001[Music] All right. >> All right. We'll do a roll call. I am the board chair, Carmen Silton, and I am present. Um, vice chair. Um, board member Jan >> present. member Jane and David pres. >> So the first thing on the agenda um board, we have a very heck agenda today is school climate survey data and Mrs. Franc lead that session. >> Hi, good morning board chair Dr. Soulton, vice chair, esteemed members of the board, student representative Satra, and superintendent Dr. Dino Whitaker. School climate rating is a diagnostic tool that's used by the Georgia DOE to determine if a school is on the right path. on the right path to school improvement. It is a part of school accountability as each school receives a rating of a one to five with five stars representing an
002excellent climate and one star representing a climate most in need of improvement. So as we consider these ratings, we can think of these as Georgia's official pool climate indicators. Climate ratings are also our CSD key performance indicator for student well-being. This a this morning we will review the most recent star rating for CSD schools, dive into a sample of the data related to the rating and discuss activities underway to ensure that CSD schools are continuously meeting this expectation and fostering a healthy school climate for all students. So, as you are aware, we monitor student discipline and we're going to start reporting on attendance to you this year. Um, so this may be the first time that you've actually heard on school climate because since COVID, it has been paused. The the star ratings have been
003paused by the state. To build and sustain an engaging and inclusive culture in our schools, we have to understand how students, families, staff are We will be looking at the surveys which cover those aspects. Um as we move forward, please remember that state accountability reporting and data is a little wonky. So um other data associated with the Georgia DOE reporting school climate ratings lag. For this reason today you're going to be looking at the ratings from the 2324 school year which were released in March while we unpack a little bit of the On this slide you see the 2324 DSC school climate star rating. The data is considered our baseline. Um since again this is the first time since Georgia DOE um as we're soon reporting on this postcoid. Our goal is for all CSD
004schools to have a rating of four stars or higher. We are almost there uh for all but one. Um, these ratings do not affect a school's CCRPI score, but they are reported on the same public website. From these ratings, we can see when you put all the data together, surveys, student discipline, safe and substance-free learning environment, and schoolwide attendance for teachers and students that CSC schools are meeting the state of Georgia expectations. So the climate star ratings for the 2425 school year are not out yet. However, we do have the results of the survey. Again, that's what we will be looking at today. And so high participation rates are very important to us. We know that we want to hear from multiple perspectives as we make decisions that impact our schools. So high levels of
005engagement for all groups um is key and we see that currently CSC u stakeholders are exceeding the state averages in participation. So this tells us that our stakeholders do believe in this process and that voices their they believe their voices matter and that hopefully it will guide real change. Of course, as we celebrate the engagement, we also recognize that this is a living metric and we do see an opportunity for growth with parent participation in the upper grades. Um, it is important for us to continue to educate parents that these surveys go beyond satisfaction. This relates to all topics related to school including school leadership, student teacher relationships, family engagement, safety and the learning environment department will continue department make sure that surveys are more accessible promoting their value and that everyone really understands that
006their voice really does drive meaningful change. Okay, so let's look at the surveys. So looking at the K12 family survey findings overall, we see that families feel well informed about school news, um, respected in their interactions and welcomed into our school spaces. We u also noticed that there was a praise of timely responses from teachers and that's great because this is the culture that we want to foster and create. At the same time, we see areas of opportunity. While most families express a general sense of safety, only 67% reported feeling very or extremely confident in our safety practices. And so this informs us that we need to be more proactive and transparent in how we communicate our safety protocols, especially with our more recent implementation of the weapons detection systems. At the secondary level, we
007want to ensure that our practices are not just strong, but that families understand them, feel confident in them, and know that they are designed to protect their children. Additionally, while the majority of families responded satisfaction with engagement opportunities, there is feedback that lets us know we do need to broaden those and diversify those opportunities to reflect the needs and the voices of our community. We also want families to feel more comfortable with addressing their concerns with school leaders. So the teacher surveys um these cover topics such as school leadership, collaboration, professional learning, safety, physical environment, and several others. This is the longest of all the surveys actually. And so the feedback from our teachers um reflects a strong strong foundation of trust and collaboration within our schools. Many reported that they feel very supported with
008their colleagues or by their colleagues and they feel pride in their school environment. Um we also see that thanks uh because of the adjustments made to master scheduling to increase collaboration. It's great that 71% of teachers report having adequate time almost every day to deliver their planned instruction. Very importantly, 92% of teachers report knowing the steps to follow in an emergency. Um teachers were also very honest with us about where they wanted um support uh greater clarity around the priorities of the school improvement plan as well as the need to receive actionable feedback from their leaders. So, as a district, we are responding to these things already. We've, as you know, implemented leadership strategies, um, feedback cycles, and also being more, um, consistent and streamlined with principal communication and support to make sure that they
009have timely updates, messages that are aligned, and resources. Our staff group considers not teaching regularly scheduled classes and designated for support. So this may include anyone from the school nurse to the admin assistant to a counselor, right? Different positions um that may be supportive in nature. In the area of school leadership, we see that the staff survey aligns closely with the teachers responses particularly in the area of um wanting to better understand the priorities based on their school improvement plan. And we are also pleased to see here that staff also responded high rates of knowing what to do in an emergency. Um, it was also good to see that staff are looking forward to come to work and um and proud of their building and what it looks like and the voice of the students.
010My favorite. So, elementary and secondary student surveys are not identical because the questions are more age appropriate. Um the categories however are similar to the teacher and staff survey questions in that teaching and learning, student teacher relationships, safety, those are also covered. Students are also asked about student support, well-being and attendance. It is great that over half the students who participated in this survey feel respected and feel prepared for emergencies. However, uh while elementary students are connecting very well with their teachers in their learning environment, we see opportunities here to increase engagement at the secondary level. As Beacon Hill and Decatur High School begin to implement our new future readiness curriculum, teachers will have at their disposal vetted research and evidence-based lessons and activities to be able to create and sustain those learning environments where
011we would like to see students reporting feeling both psychological safety but also um physical safety. Right? So both of those things which are so fundamental to the learning environment. We also want to um we also hope that the implementation of NVAN will help students set goals for postsecary and that will also help them connect to the relevance of their classroom. Okay. So, in alignment with um the new Senate Bill 123 compulsory attendance laws in Georgia, we want to know not just that we're improving attendance, but understand why students may be absent and this will help us better address it. So it is interesting to see that students at all levels reported missing school due to family vacations and this tells us we need to further partner with our families to bring about awareness around this
012and make sure that students are consistently attending school and because that's where they're going to get their academic and emotional um growth and support. Additionally, at all le level levels, we see that students are facing stressors and for secondary students, the stress specifically relates to school. Um, for me, the fact that 24% of students are feeling of elementary students are feeling worried underscores the importance of early mental health and the work of our future readiness uh framework being expanded into our elementary schools. Um, I'm also reminded here of why we launched the framework at the secondary level because there is a clear need to continue building our systems of support, connection, and resilience as students prepare for life beyond graduation. So, as you have heard me say before, all students need to learn about self-awareness,
013self-management, social awareness, uh, relationship building skills, and responsible decision- making. Um, another theme that I saw here I wanted to highlight is that as the academic and social demands increase, we want to increase the number of students at the secondary level who report that accessing student wellness services is uh easy or extremely easy. It is important to continue our visibility and our outreach um in those areas for our students. And so as we conclude today, um, moving forward, we are, um, already responding to a lot of the the, uh, themes that we saw in this data. And you may notice that some of these efforts are efforts that are led by other division leaders. And as we hear about this um, we will hear more about the progress as they present their state of the
014department or future board retreats or communications. And so the fact that multiple divisions are involved in responding to this um feedback from the survey helps us to see that school climate is not just about the behavior of the students. It's about all the aspects that come together. The interdependencies that impact the learning environment and as a district leadership team we are all responsible. So I thank you for your time. Do you have any questions or feedback? I have a question. Are there individual goals for the uh finding categories? You all have for each of you know for teachers, students that you have these findings. Do you have goals want you know at least this percentage of folks to feel this kind of way? Like I know you had an overall goal >> with this. >>
015Yes. I so for each particular charact we do not um I will say that there are over 10 categories for example in the teacher survey alone >> probably very challeng >> this is a sample of it >> yes >> trying to find the areas where we could see themes across >> can we look at slide nine real quick Yes, >> this is 10 one back. >> Yes, right here. >> Okay. >> Um, so this is a little bit in line with with Jamie's question. I do think uh some questions some results might be more indicative of overall progress than than others. And so I do think there's probably an opportunity to select which ones we want to see needle move on. mine when I take a look at 60% of students report feeling that their
016teachers create an environment where they can learn. Do we have any sense? I realize that we don't necessarily set all of these, but do we have any sense? It's very different for a student to say, you know, eight of my or five of my teachers do create an environment, but I have one teacher that I am not getting along with this year, and that's going to make me label this in the nature. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, it's hard to disagregate the the frustration a student may have with a single teacher versus their experience with all of their teachers. And do we have any sense when we look at that 60% number how that might break out. >> No, we don't. The way that the state um has the question and gives us
017the data. There are I can go back and look to see if there's other qu because there's similar questions on the same topic, right? To see if there's a question about um something further with relation to their adults in the building. Um but I >> here's what I would say, right? If it's if it is the case that we want to make sure that people aren't interpreting this 60% of students aren't learn or I guess 40% of students aren't actually learning in the high school that I don't think is what the data is saying right and so and so just understanding that delineation between I may have had a frustrating experience with all of my teachers that's very If I remember, if I'm recalling the correct survey, like when we took it, I think we
018took it um in reference to the teachers whose class we were in, but since that was so distributed, like pretty much like pretty much every period and class was covered. May I chime in about this because I believe what you do find to answer to your question, Hans, is that it's not a clear yes or no, but it's like a degree like somewhat consistently. So, I don't think it's specific to I'm in Miss Anderson's class and I'm going to talk about Miss Anderson, but a student is expected to look globally and then because I looked at the questions last night to revisit it. So, I believe it's more like always, somewhat, never, or you know, um, most of the time, sometime >> then the 60% is reflective of a student saying all of the time
019or all of the time and I I know I'm asking. Yeah. Yeah. all the time. Most of the time, some of the So, I I guess I would say if if possible, you've got a couple of data heads around this table. So, if possible, reporting the actual results out as they're recorded with you. >> Thank you for that, Hans. And I I definitely did that here, for example, where it said the one to two times a week. So, I will take that feedback and incorporate that. >> Great. I've got so many questions. Um, so we break it up with the students, elementary, middle, and high school. Um, are y'all looking at the K through 12 teachers? Because when I look at I think it's 71% report having adequate time to deliver planned instruction, that could
020be good. On the other hand, if it breaks up so it teachers that may be working with far fewer students or have more of whatever. So, do y'all look at that by level just like the student finding? >> Yes. So what you're seeing today is the all district report that comes in. But when when this data came in, Miss N Scott shared it with the principal so that they could look at their specific school, but there is a a breakout of the high school and elementary, middle, and high. >> And then is there a theme? So, in terms of and I really helped knowing or I appreciated knowing the staff because I wasn't sure who the staff was compared to the teachers, but I noticed some of the reported stuff in support and communication or
021protected time and similar, but then like staff 79% I think look forward to coming to work. Is there a reason why the teacher and the staff presentations aren't entirely equal? Yes, because the I did have to pick the sample, right, of of um uh questions, if you will. The teacher one does have that same question. I did not include it here because um I felt it would be important to include the performance um feedback whereas the staff did not have that particular question, but I still wanted to show that staff are um we want to we want them to know that we see them as well, right, with with their reporting. And then this may be something for the state but the survey like seems to conflate. It sometimes asks about school leaders and sometimes
022it asks about school administration or administrator. So is there a difference in level? >> They do not. >> So how I guess you have my special ed teacher hat on. How do you decide like if 50 I think from the slide 51% of the teachers remember what it was um >> oh sorry I'm going the wrong direction >> right there >> okay >> report received actionable performance feedback from the school how do you decide next year would you like to see 80% how do you decide like you know which which themes you want to work on. And >> so so a couple things. One, we have to remember this data is from not 2425, but this data is from 23 24. It is so lagging. >> The the stars >> the stars are 23 24.
023This part is >> 2425. We already had feedback and observation as a big rock for the year that that's for. So if you remember when we talk about what are the things that the school leader there was the school leaders said we need to focus on feedback and observation and we did a lot of professional learning on that. So, I'm going to step back another year before from canvasing originally when I first walked in in 23 to what I saw in the school year of 23 24. I knew this wasn't happening. from a superintendency learning what I learned coming in and some of the questions that this board asked me around completion of teeth and ensuring all of that was happening and all of that that tells me those are indicators that that's concern so
024I would say there's happy alignment with what this survey said and what I could see from the professional leaders leadership lens of where there was a disconnect. So I will say that that 51 to to support teachers and staff with regular observations providing consistent substantial feedback through coaching sessions. That's one of the things that walking in the school district was a question that I asked the teacher because one of the best ways to ensure students are going to receive high quality instruction is to actually observe it. And when I saw that gap there, that's what helped us get to we need to probably focus on that. But that data came after the fact. >> So to Jana's point then we ought to watch every year for a while that specific data point to see like
025what you're saying would be indicates that that should jump up. >> That should Yes. And and based anecdotally from staff they will say they're in built they're in classrooms more. And I will say this that that was part of my method if you will this being the first time we've received this since co right like what are we doing that how can I identify the actions that we've already started and and you know launched in our tools to show that correlation but yes I I will track that question not in the last four meeting that relationship And here um how are you defining what considered a school leader have staff that leaders? They talking about instrues they talk about all the way up and then like how are you that relationship could be very different
026or what they're how are you or was it defined in the serving call or did it get >> it did not that's a similar question to what Miss Anderson asked us a few minutes ago but um it does not say the principal or the instructional coach it just it's kind of loops it all under administration leadership if you >> and it and it does speak specifically to school leadership. So and and that that's something that >> Yeah, it's because it's given to the entire state. So not every school system has an instructional not every school system I mean some people look at grade level chairs as leadership depending upon the structure of your school. So, it has to be general enough so that it's >> and and I'll just say that that's why it's good
027that you know Adena does that survey locally because then we can kind of get into the more in the weave of what our local staff is saying. I think that's what I was wondering looking at some of this like it looks good that you have teachers here saying hey you know we want more actionable feedback for our teaching but then I'm hearing we have this whole category of leader right the leader that is supporting the class is there an actionable item that so each district has its own way of doing what it needs to for its students correct so the state's doing this kind of globally so therefore for our district is there anything built in where then the district gets to assess how that stuff is working according to the deliverable resolve instruction. So
028if I'm making sense here, it sounds like the teachers are asked, are you getting this from your school leaders? Right? And then y'all are coming up with this actionable plan. Is there anything to determine what aspects of that support teachers are identifying as helping or you know you have the 71% saying adequate times it sounds like hey we address that with the collaboration is there any assessment model there besides the state survey >> I would say that that um through Miss Newton Scott's support of the principles I would think that that would come through that that part. >> It comes out in a lot of the focus groups and things that we do when we do canvas. So when you're conducting a canvas, it has multiple layers. It could be classroom observations, it could be
029data dives, it could be focus groups, focus groups with students, focus groups with adults. And so that is how you're getting quantitative and qualitative data throughout the school year that will help us to determine next steps and opportunities. >> Okay, continue. >> Thank you. >> Next on the agenda, we have uh Mrs. Susan Avance from um the Charter System Foundation. and she is here today to do the annual charter training um that's required of the board members for our charter as well. Um and so without further ado, I'm going to introduce her and she's um our agenda item for the next 45 minutes. >> Awesome. Thank you. Well, I'm Susan. I'm from Liberty County. Um I retired after 30 some odd years. Um I retired as the chief academic officer in Liberty County and went
030to work for the Church System Foundation. Um, and so originally I was South Georgia because I do live just south of Savannah, but we've had some folks retire. So I am excited to be working my way up in the state. Um, so I'm I'm happy to be here. Um, please feel free to stop me at any point in time if you have questions, but we're going to jump right in. Okay. Um, few things we're going to talk about today. a few charter system reminders, some roles and responsibilities, some things in your contract, and then looking at some examples of flexibility and actions. Okay. Um, there are 48 charter systems in the state of Georgia. Um, as you know, you had to make a decision several years ago whether you were going to be strategic waiver,
031charter system, um, or status quo. And these are the 48 that cho chose to be charter systems. Basically, what it is to be a charter system, it's a contract between the local board of education and the Georgia Department of Education. Um, so just like any contract, there's two sides to every contract. Your side says that you will have local school governance teams at every school, that you'll use flexibility to implement innovative practices, and you have a higher accountability than other districts. On the other side of that contract, the state board says they will grant broad flexibility um from state laws and rules, which I think for most people that's the most um most important part of the contract. And they're going to give you some additional funding. Of course, subject to legislative appropriation. The two
032sides of the contract. Um, within that contract, you do have, again, we've said the additional funding, local school governance teams, flexibility, and innovative practices. Those innovative practices are critical because they are in your contract, and we'll talk about what your innovative practices are just as a reminder. Um, but they are part of your contract. You also have bylaws for all of your school governance teams. Um, part of that is open records and open meetings act. Those are not waveable in any way. Um, and then we're going to talk very briefly about um some other things that are not waveable, but your bylaws will have how your members are selected, how many are on a team, how the voting takes place. It outlines all of that. Um, how they help make decisions. You also in your
033contract have a governance matrix um which helps you make sure that your school governance teams are making decisions about the right things. There's five areas on that. Um, and it just kind of guides the work of the school governance team. Of course, here's the structure. You have the local board of education the district budget, approve personnel. The superintendent develops the district budget, selects and directs uh district personnel. Then you have the principal that develops the school budget, recommends, manages, and evaluates the school personnel. You have your school staff. And if you notice down at the bottom, you have your local school governance team. They can make recommendations to the superintendent. They participate in decision making in areas that impact school improvement. That's the whole purpose of all things charter is to increase student outcomes, increase
034student achievement and better opportunities for our children. That's the whole purpose. The local local school governance teams act as advocates and they support the work of the teachers and the principal. Your school governance team should be your biggest cheerleader. And then also they give you a a varied perspective during that decision making. You know having your school governance teams and the makeup of the school governance team in itself brings all of the different perspectives to the table. Um we all come with our own perspective based on our own experiences. And having all of those different perspectives at the table allows you to make decisions that are going to impact students and impact families. Um and and it it just brings everybody together into one. Um your community partners are going to come in with one
035point of view. Your parents may have a different point of view. I would have the perspective as a mom, a business owner, and an educator. Someone else may have a perspective of a business owner and a parent. You have your principal who has a perspective of a principal um and perhaps a parent, perhaps a business owner. Um but but every it brings everybody to the table. That's the whole point. Um, charter system supplemental funding, it is subject to appropriation by the general assembly. It varies from one year to the next depended upon the state budget. Um, it is used for expenditures that support charter system work. Um, it can one of the few things that can be carried over from year to year um, if you need to and that use is determined by the
036district. There's a lot of flexibility in how that money is used. So, how do you benefit from being a charter system? Again, it gives you local control and raw flexibility. Who better to make decisions for Decar City students than people in Decator City? Um, and so it gives you some flexibility. I think as educators, we have all said, "Oh my gosh, we got this new rule or new law and what were they thinking?" Um, but it gives us the opportunity to wave some of those that we know are in the best interest of our students and our families. It does give you additional funding. It gives you a shared governance model based on a variety of stakeholder perspectives. Gives you the ability to create and implement those innovative practices. Um, and again, we'll talk about
037your innovative practices in just a few minutes, but that is a critical part of your contract. Um, it gives you the ability to leverage partnerships with community, parents, business, and industry and postsecary. Those partnerships are a key part of how we increase student achievement and how we provide better outcomes for our students. That's why it's such a critical part of your contract and that's that's why that piece is in there. Um we do want to leverage those partnerships and it gives shared ownership and commitment for providing those support providing and supporting those educational opportunities for our students. So what does flexibility mean? It gives you freedom from most state laws and rules that govern K12 public education. Um there are some things that are not waveable. Um and there are some state rules that are
038not waveable. Um and I'll be honest with you, more and more we're seeing our legislators add that little part at the end that says not waveable. And we are as a foundation um trying to make our voices heard um so that that doesn't continue. But if you remember several years ago, um, they made the EIP not waveable and that threw a lot of districts off. I know it threw us off in Liberty when that happened. We have a very transient population and you know, we have 14 children come in. Well, with a military base, um, we would have children come in. They never leave it unmanned, so they're not going to ship out before they ship in. So they would ship in, we'd have this huge influx for about two weeks and then they would
039be gone. And so it had a huge impact for us and a lot of districts who were building those innovative EIP models that were working could no longer do some of the things that were working. Now you can still have an innovative model approved by the state. Um but that's just one example. the literacy requirements. I'm not saying we should be waving literacy requirements, but that's one of the things most recently that are not waveable. Um, it is intended to be used in designing and implementing innovation. Um, and again, it's all about student outcomes. It's all about student achievement. That is the whole purpose in being a charter system. What's not included is anything federal. The federal government does not recognize charter systems. They would not know what it is. um if if you walked
040up to them and started talking to them, I can attest to that. I went to speak with the Senate Education Committee about two years ago, the charter system, and guess what the first thing was that they thought I was talking about? Charter schools. Yes. So, we had to have conversation about what the difference is. Um so, nothing federal is waveable, but also any law that falls into one of these categories. And if you think about it, these are kind of those common sense categories that you probably wouldn't want to wave anyway. You don't want to wave anything as it regards to safety. You don't want to wave civil rights. Um, you can't wave. We probably would want to probation of that if we could, but we can't. Um, or any state law again like EIP
041or the literacy requirements that expressly states that it's not subject to flexibility. Okay? Everything else, if you need to be flexible, you get to be flexible. But just because we can doesn't always mean we should. Um I tell leaders all the time, you know, people start talking about class sizes. They start talking about flexibility with certification. Um there's lots of things we can be flexible about, but don't mess up your FTE in the process because we have seen that happen. Um you can't earn more FTE as a result of being flexible. We've seen that happen too. Um, so you just because you can doesn't always mean you should. But the process of that is looking at your challenges. And I'll tell you when Liberty first became a charter system 10 12 years ago was so
042excited. I was the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. I'm like, "Okay, tell me everything I can wave and we're going to get busy." And Sherry Gibney Sherman looked at me and said, "You're not thinking about this right. Find your problem. find your solution. Then if you need to wage something, you can. So I always remember that. I always share that. Um so first you look for your challenges. Then you develop what are your solutions? We have some possible solutions to whatever our challenges are that we've identified. Do you need flexibility to do what you think is going to work for your students? If so, is it something that you have flexibility with? And the great thing about it, if so, you just do it real time. I tell you, charter systems survived COVID so
043much better. It's so much easier. Not saying it was easy, y'all. It was not. Um, but we did have a much easier time because we have broad flexibility. We can make decisions in real time for our students, without having to get permission, without having to ask, without having to do all kinds of forms and paperwork. So, we were able to make decisions real time. And that's the whole thing with being a charter system is making decisions real time in the moment as you need to, and not having to fill out a form, not having to make a special request because we've got the flexibility upfront. So, let's talk about your essential or innovative features in your contract. And we talked about your contract with the state. It says that you're going to amplify student voice
044by creating student representation with the board of education. We going to shift to implement a long-term eco-friendly facility plan expanding early learning opportunities. Establish a learn and earn apprenticeship that certifies students and student teachers in the science of reading and ensure that students are college and career future ready by aligning K12 CTA pathways to the city of Decatur workforce development needs. So those are the ones that you wrote into your contract. Now I believe your contract expires in 2028. All right. Pretty sure I looked and it was 2028. So these are the ones you've identified. Now what I will tell you is that those that actually could look lots of different ways. Um and so you have some great innovative features here. When you do go to renew, you're going to have to make the
045decision as to whether to keep your innovative features that you have now or whether you're going to change them. But also keep in mind that though these are listed in your contract, you can have as many wonderful innovative features that you want to have in your district. It's just these are the four that are listed. Any questions on these? >> How often do we renew? >> Every five years. 35 years. >> Okay. And then how does the state hold us accountable for reaching these? >> I'm glad you asked this. That's the next part. There is accountability and and remember I mentioned a few minutes ago you have higher accountability than other districts. I mean you would get the the broad flexibility. The state says okay but you're at you're at another level. So let's talk
046about that. So your responsibility as a local board of education um are you're ultimately responsible for all the duties to be formed by the charter system to be performed by the charter system and the schools within the charter system. So lo, the local board of education, you are ultimately responsible. Go backwards. I still go. There we go. Um, in your contract have goals. Goal one says during each year of its charter term, the percentage of charter school systems that achieve at least one of the following three measures shall increase by 10% of the gap between 100% and the previous year's percentage of charter system schools alone that achieve at least one of the following three measures. Okay? So it doesn't mean you're having to go up 10%. means you're going up 10% of the gap
047between wherever you are under. Okay? So you have to increase the CCRPI content mastery score each year while content mastery is below 90. So if let's say your content mastery is at 89 the gap between content mastery the 89 and 100 is 11. So 10% of 11 would be 1.1. So you'd have to go up by 1.1. That make sense? That's a very wordy thing there to me. Very wordy. Um you have to increase the CCRPI progress score each year while progress is below 90. Um or um at least one of these. Now it doesn't have to be all three. increase CCRPI by 4% of the gap between 100 and the previous year's CCRPI while your CC gap find 4% of that that would tell you what you have to score at. Now, what I
048will tell you is that just because you don't hit one of these goals doesn't mean they're going to take your charter um your contract. what they're going to ask you to do is okay, what are you going to do to get there? Um, so it's not a situation where at the five-year point they go, oh, didn't do it. Boom, you're done. Their their goal is definitely to to continue your charter system contract, but you would have to explain how you're going to get there. Goal two, during each year of the charter term, the total number of charter system schools that achieve a school climate rating. So, you guys were just talking about your school climate rating. That was very timely. A four or five stars will increase by 5% of the gap between 100% and
049the previous year's percentage of schools with a school climate rating of four stars or more. So again, you're looking at a percentage of the gap. I notice you only had one that was at a three. So, and it is very lagging data. If you were to survey today, you would probably see something very different. um especially based on what you guys are already doing. With goal three, um the charter system will operate in a fiscally sound manner as measured by not being designated as a financial high-risk system determined by the Department of Audits and Accounts, which is through the DOE. Okay. So, that one generally there's no issues with goal three. And then goal four, the charter system will foster individual school level governance. This that's why it's so critical that we have strong school
050governance teams because it is goal four in your contract. So all school governance team members will complete annual training. So they do have to have training annually. They have to meet a minimum of six times per year. Now, a lot of districts meet once a month. Some do it for once a month for 10 months. That's up to you. But the minimum is six times. All school governance teams have representation from a variety of stakeholders, teachers, parents, community leaders. That's why it's structured the way that it is. And charter system will create a spreadsheet listing the decisions made by each school governing team in the areas of personnel, finances, resource allocation. And I will tell you that traditionally this has never been looked for. Okay. What they're going to ask when you go to renew
051is for your governance team members. They're going to ask, "Well, what kind of decisions do you help make?" Um, this is not something that has ever been turned in as long as I've been in charter system world. Um, but when you go to renew, you just need to make sure that your school governance team members can articulate some of the decisions that they've been involved in through your goals in your contract. So, let's talk about some additional accountability because there's other things in there, too. And I've just kind of hit the highlights. Each charter system school is subject to all accountability and assessment requirements. We already said that um accountability provisions for all of those codes. I'm not going to go through those, but includes teacher and leader effectiveness, student learning um objectives, any corresponding
052rules and regulations, and subject to all federal accountability requirements under um Elementary and Secondary Education Act. in your contract. There is also additional wording regarding the annual report which you guys do every year. It's due in November. I think it's November 1st um that you have to turn in and submit every year. That is in your contract. It also talks about open enrollment, admission, and withdrawal of students telling you what you can and cannot do. I mean, your public school can't penalize students for withdrawing, those kinds of things. Um, additional accountability with state and federally mandated programs. Bill has to follow federally mandated programs. Um, governance structure and training. There's wording in there about that fiscal control. And then there's other rules and regulations listed in your contract. Any questions about that? I just wanted
053to hit the high points because those goals, that's that's what's going to be most important when you go to renew. And I believe again it's 2028 for you guys. But as long as you're keeping the focus on student achievement and school improvement, you're always doing the right work. So let's talk about some examples, some innovative things. And I know, first of all, please know that when we go around the state, we pick out things we think you might be interested in. We share what you're doing as we travel, but you already know what you're doing, so I didn't put your slides in here. Um, in the interest of time, but you guys have some great things going on and we do love sharing those. So, if there's something new, make sure we get a slide.
054Um, we do have the Charter System Foundation Conference that comes up in November. Um, and that's one of the things that we do, a service that we provide for you guys. So hopefully some of you will be able to attend fall. So let's talk about some elementary examples from around the state. Do you have any questions about what we talked about so far? I know I'm talking fast, but I know we didn't have a lot of time. So >> appendex A, that's where we have the charter accountability and intervention. That's api measure. Um, measure. Can you tell me where I where the goals are that reference the student board members? >> It's your innovative practices. >> Yes. Those are the ones that you guys decided because everybody's innovative practices are different across the state and
055every district gets to make the decision what's going to what their innovative practices are going to be. So, Decater City is going to be the only one that's going to have a contract that looks like that. Um because you got to choose that fee. >> I just I just >> Yeah. Okay. And since we're at a point about that, remember when I when I came on board, the charter contract that the state had on file had the old goals and old information. And so we aligned what was the 90-day plan to the all indicator strategic plan and then the charter contract so that all of those three documents that are foundation to our school system are aligned and they all have the same information. And that's the goal is that they're all working together. Um
056making sure that we're all all those arrows are going in the same direction. And that can look a lot of different ways. Um that's the great thing about it is you guys get to decide how it looks um in your district because you know it is your innovation. And I'll tell you this too, sometimes honestly five years is a long time. So there are times that you get into an innovative practice and you realize it's no longer working. The state does not expect you to keep doing it simply because it's on that piece of sometimes you may need an amendment. Sometimes it might be something as simple as a phone call isn't working in the middle of that five years. We're not going to keep doing it just for the sake of doing it. Um
057so you do still have some flexibility within that five-year contract. Um a couple of um elementary examples just some things that I pulled out. Um, Calvin City was really having a hard time with students entering preK not having the vocabulary acquisition that pre-K students need to be successful. So, what they were seeing is they were getting prek students who were already behind coming in and then guess what happens? They stay behind. It's a constant playing catchup. Um, so they decided they were going to do something a little innovative. They decided to do the mobile mobile learning lab. That's actually a picture of it. That's the actual lab. They took a surplus bus. They reached out to a community partner and had the bus wrapped. You know that wrap they put on the buses. But here's
058the great part about it. They wanted to go support low-income housing and daycarees because that's a great way to reach out to that birth to four or birth to three, whichever category you're looking at. Um, but they needed people to man that bus. So, guess who's manning the bus? They're high school students who are either early childhood education um major or or they're teaching as a profession development program, child development program. So, they were able to put those high school students on there, take them around to low-income housing areas and daycarees. The stu the high school students in that teaching as a professions class um or that childhood development class were actually getting hands-on experience with these little ones. So, they instead of sitting in a classroom learning about being a teacher, they actually had
059to write lesson plans. They actually had to develop lessons. they actually had to go and do center and rotations um with these students at these daycarees and these low-income housing areas. So, it's great experience for the high school students. But what they noticed is a couple of things. There were two impacts there, both of which I love. First of all, they had more students coming in prepared for preK students that traditionally may not have entered um with the vocabulary necessary. But the other one is that their local students were coming back to be teachers. Y'all, we got a huge teacher shortage across the country. We're all feeling it. Are y'all feeling the bus driver crunch, too? That one's out there, we got a major bus driver crunch. Um, but we we still we have in
060my district where I have grandchildren, we're still 45 teachers empty and school's been going on for two weeks. So, you know, this gave them an opportunity to grow their own teachers and they have more teachers coming back. So, I think this is a great program. Baldwin County also saw the need to have something a little bit different for some of their elementary students. Not every elementary school, but they had some students who learn differently. Um, they wanted to make sure that they were providing the learning styles that some of these students needed. So they have one of the few public monastery programs for elementary. They actually are now going up to fifth grade this year. Um it's only one of five public monastery schools in the state of Georgia and it's the only school system
061in Georgia to offer Head Start Monitor u because they just recognized the need and said you know what we need to try this. Um it is something that parents have to request. Um but it is a choice and it's a very child- centered um program. Dublin city um I tell you research shows most underserved population of students in the country is what? I know I heard somebody mumble it. What's the most underserved population in the country? We do a lot of remediation. We do a lot of intervention. We do a lot of teaching to the middle. But it's our gifted and advanced students that are the most underserved students in the United States. Not saying we're not serving them, but we're underserving underserving them. And y'all, we got to make sure we're meeting the needs
062of these gifted and advanced students. So, Dublin City started the Irish Gifted Academy. If you ever have a chance to go, go see it. It's amazing. It looks very similar to Ron Clark Academy and that's kind of the model they went after. Um, Fred Williams will let you in anytime. You don't even have to call ahead. I texted him and said, "I'm going to bring some people." He's like, "Go ahead." Um, but it's an amazing program. But what they said was, you know, most schools and systems use a pull out for gifted one day a week. Well, they said, you know, these kids are gifted every day, not just on Thursday or not just on Monday. So, we want to serve them every day. Now, I will tell you, most places don't have an empty
063building, but they did have happen to have a building they could use. Um, so they have those students. They're still how they're still a student of record at their home school, but they travel every day um to the Irish gifted academy. The other thing is is they also will transport and accept based on room how many slots are available students who are advanced but not necessarily labeled as gifted. But what they're doing is they're using it as a talent development program. So what they want to do is they want to serve those advanced students in the hope that we can get them qualified for gifted. Um in case you don't know there's a significant difference in funding for an advanced student or a gifted student. Um so they're also using that as a talent development
064program where they can pull in their advanced students working with their gifted students. All of the staff there is gifted certified um but those students are coming every day. So, just something a little different. And again, it goes back to like we said, what is your challenge? Do you have a possible solution? If you do have a solution, do you need flexibility? If you don't, keep it rolling. If you do, keep it rolling because you have the flexibility to do it. um Clark County um during CO is recognized to me because I know I've talked about this everywhere I've been and I keep hearing it everywhere I go that during co it's like the social emotional part changed for our students needs change but what Clark um it was fun at Scholes Elementary they noticed
065that the students were feeling they were having a hard time focusing and they didn't feel valued and they didn't feel, you know, motivated. Talk about that word a lot. Um, so they actually the the principal asked the school governance team to do some research because she said, you know, I kind of got my hands full with COVID. We know we need something. So, could you kind of look into some things that would be available for our students? School governance team identified Franklin CVY leader and me. So, they started using it. It was such a great success that Clark County ended up buying it for all of their elementary schools because it did work. Um, I'm not trying to sell that program. Don't know anything about it to be honest. But that's the leverage of your
066school governance team. That's what they can bring to the table. It's not always about voting for this or voting for that, but sometimes you can ask them to break out into focus groups and help with some things, too. And so, this was one of the examples of that. Um, Tatco, Chattahuch County. The reason I love this, um, they had a fiveweek summer literacy camp, which a lot of us do across the state. We do literacy camps, we do math camps, we do all these different camps. The reason I love this is they leveraged the power of social media. Um, and what they did was all of the parents who had children who were coming to this literacy camp, part of being in the camp was making an agreement to be part of a private Facebook
067group. And so the teachers every day would send home great family lesson lessons that they could do not only with their students but with their their younger or older siblings. and all they did was ask them to post either a review of the activity or a picture of their family doing it. This group is still working together because the the parents had so much fun with it. Um and it was as simple as snapping a picture or saying we love this or we hated this. It's like be honest. So they did leverage social media during that. Um, we talked briefly about our teacher shortage and there's a couple of couple of examples here I want to give you. This is Union County. They had a workforce shortage in government and public administration. That includes police
068officers. I mean, that's all kind of different things. So, they wanted to teach eth and tth grade students government and public administration courses and blend it with eighth grade Georgia studies, which is fine. You have the flexibility to change that curriculum if you need to. Now, you still tested over eight grade standards, but they added that piece in there. Um, certified to teach that. So, guess who they leverage to teach the course? The SRO. Who better to teach the course than the SRO. So, the SRO is teaching the course. Um, so, you know, again, it's about being creative and you do have flexibility with certifications. Um there's some things about job career job and career awareness. Um this was uh Liberty and basically they were losing some pathways because there was no student interest at
069their career academy. So they bumped those pathways down to middle school, got those kids interested in it and now those pathways were booming. The children didn't understand what those courses were about. Um KATUSA is doing a from here to career. It's a ninth grade required course where they are leveraging the the power of youth science. um to and also Tim Elmore's habitude to make sure that their students are highly prepared, college and career ready and successful in high school. Um couple of high school examples. Another one was flexibility. Um Hart County, they wanted to have some uh CCA courses. They didn't have some people to teach it. One of them was the govern the government um piece. There was marine engine technology. There's all kinds of new courses. So, here's the flexibility in that. They
070didn't have anybody to teach that public administration course. So, guess what they did? They got a former attorney, a retired judge, and a police officer. None of them could commit every day, but the three of them could commit to teach that course together. So they had to be creative and so that's how they were creative about that because they wanted to make sure that their students had it. Um this particular one is about um flexibility for alternative programs. Um I'm not going to read a lot of that to you but sometimes we have to have some non-traditional um examples or non-traditional facilities. Floyd County, the learning loss after COVID, they have done an amazing job um with making sure that they close those gaps. Um a lot of places now have urgent care clinics on
071their campus. It's available not only to students but also staff and community. Um so, um this is a particular one is at Calhoun Middle and High School. Um and anyone can go to the clinic. Um so what they've noticed there is teacher attendance is better because they can go on their planning period. Uh student attendance is better because they can go to the clinic right there on the school campus instead of mom having to take them somewhere else. So um this is particular one is home. And the great thing about this is they actually had to change their contract. I mean their teacher contract a little bit, you know, it's when you have a school or district-wide initiative, professional learning of course is critical, but finding enough subs and funding all the subs is sometimes
072a huge challenge. So they actually changed their teacher contract. still 190 days, so there was no change in pay, but they required the teachers to come in for two days during the summer as part of those teacher work days so that they could all be trained together and all get the same information. Um, but didn't have to have any subs and didn't have to pay any sip because it was actual contract days. I thought that was pretty unique. Um, a lot of our districts offer many grants for innovation and creativity. Um this is Dawson County. This is some of the things that they have funded with their many grants that they used at some of their charter funding for um Liberty changed their calendar um to incorporate days for district PLC's and so instead of
073190 days I mean 180 days for students they have 178 days so that they can incorporate two days for district PLC's. They also have hired um their retired educators to come back for intervention and remediation. Um and they're basically doing all the retirees love it. They're fighting to get in because it's all the things they love about teaching and some of the things that they retired for they don't have to do. Um so they're absolutely loving that and of course they're funding that with charter funds and with title one funds. So for discussion in the coming months um as you proceed and then when you come up to your new contract as you will start the renewal process before it actually expires. What you want to kind of consider is what challenges do we still
074have since 2020 and not just COVID related. You know in the last five years what are some things that have changed about our community? What are some of the challenges that have surfaced? Um do we have resources? We know we have resources that diminished. A lot of that federal funding went away. Um what has added or stayed consistent? You know, the new workforce development needs. There's a lot of growth in Georgia. Lot of growth in Georgia. So, are there new workforce needs in in Decar City Schools? Um what are your biggest challenges academically in elementary, middle, and high? What kinds of social emotional needs and challenges are your students and staff facing? and what are some priorities for your school, your system, and your community. Far as your innovative practices, eventually you're going to have
075to decide, are these things still in progress? Are we going to continue with them? Have we fully implemented them? If not, how's it going? What do we need to do? Um, are there new innovative practices that we need to consider based on the challenges that you have? um and and the challenges that we anticipate the future. Um and then what are your greatest academic areas of need at the elementary, middle, and high school and what can you do to fix those or what are some ideas for that? And do you need the flexibility? Um so just some some things to think about. Okay, perfect time. I think >> yeah, you got about four minutes. >> Okay. >> Yes. So who the for to come to review those questions um you know in terms of what
076happened what was going on in 2020 and where we are now. Is that an administrative thing? Is that a board thing? >> These are just some recommended conversations um that you have um and really I think everybody at every level you know where are we now? Um what are some things that we need to consider? I I work with schools all the time. In fact, I was school yesterday and it's like, okay, let's talk about what your challenges are. Um, so it may be at lots of levels because the challenges change. Um, so to say one person would be responsible, I think it's just ongoing conversation. Um, but then really looking at our communities in Georgia are changing. Um, we have so many new industries that have moved into Georgia. I saw the other day
077that Georgia is now considered Little Hollywood. Who thought who would have saw that coming? Not me. And I I wouldn't have seen that coming. Um so there's lots of different things. I know I69 I95, we have all kinds of new companies coming in. Um over near Augusta and up in North Georgia. So that's going to change um what your students are going to need also to be competitive. So that's kind of those ongoing conversations, but it is some of the things that when you are renewing your contract, some questions that that may come up with that answer your question. I >> think then it now that you've asked it, I'm thinking so got your school governance teams or school leader I can't local. So there's that and then the district and then board and then
078>> we have an extra layer with the SDLT which is a representative from each of the local school governances. It's not required by the charter system but it is something extra that we do here. So a representative from each of the school governance teams comes together and meets with the superintendent and >> Oh that's awesome. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. That's great. Wonderful. And something I noticed just from looking at your examples there from all the other districts that they problem with school attendance at the high school across the district or early learning. two type or two try to solve too many problems at one that was just kind of what I absolutely and it really your best innovative features to me just my opinion come from a true root cause analysis do that root
079cause analysis you come up with a plan of action you're almost guaranteed results um I think and I've been guilty of it in in years past too that sometimes we think we know what the concern or the problem is, but then when we dig and really do a root cause analysis, realize that that might have been part of it, but there was something else. And so you can find those very specific things that you can do um that are going to lead to a almost guaranteed um impact because you really found the root of the challenge. But you're right. I mean, sometimes these innovative practices are very broad, but sometimes they're very specific and and they do they target a very specific group. >> And I would say another layer we added to the training
080because you saw in there our SLTs have to be trained annually too. Last year um we really focused on giving them time around a problem of practice so that they could brainstorm together what are some of our issues, how might we address them? So we're building those components and on them annually with our FLT well to try to get them to think in those. >> That's excellent. >> Excellent. And when you look at the charter innovative practices or the innovative practices in the charter um it's really addressing two major pieces in the strategic amplifying of student voice. Mia had to go through this part. >> But hey, she is I saw her. >> Yes. And >> she's adding a lot, too. I love that. >> She does. She does. The other three are really coupled
081together there. It's all one piece, but it that one piece addresses so many different aspects from achieving gaps to literacy to retention and grow your own and understanding the science of reading. And those those other three are all together. And I will tell you, speaking of your your student, um, first of all, kudos on that. I'm seeing a lot more districts around the state who have noticed what you're doing, who are now trying to do the same. Um, so you definitely have been a leader in that. Um, but I'm I'm definitely seeing a lot more districts around the state who are are putting that student voice um with the local board of education. So, >> kudos to kudos to the board for really pushing for that and and saying that that's what we needed. >>
082People are watching because they're >> we've shared it enough. >> The debt is definitely >> I love it. I love it. But the charter system foundation we are always here to support you anything that you need know superintendent will reach out your your liaison will reach out your board chair reach out um but whatever we can do I mean we are very much right now trying to advocate to the state so that we don't continue to lose our flexibility um so that's a huge project for us we also have a very big role in accelerated career um because we did have to help kind of guide that did the work, but we um were able to put some wording in there that our district or we weren't a we were able to encourage wording that
083our districts wanted. So, we're always here to support you. That's what we do. We work for you and we definitely want to serve. So, I mean, whatever we can do for you, please always know. All you have to do is reach out. >> Thank you. Enjoy being here. >> All right, team. We are ready for lunch and we will have 30 minutes. We'll come back and talk to everybody. Yes. >> Welcome back to school everyone. >> Thank you. >> Um I think I know most of you in the room, but for those of you that don't know me, I'm Julia Bernett. I'm with the Georgia School Boards Association and I'm going to be working with the board for the next hour or less on uh ethics training and uh just in sharing some of the
084conversations that I've been hearing. I know a lot of people are facing milestones this year with your children or grandchildren or um I I have personally had a now a grandchild who is a freshman in high school and she's taking lots of honors classes and AP classes and playing volleyball and is at school more than she's at home. So, she's already getting into the swing of things and we'll see. And lastly, the the most challenging thing for her is having turned 15 on August 1st, she still has not been able to get to getting her learners permit yet because there's literally not been time between school and volleyball tournaments and such. So, she's uh stepping into that and it's been exciting to to watch. She's the oldest of seven. They all live here and it's
085fun and crazy at our house every Sunday. So, um, we're going to talk a little bit about ethics. That's something that permeates everything. There are a lot of topics around it. I'm going to give y'all some interactive things to do to keep you awake since you just finished lunch. But uh you can see there's there's lots of words that describe I mean and it's everything from integrity and honesty to conscience responsibility. This is a good definition and for those who in the back who can't read it, it's says ethical behavior refers to actions that align with moral principles and values. It involves making decisions based on fairness, honesty and respect for others. Ethical behavior behavior transcends legal requirements focusing on what is right and just. It is a cornerstone of building trust and maintaining integrity
086and personal and professional relationships. And that building of trust is key. The two examples it gives here resonated with me right away. You know, when you go to see the doctor and you share confidential information with the doctor, you expect them to hold that information in confidence because that's ethical behavior on their part. And same thing in the workplace in executive sessions. Maintaining that trust is what helps build your team. Sometimes there's a there's a moral dilemma for you because the ethics talk about one way of behaving and yet there might be something differently that you feel in your own conscience that may not sit straight with with that. Just quick example, the hardest decision I ever had to make as a board member was when we it was recommended that we close the um
087elementary instrumental music program, fourth and fifth grade. It had been a fourth and fifth grade staple. They the kids were still going to get chorus, but having to do away with instrumental music. I grew up having it in the fourth grade. My children grew up having it in the fourth grade. It broke my heart, but I knew that that was a time during the recession when the superintendent was trying to make cuts. And she was looking at programs, not staff members. She was trying to hold on to as many staff members as she could. And the elementary principles association even came back and said, "We think that this is the right decision at this time." It kept me up at night when it came time to make that vote. It hurt my heart to raise
088my hand. I knew that it was probably not the best thing for children, but in the long run, it was going to be the best thing for the district. And I still I still think back if I could make one change in my heart for my morals and my conscience, I would go back and change that vote, even though I know that somebody else would have been hurt as a result of that decision. So, sometimes you're you're pulled with what society says you should do versus what you feel in your heart is right. Same thing right here. Um, ethics refers to rules that a social system provides with us. Morals are your own principles and sometimes you have to wrestle with that. Um, you try to do what society says, but sometimes you just can't
089agree. And right now in these times of political unrest and polarization, sometimes it's hard. We're, you know, our our society and our morals are being tested. I think so. You have a code of ethics. It's statements of ethical conduct from a forward public officials. This may not be your own code of ethics, but this is for your team. Finds how you should conduct yourself and the fact that you're always representing the district. Even though you may think you're not, you're not planning on representing the district when you run to the grocery store to pick up something and you're wearing your pajama pants. But anybody who sees you is going to see you as a schoolboard member. It's important in this code of ethics that the organization's needs are put before personal needs and sometimes you
090wrestle with that. And then it adheres to high standards for everyone and honesty in dealing with your group. You have a code of ethics because you take official actions that affect lives of others. You are role models as I said your your hat's always on and whether you want to be or not you are role models for for the community not just the school not just the staff not just the students but the whole community sees you in that way. They also think you've got a lot of power that you don't have individually if you only have and you know people coming up to you at in the store or the library saying can you fix this for me? Well, no you can't, but you can bring the question to the group and the group
091can decide. Uh defines how you're expected to carry out your responsibilities and it's legally required by law. So you have you should have a copy of your code of ethics. Now I wanted to to note on here and this is what it says in on your um website. It was adopted the most recent form was adopted in 2022 that also is when it says it was last reviewed. You may review it more often. If you do, you should see about making those changes because even if you review it and don't make changes, it's important for the community to see and for the incoming board members to see, oh, they looked at this last year or they look at this every year and it really should be reviewed every year. So, in looking at at your
092board, your code of ethics, I'm just going to go through this. Have any have you had a chance to review it in advance? >> Yeah, I mean, I think some context here is that uh previous administrations throughout our entire policy book. And so, we have been over the course of the years, how many each year are we taking on? >> I mean, we've just been adopting policies. We got the initial required ones in place right before 22.3. And so we've been still additional. >> Yeah. So five five or more per board meeting. And so I think this is the first year where we've built enough of the policy book structure that we actually have the capacity to go back and start and my bet is that she's on that list. Right. Yeah. And >> just
093a little bit of context why you might see some date different. >> I get it. And and when I was on our board, we went through the same thing. We were we were getting random policies presented to us as laws changed or things became out of date but we had not gone through the entire policy manual and it's important to do that but it's important to start with the policies that actually impact you. So just real quickly again remarkable as a whole not within the board members you support the superintendent doing everything on the day-to-day um basis and allow them that you follow the chain of command and there's probably more than one within this district even though you're not a large district there if if somebody called you with an issue it's important for
094you to know where to send them. So if it's an athletic issue or issue issue, the biggest thing to remember is that you don't fix the problem can be fixed. Again, superintendent should be present at all meetings unless it involves her contract, salary or performances under consideration and then you can meet without her. Have your discussion and then bring her in and inform her of any changes that may happen as a result of that. It's important not to undermine the authority of the superintendent. She has certain responsibilities. It's important to support those responsibilities and and allow her to do her job. And then make sure that you are the conduit to the community. So make sure that you have the ability when you hear something, it's like you see something, you say something, you hear
095something, you say something. Bring it back to superintendent. It may or may not be a concern, but if somebody in the community is talking about something, it's important for you to be able to come back and say, you know, I know this may not be true, but there's a rumor going around of XYZ and then let her figure out how to combat that or how to address that issue. It may be something that she can put out with a um as part of a newsletter. Community is concern I hear community concerns that blah blah blah. here is the here's the actual truth about this matter, but make sure she knows it and that the other board members know too because it may be that something that Jane has heard in her community, Tracy may go,
096"Oh, yeah, you know, I'm hearing that as well." So, and it could be anything from from student activities to capital issues in Fulton. We had a um a conversation at one point where somebody said our our high school needs a traffic light in front of it and it's not our responsibility. We've got to work with the city or the county to maintain that. Well, somebody else said, "You know what? We're hearing the same thing about our school." So, it enabled the superintendent then to find out what the field was throughout the entire county and then make those adjustments. Any questions so far? Okay. With strategic planning, again, you want you always want to put children first when you're looking at your strategic plan, and I know you're partway through the strategic plan, but continuing to
097make sure that children stay first, that the board's real touch on the strategic plan deals with your mission, vision, goals, beliefs. the beginning, the overarching theme about the strategic plan and that you can be informed about how the strategic plan develops. You can provide input for that. But that's something a lot of the strategic plan involves the organization and the day-to-day operations of the district and how to get to those targets that you want to see achieved, which is the superintendent's purview. Again, making sure that financially you are up to date with what's going on. If you feel like you don't know enough, it's okay to ask those questions about how was this money being spent, what was how was the decision made to get to this point, but it's not necessarily saying to the
098superintendent, we need to we need to redo the field out here. It's, you know, asking the questions so that the overarching issue reflects the district. Was that something y'all talked about? Okay. Well, there you go. Um, and again, try to gather as much factual information as you can. The superintendent and the staff can help you if you have questions about things. They can pull together information that will help support you as you're looking at your strategic plan. And then make sure you're legal with all of the requirements of that. With regard to community and board relations, it's important to to seek regular input from the community, and you have ways of doing that. And it's a two-way street because sometimes you'll push information out, sometimes you'll gather information in. It's important to know and for
099the community to know when you hold these meetings, whether it's a meeting where you're disseminating information to them or whether it's a information gathering meetings and you should be having some of both or even within a single meeting, have a time for input and have a time for expression. Communicate as much as you can. share with each other. Again, you know, if you have a community meeting, my board said my community said this, well, my community said something totally different. So, how do you combine that information? With policy development, you're obviously on your way to establishing effective policies for the system. And that first pass is really a heavy lift. But once you get past that first pass, it's much easier the second time around, just like serving on the board. Your first year, there's
100so much information coming in, it's hard to take. But by the time you get to year two, some things start to become familiar and the board you are serving, the more it it's become familiar for you. Um, again, important for you not to make decisions ahead of time. It's okay to ask people's opinions. What are you thinking about? Or if there's concern, if you, you know, if you see you're at odds with somebody else on the board, call that board member and say, "You seem to be very passionate about this issue. I I am at a loss. Can you help educate me why this is such an important thing to do?" or if you're passionate, express that to the others. So even if they don't agree with you, it's okay. But you've expressed your opinion,
101you've gotten their information, you've kept an open mind about things. And then as you are doing, you've got hopefully you will get into a rhythm of periodically reviewing and evaluating how effective your policies are and what things with board meetings. It's important to come prepared. Sometimes you just can't. And if you can't, it's okay to let your board chair know, I didn't have a chance to read the tribunal. I didn't have a chance to read the packet on capital improvements. I'm I'm going to be trying to catch up on it, but just know I may not be active tonight in discussion because still learning, but try to be prepared. That's part of your responsibility in representing your community. Uh be performed informed and prepared to discuss issues at the table and ask questions. but asking
102questions in the um the framework of I don't I know you may not have the answer right now but if you can get back to the board by a date certain we have these issues that we need to address work from a standpoint that people are all trying to do what's best for students and that you're working together for things make sure that you work in executive sessions for those executive session items and that discussion stays in executive session. And sometimes it's really tempting to go home, especially if there's been a frustrating comment or an item that you had to deal with, and turn to your partner and say, and you just wouldn't believe what happened tonight at the board meeting. and especially if it's an executive session item and then you might be at
103dinner a couple weeks later and everybody's had a drink and your partner inadvertently says but well have you fired that person yet or whatever it is. It's it's you never know. They don't intend they don't operate from a bad place. But if you feel like you've got to discuss an executive session item, you've got six people around this table that you can call and say, "Let me just vent my frustration or did you hear things the same way I did or help me understand what I might have missed with this?" It's okay to rely on each other, but treat that as sacrosate. Again, maintain confidentiality during the session, after the session. Make sure that you're looking at the interests of the school system as a whole. Here, it may not be as challenging. I know
104you're all elected by districts, but um you've got a small enough district to where you know a lot about each of the schools. So, it's not like, you know, your school's getting more than my school is getting. it's it's easier to keep up with things, but it's important if you feel like something's out of whack, ask the superintendent for more information and make sure that you're looking at the interest of the whole district. And again, don't do anything. Don't adopt any kind of a um policy in your code of ethics that keeps you from discussing those public items with the public. Make sure you feel like you can talk about actions outside of a board meeting. But that of course does not apply to executive session. If you know board members may I mean community
105members may have questions about actions you take at a board meeting like placing the field out here. Why did you do that? It's okay to talk about that. Um it's not okay to privately select a vendor to come without doing a properly notice, you know, request for proposals or anything like that. But and sometimes people may come to you and say, "Well, they weren't the lowest bid. Why did you pick them?" Well, it's important for you to understand why they were chosen. And that's information you can ask staff about so that publicly people will know. Um, and then abide by all decisions at the board. Don't you may not choose, you know, your vote may not go your way, but it's important for you to support that afterwards. Um, again, employment personnel recommendations. You have
106the superintendent recommendation. You vote that up or down. You don't say do something else. Instead, um, try to make sure that the superintendent assures you that the best qualified person is person that's coming forward. And sometimes um, and that evaluations are happening. Sometimes it can be a challenge. You get to the end of the year and there's so many staff to evaluate, but you rely on the superintendent to make sure those evaluations take place and she in turn relies on her principles and department chairs to and um department staff to make sure that everybody gets that evaluation each year, including her. So, it's important for you to evaluate her every year. you know, review your nepotism policy and make sure that if something comes forward that if there's a if you feel like there's a
107conflict between hiring the most qualified candidate and the fact that that candidate may be related to somebody on the board, make sure that it's falling within legal requirements. And if you're unsure, ask your attorney. Financial government is pretty simple. Don't do anything um that you shouldn't be doing that would rely on personal or partisan gain as a school board member. Again, give yourself time to cover everything you need to do. Be informed about educational issues. Communicate respectfully with each other personally, privately. Don't do anything that will compromise the school district. And participate in training, which you're doing. and then file annually your code of ethics. So if you feel like this is sufficient any comments or concerns about the code of ethics if there is talk let's talk about it now if there is not
108then at your next board meeting you can say that you have reviewed the code of ethics and in compliance and I think signing it at a board meeting would probably be an appropriate thing to do. Any questions about this? >> Questions about um personnel? Um so we get hired the folks who separated from the system classified and nonclassified. Is there anything else? Because I know that I think that first came on board like he was surprised about something in that process with >> and so right. So I can't remember what that was. >> So indicator you get the list tagging. It's not just in time. So in some districts you cannot start dependent upon level until the board approves you. Indicator that's not the case. indicator. It is essentially it's a information beyond the role
109of the superintendent and that is that you approve it but it's not if they're not approved they don't start and so every for example my former districts they both handle it differently um you know for a teacher you hire the teacher the teacher starts but if it's going to be um achieve or a principal dependent upon who which district will handle that differently. All of that is handled very differently. Here it's more it's lagging extremely lagging >> like a financial report. By the time you get your financial report that money has already been spent and it's just given to you for information. So by the time you get the personnel report if you got a report in August that might have been for the hires in May >> or the hires in June. >> Yeah.
110Oh, so my question is what would be the best how should we change adjust that or change it so that it's >> well now that I see the amount of hiring I understand why because you're hiring a very small amount of people and compar comparison to larger districts. And so that that's why one I I didn't understand it coming in um just because I was like this seems odd. It seems like there is too much rested. It's too much lagging time. But our hires that list like in the hiring season might be two pages. But traditionally your hire and separation list is a page which is very small in comparison to some of the other districts. But that was one of the things I asked thought it was odd but I understand that you just
111don't have the frequency. You don't have you're not hiring as many people in >> every month. You're not having a personnel report with people coming in that have moved or separated or gotten promoted or >> it and when I say 100 plus >> in larger districts it's 100 plus which is very different than than here. I don't know if to answer her question should it be that we are voting on should should we be going before >> we consent decree the personal work >> before the hiring takes place. >> Yeah because I I'm now confused and I love the questions you've been asking lately because I'm learning there are things in a year and a half that I haven't >> Oh yeah. Well, I guess I was just clarifying the question. I guess the question
112is how that before the board >> in a more timely fashion. >> Yeah. Before they start working. I think that was the question and you can create that type of personnel policy. So in those districts that was their policy. um you specify what the authority that the superintendent had to hire from or for I should say >> four versus what must come to the board. So and and every school system is different so you can create that policy. Yeah, it would require a change to your policy. But I think even in the larger there is a level it's like a spending level under a certain level the superintendent has authority to move ahead. If it's local school level then the superintendent has an opportunity to inform the board after the contracts have been signed that
113you know these are the people that are coming coming on board. But again, you can make it whatever you want it to be basically. >> Yeah. Because I think Hans, you said at the beginning that I think former superintendent throughout policies, right? And then you're asking because I'm hearing before I was here. >> Just be clear. Two former. >> Okay. You want to blame the correct person? >> Well, I mean to me it's >> Yeah, >> that's water under the bridge and we're here now. And so, you know, I think that's what I was trying to get at. It sounds like it's something the board would be deciding. Um, and then I guess this is for our policy discussion later. Then what are the other policies that maybe well we're going to look at the
114policies later, right? That's another agenda item. >> But if the but with the policy, it's fair to and you should be asking the question, what will be the result of changing this policy? So what would be an if you did this would it make life easier for their issues or would it you know so so how much how much are you willing to let loose and allow the superintendent to do and how much do you want to hold tight as a forward >> I think one thing I think I asked this when I rolled on the board >> understand there's a teacher keys first of all I understand that I am not supposed to nor would I ever be asking for someone's evaluation like click today, >> right? >> Um, and I understand we have
115teacher keys and leadership keys, but I guess I have as to what my role is other than, hey, Dr. Whitaker, can you assure me that everyone's been evaluated? Like, is that literally all I'm to do as a board? >> Yes. Yes. And you can you can ask the state if the if the CR city schools adheres to the TEICS and leaks >> leader keys. You can ask to see what that evaluation form looks like. Not filled out, not with anybody's name on it, but you can see. >> Um, but beyond that, it's just, you know, assurance from superintendent that legally we're following the requirements we need to and you're making sure that everybody gets their evaluations in. Then at the end of every year school year, I have to sign off for the G through
116Georgia state of Georgia to say that they have been completed. And so I can't help it. It's the AP lang teacher and then when we have a prompt and they're two parts, right? So for number two, it says um insist on you know they're qualified regular and impartial. So I understand the existence of the evaluation. Is it still a matter of hey Dr. Whitaker you've done the regular and impartial evaluation and then if someone wants to look and just see what the evaluation tool looks like not someone's actual >> Right. Right. And when I know we've provided the all the tools whether it's the J deck >> as well as the leaks as well as the TES all board members you've seen that since I've been here and since you've been here no I >>
117and even even the superintendent's evaluation the form that you use anybody can request to see a copy of that they cannot see superintendent evaluation completed And if she's the only one who has the authority to be able to share that with anybody and if she wanted to share that with cabinet or the principles or anybody else to say this is what they've evaluated me on so this is what I'm evaluating you on and I got low marks in this area and that trickles back to these things. So as a district we need to do some heavy lifting in this department. So, just real quickly, conflict of interest. Sometimes you have them. If you do, it's important to announce them and comply. If you know that your spouse's company's doing a request for proposal with City
118Schools of Decator to replace that field out there, then you need to recuse yourself not just from the vote, but from any discussion around that vote. And yeah, you've got provisions that tell you how to deal with that. You never want to get to this point. You always want to start with a simple conversation if you feel like somebody is violating something of interest and make sure that you try to encourage them to come back around. But um if you should have to sanction someone, it's it never is good. But you've got a a provision in place which is a statewide provision that shows you what to do if somebody does violate the code. >> Matter like a math question on that two. >> Yeah. >> Is that 23 of the remaining board members not
119including the one that is under question. >> Yeah. >> So like if you all were mad at me it would be twothirds of the >> So three of you would have to it couldn't just be a 5050 as far as I know. >> Yeah. um conflict of interest that's very um is that just finan like when I fill out conflict of interest forms my primary job it's almost 100% of the time financial like do you have some financial stock some competitor are you taking money from somebody and but this just doesn't say a could be anything >> yeah and really good example when I was on my board. One of our board members, we had a a construction management company that that did work for us. They managed all of our construction projects and one
120of our board members daughters graduated from Georgia Tech and got a job with them. So to be completely above board, she listed that as a conflict of interest. And then anytime there were discussions about construction management, she had to leave the room and then she could not vote on any of the projects which killed her because she loved construction best of all. But she managed to survive until her daughter got a new job and went someplace else. Yes. >> Well, just to clarify, I feel like this is you could have conflict and not know it like based on this if it's not fine. So, I mean, the example you gave was more of a a family like relation conflict, >> but I don't know. It's I I don't I'm not saying you have to reward
121this, but I was just >> Are you I think I can chime in on an example because maybe there's like organizational affiliations. So, before I ran, I was looking up to see like a state that has a union, right? From what I could tell, teachers who states that have unions then would have to sit out when you know they were bargaining for salaries. Um I assume correct me if I'm wrong if I'm a paying member of GAE and for some reason there was like a GA thing coming before us I probably would not be able to participate. So I'm guessing in addition to finance there's that thingation. >> I don't I don't know. I mean, I think it it's not listed here, but there are clearly our policies of the board. There are a set
122of laws around it and any other requirements by the state board of education. >> My guess is that it is actually enumerated somewhere just not to what constitutes. >> You all do have policy PHA board member conflicts of interest as well in place. It does primarily it says financial governance and then no member will. So we can pull that for you and make sure that you can response. Thank you. >> What else? Okay. Okay. So again, face of ethical behavior. There are a lot more words to describe, but these are some some good guide posts to kind of think about when you're thinking about ethical behavior. Now, how you know it when you see it, we have quickly some ethical cases that we're gonna I'm g have you read and um let's start one at
123a time. So, you'll read the first one and a minute to talk with your elbow partner as Dr. King likes to say and What you think might be appropriate is um Mia I know was in and out. >> Okay. Oh, there she is. Okay. Right. We'll let Mia be a part of this as well. I'm sorry I didn't bring an extra copy, but I'll give you a copy afterwards. This is the first one. Executive session. I'll give you just a few minutes. When you finish reading through it, if you will start talking about [Music] I realize some of these examples may be a little exaggerated, but >> slightly. So, you just want us to read one? >> Read read the first one and then talk with your partner about it for a minute and then
124we'll share. >> I know. I know. And they just >> got I mean does it even matter? Like are you really going to executive session? You can't. >> So they're violating >> Yeah. >> And then um actually smoked in this >> well personal What are you smoking? the agenda. Uh >> question. >> Okay. Who wants to go first in sharing out with the group? What what what happened here? >> Everything went off thrill. It started because they were it violated some norms of procedures. This might not be code of ethics, but it certainly as Tracy said it's like, can you even do that? >> Like have an executive you can't just like at the meeting, right? Be like, hey, do you want an executive session? >> No. >> Right. And then one person says it
125and and nobody agrees to it, but they jump right in. >> Wait. So I think just to be very specific, we can choose to go into exec session as a body if need to, not constant, >> but not the way they did. >> Yeah. Correct. Yeah. >> Well, you'd have to add that as an agenda item. >> Yeah. There's a there's a series of of Peter's >> Robert. So just for clarification on this, so would we be following our our board norm that if you wanted something added on to the agenda for executive session, you have to get two of the board members to agree to add that on. >> Well, but the superintendent is the one who suggested it here, didn't he? Let let's start with the fact that what the superintendent wants to
126talk about in exec session cannot be added at the last minute in a board like that is the inappropriate way to bring that matter to the >> if there is an emergency and something happened and a teacher had to be removed from a classroom or some kind of violation that the superintendent then needed to let you know about it she might not be able to let you know what steps were going to be taken But just the fact that this has happened and so as as we learn more >> other thing I've learned um this position is that there's a way to go into executive sessions can't just spontaneously like everybody let's go into executive sessions that I think that makes the community feel like you're hiding things from them. Um so you have to
127make a motion to go into executive session to say why you're going in. You know, >> it's land legal personnel. >> You have to say that >> and everybody votes. >> And then you come back say not the details of what you talked about, but if you voted if not and what happened. That way you won't feel like you're just taking the privilege. >> So that's that's from the board perspective. How about um the teacher wasn't notified that they were even going to be discussed. And why are you discussing teacher performance in executive session? Because that's superintendent's job. At the end result, she may report to you, but all of the details leading up to that is her her purview. Um and own tenor and manner of discussion. Although I do want to hear you
128say smoke, but literally like every way they engaged on the topic from the way that it was presented to the board, the way the board responded to it dismissively, the way that they spoke about it, how they brought other things in that were irrelevant to the conversation, raised other issues, other teachers that are irrelevant to the that it just it's all >> board member talking to the teacher about it ahead of time and then already knowing a lawsuit was out there and ready to go. So, good job. All right, the next one is superintendent vote. So, read over that for a minute. maybe a small enough group to where we could just have the general discussion. That's all I have left. >> Okay. Yeah. So, so what are your thoughts on on the superintendent vote
129here? >> K. that right? >> Correct. This is a special called meeting. So you have a special called meeting. That's the only topic you can >> right you have to have legally you have to have super and um >> manner of communication. >> Yeah. And this is in a public venue too with TV cameras in place. >> Well, I do have a question. So like and I think it's to the norm of like agenda items or votes. So, you know, here because I only called enough people to get a majority vote, right, Hans, you were asking about the twothirds earlier and that number >> and so am I correct in saying that sometimes and it may be a matter of time if because it is your responsibility as a board chair, right? to find out
130if people want something put on or if so then in that case then is your first call to Hans because he's the vice chair and then the second call James or Jan since I'm the newest member I thought I was at the bottom of the phone call list. No, I speak out of turn. Go ahead. >> If I I want a a I if I if I want an agenda item added. >> No, in the event that there is a need to have board members vote on including an agenda item or something, right? Not during a meeting, right? But when we're deciding on something and we need the majority, right? So again, I don't want to confuse anyone. I'm not talking about an actual vote that we have in public, but you know, per our
131norms, if there's a >> after agenda setting time, there somebody wants to add something to the agenda. >> I don't I don't call on anywhere. A lot of times, um, >> I on my way home from work. So, I just go in whatever order, I see you in my phone. Some people pick up immediately and then some people don't. So, then I circle back again. I go back to the top of the list. There's no, it's not something. I mean, I can imagine the only reason in my mind why there might be a specific order is if the item falls within a level of expertise or perview of a specific board member. So, not seniority based, but like >> in their district, something occurs. >> Yeah. There hasn't been an order. >> Yeah. >> No.
132No. Usually I just go in whatever particular order you're lined up in my phone. Sometimes like I feel like I can get James pretty much on the first ring and then sometimes I can get sometimes it takes a couple more tries to get other people and then I just go back and circle. >> Well, if it's again if there's a sense of urgency, you may call the vice chair and say I've only got time to call one person, you call two people and then you just >> Okay. typically not a >> the other thing to be explicit about in this because I thought this was where your question was going uh Tracy was was we do I don't remember where it is but but specifically we curb the idea of polling right we we don't
133want to that you know I only called enough people to get the majority vote I'm not calling yeah like that concept of freergging a vote like that's a that's a that is a violation of >> well no I didn't mean pre-rigging, just practically speaking, depending on where the the chair or the vice chair falls. If you call one person and it's an agreement and then you call the third person, well, now you have a majority. >> Yeah. But it's I'm I mean more. So if you want to have something added to the agenda and you've got enough people to support adding it to the agenda, that's one to say I'm going to have a conversation about what the item is to arrange the vote. I'm going to have a conversation. Yeah, that's a that's a
134>> Dr. Whitaker. >> And I I will just add this is not in this, but typically um as a superintendent, I call the chair and vice chair first and then the remaining members of the board as was Dr. consultant in the order of phone and and also Miss Anderson understanding that getting you in the middle of the day sometimes can be more of a challenge but I just I wanted to say that that's just that's just but and the order of the phone literally is alphabetical order because when I first got the phone that was in that was where it was and so um I also just want to make we don't use two different issues. So if the agenda is already said before the board, even if it's not and James wants to had
135an issue or he has a question about something he wants to clarify then um or he already has support to add an agenda item then that usually comes and then I subsequently will go and I'll call each board member and inform you we're going to add this to the agenda or have to back but if for some reason you had a topic you wanted to add like AP scores at the whatever. Then I think what I was reading here was or this is what I was like this is a little interesting is once you have the support you need so maybe call Hans says yes add it. James says he has had it had it then probably should still call Jana and let her know you know this is what I'm thinking because her getting
136to the board meeting and being exactly right that nothing is worse nothing feels worse than walking into a board meeting and sitting down and something comes up for discussion and it's very obvious that everybody else knew about something except you or you and one other person. So even if you know it's going to be a fight calling me to let me know about replacing that field because I don't want to do it. You owe me the courtesy and respect as a fellow board member do. I'm going to say I know that you're not in support of this but I need to let you know that I am bringing this forward and you know I'm if you can support it that's wonderful. I respect if you cannot support it but I wanted to make sure you
137are at least informed. That alone will carry a lot of weight with it. And am I out of time? >> Yes. Okay. So, so you're you're we will continue these studies later on, but you so you've got previews to some of these other thoughts and ideas, but the important thing with ethics is that you again, you treat everybody respectfully. I'm just going to keep going through. There's lots of fun topics to read about here. You can come to your own conclusions. That was fun. This one's also fun. Um, but um, reminding you again, you set the tone for everybody and your behavior and your mutual respect for each other can help support everyone. Um, I have my typical evaluation form to fill out. I've also got a little handout on um, how to recognize an
138ethical leader. So, I will share that information. I'll leave it all with Dr. and I'm gonna stick around for a little while. So, um, if you have any >> Thank you. It's always fun. The dialogue is very fun. He's the one who called the kid. This guy's out of control. Yeah. which is >> for system. >> No, I don't think I don't think for that, but you do have to sign. Okay. Excellent. >> And we have it on. >> Hello. How are you? >> Good. Good. How are you? >> See you. We have one board member that um what year did Tally? So for we have uh Mr. Wilson uh CEO of education planner and he is going to uh provide a presentation for you all. >> Well, it was good meeting you last week.
139Glad to be back with you today. So put this PowerPoint together mainly for the opportunity for us to have a discussion and a lot of what education planners does when I formed it. I think I shared this with you about 15 years ago. It was all about trying to work with school districts so they can efficiency and effectiveness together. And then and then we added on to that saying that while you work together with your community, it would always be good to have a positive public awareness which kind of fits with some of the challenges that you have today. So as you see um it starts saying on the very first slide organizational efficiency and effectiveness study. So it gives us an opportunity to think about try to make sure that as you go through
140your processes you make sure you cover all your bases. So the second slide which is an important one too because it hits with a very important purpose. As you go through these kind of things you should use as much data that is accurate that uh rely on. So you're just not per se. These are just four samples information that you've retrieved in your work prior to or currently. The example of the very first one in the lefthand corner, you've got a demographic increase or decrease in your population. Also, a fiveyear and a 10ear plan. And demographers will always do five and 10 year planning. The important part of that is that you've had an outside source look at it. They have certain particulars that they use to try to to improve on the data. It's
141also important that you review it every year because things can change. But these are some of the data points that we'll be talking about today. Again, we didn't just make some of this stuff up. We really tried to research and look for what you've already been accustomed to, already looked at. Department of Ed, you obviously have information that comes to you every year for that same thing with the census data and then yourself and what you do. >> So I'll refer >> Hold on one second. Can you put that up in PowerPoint, not in slides? >> So when I >> It's because it's sitting in the GSDA template and it Yeah. You hold on. You hold that. >> We can keep talking about it. The information here in front of us. >> Yeah, we're good.
142Yeah. So the so the next slide and you'll see several like this that refers to that second slide. So we always take a look at the US census conducted every 10 years, but it's also added on to and worked on every year during that time. that the Decator's population has decreased since the 2020 census is currently declining and that the 50 plus age group has increased over 40% since 2010. So all of this is on us to learn more about where you are today. We use data sources for that and this is just a good example and it tells you in that bottom part currently 71% of the households in Decator do not have children and of the households that do have children 69% are enrolled in public school. This slide is important for a
143lot of reasons. as uh I am Baldridge trained and part of my team is lean six sigma trained and we always look at from an education perspective and a business perspective we look at business processes we look at we try to go backwards first find out where we are today then we try to forecast where we need to go so we make good decisions this is an example of that this is just simply a 10-year history of your population and you can This was in the ARC article that just came out. The ARC was talking about Metro Atlanta. They were using 10 districts, but the ARC actually supports 11 counties. 10 metro districts that they were talking about all were basically showing some declines in enrollment. They mentioned Buford County and C city of Decators.
144Buford city, city of decade, sorry, that several years ago you were a growing district. Buford was too. But now both districts are beginning to show some decline. And some of that just simply is that population in Atlanta is getting older. And the population is beginning to move further and further out. Someone like myself and probably many of you who've lived in Atlanta for over 50 years, you saw this. We saw where we lived more population move in and 40 years ago I would have never moved where I live today because I thought it was in the country but I just went out with everybody else. So populations have changed. Your enrollment has changed. Your enrollment does not show that you're going to increase. You're going to potentially continue to decline a little bit. So it's
145important that you look at the options that you need to think about as to whether or not far as closing the schools, adding on to existing schools or those kind of things need to be talked about because this indicator is showing that you are declining and will continue to climb. Part of what we do is to take a look at your 10ear enrollment and your current enrollment. This is the October FDA count for this past school year. The October FD count for this past school year. It's every school and it shows you the numbers of every grade. And that helps to be a potential indicator as to where you need to go. And you'll see populations at several of your elementary schools have been in decline and they're beginning to be a small enrollment. Something
146to look at. It's a trend. You need to forecast and look at all of the factors that have come with that so you'll eventually be able to make good decisions. In part of this efficiency and effectiveness study, we're going to recommend to you a lot of things. And one of them is to establish a timeline to make sure that all of the potential factors are looked at so you just don't make those decisions very quickly without all the research or at least researching this through the process. Important that you look at all the factors. It's important that you have a communication plan working with the superintendent and administration to be able to support and help that process. We always look at enrollment, forecasting, short range, long range, future operational costs are important and so many
147factors that need to be looked at. >> I'll keep >> Yeah. So I just just so that we're completely clear when we say 200 when we say 2019 was Cali fully up and running with the full third grade contingent in that year. I just want to make sure we're talking about apples to apples and we're not picking up a shift, right? Because the under the lower elementaryaries lost 25% of their students by moving third 345. Right. I just want to make sure that we're that there is an apples to apples. >> Hey, can I ask what which data point are you looking at that concerns you that not including or >> so like difference between 2019 FTE and 2024 FTE that's 504. So, so are we certain that the difference between the K to3 versus
148this is one indiv indicative slide but in all of the slides I'm I'm sort of asking this back we moved an entire grade from lower elementary into upper elementary and so when we say that lower elementary has experienced a substantial ual reduction in the number of students. I want to make sure that we are only talking about gradeto grade population decline reduction in students, not 25% of the kids that were in lower elementary actually got moved into upper elementary because we changed the way we call lower elementary and upper elementary. So you're saying you're saying is when Cali was brought about four fave or four five academy was four or five academy. Yes. And it had 900 children. So in order to >> to relieve fave tally was built and there was a redistribution correct
149of all the students. I think probably the the next slide not necessarily this one but the next one kind of speaks to just true grade distribution by cohort by year. And it was >> here is the reason why I ask and I'm looking at that this flag right here. >> Yeah. Right. >> The one in 2019 >> saying that for example kindergarten has 188 fewer children coming into kindergarten system. And when I add the current, so there's 256 kids going into kindergarten in 2024. In 2019, there were 256 plus 188, whatever that number is, 400 some children. Is that >> that the right way to interpret those numbers? So, so we should be very clear. There's a couple of things happening, right? We're seeing, you know, that's a 40-ish percent reduction in the number of
150kids going into kindergart like a giant. So it's it's not when we say a half a percent reduction per year. It's a very uneven distribution of that reduction. The bulk of that reduction is happening not just that we moved a third grade out. It's that we have almost 50% fewer kids enrolling in the lower elementary where we get our numbers is from the state October 15. So all of our numbers while we may have done some math came from October 2019 FD everything that we put up there I put a slide together it is researchbased based on information that's accessible to us. So while this slide looks different, those counts came from the official October 15. >> Can can I just follow up on that? So because I I I hear what you say. If
151you add 501 and or 503 and 251, you get 754. That's the reduction in the prek through five that you're you want to make sure Hans if I'm hearing you correctly that that 503 is accurate to the grade levels and not reflective of the fact that those second graders or rather those third graders went somewhere else. But then I'm hearing you say and I look when you look at FTE the numbers are the numbers. >> Yeah. There it is. There is a double whammy hitting our lower elementary is what we're saying. We have five lower elementary schools that used to serve 500 more students plus an entire grade. Now they serve an entire grade less, which is 250 or so students, plus an additional 500 students that are no longer enrolled. That is why our
152lower elementaryaries feel empty in some >> I think you can I think it's like you said it's easier to see that trend if you're trying to dig into the smaller kids on that next slide then you can just look at the kindergarten cohort and follow it >> 2012 to 2024 and you'll see that you had 300 you were in the 300 you had a bump preandemic 400 now you're take that factor of tally out of it that shows you exactly who's starting that case. >> So the information Thank you. So the information we share again is facts fact base and as you move forward you take a look at information we share then you have to really realize okay how much of this and how do I want to share to make sure the community
153understands because it can be a little bit difficult to understand or whatnot. And that's why when we present stuff, we try really hard to present factual information that we can back up. So, this slide is one that really does tell story. We're pretty always wanting to tell the story that think is accurate. And so if you look in the bottom lefthand corner of the slide starting at 2012, you go from 2012 up to 2019 per se, you can look at the first grade and see that number. And if you walk all the way over to the 12th grade, you'll see that the first grade had more students than 12 years later. If you go a little bit further, you'll see from 2021, and that's what this slide is saying. For the first time, the incoming
154kindergarten class is smaller than your graduate, which is an indicator to us as demographers and whatnot that you're not growing. You're going to continue this trend. And if you continue this trend, you'll have a decline in your used to do that. And the article that I mentioned a few minutes ago from the ARC, they say that this is all that pulled from them. They say that in the enrollment, the city of city of Decator schools is a member of the ARC and it says that city schools of Decar and Buford city saw a really dramatic growth 15 years ago or so. But now, like most every other metro district, they are in decline. They mentioned Atlanta public schools and I think the last time we talked I mentioned that they were on the news not
155too long ago about as they were calling it empty seats. So Atlanta public schools had more than 21% of their students in 1995 than they did in 2010. So they are in decline for whatever the reason is. Uh as you try to forecast your future you have to look and see that. So all of them always look back see where they were a few years ago and then they start predicting on how you're going to move forward. So that every one of these slides will show you something in the past and something in the present and working toward the future. And this is and the way we put this slide together is in 2021 that flipped. So in kindergarten you have had 321 kindergarteners in 2021 and you had seniors. So, your kindergarten classes are
156now for the first time starting in 2021 smaller than your graduate. And and there's a much more detail that you can do with that is you take 12 years ago your kindergarteners and you follow them through each grade to see if you maintain them, where were you losing them, was it after third grade testing or whatever the case may be. So, it's a good way to determine this is just simply a slide that's pretty clear. A little complicated at first look, but it's pretty clear. So, what you're saying, that's a good question. So, this year seniors 2024 were kindergarteners in 2012, right? >> Yes. I was trading them. So 12 years ago we had 369 kindergarteners that turned in the 456 seniors. So did go up as they attended Decar with the biggest jumps happening
157in ninth grade and like sixth grade as well. Is that a trend that you would expect to see repeat itself? the classes grow as they hang out or >> we've done this in a lot of districts and each district is different but it's a real telling slide when we put that together to start at 2012 follow them >> it's a diagonal >> yeah and they do they you're right they do all look like they grow over time >> they do all grow over time the jump between eth and ninth and this is something when you know the data does look like it's going down looks like we used to average about 40 new nth graders, we've gotten where we're averaging half of that. >> So, so there's a deeper dive into all of this and
158you'll find you'll find particulars uh between 8th grade and nth grade that there might be something that's causing that. Uh I I mentioned third grade testing and I'm not on the testing uh level now anymore. A lot of times certain testing and and and then of course also which is happening all over metro it is affordability housing was in my 20s and couldn't afford the house that I live in today. So usually you'll see a lot of districts that will actually grow and you're one of them that uh the like your high school is full. It's doing very well. Middle school is full. But can people afford to live in city of Decar when they're 20some years old and have a kindergarten child type. So there's so many factors that create this. This is a
159slide that can you can talk on them for an hour because the good part and we kind of got into this is trying to take from 2012, follow them in the first grade, follow them in the second grade and just see what your enrollment is doing. You'll find where you're growing and it probably goes back to potentially a neighborhood that was new to the district. So, homes that were affordable for young families and stuff. There's all kinds of indicators, but they're good indicators. I'm just curious if this will be included in this or if it's a factor, but I I don't know why I keep remembering. Do we have like a hundred more courtesy students this year? >> It would be captured in there. We don't I don't think it's that it would be captured
160in FTE enrollment because it's having more lines. >> Okay. So it is that a factor like I know that you had a page earlier that identified 71% so basically 29% of the households indicator have children right and then 69% of those 21 29% are sending their children to decar I don't even know what those numbers look like so I just wondered you know that makes sense right there fewer houses with children there going to be fewer children in the schools, but then if courtesy tuition is a factor for enrollment, I just wonder how that looks. >> So, so our belief is that as you get ready to go to your community and you have community conversations and we're certainly recommending that for you. These are the type of things that you we would dig dig
161a deeper dive in. So, if that question was asked to you, we would be able to answer it. Actually, can I ask one other thing? And I'm not sure if this is relevant. So, you can tell me it's not relevant right now. Did I hear there was like a bump between 8th and 9th grade? >> Yes. Isn't there typically a switch where kids want to be on sports teams and such, so they might transition from a private school that doesn't have those sports teams to a high school that does? There are several factors that can cause your eighth grade and your ninth grade to look different. Just to be clear, we saw moderate to large bumps between every class every year for a number of years until it looks like 2019 2020 when the pandemic
162hit, right? And that's really when the bump between 8th and 9th grade stops. But every year you see that bump kind of end in the 2019. Most every district in Metro experienced the same thing. >> We're still trying to figure out why did we lose kids after the pandemic. Every school district lost kids in 2020 and we blamed it on the pandemic. They all didn't come back type thing. So that's that's a real thing. Hopefully it never happened again. But moms are trying to figure that out too. But so I think families chose to do other things whether it's homeschool or whatever it could be. But uh but these are these are slides that you can talk on all day long because they're interesting and you can talk eth nth grade and there's a legitimate
163conversation with that and sometimes the ninth grade is a little larger than the 10th grade because if you look at the credits they earned might have stayed a little longer in the ninth grade type thing. So, there's so many particulars that go with this. >> The main takeaway that I'm getting is we have a long-term demographically based, apparently irreversible trend towards declination, particularly in the lower elementaryaries that currently have us at a relatively massive amount of overcapacity within our K2 school. And you're still holding very strong in middle. >> Yep. is since we've implemented or re-implemented paid tuition is that a factor at all in terms of >> No. Um what I will say is our projections we are higher this year in our project and we have higher number of one body count than
164the projection we received. So Walert said we would be at one number. We actually have more children here than what Walport projected for us. Um remember for tuition tuition was more of to Mr. Wilson's point an empty seat. So instead of it being empty it would have a body in it. um for October FTE they will be included but it's not like you will say this is courtesy tuition this is paid tuition this is like you don't you know FTE is just it's a >> student who is receiving instruction by someone employed by the school >> just to just to put the tuition question into perspective we have less than a hundred is it across the entire system >> and it's only and it's only in the K5. So, it's not going to impact. >>
165In order for it to even remotely impact these numbers, we would be talking about a hundred students per grade tuition before we were having anything like a capacity. >> But the other balance to that, which we talked about with tuition paying students, is what it has to do with overhead costs, staff, that sort of thing. You know, like are you, you know, with your current staffing model, if wanted to add a hundred students per grade, what would that do to how many teachers you have? >> Then you would need Yes. You don't want to tip tip it so that you need to add a teacher because then it's going to work in the reverse. This is the seat was there. It was open. The air conditioning was was running. The lights are on. The body
166is there. Why not? Meaning the teacher, why not put a student in that spot? That's just good business. So this slide here again is an example of where we found this per se. We went to the Georgia DOE. We pulled formulas that they use. You don't have to use those formulas, but using their formulas just so it's researchbased. You'll see that these numbers show that in your K3 your student capacity one thing, building utilization is another thing. And based on student capacity and classrooms, they match up through a formula. That's all it is. don't have to follow it even though it's recommended but it but it's researchbased. So this is a sample of a slide literally I pulled from so just based on Georgia DOE's um calculations or recommendation then that's saying Claremont could have
167six more classrooms being used and Glenwood could have six more classrooms being used. >> Could have nine more classrooms. >> Yes. Let me answer it a different way from from the state formula. The state formula says if you have 365 students, you should have 17 classes. It's it's a it's just a formula. But then but with that simpleation that I use it, it answers what you said that there's there's nine available classrooms per se. Now I think this formula doesn't calculate for special needs classrooms things like that is strictly ach with 300 kids in it and it was absolutely exploding at the seat. So I mean this is probably a little aggressive but even if it's up you know 20% higher it it still shows that we have a a massive amount of underutilization in
168>> I also think that maybe this won't come out right now but I do think we owe it to the community to be clear about what that space is being um we are talking about expansion and work on the system. So if it looks like one school is at 39% utilization um if maybe it's not all classrooms maybe you are using some of that space for languages and whatever I do think it's it's reasonable point to state what's that space >> that is a real good point in a district that did this for this past year they were declined in enrollment in the elementary schools So I sent a team out to every elementary school. They walked every classroom to determine what was in that classroom because formulas like the state uses it. They're they're
169thinking every classroom has x number of kids. >> And so when so it was a real big difference in discussion once you knew exactly what was in those classrooms. There were special needs, gifted classes, you name it. that caused that room to maybe only have eight children. And so of the of all of the elementary schools that we looked at, and it was a large district, 80% of them were at capacity. But by base numbers, they weren't. We were showing empty seats in many of them. So the good part was we learned a lot from the principal and the teachers how they were using their school and they were using it very effectively. We didn't have four teacher lounges and things like that existing because there was space. So, it it's just another as I
170started this saying everything that we try to provide for discussion is factbased and I can back that up even though it doesn't go as deep as we might want to go. I didn't make this up. Pulled it right from the documents that I have at the DOE. >> Okay. Um to your point, Dr. consultant. There are a lot of other programs in our K2 series that are not necessarily a part of the traditional Georgia Department of Education uh funding formula or even class. >> You're you're absolutely right and the formulas are just good as a starting point. >> Yes. And always you put yourself in a position to defend yourself by saying that's the reason we went further in that other district. So we knew exactly what was in every single class based on demographic
171study that you did methodology that was used. This is their forecast. see that they're saying in 2425 have 5,219 students and they're forecasting 10 years later you'll have a lesser number as I mentioned earlier while all of that is good you really need to review that every year will give you a one for every year but they basically are looking at five and 10 years out you don't want to live on a document like this that oh well in 10 years we'll look at it The the takeaway for the community here though is in five years we will likely be in the range of where we were 10 years ago. Sorry, I keep Sorry. Basically, it as you can see they're projecting that you're going to find recommended next steps. I don't think this might
172be the updated version. Okay, >> I can talk from it. >> Yeah, you can talk from it. They have it in front of them. >> The next slide should be early learning in >> Yes. >> Yeah. And what we wanted to show you there is as you have further and further discussions, it's important to know about your weight list and that it exists. You can see that you have a weight list in both facilities and that's important to know if you're going to try to move forward and serve all children. So I think a little bit more detail is going to be necessary to talk about. Right. So our the I think the weight list that we have at College Heights and the Frasier Center are the smallest indicator of demand for early childhood education
173within this school system. Right? If you if you do there is roughly the same size student cohort in each age range. like we're looking at 200 to 300 students in each grade range. That same need exists from 0 to four as it does in K2. Right? So it's it's not a weight list of 46 kids. There are 1,200 children that are aged 0 to four that that of which were serving maybe 200 or maybe 250 when you add these two centers together. And so and so I think that there's a demographic analysis on how many children are there in Decator ages 0 to four that need these kinds of services that we're talking about providing that are now currently doing you know full tuition in other programs or in other areas within. So good point
174and today we're trying to share with you a lot of information and then part of your role in this would be determine okay how much of this do we that Wilson has shared do we want to keep as it is or do we want to improve upon the slot so this is introducing all of these type of things that the research base will tell you and you've got to make sure down the road how you communicate that with your >> let let me say it this way so that we're clear on uh the communication with the community because there is a lot of concern in the community justifiable if you're looking at a significant reduction in student enrollment why is it necessary to build a school right and and that is because I think the
175answer lies in the fact that we have five K2 schools serving 750 to 800 children and we have one childhood learn early childhood learning center serving,50 children. We have an imbalance in our infrastructure with where the kids are versus what is needed. >> I'm sorry I need to know where that number you keep citing about the 1,200 children. Where are you getting that? I'm I'm uh what's it called? Regressing the curve on the population in each age cohort. So if you look at each age cohort on the previous slide. >> Yeah. Know I understand what you're doing. I think what I'm asking is do we I appreciate you're >> kind of extrapolating because it sounds like that's what you're doing. I want to know where the actual numbers are because what I'm trying to do
176is reconcile the 29% of households indicator that have children. So the majority of households right now don't even have children. >> I was shocked by that. And then looking even it sounds like you're putting a lot of information in there that may be correct, but I want the numbers there versus just saying there 1,200 kids that were not serving. >> That's exactly why I said we need So what I don't want to do is have precision interfere with accuracy. But there is a way to do the demographic study to find out the exact number. It's going to be about 1,200 but the exact number because I know the community will want to see it needs to be uncovered. There is going to be some number of zero to four age children indicator that's on the
177order of 1,200. We need to know what that is because that's one of the core justifications for this need is the fact that we have one school uh one and a half schools basically center serving roughly 1,200 children and we have five schools serving roughly 800 children. And that that's the core of the case, one of the core of the cases for why we need to rebalance where we have schools. >> You always want to put yourself in a position. >> Yes. >> And then can I just I'm confused here for college heights. There are no three-year-olds on the weight list >> as of yesterday. So, but >> I'm looking at the page. It's not on the slide, but it's in our package here. >> So, all the other groups have a weight list. >>
178So, I I realize I think what you're doing, Mr. Wilson, right, is presenting us the factual information. >> That's right. Okay. >> And then I guess the question I have is what accounts for that? every other age group. You know, infants, we have 46 on the weight list. One year olds 36, 2-year-olds 25, and then we get to three and prek, no one's waiting. >> I don't know. As a as a parent of a three-year-old, I would surmize that if I could afford a a college and I and I have an appointed privilege of being able to afford college, if I gotten to age three, I'd have to go somewhere else. >> There's no way that I could have sat on the wait list for three years. and we sat on the wait list college
179for two years and but there's no way that you could I'm sure by the time kids get to that point if they can't afford a full payc which college is 100% pay there's no getting around it you're paying out of pocket odds are I would imagine they've walked off and went somewhere else >> and and and know that the weight list changes daily so if College Heights is running a rate a weight list today is 107. Tomorrow, College Heights weight list could be 110, right? And then it could be 115 and then it could go back down to 105. It it depends upon the the need. >> Yeah, I understand that. And then but preK, am I correct, is still um a different uh option. So, if you're a parent, like when my daughter went
180to College Heights, yeah, we were on the wait list, too. But by the time we got to preK, I thought you're talking about a totally different financial scenario. >> You are. You're talking You're talking about capacity already. So, you you don't create a weight list typically for what would be prek because that's something that is funded in a completely different. Then I guess >> maybe this is a separate question because I don't think you have this data but you know Hans you keep referencing this 1,200. So are we doing anything with the trackability of the children that are on the wait list to see where they are being served as well as what is happening if it turns out to your point that now they've gone somewhere else. So at this point, do we do
181anything trackabilitywise other than know that we have a weight list that may be one or two more tomorrow or yesterday? >> We have a weight list. We >> you know, College Heights does not have an enormous amount of staff to stay in touch with a hundred people across the that's not they're serving the children who are enrolled. We we do know or at least I think we know that the number of kids that we have identified within DHA that are of an age to access these programs are not actually in the program which is the other case for why the ECLC is necessary. Not only are there roughly 1,200 kids across Decar that need some of these services of which we can serve 250 but there is a cohort of roughly 60 kids a year
182that need these services within DHA that have no access to it cannot afford the full price programs and they can't actually get to the programs even if they weren't full. I think the other thing too from looking at slides here is and Dr. and I talked about this one ones is that we need to also think creatively about space utilization district here. Um all of your elementary schools have space what they're being used for I don't know because I don't work there live there but there is some all of those schools are not at 100% space utilization or so it appears just by looking at that slide. You also have at college heights you have 107 kids sitting on a wait list. Some of them those two-year-olds I bet you some of them have been
183sitting on that weight list since they were infants. >> So you know what do we do to make sure that we're making good use of those children's time and they're not just sitting on the wait list. Um you know as weinging time start planning for this capital improvement. Um, you're talking about how all of this space could be maximized while we're being good stewards of taxpayer dollars because there is space, but we need to make sure that we're using it um creatively. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to build something we need to do. Um, you know, we talked about moving prek. We talked about reusing office space, but it does look like there is space within the district. Um, but I think we need to really look at how we're using it creatively
184so that you can not only be available for all children, but get that weight list down quickly. Otherwise, we're going to end up with another school with a whole another weight list. And that's not these students are waiting on the weight list. We should sp >> No, not necessarily. I think we need to take what data he's given us and look at some of those elementary schools that are not at full that are not using their spaces creatively. Um so or not at complete utilization and see what they're using that space for. I think some of the other point that we talked about was office space. So could some of those classrooms be repurposed for office space? Could some people um move around so you could maximize educational space? could prek move into the prek
185move back into their home schools and then you could free up classroom space or get college out of those trailers and cut down on that cost. I think all of those options should be considered so that get that weight list down but also maximize whatever space you already have in existence so that it's utilizable. Those are all it's a both and not an either or I think >> like because even if we build the early childhood learning center and use it to its maximum capacity, the combination of the ECLC and college heights is still at best going to serve less than half of total need for zero to four support within the district. And and I don't think it's our objective to say we're going to do all 100% of all kids in the district,
186but if we're able to better utilize space across all of our schools or all of our footprint, how many more of those, 1200 kids that we aren't able to get to are we? >> Right. You don't want to build a center that's built for 100 150 students and then you end up with another 50 person weight list essentially because we haven't looked at every single inch of space we have and used it to. So our enrollment numbers are declining and the number of households with children. So this 100 are you citing this as a static number? But it >> of course not >> right because then what I'm trying to figure out is then I think you talked about like you started with hey let's be clear about in five years what this is going
187to look like. So then what is that going to look like in five years when the 1,200 students you're talking about? >> All he's doing from the 12, let's take the most pessimistic number which was 3,500 total students K through 12, right? >> So that's way way down. >> Divide that by 12. You get a round number. Those kids are going to exist from birth to four as well. That's around 1,200. If the population's going up, then it would be more. If it's going down, it's going less. I think 1,200's overly conservative because that number doesn't include all of the kids who don't attend College Heights who do apply who are the Mackenzie Hernand which is my ninth grader who was 72nd on the weight list for prek for her year and then we ended
188up going to a private school and strongly considered staying because oh my god it was the greatest place on earth. So the 1200 is just math. It's it's very pessimistic math about how many kids will exist in Decar. Yes. 10 year newborn. We can do a least number. It's gonna fluctuate around that 1,200 number. The absolute smallest you could probably mathematically see it getting to is still 900 kids, right? But the fact of the matter is we're not going to go to no kids in that age range. And in any scenario, no matter what we build, the capacity for the maximum amount of those children for any projected population uh impact that we're looking at. >> That makes sense. But I think to your anecdote about the weight list in mine, yeah, >> we may
189be at that peak when everyone moves here. So, I'm not sure it's entirely reasonable to be citing our experiences with weightless that were at the peak of enrollment and livability here. Am I wrong? >> No. If we want to ban personal anecdotes, >> I don't want to ban an what I said. I'm just saying that you and I have an experience that's maybe not reflective of today based on the numbers we >> No, that is just an anecdote that says that that there's a whole lot of students that aren't served by college and there's an industry of prek >> churches, private schools, etc. that exist to serve there. And then we have the data that we've done. I've actually had walk through like how good are our college height students doing as we go through.
190was like, "Man, they're killing it." Compar. >> Yeah, you have it. It's on the It's on the the packet where you can control for kids with your college. >> Oh, you mean on the dashboard? >> Yeah, the dashboard. >> Okay. >> You can control for college Heights and go back and how well they've done versus the other cohorts. And every time my daughter's grade is not 100, I'm like, she didn't get into college. >> Better. >> Those are all anecdotes. >> I didn't realize that excuse was available to you, but I'm going to use it now. >> Oh boy. Oh boy. But that's just where the 12. >> Yeah, I think that's again I I really don't want to I I accuracy and precision are two different things and I am not talking about >>
191okay I just wanted to also say the Frasier Center serves for the most part staff children. Now staff meaning teachers I mean it it's it is a recruitment and a retention tool in an industry where the majority of the industry is female and I just want that to be said because most when I tell people we have it it's it's really something that people are like wow. So if I come to work, I could potentially, especially when they're younger and those ages, the child could come there and then I could go to work. I mean from yeah many staff Mr. Wilson, I'm sorry >> to the next slide. Point well taken by >> I think that this is an important slide because it's putting it in steps. You need to address the demand. You also
192need to make sure that demand is being met to the point where you can close the achievement. >> I just >> if you have a weight list, let me reverse the order of these because I do very much feel like the second one is the one. >> Take me about one minute. >> Okay. But it's an important slide because you're trying to serve and you're trying to make sure that children are ready for school. And so we try to cover any potential that you have. So you see those that listed, but it's important to us as we do this for you that every voice is heard, every data point is considered. So represent your knowledge base based on trying to learn whether it's with me or anyone for that matter. So good decisions are always
193made. We've got community uh engagement meetings coming up and slide after this we'll talk in more detail with that. You see you've got one August the 27th got one September the 15th. We are going to work with you to create you a timeline all so parents, community members cannot come out and say they didn't listen to me, didn't go to a meeting because they didn't know about it. It's telling me I'm going. So recommended next steps. I've got this slide and one for this be open for more questions. So we are a strong believer in in education planners that you create a positive public awareness that when you make the decision whatever the decision you make you cannot have you won't have community say they didn't tell me that right I never knew where right
194so we we always try in presenting something like this that at the end of this you will have a positive public awareness we always look at effective strategies to ensure good stakeholders further feedback. You have multiple community engagement forums that we would recommend. Not overdue, but just make sure that you're presenting toition. It's always good to know how much it's costing you to run your facilities. You can afford what you have, but per pupil cost analysis is also important. and we are prepared if you need us to to compare the districts with you so you can kind of see. Not that that's necessary to publish and whatnot, but it's always good to see how efficient you are with your funds and and then just develop a good student focused attendance zone modification. And the reason
195that's in there is if you need to change, let them know early there's any type of changes that you need to make with your attendance zone. And if you do look at closing a school, closing two schools or three schools, then you will have attendance zone potential modifications. And then of course the next to the last slide is to is to identify and communicate to all families and staff that might be a part of this. So the last slide is one that we think is really important. We like to highlight positive public awareness. We try to end you go to the end of this that it winds up being a true success story. You've done your homework. You can stand tall with the decisions that you make. And then on the right hand side of
196this, these are some of the strategic thinking and planning that you need to be a part of. You look down at the bottom. commitment to student success and that's really a lot of what we've been talking about the last 15 minutes. How do we make sure all kids get a good education? So these are some of the things that we try to emphasize as you go through this that these are things that we have looked at the pro of the the approaches researchbased uh best practice-based proactive carefully wellestablished processes that goes back to the main six and we believe in process management transparent nobody can accuse you of you did this behind the door and all those kind of community involvement, datadriven, and you always want to put in this cost benefit and cost analysis
197because it may save you money and it may cost you money, but you want to be able to articulate that very early on. Questions >> in regard to the community outreach, um, how do we get the word out? So like I walked I live in Oakurst. So Saturday morning and Sunday morning I just walked around. I went to Oakurst Park. I talked to two dads who had like two-year-olds in their strollers. Neither had known about it. So I put like the community meeting dates and times on those board business cards. Um because I feel like a lot of the times the digital stuff we do is reaching the same people. So what are the ways like you're talking about those 1,200 children and I keep saying this because again just in my anecdotal experience that
198parents that I talked to didn't know about this. I was like hey you want to come to one of these meetings >> part of our role would be to help you with that. So when you have them you don't have the next day look I would have come to that meeting but I didn't know. So we can help making sure because it's important as you look at change whatever the change may be that you can stand tall again. Yes. May not have liked your decision but I did know what you were doing. We'll help we'll help in any way we can to communicate as you move toward community meetings. So I do I do it is actually fairly typical when you're doing large changes that the community begins to pay attention once numbers start to
199be talked about. This is I think where a lot of the concern comes up. Uh and and so I think we're to see a lot more community engagement. So I'm glad that y'all are here. I want to thank Dr. Whitaker for for bringing you guys. I think that's going to be critical. I also want to address a couple of things really quickly. Uh I know that in the last board meeting there was some friction and frustration that I expressed. Uh these would be the process to date. I think part of this is the steps towards fixing that process. But I want to be extraordinarily clear with the community and with the superintendent, Dr. Whitaker that me disagreeing about steps in the process is not me disagreeing with fundamental. This is a crucial need in this
200community without question. And and so uh I I I want to reiterate my forward to have these conversations with the community and to arrive at a place where we have an early childhood learning center that is capable of serving these kids that have been dramatically underserved for effectively the history of decades and that that it is not that Dr. Whitaker has unilaterally decided to push this forward. Dr. Whitaker is responding to the demands that this board has made to address this gap within this community. And in doing so is is reflecting a value that we as a community have held and that this board maybe not unanimously but that this board as a majority feels is critical. I want to make sure that there is no misunderstanding in the community about that. Dr. Whitaker and
201I can have a difference of opinion about process. That does not mean that we are not on the same page in terms of need and I support her 100% moving forward with what we're doing here. Any other questions? You've been a great audience and great questions and I think we're moving in a very good direction very quickly. Thank you. >> Next item on the agenda. >> All right. Uh the next item on the agenda is executive sessions. Um do I have a motion to move into executive session for the purpose of discussing legal matters in light of the court ruling? >> Justin Davis makes the motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Member seconds the motion. Is there any discussion? >> I have to go to the bathroom. Does that matter? [Laughter] hearing none.
202One second to vote. >> Yes. >> All I votes I. Any opposed? >> Hearing none. The motion carries unanimously. We have to move to exit executive session for the purpose of discussing legal matters in light of a court ruling where no votes were taken. >> Board member US makes a motion. Is there a second? Second >> board member Johnson Davis seconds the motion. Is there any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor. >> Chair votes I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries unanimously. >> All right. So next on the agenda is some discussion that we're going to have around policy priorities for this year. So um at our last board meeting I was able to share with you all uh an overview of the policy plan for the 2526 school year. And as I said
203there um we will have an opportunity to discuss at a future retreat. Here we are at a future retreat um having some conversation around policy. So um hopefully you got an opportunity to do your free reading. If not there is a copy in your folder. So um this was shared with the board. It is a policy update that was published by GSDA back in March of 24 or 25 rather. and it speaks a little bit about the role of the board and the role of policy. So, um I'm going to give you just a few minutes either to speed read because you didn't maybe do your pre-ereading or if you did to go to a section that really resonated with you and I'm going to ask you to make three marks. So, in one area
204you're going to draw an exclamation point for a phrase or a sentence that you feel is really important. And then somewhere you're going to draw a question mark. So, one idea that you questioned or you were unsure about. And then somewhere like a little thought bubble, one part that really made you think or maybe challenged your thinking a little bit. Right? So, I'm going to give you a few minutes just to peruse, kind of bring out those ideas for our discussion. Anyway, You may have school version. >> Yeah. >> I just was thinking when I was a when I was a kid you tried out the J football basically kind of 10th grade switched over to >> Yeah. All right, I'm going to bring us back together. Does anyone want to share? I won't even
205pick which one, but something that jumped out to you for one of these reasons that no matter how many years one has spent in public schools as a student, parent or perhaps an employee, there will be a steep learning curve for those who are newly elected to a school. Felt like that pretty much sums up what is important. >> Summed up importance for you. Okay, super. Thank you. There is an adjustment for sure. Uh I guess uh one part that made me think and challenged my thinking is as long as the administration operates within the guidelines of policy adopted by the board it may issue regulations without prior board action by law. So I was wondering what would that scenario look like in what kind of case? >> Yeah. So often you know we'll talk
206about the policy that's adopted but then we need to come back and make the regulation the how that goes with it. So when we speak about things like that or when you look in our policy manual and you see the regulations that's it. So the the policy is the board right and the what but then yeah that how piece. >> So my question to your to your question >> if there is a policy a regulation that's necessary I'm going to inform you one publicly before I need to put it in place unless it's of an emergency nature. We haven't had an emergency nature of um regulation as of today. But >> so up until now, we have been informed on changes in regulations. That's what I thought. And I always wonder when >> you know
207when when once you and you you'll hear me say often um uh once you develop this policy and pass this policy, we will work on the regulation. And if we do if we have had to and it's very few regulations we put it in for information on the board meeting. It's not an item that we read but it's there to make sure but um and and oftentimes we will put it in the work session of the roll out. So now that your policy has been adopted this will be the regulation. This is when I'll talk about it and administrative staff. this is when I expected the building leaders to do it so forth so on. So we do that in work session but the true regulation of creation and push out is not having to
208do it in an emergency fashion. Two quick scenarios. One is the like revise the policy in response to the law and we said and the regulation would be updated. We said out loud ahead of time and then we came back and said it was updated as part of our annual process. Same thing with um JB which y'all passed last month the revisions for student attendance and we said there's a need for some regulation around some clarity around the other excused absences. So now staff is working on developing that. Great. I'm over here Tracy and then Dr. Schultz. Next, how will the effectiveness of the policy be evaluated? Oh, I don't maybe I'm tired, but I feel like we haven't I don't recall our doing that yet. >> Yeah, I think that's a great point. Like
209how can we continue to measure the effectiveness of our policies or when things come up, are we looking through a policy lens to make sure the policy is allowing us to implement it in effective ways? Yeah. One that stood out to me is when changes to a policy are needed, it's usually usually better to review and revise the policy in its entirety rather than editing. Adding language or creating a new policy on top of what was already currently written without modifying previous language that confusing or >> that's an area I highlighted as well. I was reading it. I I agreed with Tracy there on the board documents the degree of success of the policy something I thought about but as part of the calendar how are we reviewing personnel policies and getting dat on like
210get these policies in place not necessarily >> they're doing the other one that really stood out to me is at the bottom where it's like assembly makes it accessible to the public um and I know this is GSBA and and simply is an excellent tool, but the notion that it makes these policies public accessible, I think, is not really true. It almost needs like a like a short video on how to access simply, how to look it up, how to how to do my opinion on simply. >> All right. All right. And then, Nia, >> um I had also underlined um how the effectiveness be evaluated. Um, I know y'all probably know my reservations with like the new security procedures. That's one thing I'm especially interested in looking at is like the empirical data like
211the end of the school year. Um, so I if I recall correctly, we're going to be reviewing policies from >> Yeah. So, a couple things. So, I'm going to go there in just a minute. Yes, absolutely. So, and and I think to answer some of the questions, part of it is our unique history. So it came up earlier today too that in 2223 we went back to getting all of our policies in place right so getting the required statemandated policies in place and over the past couple of years we've been bringing additional policies forth either in response to legal reason you know watchouts um student priorities things like that so we've been adding to our policy manual over the last couple of years so now we know we're at the point where how do we
212go back and revise I shared that with you guys last month as well as how do we think about the effectiveness measures of them as well. So we're the we are right for that work to happen at this time. So I'm glad you said something about assembly um because one thing to just bring out is that is available on um all of our policies are available on Simly to the public to anyone. Now yes you have to go into assembly you know you have to click it whatever but they are there which is better than than the days you know it used to be like we had to keep a binder and so if anyone from the public wanted to see policies they could come in and request to see the binder of policies that's
213literally how it used to be. So I think that's some of the background information when they're saying oh it's so great and accessible. I mean it is it's out there right but this is the world we live in today. It would be shocking if it wasn't. Um but it is it's out there and accessible. And then one thing for you all as a board to be aware of as well, it simply does have a really good search feature. So that little magnifying glass in the top when you're thinking about what it is that you want to see in policy and as we're brainstorming together policies, you know, often we'll do an environmental scan for you. And really, you can access what exists and other Georgia sites or other national sites through that search feature in
214Simly. So you can search and toggle on policies, you can search just our site or our site and other sites and then there's some other filters available as well. So when we're other districts have in place, that's a great feature there to get an idea. So I just wanted to draw attention to that for both you all and the public um so that you understand a little bit about like what all out there when we're benchmarking. All right. So from the article, it talked a little bit about how we make policy and some of the things that I I did the same activity and when I went through I made, you know, my little exclamation points and all that as well, of course. Um, and it was interesting because it also talked about, you know,
215you don't want to over policy, too. Um, which I thought was interesting. So, it's about having the right policies and again where we are in our history, making sure we're really prioritizing policies that truly need to be developed. And so they talked about it being a big picture tool for the board where the mission and goals of the school district are served. And it also talked about the strategic plan being a backdrop and language being important when we're thinking about crafting policy. So really there was a number of questions that the article provided um under the policy Q&A that talk about when considering policies, which question should be asked? Now the first two are the ones that I've basically put up here for us. The others come a little bit more into that evaluation piece.
216So are what the drafting piece, what does current literature say? How's it related to other district policies to make sure we're not creating conflicting policies? For example, um you know, is it likely to to have compliance? So that comes a little more in the drafting and in the evaluating phase. But for today's purposes, um those first two questions really resonate and that's what policies are needed to advance the educational needs of all students. So, what is it as a district that, you know, when when staff does this, they often think about h here's something that's like not clear or hard for me to execute or here's where we have a liability up because we don't have a clear policy. So, some of the policies you've seen in the last few years have bubbled up either
217because legal or because like a staff kind of need of it. Some we've heard from you all, you know, or there's like a hot topic. Another great point, it's easier to do it ahead of time proactively than it is in the heat of the moment. So to anticipate where some of our needs and things might be as well. And then also to support not just the mission and goals, but also to advance our strategic plan. So do we need policy so that we can advance the strategic plan that we're invested in? >> This is the time to suggest. So, I do have for those of you who are thinkers, too, a little handout, a little note catcher >> in your folder >> or out and it just has those questions for you. And again, today
218is really just kind of this brainstorm and it's going to be a discussion among you all in a moment about like and I know you don't have all the policies memorized. I know you don't have, you know, all the codes and what we have and what we don't have, but what I'd love is just a little bit of discussion with these two questions being the guide around where we think we might need it and then I can synthesize for you and we can go from there. I'll give everyone a few minutes of of think time for those that just need to process and then we'll share out. You're telling me to shut up and say >> this is how I handle a kindergarten. >> There's like 15 or 20 ideas in each one that I'm
219being efficient in my writing. How about you can jot down any ideas that come to your head and then through the discussion of course I'm sure more will come Give you another couple seconds. Right. So, with the backdrop with the questions, I'm just going to invite discussions and I'm going to try to just take notes while you all are talking. If I need to chime in, I will, but I'm going to try not to. I will let you. No, the question I've seen the question come up in the community around the ECLC and our focus on on preK and it it was framed in the sense that we have to incur costs for K to 12. Why would we want to incur costs at prek or before? And the I think what's missing in that
220question is the understanding that we incur the costs of not having robust pre and so is there a policy that says even though we are not mandated by law to be providing services prek or zero to four let's just say do we want a policy that says because we recognize for equity reasons because we recognize for uh incurred expense because we recognize for a half a dozen other reasons the value that this has. It is our policy to provide as widely as possible zero to four uh educational opportunities for children within the I don't want to make it too specific to like bind our hands in a particular direction but to to preempt that question right it cost us a lot more to fix the kids that don't get prek than it does for us
221to offer the prek >> I'm just Thank you. >> I was thinking based on our conversation earlier when we were uh when Julia was going over ethics and stuff in this conversation. I asked a question about uh personnel and what that yeah the approval but there should be a policy around that how we handle that and then and let's >> I was do we want to talk about tiers like maybe recommended tiers because we don't need to I think improve features right >> right usually comes back yeah And and then the other one was um think based on your question and we got the feedback in the uh POI about facilities and policies F facility management F policy. There were some that I saw uh in the environmental scan that you provided that I thought
222to consider. Um but now forget what they were. I missed them in my 101. You did these long range facilities. >> Long range facilities. There were like maybe three of them that maybe three districts were um had in place. Yeah. And so it was um long range facilities, long range planning um and then I guess long range needs combination. I don't know. These are two different policies. What how are we thinking the differences between a long-term capital plan and long-term facility plan? are just sort of the I mean what presumably if we're going to talk about a long-term capital plan it includes an element to right >> it's yes it's called so capital isn't a code in the policy manual but it catches where >> and we don't have a policy requiring a long-term capital
223plan or facility plan >> I don't know off the top of my head we only have Let's say we do need one if we don't have one. >> Yeah, we we talked about that. It's one of >> policy and it's naming. >> So, so then yes, I think I mean I know that we do long-term capital planning and we're putting some structure and robustness around that. Thank you very much, sir. But I think I think we do want a policy so that we don't go back to the time we didn't do that because there was a span of time that we weren't to do. And then the only other one that I saw only one school system the CAP has it but I just thought you know even in light of our conversation today about
224what to do with you know available unused space was the site availability projection and I don't know it feels like that would be involved in capital plans >> right but it just seems like that should be something that we should I guess monitoring regularly. So to well one to confirm what you said yes it is one FDC and it naming policy naming facilities that's the one we have right I think um as we develop what would be that long range facility plan um long range uh facility plan policy then we'll see do you need a separate policy do you need a regulation I mean you we can to look into all of that so for example example, what would be the annual capital update that we bring to you every September? Is that considered something
225you want regulation or policy? You know, that's an example of a how, but that how certain things I I've heard from various board members that needs to be in policy. I don't want this just to be something that Dr. Whitaker >> just like the budget book we put into policy. Do we want to put any annual capital updates? >> Yes. >> So the >> So yes, so that's an example. >> This is super helpful. So what I'm hearing synthesized here is definitely some work around some of the facilities. And so our next step would be taking the feedback and suggestions you just did. I would work with Mr. Adams. We would kind of do an environmental scan, see which ones are out there, send you some sample policies and recommendations in that way that were
226kind of our normal dance there. >> I think within that, one of the ones I had was um school closure or grade adjustment. that might go into. So if you had one school that was smaller or that was over populous um but kind of our cut offs were um thoughts about need to have prek at this school, two kindergartens at this school and no kindergarten here on district one district two. >> Um we decide that each position temporarily or permanently. um that might go >> the positioning of a school is not necessarily a policy a lot of districts have but it's more so around state law. Um that was what we have found in our environmental scan but it's something that every district is grappling with which is why Mr. Wilson is working on >>
227what I what I would say though to is I think there is value in looking at a policy that would describe how we go about selecting >> what schools get decommitt right because what you what you don't want is to just uh observational bias say well this is our smallest school so it's the one that's going to get closed like you do kind of want to do the process that we're doing and and I I do think in order for that to outlive all of us, we probably want a policy. >> One of the other ones that I had here um was and then when I was looking at this, I was like a lot of these are probably regulation um into the piece of it. you know, how tight do you want the policy
228to be versus getting yourself change year to yearend or the principal ability to change based on like I don't have any policies but um the other thing I thought about with personnel structure um a lot of the feedback we get from community members is how um they get overstaffed or understaffed They don't understand job structure. So some generally speaking, this is the back of the superintendent, you know, we don't have the something like that kind of what the governance structure like is. So the governance structure really kind of ends at this table. >> But then I was then but I guess maybe my thought more was kind of what your kind of personnel structure looks like that people are thinking to themselves there's way too many people in the hired at the Wilson Center that
229control that policy and see kind of generally what structure should look like without much detail. Year over year you may add a personal So >> it was the policy then Carmen rather than So I I'd be lerary of a policy that told the superintendent how to structure her team. Yeah. >> But the policy the policy might be >> you have to have a clearly published org chart of your team, right? And so that that >> somebody that is curious about it could look and say, "Okay, there are 70 people in the Wilson Center and here's all the buckets they fall into." That's what I said when I started reading these. I was like, these are more a lot of the details that people are looking for probably regulation compromise. >> I'm looking at Fulton this
230is because this may just be repeating what was already brought up, but it says that the board of ed ensures that the district maintains an adequate number of positions to accomplish the district's goals and objectives. The superintendent or his or her design will maintain a comprehensive list containing the job descriptions of all positions in the district. The board of ed must approve all job descriptions before said job can be staffed. And then it has administrative school leadership and it gives the type of position. But that's that's approving job description not a proving. So it's a like I said I I know the difference between Fulton's personnel process versus Atlanta public schools p personnel process. They're very very different but it does have it own third thing >> and the cab is and Maretta. >> So
231why don't we why don't we take a look at all of them >> third point it does say that you're required to have something published somewhere that has your birth chart. >> Yeah. And that could be it. Yeah, >> we posted on the website. >> Yeah, >> it was not under duty. It was intentionally hidden. So that like this is why I like policy as opposed to >> Yeah, >> there's a difference between just good governance and then you're forced to do this because it's in >> it will be in the budget. >> Any other I know we're low on time. So any other buckets of >> I like to visit the ones that are unique about the cater. So I can't help but think about like the SLT and that structure and policies about
232their expectations and what we have for them would be much appreciated. Um and then I can't I can't help thinking like I mean student success that should be forefront of our minds is instructional programs if it's broadly that's probably the area that I would most like to see kind of a scan of how are we missing anything? Is there anywhere the board should weigh in and probably the area where we would start with evaluating with whether our policies >> student those are the ones I would other than I circled facility management I do think Tracy's point of the board moving that up build goodwill give people something to provide comments back home >> um I just want to second that and then I also want to throw out um our official intelligence. >> I think
233it's, you know, I think it's something so unprecedented that we're really, um, you know, I can see personally I hear from my peers. Um, but since there's, you know, I'm even looking on simply and it's like it's mostly on the employee side. Um, but I know teachers are having to be really innovative. um and that we could really be one of the districts to like start that conversation and like um create something that isn't, you know, completely damning. Um so I would put that out there. Um I also I want to I I wrote down many things, but I do want to have more one-on-one conversations before unless you guys feel like this is a safe space to just throw them all out. Um >> no, a safe space. >> Okay. Okay, great. Um well
234the other thing on my mind um I know a couple one of our current existing policies is um the divisive concepts um and so kind of in that same vein um something I think um explicitly opposing um SB1 that just went through um which is Riley Gains Act which is um banning um transgender participation in sports. Um, I know we've heard a lot of public comment and stuff from students. Um, and if we're protecting them at this time and that could be a really powerful statement. Um, that's something that we're interested in. Um, >> you mean like creating a policy that makes explicit our position on that issue? >> Yes. >> Okay. Because previously our trans students were mentioned just in the what about sports the policy about sports we because when we were going
235through the compliance trying to comply we had made some changes. So the Riley Gangs Act is a Georgia act, not a national. And so there were some pieces that we needed to adjust based upon Georgia state law. So like in the beginning of this, it really talks to when do you actually when is it a must that you adjust your policy? your policy as a public school system cannot be flying in violation of state law. So if we were a private school and not a public school entity, you could say that is state law and we're not going to abide by that. We will abide by such and such because we do not participate. We do not receive funding. any of those things with state law. >> That's not the case. Which is why Riley
236the Riley Gangs Act actually did have an impact on our policy. And Miss Lynch, you want to add any more to it? Can I can I ask a question with Mia said because so there is a there is so so we can't enact a policy that violates state law but we can enact a policy that makes it explicit that we support protect maintain the integrity of do we will do all of these things up to all of the bounds of what the state law >> yes but how in terms of the equity policy like does that encompass? No. >> Yeah. >> I just think there's merit in making it explicit, especially because we're going to pass a policy legislative session next time. >> Yeah. your question J. >> I just think there's merit in making
237that like an explicit separate statement especially given that we're going to have to adjust our policy to comply with that bill >> with the just making another another policy just on trans children. >> Yeah. Well, I'm I'm just specifically pointing to because we have one for H1081, which is device of concepts. I was just like, you know, um like it's something we've done before. It's like so to Dr. Jackson Davis, your question, does it specifically students with and the equity policy BA BAC? It does not specifically speak to trans students. It does not. But it does talk about um making sure you have multicultural but not necessarily speaking to inclusivity. I kind of feel like and I I'm a little confused about the um the of concept of concept. So we had to create that
238policy right based on >> Yeah. And so yes, I'm I'm concerned about I think we should we were I started to put down, but I feel like we should uh make the equity policy more inclusive of all of these other >> versus a polic policy just around a specific group. Or do you make it less specific and you have a regulation that allows for that that kind of the policy less specific in detail regulation that outline what you know for this specific population it means this athletics it means this you know teaching and learning it means that you know and that would allow it so that you can change it year or you change it, you know, as you need to. It gives you that flexibility, but having the policy itself is locked in when
239you're bound by legislator. Is it okay? I did write down so maybe equity is something we want to bring back for discussion and we can have these conversations but maybe we want to bring up and I so the ones that people have already mentioned I'm not going to um repeat but I noticed our professional learning was reviewed in 2022 so I put that in advancing the educational needs of all students. Um this may be operational so I did not tell me it is. Um, I'd love to see something though that allows us to see how it's working. And I don't know, you know, I know I guess Georgia already does the survey and so you get that kind of stuff, but whether it's with professional learning or some of the programs, um, instructional programs, I'm
240still a little confused um, as to what we could do, but like James, I agree it needs to be there. I think what I keep thinking about and I'm sorry if I'm confusing things the community meeting that we had at Oakers when there was less of agenda and people were just talking and you know you had someone who's like why is this online and why is that not online and how do you do this and so I'm kind of synthesizing everything when we move to AI because I'm not sure Nia if you were asking are we going to have a policy that effectively says despite AI's ex existence we're going to still make sure that CSD students can think and or are you talking more about a policy that says we will be assimilating AI
241use into instruction? So, I don't know again, you know, where that is. So, the professional learning is an easy one. I know there are instructional programs. I'd like to see more of what those look like. I'm gonna throw one out that's probably not popular because I'm not sure if it is regulation or if it is policy. But when I learned about Fulton County's attendance, um I think it's a policy. I looked it up. So we just saw I realize it's a year behind the data about is it 30 something% of our elementary schools that are absent for family vacations, 40some percent for middle school. And I learned this through another setting where it's like, yeah, my child can request some virtual days. Um the teacher in me says that could be an absolute nightmare to
242organize. Um, but the pragmatist in me says, you know, the world has just changed a lot just like people work remotely and so encouraging people to come to school is great knowing that they might not. And then there's a way to help that. So, you know, there may be lots of regulations in it, but from what I can tell, there are clear guidelines about how you would receive your attendance credit based on asynchronous or synchronous work. And so it's just since I've learned about it a little uh had interest because I I think if people looked at it we might find some interesting data that left policy as well. I know it very well and lived it out behind us. So we know where it came about. It came about as a result of the
243pandemic. And how do you ensure bringing people and students specifically back and understanding the percentage of nonrefusal all of the different elements that lived to get to to that point. So I'll another story for another day. The only other one I wanted to just throw out there can't control parents representing the brand and when when they were considered an employee representing the organization and when they partnered. um out there and so you know it was always a little break until that people understood what >> all right so I had heard a little bit of appetite for maybe facilities management um you know we can start looking at kind of what's out there and that kind of thing. So, it might happen before April. I'm not going to tie us down to a month yet, but
244we'll look at kind of see where we are based on the appetite or maybe we'll kind of introduce them inter interspersed with some of these others. >> Um, this draft that you see here is truly draft based upon the feedback we provided to you provided today. we will reorder some things um so that we're able to accomplish what we need to accomplish in this time. >> where does equity fall >> equity fee >> which is schoolboard operations currently for November and actually kind of ties me nicely to like the next steps. One of which was like obviously we'll synthesize kind of today's discussion. Um there's some policies that are going to go out of order based on legislation anyway. So the most um known one is we know we have to develop electronic device cell
245phone policy that has to be by January January for implementation next July. So we'll start talking about that calendar. Um and we know that we need to do some maintenance of some of these older ones as well. So some of these last reviewed by dates, we'll be pulling those up and at least reviewing them. We might not need to change them, but we'll at least put eyes on them and make sure that we feel good about where they are or decide when we want to tackle them. >> Where would AI fall in there? Because I I do think it's pretty critical to begin grappling with it. >> So, um not policy conversation, literally conversation yesterday after cabinet. Um, uh, Eston, myself and Jennifer Dunn are going to kind of start this strategy and leadership network.
246And so we have engagement in October on that. So let me get into that network, get to that convening and then be able to give you an answer of when. So >> best practices, get immersed in it. So we can really inform both inform it. >> Last question. So in terms of equity policies when we were uh I think when we were reinstating it there would be things that we that still needed to change or we still follow. Do we ever >> I think that what I'm hearing is that's one of the ones that we would want to bring to the board. We'd want to have some public conversation and pre-work about it and then that would help us, you know, do one of those protocol type situations. It might take us one or two
247or more months to kind of help get it to where we want to, but then work through discussions that way to bring about any revisions. >> Able to look at other school equity policies at this point. >> So, I can look I know that previously I think we were pretty much it. >> Maybe they're there now. >> Yeah, I will absolutely check. And nationally there are some. >> Yeah, >> I guess there's actually a lot of want to deal with it. And so my I would say a couple of things. one, we are probably one of the more forward districts in terms of it. We don't want to stop that. I think you're really aggressive to think it's a one or two month conversation. I think this is a we could start it now and
248have a policy in place by March, right? So there's a lot of conversation to have around that because I think that the >> well I'm reading into it a little bit but I think that there is some some desire to strengthen where we sit visav even if it puts us in some opposition. So, um, also I know Jane is rolling off the board and she's oncember [Laughter] >> there is at least some value in having her perspective and input on it. So I I would say >> sooner rather than later. I got you. >> Can you talk about one more now and if we're running out of time I can you know expand on it later but I just with the interorganizational relations and whether it's a mil rate decision or you know we're looking
249at building the early learning center and we know there have been some questions already with the city we have legacy park. I mean with something that kind of out I don't know what's in an inter rel organizational relation policy but it might be worth looking at in terms of helping people understand better school district versus city and then I don't know how we're operating together but also separately that I can do some research. >> Yep. >> All right. And then my last point there is just also um because we're sitting here today and it's on the um kind of to be reviewed anyway is that BAB school board governance. So as written it also outlines the theory of action which um we have an opportunity to bring some coherence and alignment. We talked about strategic
250plan all the time always and then we also talk about system charter today and so that which was adopted in 2022 was adopted prior to this board adopting this current strategic plan. So that's also one that that was due for review anyway because of its date but will also um be an important discussion to bring forward as well. So all right >> thank you deputy superintendent. You tired yet? Yeah. All right. Um so as you know we have our Georgia milestones results and it looks good. Um we have made gains in a lot of different areas. Um so today we're going to take a closer look at that. Um the successes and where our room to grow is. Okay. We have some headlines for ELA. Um these headlines kind of show us where we shine
251in this area. So we are ranked number one in the state. Grades 3, five, six, seventh and eighth grade ELA. This is the first time in a long time we've had this many grades ranked number one in the state in ELA. So we're pretty proud of that. the percent of black students who performed as proficient or distinguished either maintained that percentage or we increased it in grades four, five, seven and eight and that's one of our targeted areas for improvement. So we are proud to have that as well. >> Does that mean we decreased in like third six? >> We either Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. Not looking at the cohort. So we wouldn't have third grade. >> Thank you. Thank you. For this one, we did look at cohort. This is not
252yet a year. >> Okay. >> So when you you take the test for the first time in third grade, so you don't have a >> Gotcha. >> Thank you, Jenn. And typically you're going from middle elementary to middle school, you typically have a dip. And that's why that's one of the reasons why. But that but that same dip would exist in every >> No, this is cohort. This is this is same group of kids. The same group of kids. >> I gota it's not how this sixth grade class did versus last year. Okay. I got you. I got you. >> Um and again, we're number one in Metro Resa in all grades. So pretty proud of that. So let's take a deeper look at each grade level and where our percent for position or distinguish
253landed. Um we will see increases across the board. um third grade kind of maintained from year to year that proficiency rate. Seventh grade we saw a slight dip in phenomenal um but they dipped from 83% to 77%. Um from last year to this year >> these are kids who took who are in fifth grade. So if I'm looking at fourth grade, those are kids who are in fifth grade, >> right? >> And they're not being compared in cohort. >> It's just apples to oranges. >> Um when we look at American lit, we see that we had a slight dip in American lit as well. We went from 60 from 70 to 68. Um but again we're holding strong. Sometimes you will see um changes from 1 to 2% is not really alarming. Um and we
254know that some platforms may see a 69% here instead of 68. Um some platforms cause you they round the numbers and some don't. So if you see a difference in any of the platforms using our platform or the Georgia platform, >> what grade is this? >> Yeah, >> ninth grade is American lit. No, I think American lit is 10th grade. But I did ask and I don't know if this is relevant that what I know is American lit students who they're studying American lit and they're taking the American litacy but then you also have AP English language students in my familiar you know so am I correct in saying that those indicator is largely 10th grade it's not always 10th grade because someone may need to take it as a difference okay and they may
255or may not be studying American lit like they may have had a different which I don't think the test is really American lit specific anyway. It's not like you're asked about authors but so we're largely looking at 10th graders there. >> So you're saying it would or would not be >> well it's it's weird I think the state requires the American lit EOC even if not all students are necessarily studying American lit. Am I right in explaining it that way? So, so when it comes to EOCC's just in general, there's so many as course progressions change from the DOE, when a child is taking the EOCC will change. So, example, when we get to algebra, the EOC and algebra, the majority of our students took it in 8th grade. Well, you think of algebra as
256a ninth grade course, but not when the not when it the progression changed. So yeah, it's like oh >> in third grade. >> Yes. Yes, it did. They did. >> That is exactly what you said. >> I didn't. So we actually had students in seventh grade, >> you know, take algebra. >> So So yes, all of that to say and then we had some children taking algebra in 10th and 11th grade. feel like we had this discussion. I just want to make sure I'm interpreting the gains or the losses appropriately. Um we have this discussion when last year um are we are there other kids in this cohort like you know kids who are actually in AP classes. So we had the same discussion about like the um >> history. >> So are some of
257the gains with the kids that were all that already would have done well regardless versus kids that were kind of a you know maybe needed the push and we can say we pushed them you know from average to above average you know um I just want to make sure I'm looking at looking at what I'm seeing. There's an element of that in all grades and all test areas of students who start the year strong. Some would say, you know, they will be able to excel on the assessment walking in the door. So, I think that's an element to every grade level, every um that's tested. So, the way that we can really tell if we're growing those students as well as everyone else is grow. That's that's what I was looking at this morning, but
258it's not updated. But we still look pretty high up there from what I could our little bubble. Our SGP our SGP >> is moving in the right direction. So in order to have the scores that we had, you didn't regress to the mean. You didn't take your advanced and gifted students and sacrifice them to support those who were in need of additional remediation to bring them to where they need to be and it's about to really rain. So, come on. >> I think I think I I was going to more or less comment on it the same way like what a score like this we're going to expect small fluctuations yeartoear. you it's the longitudinal data over time showing growth of your >> exactly >> okay so um you receive this I believe without the
259numbers of students who fall in each subgroup so there at the bottom we have the number of students that the percentage represents the red um is where we are below prepandemic levels so to your point looking over time and performance um green indic indicates that we are above where we were in 2019. And then the white indicates that the performance is the same or it's within 1% of where we were 2019. Um, so that gives us a look at all of our subgroup data by rate. So then what will we do with this information? What will we do with this? >> So, this gives us information about where our gaps are because rarely do we necessarily talk about mult. We see here that we are not um at or above where we were in 2019.
260So, that gives us information of to hone in to see who those students are and what is happening for those students. where we are maintaining or growing. That's good news because we keep doing what we're doing. So, this helps us hone in on, you know, different pockets of >> so that we don't miss. >> Although, I wondered about that and I realized there's never going to be this level of response like it's just not practical. So, I was I wanted to know more about what makes it proficient versus distinguished. And so, you know, I think what the state is saying is, you know, it's a proficient score translates to on track, ready for next course, whereas distinguished is well prepared and even moving into that postsecary, which is kind of a little maybe specious at
261fifth grade, more so when you get to the high school level. So, do we look at those as well? because I realize you know you've got this fundamental need here but then you also have performance indicators over here >> look at it all um so in different ways you know this is just one way look at um before like the overall proficiency and then we look at what you said are we growing our cap headlines achieve high math scores in 38 in three years span Math performance surpasses preandemic in grades four through 8 and in algebra. PSD ranks top four in the state for math performance. And then here we are. So we see our arrows are up across grades three through eight for math. Um, kudos to our teaching and learning team who has
262worked very hard to make sure that our teachers understood the new math standards and implemented those at the level and the rigor that the standards called for. Um, and you know stuck with it. PSD teachers can be tough but they stuck with it. So um, and I think we see the benefit to that. >> Yeah. I just want to say like I I am amazed at the eighth grade math. I mean, that's because that's all new, right? >> Have Have we systematically let the teachers know how excellent field this is? I mean, >> budget tour. >> Yes. So, the end of a tour, I guess. Um, but essentially when we sent out the press release to you all and to the press, I also sent a note directly to all staff for me. But I
263then go on what I call data tours. And so yesterday was my first data tour. >> My first data tour was at Tally. And so when I went to tally, I I'm sharing the apples to oranges, you know, type data. And we go apples to apples looking at the cohort. And then finally, um, give them all the highlights, kind of the headlines you're hearing here. And then the teachers that are level four in student growth percentile. So the DOE calculates who are a level four. They grew children. It was a general ed teacher, a gifted teacher, and an ESOL teacher. When the DOE takes all of that data, not from this year, but from the year before, and says, "Who are your top your top teachers?" >> Um had them come up to the front.
264They had no idea. Um one person their last their last name was incorrect. I was like, well, I apologize, but this is what the DOE said. And I just I read the names out and I told them, congratulations. I said, obviously, we will invite them to come to the board so you can see who is growing children. So, I literally go to the schools to the faculty meetings between now and into September because of just the when they fall. Okay. Um, this is algebra. We had a slight dip here from 73 to 71 as well. >> Can I When did when do kids take this? I I lost that. Especially for the kids that are on this advanced math track. >> They'll still take it in eighth grade. >> Eight. [Laughter] >> Gave you one
265more. It gave me one more. >> Yeah. A majority will take it in eight. >> The other in ninth. Kids on advanced math could take it in seventh. >> Could be taking it in 10th if they were behind or chose not to take advantage. >> It could be a that is a ninth grade parent answer. >> There you go. There you are. Excited about that. >> Same same as American List. We're gonna see fluctuations yeartoear, but it's a longitudinal >> data. And just to clarify, it didn't used to be used, >> but that progression changed last year when math and all. So that could probably explain >> your teachers. >> But when you also have an eighth grader who is taking both of those tests and so I believe >> yeah because if the eighth
266grader is taking the advanced math they're taking that EOG and then or rather they're taking their eighth grade algebra test but then if they're in the advanced math track they're taking the end of course. So, I mean that's >> kind of double testing, but that's what the state >> an eighth grader in advanced class will take this in the eighth grade, but then might also have to take it again in the nth. >> Well, no, that's end of course. The previous one was end of grade. What do they call it? >> Yeah. Milestone test. >> Yeah. Both at the end of >> like the same test twice to them. >> I don't think so. But I mean they could take test. We had 267 eighth graders take um the algebra in the course. >> Okay.
267Again, here's our subgroup data. Just like we saw in our overall data, we have more green here than than any subject um area. >> Can I just Oh, go ahead. very quickly. Do we for our students of color um 45 41% um we see where they compare to their white peers? Do we know where our students of color compared to other school districts? You will get that type of demographic difference once schools like mine updates, but that won't happen until after you really get into the CCPI part. So right now what I have a data file of and I can give you rankings but going down to school level by subgroup they don't give us that until we get CCRPI and you'll get CCRPI probably by December and then I'll be >> I think a
268gain for sixth grade math is to be celebrated sure but 33% of 72 still makes you think you got some work to do. But I would also like to compare that again where they are amongst their peers just to give me some context. But >> and also knowing we are talking about proficiency. So there's something called developing which is a level two and some districts are communicating developing which means you're not a beginning learner. you're developing but you aren't proficient yet. You will still you need support. So when looking at what systems are communicating, we have to be clear that we're talking about proficiency and that is not acceptable by any means. Yes, it's green because it's better than we were in the pan pre- pandemic, but we still have a way to go. >>
269Yeah. like very specifically understanding how we're seeing such a decline five to six when other cohorts are going up. You know what I mean? Or I mean other other um demographics are going up. >> I mean comparatively speaking white students in that same grade banner at 86% 60 >> and grew from fifth to six three percentage points when you see a proportionate >> decline. Yeah. So this isn't like this doesn't represent >> cohort. Yeah. Understood. But >> yeah, >> you have to go deeply into really kind of what we talked about very early on looking at multiple characteristics of subgroup performance. You have to look at it according to race. You have to look at it according to socioeconomic status. You have to look at it according to um students with disabilities and triangulate all
270of that data to see who are those 72 children and how are they being served in not and not >> y >> know the name this is just the okay science and social studies number one in high school biology Fifth and eighth. Ranked two in the state, number one in the metro area. Fifth and eighth surpasses predam preandemic levels. Eighth grade number three in social studies, US history number four. Um so here we see um both our fifth and eighth grade um going up from year to year. For biology, same thing. That's pretty impressive. For biology from where we were, >> where were we? >> We were as I said that I was like ready. I said it. Um, slow you down. Um, that's 80. Uh, it was 74 pre- pandemic. Um, social studies, 8th
271grade, US history. So talk about um students not represented in a particular content area. So US history represents students who are not taking or ID um history. So kind of though we are growing that's less than 50% of our students proficient in history which continues to be a focus for us. Um, >> this was the cohort or not the cohort. This was the class that wasn't teaching effectively. >> Their pacing was off. >> Yes. >> They stopped before 1900s before they took the EOC and they didn't get a full year of history instruction before taking the EOC. So this was a >> is that change reflected in this data or will we see even a bigger >> a larger I mean okay so is the correction that we have put in place to ensure that
272they are actually paced correctly reflected in this data >> or will we see it >> you'll see it's reflected in this >> um we anticipate >> it went from 37 to 48 Right there. >> And the social studies though doesn't have any writing, right? It's multiple because what I noticed is we seem to be higher in math and science than like just on that sheet and the number of greens for ELA versus math. And then you look at biology. Okay. >> I think it goes to one of the reasons why a superintendent that understood literacy. >> You meant years if not teaching kids how to read basically >> and subsequently, right? >> Yeah. >> So that's why we're trying to correct it. >> Okay. Here's our subgroup data as well. For science, we only take
273it in fifth and eighth and social studies in April. Okay. Um, and here is the subgroup data for Amllet algebra, US history, biology. We saw the overall percentages previous slide. Are they sorry to ask this, but are the the EFC's are calculated into the grade, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. And the last final points of pride, thanks to Mr. Adams. He pointed this out. We lovingly call him Uncle Jarvis. Um, actually, Uncle Travis. Um, what he did was >> lovingly because he just has that way about him, you know. Um but what he pointed out is if we look at our rankings over time, we are improving how our students are performing and ranking in the state and in the metro by leaps and bounds because in 2024 42% of our performance ranked in the
274top three in the state. 2025 78% of our performance ranked um top three in the state. And then we see the same data there for the metro area. So this suggests that we're not only making strides in those subgroups that we talked about, but we are also pushing higher learners to achieving outperforming our our fellow folks in the metro and the state. >> That's good. Grab it. >> Thank you very much. Evaluation. >> All right. Um next steps. So there are a couple of things that we're really focused on. We want to protect the uninterrupted time for teaching teaching teams. We heard that from teachers. We um teaching and learning helped us come up with a structure for PLC's. I work with the principles to make sure they had a master schedule that honored uninterrupted
275time for teachers. We are monitoring that to make sure something else or anything else doesn't um hijack that time. We also need to have the data ready. So and his team are working hard to make sure that our interoperable data system which is called educ climber is up and running so that we can collect analyze and monitor student progress real time. Um ensuring we continue with our professional learning supporting leaders and teachers and analyzing um assessments and writing action plans and then developing resources and strengthening the initiatives that we know are having a high impact on Congratulations. [Music] There were a couple of Our students are a couple of great band and some of those grades are just you know credible especially like that transition forum for eighth graders. high school, you know, only 19
276or 20%. Maybe one of your next steps could be to look at some of those hot spots. Um, and when you're reporting in, maybe see where where we can target some of those particular areas. Um, in addition to celebrating I do I think it's worth mentioning and I said this in the podcast but the last two years have been rough right uh and I know for you Dr. Whitaker and for your staff and for all of the teachers. There have been a ton of changes made. I mean, ripping out the ineffective literacy program, fixing grading, ensuring that we're teaching to standards, following up, like there's just an enormous amount of things that have happened over the last two years. and we really went through that window where we sort of were feeling maximum pain, but
277the data wasn't there yet to show that the benefits were being reaped. And I think this is the beginning of us seeing that pain was actually worth it. Not to miss Dr. Sultan's point, obviously there's more to be done, but but this is what it was for, right? This is this is what it was for. for. And so I I just I really think there is some criticality to our communication with the public, our communication with the teachers, our communications to our students that we need, we're staying the course. This is working. It is working and we're seeing doubledigit just enormous steps. We've got to keep at it. We've got to keep at it. >> I just want to throw in I like the idea of time for teacher teams. It was brought up earlier
278that we have a lot of flexibility with the calendar and as we move into that part of the year what we could do with one less day of instructors that was dedicated to attacking some of those areas I would love to see and I think the rest of them are >> well not telling them we're going to take a day of calendar off we're going to take it we're going to hit these areas with this stuff on this day I think would be the best version of us talking about the calendar And could that even have it if possible an independent learner day versus just a no instructional day? So it looks like there could be different versions. Um, can I just ask I know that last year was the first year of like American
279lit honors and like I think the ninth grade there was also an honors class introduced and I don't know if the data would answer this but like even observationally like have you seen that affect [Music] we can say that yet because last year We'll email that to you. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you board for your feedback. Thank you board for your support. Um good to see those are reading. >> Absolutely. Um all right, good afternoon everyone. I will be closing us out with AP and IB data. Um I'm going to start with our middle years program. So students are part of the middle year's IB program in sixth grade through 10th grade. At the end of that um at the end of 10th grade, students complete a personal project. Okay. So what you'll
280see here is this. This is, you know, since 2019, our personal project participation in scores, you see a dip. Um, and that is a reflection of us getting our personal project scores into the IB in a timely fashion. It is not actually a reflection of student personal projects. So this year was the first year that we did the tools for success class and the personal project was a graded assignment for the first time. It's never been a graded assignment. It's been something that students would choose to turn in during their 10th grade advisement class. Well, because it was tied to a grade, we started uh teachers were offering the recovery and feedback cycle and at the same time this was new for the tools for success teachers. So, we believe they didn't quite understand the
281sense of urgency and the finality of the IB deadline. So our scores, our projects were not submitted to make this chart. There is no pen, no students were penalized in any way. Um, but it doesn't look good on our graph. I will just own that. Um, but Dr. school said next for this year, we've got earlier internal deadlines and there's going to be a grading day to allow teachers that time to really get it in and turned into the IV in a timely fashion. So, this is our uh reported personal project participation and scores for our 10th grade NYP project. All right. So IBDP. [Music] Okay. So here you'll see our students who were diploma candidates. Um and then number of students that attained the full IB diploma. Okay. So there is there are couple
282different things happening. One students can take IB courses and just be independent. That's not reflected up here. Right. Students can also be um part of the candidacy. So they would take their six 2-year courses, the mix of the HL, which is the higher level, and the SL. And they also take theory of knowledge. Then to attain the diploma, you also have to do the extended essay. There's a service component. Um and so some students choose not to go that extra step and that's okay. All right. You can see our number of um IBDP students for this year has increased. Um but when I talked to our IB coordinator, she said for next year it's actually gone back down again. And so it just varies by cohort. some groups really groups of students really get into
283hey we're kind of the IBDP group and then the next year it can go back down. So um but this is a reflection of kind of where we are. Um but just know that the number of students interested in the in the diploma program can fluctuate just based on interesting focus train students but is there any feedback from the students as to why there isn't variability year to year like 25 to 26 is a huge jump 22 is a huge dip but you why you would see that variability. >> When I asked the IB coordinator said it, it simply can be a group of students just kind of their interests. But look at this. This also, you know, so if we go back >> career related. >> Yep. This is career related and you see
284an an increase in interest um for the CP program. Yes. I mean I thought some have said I don't know how else to characterize this but if and I score APS essay so it's not a slight in saying it this way but is AP a little more transactional you take the course you get your weighted GPA bump you take the exam ideally whereas IB for that diploma you have to invest in it because the one the one thing I wondered is the 2025 group look to have like 50 fewer students but AP had about 70 more students. So, I mean, I'm I'm inferring something that may not be true, but I just assume some of the kids that were not doing IB in 2025 just went over and took AP. >> It's the option. So
285to be committed to attaining a diploma is you have been very intentional in all of your high school years so that you are ready to commit to those DP classes in your master schedule for both that junior and senior year. that is and you're committed to all of the fundamentals of what IB are and you don't you're not required for that for college board anything that's different >> yeah it's it's a specific interest so if you are interested in let's just say chorus and something else then you you're not going to be able to do the IB diploma program because you have to take a certain number of these two-year courses. I think that's also another flag and we had this conversation last year I think where um something I'm personally interested in is that
286you know I I even had the conflict between like keeping chorus so I'm an independent student because I doing this and I want to teach um and I don't have an IB elective um but a lot of other fine arts students face that choice and so looking at some kind of honors credit for um because we do have like audition only advanced fine arts courses I think that could be come here to like show other alternatives to do. >> Yeah. And that I'll show you next um or a couple slides about how we're expanding some AP offerings which AP because it's a one-year course or sometimes even a semester course does offer students a lot more variability um in their schedule to you know um and then they can take classes um in their interest
287>> particularly where there is audition. >> Yeah. So, here is our um you see a big jump in our um CP candidates and I went ahead and looked forward to 2027 and it's about the same. So, we've seen a big dr jump jump um in interest in the career related program and we really attribute that to just one learning more over time about what CP is and then some really intentional communication. So, the high school has been really intentional about um really advertising and help helping families and students understand what CP is. It pairs nicely with the workforce development CTA programming that dictators has. So if you understand CTA, you should have a direct correlation to the numbers that you're seeing in the CP program. So next I'll move into uh AP. And so what
288we see here is a continued increasing in student scoring. uh three or higher on our AP exams and a growing number of students taking AP exams, which is really exciting because now students are earning college credit um at DHS, which a positive. All right. So, future of AP and IB. So this year we added AP African-American studies and cyber security. So we got a pilot. We're we're a pilot district offering it's called cyber one but it's cyber security. And then of course we're continuing the summer institute training for our AP teachers. Um that's a really important time and learning and our teachers uh really benefit from it. Um and we get positive feedback. So this year we are add I'm sorry next year we'll be adding um AP American government seminar lit lit and composition
289and the capstone diploma. So first I want to talk about American government. So when I came to you last year in this presentation I talked about that we were adding American government. That was in August. In September, the state rolled out new ELA course progressions that were going to impact the high school in a big way. And so, we didn't formally publicize it with families yet. And so, when I talked to the high school, they said, "Can you give us another year as we are working out the scheduling and the addition around um the ELA course progression?" that we held to go for next year. The um I'll talk about the AP capstone diploma in my next slide. With IB, we're going to continue with our student led uh profile, student learner profile conferences and
290do a spring showcase. And then next school year, looking ahead, there are going to be some IB history course changes and there'll be some courses that um that pilot exams online. One, so most metro 9th graders do have access to an AP class. Um and so our student didn't right last year or this year and then you know so you it's from instructional access and then there's that GPA you know you can debate weighted or not but the fact is a ninth grader taking an AP class is going to have a higher taking a non AP and so I just I wonder we're looking at for I think it's really our current tenth graders and our current ninth graders. And then second, is that AP go to just ninth grade? Okay. >> Yeah. None of
291our classes are limited based on your grade. Yes. So >> I think she brings up a valid point. When you go to apply to a lot of these even if you just they are looking at number of elevated classes some and what I will say I that was one of the first questions I asked about nth grade like Why don't we offer AP go? There are there are there are lots of different AP offers you could have in ninth grade or even you can push it down as early as 8th grade. It is possible. There is also to the point that Hans stated earlier the amount of change that the staff of the high school take at once. Um and that's a culture shift for us to push it down even to say you would
292have it in ninth grade is a is a culture shift. And what I will say working with the enrollment group and my role with college, the rigor that is in that Decator is known for is known across post. So they're not necessarily always counting our AP classes like they would at a school that they know how much we already offer and they can tell whether or not a student is maximizing their opportunities for advanced rigorous work. >> One thing I think to follow up with what Dr. Sultan was talking about I want to know is how many footnotes then are there so that a 10 a ninth grader from last year applying to college the number of AP classes that the high school is offering the year they're applying to college is different from the
293number of AP classes they were offering in the ninth grade or the 10th grade and so it does I have heard people ask about this is is this being communicated in a way that's They are sure in Georgia schools probably know Decater quite well, but for kids that are applying farther a field, the counselor's filling something out and it says we offer 15 AP classes, but it turns out that that student only had access to seven. So, I don't know, that may be a school level thing, but it seems like as we roll each of these in, we need to be very careful about how that's being communicated in a way that doesn't present a kind of false scenario for a student. I don't know if that's the right way to explain this, but I
294appreciate that they're coming in. >> Yeah. >> How old do you have to be to take care after >> It's open to any, but you would likely take it um your in as a 12th grader. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. >> Um is replace like go it's economics or if go does go cover economics? >> No, we'll have to add the following year. Yep. And there's a there's been different economics that then combines with the personal finance. >> So then so my top for context is like synonyomics a push and I'm doing IBO world. >> So what that would look like instead is you have to choose between a push and IB world. >> Yes. Okay. So that is how you get to the determination of who is committed to a ICP versus I'm good
295with just taking a number of ABS that type that's the level of intricacy that the student is making in their decision. >> Is there a way we could because I I do think personal finance is important like regardless it's >> it's actually a requirement. >> Okay. Yeah. So >> it's a state requirement. >> Okay. So there would be a required like people would be required to take like AP. >> Yes. >> You would have to it wouldn't have to be AP. It would just be Yeah. an Econ. >> I think narratively that's why they move IB doesn't have a place for an economics class. That ninth grade class check that box for everyone indicator. You have to check that box to get a diploma. >> If you took AP government your nth grade year, you
296got to find an economics check mark somewhere. It doesn't have to be >> AP macro. >> All right. So, we will be offering another offering uh AP capstone diploma. So, the capstone is a really interesting option. Um so if a student takes AP seminar and AP research which is a um similar to independent study. So you choose your topic, you research, you write a paper and you present. Okay. So if the student completes those two courses along with four uh AP courses where they uh get a three or higher on the exam, you receive the capstone diploma. So it's just another option for students um to kind of have that that recognition. That's right. Are there already teachers identified doing the teaching seminar? >> We Yes, we have them identified and they're already they've even
297done it in the past. >> So, are they coming like is there a certain subject area? >> All right. So celebrations um you guys saw our percentage of students scoring three or higher. More students are taking um AP courses along with exams. I also wanted to call out that we offered AP pre-cal and 93% of our students got a three or higher. It's so it's great. >> I I don't know but I can get it to you. >> Can I give a shout out to A+ as well? just cuz I saw the email and I think they had 90% which is like >> it was 85 87 >> yeah but it was very high so a push um I wrote it down it was definitely in the 80s but I want to say it was
29885 but I can uh 87.6 >> tracking like or does it not matter if It's like I wondered if there's more students taking AP are just coming from the IB pool or they coming from a different group for AP precal. There was like an option for my class to do like a combined like like to do algebra and pre-cal at the same time. So they took that class joint and now can do like calculus I think in their senior year. that was >> that's vaccine methods or something there's a couple of paths where you could arrive at >> that >> um 145 students took AP pre >> um >> yep so uh of course so our IB exams so we exceed the world averages in our arts and humanities and then we finished our fiveyear
299evaluation. So every five years we do an IB evaluation um and we pass and got a lot of great feedback >> and that's that's for the program that start middle school. >> That's right. Yes, it was for the middle years program and then also um BTCP. So, and that is it for me. But certainly, you know, excellent, excellent work happening at our middle and our high school. >> No, that was that's for sessions. Yeah. >> Yes. We're going to be here. >> Are we ready? >> We're ready. Okay. Okay, >> thank you for attending the retreat. Our first community engagement meeting of the year will be Wednesday, August 27th, 2025 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Decatur Housing Authority Resource Center. Our next board of education meeting will take place as scheduled on September
3009th, 2025 at the Wilson Center. There being no further business, the meeting is adjourned at 4:38.