Litchfield Elementary School District Board Meeting 09/09/25

001Mic check. Good evening everybody. Uh if everybody can please take a seat. We're about ready to get started. Y'all got so quiet so fast. That was awesome. Great job. I'm sure that all the teachers in the room were very impressed. Anyways, uh thank you guys for joining us. Uh today is Tuesday, September 9th, 2025, and this is the regular meeting for the Lichfield Elementary School District governing board. I hereby call this meeting to order. Thank you guys. There's so many of you that are here tonight, and we're very excited to get to celebrate your students. If I could please ask Victoria Snodgrass from Palm Valley Elementary to come up and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. You got this. >> Ready? Just start it. Ready? Okay. >> Come on. >> I to the flag

002of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Awesome. Nice job. >> Nice job, Victoria. >> Thank you. Next, we're going to take a moment of silent reflection. Okay. And now we are going to move on to the whole reason that there is so many amazing wonderful people here is uh recognitions and celebrations. And this is going to be led by executive director Noanis. >> Good evening madam president, governing board members Dr. Davidson and fellow cabinet members and guests both present and online. It is a privilege to stand before you tonight to celebrate some truly exceptional achievements by our Lichfield learners. Lichfield Elementary School District takes great pride in providing every student with the best academic experience possible.

003And tonight we are thrilled to recognize a group of students who exemplify excellence in learning. These students achieved remarkable success by achieving the high scores on the AASA testing last April, demonstrating their hard work and their dedication. Each of these students has shown exceptional commitment to their studies and set a standard of academic excellence within our district. Their success is a testament not only to their effort, but also to the dedication of their families, their teachers, and the entire Lichfield community. We are incredibly proud of what they have accomplished, and we know their futures are bright. These high achievers represent the best of LD79, and we are excited to see the positive impact they will continue to make both academically and beyond. So congratulations to these students and thank you for your hard work, dedication

004and perseverance. You're an inspiration to us all. Now please come forward as I call your name and we will do this alphabetically by school. Starting with Barbara B Roby High score in ELA Elena Hernandez [Applause] come down. >> Yeah. Yes, come on up forward. You will be taking a picture with >> Superintendent Davidson and governing board president Zidama. Okay. Barbara Roby, high score in math. Vivian Lei. [Applause] All right, let's get them all together. Same all the same school. >> Yeah, there we go. Okay, now everybody. >> All right, congratulations. >> All right, stand by now for Ben Sto like so take one group photo. >> Yeah, we we'll take one big group photo with all the entire school. >> All right. Okay, here we go. Ben Stoodto, the storm with high scores in in

005ELA. Davis Smith [Applause] High scores in math for Balencto. Breen Sislo, [Applause] Isaac Kimberly Black, [Applause] Lincoln Meek, John Wolf, [Applause] Dominic Palmisano, [Applause] Kenton Mcuma, Thomas McCormick, Victoria Espie, [Applause] Ryan Arnsberger, [Applause] Grayson Mullenberg, [Applause] Cole Stafford, [Applause] Evelyn Shephard, Aaron Gentry, [Applause] Aliyah Ruio, [Applause] and Austin de la Cruz. [Applause] >> All right, there you go. Ladies and gentlemen, high scores. Balencto. All right, moving on to Corte Sierra. High scores in math. Ethan Balsanal, Aliyah Elisio, [Applause] Ivy Hendershot, Connor Mcgherk, and Diego Aguo. [Applause] We got one more. Ladies and gentlemen, Corte Sierra High score. Okay, moving on to Dreaming Summit High School ELA is Matthew Ortiz. [Applause] Matthew Matthew. Okay, Biller. No. Okay. All right, people got it. I'm not as old as I think I am, right? Yeah. All right. Moving

006on to uh L. Thomas Hec. Wait, hold on. Let me make sure I got this straightened out here. Okay. L Thomas Hec middle high max score. Hold on. Hold on. Let me make sure we can get these up. No. >> Yeah, there's one student from J. >> Okay, gotcha. Oh, >> that's the one we called. Matthew Ortiz. >> Okay. >> Uh, dream. Sorry about that. Dreaming summit. >> Vincent. Vincent Harmon. [Applause] Hold on. >> All right. Sorry about that. Okay. Okay. Moving on to El Thomas Hec high score ELA Jasmine Ednandez. [Applause] Okay. El Thomas Hec Troy Gilbert Elementary in math. Zada Hail. [Applause] Jasmine's not here. No, Jasmine. Jasmine. Okay. All right. That's the only one. >> Oh, here we go. Here we go. got the Troy Gilbert as well in LTH. Um, Isabella

007Duenas, [Applause] Ruby Lei, [Applause] Michael Sana, [Applause] Victor Gavara, [Applause] and Jasmine Hernandez once again for math. [Applause] >> All right. El Thomas Heck and Troy Gilbert Elementary. Also, apologize if I mispronounced your name. I'm I'm trying my best here. Okay. Lichfield Elementary score ELA for Lichfield Elementary. Nathaniel Lewis, [Applause] Francis Frasier, [Applause] and Michaela Michaela Kawinsky. [Applause] Okay. ELES high score max in math. Nath Nathan Franklin, [Applause] Caleb Jawet, [Applause] Nathaniel Lewis, [Applause] Cole Hammer, [Applause] Blake Summers, [Applause] Francis Frasier, [Applause] Jackson Merrill, [Applause] Molly Lure, [Applause] and Donovan Ree. [Applause] Ladies and gentlemen, how about them? [Applause] All right. Now on to Mabel Padet. HiCax score in EA. Alexia Le [Applause] Mabel Pageant Highax score in math. Santiago Collier, [Applause] Miguel Collier, [Applause] Kaisuki Maine, Jameson Gonzalez, [Applause] and Grant Hosevelt. [Applause] All

008right, congratulations. How about them Panthers? Okay, moving on to Palm Valley. High scores in ELA. Brooke Gutierrez. [Applause] Carter Grayson, [Applause] >> Palm Valley High scores in math, Adrienne Sneed, [Applause] Fiona Woodland, Simon Nicholls, [Applause] [Music] >> Olivia Franklin, [Applause] Sophie Kinones, [Applause] Matthew Yonamine, [Applause] Vivian Ian Snodgrass, Duncan Rar [Applause] Jacob Jimenez, [Applause] Alexander Gonzalez, [Applause] Stella Wski, [Applause] Brooke Gutierrez [Applause] and Emma Matthews. [Applause] All right. How about them Thunderbirds? [Applause] All right. Moving on to Rancho Santa Fe. High scores in ELA. Lucas Beexstead. Yeah. Still group. High scores. Rancho Santa Fe in math. Saul Acero, Chides, [Applause] Lucas Beexstead, and Kylie Flores Arzetta. [Applause] congratulations and Broncos. All right, moving on to the final school of our group A. Scott Libby Elementary. Highax scores in math. Riley Bower, [Applause] Landon Mukarsski, Aliyah

009Morales, [Applause] Rafael Le, [Applause] and Nadriel Kamacho Estrada. Congratulations, [Applause] Road Runners. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our celebration for group A. Um, we have some cookies for the kids and some waters on the way out so we can bring in our second group. How are you? I was wondering [Applause] >> Carberry. Can you make sure that >> uh what school? >> What's his name? >> So he was at Lichfield. But he's at Western. >> What's his name? >> Uh Hudson Kel right there. >> Okay, awesome. Thank you so much. >> Where they're at? Should I get [Music] You know what? I got Where is she? This is my Hey guys, we're going to get started with this second group in just a moment. So, if everybody can get ready, we're going to

010start this second round of celebrations. We will let executive director Noanes lead us in our celebrations. Okay, welcome everybody in our group two. Thank you for being so accommodating and patient while we got through the first group. Uh once again, good evening, Madame President, governing board members, Dr. Davidson, fellow cabinet members, guests, both president and online. It is a privilege to stand before you tonight to celebrate some truly exceptional achievements by our Lichfield learners. Lichfield Elementary School District takes pride in providing every student with the best academic experience possible. And tonight, we are thrilled to recognize a group of students who exemplify excellence in learning. These students achieved remarkable success by achieving the high scores on the AASA testing last April, demonstrating their hard work and dedication. Each of these students has shown exceptional commitment

011to their studies and set a standard of academic excellence within our district. Their success is a testament not only to their effort but also to the dedication of their families, their teachers, and the entire Lichfield community. We are incredibly proud of what they have accomplished and we know their futures are bright. These high achievers represent the best of LSD79 and we are excited to see the positive impact that they will continue to make both academically and beyond. Congratulations to these students and thank you for your hard work and dedication. You are an inspiration to us all. Now, as I call your name, please come forward to take a picture center up here with Dr. Davidson and governing board president Zidama. And we are starting with highax scores for Verado Elementary in ELA. Molly Ferrell [Applause]

012High scores Verado M Elementary for math. Ava Barnhard, [Applause] Ryan Flag, [Applause] Maverick Besio, Dominic Johnson, [Applause] Javin Dramos, [Applause] Molly Ferrell, [Applause] and James Kennedy. [Applause] Congratulations superstars. All right, moving on to Verado Heritage Elementary. High math score, ELA, Bastian Huggins, Penelopey Miller, Verado Heritage, elementary highax scores in math. Will Farnsworth, [Applause] Maline Wilson, Gian Carlo Aoyo, [Applause] Dylan Malakovich, [Applause] Benjamin Alexander, [Applause] Brinley Fuimono, Madison O'Hara, [Applause] Logan Allen, [Applause] Samuel Wilkins, [Applause] Aiden McFall, [Applause] Laura Bella Hang, [Applause] Elliot Lam Monaco and Susan Giao. [Applause] All right, congratulations. [Applause] All right, moving on to uh Verado Middle School. High scores ELA Laney Gruntmire [Applause] Railen Barnes Colton Scott, [Applause] Dominic Aragon, Sally Lashley. [Applause] Okay. Verado Middle High scores math. Eastston Peters, [Applause] Landon Fanning, [Applause] Shane Sika, [Applause] Brendan Grazani, Felix

013Swan, [Applause] and Grayson Jason Ryan. >> Oh, wait. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. We still got more. We still got more. We got page two. We got a We got a bundle here. All right. Verado Meo, Marcelo Naj, Naja, [Applause] Kase Posma, [Applause] Chloe Chang, [Applause] Carter Caskeella, [Applause] Coleman Johnson, [Applause] Avery Taylor, [Applause] Charlotte McGinty, [Applause] Camila Alunes, Antonune, Landon Aldridge, [Applause] Drone Ornelas, [Applause] Robert Pan. [Applause] >> That's it. Yes, I did get to congratulations. Go Mustangs. [Applause] All right, moving on to Western Sky Middle School. Max Max high score in ELA. Chase Hammer, Ava Parker, [Applause] Ikra Aif, [Applause] Western Sky Middle School, max high score in math. Matthew Beckett, [Applause] Michaela Shelley, Vincent Harvey, Hudson Kaggel, [Applause] >> Elizabeth Nicholls, Anthony Mas, [Applause] Melena Orlando, [Applause] >> Lauren Howard, [Applause]

014Evan Lopez, Jennifer Himenez, [Applause] That's it. Congratulations, Wildcats. Okay, and moving on to Wigwam Creek Middle School. Highax scores in ELA. Rachel Long, [Applause] Kohhi Rooneyberg, Alexis Onac [Applause] Wigwam Creek Highax scores in math. Nathaniel Rud Randolph, [Applause] Christopher Surin, [Applause] Hannah Zalinski, [Applause] Kohhi Runborg, [Applause] Emily Rolls, [Applause] McKenna Zednneck, [Applause] William Lewis, [Applause] Avery Allen Chuba, [Applause] Denzel El Hoya Rodriguez and Eli Shafino. [Applause] Okay, that's it. Congratulations, Go Jaguars. [Applause] Okay, I just want to just want to one last special round of applause for those that scored high scores in both ELA and math. L. Thomas Hec, Jasmine Hernandez, Nathaniel Lewis, Francis, uh, Lichfield Elementary, Nathaniel Lewis, Lichfield Elementary, Francis Frasier, Palm Valley Elementary, Brooke Gutierrez, Rancho Santa Fe, Lucas Beexstead, Verado Elementary, Molly Ferrell, and Wuam Creek Kohi Rooney. One last

015round of applause. Thank you everybody want we really appreciate you attending tonight and giving us the opportunity to se celebrate our students. This is a great accomplishment. Thank you. Good uh have a good evening and there's a snack on on your way out. [Applause] Melissa wants a cookie. And just like that, everybody's gone. Okay. Is everybody good for us to get started now with all our business? Now that we are done with all that really amazing celebrating, we're all good. Cool. So, I don't think we have any public comment tonight. Uh so we're going to move on to the adoption of the agenda and approval of consent agenda. And I'm going to start with pulling item 6.10 for us to table till a later meeting. But I'll go through and see if anybody else has

016any items that they wish for us to pull from consent. Uh Miss Moran, did you have anything you'd like to pull from consent? >> I do not. Thank you. >> Uh Miss Wallace? >> No. Thank you. >> Mr. Mike, >> none for me. Mr. Owens, >> none for me. >> Okay. Then if there's nothing to pull, someone would make a motion minus 6.10. Move to adopt the agenda as presented as to the order of business items and approve the consent agendum without consent item 6.10. I'll second. >> Having a motion for Mr. Mics and a second for Mr. Owens, I'll call for the vote. Miss Moran, >> yay. >> Miss Wallace, >> yay. >> Mr. Mike, >> yay. >> Mr. Owens, >> yay. >> I'm also a yay. Motion passes. Um, I guess that moves

017it to item 7.1. Now, I just was asked that we table this item to another meeting, so we don't really have to discuss it unless anybody really needs to. Do we need to make a motion to table it? Cool. Okay. So, I motion to table item 7.1 >> to a later meeting. >> I'll second. >> Uh having a motion from myself and a second from Mr. Mike. I'll call for the vote. Miss Moran. >> Um can we have some discussion first? Uh sure. Uh uh on this. Sorry, I'm just going to pull this up. Give me just a second here. Um, so I understand from my understanding of why this is being tabled, there's one um person uh is the reason that we're tableabling it, but no one else that's listed here. We don't need

018to approve this. There's no time constraint on improving the rest of it. >> Good evening and thank you for the question. Um, if that was acceptable to the board, we could. uh because of the confidentiality of the personnel matters, I did not want to put in a situ put us in a situation where we had to specify the name one individual that was removed. >> I understand. I just want to make sure that everyone else that's listed on here that that none of that is timesensitive because we obviously won't be able to approve this until our next meeting, but our next meeting is a study session, so I don't know that we're doing any action. So, it would be October. I just want to make sure it's okay to delay this entire all of these

019folks till the October meeting. >> When I spoke with uh legal counsel, it would be all right to remove the one, but I didn't want to be in a situation where I had to specify who that one person was. >> I understand. I I we get what you're saying on that. I to clarify what I understand Miss Miranda to be saying is that she wants to make sure that there's not a time-sensitive thing for everyone else minus the one individual because we will not be able to approve this item now until October 14th. >> So is that going to be a problem for us to wait until October 14th to approve the rest of the list? >> Um it would be my preference then my request of you all that we be able to move

020forward with approval of the classified agenda. minus the one name and it is one that's on for job abandonment. >> Okay. So, you would you would like us to potentially approve this list minus the name, but we can't say >> I can I can share the name. >> I I'm not saying we need to do >> Yeah. No, we don't need to do that. I'm going to let uh Dr. David >> President Zida, thank you members of the board, Miss Moran for your question. And um Miss Satderfield, if you if your desire is for us to make an additional motion to ask the board to consider adopting that minus the one name. We the board could potentially do that. However, we do need to make we do need a vote now, Madame President, because we

021do have a motion currently to table that whole item. So I >> Okay. So then we're going to call for the vote and see if that passes. And if not, then we can do a new motion. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So I will call for your vote, Miss Moran. >> Nay. >> Miss Wallace. >> I guess I'm confused. >> Nay. Mr. Mike's >> nay. >> Mr. Owens. >> Nay. Nay. >> I'm also a nay. So motion fails if somebody else would like to make a different motion. And are we allowed before we do that to say the employees I mean we've already kind of said but the employees name >> president I the answer is yes to that. I know that we are trying to honor that just because it is an employee manner um

022but it is just a name statement and no other additional information. >> Okay. So then I motion to approve this item minus sorry Catherine Quack and Bush minus Quackenbush as presented. I will second. Who was that? Okay. Having a motion from myself and a second from Miss Moran. I'll call for the vote. Miss Moran, >> yay. >> Miss Wallace, >> yay. >> Mr. Mike, >> yay. >> Mr. Owens, >> yay. >> I'm also a yay. Motion passes. Learn something new every day, everybody. >> Okay. Next, we are going to move on to the academic calendars for the 26 27 and 2728 school years, which seems crazy to me that we're looking at that, but this is going to be presented by Miss Benjamin. Good evening, Madam President, members of the governing board. Uh we have

023been working on the academic calendars. We've actually been getting some requests from families who are trying to make plans for next year. We appreciate that they are looking out for days that we will um be out of school for those family vacations. We did seek feedback from our academic calendars from both um admin council as well as our superintendent advisory committee and some of the celebrations about the calendars we're trying to go for two years so that we have that consistency is they absolutely teachers love the Thursday start date having students Thursday and Friday before a full week. Um they appreciated the consistency across the years. This calendar looks very similar to the last two years and then we added uh continuing on for two more years. Um the breaks and holidays, the Thanksgiving break

024was very wellreceived. Um teachers and staff felt that that was not only helpful for the families because attendance is typically poor on the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving break. Uh but it also gave the teachers that time. They also appreciated fall break and spring break. Winter breaks of course and then the spring recess was positively highlighted. They appreciated professional development and pre-ervice days. We did add an additional pre-ervice day um two years ago for so that there are four days before uh students return. That was very wellreceived as well as um early release Wednesdays every week. Um some of the areas of concern were that we were starting in July and that is absolutely something we did look at. We tried to look at calendars to see if we didn't do that. Uh we were

025trying to work with the AUA Fria calendar as well. They have not uh presented theirs to the board but I did reach out to Agua Fria and this does match what they are planning to present uh so that our families would have fall break, spring break and Christmas breaks aligned and also they let me know that um end of year looks like it would align as well. Um so we were trying to really honor that. We could move back into the August, but we would not be able to keep the Thursday start. Otherwise, our fall breaks and spring breaks would need to adjust because of the certain amount of weeks we need to be in school for grading. So, um that was a concern from teachers. We did bring it up to superintendent um advisory

026council today and discussed it. And overall, it seemed that they still like the Thursday start and were okay with the very end of July rather than going to the Monday. But that is something that was um of concern to our teachers and staff. Uh the other one was the there was questions around the April um spring April recess that they were hoping it would fall on Easter. It doesn't always happen. Easter changes. So, uh this year it's early March. We're still considering it a spring recess after testing. So, we're keeping it in April. If we can make it fall on that weekend, we will, but it doesn't always work that way. Um I stand for any questions that you might have around the calendars. I wanted to bring up all of the good and the

027bad with them and I wanted to bring up um both calendars for both years. So, we're hoping that you will approve both the 2627 and the 2728 calendar. >> Miss Moran, do you have any questions or comments? >> Um I have comments and then I have a question. So, my comment is related to the July start date, which still does not really sit right with me, but I do understand since I've been doing this long enough that we do end up being dictated by other things that are beyond our control and sometimes just the way that things fall. So, I know this calendar in particular, Memorial Day is going to be a full week after we get out of school, but that's because Memorial Day is on the 31st. if we shifted all of that

028this year, we'd have to shift it all back, you know, potentially next year or the year after depending on how that falls. So, um I agree that the Thursday start date seems to work well um based on the feedback that we've received. My question is about the feedback. So, I understand that this calendar is very similar to what has been presented and approved and used for the last two years, but I'm just curious about what groups we got feedback from and when that feedback was taken into consideration um in regards to the calendar. So, we brought this to admin council um three weeks ago and received feedback from them and then we also sent it in an email to our superintendent's advisory council in a Google forum to provide feedback for us with celebrations barriers

029and concerns. Um and so we've been collecting that uh and that was ongoing. We had some additional today and I added that additional information this evening for you as well. >> Okay. I know that it's impossible to get feedback from everyone and of course impossible to make everyone happy. However, is there a point in time that you would anticipate soliciting parent feedback on the calendar now that we are potentially going to approve four years that look very similar? Is it kind of a if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality or do we think at some point we should proactively ask for more feedback? It's a great question and we did talk about that. One of the difficult things is there is a lot of laws around calendars. 180 days is something we are trying

030to keep as a district. Um we could absolutely go out for parent feedback. It's just needing to be able to explain and understand how that all works, how the instructional time model works, the calendar days, those can be difficult and a lot of times there's personal pieces in there. Um, for example, uh, we have a lot of people asking about four day week, um, school weeks, and that's not something that we feel comfortable with. We've looked at the research. It doesn't show that the school districts that are at 4 days have shown, um, really any stellar scores. And so, that's something that we're just not ready to go to yet. Someday we may have to, but, at this point, we're not wanting to do that. So, we were not opening it up to everybody, but

031we could absolutely. >> Okay. just wanting to know what the thought process was and the consideration. Yeah. Thank you, >> Miss Wallace. >> I had some similar concerns or questions, but the I am one that hates starting in July. >> Yeah. >> Um I absolutely love the two days before a full week, that Thursday, Friday. I just wish that Thursday, Friday could be the first week in August. I feel like we just keep moving further and further into the super hot time when the kids can't get outside and are coming back from a summer break and having all this freedom to burn energy and then stuck inside for five, six, seven weeks depending on the weather. Um, I understand the reasoning with testing schedules and wanting that week on the front end of testing, but

032I wish we could go a week longer in May and end before that Memorial Day holiday. Personally, we could it would impact our schedule and it would not align to AUA Freas. So, if we kept the Thursday start date and we chose to do that, then we would just not be aligned. That is something that we could absolutely do. I mean, I know that parents are going to want to be aligned with the high school. That's an absolute. But >> the other option is not doing a Thursday start and we could start on the Monday. We would still be aligned with Aubrey. We just wouldn't have the Thursday start. >> But then we would go the two days before Thanksgiving. >> We >> or would we go two days into further? >> Two days at

033the end or we would have to We'd have to find those two days somewhere. Yes. >> Yeah. I mean, I I love the two days starting. I think that's great for teachers. I think it's great for the kids to ease them in. Um, it's just so hot and >> it is >> and so early in the year, but those are my only things. And then I I was looking at the spring holiday. I did think that the intention of that was for Good Friday because so many students missed that Friday for religious reasons. So I was that was my other question that you answered. But >> all right, thank you >> Mr. Mike. >> Um I don't have any other questions of what they uh they asked before. The only thing I saw just and

034this was late and I just noticed I was noticing that we have 179 instructional days on the 2728 calendar. Um, it says instructional and you know 180. I was looking at the where I came to it. I'm looking at the quarter breakdown. >> Okay. So maybe our math is off there. We counted day by day. So it is 180, but I can double check. >> I just I just didn't know if it was uh typed out wrong and I even went through count the months but you know because I'm because I'm seeing that we end the same you know May. So we end May 19 for that. >> Yes. >> And then that's a Friday and we end a Friday on May. I'm just trying to figure out where that I'm wondering if that's why

035the day got mixed up. So anyways, we might want to double check. I went through and counted the days and I came up with 179 on the on the calendar, but >> triple check. I had um my office manager double check it for me and had lots of other people, but that does not mean that we counted correctly. So, >> so that was the only thing I wanted to bring up. The quarter the quarters just doesn't don't add up. That's all. So, everything else I appreciate the shifting and yeah, the late, you know, starting so early, but at some point, >> you got to I I like the alignment with the assessments, the alignment with the um, you know, with with the high schools and, you know, making sure the kids are set up for

036the mo, you know, the best success with with the their academics. So, we appreciate that. >> Thank you, Mr. Owens. Yeah, you're never gonna appease everybody with this, right? Some people want to start like I tell my people, my friends that live in the Midwest or back back east are like, "We don't start till after Labor Day." And you're like, "Okay, well, we get out in May and you're going in the middle of June." So, um, it's front of the front or back. I like the breaks breaking up broken up. I'm hoping that, you know, with this advanced notice, families can start planning their vacations because obviously with chronic absenteeism, we want to reduce people taking their kids out of school and plan around the holidays. Um, so I don't really have a problem with

037the start time. Other than that, no, looks good. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> I don't have any questions. I'm very happy that we're getting two years out again because I think this is a great thing for families to plan. I agree with Mr. Owens and that this should not necessarily that it will, but hopefully it should help with planning for any big major vacations you're planning. So, um, thank you guys for putting together two calendars and getting this out there as soon as possible for our families. >> If anyone would like to make a motion, >> um, can I make a just like a real quick um before making a motion? I don't pending um board member Mike's observation that only says 179 days. I would if anything amend the motion to approve the 2006207

038schedule and not 20078 because >> I'm going to tell you I went through and added it up and they're the same days. They're the same number of days. >> You said you have 180. >> I I went through and it was yeah 180 for both. >> So what way did you keep doing? >> Okay. So if they're right, if it's are we at 180 for both? >> I believe >> Mr. Owens, I would have to do a little bit of double checking as well, but I was just going to say if your motion is to just approve the one year and we can bring back year two after verification, that's acceptable for us as well. So, however you guys want to do that. >> Just because it is an action item and not just a

039discussion item, >> that's whatever you guys want to do. So, whatever motion you guys want to make, that's what we'll vote on. The third option is that you could make a motion to make sure that that has 180 days and then we can still bring it back on consent agenda. So I'll move to approve the 26 27 academic calendar as presented and the 2027 2028 academic calendar pending confirmation of 180 days. I will second. Okay. Having a motion for Mr. Owens and a second for Miss Moran. I'll call for the vote. Miss Moran, yay. >> Miss Wallace? >> Yay. >> Mr. Mike's? >> Yay. >> Mr. Owens, >> yay. >> I'm also yay. Motion passes. This is the most learning meeting we're ever having. I love it. >> Okay, with that done, yay. I'm feeling

040very excited to have two calendars pretty much done. We are going to move on now to the summary report of student success outcomes for last school year. This is the meat of our meeting tonight. I'm very excited to hear from all our presenters we have, but we're going to start with Dr. Ducey and she can induce the rest of the lovely people that are going to share information with us. >> Thank you. Good evening, Madame President, governing board members, my admin cabinet, and all of the community that may be watching or watching later. Um, we are here as a team um to present tonight our summary report of student achievement, specifically to share with you our 2024 2025 outcomes. So, with me tonight presenting our various achievement data, um I have Brian Owen, and I'll

041go ahead and invite them to come up and join me now. Um, Brian Owen, our director of assessment and accountability, Jennifer Larson, our director of English language development, Katie Wood, our director of teaching and learning, Allison Paterno, our district literacy coach, Carrie Farnsworth, our district math coach, and then of course myself. So tonight, the purpose of why we're here with you as a team um is that we want to provide the board and the community an update on student success. Um as you all know, our vision is student success and our mission is to prepare our Lichfield learners through readiness, resources, and relationships. We know that there's a lot of information this presentation. Um we will not be going through each and every slide, but this slide is these slides are available to you and

042the community so they can look at our data. We're really going to focus on our key takeaways as well as our next action steps. We really want to make sure that we present data to you. This data has been collected was collected as a year outcome for our students. We look at data in various ways um to analyze our effectiveness and to make decisions on how to get better and to celebrate things that went really well. And so we really want the community and you as a board to know what the outcomes of all these different data points are. Um so that you can also join us in celebrating and also identifying ways that we can get better. And as I shared, our mission is preparing our Lichfield learners through readiness resources and relationships. So

043definitely this is the heart of the work and the purpose of why we're all here. So, I'll turn things over to Mr. Owen, our um director of assessment and achievement, accountability and achievement. of the board. Mr. Superintendent, what I'd like to do is uh just share. So, this hasn't been made public yet. We don't have a district or a statewide data file. So, what we'll do is share what we have for our results from the district. This is spring 2025. Um, AASA math ELA data and aside data. So, um, we look at the state trend or district trend. District trend really follows the patterns of the state trend. We can see increases and decreases that are higher or lower than the state. Here's a quick state comparison. One note I want to make about this

044slide is that our the gap between Lichfield's proficiency and the statewide proficiency by grade did decrease uh from the previous year by about a percentage point down to just over 9 percentage point difference. Here's a quick look at a SI proficiency and what we can see. A couple of significant decreases yet couple of significant increases. And I want to go over our beginning of the year data. We just wrapped up uh fall benchmark testing. We tested in math, reading, and science. And what I like to do is compare uh fall this year to fall and previous years. Here's a quick district look at the last three years of fall data for math and reading, last two years of fall data for science. Those are all comparable data points. And really what we see at a

045district level is high stability. We see slight increases or decreases at a district level, but that data is really more useful down at the school level so that schools can see which grade levels this year are coming in higher or lower than grade levels did in the past two years. And that of course can alert schools right at the beginning of the year which grade levels are going to need uh more or less support this year. Then what we wanted to do, this may seem a little bit early in the school year, but we want to just get the state accountability model in front of you because I anticipate in November we'll come back with actual 2025 state accountability data. So what I'd like to do is give a quick general overview of the components

046and then uh just a quick flashback to what we saw last year in the schools and district. And this is just to get ready for the November presentation with current data. So real quick, they just they define uh these letter grades ABC distinguished performance, high performance, adequate performance as uh you go down the letter grades. Quick look at the model components. So this says 2024. These are 2024 components, business rules, and cut points. And the reason that I'm using 2024 is because the state board has not officially approved the business rules or uh letter grade cut points. But the accountability committee met yesterday and the discussions there were um they will not recommend changes this year. So I'm under the assumption that we will see the same business rules and cut points this year. Um

047we'll look at the largest one 50% of the of the uh formula is growth. One thing I point out on this slide is that the lower scoring students that show higher growth are higher weighted and I always emphasize that with the schools proficiency that's 30% or 30 points. The important detail on this slide that I emphasize is that for this calculation only for this accountability determination partially proficient students do count as proficient at a 06 rate. So what that means is 10 partially proficient students will count as six proficient students in the numerator and then on the other side the highly proficient students are weighted more than one.0 at 1.3. So 10 highly proficient students will count as 13 in the numerator. We can see greater uh accountability proficiency percentages greater than 100% just because

048of that those weightings. E is 10 points. The important thing about this component is that this is based on the AELA test. This is not AASA test. Two pieces of this growth and proficiency. And what I emphasize to schools when I uh present is that every proficient student counts in both categories. They move it up a proficiency level and they scored proficient. This component is the final 10 points of the 100 points. This is just several different indicators. The main ones here, subgroup performance is up to 10 uh up to a maximum six points out of the 10. And then grade three ELA decrease can see an additional five points. And those schools that have grade eight can see up to an additional five points for increases in percent highly proficient and decreases in percent

049minimally proficient. Then for two points too, which is a focus, is chronic absenteeism and a decrease there. Wh that's my fault. We're going to fix that. I accidentally had a duplicate slide in there. And then there are bonus points up to five points for science proficiency and for high incidence uh uh special ed populations. Quick overview of what we saw last year in the district. 7 A rated schools, six B schools, two C schools, and then we also calculate district level letter grades. And basically it's a straight GPA calculation. This is what we saw last year. the district GPA was 3.33 which was just below the A uh cut point of 3.5 and we do have preliminary data. I will just say here when we come back with the actual data that's public and final

050um the district GPA will be if everything stays the same higher than last year. And with that I would like to turn it over to Miss Alison PNO. Um, can we ask questions or >> before we move on? >> Please do. I just on a roll. >> Is that okay, Madam President? >> Yes, please go ahead. >> Do you want me to start? >> Yes, go ahead if you have questions on this first section. >> Okay. So, I don't want to move on yet because I want to celebrate some things first and I feel like we should maybe take this presentation in chunks. So, can we revisit slide number eight, which is the 2025 AASA state comparison slide? >> Yes. Okay. So, I would like us to look at this because I believe this has

051been very consistent over the years that our district has outperformed the state in every category across the board historically. And I think that is something that we should acknowledge and celebrate. And so, I want to say thank you to our teachers and staff for helping us to be better than the state average, which is something to be said. Now I do realize that this does not directly translate to our letter grades and that our letter grades which is the second part of your um or the third part really of your presentation your portion of the presentation is what a lot of our parents focus on. So I guess I would like to make sure that we are communicating multiple data pieces to our parents. I know that they're generally most concerned with their own child's

052performance, which is of course going to be their their highest priority. But I think um when we promote ourselves and how well we're doing, I think sometimes some of these data points can get lost in the shuffle there. So, I just want to make sure that um we are doing our best to um provide the facts and make sure that people do know that when it comes to um the Lichfield district and the states, one of the states gauges that they are using um that we consistently have outshown um the average in the state. And I do appreciate the proactive um nature of talking about the the letter grades. Um I know that those are not final yet. So I do look forward to um that presentation when those are finalized and um we'll obviously

053talk about that more at that point in time. >> That's all. Thank you. >> That's a good point. Thank you, Member M. >> Miss Wallace, did you have any questions or comments up to this point? >> I do not, but I'm loving how it looks. So far, >> Mr. Mike, >> none for me. >> Mr. Owens, >> none for me. Thanks. >> I'll let you guys keep going. >> Good evening. I'd like to briefly share our reading assessment results results starting with our Acadians data for elementary students. Aadence is our move on one reading universal screener which helps us identify students at risk for reading difficulties. Aadians measures basic early literacy skills from kinder through fifth grade and it grows in complexity as kids progress through the grade levels. I'm pleased to report positive trends

054in our year-over-year Acadians data. All grades except kindergarten showed growth in the percentage of students at or above benchmark when comparing May 2025 to May 2024. Our largest end ofear growth is seen in first grade with a 4 percentage point increase. This data indicates that we are steadily increasing reading proficiency across our elementary schools and importantly that students are retaining and applying basic early literacy skills. Moving to our middle school reading assessment, our I Ready reading diagnostic adjusts questions based on student responses and upon con completion, it generates an individual learning path for our sixth through eighth grade students. We see significant growth in the percentage of students at or above grade level and a significant decrease in the percentage of students two or more grade levels below. Here's that same data broken down by

055grade level. And this chart shows that students across all placement levels are showing growth relative to national norms. So to summarize ELA before turning it over to math, both our elementary cadence results and our middle school I reading reading data indicate positive movement. We're seeing consistent year-over-year improvement in elementary cadence reading composite scores, strong retention and application of foundational reading skills, positive movement of middle school students toward grade level proficiency, effective support for our most struggling readers in all grade levels. We believe these results validate our continued focus on evidence-based literacy instruction in tier one and also targeted interventions across the grade levels. >> Apologies. any questions that I could answer for you, >> Miss Moran? >> Yeah, I do have a general question. So, can you just explain I think I have an understanding,

056but I want to make sure it's clear for me and definitely clear for parents out there. Can you explain to me the differences between the benchmark testing, the Aadians testing, and the I Ready testing? >> Sure. So, Aadian is measuring the basic reading skills. So it's doing things like letter naming, phenemic awareness, um oral reading fluency, looking at accuracy, um and then the measuring some retell and vocabulary. So it's very focused on the early literacy skills, whereas our um district benchmark focuses much more on the comprehension skills. So they'll be asked to read complex text and answer some questions about that complex text. The I Ready does a little bit of both. So, um, in middle grades, that's where we're going to see them screening for any, um, difficulties in phmic awareness and phonics, but

057really honing in on vocabulary comprehension, um, at those, um, higher grade levels. So, overall, when we look at each of those different tests, do we think that that's giving us an accurate picture of where our students are? >> Yeah. So, Aadian is designed to be very predictive. So, they've done all sorts of um research to make sure that those cut scores are based on alignments to um national proficiency levels. Um so, that's very predictive. And then I know Brian's done a lot of work on um ensuring that our benchmark data is also predictive. So I would say that those when we take those data points um and kind of triangulate them to look at how each student is doing. I would say that that's very predictive of how students are doing and I'm looking forward

058to now having common summitive assessment data as well to help us give um even more data about where our students are. Okay. Okay. because I'm trying to connect the dots to and I know that the growth is only part of our letter grades but again I know parents are really focused on the letter grades and I know that's only part of what we look at that's only part of the picture but I am just trying to put all those things together so I appreciate that explanation. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I have no questions. Thank you >> Mr. Mike. >> None for me. Thank you >> Mr. Owens. No questions. >> I just wanted to add another um comment to um board member Moran's question is the rationale of why we use all these

059different measures is because we are trying to predict and monitor progress toward what the state will inevitably look at that make up our letter grade. So looking at how students are growing, look at their proficiency as well as what are the the skills that are missing so that we can help them fill those gaps to get them to higher proficiency and higher growth. So all these assessments together um outside of ASA are meant as progress monitoring to help us address and intervene and provide higher quality tier one as well as tier 2 and tier three instruction. >> Can I ask another follow-up question? Is there do you think and this might just be your opinion but do you think that there is a point that we would be doing too many assessments? >> That is

060a great question. I think that we always have to find balance in how we're assessing students but at the end of the day we must always make sure that we're checking for understanding and that's just another word for assessment. So yes, these tools are um norm referenced and um looked across the board as far as predictive qualities and how accurate they are. Um but we need those measures to be able to individually see where a student is on their trajectory and their learning path. So it's it is a constant balance. But when you think about assessment, we really should be assessing our kids every day because that's a checking for understanding. >> That feels like a lot. I mean, I wouldn't want to be assessed every day, but I'm not I'm not in school anymore.

061So, >> well, every day we should be asking, "What do we want the kids to learn today? How do we know they learned it?" And that is an assessment. >> Even if it's a five question assessment, it's an assessment. >> Okay. Okay. That's fair. Thank you. >> All right. So, I'll turn things over to Mrs. Farnsworth. >> Um, another item I think is important to note for English language arts is that the standards have several different components. So they have reading informational text, reading literature, um speaking and listening, writing and so these assessments get at different parts of the English language arts because the standards are broken into those different areas. A cadence is really primarily focusing on the foundational skills whereas our benchmark would be f focusing on the readingformational text and reading literature.

062So the assessment system is balanced to meet the needs of our standards. >> All right. Good good evening everybody. So I am here to talk about the I Ready math diagnostic. Um and there we go. All right. So our I Ready Math um data for the 202425 school year shows um positive trends in student performance and growth. You'll see across all grade levels um that we saw the number of students um performing at or above grade level increased while the number of students that were at two or more grade levels below decreased. We are also pleased to report that the median growth um that our goal was that our median growth was 100% and we exceeded that in all grade levels except sixth grade. Um we also um were well above that 50th um percentile

063which is that national normed um reference. When we look at this next graph, we're also looking at the baseline baseline placement levels, which is important for us um when we're looking at next steps. So, we're looking at how we are reaching our students that are above grade level, on grade level, and below grade level. So, that helps us when we are um looking at planning. Um so our key observations were that um our district's overall end of the year placement um remained very consistent with the May um 2024 endofear data which was um very consistent to Brian's data. >> Do you have any questions about the math I already diagnosed? Miss Moran, >> I do not have any specific questions about the math. Thank you. Okay, >> Miss Wallace, >> no questions. Thank you. Mr.

064Mike, >> none for me. Thanks, >> Mr. Owens. >> No, thank you for the information. >> So, we're going to do a little instructional adjustment and we're going to actually um bring Mrs. Larson up next. So I'm going to go just few slides here because it makes sense for you to hear from her next. All right, Madame President, governing board members, um thank you so much for allowing me to present um our Azela data from last year. So the AELA uh Brian touched on it earlier is that 10 EL points for our letter grade. And so Azella is Arizona's English language proficiency assessment. It's administered to students who have other than English home language surveys at the time of enrollment. So students that may have other languages present in their home or may speak other

065languages. The uh proficiency measures are is presented in overall proficiency level but then at domain level proficiency. So looking at listening, reading, writing and speaking and um it is determined for placement reclassification and instructional support for our multilingual learners in um Lichfield. So again, it's it's presented as an overall proficiency. And so we'll look at proficiency level and then we'll look at some domain proficiency levels as well. In order for students to um receive an overall level of proficient, they must receive a total score of 1,000 um and uh intermediate or proficient in all of the domain levels. So looking at our proficiency trend, um you can see across three years, it's the same data, but you can see that we consistently outscore the state. Again, this is not announced yet, but it's what we

066have. And you'll see more in our A throughF letter grade, but you can see that we um have again consistently outsored the state over the last three years in proficiency. So that's the number of students who scored proficient or reclassified from ELD services. Looking at AELA growth, so this is students that grew one or more proficiency levels on the Azella. You can see again that we have consistently outscored the state uh with our students growth percentage as well on the AELA. This is just a quick um distribution of grade levels that scored proficient. You can see our highest numbers were in kindergarten and first grade, which is good news because that's where the highest number of our English learners are. We want to make sure that we are giving them that foundational um English language

067development in early grades so that they can be successful. As you can see, the lowest grades are middle school, but that's also good news because that is where we have our lowest number of multilingual learns because we do our jobs well by catching them early on when they're with us. um looking at some domain proficiency. Again, we can look at overall proficiency, but we do a lot of um data dives to look at the individual needs of students for instruction. Um so, you can look here. This was the listening domain proficiency. So, just a little over 30% of our students were proficient. Um something to keep in mind, I'm going to switch here for the two-year. We had a greater number of pre-emergent emergent students. So, newcomers or beginning English learners last school year than

068ever before. So, some of this data you'll see that our pre-emergent emergent basic um is up, but that's because we had a larger percentage of pre-emergent emergent students. Um so, listening is again the number of proficient is um a slightly higher than last year. So, on that upward trend, our writing proficiency, this is probably the domain that I'm most proud of. Um writing is usually one of the best um language skills to come just because it's so cognitively complex and all of the things that go into writing. But when you look at our two-year comparison um how many more students this year scored proficient in that subdomain of writing that was a goal that our team worked on last year. This was overall reading proficiency and then the two year. So stable data there speaking

069we can see we had almost 43% of our students score proficient in the speaking domain and our data for speaking which always looks really good. It's usually one of the higher um proficiencies. So just some key observations a celebration over 120 of our students um nearly 22% scored proficient on the Azela or ALT alba which is our alternative um Azela assessment. Over 50% of our students grew one or more proficiency levels. Um again that significant uh increase in that writing domain and our growth in proficiency percentages are really um stable slightly increased um in proficiency from last year but again well above that state average. Looking at some action steps we're just going to continue to look at data as a team. As a matter of fact we have a data dive tomorrow. Um we

070are going to continuously implement that high quality targeted ELD um within our uh pullout groups. We will partner with our integrated ELD teachers to co-plan to make sure that scaffolds are happening all day in the classroom so that students have access to grade level content. Um we are going to partner with our families to engage them as active participants in our school community our cafetos and our um family literacy night that we have each year. And so um and as a team to address some of that reading we are really taking a dive looking at um reading foundational skills to move that needle so that our students can lift um those words off the page by supporting their phmic awareness phonics fluency um and a big majority of our team has undergone letters training so

071that we can specifically address that with our students. So that is all the data that I have for you. Uh do you have any questions? >> Miss Moran, did you have questions on this section? >> Um no questions about I just continue to be impressed by our English language learners and the department. You do great work and once again another area that we consistently outperform the state average. So I would say keep up the good work. >> Thank you, Miss Wallace. ditto what she said and thank you for all your hard work and also looks great >> Mr. Mike >> no questions for me thank you >> Mr. Owens >> thank you no questions >> thank you >> I don't have any questions either thank you >> all right and Mrs. Larson started us off

072with our continuous improvement process by sharing what her ELD um coordinators are doing as action steps. Um before we jump into our other action steps from my team back here, I did want to point out just one thing um just to kind of bring all this full circle of why this data is so important. So, if you can just be patient with me, I'm going to find the slide that I want to focus us on for a moment. So, as Brian had shared, um, he shared this graphic right here, and I just wanted to point out, we anticipate that the state board of ed is going to keep the same components. And so as you we've shared this evening, we've demonstrated how we're tracking literacy, how we're tracking our English language learners, how we're tracking

073individual student growth from, you know, being at grade level above liberal in reading and math. And if you notice this chart here, if you get full points for both growth and proficiency, the cutoff is 80 points. So, you will not reach an A rating without your EEL effectiveness and your acceleration and readiness, which is your eighth grade math being highly proficient um or decrease in the amount of students being minimally proficient. And we'll talk about that more in November, and also our third graders being proficient on the reading test. So I just wanted to point that out of that is another reason why all of this data and together is so important because really to reach the highest effectiveness from the state it's not just about growth and proficiency it's about all these data points

074together. So now if you patient with me I'll find where we were at. Madame President, can I just make one more comment as well to go along with Dr. Doo's um conversation here? Miss Moran, you asked the question around the the intensity and the amount of assessment we give and I think our team here is demonstrating that uh there's a variety of ways that we assess our kids and and how we determine whether or not they're they're excelling in our classrooms. I think where we're headed next is which I just wanted to highlight is that it's not about just gathering that data on how our students are performing. It's about what our staff is then doing with it to make improvements and to help support each and every child that we serve. So, I just

075wanted to just throw that out there that it's it's a big giant circle. You know, we collect, we do, and then we collect some more and then we keep doing. So, >> which is a great transition for our slide. >> Thank you, Dr. Davidson. So, definitely the the cycle of continuous improvement definitely is a circle. What we do with the data is what's most important. So, we're going to talk to you about moving action and add on to the great work that Mrs. Larson already shared. So, I will invite um I'll start out here. This is actually has to do with the scorecard work. Um each site leader, department, and um educational and operation will use multiple data sources for their respective department. In this case, we're specifically talking about our educational leaders. um will

076use this data to identify with their guiding coalitions or with the district guiding coalition. Um our um specific scorecard goals and part of those scorecard goals will also be monthly check-ins during admin counsel um as well as you know a pre with your supervisor, a mid and a post to talk about those goals. And in that mid-year evaluation, there is a reflection process so that we can monitor and adjust um as we see the impact of our action on the results that we're looking for. >> Okay. Can I ask a follow-up question before you move on? Okay. So, I really want to break this down because one of the things that I would like for anyone who's interested in getting out of this presentation is to understand what we're doing with this data. And I

077know that is your goal as well. So, can you explain what a guiding coalition is? >> Sure. So, a guiding coalition, think about it this way. You set out a purpose, which is student success, to to raise student achievement. Your guiding coalition is a group of people that represent diverse perspectives on your campus. So, there'll be different grade levels, there'll be different specialists, there'll be different um stakeholders that are part of the staff are typically on the guiding coalition. that guiding coalition comes together and meets periodically to say, okay, they establish the goals. They establish, hey, these are the action steps that we're going to take that we believe are the highest leverage that are going to get us to that final goal. And then they come up a way with a way to monitor

078it. How are we going to make sure that we're doing those action steps and that that we're getting what we wanted out of them? That guiding coalition keeps coming back in that cycle to say, okay, where are we at? Where are our action steps? What do our key performance indicators tell us? That's what we're using to monitor those action steps so that when we get to the end of the year, it's not a surprise, right, where how far off we are with that goal using all these different data points are examples of data that principles and their guiding coalitions will use. So guiding coalition is just a group of people that collaborate that guide the work to ensure that the goals stay at the top of the mind of the school and that they monitor

079the action steps to make sure that it's moving them in the right direction. >> Okay. Okay. And I know this is a relatively new concept to our district. Do the members of the guiding coalition change every year? >> They could. Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. So, they could, but they don't necessarily. Um, okay. I think that was a good explanation. Thank you. >> Okay. And then I'm going to invite Mr. Owen up to talk about illuminate. >> So, what I've been doing Now, at the beginning of the year, we have um summitive data from last year that schools can look at. We now have a beginning of the year data point that schools can look at and we have preliminary um accountability data that schools can look at. So, what I've been doing is looking at

080those things with the school level teams, either whole staff, which I've done a couple times, or with their leadership teams to look closely at where students are starting. Now, there's, for example, a couple of schools have low cohorts. So we knew they were low last year and now going into next year we see with our beginning of the year data they're low in the next grade. So that's a trigger to say we're going to need to get into that grade level and support that grade level because we know coming into the school year that that's a low grade level. And uh I go through accountability data and then what I have in Illuminate are just reports. I have custom reports. They're pre-built reports to show them to track these things. What data can you use

081and what reports can you pull to look at things like uh grade three minimally proficient in reading, grade 8 math, highly proficient and minimally proficient. Um those are those are the big ones. Any questions? >> Miss Moran. Yes. Could you give a one minute summary of what Illuminate is? >> Oh, I'm sorry. So, illuminate is um just an assessment system and item bank system that the district adopted. Uh this is now the fourth year with it. It replaced our old system. And so, what this has is a very robust item bank that teachers have access to. So, they can go in, search by standard, and create their own assessments. And then it's also our district assessment tool where we build our district assessments and students take the assessments in illuminate and then the illuminate the

082data reporting is also done in illuminate. >> Okay. So benchmarks are taken with illuminate. >> Yes. So this are district benchmarks. Yep. In math, reading and science. Thank you. >> And this is just another tool that the teachers can use for their assessments. >> Yep. Assessments and also for data. >> Okay. Perfect. >> Miss Wallace. No questions, Mr. Mike. >> None, >> Mr. Owens. >> None for me. Thanks. >> No, I don't have any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you for this opportunity to share um some targeted action steps for ELA instruction across our district. Um let's start with elementary. Um, our elementary action plan is going to focus on strengthening foundational reading skills while also building comprehension capacities. Um, we're enhancing our core instruction in both foundational skills and comprehension by using our teacher

083committee created slide decks for our core program. We're pairing that with evidence-based instructional routines. This is ensuring consistency across our elementary schools while also maintaining highquality researchbacked practices. We're also significantly increasing opportunities for daily reading practice using fluency building protocols. Um we noticed that um students were needing more consistent practice to build reading fluency, automaticity, stamina. And so this um action item is to um to support with that. Our teachers in all grade levels are using sorting grids to differentiate instruction based on multiple data points which includes universal screening data, diagnostic assessments, and soon common summitive assessments. This is to ensure that every student receives instruction that's targeted to their specific needs. We're implementing curriculum that's been um vetted using ESSA criteria at all tiers of instruction. Um so that um ensures that they're receiving

084high quality evidence-based materials whether they're in tier 1, tier 2, or tier three. And lastly, we're continuing to invest in our teachers through the K5 literacy endorsement coursework um that's focused on the science of reading. This year, our training concentrates on dyslexia awareness and evidence-based strategies for supporting students with reading difficulties. We're also offering many other professional development opportunities. One that we're excited about is um core ELA lesson demonstrations in which teachers have the opportunity to go see live lessons that are um led by our veteran teachers. This is always the professional development that's most requested by teachers and it gives them the opportunity to witness best practices in implementing the science of reading um effective teaching strategies and student engagement. So we're very grateful for our veteran teachers who have are opening their classrooms

085for us to come learn from them. We're also happy to report that we now have two in district educators who are certified to lead volume one of the letters training that um Jen Larson mentioned earlier. Um, so that way we're able to continue to offer that professional development series to our teachers. We anticipate that we'll have an additional 20 teachers that are participating starting on our cohort three next month. Um, in middle school, um, it's going to focus on building the sophisticated literacy skills and critical thinking capacities that students are going to need for high school. Um, so we're going to continue enhancing our core instruction with a specific focus on vocabulary development, building world knowledge, and teaching students to read and I'm sorry, to talk and write about complex text. We're emphasizing purposeful reading

086with annotation strategies that will serve students throughout their academic careers. We're continuing to build a middle school ELA framework for database decision-making at um, all tiers of instruction. We've also launched a new middle school ELA um leadership cohort that's focusing on a deep understanding of ELA resources and strategies. These teacher leaders are building shared capacity to analyze and act on data, facilitate professional learning communities, and mentor and train their colleagues. We're hoping that this will create a sustainable model for ongoing um improvement. And finally, we're providing disciplinary disciplinary literacy professional development to help teachers across all subject areas. support reading, writing, and communication skills. This recognizes that literacy development is not just the responsibility of the ELA teachers, but instead it requires a coordinated effort across all content areas. Similarly to elementary, we'll be offering

087live lemon lesson demonstrations for sixth through eighth grade teachers to model best practices in middle school ELA instruction. And again, we're thankful to our veteran teachers for opening their classrooms for that purpose. So in summary, these action steps are designed to build teacher capacity through professional learning opportunities and leadership co uh cohorts to ensure consistency with our district materials and frameworks to target individual student needs through datadriven differentiation and to create sustainability by developing teacher leaders and systemic approaches. We believe that these action steps address all aspects of K8 literacy and will prepare our students for success in high school and beyond. They represent our commitment to evidence-based instruction, continuous improvement, and ensuring that every student becomes a proficient reader and writer. Do you have any questions about these action steps? >> Miss Maran. >>

088Okay. I love all the information. It's it is fantastic. However, if you could just read that last part again that said it in like parent language about what all of this looks like from a district level, I would appreciate that because I would like to digest that a little better myself. >> So, repeat the last sentence I said >> where you said like in summary this is, you know, the systemic changes and that part. >> Yeah. So, basically, we're building teacher capacity. We're ensuring consistency across our district. um we're targeting individual student needs through differentiation and we're creating sustainability really through those leadership cohorts um and just the systematic approaches that we're taking. >> Okay. I would love to see something simplified like that communicated to parents so that they can see maybe when the

089letter grades come out or something however we want to communicate that so that maybe they can easier tie in the fact that we are collecting this data and these are the things that we're doing about it to show that continuous improvement because while I appreciate the action steps that all of you understand what they mean and that you can apply and all the teachers can apply in their classrooms. I don't think it's as easily translatable to parents as that excellent summary that you just provided. >> That's a great idea. Thank you. >> Thanks, >> Miss Wallace. No questions. Thank you, >> Mr. Mike. >> None for me. Thank you, >> Mr. Owens. >> Yeah, I don't have any questions. I love action steps, right? We have the data. This is going to give us an

090understanding of where our students at. And so, now what are we going to do with it? because that's the goal is to use the data and I liked how it was mentioned like you know this is really to pinpoint each student's development and understanding of the subject matter. So, how can we use this at the student level and not just look this big picture? Okay, third grade's fine. No, it's where do we find the students that really need it the most? And so, love action steps. Thank you for all your work. >> I don't have any questions, but I do love the idea of our teachers getting to learn from veteran teachers. So, I am glad that we are making that opportunity available for them to learn from each other because that's how they're going

091to do better, right? So, thank you. >> Thank you. All right. When we talk about math action steps, um we look at our math data and really the diagnostic data um does two things. One, it feeds into their my path um and gives those lessons to fills gaps. So that's the first part. The second part is it tells teachers what um prerequisite skills students are missing so that they can help fill those gaps and students can access that grade level content when they're teaching it. So really that's what we're using that diagnostic data for. Um when we talk about math action steps we're really um doing two things this year. Um we are working on some professional development for both teachers, coaches, and principles. We have representatives from all um schools going to Graham Fletcher's

092power of progressions um that um the Westside Impact Partnership is holding. Um we also have coaches and principles going to an AD training on deepening math standards implementation. And then as um math specialists and coaches, we're really working on strengthening resources and support in three key components of our instructional um framework. So the first one is spiral review. So we know that we're lacking some resources for spiral review. So we're working on compiling some resources that um are that is aligned to the pacing that we have um with I Ready. So, we're we're looking at creating some resources for that. Um, we are looking at expanding our resources and our training for teachers on number sense um routines and to increase that student discourse and mental math strategies. Um, and then the last one is

093we're building um some teacher capacity um and resources in the area of fluency. So, those are the three areas we're looking to strengthen this year. Any questions about our math action steps? >> Miss Moran, >> um, it seems to summarize on the math side that really building the teacher capacity is where we're focusing. >> How do the teachers feel about that? >> So, we had some um, math content training at the Lyft PD that was received very well. We got positive feedback on that. Um, I think the teachers are excited. We have a lot of um self um like departmentalized teachers going to the Graham Fletcher training. I think they're very excited about going to like an outside training. Um I think they haven't been able to do that a lot. So we've received positive

094feedback. >> Tell me more about the Graham Fletcher training. I don't I'm not familiar with that. >> So Graham Fletcher is a guru when it comes to math. Um and Westside Impact is paying to bring him in, um for 3 days. And so, um we were able to secure 17 spots. Um and so we have 17 rep teachers going, mostly teachers, a few coaches, um and they get three days with Graham Fletcher. Um and he does a lot of work with um number sense the progressions in math building that conceptual understanding for teachers so they really understand the math that they are um teaching um at that deep level >> and then those representatives will come back and do some sort of PD with the rest of >> that is the idea. Yes. Okay. Um

095excellent. I just wondered um yeah if teachers welcomed the support that this seems to be offering. >> So far we've heard positive things. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Miss Wallace. >> No questions. Thank you, Mr. Mike. >> None for me. Thanks, >> Mr. Owens. >> No questions. Thank you. So, as we looked at the several data points that we have, we worked with our instructional coaches and our principles to talk about where are we now, what's our current reality, and where do we want to be by the end of this school year. Um, and then we've talked about what's going to bridge that gap for us as a district. So, um, a couple things we're focusing on. Um, you've heard mention of the Lyft, that's the Lichfield instructional framework for teaching. And so that's kind

096of a cycle that we're using to provide professional development for teachers to have walkthroughs in classrooms where we're looking for consistent things. Um and then also how we're analyzing our data and bringing that back to teachers as part of our coaching cycle. Um and then we also want to make sure that all of our students across the district have access to um complex text that's at their grade level and complex problems that are at their grade level in their curriculum, in their instruction, and in the assessments. So one of the things that we are going to be looking at this year is common summitive assessments. Um so some the benchmarks and the diagnostics they've talked about kind of give that high leverage overview. The common summitive assessments are really the in the weeds very specific

097data. So the teacher just taught something for a few weeks. We're assessing just what was taught um to see which of our students have it and which of our students may need additional practice with those standards. Um, so we're also going to be doing walkthroughs to make sure that what they're being trained on is what we're seeing in classrooms. Um, so that we can help support and make sure that all of our students have access to solid tier one grade level instruction. We know that our students need to build stamina to be ready at the end of the year for the AASA. And we want to make sure that the students are carrying the cognitive load and that we are giving them practice and then they're getting that feedback about how they need to adjust

098to be able to reach grade level standards. Um, we want to make sure that we're starting with the end in mind so that our teachers and coaches are looking at where do students need to be by the end of this unit and then what instruction do we need to provide to make sure that all of our students can learn at high levels. Um, and then this is just a graphic we shared with teachers to talk about what each of our data points is s what purpose it's serving. So some of our data is to make predictions, some of our data is to show growth. Specifically, the common summit of assessments will be to look at real time learning. So, we just taught something for a few weeks. Did our students learn that? And then what

099next steps do we need to take? So, do we need to pull a small group of students for review? Do we need to do a whole class review or did everybody get it and we're ready to move on to the next? Um, so all of the assessments are aligned to grade level standards. They ask questions in a similar way to AASA. Um, but our purpose is really to help students make sure that they're mastering grade level content. And then all this is where the common summit of assessments will take place. So K5, they will be their wonders unit assessments. In 68, it will be study sync for ELA. And then our TA class will also be using the Wonders unit assessments because they're not based on the curriculum. They're based on the standards. So it

100will still be applicable for them. In math, um, they'll use I Ready in all grade levels as their assessment. The TA classes who are using Singapore for math will take standards mastery from Ireie, um, because their pacing is different from the classrooms using I Ready. So, we want to make sure we're assessing them on the standards that they just were taught. And then in science, we'll be using inspire science unit assessments for fifth grade and any departmentalized grades. And then sixth through 8th grade, it will be the Amplify unit assessments. And then as you've asked, what are we going to be doing with the data? So primarily it will be discussed in PLC's. So what are we going to do for our students who got it and what are we going to do for our

101students who didn't? So what next steps do we need to take? And then we'll also be looking at the data as a principal group and as an instructional coach group so that we can make sure if we have one teacher in third grade whose students are killing it, we want to make sure that everybody uses those same strategies across the district. And then we will also take all that data and use that to plan both school professional development and district professional development. So are there any questions I can answer about common sumatives? >> Miss Moran, >> um yes. Can we go back and revisit the what slide? Slide 49. Can you explain to me a little bit more about the shifting both assessment for learning and assessment of learning? Yes, absolutely. So, we want to

102make sure that we have the big picture overview that diagnostic assessments and benchmark assessments provide. We also want to make sure that we have the checkpoints along the way. Um, there's a big gap in time between when we take our beginning of the year benchmark and our end of the year benchmark and same with our diagnostic tests. So these are really the smaller assessments along the way that tell us um either students have mastered these standards or they haven't so that in real time we can monitor and adjust our instruction. >> Okay. So that's really the the assessment for learning is the growth and predictions and the assessment of learning is the proficiency. >> Correct. >> Moment. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um my other um question is this is a this common summit

103of assessment is a shift correct. We haven't been as consistent maybe with this as we would have liked in the past. >> So in previous years there were some teams that elected to use the unit assessments but it was not a requirement across the district. >> Okay. And now we're requiring it. So the common formative assessments are things that generally have been kind of homegrown potentially, but we're saying that going forward, all classes with some of the TA exceptions that you mentioned will be using the same systems for these assessments, meaning wonders and I Ready and that sort of thing. >> Correct. So we will be able to look across the district as a whole. How are our third graders doing in reading? How are our third graders doing in math? And then that will

104also kind of help us know as they were talking about some of the demonstrations. If we have teachers where we see their data is really strong, that's a good indication to us that it might be helpful to have other teachers go observe in that room, see what's happening that's yielding those results. Okay. And so we will also be disseminating best practices, right? That's part of this. You know, we're spreading spreading effective practices across the district. >> Correct. What do we have everything in place that we need to support the teachers in being successful in these changes? Because I know every time there's a change it can be frustrating or challenging. And so I this all sounds very positive and I know we're heading in the right direction. I just want to make sure that our

105teachers can get on board and get excited about this. And sometimes it's hard to do until they see the positive results. >> Yes, absolutely. And I think where we are right now, people have a lot of questions and there is definitely some anxiety because it is new. Um, but our goal really is just to make sure that we have real-time data that we can act on before we get to the end of the year. Um, so we know each grade level students have one chance of mastering these standards. So we want to make sure that we know with certainty where all of our students are so that everyone is learning at high levels. Great. I definitely appreciate the consistency and I love that we are or we seem to be utilizing the technology that is

106available from our curriculum more and more every year. Absolutely. Thank you, >> Miss Wallace. No questions, but I do appreciate all of Kim's questions because she is really thinking about the parents and what their questions might be. So, I do appreciate your questions. >> I picked her to go first on purpose tonight, Mr. Mike. Any questions from you? >> Uh, no questions for me. Thanks, >> Mr. Owens. >> Got the data. We've got a game plan. Now, we just got to execute. And so I'm confident that we have the team and the resources to do it. So, thank you for all your hard work. Appreciate it. >> Um, and just one item of note about our ELA action steps that Allison was not going to brag about, but that I would like to brag about

107on her behalf. We are the only district in the state who has been approved to provide that training to our teachers. So, our teachers have the opportunity to have that as part of their professional day at no cost. Um, and that is not true for our neighboring districts. So, I just think that that's very important that we highlight for Allison and her team, [Applause] but I do have a question for you >> and maybe anybody could answer. Yeah. Um, so I just when I'm looking at the common summitive or common summitive assessments and we're talking about the difference in what they're going to be for K5, 66,8 and then TA, um, how can we compare apples to apples if our TA classes, some are doing one of the I Ready tests and some are doing

108a different I Ready test. Uh, even same grade level at different schools. >> Yeah. So the content will be quite similar. What's different is the time of year that they're taking it. So the uh pacing calendar for Singapore, the standards are taught in a different order than they are for I Ready. So the assessment items will look very similar for both the standards mastery and the I Ready assessments for the unit test. It's just when the students are being exposed to the questions because we want to make sure the standards they just taught are what they're being assessed on. >> Okay. Thank you. That was all. Is there another question? >> Nope, that's all. Yeah. Um, if there's no more questions, we have finished our presentation. I think Dr. Davidson may >> I I do

109have a comment if you don't mind. Um, Madame President, members of the board, um, are have you are any of you like old TV fans of maybe a show called The A Team? Do you remember that from I think it was maybe in the 80s somewhere in there? Right. So, they have a the leader of um, the A Team was Colonel John Hannibal Smith and he had a statement that he often said that I think ring is true tonight and that is that he loved it when a plan comes together. And so I just wanted to highlight the the efforts of our team here because this is conversation that's been going on over the last few years about continuing just to make improvements and to um be wise uh around the data that we have

110and and just really how to make a difference at the student level. And so you you got to see some of that tonight and and what we have moving forward. Um the other thing I wanted to highlight is um this afternoon we met with the superintendent advisory committee, the SAC group. And one of the things that we were driving home with them is that in order to do their job as teachers and to do it well, they simply just need the resources and and they need to know there's a safe place to discuss when those things aren't in place. We did that today and this presentation highlights the three main areas of focus for us in our schools. curriculum, instruction, and assessment. And you got to see now how all three of those things are

111woven together to provide a quality outcome on behalf of our kids, not just in one school, but all 16 of our schools. So, um, just wanted to throw a few positive thoughts out and again, say thanks to the team and also thank you to you all for the support. So, >> thank you guys. We really do appreciate all of the work that you put into this presentation and all the information. It's a lot of information, but you I appreciate the breaking it up and having everybody talk about their different parts. Um, I feel like this was very helpful for us to understand going forward. I hope that parents, if they're watching this later, are able to learn from this as well all of the work that's happening and what we're doing and the why. So,

112um, did anybody else have any other questions or comments about this item? Miss Moran? >> No. Thank you, >> Miss Wallace. >> No, thank you, Mr. Mike's. >> None for me. Thanks, >> Mr. Owens. >> Okay, I think we are done with that. Thank you guys again for the information. Next, we are going to move on to reports. We'll start with Dr. Davidson. >> Got to be careful. I still got things to say on this microphone. So, but um we'll I'll go back to the beginning of our meeting um just highlight as Dr. Dooy mentioned the idea of student success and our strategic plan around the three Rs. Um but you saw tonight guardians and families, staff, students, friends um really demonstrating that we are all doing this together. Perfect example. So much so that

113uh with Mr. Nuan as a support we had two groups of people. So, the other thing that it highlighted to uh to me is that we need to start finding a bigger boardroom. We have a lot of kids to celebrate. So, I'm excited about for that that that future conversation. Wanted to give a shout out to um some of our elected officials, state senators and representatives who have responded to my offer to meet for coffee or lunch. So, just a big thank you to Senator Diaz out of legislative district 22, Representative Carbone out of legis legislative district 25, and uh Representative Montenegro of Legislative District 29, as well as our mayor of Buckeye, uh, Mr. Orsbourne for just taking some time uh with me and and with some of our team members just to talk

114about the great work that's happening here in LD79. Um, yesterday, Monday, we had our first apple pie tour of the school year over at Verado Middle School. And just want to say thank you to uh our our principal, Miss Sartiano, and her team. Just had a really nice visit with our staff. And um, you know, it's always a good opportunity to meet with the team and and hear their voice around um, some frustrations that might be having and again, how we can help support them in their endeavors. Um, today we had an awesome training with our seventh grade social study teachers in partnership with ASU. We're excited to bring more information to the board on that, but again, making certain that we um give the teachers what they need to do great things with our

115students. And lastly, just a a close to an event that's coming in in late September, our cafe model with School Connect. We'll have all of our schools represented with um different partners um to their respective communities focused all around meeting the needs of the school, helping the school achieve their particular scorecard goals and action steps. So, we're excited about that and um if you haven't had an invitation to that, we'll be pushing that out soon. Um but we're excited for that uh opportunity just to um just to connect. Really simple. And lastly, uh, hats off to our our partners at EMCC. They're allowing us to to use one of their big training facilities. So, we're very thankful and grateful for that. Thank you, madam's item. >> Okay, we are going to move on to reports

116from board members and we'll start with Miss Moran. Sorry, Miss Wallace, you have to go after her. >> It'll be a short one tonight. Um, I attended the trust policy governance summit, which is a one-day event that included legislative and state board of education updates as well as breakout sessions on first amendment rights of students and staff and general litigation mitigation strategies. It was very informative and worthwhile to attend. I am always grateful to learn something new. On a personal note, I have been out of town an unusual amount recently to provide care for my almost 96year-old grandma who is nearing the end of her life. Caregiving is challenging and my heart goes out to all of our staff and families who find themselves in a similar situation. Hang in there, stay in the present

117moment and look for glimmers of peace where you can find them. I will close with lyrics from OAR's song peace. I just want to see that smile. We're only here for a little while. I want love. I want peace. >> Miss Wallace, um I don't have anything specific to share, but I just think it's wonderful that we are already a month into school and everything seems to be going wonderfully. And congratulations to all of the teachers and staff at the schools for a wonderful first six weeks of school. >> Mr. Mike, >> um I had a chance to attend the trust policy meetings as well with uh Miss Moran and a lot of great information came away with. Additionally, a three-day law conference uh with ASBA, which was really informative uh for me as as

118uh as this is kind of a new new thing for me to kind of see how it all relates and hearing a lot of great uh information and stuff kind coming down the uh road for us. Um, but on the most positive note was the celebration assembly I got to attend at Rancho Santa Fe because you're just sitting back and it was just an incredible celebration and a great vibe. Um, I I have I taught in the past, but it was the first time I sat back and says I I said to myself, gosh, I really wish I would have tried teaching kindergarten through fifth grade at some point. I don't know. They might have destroyed me, but um the uh the excitement in that in that room to for the start of the year

119was really incredible. Um so if you could figure out a way to package that up and sell that, that'd be a great idea. So >> Mr. Owens, >> I have no nothing to report. >> This was a very busy month both personally and as a board member. Uh, I too was able to attend the Rancho Santa Fe Lighthouse Assembly where they got to announce to their students that they were selected as a lighthouse school, which is very exciting for them. I was able to attend when they were doing their walkthroughs with the panel when they were being looked at at the end of last school year. And then all summer, I thought, I wonder what happened with that. So, I was very excited to find out that they did get it. And then we got

120to go and see. The kids were very excited. Principal Zuniga is a cheerleader like from her head to her toes and she always puts on a great assembly with her kids and the students really are embracing all that is in the leader in me in running those assemblies and getting everybody pumped up and they do a fantastic job. So hats off to everybody at Rancho and it's just an amazing campus that I cannot say enough good things about. Um I also attended the trust policy governance summit as well as the ASBA law conference. Uh the ASBA law conference is my favorite conference that they put on every year and um I'm very excited that we get to participate in that. I always walk away learning something new and I feel like it's the best conference

121that ASBA does. So I'm glad that we get the opportunity to go. I've also attended multiple meetings with Dr. Davidson and Dr. Dooy to do agenda planning and just kind of keeping aware of what's happening as we are moving through this beginning part of the school year. And I was able to just this last weekend I did attend a special Olympic swim meet where many of our stu there are several students that were able to participate in the special Olympic swim meets and so we got to watch them win some gold medals and silver medals and bronze medals as well as we had several former students that were very excited to see uh Miss Jordan there. They all love her and so there were several students that were excited to see her that are not

122students in our district anymore. But the most important things that I got to do was as a mom. Uh, right after our last regular meeting, I left to go and pick up my son, who I got to watch his ship pull in from a 10-month deployment after being gone 10 months, which was only supposed to be five, and got extended. And so, I got to hug my boy after 10 months, which was really great. I got to come home for two days after that and then move my oldest daughter into her college dorm. So, for two nights, I got to have all my cubs in one den, and which is my favorite thing to have, all my babies together. So that was the most important part of my month. But uh thank you guys for

123all that you do and I you know I my kids wouldn't be the successes that they are today if it wasn't for this district. So um with that uh thank you to all our administrators. That's the end of reports for governing boards. The administrators that turned in their reports. So we appreciate all the information that you give us. Again I tell the community please please please read it. It's really really great information to know what's going on in our district. um they always have fun stuff to share and with the beginning of school starting it's just a great information to get from our different schools and our different departments. Um with that if somebody wants to make a motion >> I move to adjourn the meeting. >> I second. Having a motion from Mr. Owens

124and a second from Miss Wallace I'll call for the vote. Miss Moran. >> Yay. >> Miss Wallace. Yay. >> Mr. Mike's yay. >> Mr. Owens yay. >> I'm also yay. Motion passes. Thank you everybody for joining us.