001Ready? [Music] Yeah. [Music] Michael Cer. She's there. I I couldn't quite hear. Is it my turn to say I'm present? Because Shelley Lacy cast out if it's the right time. Second. All [Music] right. [Music] Is that Yeah. Oops. I'm turning my There's mic there. Oh, okay. Oh, they were supposed to mic there. and really off the word on the street is great place to be. So we enrollments at the end of autumn next week. So we are at 410 students and we have 41 in grade 6, five grade seven and the most in grade eight. We are at the tail end of I think right now for eighth graders about rescue dogs in does a really nice job with the kids talking about the connection between 911. We have our first hometown recognition. It will
002be next week and our art club is going to be working on the mural. Our club is new this year and so they're going to be working on their mural for that. And speaking of clubs, we had a presentation for students yesterday, a slideshow about all the clubs that are offered at Middle School and those next week for students. [Music] So when it comes to SRVI, we're at the midpoint of quarter one this Friday. We're already halfway through quarter one, which is crazy to think about. Teachers are working with with students this week around their academic goals. Students are sitting with teachers pulling up their power school. They're talking about goals they have about their grades and attendance letters starting to go out. The attendance committee is going to meet and we're going to analyzing
003scores once the makeups are done. So that's the work we're doing around SR. Any questions on the report before I move into the school plan? Okay. So the district at you know the high school and Quaker Farms put through their school improvement plans based on the district goals and that's the same thing for Oxford school district goals to create our goals which then turned into the goals that teachers created last Friday afternoon on the half day. So when we look at goal number one, that's all around academic performance and attendance. And at the middle school level, when it comes to attendance and tardiness, we really look at parents as partners, right? Our our students can't drive yet. So it's a lot on parents when it comes to uh getting students to school on time and
004getting to students to school at all. So, we're really trying to forge partnerships with parents and be proactive when we see tardies starting early, you know, pulling parents in when we see them, having conversations, talking about a big yellow school bus that gets to school on time and that could be an option and different things we could do with partner to get their child to school on time. So, that's what we do when it comes to attendance at party. And then on the other end we have um the attendance letters. The robocalls will start next week. We have the tardy letters that go out the attendance that meets regularly. Uh when it comes to academic performance, you know, our scores are trending upwards, but they're not at preandemic levels. So the the focus for this
005year, you know, last year was my first year. I started in October. was a lot of listening, a lot of learning, a lot of understanding. Now, this year it's really hitting the ground running focus on instruction. So, we are um doing very well when it comes to our pacing right now. Miss Snap and I in classrooms. watch is and their instruction is. We're both meeting with teachers for whole set of meetings right now and we're asking those questions about where do you senior students and a lot of teachers are saying that this year feels more normal in terms of students stamina and students desire and will to be learned. So that's really great to set us up for the future. Like I said, we are um awaiting the IR diagnostic result analysis because we have
006some makeups. Our sixth graders took a little bit longer to do the I Ready. So, we have some makeups that we're doing for that. When it comes to goal number two, that's all around the attributes of the graduate. And the new rubrics around that we are going to create around the attributes of the graduate are really the skills that students need to get better in. Um they're those what companies and what colleges and what everyone looks at as those soft skills and our students we practice those at every turn of the road. Even when our students come into the office, they're generally a little bit it's hard for them to make eye contact, to be effective communicators, but I I use those as teachable moments. And I say to them, okay, you need to you
007need to look, you need to look, you need to project your voice, and you need to tell me what you're here for, right? They tend to want to look down, not effectively communicate or collaborate. And they're getting better at that, especially our sixth graders. Um, and then the other The other big thing in school number two is our new schedule. So our new our scheduling committee will have their first meeting next week. I also have an intern teacher who's going to work out the schedule as part of her project. It's a really great learning experience for her and we're going to um really work out a new schedule for 23 24 that preserves instructional time but also takes into consideration some of the needs and challenges of the current schedule that we have. When we
008look at um district goal number three, goals that like I said goal setting is happening with staff currently. Goal number three is all around evaluation and supervision. And um I did complete walkthroughs of our brand new staff because we've got brand new staff to the building already went in got a handle on their teaching style and teachers that are new to our building but not new to the district. stopped in there. Got to see how they're adjusting to the middle. And you know, uh I think that the staff knows that. I really believe in the power of feedback. I really believe in the evaluation system. We um Ellen and I used the evaluation system with fidelity. Last year, every observation was done. Every uh goal meeting was done. and we use it as a time
009to really give feedback to feed forward for a teacher's personal growth and the teachers were very open to that. We're also going to do just like all the other schools in October after our second P afternoon, we're going to implement instructional rounds where teachers go to see each other teach first before they go in their own buildings before they move on to doing instructional rounds in the district. And just like my colleagues have talked about, it builds trust and colleagues love feedback from each other. And I think that starts the process off really well. We also have a new template for all of our meetings. And I joke because um each the new template has minute taker and a note it has a minute taker, a noteaker, and a timekeeper. And everybody races to look
010to see is it my turn? If I'm a noteaker, I'm a timekeeper. And it just it's it's a funny little joke after that. So we model the learning targets and success criteria on our agendas. Goal five, which is the district goal five around communication at our school, the one-stop shop for everything about Oxford Middle School is on the MS weekly update. I'm sure you guys see it on Saturdays when you see the update. I try to put everything in there so parents know that any questions that they have should be answered in there. News, pictures, announcements, presentation, we did our clubs was in there on Friday. Um, any kind of way that again we could use parents as partners for the students education. And then when it comes to community outreach projects, I was so
011impressed last year with the way that the teachers in the building help students to take civic action and to give back to the community, whether it's on student council, an athletic team, or in the classroom environment. We're just going to capitalize and build on that to keep giving back to the community as we go forward. So we have two school specific goals and one is around cultivating a culture of literacy and the other is around promoting kindness and positivity. Middle schoolers sometimes engage I know it's hard to believe but engage in unkind behavior. Right? It's the age. It's everything going on. So, we're really trying to work with them about what it means to be kind, to be positive, to see everyone in that light, and really just not to engage in the drama, you
012know, and that's what we're trying to work out. We have lots of ways that we're doing that with students, with our support staff. And then um you know the library is is sort of a a pet project of mine in terms of I feel like the library media should be the literary hub of the school and it has been left unattended a little bit. So this summer I did some work on the library and now moving into the fall we got our Destiny subscription re um it's been brought back and so we can use the Destiny system to monitor check in check out. I have some PTO parents who may be helping and volunteering again as partners with us to shell books. They PTO meeting I have a couple reach out and then students and
013volunteers to do that work. And we're also going to be uh really promoting that idea of having that independent reading with you at all times. So if you have a little bit of down time, it's the time to read. We try to model that. teachers talk about model YA books that they're reading. I often tell staff that I'm reading and I little excerpts that I'm reading. Uh when it comes to education and the development of this age group, I just read to them from a book I'm reading at the last staff meeting. Um, and so we just want at every turn for the students to see how important it is and to have that [Music] love. So that is first district one. We still have that major shortage. Teachers are allowed 18 sick days and
014five personal days by contract. There's nothing I can do about that. So when people call out, I we do everything we can, but we simply don't have substitutes. And I just actually emailed Dr. today and said, "I need help. I need you to get me. I I need a different solution than we got now." So, I know I I'll defer to you a little bit about what you're thinking, what you thought. It depends. Today, we had eight teachers. We had to scramble. I covered a class not covered in class. We had more than we had eight staff out that didn't have subs. Altogether there were 12 because we also had CT science training for special education staff that was during school. So some were not. They were at work just said to me yes were
015but three of those didn't need support but you know obviously Monday of course and we we do we do have those Right. That's under you know the main courty increase in the fallreasi probably not stacked. Right. So this is those scores were from last year. We're waiting for the diagnostic scores for this year and then we'll take a look and we'll triangulate the data. So I read is just one piece of the puzzle, right? So we'll look at performance in class. We'll also look at past SBA scores and we'll try with the SRBI decide what the cut off will be for that. Just [Music] wondering when it comes Am I on when it comes to SRBI, we we did a lot of work in changing the model from high school um that really expanded services
016at the high school level. Um, we've had the conversation with the middle school until we change the middle school schedule and make it more amendable to SRBI. There is limitation to what we can provide there. There might be some flexibility in looking at tutors at the at Quaker and Gradle to see if there's any way that we could pull some of those services from the elementary schools to the middle school. But right now that we just from a scheduling perspective, we cannot meet all the SRA needs in that building right now. Right. So we have students invi might be able to progress this and so we'll see from Executive functioning services [Music] organized during that That's something that we're really going to investigate if that's the best I just saw students that are the average.
017So, we're in a new year now, right? But our our abs, it all depends. Um, I don't know if I can give you like an average on a day or today was a very light day for passengers. We only had in the entire school 13 students out. But it all depends, you know. It depends if I had a student accidentally tell me I said I'm not sure you wanted to tell me that. Like I said, remember the number of absences, you know. So there's it's again it's that parent partnership around how important it is to be in school and that you know chronically absent is that well truent is 10 days in one month and then chronically absent is 10% so it's 18 school days and that is a lot so so I guess is
018there ever yes once get 10 a month and the problem is statewide attendance was really really poor across the entire state last year. Yeah. But it is an area of concern which is why we identified as a major goal for us this year and why you see it reflected in the school improvement plans in all the schools because we want to see attendance um improved. I mean you have 35 kids that are chronically absent. It's not helping scores. It it impacts in many different ways. Usually I follow Rachel. Tonight I have the opportunity to follow Rachel. So I'll try [Music] to start with that. I just want to say welcome back and thank you for your support over the past few years very challenging issues. Thank you to the board. This year what we're seeing
019starting parents students are very enthusiastic about the return of many things their events. Those two town meetings before kids experience town meeting all about celebrating each other in a room about this size celebrated. So was tremendous success. We're celebrating students who did their summer [Music] trip. U there's many other things that are starting to happen back in You can see our enrollment numbers very similar to capacity not going up or down students moving in and out certainly happen you can see the student activities are [Music] down so I would ask you questions for the moment events or activities kind of give you a little bit of highlight before but I just wanted to highlight the fact that forms and we've got some new processes we're the first time ever technology based on SR tracking forms
020data in our school you can see a history of professor activities the 60 pages down to a very efficient say 12 pages with some so very happy I do want to point out our class very every single time assessments etc. And so we're in a constant flow with regard to kids being introduced to SRV services being services. So right now we're in the same ballpark. We have about 16 students that are receiving services. Uh we're in the process of last spring test that data data and we finished our administration for the fall. kind of translating all that data. Do kids who are currently need [Music] we created a we created a district handbook this summer. Right. It's the same handbook. Yeah. And we we had um representatives from administrators um across the board. He was
021one of the admins um this summer that worked on that. And then the whole admin team a chance to reflect and review on it. And then we brought the SRBI teachers in to also take a look at that work to finalize it before we said this is the final handbook. Last thing to say about it see what the effect of those programs I can say services made as much a lot of good things are going to close the gaps. [Music] I'm going to jump into the as second question. Do you have the same problem? I would I would say not like the secondary level typically has not been red flag during pandmic typic I'm very specific about we want to reduce numbers of chronic gas because the state has things like school performance index district
022performance index as of anything greater than 5% of the population all of a sudden I've never been over 5% social studies on social studies that implement. Well, we're implementing a new study that we've been implementing for probably 10 years now. We're not implementing [Music] program studies or something a lot more emphasis on social in some level the social studies very being integrated with the revolutionary you can do so much more states and regions it's a little more challenged instead of California and And so national level so I would say we're doing our part. [Music] So let's go back to [Music] school district goals and objectives goals and objectives my administrative goals teacher goals and objectives so this refresh um one of the things that I'll say about students and achievement is that our achievement levels
023are very good. We are above student there are things that we still need to address but overall best fit over the last we're at the highest level in all the greater news is when to get students in when we look at our percent overall average of the targeted growth by we're at all time highs by far and we're also I wanted to see in context what does this look district. When I look at talents that we typically like to compare ourselves to [Music] surround all the work and this is kudos to the work the district has done staff has done all the work challenges pay off the end of the I know we're going to talk about achievement detail there's some graphs and charts and ask questions if you have any questions but otherwise I'd
024like to move depressive as far as being in January. Is it the same skills as a different way to Now do the skills change and progress like a critical. So let me start with says at the end of a grade can you get over does the same thing but it uses that in the fall. Exactly. So you expect that's what I'm saying you would expect you know and it's just when we did our own assessments you know the beginning you kind of see what we expect to see grow so if that's how high is you should um and I'm not just asking you this though is is you know reasonable naturally [Music] rest. Yes. Yes. Couple of thoughts on that. We're looking kids who are 5% more kids this year are attaining master. We're also
025looking at 5%. Every student moving. Yeah. to get more. So how how do you find a few years and then platform it says okay student has [Music] This fire alarm is going up the high school. I'm hoping they could be heading up there right now. The fire alarm is going off in the high school right now. So they could be heading up there right now. Yeah. So it sets up an individual pathway and I [Music] read the state. [Music] So sorry. and jump to go number two. [Music] Pages I just want to point out here this is a goal is focused on high quality curriculum and resources. So one of the things we're trying to incorporate into the curriculum is those of the graduate training. This is not similar to um remember a few years
026back math practicing science practicing practice things about pre precision using tools perseverance those are the types of things we participating in the new curriculum review cycle the process And I've already talked about the SRBI process. That's where [Music] that number three systems feedback. So this really kind of two different things in one town evaluation that happens the way it's supposed to and also instructional which is largely teachers working number five. There is no school. Um this is talking about strategies tools. Again, pop is something from from our school. We are interested in participating in whatever district relationship with the community. And then the last thing I need the action items you'll see all things dating Thanksgiving started this year. And then last school number six, this is focused on [Music] school here. We largely program
027it has a system and stuff like that and Incorporating those recogn representing [Music] characteristics. So have returned programs return. [Music] Thanks. Thank you, Ellen. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you. health insurance. Um, our attorney and our medical insurance consultant. They have [Music] As you would be It's not Yeah. Every month we pay feedback. It's [Music] not me teachers. Obviously at most schools that have been teachers don't do this course and they take responsibility. So the we offer is [Music] accounting like university. In terms of staffing right now, we are mostly staff currently that position. So there are science signed last week. Dela first psychologist had a position posted for those. We had August through last week. We had zero included involved. This past week in the meantime, we have an outside consultant providing Additional
028services to our students transfer support. And um we have a lunch monitor that we are mostly res but not quite always [Music] The other buildings included here record [Music] And then some old [Music] Nice. As of yesterday, it's whatever they do over there. [Music] I'm also looking [Music] for that contary. [Music] I'm hearing that. Oh yes. We received a notification yesterday that we receive around 10 to $25. That's the fun us to provide free lunches to students. The initial um preparation that we did took I would be able to supply January. Right now I have our latest [Music] Yes. It is a problem right now. We do have 66. Not [Music] every6 is mostly people in some areas [Music] what we can do in order to increase ourselves. What is the power of university interns
029and school? to provide for children. That could [Music] be that much. there. Another option to seriously consider it is a permanent job every single day of the year. Now, we're past schools under school base. as one employee provide health insurance. For example, we have share from 22 to 24% of health insurance to it. We an employee accepted wage insurance completely and we're active not so do this. That's that's not insurance. So the cost for that all year [Music] 247 teacher master. person and they certain amount of days or whatever they get only if they are in the same position 41 days. 41 teacher 41 days and I think there are some districts that have some students teachers and engagement and So if you were to go down this point that would be too rested [Music]
030in a dope noting I think something that we want to do is to alter self is make. So for example in New York now work for 30 days the crowd on the 31st day for 60 days here and not really say here Hope is implement. rate that we at least increase some consistency in this district. It's still going to be difficult, but I know we talked about it. I believe we did a cross comparison as far as um the sub agencies that are out there. We look at two agencies and as an example, they might charge $140 for that making or that. for the city. They are trying to recruit teachers that schools provide to them in [Music] terms they can't guarantee. So they can't guarantee The other question was [Music] answering essentially every district
031situation. Teachers are out of class. It's not difficult time. for a day or you know it's got to be part of the show up you know and I think that that does I think it's remnant of um you know so hopefully obviously [Music] it is our profession again all the time but teachers sace If you are a ncertified teacher, it's $90. I [Music] believe it's enough. would be one and a chance [Music] for anybody services across the board in order to get audience concept. You recognize the problem. Our solution here differs. But it doesn't mean [Music] I have a couple more. Um I had a group 30 people for a year now. I think I mentioned one social media accident and they were out here not seen before. So I think we're starting to see
032it normaly. I'm hoping that also see but it was exciting to see parents and fundraisers. It's exciting to see very quickly. We will news on Saturday talking about parents partnering with us to make sure school if your child is 21 that started C except which is basically profit they've been doing the last week there will be expanding it out to different schools shortly table here with a coffee maker they've got different snacks and they have a card that they can actually go to different But it's but it's teaching them through life skills and they're able to they're money they're running it for It's exciting to a [Music] new asking questions to that. I think it's good to [Music] see over town. [Music] Have they started going [Music] to school has set up for software? once
033we get home. How's uh Anthony and Stephanie doing with high school? [Music] They immediately last week and learners. You need to make motion changes. It's your body. Thank you. I did have one more question. Um, how's the business manager working out? I mean, we had we the gentleman was uh he he repres represented himself very nicely in our finance subcommittee, but I'd love to hear from your perspective how it's going. I think I did an ad. But I think somebody has done this for a long time and he knows it here in office five days a week. Yes. But right now, you're still responding to emails here. [Music] There will [Music] be along it still leaves the domain of human resources and operations. I have a teacher that support I think we're moving [Music] on
034right now. So, do we have a shorter long-term plan on how we're going to back fill? And I I mean that that individual that might help for for some of the admin work on the operation side might help, but we should we shouldn't wait until you know this this small problem becomes enormous problem. Um, you know, we we don't want to leave you hanging out to dry. Um, it's been a tough couple of years and to stretch you any thinner, it just seems uh almost absurd. I'd like Great. [Music] We have tonight that was done. [Music] I mean, it's a town project, but I think that this board should weigh in on do you approve this or not. We would have the guide. You just have educationally some standards that back down. Right. Right. And
035again, we talk about that concern. Yeah, it had um just so you know other people know and everything. So we do have that Google facilities and we [Music] didn't that way it helps the chairs know what to plan for their agendas and you know [Music] Are we all good as far as you know changing our policies are up? The policies are all right now on on board docs. They were uploaded. We finalized that project probably late spring. Um any of the board policies that we have adopted since then are also up there. They're searchable through boards. You can actually do a search and it'll bring up the policies that match that um the district website and it'll link to the policies on board docs. Everything is over there right now. So if a parent goes
036to a district and they go to policies administration. And the kind of that we as a board are all policy. What we do is go through Um, sure. Uh, first I'd like to just say, uh, it's great adding the minutes to board docs. So, after the meeting's done, you can dump it right in. It was actually pretty straightforward. So, um, our last meeting was September 20th. um actually covered a lot of what uh we we discussed, but uh we're looking at centralizing the financial reporting for the schools. Um we want we're requesting a review of how uh class money is spent at all of the you know turning points whether it's second grade, fifth, 8th or 12th. So we don't have leftover funds and have an ambiguous or inconsistent way in which the schools handle
037that excess uh funds. Um Rob talked about open positions. We talked about the medical insurance update which Rob also gave. Um no it's okay. It he he's doing my job for me. So, uh, you know, we we, uh, as we look towards the finance, uh, budget for next year, we're going to be reviewing the cost centers, specifically the ones that, um, garner the most attention, large numbers. Um, but we're going to be reviewing all the cost centers in advance. Um, just to make the process that much smoother. But because last year was so transparent, we're in a good place. So, there's not as many uh, uh, unknowns. But, you know, it's always good to make sure we're still on the same page. Um, we talked about uh issues with substitutes. Um, looking at snow removal
038contracts as well as transportation contracts. Those are both up this year and we'll need to, you know, see how we're going to proceed. Um, so those should be interesting. Yeah. soon we'll have snow. Uh we're considering a traffic study to look at the schools for pickup drop off. Uh see about getting a quote. I don't know if we have a status update, but at some point we might uh just just do a look at, you know, because some of the some of the situations are either not efficient or dangerous. So, you know, having a study to help us, you know, maybe there's no solution, but at least uh you know, getting an expert opinion on how we might handle it would be would be beneficial. So that's that update. [Music] during this conversation about [Music]
039DJ question Thank you. They got anybody out. [Music] Oasis what they're going to be in the next month or so for I'm not sure if they have obviously shows that they show the ones that are 30 and then it [Music] shows this car [Music] really and that's exactly what this illustration showing how much dose and then it shows just like said um you know maybe 20 or 30 of the girls and then shows that it's just obviously in our country so at least. [Music] You got a number of other states that has not at least they haven't promoted it here yet, but it could be coming. Yeah. If we can get a digital copy of that, we could post on social media. We could also put in the Saturday newsletter. Okay. Are they planning to
040do the same um event that they did last fall? No, the one that they did in the core walk was done. They did an event in Corey Walk in October. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's phenomenal. Not yet. No. Yeah. So, they've been working with some things. Um So if you have not seen hidden in plain sight presentation, it's phenomenal. I think every parent, teenagers should should watch that or attend that. I did not I did [Music] not Anybody comments? Second. All those let me Down class.