001at 6:33. Please rise for the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. [Music] Roll call. Start with Steve, please. Steve Ker, Vinnie Canadella, Michael Cus, Sherman, Stephanie Miller, McGrath, Joe Madison. Okay. Uh, thank you. Are there amendments to the agenda? I'd like to uh add an executive session for school safety and invite Dr. Miller in or uh after yeah we'll do 11 after 10. So in 11 executive session um all those in favor I opposed or abstain motion carries. Oh I I need a second. Thanks second Mike second. And we're gonna All those in favor. Thank you. Thanks Deb. That's why you're my right hand man. Okay. All right. Um, student recognitions tonight and the joy that I have is getting
002out to schools and have an opportunity to go to the games practices and see our students live in action. Our students have done a wonderful job seeing partner. He's going to assist us with awarding our Thank you very much. Hello everyone. Hello. Coming from our boys and girls track meet. They did outstanding today. They're about 10 minutes from finishing. Okay. Some of those athletes that are on our track team are being acknowledged tonight and they may or may not make it here in time. If they don't, I'm still going to acknowledge them. I'll give them their certificates tomorrow. Sure. Okay. So, we are going to start off with our our cheerleading as I call your name up here. Stop right here and then take [Music] See, that's why he's the athletic. [Applause] All [Applause] state.
003She is all state. state. She just finished running her lap. He can track me. So I will hold [Applause] this all [Applause] day. Sir, that's house. These are cheerleaders. One more round of applause. Yeah. Lay down. [Applause] And from our dance team, all NBL Rory Peline [Applause] [Music] from a girls basketball team, all NBL game time all state will mention also our alltime leading scorer for basketball, both boys and girls with 1,5 564 points. So congratulations. [Applause] [Music] Taylor will be attending the Hattonville College next year in New York. [Applause] and she will be continuing her basketball career. Uh let's go to boys swim all state all NBL no [Applause] congratulations academic all state as well Safety William and we'll take Ryan St. Uh, last thing I want to say about the boys swim team
004this year, they finished second. Okay. And they finished they lost by a half a point to uh for the NBL championship. Okay. They were winning the prior to the swim. So they kind of kind of had a little [Music] bit after swim. So we were winning until we end up losing by we did that for our girls and our boys this year. And coach I want to bring two coaches up here. Wherever you are, [Music] And we uh we have wrestling program with dirt and cross and [Music] uh this young man is playing soft. He's a monster on that. Uh I I happen to watch him uh in the Bur Championship where he dominated the 145 pound class. He is the 145 pound per champion. [Applause] [Music] Why should the [Music] mat and next we're
005going to honor our unified outstanding partner and outstanding athlete Lily Arnold and Evan. [Applause] Oh, that's right. They'll be attending the unified sports banquet on May 1st uh to receive their honors. Lily also uh finished as an award for her essay on beautified sports. So that's that's out of my 500 essays. So she finished second person. So that's a great time. Okay. Go into gymnastics next. So, this gymnastics team finished undefeated this year. They were the SWC champions. Um, and they finished second in the state to Daniel Han High School. Um, and just had a a fantastic season. Um, we have first I'll just name off the the honors for all me and all other mentions. Molly Clifford All SWC, all state, all area high school, all American What's up? [Applause] [Music] Lord, we're going
006to take a quick picture with this group. You guys are stay and so we did want to honor the team for being uh undefeated in um winning the SW championship. So uh we have Facebook team member just not sure how many of them are here tonight. So [Applause] [Music] [Applause] clipper right [Applause] I got who just finished her track. [Applause] [Music] Right. We have a social And [Applause] that's 204. Thank you girls. [Applause] If you're not aware, [Music] [Laughter] Joe was awarded the practice for this year and [Music] awarded high school teachers also shows His coordination leadership is topnate and thank you so much. [Music] So again, thank you [Music] all. Congratulations. Congratulations. Says live. Alex, is the video working? So, will it just go back on? Okay. Okay. Okay. Are we all put back
007together? Okay, good. Continuing on. Um, we So, you Well, I was just going to say I Ready presentation, demo, question, and answer. Yep. Okay. So, there's been a lot of dialogue in the community the last couple months about I Ready. Um it's a system that we implemented um in the fall of 2021. Um so, this is our second um school year using the system. Um we're using K8 um from a diagnostic perspective, also from a learning pathway for students to continue um learning. Um the board was never presented um the full um benefits and the reason why we're implementing the system. It was done by the fire administration. It came in um during the summer started in the fall. Um through the last the questions that we've had, it made sense um this time to
008bring um our representative in from I Ready. So I'm going to invite Lisa up. Um she and I had a conversation last week to prepare for this evening. She has presentation that she's going to provide to you and then we'll open up to questions if you might have so [Music] much working. Can you hear me? That's only for this. Yeah, you told me. Oh, I can project. Stop. Thank you so much. Um, so first of all, I just want to say by the way in front of you, be very careful with them. I got myself nice and I appreciate the opportunity to come and share with you what [Music] I across the very opportunity to share. um I ready. So in terms of the I Ready diagnostic, it's actually a platform I connect platform. It
009starts all starts with the diagnostic. The diagnostic is a universal screen as well as a criterion reference assessment that identifies exactly what students know and what they still need to know based upon the criteria of the skills that are at the grade level. So you'll see in the top there's actually a visual depiction of the uh I connect platform the platform that your classroom educators and district administrators can see the um the uh standards mastery assessments as well as the actual items that students see when they're taking the diagnostic. Coupled with that, we believe fundamentally as a company that we're going to assess and we need to provide you with information on how to address what's going on, what students know and what they still need to know. So coupled with the platform is teacher
010letter um instruction. So those are teachers tools for instruction and other resources that utilize to support instruction. And then we also have a pathway for online lessons as uh as you mentioned that are available to support classroom instruction. And I like to use the terminology that every single child comes into a classroom with strengths, but they also have what I call academic. In other words, each one of us has strengths and weaknesses, but we might have some areas of unfinished learning. And because this is a criterion reference tool that also provides norms, what it allows you to do is identify those strengths. We always start with that assetbased philosophy, but then we move on to where do we might have needs that might be off grade level and how do we support them. Um, so
011I want to take a few minutes to talk about how it actually works. So holistically what it does is it identifies those strengths and then possibly identifies those gaps or academic. It is one assessment that's very important that drives all of this instructional recommendations. We pride ourselves on the fact that the reports that are generated for classroom educators are easy to use and implement so that they're not spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to support instruction. They have that information at their fingertips and as I mentioned it provides automatic prescriptions both in print as well as online in terms of recommendations. Just as a point of reference, I has been around for 12 approximately 12 years now. Built from scratch for the common core. So again, I want to just reinforce
012that what we're doing is we're measuring the skills that are in service with grade level standards. We also provide you with norms, but norms do not change instructional practices. Norms simply compare Oxford children to children across the nation. Right now there's approximately 11 million students on the Ira Connect platform. About 33% of students across the nation utilize and here in Connecticut about 45% of students in the state of Connecticut tooling. So I'm going to go ahead and just dive into what it actually does diagnosing those skills. So, as a fully adapted diagnostic, when your students are when they first take the diagnostic in the fall, what happens is they see questions that are slightly below grade level or they will pick up exactly where they left off because you've been using for several years now,
013unless the student is new to the district, but they pick up exactly where they left off in the item banks that are within the IRA connect item bank itself. From there, they're going to get if they answer questions correctly, it's going to adapt up. If they answer questions incorrectly, it's going to be adapt. It's fully adapted in the sense that regardless of your actual chronological grade spectrum of K12, it will identify that zone of proximal development. And it does that across the tested domains in front of you in those very dangerous folders that you have. Um, you have what I call our reports book. Those are samples of PDFs of all the reports and the actual left hand side of those sample reports. You'll be able to see the type of information that the diagnostic
014is able to provide your classroom educators with to help them support instruction to make certain that now more than ever we are not going back and remediating but we're accelerating instruction by providing reports that support the prerequisite skills. So after the diagnostic is done, we get to that actual performance level. We are able to provide as I mentioned not just criterion reference information but normative information by looking at all of those students across the nation that are currently using the hierarchy platform. This next visual is very hard to see but I really wanted to make certain we're aware of the efficacy of the program. Besides all the research that's done for the validity of the items in the bank, we just hot off the press. It's really hard to see, but to the left of
015the screen in very very small lettering, it says ELA on the bottom and to the right of your screen, it says mathematics on the bottom. We just conducted with an outside agency a linking study which looked at how students performed in Connecticut only. We clearly updated it to not be smarter balance. It's just Connecticut students to look to see where they performed on the IR diagnostic and how they performed on the smart balance assessment. It's called a study that and it's really called an equa percentile rank study. So we looked at the crosswalk of scores in the spring from actual students in Connecticut to how they performed um smarter balance assessment and in the worlds of linking studies for correlation of anything seven or above and as you can you can't see it anymore um
016previous slide you can see that blue area is that seven and above this the fall the light green dark green winter and then the spring is that orangeish color that is how the connection to the two assessments, two independent assessments compared to each other. As you can see, the lowest percentage uh placement was a 081 and that was in the fall. So, highly predictive of how students in Oxford are going to perform on the smarter balance assessment based upon their placement of mid on grade level or above in the irony uh diagnostic. Does that make sense to everyone? The next two slides I I've included for you and I will send this as a PDF afterwards so you have it. Um this is just the that linking of what is where's that mid on grade
017level cut score and the reason why we're so predictive is where we say a child is going to be proficient is actually above the smarter balance cut score. So that's for reading and that's for math. So knowing that now and understanding what the tool does, what I does for your classroom educators is it looks at the whole child. So what we're showing you here is that every child comes with assets to everything they did their strengths and then as I mentioned they might have some academic gaps. So the visual here giving you a sense that for a child that's on grade level that green line when we're looking at their performance across the domains of phological awareness phonics high frequency words vocabularyformational as well as literary text you can see that they're either placing on
018grade level or above in this visual right the the the real strengths over here whereas you can also see for a child that's one grade level below those the colors within ISID identifying the for example in mathematics how they performed in number and operations about measurement data and geometry those four tested domains within mathematics as well. So we begin to paint the picture of where every child is at across those placement levels within IRA so that again classroom educators are in a better place to understand how to support those students and in keeping with that what we're doing is we're also looking at the multiple pieces of information that der so I've mentioned it several times now criterion reference tool in this particular example the to place their 464 for that grade level is considered
019early on grade level meaning they learned all the prior year skills and they're ready to learn this year's skills. At the same time, we're also going to give you those associated norms because norms are important but they're not important when it comes to changing instructional practices. And then most importantly within IRA and this is just again hot off the press uh research that we have is that we have for every child based upon how they place in the fall they're given two differentiated growth targets. They're given a typical growth target and they're given a stretch growth target. Think of typical as the way the child can grow on average year over year. It's literally taking millions of data points throughout the the actual you know non student identifiable data over two years in our psych
020nutrition book to see how much did a child who place a 465 in the fall grow over the course of the year instruction and the median to get rid of the outliers but only using typical growth if you're a child that is below grade level. If I'm a fourth grade student and I come into fourth grade placing at third grade, so I'm one grade level below. If that child continues to just grow one 30, in other words, typical growth across the 30 weeks, when they start fifth grade, they'll be at fourth grade. Fundamentally, we don't believe that that's doing children the service that we should. So, as a result of that, they also looked to identify stretch growth. Stretch growth is a more aspirational growth. It is not attainable by all children, but it is
021potentially attainable by any child. So over the course since we've come out of the pandemic and we've begun to look at what's happening publishing research rates, we began to look at what's happening with student growth. Kids are growing, but they're not growing as fast as they were before the pandmic because of some of the challenges that mis. So what they did is they looked to see when we get cohorts, right? So we're looking at the same kids as they went from one grade to another third grade. This happens to be an example of math as you can see in the top right hand corner. So for students that were in third grade that then in year two were in fourth grade in year one 35% of those students that were in third grade met stretch
022growth. They were actually able to get that aspirational growth beyond what would be considered average. In year two 31% of that same cohort made that stretch growth. But what that has done over time is in actual observed data that cohort of students 35 in year one 31 in year two 13% a subset of those those two years of growth made that stretch growth in both years. You following me? Look what happens to a child's placements when that happens. That's placement in year one in the fall. The center is in year two and then the spring in year two as well. So the change in placement the colors dark green is mid on grade level low above or as I mentioned before will be proficient on the smart balance assessment the the lighter green color in
023year one the 15% of kids that are early on grade level yellow is one grade level below red is two grade levels below the maybe it's kind of pink up there and then the dark red is the kids that are three or more grade levels below but when we're giving kids an opportunity to grow in that stretch manner by the combination of the teacher le instruction and the online personalized learning pathways. The change in placement actually occurs over those two years and we deserve to do that obviously for all children and give them an opportunity to catch up, keep up and move up in their placement. So we're very proud of the fact that we have that. That's something that's very unique to every. So when it's all said and done, any resource is only
024as valuable as so one of the things that we need to always make certain we're doing is that we're providing educators who need things in real time right then and there to support the students of Oxford with easy to use reports. This is a visual of the dashboard that teacher sees when the diagnostic is complete. Once soon as the diagnostic is complete, they are presented with information about students based upon how they performed on the diagnostic. What you're seeing here is we call our student level report and what you're seeing in the blue column is the diagnostic performance actual scale score performance of this particular student. The green shading is reflected on grade level skills. This is the overlay of typical and stretch those two targets that I just spoke about. And then the dark
025green line is smarter balance efficiency. So in one report we are providing classroom educators with three pieces of information. How the child performed, how much they need to grow and what does proficiency look like so that I'm not having to look in multiple places to try to make determinations. And then we're to provide them with instructional recommendations. There's also a class that work classroom educator in every building administrator across all classes. Classroom educators go to their class. District administrators across the district. This is a reflection of those academic strengths that I talked about. And then areas where we might need to also provide additional support for students. Classroom teachers don't have the pleasure of just working with one child at a time. So the next report that they have available to them is we call
026our instruction report take all students in that particular class and they are grouped based upon commonality of needs and right there at point of use. Not only are we telling classroom educators what those five or six students might need, we call them out. We literally say here are the skills. So just as an example of these are five skills that need to be supported students that have common needs and directly adjacent to that is these things we call our tools for instruction. Those are lesson plans that are available for teachers to utilize and just provide problem spot teaching small group 15 to 20 minute lesson plans for differentiation in support of that STEM instruction. But that speaks to the commonality of students needs. The other report that we have available is what we call our
027math requisite report. When your classroom educators available to teach grade level content, that's what they have to do. They have to teach their grade level content. It's critical for them to understand what the prerequisites were. What's the progression of the skills that allow you to go ahead and teach fourth grade math or second grade math? So the first thing that happens is we give them that progression. We identify the important skills in the topic focus in the dark blue and then more importantly we look to see what was the essential skill. What is the most important thing that a student needs to know in order to be ready to learn those on grade level skills and oftentimes if not almost all the time those essential skills from a prior break. So I don't necessarily have
028those re teaching resources to support. So what we do is we then provide them right there at point of use with instructional recommendations. So how do you take kids that might have that missing essential skill that we have to be ready for teaching or learning and we're going to provide them with ways they can go about small group instruction or provide them with recommendations for lessons that they assign via the online app platform to frontload those lessons for students maybe a couple of days in advance of when I'm teaching in my class and we do the Same thing for ELA. So we have what we call our grade level scaffolding report. This particular report looks at the content for the grade. And in this case, whatever the content skill is that the teacher is teaching.
029In this case, the drop down is telling us between identifying key details is telling you every one of the students in your class, where are they at in terms of their understanding of that scale and their ability to um capture it. And you can see down here I have kids that are all ready to go. in the center kit that needs additional support and then stu students that might even need support to coding. And just like we saw with the prerequisite report, we provide right there point of use two pieces of two passages to teach that particular scale with all the teaching recommendations for not only the knowledge demands but also the language demands that go come into play so that you're able to quickly dive in and do that instructional support. provide the students
030with differentiated pieces of text and move on and so continuing to accelerate the learning. So the diagnostic is one easy to understand platform tells you what each student knows and still needs to know what your class knows and what they still need to know. how I include kids with common needs and instructional grouping. And then when it comes time for me to teach my grade level content, I have two tools available to represent and scaffure that I'm not going back where they didn't learn. I'm providing that acceleration by scaffing that instruction. And then finally in terms of what we also do it's at that class level um of the report directly adjacent. So we tell them what the child can do but then we also say these are their next steps for instruction and those
031next steps for instruction are teaching rounding whole numbers to the nearest 10 and 100 or possibly subtracting three-digit numbers and grouping. And once again, write their point of use tools for instruction if you need them. You have rich curriculum in your classrooms, but if you need them to support that [Music] instruction, I can be utilized on Chromebooks, computers, and supports. So we have the flexibility of getting other students assessed to make certain that they have what they need to complete the diagnostic and then from there to go into their live cap which is um again possible on all of these particular devices. There is also the possibility for teacher assigned lessons is that larger graphic that's on the screen right now. That's an example where a teacher has gone in and decided to assign some
032lessons maybe again strategically as a prerequisite. And then the my path is the pathway that is assigned by the diagnostic based upon the needs of the child typically the lowest domain in terms of their performance. Those are the lessons that the child is getting in support of um in support of that instruction. Um this is an example of one of the lessons in our our platform. So there's a couple Couple topics that we less when in doubt especially at the elementary gross matters we write stories about things like rodeo as kids like there's lots of supports supports for accessibility we have audio supports the way the lessons are designed they actually go through it's explicit instruction guided practice of the correct feedback and a progress monitoring quiz to inform the classroom educator as to whether
033or not the student is able able to understand the lesson that has been taught. Um there are also in the platform for math only what we call our learning games. Those are not nearly as structured. These lessons are very structured in in terms of they're acting like an online tutor teacher whereas the learning games are more kind of a fun practice. Um here's an example of um what one of the math lessons would look like in terms of providing multiple representations and making real life connections and deep conceptual understandings to help students to better understand the concepts at hand. And then this next picture is actually those learning gau. So one of those children [Music] Um so those are that is the my platform that's available to support the instruction. We recommend 30 to 49
034minutes per week per subject total for students to be out. The intent is not to have kids. The intent of this platform is to provide classroom educators, districts information about what kids still need to know and how they're performing. One of the things that we incorporated into our lesson structure several years ago was this responsive instruction. So I mentioned is that explicit instruction feedback wondering quiz if the child is going through and they're getting that responsive back answering all the questions correctly they actually jump forward right to we don't want to make them have to plot through the lesson in order to get to that end. Um so you know if they if they know it we don't need to waste their time on it. We do ask teachers to monitor the the lessons uh
035progression. So students can monitor it with families but teacher is ultimately responsible for monitoring to make certain that students are passing lessons. If they're not successful in passing the lessons shut off and the teacher gets you don't want kids just struggling with their lessons that are not helping them. It's just another view of instruction by lesson. And then the last thing I wanted you to be able to see relates to how it looks for the kids. So this is a very product [Music] easier after they've seen the lessons. Number two is showing their time on task. So how much time have they spent engaging with their lessons? Um and then two way two week lessons pass. So we try to make it a little bit fun for them kind of like streets right um and
036then their completed work so that they can see how much work they've actuallyed. The other piece that is so very important is up in the top right hand corner. It's hard to see on the screen, but it says family center. If you click on that from the students portal, if they have access at home, it brings them to an entire landing page for families because helping families better understand what I is and what it isn't is equally as important to us as it is to make certain classroom educators know how to use the platform. So there's a wealth of resources out there, FAQs, ways to talk to your children about the diagnostic data chat conversations you can have. Um the more that we the more that we engage students in their own learning, the better
037they are at um at at progressing along. So this is what we talked about. Um I know there's some questions, so I want to leave some time for anyone to ask questions. searching. [Music] about eight different styles of [Music] cricket support. Now we're saying that we have individualized students [Music] different. So as you [Music] process different What was that? [Music] So it sounds like [Music] so long. You just said per week total. So 10 minutes request. So, does that work out the [Music] whole problem in sixth [Music] Right. So I would say the best way for us to already know it is so important when we're talking about learning and that fragmented everybody comes with their strengths and we always need to start with an asset based philosophy that's why these are all the things
038you can do so we start there because what we fundamentally believe and I can you help me I'm switch power to close the PowerPoint so they can see my dashboard. Um, if you and I came to work every single day and all we were told when we got to work every single day was what we don't do well, I guarantee none of us want to come to work. So that is why fundamentally we start with that asset based philosophy. So I'm in a demo account now. This is not Oxford's data at all. I have gone in here intentionally because I think the answer to your question is you know there's we're not telling the teacher how to saying here's some tools for instruction you have in your classroom. You teach the way you know how
039to teach. We're not trying to teach. What we're doing is we're saying this is what Dr. still needs to learn. These are the things he needs to work on. And the way that we believe that we can engage students is at this welcome center which is I central which is like Pinterest for I it's available. There's a few things that you can't get to if you if you log in from home because they're proprietary. You can't see our placement tables. We don't want our competitors to see that. But all of these resources can be accessed your family center. And the single best thing that you can do when you're talking about getting especially middle school students engaged is what we call our data chats. Right? Our data chats are tools for teachers, parents, and uh
040guardians to talk with students about how we engage them in their own learning, right? How do we get them motivated to learn? Because it's as much about the child, if not more, than it is about the curriculum, right? Curriculum is your core reading program, poor math program, your scope and sequence that you're using. We are saying we're just showing you where there might still be needs in support of those that instruction. Does that answer your question? Can I can I add on to yours? Can I add on to yours and maybe make it clear and So kind of to coordinate um what Vic is asking if you have a student who how does it coordinate with what is being taught in the classroom. I know you can take a diagnostic in the beginning and then
041see where children are and then you take a diagnostic maybe in the winter and you hope that they have improved in those skills that you've taught them and then you take another one at the end and grade level you would hope that they would you know achieve their you know their growth from where they needed but from you know and and I come from a place where we created our own assessments so you know when you're creating your own assessments and you're evaluating the children on what you are going to teach. So, how does this I understand the assessment, but how does this and I think this is what you're asking, Vick. If it's not, you can add in um how does this coordinate with what is being taught in the classroom present day? Um,
042I don't see how it can be because everyone's curriculum is different, everyone's pacing is different, everyone's scope and sequence is different. So, I don't I don't see how that could benefit. So, our answer to that is this grade level which I'm now in. fifth grade. But what are you scaffolding it on? On on regular what? Okay. But on the regular we go to our So if we go to the Connecticut Department of Education that has a suggested um you know skills that you need at each grade level. Is that what you're using? like how are who's deciding what skills should be taught at what time? So, I'm logging into this demo account right there. It says I have to log in saying Connecticut because it's the Connecticut standards. And then if I go here, you
043can see the Connecticut Common Core State Standard Performance. Okay, this is again we're measuring the skills that are service the grade level standards. these are the standards starting at kindergarten going all the way through till 8th grade. So I understand that but most classrooms don't go here standard one we're teaching that here standard two we're teaching that here's here's standard three we're teaching that that's not how it goes. So if you are assessing along the way and along the journey I don't see how you can unless it's really really personalized to our curriculum or our what is being taught in the classrooms. I don't see how you do. I just see this diagnostic. I get that. But, you know, I I don't see how it could possibly coordinate with what is going on, what is
044being taught in the classroom. So, therefore, if a child hasn't been taught it yet, then they're not going to be successful. Absolutely. We see that a lot with geometry. Perfect example. Right. Last It's the last domain that's taught. It's the one that runs out of real estate. So, it tends to be where kids don't have those skills. But if you haven't taught it, the classroom, but there's other things that maybe have to talk. I mean, if there's a, you know, if there's snow days or there's vacation and you're behind and you haven't talked, how I'm just saying, how how accurate can it be in coordination with what the student is being taught? For instance, if we if every school did their own assessments, beginning, middle, and end, then you, you know, you you can diagnose
045where the children are and what they're coming in and what they need. You teach them till December. You diagnose them on that. They might need, you know, refresher. They might not have gotten the skills. I just don't see how this on a daily basis can coordinate with what's going on in the classroom. One thing that's also defined at all. In other words, they've learned their prior grade level. We haven't even we're trying to figure out what they still need to know. the ultimate goal of knowing that across those 30 weeks of instruction, we've got to somehow or another get them to grade level content. So that's the goal. That's that that linking study that I I started out sharing with you. It's essentially the passage of the lessons. But every day, aren't you aren't the
046children working on skills that they may be deficit in or and some of those require they're deficit in skills that they may not have been taught. So that that's just my point. And the other thing is um what do schools I know some schools districts just use this for diagnostic purposes. They do not use the daily pathway and all this other stuff. So what what does it look like for those districts that do that? The only difference is that there's no personalized learning pathway. So they it sounds like all the personalized learning pathway that's happening here is happening as homework which is not necessarily in grade six through eight K through five it's okay. Did that before we go on to to Nicole did that I'm sorry it was just the video. Oh no I
047was talking to I was pointing that way. Did did that is that what you were trying to get at? I didn't want [Music] Okay. Yeah. [Music] trouble saying. Okay, go ahead. Thank you. So, I can see the value of using this tool for assessment purposes and evaluation. I think where we're missing the mark is how we're supposed to use it for homework and we're getting a lot of push back from the parents because there's frustration from the kids and I think we need some clar some clarification on how are we supposed to do this so it's a success successful program that's honestly not a question I can answer for you that's the district decision I can tell you that some districts use it as homework others the person learning pathway small station rotation. So when
048I'm pulling this instruction report when I'm pulling a group of kids to do some direct instruction um those other kids might have problems I would say to you my experience Connecticut educators that's who I've been supporting for nine years it is more oftenly used in school than it is used out of school except for all right so let me just follow up with one other question so right we tried to do 30 minutes per week for math and and um ELA. Um is that prescribed by I Ready or was did that come from the general? That's our recommendation. Okay, that is our recommendation and the reason why we recommend that is again looking at data within the Ready Connect platform. It's 11 million students. Students that are using the personalized learning pathway as compared to
049students who are not are growing exponentially more. [Music] reportage 38 I think it is sweet to 49 minutes no more those students are going 46% more than students that are not using the responsibility path And then for that Madison 38% last and it's because the kids are getting that instruction there's only possible developments which may or may not be on so is that measured by or is that measured by the standardized testing? That's it. So there's there's also theory that that the more you use something and the more you use the program, the more you get used to it, you know. So I mean there's a little bit of that that goes on too. Um before I go, Steve, um what do you do? You mentioned auditory supports. Does that mean that if in the
050ELA can a student choose to have the passage read to them or can the program be um adjusted at all for children with different [Music] stress all the different something something that so so what you're saying that is kind of like an add-on to the book. No, it's part of the supports that can be enabled. Okay. So, there's auditory supports, there's there's there's close captioning, there's all kinds of Okay, that's a great question. But again, that that falls into special education and I don't want I don't want that. No, no, no. I understand that. I just wanted to find out because you know you if you're if you're trying to educate all students you have to and some of them have to be educators it kind of goes back to as well different ways different
051styles different so more simple question so we're seeing a little bit more acceptance of the pathways the lower could be the fact that as we get further temporary Not everybody's keeping up with what they need to be at grade level into the pathway showing them things like pick your point scope and sequence. We may choose to put this skill learning way up front and put the other one in the back. So when the pathway comes up saying do this this and this and they're getting frustrated because we're not going to hit that for three more months. Is that that's the time to your point you can't tie it together. That's just that's on grade level. If they're on grade level, they might not have been taught those skills yet because it's not understood sequence. But
052for the I'm sorry. No, I didn't say that. Even if they're on grade level, there's no way for and and we're being a divers, but even if you're on grade level, there's no way for I ready to know what order we are teaching things. So for me and it sounds like that could you know if if you're going to you know draw a picture you know of a child who is on grade level and diligent doesn't work and reads all the time that's like three kids you know I mean most kids are kids and they you know and they're going to do things you know at their own at their own level and at their own pace and sometimes they're going to do it sometimes they're not. Um, and there's there's something else. Oh, um,
053and the other thing, Steve, I think in the middle school, just the way you know at an elementary school, if you want to spend an hour and a half on ELA one day and an hour and a half on that the other day, you have that flexibility in your classroom. In the middle school, whatever it is, 50 minutes and you have to do everything that you need to do in 50 minutes and to teach what you need to teach and make sure the kids are ready for what they need to do. So I don't think the structure of middle school allows it to be done in the classroom unless you're going to put in the schedule. Okay, now here is your 15minute I ready which is you know we used to have SSR right so
054unless you're going to put it into the schedule I don't see how it could work in a school which is why at the beginning of the year we were doing it as part of math and part of the language arts classes and it didn't work. We were take away core instruction time. That's when there's a shift and we made it instead of doing it during the school, we said, "Let's do it during homework where students would do it 30 to 45 minutes over the course of the week." What Sylvia was going to do, the principal was going to do is the beginning of the fourth quarter was to shift that away from homework, not do it during class time, but have students during during the um the flex time that the the wing classes that
055they have where they have teachers as part of the classes and students are there. It's not during instruction time, it's not during homework. And it's kind of doesn't get those classes [Music] either. So the kids that need the instruction most are getting pulled out and getting services. All students with a new schedule, all students would have the opportunity to have that. So I because I I'm hearing I'm hearing a lot of saying it's it's disjointed, but when the teacher gives an assignment for I Ready, it's not just drawing blindly. They're like, "I'm teaching this skill set, so I'm gonna pick this I Ready assignment that aligns with that skill set." Am I correct? So, it's not like we're just going, "Give me I ready. You decide what I'm going to give out for homework and
056I'm just going to tell them do 15 minutes or 10 minutes." Instead, it's we're doing this one skill set right now. This, you know, I taught this today. The homework I'm assigning should be aligned to that. So if they're doing that, it's it's not out of sequence. It's not teaching division when you haven't taught division yet. It's not teaching geometry when you haven't taught geometry. That does happen sometimes. And also that's the third that's the third component of it, right? I mean, so one component is assessment, one component is this my pathways. I mean, the teacher doesn't the teacher doesn't direct unless I have it wrong. The teacher doesn't direct my pathways, but then the teacher has the option of assigning an assignment. I'm signing if my pathways are two different things I believe. Yes.
057Because it if if it's if the I Ready is Yeah. Because if the I Ready is test is is because it's not meant to teach you. It's meant to reinforce. Correct. If I haven't taught geometry and it's like, you know, let's say I I'm I'm a teacher and I don't like to teach geometry. I'm just I'm not using I Ready correctly. If I'm going to have I already teach geometry, would that be a correct statement that it's not meant to supplant the instruction that's happening in the class? It's not meant to do that at all. So, it's meant to reinforce and to evaluate going to identify places where those are skill gaps. So, we talked about middle school several times now. Middle school more now more than ever have students are coming with more gaps
058for all the reasons we know why. the interpretive learning, the everything. We have more middle school students across the nation that are still needing phonics instruction. Phonics is not it's not taught beyond second grade. So, it's, you know, we're seeing those fragmented learning patterns that are taking place. And a tool like this that's going to fill in that foundation, which is the way it's designed to do, is is why those kids are growing more. Because you can't possibly as a classroom educator with, you know, 20 kids in front of you or a middle school schedule with 60 kids, you can't possibly differentiate the subs skill level for every child. The best educator in the world. There's not enough hours in the day. The diagnostic and the assignments that's teacher looks at diagnosis, well, I see
059a pattern that 70% of the children are not getting this. And it pops up the recommendation. want to get everybody in this home. Right. That's that's one the pathways is truly single individual. It's the tool driving everything. Exactly. The tools making decisions. And I did want to just point something out. I'm at central. I just want to remind you in anybody's dashboard if you go to the help button you can get to the ready central and there is navigating on the side here u using I ready with different groups and there's a middle school and there are We don't have access to any as a board. We don't have access to you can actually get to this irre central.com free undated. There will be a few things that you click on and it's going to
060say oops you need to log in. Those are proprietary but our sample middle school schedules are not proprietary at all. So the majority of this is available to anybody. It's just i-re.com ready central.com right at the very top there. That's the that's the website. So, so I I I just want to say I mean thank we can ask more questions too, but you know, thank you for being here. You don't you don't really know our district and we obviously have these questions. You know, I feel like there's a huge piece that's missing that I feel the board needs to hear from teachers and we need to hear from administrators because, you know, if we're just we're just thinking in our head, but how we imagine this is going, but we're not teaching it and we're
061thinking in our head how this is benefiting or possibly not benefiting students. So, we really need to hear from teachers and from administrators what's working and what's not working and what they like and what they want to keep and what they might not want to keep. Are there any other question? Uh Joe, only because Joe hasn't had a chance yet. We're talking about scope and sequence about things our curriculum and what's being taught. Do you guys pro have a I want say syllabus is probably the wrong word for it but do you have like a basic breakdown of curriculum like certain things have certain milestones in certain months or certain quarters? Um, well, those are the standards. We're measuring the skills that are in service to the grade level standards as the grade, but those
062aren't by, right? I'm just I'm just saying like if to make sure our curriculum, I guess, is in line with what is being t evaluated and taught through the pathways and I already like we're not putting the car before a horse. We're, you know, we're not we're doing multiplication before we're doing, you know, pl addition and subtraction. you know, like you're assessing stuff that maybe we're not in line with your programs, if that makes any sense. The standard, so the way the state, everyone has to teach to the state standards standards, then we do our own curriculum. Our curriculum needs to reflect the state standards and we need to get the kids understand those certain But what Steve was saying too is that like we might not be ready to that until December as opposed
063to I'm just saying like where are they in their they can't do it. I mean, not they can't do it. No one can do really, you know, like I don't think a computer I think what you're asking is if you're right if you can't you're not going to get a onetoone alignment but in our personalized learning instruction you've logged in as Connecticut. If you click on the Connecticut standards here it's opening up this dashboard. This is 113 page document for math and there's equally one for reading. It literally is here's the Connecticut standard. These are the lessons that are in IRA. Here's the standard. things are the lessons that that it's so it's it's aligned to the scope and sequence of the common core state standards or the Connecticut state standards as they've been modified
064and I just want to come back I want to just touch on what something you said after you have those conversations we have an entire group of national directors that travel all around the country in support of districts all over trying to figure out like what is the best way for us to utilize I am more than happy to call in some of those directors that can support through the work you're doing and answer some of the questions and say, "Hey, but I saw in this when I was in this state, I saw this." They're going across the nation and supporting educators just like yourself. You shouldn't, you don't have to do it on your own. We're here to support you and to support your implementation that works for Oxford. Right? That's what's most important.
065This is a resource. It is a tool to help you do your jobs better. We don't have all the answers, right? But we do know how to assess. Yeah. And and again, I do appreciate it's not easy to come into a group of strangers and have, you know, shoot me some questions at you, but I appreciate I hope that I answer. Did you Did you have another question? [Music] possibility [Music] It might not be appropriate for that child. [Music] Well, no. actually that study that I showed you that third fourth grade where those kids actually did get on grade level if they made that stretch growth that aspirational growth right oh no there was I just didn't I'll send you the executive summary you can see [Music] forever whatever you So what I'm saying is
066how does this all fit in [Music] English? So how do you learn that's not the goal of this tool to inform the teacher on how they can instru. [Music] Uh I have one question. When we get presentations by uh the ad building administrators, um I ask similar questions. I seem to get different answers each time we get. So, uh, for example, in the fall, we had a presentation that said, you know, from from spring to fall, we had a big drop off. So, okay. And so we ask like well you know is it are we testing at that moment like where they are you know you know students in third grade for math you know they dropped the the percentage of students uh three grade levels or more behind um grew significantly and one answer
067we received was well that's because the test that they're taking is what they should be at the end of third grade while taking it in the fall of third grade and it's like and it gets better as time goes on but I've gotten different answers to the same question where it's like when are results and we go okay and it's like well that's what that's testing them at where they are at that moment not where they are going to be at the end of the year and then we get to the end of the year and it's like well naturally it's it's testing them where they need to be at the end of the year but each time we get a presentation we seem to get a different answer so I don't know if I
068worded that clearly But but it's what is what is the correct answer? So she can answer that. It is 100% true that we really can't compare spring scores from third graders to fourth grade fall scores because when they take the fall diagnostic they're they're being measured against fourth grade standards end of year and like as if they are as if they're just about to finish. We just want to know what the child knows and still needs to know. Okay. not get taught any content. So presumably you would want all in the perfect world which does not exist. You would want every single child coming in the door in whatever their chronological grade is light green meaning they they've learned everything from prior years and they're ready to learn this year's content. That's the ideal world.
069That doesn't exist. That is not a reality that any of us will ever have the pleasure of living in. even students that come in in the fall yellow is just saying they're one grade level below which means if I'm a fourth grader one grade level below is third grade I've learned everything that I was supposed to get or most everything I was supposed to get in third grade so that's not necessarily a negative of of where the child is actually placing so that's one piece of the puzzle in terms of like it does it is a moving target but when the for example when you look at the diagnostic window one. These are these are kids that you know they're walking in the door. If they took the Smarter Balance the same day at the
070same time, those based on that linking study, those kids are already proficient. They're ready to go. Like they're they're already they should be being enriched. There's no remediation per se for them. The students that are early, the early on grade level, these green, those are students that are also ready to learn. Again, they they've learned everything. There's really no academic gaps for them. It's the students that are falling in this yellow and red and then shaded red. And remember, even when we have students, so you know, here's a perfect example. You have a student, again, this is not your data. This is demo. This child here has a 472 scale score. So too, oh jeez, sorry. So too does that other child. But you can see You can't see it because I scroll down. You
071can see that those 472s. I'm stay away from the board. This 472 and this 472, those kids are not the same kids. Of course not. This child in number and operations is already on grade level. Whereas this child at the same exact scale score is one grade level below. Conversely, in algebra and algebraic thinking, that other child has those great skills. So, we're looking at the whole child and saying, "What are all the things they know and what do they still need to know?" And then, as I was sharing with you before, if I look at that child, I can see their typical growth, their stretch growth. I can see exactly where they placed. And then I can go into the individual domains and look at all the things they can do. These are all
072the things they're able to do, the assetbased philosophy. And then here are all the things that I could be doing with those children to help them move along in their progression while you're teaching grade level content. You have I don't I apologize. I don't know what your math program is. What do you use for math instruction in district? Connected connected everyday math. Math everyday math. Okay. Okay. So big ideas everyday math. That's your daily instruction that's taking place. this is helping those kids that are still struggling in the area. You've answered my question fully, by the way, because it it it's one of those you just we needed an answer because because every time we get a presentation, if we get a different answer, you know, it's at least from our side, we'll know the
073data we're looking at better. Thank you. Good. And go ahead, Steve. But the next the next test will really show they're ready to learn, but did they really learn prior year? Maybe it's the early red basically, right? So, they're coming in early, right? If the teacher can't adjust, they can't get the services to get prior to they're going to continue to be in that place still. Absolutely. especially back to diagnostic so it um everybody any more questions well again thank you so much and we'll get back to you if we ask if we get more questions we'll either get them to Dr. Miller or to you and to national and to say there's people that are way smarter than me in the company that have lenses in terms of you know other districts. [Music] Okay.
074Thank you so much. Thank you very much. [Music] Okay, moving along. Um, approval of minutes, Deb. Motion to approve the April 4th Board of Education minutes. Um, are there any, uh, edits or adjustments, Jeff? No. Oh, no edits or adjustments. So, we added the executive session on the website. Okay. No further discussion. All those in favor? Oppose. I abstain as well. I wasn't there. Mike abstain and all those in favor. Oh, I did that. Oppose or abstain? Yeah, you abstained. Got it. All right. I'll get this one of these days. Um, audience of citizens, if you'd like to speak to us, please come to the podium. state and address please pass. Um I'm really happy that I came tonight um because I do have great concerns regarding the ready and its use particularly. I do
075appreciate the pause in that homework assignment. It did cause myself a lot of grief. I did share my um experience as the building principal. However, now I'm going to speak to you as an educator, not in this district. I am a literacy coach in a nearby district who struggles with that ready on a daily basis. I also don't know if you're familiar with the right to read legislation that was passed last year that's impacting our curriculum. Um, with that being said, we were sold a lot of information from publishers as educators from curriculum and I see the same thing happening with they have their own curriculum. The person I'm presenting is a saleserson. She's giving you a sales pitch. You are paying we as taxpayers are paying a lot of money for my ad. I
076spend five days a week sorting through trash data about I because it is a moving target. The the state of Connecticut requires you to have a universal screening at the K2 level. There are three screenings that will tell teachers what a child needs in five minutes. If teachers are supported and they're given those tools, they can do exactly what you said, teach to the kid. We can't have teachers spinning their wheels creating and from what I'm hearing we don't even have a curriculum. So they're on the fly figuring out curriculum. They're answering to administration regarding assessment. Their colleagues who are admin have to put together admin data to show you that unfortunately you admitted that you don't even feel comfortable observing. It's absurd. I keep throwing my colleagues and my administration under the bus, but
077I will tell you that I work with people who are far past my Gary who don't understand the data themselves. and I have to spend my time while I don't have a classroom at night figuring out this training because if you want to hire her to do that, it's more of our task for that. So, I spend my time figuring out the data to coach my teachers to empower them so that we can do what the board says. give a test, present data, throw a dart at it, and leave it alone. If you want to provide students with a mind path instruction, teachers have to go in, click it around, don't click this, click this, turn on this, I'm teaching geometry, I got to turn on geometry, turn off algebra. It is so much work.
078So much work. All of the materials that they are providing students are generic. They are standardbased. Open up the Common Core State Standards. Look at the laundry list of things that they're telling children that they can't do. It's a standard. It doesn't take the thousands of dollars of a line item that you are putting in to have that data. The tricky part for you is that while you can use dibbles, I recommend dibbles for K12, you do still have a problem for 3, four, five, six, seven, eight because the state requires a number of self screening and you're not really going to get that information that you need from that assessment. So, it is something if you can find something cheaper that serves the state's purpose that can help teachers actually do their jobs, maximize
079all of the assessments that ESPback has provided for free in the internments. You will have happ have your teachers, happier parents. But I'm gravely concerned that we're sitting around a table not discussing the lack of curriculum. That's you're right. They're putting the cart before the course. Like you teachers need curriculum and the legislation happened in July and they have to go to school in August ready to teach a child's right to read. That's not happening in K2, K1, 2, 3. Forget four, five, six, seven, and eight. That's why you have the gap. That thing that she presented with the data, it was only 13%. They had to put together and pay a lot of the money that the profits they have this assessment proving that only 13% of third graders if they made their stretch
080grow for two years. That's writing out a lot of variables. That means that kid didn't have a divorce. That means nothing bad happened to their life. It means their teacher wasn't new or their teacher wasn't partially out of retirement. Their teacher wasn't dealing with something personal. That's a kosher child 13%. And then it went down to like almost seven by 8th grade. That's a lot of money to hold. You're going to move 13% of students in third grade to only 7%. You are on the right path. You asked fantastic questions. I I honestly am thankful both of you. The question about the curriculum, you asked pointed questions. um she's providing you a sales pitch. And I think that we need to be a little bit of stewards of the funds and look at how can
081we use things that are free to pro to satisfy the state and helping empower empower teachers a little bit more. I do think that you're that you're thought of asking teachers what they think because I spend a lot of time with them and they're not from Oxford, but I've also worked in four different districts and I'm new to Oxford, so I've spent a lot of time in fifth district. So, this is district number six. I've been a teacher for 17 years. Thank you. On the right path. So, I do thank you for your work and I support everything that the board does and I also do support for superintendent schools. I know that your work is not easy, but I think that we do need to really look at our curriculum to make sure that
082we have what's best for our kids. We want happy parents and happy kids. Thank you. So, thank you. I'm sorry. That's okay. Anybody else like to address the board? Okay, hearing none, we will move on. Um, any correspondence, Mike? No correspondence at this time. Um, budget update, Dr. Miller. Um so finance last night I shared with community with parents and staff on Friday evening was listed at a lower then we actually finance the budget pass right now is $78,000 and right now what they heard last night go back and make sure that parents to stay at that Did they say they were meeting tonight or did I miss hear that? They are meeting tonight. I think seven blocks. So does that mean that this is is this part of a series or they'll meet as
083of you know even though we do this every year they'll usually seems gets confusing. So they'll meet tonight finalized from what they heard public hearing right and then resubmit and then and then that's what will be submitted for the May first referend On the capital side, budget for building as well as place. What was the I we thought that that was already in a capital project. The pool [Music] this year is the pool lining to the interior of the pool. The pool is actually above the other high school. Did we have that as part of did we put that in our capital plan? That was part of our capital request. Okay. And I just said um I was just confused when we got the grant for the HVAC and Joe's been very involved with this.
084We got the money from the state, right? Last last night, Jack seemed to indicate that the state would have to match. I got a little nervous. The town has to match. The town I didn't mean to say. I meant the town. The town has to match. So, how does that work? Like, when can we get this work done? Because they recently came out and said that like normally the state used to push money out first to you, right? But now they're they want you to put it out. They want us to put it out first and then the state reimburs us on it. So, so who has the money? Does the state have the money or do we have the money? Right. So, they want us [Music] We think it's either 50% or [Music] but
085that's not going to hinder the project is my question. There shouldn't unless unless it's unless it's astronomically above what the grant is and then right the town has to agree to fund it. It's all the way through [Music] elementary. Well, last night we were told that that was project was completed. Yeah, that that original project was completed. However, the board of select and reauthorized that committee back in the fall to work on the Hback project the budget previous project phase one was gone. There's still money in phase one. There's still money. They put back in the general fund, but there's but there's still money in phase one and bathrooms were part of phase one. Yes. So there's no reason why that 105 could not have come back. [Music] I don't think anybody think anybody does
086call this week. [Music] We've been talking about it for two years. Um anything else on the budget, Robert? All right. Thank you. Um Oh, sure. say for the May 1st meeting is that there cannot be any changes to the budget um to increase. It's just to have community members come to decrease the budget. So there's no way to add to what we have now. Correct. Um allstar contract allaration expires the end of this fiscal year. the board writing committee for the [Music] contract with allar typically go through their process. Um the average increases that most districts finding their own at this time over the last two years um is about 10 to 15% rates all to give us lower than so we felt it was more to just negotiate directly with allar I did have
087a direct conversation with another company they said you it's not kind of worth on because they will be about 18% increase over what rates are and the way that the once you have written in a district it's very hard to get another how are they doing with u drivers They have just enough drivers to take. There's been more of an issue on the after school runs. We don't have the additional drivers that are needed to run athletics for middle school and school sports. Just that's the case with every and I I think I remember somebody saying if it was you or Mark that they are competitive in their salaries for bus drivers. Yes. Yes. And um I'm not sure if I remember somebody saying benefits as well, but I think that they were trying to
088entice drivers. Any questions on the contract? Can I make a motion? Sure. Uh motion to adopt the proposed All-Star contract for the years 2023 to 2028. Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed or abstain. Motion carries. Uh promotion ceremony in OS graduation date. OS promotion ceremon. [Music] Don't even say it. We don't even say it. [Music] We had a hurricane or tornado. Which one is it? Tornado. [Music] Graduation take place even 13 as backup if we need it today. worked for the last few years at the same [Music] location. So it's very Can I just for the graduations? I know they the the parents, the kids would they like the poppers on the field. From my understanding, it takes a very long time to clean that up. I know the
089I've heard stories of football players for the next several days are picking it up by hand as they walk along the field. Is there any possibility to consider a different form of or something that's easier to pick up? Well, it's a good thing here this evening. You're still here, Anthony. We could have emailed you this. [Music] Great. Thank you. Yeah. I don't even know what else I was thinking. You know how how you couldn't that they used to throw bird seed or whatever, but that would make it the mess even worse if it was it's it'd be about the same. It's it's that hard. That wouldn't be good. Um but it's point well taken. Um or or every kid needs to leave. We give them a bag and every kid needs to leave whenever they
090can, you know, pick it up. I don't know. Um central activity funds. Oh, we have to approve it. Okay. Go ahead. Motion. Sure. Um I'd like to make a motion to to set the Oxford Middle School and Oxford High School graduation date to be June 12th with a rain date of June 13th. Okay, good. second at Oxford High School. Um at Oxford High School, we can add for further discussion. And uh all those in favor, opposed or abstain? Motion carries. Who seconded that? Um Joe did. [Music] Yes. Um Dr. Miller report [Music] Oh jeez, I am off my game. I'm sorry. Central activities fund approval of press boxes for sept softball and baseball fields. The athletic director requested that two press boxes be installed. One behind baseball field. Those press boxes would be multiple uses
091during the season as well as storage that we do not have available for right in the winter time. He went out and got several hydrant. One was also retrofitting to it this evening authorized $50,000 from activity funds which were designed to support the athletic funds the place to enhance and support the athletic fields there. using the same funds we used last year to bring the water to the field. This would still be a balance of $14,000 as well. Do you have a question? Joe, [Music] 15. Um, second, someone second. Okay. Any questions or further comments? And you know just to be clear this is the the money that is it's generated through tickets and and we don't pay for pay to play anymore. This is not through operating fund. Right. So this is actually money
092that's coming in and going back and used for that purpose. Uh all those in favor I opposed or abstained motion cars. Let's see if I get this right now. Report of the superintendent. Okay. The only thing that I'm really going to report on today are two things. One, um, this Friday night and Saturday is final performance here. had a performance in baseball performance about two weeks ago and this Friday Saturday and Friday is at 7 p.m. Saturday at 2 p.m. the show had seow students involved. This show is actually high school. We've got former student show and we actually have high [Music] school districts that teachers and students ask for each other from safety perspective. I know there's a lot of questions about the trainings that we do. I can't speak that we do that
093last session to talk about safety and [Music] security this year. We are planning that hoping out tomorrow or Wednesday. Um and also that you know just from my previous life um each school plans out their their drills. There's there's state mandated of the drills that you have to use certain amount of fire drills, certain amount of lockdown drills, certain amount of stay put drills. And in the winter is when you do your stay put in your lockdowns because it's indoors and you don't have to worry about the weather. And you know in the spring and the fall you do your your other drills. So um I have confidence that the the schools are following that and we also have resource officers in in each school and if something was not being done or being done
094properly I would think that's part of their purview to make sure that that gets done. Not only are they being done, but at the start of the year, we asked the school to give us a lot of drills, right? And we're required by the state, right? access those drills. Those are sub and the police are contacted um for in advance for every drill as well because then then you have they give an assessment of things that went well and things that didn't go well or things that you need to improve. So I I'm confident that that's still happening. Um anything else, Dr. Mill? No, mine I think I'm on mine, right, Doug? Mine will be very short. Um, he's not here today, but I would like to wish a very happy birthday to Oxford's favorite
095student. Ben Homewood is uh 21 today. And you know, we've most of us have watched Ben grow from kindergarten to the connections program. I mean, not connections, the U community explorer program that he's in now. And um we all love Ben and we want to wish him a happy birthday. That's my report. Um facilities Joe, you're good. Uh Deb curriculum proposal that was attached to the agenda for special education unified arts. Um this is um similar to life skills at high school. Um so it's attached to the agend. [Music] Um yeah the the um the difference in this is that it's well what did you say it's more well not it's more like uni it's more like unified sports except it's academics right because it's it's life skills right in the way it's connected and
096you know just so that you know the discussion that we have at curriculum that by approving this we still had and I don't know if you you probably don't have it on the top of your head. Um some of the questions that we asked like how are the students going to be prepared um you know in order cuz you know playing a sport with a peer is different than trying to teach a peer how to do something. So I think there's got to be some pre-learning um and and pre-instruction that goes on with that and recommendations and and I also think that there should be some kind of a parent component. I think the parent should know she did have that. Um, so I'm just saying that by approving this it doesn't mean that I
097mean there's still things that the curriculum committee and as we get that information we'll give it to you guys and we also then want to see um you know we want it to be guided and we wanted it to be we want it to be planned out not just you know you're going to plan a party and then how are you going to do the party? I mean there's there's real skills that need to be you know integrated and and taught skills that need to be learned. opportunity beauty is bringing students together and together Nicole my only question was how does the peer component work that's who it is it is and it'll be it'll be in the rotation of um specials okay so it would be you know called the unified leadership academy and
098that would be part of it. Now, it it's not going to be as high volume number. You're not going to have 20 kids in it, but um so yes, that's that's the whole uh purpose of Did you say something? Anything else? Um did you you didn't do a motion? No. So, I'll make a motion to approve the unified arts leadership academy course. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I opposed or abstain. Motion carries. And the other item that we needed to talk about was that there was we had discussion about increasing prek from um to 5day program. So we felt um Megan Dr. P came and gave us a presentation. Um and there's a number of schools. We're probably one of the only ones that does not have a five four or five day
099prek. I think we were the only one if I remember correctly. So, we wanted to um come to you tonight and make a motion to extend our prek program to make a fiveday program. Seems smart. Um, do you want to do the motion? Gonna have Nicole do it since you're correct. Sure. [Music] Yes, we did. He wasn't here. Uh, we mentioned it. We talked about you. We gave you accolades. It was mentioned. You were in Florida. You're in Florida. Thank you, Vic. Again, now you can hear it from us. [Music] There's a joke in there somewhere, but Right. So, I think if if Dr. Miller can contact um Sylvia and and ask her to, you know, have a have a what's that called? Debriefing. Debrief. Thank you. If anything, you should at least follow up
100with Yeah. What What was good? What What did you need? Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Thank you, Vic. You can't miss any meetings. So, motion to increase prek to a five day fiveday schedule. Second. Second by Mike. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I oppose or abstain. Motion carries. Motion carries. Sorry. And one of the other things that we we mentioned was um summer packets or summer learning. Um we always talk about you know the summer slide. And so um Dr. Miller was going to talk when everyone was back after vacation because we met during vacation um about a way to come up with some ideas for a summer program um or summer learning for the kids because we do think that summer's last. That was it. Thanks to um Nicole and policy, we are
101meeting on Thursday so we should have some new content for you guys at the next board meeting. Um Mike Um no, no, no new new data except to just highlight 780,000 deficit. Um you know, we the finance subcommittee has already met once this week to review um possible cuts. The list, it's about 20 30 line items for consideration. Um but there's no way to get around it. If if the number stands and it does not get um and money doesn't get restored to the budget, there will be layoffs. there will be positions cut. Um just there's no the budget just can't absorb this hit after the amount of cuts we've made over the past uh three four years. So yeah, it's where we stand. Absolutely. Um, so we need to go into executive session now.
102Do you want to do anything? Oh, are there any so you want to just make a motion to go into? Yeah. Make a motion to go to executive session for the purpose of school safety and invite Dr. Miller. Second motion carries. Thank you so much for coming. Take care. Yes.