they do it on their phone or they have you know an audio book that they listen to at night on their computer or something and so we're not seeing the volume of kids we still have that in elementary that that's still

036going strong in middle school is better but in high school we just don't have the volume of kids that we used to have coming in and out checking out the books but you know we we still are are handling all the um standards and covering all those um just like we did before when we had a librarian I appreciate that but I also hear even more so the need for Innovation and that we need to be doing bigger and better things to get students in libraries in front of books and doing that and so you know we we take each case in consideration individually but we also have to think about what if we had 260 districts come to us and say we don't think the high school librarian position is necessary anymore then that

037that's a different case and I'm I'm not here and you say it's not necessary but I'm hearing you say that um it it's minimalized because your classroom teachers can do it um and that that's a greater conversation I'll stop there board members other questions or comments actually I do have a question of Miss moram and this might be premature but I know there is legislation proposed around lure but this this is not a ler waiver correct this is a this is requesting um to to to not employ a position that is required okay that is require requires a certified staff member yes so it's not we have any other waivers like this for some other Physicians so the requirement for school dist districts to have a library media specialist is a legislative requirement and it's

038in our standards and so for standards of accreditation this district is asking to be wav not to be required to have a library media specialist that's that's what they're they're waving you are correct there is a law right now about ler that people will not be able to come and wave ler requirements so if they were that's not what they're asking for here this is a position do we know how many other districts currently do not you have waved the library media position at the high school level do you know it up I don't know the numbers I could find it okay Madam chair yes Dr AR I'll be bold um it's only March so if this motion doesn't get a second I do understand but I would move that we not Grant a waiver

039to this request second there's a motion by Mr Arnold to not Grant the waiver a second by Miss Keener questions or comments board members okay all in favor say I I all oppose motion passes thank you Heber Springs for being here today I'm sure the agency will be in touch with you moving forward okay thank you next we have the North loer Rock School District for a request for the alternative school calendar yes so this is the same kind of waiver request that we saw many school districts doing last last year um it's a waiver of when they notify the department the type of calendar so North Little Rock School District started the year with a traditional 178 they're asking to move to an alternate calendar to be able to do that they have to

040get the waiver on when they notify us um Dr Jacob Smith from North order rock is here today thank you Dr Smith for coming if you'd like to give some remarks on your request absolutely uh members of the board secretary Oliva thank you guys for having me today um much like last year we've had a winter surge in regards to um inclement weather and the north L Rock School District has been closed for six days this year we're under traditional model and we're actually moving to a minute calendar next year but that did not make it through our ppcs and Community process in order to be voted on for this year and so we're coming before you again to ask that we going forward because we use a 100 minute early release model under our

041traditional calendar we'd like to use those 100 minutes for the remainder of the year a student instructional time as opposed to students being released and US performing PD and things of that nature and so it's not a massive adjustment in regards to our over our structure of our day and our effect on our students and Community but would with this alternative calendar it would allow us to use that time for instructional time to make up for the time that was missed thank you board members questions to my left so what are your start and ending times for the day oh goodness um at each level in fact I we just placed a memo out in regards to that bear with me I apologize yes ma'am start time would not change and so our prek um

042begins at 7:30 and ends at 2:30 Elementary School would be 7:40 to 2:55 Middle School would be 8:15 to 335 and high school would be 8:40 to 410 so tell me again how many minutes you're adding to a day um it would just be 10 additional minutes but we already go 20 minutes beyond what is required each day in regards to instructional time so under a normal I guess requirement it would be 360 minutes 6 hours per day we actually go 380 minutes and so that is how we Bank 100 minutes weekly whenever we go five full days and that is how we do a early release with that banked time but you cannot carry it from week to week under a traditional calendar you can only apply bank time for the particular particular week

043which is why we use that model on a full 5day week because that's how we Garner those 20 minutes how are the students responding to this kids are very resilient and versatile and so they're they're I think there is a push um if we can use that time both on behalf of our staff and our students to be able to get out as close to on time as possible that would be the push from the community and the feedback we've received from the board so you feel like they're fully engaged the whole time yes ma'am other board members questions to my left to my right questions what would be your current end date converting to this model uh May 30th what was your question I'm sorry what what would be their end date by converting

044to this model do you have any outside of spring break do you have any other days off before May I don't believe so we try to keep April pretty open because of the testing window in regards to time off that's kind of our high priority and so spring break ended up the last week of March this year and I think after that we're just kind of in testing mode until we get to the end of the race as far as adding so you will add 10 minutes to every day for the rest the remainder of the school year is that correct how will that work out at the high school level where were those minutes fall for students yes ma'am so we're on a block schedule is the way we are and so it's four

045periods per day and so we would make an adjustment um basically extend two and a half minutes two and a half minutes two and a half minutes two and a half minutes each period okay next year you said youall are looking to to go to the calendar to the minute hours calendar how many days would you plan to have next year uh next year it would be so that was a unique process as well like I said going through the process process of the community and everything um 176 we would only have two additional professional development days um off of our traditional calendar but our prek because of the standards associated with that needs to be open the full 178 okay I've been a vocal crit critic I think of going fewer days of school

046I've also noticed when we're moving to the hours we have to get really particular and I know the agency does about what those six hours are and we need to be guaranteeing the students are actually fully receiving six instructional hours at school can you guarantee that at each level yes ma'am do you dismiss buses early or are those the end of the day is truly the first time that kids are leaving your campus the end of the day as far as I'm aware ma'am okay so you're not cutting short i' I've seen that in practice too where the end of the day is the end of the day for some students but buses leave earlier and I know that's a real challenge but if we are starting to count hours we need to fully count

047hours of kids in seats learning and we don't want to Short Change yes ma'am we were on a three- tier transportation system and so Elementary Middle High there's a 30 minute Gap in between basically when each one ends because we're adding 10 minutes at each level it's not affecting that Transportation process okay board members other questions so you didn't have any buil-in days for snow or bad weather well in your calendar this year yes ma'am we did um at the end uh as required by law you're required to build in five inclement weather days and so we do have that built in um but the ask is is just to be able to use the time we already have applicable so we don't have to extend the year one wish your end I'm sorry May

04830th when were your days when were your built-in days uh it's the last 5 days so May 30th I believe is on a Friday so it would be June 1st 2 3rd third fourth fifth 6th 7th and it would to um meet the 178 days it'd be two additional days is that what you how many how many additional days would you need I suppose so if we are allowed granted the waiver and we use the early release time as instructional time that would make up that would make up 1620 minutes uh which is 4 and a half days and then extending the school day for 10 minutes for the rest of the year would make up the other day and a half so the majority of the time the majority of the time our students

049are already used to because four days a week they are going 380 minutes on a full 5we day and so us keeping that Wednesday day as a 380 minute day is really more of a normal day than an early release the real ask the real difference would be that extra minutes I guess I'm confused so what happens on Wednesdays there's a little bit early release yes ma'am so we under our traditional calendar on every so because we go 380 instructional minutes we Bank 20 minutes a day beyond what is required by law the 366 hours and so every Wednesday we go a full week we have a 100 minute early release day on Wednesday so that we can provide professional development have a data day things of that nature and so that is how our

050calendar is built right now under the traditional model so every Wednesday your kids are getting out an hour and 40 minutes early if it's a if it's a full Fay week yes ma'am okay and you have no interest in filling it like not adding 10 minutes to each day but filling out that Wednesday yes ma'am the ask would be is that under the alternative calendar the board and the ppcs have already approved to use that 100 minutes as instructional so you will go full day on Wednesday now for the rest of the school year yes ma'am okay did you get a lot of push back it was this the first year to do that early release Wednesdays no ma'am we've been I believe this is our second or third year um and the board was

051uh and state board was gracious enough last year for us to do this with what happened with inclement weather and it was actually very positive feedback in regards to the staff but you don't get Negative in feedback from parents around having to you know found child care every Wednesday earlier no ma'am in fact we get more negative comments from our community students and staff as well in regards to having to extend the year vacations trips things of that nature Summer Ball I mean however you want to Define it there's lots of things that happen come June I understand that and but also want to maximize our students learning time and I understand that staff development is important but it's also hard to swallow losing you know doing schedules like that as a parent I I

052appreciate what you're saying but one thing we have to also remember is one thing that does not occur in June is learning 100% it it it just doesn't matter you you can have the you can have the that's right you can have the schools open nothing happens they're cleaning classrooms and taking down bulletin board you can say that in Arkansas but if you go in the Northeast they're in school through the end of June so we need to change that mindset well no they have a different culture we have a lot of schools going to another month not when when when you when you're talking about the last yeah I agree with you but I think that's been our ethos in the South for so long that if we have districts going to different calendars

053we got to stop we got to start changing that and pushing on districts to change that Mike I I would bet anything that the last three days in New York are as productive as the last three days in Arkansas absolutely it just it just a calendar it doesn't matter what it is yeah I think what does matter is the assessment window and you know our assessment window doesn't change I've been pounding the desk ever since I've been up here that we should start earlier in August and end school earlier because no I don't even think learning occurs in May but that's neither here nor there we are starting earlier next year under the alternative calendar microphone have a question ma'am understand your current and this is really just if I'm supposed to know this I

054apologize but in your earlier comments you said that you're banking those extra minutes on those longer days that and but that they can't carry from week to week so how then do you early release on Wednesday yes ma'am so under a traditional calendar you can Bank time within the given week and apply it to that given week but you can't so I can't take 100 minutes and apply it to the next week and add it to the 100 minutes of that week and do a 200 minute early release or like a half day whatever the rules of the game are in regards to a traditional calendar and the way that law has been passed you are not allowed to carry them beyond the week you are talking about so just for my own so it's

055not that you have to have um actually the extra minutes it's just that you have to PL because I think about you've ear early released on Wednesday now it's snow something happens on Thursday Friday so you really haven't banked all those hours so to speak like to me banking is like a pre thing rather than a you know a planned thing anyway thank you I understand what you're saying that I don't really know that I agree with but to your point though but the no would fall the snow weather I understand exactly where you're you know I don't know if it's impl my position is we're squabbling over like three days at this point and he's the one in the district running it so I will defer to what you think is best um it's

056I think I I think I I think we're getting really really specific we are I think I use my platform that we want to continue to send the strong message that learning matters and and seat time matters for students in classes learning and I know that's going to be a conversation up at the capital at some point or should be and so that is my personal I use my position in this time to do that um because I completely agree that adding two and a half minutes to a high school class is practically worthless I don't believe in that but I also don't believe that making them go in June is of any value families don't want to Art culture is that we want to move on to our summer break at Memorial Day and

057I support as a parent as a former Local School Board member I I I'm I'm a strong advocate for that but the problem is that the people on the hill up there apparently don't agree with that idea or the parks and tourism Lobby is simply too strong and they get in the way of starting school earlier every year um but I don't understand that because if you transition vacation time to May and not early August May is when people want to be outside doing things August is not uh but and Memorial Day is the 26 this year so and a lot of districts grading out before then so y'all are going farther than so then I incorrectly spoke then if that is the case then we would be out for that day and so there

058is one additional day yep I I will motion to to Grant a waiver and give you the 168 you can put that down there's a motion by Miss Wood a second um any questions or comments okay all in favor say I I any oppose motion passes thank yes secretary if it's okay I think I'm going to make a comment about calendars if I may we have lost our way in this state by thinking that going to school is not important and even even though we're dealing with some nuances with inclement weather and I'm very empathetic to that having 178 stays of school is our minimum not the maximum it's a minimum expectation in every year we have districts chipping away at that minimum by banking minutes and I get Mr Woods what you're saying is

059adding a week for inclement weather then why are we adopting a calendar that says if we have inclement weather we're going to extend the school year should be built into your school year calendar because we have professional Prof days we have teacher work days we may have to surrender some of those days do we need a fall break and a spring break do we need Thanksgiving off do we need all these days 178 day of in-person instruction is not a ridiculous requirement and our legislature graciously funds 178 days of inperson instruction so we have all these schools that are saying we're going to meet that 1068 hour requirement but we're only going to build a calendar of 175 days or 170 uh I think we just heard 176 day calendar next year and then we

060have some that are going 17 we have schools in this state that have inperson instruction 143 days how is this allowed if learning matters and being in front of high quality teachers matters then we need to do something working with our friends in the legislature to say that this is a priority and that when we invest in our schools to make sure our students have access to a full day of learning that it is at a minimum of 178 days how School District wants to adopt the calendar to meet that 178 day requirement that's where I get them that local control you want to start August 1st you want to start in September you want to go four days a week five days a week some some days go three some go seven some do

061half day some you can figure that out but 178 days of in-person instruction is not a lot to ask for and by the way that's well below the national average so we already as a state go below the national average and then we just kept letting people chip away and chip away and Chip Away we keep seeing these things to try to bring back Ami days I'm sorry sending kid home a packet that says that this is equal to a full day of learning is ridiculous and when I first got here and started questioning Ami days I would get requests from District saying we're requesting to go to an Ami day the basketball team made a state championship we want to send a pep rally to go root for them excuse me that that's that's

062what we mean for a full day of learning so I know we're going to deal with inclement weather we need to be empathetic to our districts but I think as an agency we should take a strong stand that saying we're going to schedule a calendar that has 178 days of inperson instruction should not be that hard thank you thank you Dr Lea I know this is anticlimactic after that but uh I think the national average is closer to 180 dr's Point particularly in the Northeast and we are competing and we need to uh be competitive so I I like that mindset thank you any questions or comments thank you with that we will move forward to agenda item number four requests to approve the Arkansas better chance grants Miss Williams thank you for coming thank

063you board members um before I start I just want to acknowledge board member Lee Keener for working alongside us and really pushing us I think in the past when ABC recommendations have been brought to the board um and I have not been involved in the past several years until recently um but I do think even when I was administering over at DHS they were just brought as a list and I want you I'm going to walk you through the process um of how we came to you today with these recommendations so I want you to see the data that was used um in that process so um I do have the clicker thank you um it on the slides let me get it started it's always doesn't like me for some reason so okay all

064right so many of you know we funded local leads over the past year and a half as a result of the learns Act and the local leads are in communities working alongside Early Childhood as well as other stakeholders one of the things that they did early on in in the first cohort and second and now third is to do a child count but more recently in December they did a coordinated funding request for seats across birth to five so we have seats that are funded through the federal childcare block grant we have some infant toddler contracted seats that are very new we have prek seats we have Arkansas better chance that we're going to talk about in a few minutes that also includes center-based and home visiting as well as An Early Head Start Grant

065so across all those programs the coordinated funding request came in with requests in all of these areas um this is just a cycle map so that you can see it I'm not going to read everything guys I'll try to move quickly because I know you have other items um I think the big message here is there were almost 5 th000 additional seats requested across the state from birth to five um which is more than we have the ability to serve in the office of Early Childhood way more um we will continue to refine and work on this coordinated funding request process as it's very new and I think programs maybe didn't understand it um as our local leads were asking for them to submit some of them were thinking there is no new funding why

066would I submit so we will continue to work on that but I wanted you to just see the first attempt at this was a pretty big request in addition to the coordinated funding request there were lots of board members who asked questions last year and I did not I took note of that around home visiting and all the questions that were raised you also ask us to bring this to you earlier and that's why we're here earlier in the year to ask but my team has looked at enrollment data for the past past three years in Arkansas better chance I was quite surprised as I have not been administering that there were enrollment issues in about 16 programs and when I say enrollment issues I'm talking about significant enrollment issues um there we look at

067at least programs to be at 85% enrollment because if you have a 100 children you would have a classroom of 20 you would probably have to hire five teachers at a minimum for those five classrooms so we acknowledge that there may be a little bit of movement but we're looking for at least 85 and so my team put together data and looked at the last three years we as a result of that data and the coordinated funding request we have are recommending shifts in 277 slots we are taking them from 16 agencies that had three years worth not just one year in the three but three years worth of under enrollment in ABC because it is not fair to children sitting out there who need to be served to have to wait we are also

068proposing um that those be reallocated to 14 existing agencies who did have good enrollment or who have made a suggested change and then three brand new agencies so I'm going to show you slides um about the specifics I wanted you to see the request across the programs so those 5,000 seats about 1,200 of them more for ABC um seats in classrooms and about 66 were for home visiting there were infant toddler seat so they're people asking to serve younger children as well as Early Head Start and our ccdf program um and you can kind of see the breakdown of agencies requested probably up until about a month ago I think I told secretary even Stacy last year that if there were seats that were turned in if you will or relinquished to us that I

069would probably come to the board and suggest that we put that back into the budget because there's been no increase in ABC however the data here is so compelling these programs know the reimbursement for these programs and they're still asking for over 1200 seats and we have a weight list in our child care Federal block grant that we put into place in February so we are at the top we're serving all all the families that we can and so as I go through these slides and show you across these areas and this is just a breakdown by providers and the seats and the totals for each of those program areas um and then just a breakdown by County we looked at counties that are serving less than 40% of the children to make these recommendations

070to you so we did 0 to 40% we did 41 to 50 51 to 70 and 71 to 100 there are two counties in the state that are at 71 to 100 which is real exciting but there are only two there are a lot of counties 26 that fell below the 40% so we looked across these request to make these recommendations all across the state in those 26 counties this is the seat request and the colors represent the lead local lead cohorts so cohort one is that first local lead cohort and then red is the second one and then three is the blue so that's a newer the cohort three is the newest local lead group we also as you're looking at this data you know later if you look at the county level data

071there are programs like you know a co-op that may be housed in one County if they have several hundred home visiting slots those are in that county so you'll see sometimes the request might be lower or higher than what's recommended just know that it's probably a Rel a result and we put a little note there so that you can see it a result of that home visiting going into one area not spread across the multiple counties that it serves but this is in your packet and you guys can look at that at your leisure and if you have questions I'd be happy to try to answer questions about that um there were 16 agencies as I mentioned that we reduced due to low enrollment now we notified these programs back in the fall November December

072they received a letter from our staff and we made that funding adjustment to them then if they serve some additional children we allowed them to do that but we wanted them to know that we are looking closely at this and that our rules allow us to do that I'm not sure what the practice has been in the last few years since I haven't been administering but when I was administering this is sort of the practice that we did we were moving those slots and so we let them know so I want you to know they've been notified um there's one agency that relinquished it's a school district that's serving paying children too and they're combining which is wonderful they're doing a blended program with 10 ABC slots and 10 paying slots maybe for their staff

073I didn't get the details but they relinquished those voluntarily and then one agency requested to move their slots or to allow the co-op to administer those slots so I just want you to be aware those were a part of this and so this is where we are requesting the reallocation and then in your packet you have the full sheet all of the programs that were at full enrollment you know we're requesting those slots to go back to those programs this is just for those 277 that we pulled back in or that were relinquished and where we're making those recommendations all of these are in counties that are 0 to 40% served they're the lowest tier of where children are being served across the state I can tell you they represent across the state there are

074five communitybased providers including two brand new family childcare homes and the homes have we've already looked at their backgrounds they have degrees which is really exciting but they're only asking for like two children or three children which means they're blending funding they're going to be serving paying children and maybe some through our ccdf federal child care which is really probably a better model in terms of funding in early childhood right now so um that is the list um I'm happy to take any questions and again just really want to thank Lee for all her really support and just push um to make us do better be better and to really dig into this data and I know she may have comments about some of the work these are the three new programs that are not

075existing uh Alma primary the superintendent there has been a long pre supporter and has already started a pre on other funding but they ask for slots and they're in the 40% and Below Bright Beginnings is one of the family child care homes um I believe that one's in Carroll County and then little Donna's family home home is in Ed on there Howard County so we're really excited about these three new entities especially these Community Based providers um so this is just a breakdown with the funding allocation and the numbers of Home visiting and so Dr Moore I just want you to know that while it's not my goal to eliminate home visiting we have reduced home visiting in fact because many of those slots that were not being filled were in home visiting so that

076concludes my comment so I'm happy to take any questions from the board thank you board members questions to my right what's the source of are there multiple sources of funding that's a great question so um there's 114 million uh Mr Bragg and 7.5 is a tan of transfer to the agency but the rest of that is State General Revenue it's state General Revenue it comes from the state it's allocated through the legislature and it's part of the original ABC program and then expansion that happened in the early 2000s so do we know at this point if any of the Medicaid cuts that they're talking about will affect our children in Arkansas with this program I Mr Rollins I do not know specifically um that would we are working closely with our colleagues in the early

077intervention side of the house I'm not been made aware of any changes to that but we can certainly ask questions and see if we can get any data on impact I I'm I I know what you're talking about but I have not been made aware of any specific cuts that would impact the children in early intervention and that would be that population that you know are being served through Medicaid yeah it's probably too too early members well I will I attended the committee meeting that Lee ran and she can run a meeting it was really productive and informative to me so a shout out to Tanya and to Lee for their professionalism and their work on this it's highly detailed and you care about each Center and each child so I just wanted to say

078that I wasn't fully clear on uh one of your committee members is concern uh maybe you can comment on that yeah thank you thank you um I'm going to um basically dismiss everything you just said because I Bas I have a lot to learn as the committee chair so I appreciate the compliment but you're you're flat out wrong um so what um I've been thinking about this a lot so um bottom line as a state board member I recommend that we approve this action item um the subcommittee does not and so I want to follow up on that and kind of give some background knowledge um long story short I'm know Dr Sarah Moore I've said it before I'll say it again and um this meeting did not go as well as it could have

079or should have there was a date change the last well that was not um communicated well enough only three committee members were able to come two were popping in and out so when we got to the vote it well that's an addition to myself when we got to the vote it was down to one person um that's of concern um the um attachments were not on the agenda so the members had zero prior knowledge of any of this information so they were given the information they had to digest it all and then make a recommendation in a very short amount of time um that was not ideal um and it means that I asked them these devoted members who care deeply to do exactly what I was trying to avoid by creating this committee and

080that was what you guys wanted to avoid as well when I pulled this from the consent agenda about a year ago it was because we didn't have enough information to sort of blindly approve $114 Million worth of State money taxpayer money um you know when I pulled this it was because we wanted more data we needed to be able to defend our decisions and that is what has happened in the last six months to a year and I was privy to that process I saw how um that that coordinated funding request went I saw the data that came in we asked more questions like she says I pushed um my committee me the committee members were not privy to that information so of course they were like I can't approve this I don't have the

081information so that is um why I recommend approval but the committee does not um I basically have a lot to learn to be a chair um um and uh I ask that you approve this and I ask that our committee members will give me Grace and forgiveness and as I learn and do better moving forward um the other thing if you'll go back to the slide on the three new providers because I'm G push again sorry while she's pulling that up the three new providers you'll notice are level two better beginning providers that's on a six-star system these are not high quality rated providers however sorry guys we get there thank you yes so you'll see on the bottom they're level two out of six I want to watch this because this is their opportunity

082to engage with the state more to increase their better Beginnings level if we come back next year and we look at these levels and they have not increased or perhaps one of our funded programs decreases or they're not coming back with quality scores with great outcomes with high class scores all the things that we need to focus on we will look at that reallocation in a different way and the other thing that I want to say that I need um to reiterate and Miss Williams did a fabulous job doing this um um in a very kind way but we as a board have been approving ghost children funding for ghost children so a program may have initially had I'm just making up these numbers this is not about a specific program but say they had

08320 kids enrolled they requested money for 20 kids and over the years they're now only serving 10 kids but as a board through a consent agenda we kept giving them money for 20 kids that's not going to happen anymore that's why we wanted to pull it last year because we couldn't look at this and say we're doing right by taxpayers we doing right by our kids we are moving in that direction so thank you well I recognize this is not a fawn Fest but um Miss Keener is too self of facing I witness the meeting and it's it the attendance wasn't her fault and um the people that spoke up wanted it both ways explicitly they would say we want our cake and we want to eat it too in that we don't want agencies

084to lose seats and we would like we don't want waiting lists and we would like more money so what's a chair to do with that so I think she resolved it with such a positive spirit and respecting those voices while at the same time anyone that would hear the the uh the transcript would would have rolled their eyes thank you I'm GL I'm glad you're able to be there Dr Arnold and thank you Lee for your work in in Miss Williams um I know there's been a lot of changes in the past two years and it's exciting to see this progress as you all have more information and are better able to serve I have a few questions yeah can you can go first yeah um looking at the program uh you know I I

085really see value in the framework and uh I think it could uh really be impactful the question I have is is somewhat uh preliminary um how I see we got three uh districts uh that were selected what's the is a lottery process what was the determining factor to of selecting the districts yeah so we used a lot of data Mr Henderson to do that so it was using the coordinated refunding request that came in from local leads it was using what percent of the community the children in the in a county is being served and so those new programs now there are existing programs that also are receiving additional allocation but they were all in those communities that were 0 to 40% and they made a request there are some counties that were 0 to

08640 that didn't include a request and so we have work to do there to help communities think about that um so those were the big factors and the enrollment of that program so is it fair to say that with Le's leadership these numbers could be doubled by next year the what's that no um yeah I do see the value in this and uh I appreciate your work with this program and I look forward to the future of it thank you well that was um I didn't mention this part but the part of the the coordinated funding request what is so beautiful about it is this process is that we know that data tells a story and once this data was laid out the story was already written it was like well obviously this needs to

087go to these places so we can look at this list and each one of us be able to defend these decisions and where this money goes so we're gonna keep pushing thank you guys if someone would make a motion sorry question question the difference in your appropriation and in the award amount are you anticipating the possibility of more funding no sir okay I'm not it's what's allocated is not enough bottom line and if there's an appetite for it right now in the legislature I'd entertain it I don't think there is um yeah it's a problem I I believe the answer is the per pupil amount that doesn't that hasn't changed in years is that right uh it changed Dr Moore I think two years ago there was a little bit of savings and relinquishment and

088they pushed it back in right before I you know came back into it and raised it to the 5,15 per child but it it was just a little bit but this is no change over last year no no change over last year by comparison we have districts um receiving 20 over 20 ,000 per student per year so 5,000 is not going to get us where we need to go for K12 students yeah compared to right well miss ker I sure appreciate all your work on this and putting the new focus on it and Miss Williams I know you've worked for years on this there's an old saying we're getting better at getting better so please don't beat yourself up no no no we're not going to accept that at all well thank you I appreciate

089it I'll make a motion to accept this um request for the approve the arkans chance there's a motion by m Rollins to approve the requests is there a second second a second by Mr Henderson all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes thank you board members com I do want to make a comment because um first off Lee doesn't push Lee sh okay but she shoves in the most enthusiastic um demand of excellence and she does that same demand of herself and that's what you saw just a minute ago um I want to recognize Brandy sitting in the room and Brandy and Tanya's team they work this is the first time that we went through a process like this to let data really drive the decision-making process it was new to the entire

090um office of early childhood um and D Miss Keener asked all the right questions to get us to that point do what and some wrong and never um so we we value we value your input we value your leadership I know the oec team has grown and they appreciate this I don't want to encour I want to encourage the rest of you not to do this just let it be Lee right now okay I'm kidding you I'm kidding you no she's been amazing and she's been a true leader in this field and everybody's growing okay and I don't beat yourself up you didn't all the stuff you have you said you did I was like what is she talking about Gary your your comments were astute and on point of what you said um I

091always tell the the literacy and the learning Services team if we're talking to a bunch of science teachers they say we need four science credit and everybody should take physics and chemistry okay if you're talking to history teachers everybody needs government everybody needs this and this is how many credits we need we need when you have a subcommittee full of Early Childhood people they need more money yes they need more seats yes right so when it when it comes down to the decision of what actually happens sometimes it doesn't always meet up right and that's what you saw there that wasn't anything on you okay so I appreciate the work of Tanya's team and I appreciate the work that this board just now recognized of Miss kener and of the office of early childhood so

092thank you thank you with that let's go ahead and do a break before our cons agendas and then we'll do cons agenda and move in straight to reports after that so it's 10:19 we'll come back at 10:25 e e e I mean they make us pull our hair out but we also you're older oh yeah I didn't know right here e e e I know I like arguing over okay with that we will get back together for the consent agenda board members are there any items you'd like to discuss today or pull for a later date from the consent agenda I didn't hear what you just said Dr Mo you're good we're on the consent agenda if there are any items that you would like to ask questions of today or pull for a later

093date and while I'll give you time I do have questions on number report number two Miss sarini I'm sorry I meant to give you a warning and I did not um if you don't mind Miss Newton was always really good at working with you on this report and y'all done a great job of giving us more and more data over the years but I noticed in this report when we're looking at the L your exceptions we have two District with very high percentages of lure exceptions do these lure exceptions include teachers on act 1240 wavers Carly sarasini assistant commissioner educator effective and linger good morning uh chair that does not include act 1240 okay because act 1240s are given to a district or a school not an individual and so but we're very excited because

094that may change soon and then we will be able to track them okay I notice strong had 68% of their teachers with license or exception waivers in junon City at 47% I would bet those districts probably don't have a 1240 waiver for lier then that's correct okay so they you know still have they and therefore those teachers are required to be on a pathway correct is that correct okay yes and most of them are Alps which is adding additional ler plan that means a person already has a teaching license just not in that particular area right okay thank you sorry to call you up but and I do appreciate how you have given us such better data over the years to get a better picture of what's going on and I I think it would

095be also a good time to mention we talked a little bit about our Workshop yesterday about the progress for following track some bills but there's some proposed legislation that I believe already made it through House Education committee and Senate education yesterday that's going to really look at teacher LIC and stop would actually flip the narrative where we're we're getting away from waving lers as a blanket school or a blanket district and put every teacher on their own professional path so the the goal is we want everybody to have a standard license I I think we all Stand United and and would be hardpressed to argue that license um doesn't matter it matters the research is very clear strong licensed teachers that have mastered your craft have high impact on student gains but we know teachers

096come to us from all different paths in life um so we we've done a really good job I give missini a lot of credit of working with how can we um make the path to a standard license more attainable and um I think historically we probably made things way harder than they needed to be and if this legislation goes through um what I think I'm most excited about is if you have a candidate that's on an alternative pathway if they demonstrate success with students we can give them a license like we used to not do that and then wonder why they didn't stick around and not give them a waiver so I was like we're we're taking a real Common Sense approach to um professional license I don't know if you want to add anything

097to that but I think that your questions are spot on on why I think our agency's really tracking this bill and and would welcome it if it makes it through the legislative process because it's really going to be what's right for teachers in schools to make sure that everybody knows what they need to do and I know we even heard an item here earlier around Pathways for media Specialists you know we we've heard a lot and done some work as an HC with Pathways for special education um there's things that we can do within our purview to make sure that if if somebody and I like I'll use an example we have people that have um a master's degree in history and they want to teach history and their kids are all passing AP History

098but because we didn't make them jump through a bunch of Hoops we're not going to say you're good enough we're that needs to go away and we're going to make sure we fix that the flexibility is going to be wonderful and the options are there it's just also communicating it out and also with the teacher Academy scholarship that barrier is gone of cost thank you any other questions on that War I am I'm taking the point of privilege I'm going to be echoing Mr Sutton who we Miss on this board too and asking questions about number three the review of loan and bond applications Dr sers would that be you or should I asked Greg Rog oh Anita thank you we have a few districts on the list that have debt ratios at 25% or

099greater can you remind me what flags a concern of a debt ratio and are those conversations y'all are having well um so there used to be a limit um in statute of 27% and that was taken out of Statute however we do still look at at districts that have the higher debt ratios um making sure that their their fund balances look good um we have a a committee that reviews all of these applications and someone from fiscal services and support is on that committee and reviews all of the financial information okay so you all weren't concerned about any of these listed here because that recommendation has been made exactly yes ma'am okay thank you board members any other questions on that thank you thank you for being here with that I'll go back to any

100other items or questions from the consent agenda I have concerns about item number 11 um that I've addressed just on a on a minor level with the department but I would like the opportunity to kind of review the facts of this a little more thoroughly um specifically the the reason for the concern is that the initial committee that subcommittee that reviewed this case recommended a permanent revocation of the license and then the second subcommittee reduced that down to just a one-year suspension and prob probation I'm sorry you're right uh and I would like to review that if that you said item number 11 item number 11 regarding Nancy Anderson board members any other items want to be home do you have any questions today or we will then Fitz pulled we then have a hearing

101ail okay with that the floor will be open for a motion on the consent agenda I'll move to approve the consent agenda with the exception of item 11 and move is it a separate motion to pull that or just think your motion no your motion covers it so move to approve the consent agenda with the exception of item 11 okay there's a motion by Mr wood is there a second second a second by Miss Keener all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes thank you with that we will move on to our report section to start we have Miss Keener are you ready or I think I'm reported consider me reported well thank you again for your leadership and your work in that area and and I know there's still a lot more

102work to be done so thank you for your continued work nominating committee it is that time of year here Kathy and I just have a few months left um so with that we have a nominating committee that will be appointed today they will meet and make recommendations by the April meeting and vote in May I believe if I'm correct for chair and vice chair for the upcoming year which starts in July um as reported we have Randy Lisa and Adrien willing to serve on the nominating committee is that right okay thank you all for your service I we don't vote on that because it's a report so that has been reported and um you all will come back with us next month on that Randy Henderson Lisa Hunter and Adrien and with that board members

103who are interested on leadership roles please talk to Mary um about any roles that you're interested in as she will share that with the nominating committee thank you we will move on to one of the best the best report TJ no offense TJ the year thank you um good to see you all again I believe it was U Miss Hunter we were visiting yesterday talking about how fast things were going and uh I believe after today I will only have three more reports so it's a been a busy year a good busy but it's moving along very quickly um started off a few weeks ago I don't know if it's switched or not there go um we had our state chapter arkans spraw is uh our state chapter of the national school public relations Association

104um we had our state conference at oaklan and what's really cool about this is you know a lot of a lot of your bigger districts you have your Communications uh departments and your communications director and um you you know there's a bigger need for it but at your smaller districts a lot of times that's uh that's your library media specialist uh sometimes your superintendents take on those roles but the state conference is when we all get together and uh some of some of your bigger departments are able to pass on good practices to to your smaller school districts just a really good opportunity because a lot of times um there's really nobody within your District to lean on for advice when you're in those roles um it's it's the other individuals in other districts who

105have those same roles and um when you think of communications directors um it's it's a lot more than the pr and the marketing part of it uh at at their schools are responsible for delivering you know systems that deliver the most important information in in a reliable form to parents and the communities as well but uh really really neat uh state conference uh our state chapter does a great job um really proud of them few days later this was a rare occasion Capri and I we got to co- te it's not often that the teachers of the Year get to um get to run a room together it's a lot of times we don't see each other but this was very special at Fountain Lake they had a career day kpri and I got to

106meet up and tell them all about the teaching careers uh especially about the different Pathways and uh the awesome awesome things that we love about teaching and uh made a visit up to cabat that is Melanie blancet on the left if you remember back in the fall Melanie was one of our four finalists and uh for 2025 teacher of the year on our school visit uh when the panel went and visited the classrooms she had her theater students they were in the middle of gearing up for um a production and they were also talking about their spring production I just happened to uh go visit Dr Greenwood with CTE Department there at cabbat and didn't even realize it but they were putting on one of their performances that day um if you know anything about

107cabat theater it's it's a lot more than just cabat theater this the community of cabat theater uh uh Not only was it her students that I saw in the classroom that day these students were from fourth all the way through 12th grade were per Performing that day and they also do it in correlation with a big fundraiser called walk for Wheezy and um that is a fundraiser that brings awareness to um cardiac awareness inside the school systems they had a theat of student pass pass away several years due to a cardiac um situation and uh I Believe Miss Blan told me that through that program they've raised over $50,000 um through the theaters fundraising efforts but a really neat deal there at cabin a few days later I went up I40 visited a former coworker

108of mine Drew Brent is uh he is a broadcast production teacher there at Russellville High School this is a very new program uh I believe they are currently in their third maybe fourth year but uh it was really special that day Drew story is kind of like a a lot like my story he had a career before teaching in in that industry and he runs his program like a professional um like a professional industry and um that day I got to share my stories and we shared stories with with the students about what we had learned from the past and in that industry but the coolest part of the day was when he put them through an exercise he calls a flash show he gave him 45 minutes um to write write a show stack

109a show and gave him certain stipulations that they had to include in the show it's much like a live breaking event or live news breaking event and um and then he just backed off and to watch those students take control of the environment and the situation and their interactions between each other and pulled off a show that was Flawless uh 45 minutes later really neat to watch and then a few days later I got to visit uh hope and her team this was the Office of Public School accountability the standards for school letter grades in the future correct and I believe hope told me that out of 600 possible applications for 430 Educators from around the around the state uh different regions were they're currently uh working on the school letter grades that we we

110will be moving to in the future really neat process to watch and learn um I stayed there a short time I think it was three full days they put in there there really neat to watch and then finally module two um of the PLS program that I'm involved in was in Dallas Texas um really just a special opportunity not only did we get to visit with Mrs bus and President Bush we also got to learn from Ken hir Uh Kevin Sullivan communications director for President Bush and Dana Pino as well and um they LED sessions on what they learned through leadership and communication and decision making while in the administration and we got to cap it off with a with an off off the Record uh visit with President Bush which was really really special

111and uh dinner that evening but those those are special I mean those are you know those are really neat and special items to take from the program but the I think the the biggest value is the network that we're able to build with other other members of our cohort for example I've mentioned that I was going to be starting a work-based learning program whenever uh I return or on the other side of this at toy Adventure um I'm able to meet the the CEO of peran uh the perian foundation which is which is a foundation built up of 16 energy companies within the peran Basin she's a CEO of that and and the ba that Foundation has created strategic plans not only to address education in in the rural peran Bas but also Community plans

112and part of that was the fact that they've already created an internship program much like we're W to do um in s County so being able to you know make those connections build that Network and it's a network that I'm able to lean in on in the future is what's really special and module 3's coming up uh here in a few weeks it'll be right here in Little Rock President Clinton and believe secretary Clinton and members of their Administration will be there to to put it on really really a neat opportunity that's amazing and amazing that you have a seat at the table to shape what they're doing as well in that sense board members any questions concerns or did and I should have opened up the floor during board reports if any board member

113had an update they wanted to share as well Mr Henderson I do have one U last week uh had an opportunity to attend a Northeast Arkansas uh show CT showcase River you know I left there just filled with amazement I mean see the students interact with CTE Innovation and they they were also uh presenting to the to the audience um you know obviously in that part of the country's big big industry and uh they were working things like tape measures and teaching other students and teaching a few adults as well uh it was very very good event uh big kudos to U CTE uh coordinator David uh austino and U assistant superintendent chel Raper they did an amazing job getting everybody together it was a very big crowd and you know I highly recommend if

114you know if you haven't visited that school if you're in that part of the State uh I promise you won't leave their uh won't leave their dis apped um the ad Department was there uh Jennifer Schnider uh they were leading the charge uh very good event uh they have they have a new Greenhouse just showing some innovative ways that some things that they're doing here in the state so uh defin they're very excited that's great I'm glad you're able to go board members any other updates or comments Dr Arnold one will there be an opportunity for us to hear an update from Hope and her work on the assessment project yes yes there will be good because I I too uh took a peak and it was really exciting to see how deep they Dove

115down into the data to change the uh the system that's great secretary sure so um first I want to thank the board for another wonderful meeting and for those of you that were able to join yesterday to be at the I guess it was deemed demo day at the school of the death and blind what a wonderful event and and what a journey we've been on for a year and a half to help um Elevate and and set the high expectations for the students there to deserve the high quality facilities that are safe and and accommodating for some of our most vulnerable students so we're we're really excited because um we got that commitment from Governor Sanders and in the legislature that that we can reimagine that foot print and it seemed like it was

116so long ago and people were starting to question like is it really going to happen are you really going to do something but there's so much planning that has to take place and um dirt that has to get moved around and plans that got to get approved and permits but when we get to the point where uh buildings are starting to get moved around I think we're going to see a lot of progress happening very quickly so that was a it was a wonderful event and and we're really excited about that um some questions around updates on where we are with the standard setting process and um how we're kind of moving to I kind of call it almost the last phase of this redesign Journey that we've been on for about two and a

117half years that started with this board by approving um some updated standards around Ela and math and we've reimagined our professional learning built out um instructional materials for that and then wrote All whole new assessment with that included a lot of new test items to measure whether or not um students are learning what we expect them to learn and um the board was very engaged with that standard setting process where we had to um develop and kind of say what the cut scores are going to be like this is what level one means level two level three level four LEL five so that's the data that gets put into our accountability system so we've we I think when we started this project um even with the standards all the way through through the school accountability

118redesign and ccor we put out a call the experts and wanted to make sure that this is a product represented of people that are true practitioners that are in Arkansas classrooms and we've gotten some guidance and oversight from some national experts but this is the product of um the standards all the way through assessment of the people that are making a difference in the lives of our children each and every single day and I want to say and hope correct me if I'm wrong but from start to finish we've involved about 3500 3500 different Arkansas Educators throughout this process so talk about being transparent and reflective and making sure that everybody had a seat at the table I commend the team for going above and beyond to make that happen so the work group that

119Bo participated in um I did question how Bo got a seat at the table I was like I I got rushed out I got rushed out by noon it was observation observation I was like Wow Bo you you're a statistician cool I'm picking on him um but no we had a great representation of folks so Our intention is that at the April board meeting we'd like to schedule a workshop the day before to go through that process and what that means um in the afternoon summer like we did the workshop yesterday and then maybe pre presenting some options to the board for consideration at the April board meeting so this this this is kind of like the culmination of of a journey that we've been on for over two years and I feel like we're

120finally going to be able to land that plane and uh when we do it's really going to set our expectations um where they need to be and everything is going to be clear it's going to be concise it's going to be consistent we're going to get rid of all the confusion and we're going to have confidence that when we issue school grades they mean what they say and we'll know how to to Garner our support so I appreciate you all being a part of that journey and I know we're pretty excited to get there I think another kind of big thing that we want to celebrate as well and I see Dr Smith and his team is um we opened up our educational Freedom accounts portals March 1 which is a big undertaking because that's

121another big priority is that we've said as a state with Arkansas learns that we're going to empower parents and we know that one size fits all doesn't work and we need to create some options so there was about a three-year Runway or leading up to almost threeyear one Runway to to phase in how we can create more opportunities for families and students so that they can be in a learning environment that works best for them so that that platform opened up March 1st and of course um probably within 45 minutes of it opening our website got overwhelmed and went down for a little bit and we had to revive it and bring it back up but the the team I think has done a wonderful job navigating through that and I want to say to

122dat we have about 30,000 students registered in uh since March 1 saying that this is this is the best path for them so a lot to celebrate there and it's a big win for Arkansas and leading the nation in school choice so um want to recognize those folks um do we have a total on what's going to be available this next year yet well we have a number that has been built into the governor's budget so I want to say that number is close to 40,000 like it's a hard exact uh science to navigate but we're still under that ceiling we're we're hoping that um we're going to be able to accommodate all the families 40,000 total yeah and then I think another big priority that we've been working on and we've been able to

123give some updates and we spent some time yesterday talking about how we're going to build on the great work of Arkansas learns and um expand that to Arkansas access so we've been working with our community and our legislative folks and college presidents and superintendents to put together what I think is a a wonderful piece of leg legislation that's really going to set high expectations for all students and make sure that there's no barriers or obstacles that get in their way of helping them reach their Highest Potential so we've been um very fortunate that um our bill has gone through committee um I think it was actually earlier this week I'm getting all my days uh cross but and and went through the senate floor yesterday and I think it's up on the house floor for

124consideration today so there there's a lot of wonderful things that are happening in the state on education and and just kind of building out that system of alignment and we would not be able to do it if it wasn't for this board and your support and the Educators out in the in the field for providing their input and and giving us a chance to solicit their feedback so really proud th this is probably if I put my former High School principal hat on spring time is my favorite time of the year because that's when you're getting into all the end of the year Banquets and Proms and graduations and um there's a lot of excitement happening in our schools and you're planning and already starting to build master schedules for next year so just want

125to thank our schools for what they've done to lead up to where we are this spring for having a wonderful school year for our students and just remind them that we always like to say don't count down the days Make Every Day Count absolutely thank you secretary for providing those updates questions or comments board members with that do we have anyone here for public comment check sorry should checked before we'll check on that I don't see anyone in here raise your hand we'll check in the lobby just to be sure yeah I want to Echo it was exciting to be at the Blind and Des school yesterday and appreciate that um the leadership there and the leadership from the department and their support with that I believe let's double check real quick that'll be the

126end of our meeting we check and it sounds like we all need to save next Wednesday around our board meeting for a work session we'll be in touch we good yeah April the work session ail okay thank you all