001So, it is October 9th and we're going to do our regularly regularly scheduled board meeting. We'll start with the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Now, a moment of silence, please. Amen. All right, Mr. Martin, I'll turn it over to you. All right, welcome to our October board meeting. Uh, first on the agenda is our consent agenda. Are there any questions on that? Okay, with that I'd like to make the recommendation that the consent consent agenda financial report and board minutes of the regular board meeting held on September 11th, 2023 be approved as submitted. All right, so we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A
002motion. Motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Sarah. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. All right. Up next, we're going to talk about student achievement. And with that report to the public for the past two years, Miss Taber has given that. We're going to continue that tradition of letting her um present this to the board of education. Awesome. Thanks, Miss Taber. We every year um at this time, most of our data from the previous school year has been certified, checked by the state, and made public. Um and so we have our annual report for public. We look at a lot of different things. We'll spend most of our time looking at student achievement. Just in general though, our accreditation is based on um all of these things
003here from facility and transportation um down to student support and human capital. We ended the school year fully accredited which meant we met all the standards from the state during the last school year and most of this data will be 22 23 school year end. Uh we finished this school year with 152 teachers. It gives you a breakdown of their degrees. All of this is publicly available information. Our average years of experience has gone up slightly over the past few years, which is a good thing. That means we're recruiting and retaining teachers with more experience. Um we have increased our enrollment as we discussed before. This is enrollment on October one of each school year since 2018. Um you'll notice before 2021 we kind of recovered around 2 to 3% from year to year growth.
004Um from 22 to 23 October one we saw 5.7% growth. So we're growing at a faster pace. Sorry to demographics uh for you. We're uh still 85.8% 8% which is where we have our most years um wide and then our our other groups are broken down there. We've looked at our peral expenditure with Miss Bernell in our budget in the past few years. This is just that information. Um at the same time what our school choice enrollment looks like with that increase graduation rate is lagging data. Um but this is kind of showing you what 2020 did uh to our graduation rate and that student movement. Um, and we're cutting back from that. Fiveear comparison of our uh, student services enrollment. We're pretty consistent with state averages there. Um, our free reduced lunch. Last year,
005we ended with 31.58% and we're we're waiting uh for our last October one poll so that we can get that certified data to see where we were. Um, but that's connected to a lot of our funding for attendance. uh we always cover 95% or above and the state average is that dotted line. So we consistently don't know about the state average in attendance and student engagement. The really the only piece of data in here that is not publicly available is the K2 data. And that's because for um the state of Arkansas, that data is meant to be for monitoring growth and doing instructional planning before the state summit of assessment and accountability kicks in in third grade. Uh we like to include it in here so that we can show the work that we do
006at K2 is really vital to what we um are going to see in grades 2 through 10. So the gray bar there is 2021. That was our first year back from CO 19. A lot of quarantining, a lot of remote learning. Um, and consistently we are climbing back from uh that that time period. This is reading and student achievement and this is um student achievement in math. So you can see that big uptick. You track it from cohort to cohort and see we we have a big uh difference between kindergarten first. the rigor really kicks up and so we work to build that and then by second grade we get them back up. Um the test also changes in second grade for our K2 assessment. It's read to them in kindergarten and first grade through
007the system. In second grade it's not. And so it's really important as they're learning those reading skills. Um and we'll see what this leads to on our school reporting or school report card when we get to that. So this is grades 3 through 10 in ACT Aspire which is our state summit of assessment. This was our last school year to take the ACT Aspire. So we'll be talking a lot in the future board meetings about what our new state assessment looks like. But we can see that while uh this is reading in grades 3 through 10 an overall district average. While the state has not come back from its pre or come back to its precoid numbers that dotted line um in reading we have exceeded what we were doing precoid and so we're really
008proud of the work that our campuses are doing our teachers are doing uh with the campus leadership to make sure that we are really moving our students forward and that's where that K2 data is so important knowing that we're building those reading skills so that when they get to third grade and above um that they're able to continue that growth. For math, uh, we're seeing some really impressive gains. Um, so our pre-COVID numbers there, 46.4% meeting the benchmark. Uh, we have exceeded that. Now we're at 53.67%. The state average, as you can see, has declined, but we've been able to to exceed that. we in reading and in math. Um, in lots of our grade levels, if we break it down by a grade level, we're in the top three uh school districts in our
009Northwest Arkansas co-op. Um, if you look at public schools in math and reading at any of our grade levels, so that we know, well, this is great looking at state averages, we know we're also there in our region. This is for science. So, we're coming back to our our precoid levels. Um, again, much higher than the state average. student achievement. And in English, uh that assessment is the less rigorous of the the all the assessments that our students take. Um it's really grammar, revising, and editing. Um and so while we had higher achievement just consistently across the board, uh we kind of hover around that 70% mark, which is a much higher average than our other assessments. Uh this graph shows you the state comparison uh to the district just in the last school year.
010So not looking from year to year, but the the gap between uh the state compared to where we are in our district um as a whole. In the 11th grade, our students do not take HD Aspire, they take the ACT. And while that score uh for us on accountability on our score report card includes any students attempt at taking the ACT when they graduate, it's it's their highest score by the time they graduate. We do pull out the data of the 11th graders when they take it with us in March. All students in 11th grade take that. It's a good indicator of where our students overall are going to score. Um so there are four components or four assessments within that ACT. um we're we're climbing back from those pre-COVID or that to that pre-COVID
011number in our areas, but we know that as we continue to see growth in 310, that's going to help us when we get to that 11th grade assessment. Um our teachers actually um by the end of October, the high school will run a mock ACT to get those juniors ready for what they're going to see and so they do some work there. showing you again state comparison to district comparison. Um at the high school level, we also um included in our school report card is achievement on advanced placement exams. Um and and probably something that uh you know I think our high school is most proud of is the results from the last AP testing window. Uh these are actually our highest scores since 2011 if we go back that far. Um so we had
012225 advance taking taken um and 37.5% of those exams earn a qualifying score which means in the state of Arkansas they earn college credit. Um so it's really important for our students. Uh we're still trying we still want to get to that state and national average but we know that we made some serious gains in the last few years of doing that. Usually when schools see a big uptick in number of exams taken, they sometimes see a decline in how many were passed, but we aren't seeing that. Uh so school report cards for the um state accountability were released the last week of September. Our campuses are still working on diving into that data. Um but we have here our report card averages and that number that you see there is consists of um four
013three categories for our our K9 campuses um student achievement and so that's going to be on the Aspire also for our Elder 21 and our ESOL students um and our alternate assessment. So it's included that's the overall achievement growth is factored in there. So not just flat achievement but how much do we grow students? Um and then also our school quality index which includes attendance and many other factors depending on the grade level. Um we had three scam three campuses grades uh kindergarten through primary middle school intermediates uh left the school year with a B. Um and which is a a pretty significant improvement. Um we had two campuses from Case in that those dreams. I was curious that I didn't here but both the primary and the intermediate um have exceeded their precoid um
014essay score. So that's a a big achievement for them knowing what in those last two years they've worked through. Um so that's a lot to be proud of. We also know and we've been working on highlighting some of the growth and um celebrations that our campuses have been recognized for. Again, the high school with that big jump in qualifying scores on AP exams, the junior high um increased their school index score by 1.72 points and a big part of that was their student achievement. That was 4.27 points, which is 35% of that overall index. So, that was a good increase for them. our primary and intermediate are are really connected in their index scores um or in their essay reports and that the primary is reporting back on uh grades three and four assessment because
015of the work that K2 uh has to do in order for three and four grades three and four to do well. Um so the primary school saw an index uh increase of 4.32 points and improved from the letter grade of a C to a B. The intermediate was one of 34 schools in the state that was recognized for um both moving from a C to a B, but also for at least five points on the overall index. Um so lot to be uh celebrating there for those two buildings and and the growth and the work that our teams have done. The middle school um has been ranked number 16 overall growth in the state. That's for both the math and literacy scores. uh the growth there uh number five in overall growth for math in
016the state and number four in Northwest Arkansas for math growth and we know that that is definitely the work of those leaders our teachers getting down and doing that work but going back to what what's happening in K4 we also know it's the work of those those teachers um that are working so we're going to be working to get those teams back to you all in the coming months so that we can celebrate their good work um and all the things that they've been doing. Our goal is to have our intermediate campus and middle school campus here next month to celebrate um you know being recognized um by schools on the move and through office of education progress. Um sometimes people don't realize how significant it is to move um move your campus for five
017points on the essence scale. It's not it it's very difficult and it only occurs to the work of you know for the combined efforts of our students, our teachers, our parents, our community, the board, our admin. Um it's a testament to the work that's going on. It's a testament to the PLC process that's going on and it's a testament to the work that goes in day in day out in our classrooms and I can't be more proud of our staff for that. Yeah. I have a question. the number of teachers on emergency teaching permit. Yes, we have two. Uh last school year we had two and that is for um those critical need areas. Um that was one of them was our one of our agriculture teachers and so areas that we have really low
018numbers of graduates in Arkansas who are getting that certification. Okay. The state will issue um it's called an emergency permit but what it means is that person is working on finishing lensure um and has a the ability to complete it within the school year. issue an emergency while they finish their Thank you very much. Yes. Perfect. So, it's great information and it's growth and it's awesome. It's a good story. What are we doing specifically to celebrate and to connect the students to this information and that acknowledgement like so they can celebrate like they celebrate when they set PRs in a race and score touchdowns and how are we I think the campuses should tell you what they're doing. Yeah, the ideas that you may have. You may not not to put you on the spot.
019We plan to announce and celebrate some with our students on October 19th, Blackbox day. I've already had a time with our staff to celebrate with crumble cookies and things, but we plan to announce it with them. And then also as we talk through like our map growth scores and take our map in January, bring that up again with them to show them like here's what we've done, here's what we're going to celebrate, keep working. So awesome. I started my next question. So when you say what you're doing to celebrate, talk how you're going to keep pushing forward too. Yes. So um same thing. We already celebrated the staff at staff meeting. Um as far as kids, like I don't know that they really understand all the components of it. So we try to celebrate like
020Rebecca said the map growth and like goal setting with them because that's so much more concrete at our level. Um and then attendance because that is a big piece of it for us. Um so we really talk about that. and make connections with families about that as well. Um, and then what are we going to do to continue like continue to push? I mean, um, we're diving deeper into CSAs and things like that. Um, looking more at our intervention and how we can make that better, um, for some of our like middle kids um, versus just the kids that need really intensive intervention. Um, and how are we going to push our kids that are at higher level? So, that's kind of the next step for us to get more kind of bang for our
021buck out of that middle to upper group as well. Can you speak for 30 seconds about the note card and the um how they spoke to us shared with us administrator thinking about them being able to know their own growth score in their writing and their word before they take the right. So, for math testing, um, our teachers do a really good job of goal setting with our kids so they know what they're expected to get, like what we would like to see them achieve. Um, and then at the end of their math test, the score pops up for them so they can see, did they meet their goal or did they not meet their goal? And so, um, that gives us the opportunity to talk about if you met your goal, celebrate it. If
022you didn't, did you take your time? Did you do your best effort? All those things to prepare for now Atlas that ACT Aspire. So, that's because it's tough. We just talking to me about this like third grade is the first time they have to take ACPS or Alice, anything different than that. So trying to get them to see the difference in the two and understand the importance of both is really hard when you're nine. So um so we work really hard on goal setting with them throughout the year so they know like our expectations are you're you're shooting for this and if you don't then we're going to talk about why and how can we make that better. And one of the things that excite me is um win time. It's the what I need
023time and I know in the secondary levels we do law enforc mainly about the remediation what we're doing to catch up now we're having conversations about extension about how we can grow our kids and move them forward after they have the skill sets that they need. So it's it's really good stuff that's happening in every classroom. Primary did y'all have a very very big race in your course as well? We did. We celebrated with our staff too um of just the growth that we've seen and the hard work that they've put in and they our teachers are working so hard every day. We just did a big one of our whole PLTs last week was looking at every student and how like what was their score for their MAP in the fall. What are we
024going to do? We put them on charts like how are we going to reach each group? What are we going to do for our kids that already know? We have so many that are above the 80th percentile in already. And so like how are we going to grow these kids? And we've had really good conversations about how we're going to reach every kid and how we're going to grow them. And our kids do the same thing. Our teachers set goals with them when they take math. And so they write out like what am I going to do to, you know, how am I going to reach my goal in this? And so they have they'll write it down. second graders, the first and thirds, they just have a conversation, but they talk about like, I'm
025going to take my time. I'm going to listen, you know, first and second to test freedom. I'm going to listen to the test the speaker multiple times. And so, we just kind of just go over those things just so they're aware um of, you know, what things they can do in order to help do their best on the test. Sure. So we celebrated our scores in August with confetti cannons in donuts and then we also actually today at our staff meeting we dove into our report card data and had our staff do some notes and wonders um celebrated that way. And then with our students as we prepared for our parent teacher conferences in a couple weeks we're having each student build a portfolio that has their math scores, their Aspire scores um for some
026class work as well. That's where we really are giving our students the chance to set those growth goals at the other buildings, but then also dig into their expired scores and look at how they performed last year and then talk about how we can continue that growth for the new year. And Kelsey, at the high school, we talk about um how you're using your guiding coalition to really try to meet those levels. I know you're working towards the hard. Yeah. So talking about the AP stuff, we celebrate we have AP scholar night during the basketball season where we pull them all out and have time. We reward them with actual prizes and things like that for their scores. As far as utilizing our teachers and push them harder, um we have dedicated time for the
027AP teachers to meet together to set goals for theirelves. So we have this achievement in this class. I want to push myself by something to get this achievement. Break it down by different strands that are in the AP test. And then for our AP students, we have sore sessions that we have on Saturdays um a lot that align to the AP class that they're in. So it's like a study session for them to continue to do better in those classes. And then also we do recruitment wise in August and then getting up to that in May and April. We kind of work heavy recruitment to get into those classes and things like that. Yeah. Our level of engagement of the student and the teacher in the classroom, K12, it's good stuff. Um, and I hope
028y'all are as proud of them. Absolutely. These are phenomenal. Hey, I have a question. So, we get kindergarten, first and second. They're Can we see 3 through 12 the same way we see kindergarten? Yes, we do grades um kindergarten through 10 and so we can pull that. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, perfect. Any other questions? All right, Miss Taber, thank you very much. All right, there we go. Um, up next we have action items. We have ourou with CISO Incorporated for interpretation and translation services. Um, last either last month or the month before um we did anou for um translation everything and that was mainly for Spanish. This is for non non Spanish language. And I believe this will all be done virtually from the phone. Are there any questions? Okay. So, the translation services will be
029done over the phone like a vid like a video conference type thing. Yes. Okay. Yes. No, they're actually not stationed in Georgia. Okay. Okay. And they provide any language that we would need or could encounter? Okay. Okay. Outside of the one that we already have a contract, they also do Spanish, but our level of assistance in Northwest Arkansas is we would prefer that to be on site if possible. Right. Okay. And I think it's a little cheaper here, too, right? So, they're going to do Braille instruction over No, ma'am. That's okay. Phew. I was like, hold on a minute. I'm confused. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Um, with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve theou with CISO for interpretation and translation services. All right. So, we have
030a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Make a motion as presented. All right. Motion by Ryan. Do we have a second? Second. Second by John. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Okay. Up next, we got another. This one way. Um it is an MU that will allow us to enter into a contract to provide braille instruction and vision services for a couple of our students um that that need those programs. All right. Any questions? With that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve theou with Francis Wave for Brail instruction and vision services. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion. Okay. Motion by Sarah. That's okay. Second. Oh, second. Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Up next, we have
031approved an amendment also 411. Um I received this from Arkansas School Board Association last week. 12.11 is the equal education opportunity. Um the only thing that is changing is the underlined piece in the first paragraph where it says um um um on the basis of any protected classification under law. um they SBA felt that that need to be um added and also with the changing of that they the length there changes a little bit because they had to change the form and also the two Arkansas codes that they were um referencing back goes to that. So this is all part of legislative changes that happened back in um the spring and this I believe this one was missed a little bit on it on its cleaning up of the language. Okay. So it's almost a
032technical approval but ability to do it. All right. Any questions? Um, with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve policy 4.11 as presented. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion. Motion by John. Do we have a second? Second. All right. Second by Ryan. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Okay. Up next, we have out of state travel. Um, every year in December, our school district works with our police department for um, shop with the cop and they like to go to the Walmart, Missouri, which I know was you can see the Arkansas sign from there, but it's still technically over state lines. And so we always come at the October meeting to get approval for us to travel to James, Missouri to Walmart. All right.
033Can I ask why we don't just use the beage Walmart? I think it's sales tax. Okay. I was like, I didn't know if there's a reason. It's shop at the cop is also like Christmas toys and stuff like that. Clothes and that kind of thing. Not just market that's super center. Is that right? Full service. Yeah. There's not any of the fun stuff. There's like the kids section was like it's like a 12 section. Five toys. Yeah. Any questions? No. I make a motion as presented. All right. Motion by Ryan. Ryan's ready to go. Second. I'll second it. Second by Mindy. Any further discussion? All in favor? Okay. Up next, we have board to board transfers. We have to um um vote on this every month. This month we had two come in from grade
03410. Uh last month I was talking about some grade levels that were at capacity based on teacher load and ratios. Grade 10 is one of those. So I talked with the parent. They are not here by law. They are able to address the board if they want if they would like. But my recommendation is to deny that transfer, but we will place them on a waiting list if we do have room. We will call them and enroll them as soon as possible. And just to state the actual reason for denial is um on teacher loads and ratios. Okay. All right. So your recommendation my recommendation is to deny the transfer of the students as presented. All right. So we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll motion. Okay, I'll motion. Do we have
035a second? I'll second. Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Up next we have um nursing curriculum and Miss Taber, our director of teaching and our executive director of teaching learning will um we'll go through that with us. Sure. Um last spring you recommend or you approved the purchase of amplified science resources for teachers in grades three for intermediate. Um and teachers have have rolled that out since our um teachers at the upper grade levels have had time to review and they would like to also implement. And so uh grades five and six we purchased last month. It was under those purchasing thresholds and we're able to do that to get them started. The grades seven and eight is a little more expensive um with those materials and so we need
036to board approval to roll that up. So it'll be used in grades three through eight with a fully virtually aligned science instructional resource. And this is going to align with Atlas. Yes. Okay. All right. Questions? It's a continuation of the curriculum that we've already put in place at the lower levels. With that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we purchase um science science materials from Amplified in the amount of $32,42360. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll motion. Motion by Sarah. Do we have a second? Second. Second by John. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Does anybody see a need for executive session? No. All right. Go ahead, Mr. Martin. I would like to make the recommendation that we accept the resignation of Jason D with
037regret. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll motion. A motion by Sarah. Do we have a second? I'll second. Any further discussion? All in favor? No. That is with regret, Mr. Morton. Up next, we have hiring. And I'd like to make the recommendation that we hire Dustin Osborne, Robert Ko, and Orlando Dear. Okay. So, what's Mr. Osborne going to be teaching? Um, junior high English. We had our English resation last year last month. Okay. Is this the same Mr. Osborne that was here? Okay. All right. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll motion. Motion by Sarah. Do we have a second? A second. Second by Ryan. Any further discussion? All in favor? Okay. No opposed. Um, my last item I have for you for consideration
038is um is an additional an additional position and it would be for a pair professional to help with behavior support specifically right now but knowing that those needs can change some of our kids program that are having some. Okay. Okay. So, say that again. Paraprofessional um for a behavior support aid to help some of our students who are struggling on a day-to-day basis. I believe right now that need is seen mainly at the junior high but with the move student needs change. Okay. Not change positions but change potentially buildings. Yes, sir. Got you. Okay. Changes for kids. Okay. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll motion. Okay. Motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? Second. Second by John. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Is that
039it? All right. Motion. I second. I'm