001[music] >> Good evening. I would like to call the school board meeting for Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 for the Des Moines Public Schools to order. Ms. Rios, would you please take the roll? Yes. Ms. Alonso? Here. Ms. Campos? Here. Mr. Dix? Here. Ms. Hopkins? Here. Mr. Howell? Here. Ms. Martrano? Here. Dr. Mayberry-Grace? Here. We have quorum. Thank you. The first item of business is approval of the agenda. I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda? Mayberry Mays move. Campos second. We have a motion by Mayberry Mays and a second by Campos. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? >> [snorts] >> Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved 7 to 0. Next on the agenda is public forum. All right. We provide speakers at the forum
002an opportunity to address the board for up to 3 minutes regarding items that are not on the agenda, the board agenda, and up to 5 minutes for an agenda item. If anyone wishes to speak during any portion of the business meeting, please email [email protected]. The same speaking protocols apply to all individuals who wish to address the board. Speakers will be called individually, and we ask that they state their name and zip code prior to providing comments. Students and minors do not have to provide their addresses. Guests of the board are encouraged to speak to matters relating to the program, services, and operations of DMPS. Please remember that Iowa law prohibits us from discussing specific employees or their job performance. We ask that all speakers to avoid We ask all speakers to avoid references to personalities
003or character attacks, as those types of comments do not contribute to the purpose for which this public forum exists. >> [clears throat] >> The use of inappropriate language will not be tolerated, and individuals choosing to do so be gavels out of order and asked to excuse themselves from the premises or escorted out by district security. As a reminder to the board and public, the board will not engage in a discussion with the public forum speakers, as it's our obligation to discuss only matters posted in the public agenda for the sake of transparency and opportunity afforded to all community stakeholders. Matters requiring attention will receive appropriate staff and or board follow-up at a time after the meeting. Thanks for your participation. We appreciate your feedback and your input. Thank you. Ms. Rios, do we have any
004speakers for the public forum? We do. First up, I'd like to call Lyle Crone. Next speaker is Caitlin Hanson. Good evening. Um first, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to uh Brenda, Kristen, and Superintendent Smith um for your actionable steps in making district-wide special education staff feel heard and seen. Um and I also want to extend an invitation to everyone on the board to attend the co-hosted graduation ceremony of All Points Academy and Focus. Um it is truly a special and unique event uh where you will get an individual and close-up view of DMPS students who have overcome great odds to achieve their goals. Um so, keep May 16th at 11:00 a.m. on your calendars uh here at Central Campus in the auditorium. And uh that said, I am again asking for
005a working group or stakeholder group to be able to come together and work on the changes happening in district-wide programs um that would include teachers, associates, support staff, and employees of Broadlawn's and DMPS uh to be able to come together and work on the decisions and implementation of all of district-wide programs being at Woodlawn for next year. Um similarly, I would ask for a group for All Points Academy and JFTA um to ensure that uh the Woodlawn building has what it needs and that would include physical barriers between each of the programs to provide for staff and student safety. And please keep uh in mind to expand choice for special education families um and to not reduce them. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Sophia Brooks. Um Sophia Brooks, 50310. Um good evening. My
006name is Sophia Brooks and I'm an associate with the Focus Program. I'm not here expecting a reply tonight, but I am here expecting answers to the many questions and concerns I have surrounding the reimagining plan for district-wide programs. The Focus Program has served the district for more than 40 years. Our students receive incredible support from dedicated staff and receive something that makes this program truly unique. Weekly one-on-one sessions with therapists from Broadlawn's Medical Center along with group therapy that helps students build the critical social and emotional life skills they need. Families are a part of this partnership as well, participating in monthly therapy sessions and meetings to ensure students receive constant and consistent support both at home and school. This partnership is not only helpful, it is vital. It is vital to our students' mental
007health, the stability of their families, and safety of staff and others around them. The current plan to merge programs feels rushed and insufficiently insufficiently thought out. The building being considered was designed to serve preschool students. While walls and locked doors can be added, the reality is that a space designed for young children is not equipped to serve more than 80 students with significant behavioral and emotional needs who require room to move, regulate, and feel safe. I wish I can stand here and say that our students will thrive under these changes, but the truth is they may not. And we have a responsibility to face that reality honestly. As a district, our first priority must be always the success and safety of our most vulnerable students. So I ask, why does the Focus program feel like
008it's being placed on the back burner when the purpose of reimagining is to include and support all students? Focus serves some of the highest needs in the district. Programs like these are rare, but the district has shown that specialized programs can succeed when they are given space and structure. For decades, the Smouse program did exactly that, serving students successfully for 87 years before closing in 2018. I invite the decision-makers involved in this process to spend time in our program. Come observe a typical day. See the intensity of the behaviors our students experience and the level of skill, patience, and teamwork required to support them. Many of the individuals making these decisions about the future of this program have never spent time in our building with our staff or our students. When students are not physically
009present at Focus, staff are not sitting around. They use that time to complete critical responsibilities such as Medicaid billing, which helps fund associate positions in the district, behavior documentation, crisis supports when public safety must be called because behaviors become too aggressive, and referrals in Infinite Campus. Staff also use that time for meetings, planning, and the basic necessities of break and lunch. If these gen ed hours were moved in the Focus schedule, additional staff would be required to safely support students who are already struggling with the current 4 and 1/2 hour structure, while also covering staff breaks and required duties. These are the realities we face every single day. And these are the questions that still need answers, not just for our students, but for staff, families, and employees of Broadlawn's. As we move forward in
010the coming months, I urge the district to remember its mission. Reimagining district-wide programs should not mean losing what works. It should mean strengthening the systems that serve our most vulnerable students. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Audrey Clements. Audrey Clements, um 5211. I'm an elementary teacher at in the Focus program. As the school year comes to a close, we're looking ahead to next year and facing a great deal of uncertainty. Due to a lack of clear communication and transparency, many strong teachers are beginning to question whether Focus is still a sustainable and desirable placement. That should concern us all. We are also seeking in We are also seeing inequalities. Changes being made have been made for comprehensive buildings that Focus has requested but not received. For example, we asked for a playground at Kurtz
011to support our elementary students, but that didn't happen. Yet now with another program temporarily in the building, a playground is being added. Transportation remains one of our biggest challenges as a district-wide program. Our students come from across the district and transportation barriers directly impact both access to services and their ability to transition back to their home schools. If shuttle services are available for outside of normal transportation times, we are asking that Focus students should be considered for similar support. We are also still We also still have critical unanswered questions. Will Focus remain an outpatient day program? Will Broadlands continue providing services? Will our support staff be staff be stretched across multiple programs? How is teacher burnout being considered? Will there still be a formal application process for students to attend here? And how will the
012transportation already How will the transportation improve when it's already a challenge? We understand that this is not the setting for full answers, but we do need clearer guidance. The school board guardrails number two, which addresses the social and emotional needs of staffs and students, and guardrail number four, which focuses on safety, have not been clearly addressed with these proposed changes. Previous meetings had that have not provided concrete information, and communication has been inconsistent. So, tonight I'm asking for this. Please come visit our program. Meet with us in person and work with staff and partner organizations to provide a clear plan for next year. Our students and the staff who serves them deserves clarity, equity, and support. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Portia Sayon. Madam Chair, those are all the speakers I have signed
013up. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is district recognition. Superintendent Smith, will you introduce our recognitions for today? Good evening, everyone. I had to get a bottle of water cuz we've got many recognitions tonight. Give me a second to take a drink. >> [clears throat] >> So, first up, proud to celebrate the great work of our faculty and staff, as always. Their great work is frequently honored at the state and national level, and I'm pleased we have one more such honor to celebrate this evening. Earlier in the school year, Mira Mesa schools Marty Luft was recognized as the regional athletic director of the year for middle schools. However, at the end of March, the Iowa Association of High School Athletic Directors named Marty Lucht as the state athletic director of the year for
014all middle schools in the STATE OF IOWA. >> [applause] >> THIS WAS IN RECOGNITION OF MARTY'S DEDICATION TO students and supporting them in creating opportunities for athletics and activities, as well as his more than 20 years of service to Merrill Middle School. Marty Lucht is with us this evening, and I'd like to ask him to join us at the podium to share a little more about the recognition and the importance of supporting activities in our schools. Come on up, Marty Lucht. >> [applause] >> Well, thank you. Uh it was quite a uh a whirlwind. There was a a big convention last weekend at the all of the state uh activities directors. There was a big banquet. There was a a video that will be coming out on the Iowa High School Athletic Association soon. Um
015I was just overwhelmed with uh it was a it was a lot bigger award than I thought originally when I was contacted about. I thought I'd get a certificate and a few emails, and that would be it. But this was this has been overwhelming and awesome. But I would like to say that I as you said, I've been doing this for a a pretty long time. Over 20 years I walked into Merrill, and there are a few things that I know for sure. You're you know, a special kind of crazy to be in a middle school for over 20 years. >> [laughter] >> Um two, it is the absolute worst time um in students' lives in a middle school. They go through so many awful awful things. And I feel like if I can provide
016some activities and athletics and and things for kids during during this time, well, then that's a pretty good job uh that we have. And I thank DMPS specifically for um I've seen this job go from where I was taking care of the uniforms of the basketball team for $250 to a full-time uh activities director in every middle school, and it's just amazing. Uh the things that we are doing and the things that we still have yet to do um are just fantastic. So, thank you. Thank board. Thank DMPS uh for everything, and thank you for recognizing me today. Congratulations, Marty Loft. >> THANK YOU. >> [applause] [applause] >> HE'S THE STATE MIDDLE SCHOOL ATHLETIC DIRECTOR OF the year and may have just created a new t-shirt slogan of uh how to combat middle school biological
017chaos through activities. >> [laughter] >> Um also, we have some upcoming podcast stars with us this evening. Over the past few months, our middle schools have used podcasting as a lesson in research, communications, and storytelling. And then, they held a contest to select the best from across the district. And we have the winners with us tonight. First, let's give a shout-out to the two runner-up podcast teams. From Meredith Middle School, we have Taya Traver, Cali Donahue, and Knox Filius, along with their teacher Abby Patterson. And from Merrill Middle School, please recognize Jeb Parsons and Ellie Ferrell, along with their teacher Kristen Vogel. Stand up, please, AND BE RECOGNIZED, EVERYBODY. >> [applause] [applause] >> AND IS THIS JEB RIGHT HERE? IS THIS JEB? ALL RIGHT. In In a little bit, we're going to call you up
018along with the other winners, okay? And so now, the podcast winners titled That's News to Me Crew from High at Middle School. Everyone has a chance to hear their work and learn more about it in the latest edition of the district podcast. Amanda Lewis interviews the winning students and their teacher and features the student prod- produced podcast. Be sure to give it a listen. And now I would like to invite That's News to Me Crew, Kenia De La Cruz Jimenez, Shumaya Shamia McGee, and Jose Calderon Galvan along with their teacher Tanya Richards to come up and talk us with a little bit about your winning work. COME ON UP. >> [applause] >> GREAT. YOU CAN'T BE SHY BY THE MIC. THAT'S RIGHT. You're podcast stars. Introduce who you are. Oh, my name is Shamia McGee
019and I'm in seventh grade and I go to High at Middle School and we won the podcast so that's why we're Do you want to talk about your experience, Shamia? Oh, well, doing the podcast like you have to get used to the people you're working with and actually that went well with my group and then we had to like put things together and like find all the information for what like COVID-19 cuz that was our podcast name and what we were researching and like we went through some problems like how it got how it got deleted. None of us deleted it. It's just like it deleted itself so we had to re- we had to remake the whole podcast but we did it better the second time cuz the first time it was a little
020and then like we had a lot of personality. Like I was actually proud cuz WE SOUNDED GOOD. >> [laughter] [applause] >> UM HI, MY NAME IS KENIA DE LA CRUZ JIMENEZ. I'm in 7th grade and I was really proud of our like all of us because we worked I think we worked really hard. And um I feel like I like at the beginning we were very shy and awkward and like they would my Jose and Jamia would like bully each other and stuff and it was like very awkward for me because I was just like hello like are you going to do our podcast? Um but at the end it turned out like really good and I'm really proud of all of us cuz we worked really hard for it. That's great. >> [applause] >>
021I'm Tonya Richards, their teacher and I think the students speak for themselves in the personality that they represented during this pro project and podcast that they did. Um I want to congratulate the other teams. Hearing their podcasts, every student um did an amazing job and I want to thank Ms. Destiny here for um bringing us in and giving the [snorts] kids another opportunity to um record in the studio here at Central. It was an awesome experience um and would love to be able to bring more kids in and do that again. So, thank you. Yeah, thank you. And I just want to say >> [applause] >> Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I wanted to lift um in celebrating this opportunity that we had. My name's Destiny Aldridge and I currently serve as a teaching and learning
022coordinator and I coordinate the English language arts curriculum in our middle schools. And Kelly Schofield had a vision um for a way that we could really unlock the promise of our ELA curriculum that we really believe in. And so, the idea was for us to partner um with um digital learning and innovation team and we also collaborated with um multiple people across our district including Central Campus. Um we even had as part of our judging uh panel, we pulled in um um people from the Science Center um and um the biggest celebration here though is that our students were able to engage in um what we're prioritizing as GLEAM. Grade level engaging, affirming, and meaningful. And the whole thing is is that technology and the way that we incorporated digital literacy learning really amplified that.
023And it and these performance tasks provide that opportunity. And moving forward, what we hope to do is to continue to do it and um we will be doing it for other uh performance tasks, but uh this was just a launching point. And um the opportunity, especially for students who won um this top the top three, for them to go to Central Campus and really polish their work and in service of high-quality work and go through the revision process. And for then for it to be featured um on our Des Moines Public Schools podcast um is a huge celebration. And um I'm celebrating everyone who was part of it. I have their names and we don't have time for all of it. But it's been a great undertaking and a huge privilege and opportunity. Thank you.
024THANK YOU. CONGRATULATIONS. >> [applause] >> THERE ARE THREE OTHER BRIEF ITEMS OF note I'd like to share. First, congratulations to Christian Rourke and our early childhood education team for being awarded $687,000 grant through Iowa Shared Visions Preschool Program. This is a significant investment in maintaining access to high-quality early childhood education for young learners across our district. The award follows a competitive statewide selection process and will support programming during the 2026-2027 school year. These funds support services for children identified as at risk, helping ensure they have strong supportive learning experiences before entering kindergarten. Since we last met, the American Association of Political Consultants honored the Yes for Des Moines Public Schools uh the campaign in support of our bond referendum back in November. This was the top ballot measure campaign of the year in 2025. While
025many of us are now hard at work implementing the plan we laid out in Reimagining Education, we are grateful for members of our community who organized and supported the Yes campaign to make our plan a reality, and we congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition. Last, and certainly actually first and foremost, the Iowa Department of Education released yesterday the state's uh latest high school graduation rates. And in Des Moines Public Schools, uh we saw an increase of more than 5%. The graduation rate for our class of 2025 was 76.6% compared to 71.4% for the class of 2024. Our increase was 10 times that of the overall state increase. While we still have much to room to grow and much to do, this is a significant step in the right direction. My gratitude and appreciation goes out
026to all of the teachers and staff who support our students, to the families of our district, and to the graduates themselves for reaching this milestone. Let's make this the first of many steps forward. And lastly, I also just want to add one more um sort of recognition. All of our assistant principals, associate principals in the district, it is associate principal {slash} assistant principal national week of recognition, right? So, all of our associate principals, they do the job, they do the hours, they put in the time and the energy, the sweat and the tears, and just want to thank each of them for all of the hard work that they do. Um there can be never be enough words, actually, um to sort of epitomize um the work that actually goes into that role. It is
027a significantly difficult role that requires a lot of hats, and just want to thank them um for everything that they do every single day. That's it. I think, at least for now. Thank you. A great deal to celebrate, and I'm grateful to have this opportunity to um shine a light on all the good that's happening here at DMPS. So, thank you. The next item on our agenda is our goal one monitoring report. Uh tonight we have two monitoring reports that we will um be reviewing, goal one and goal two. Two, we will start with goal one. The percentage of fourth-grade students scoring proficient or advanced on the ISASP ELA assessment will increase from 50.1 in spring 2023 to 65% in spring 2027. We are developing toward the target. Uh during this monitoring conversation, you will
028hear board members uh inquire about the current state, how we got to where we are right now with this particular goal, um and these questions will help us better understand our current state and what we need to do to go forward to be exceeding our target on this particular goal. I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Superintendent Smith for any um any highlights or presentation before we begin asking questions as a board. Yeah, thanks so much. Um so, I I do have a a few highlights. Um no formal presentation. Um but um so, the goal one, uh as of winter 2026, 49.6% of second and third-grade students are meeting the CBM reading. Um that's just shy of the 52% target. Um what's also worth noting is that in our T12 elementary schools,
029they increased by 5.8% compared to 4.5% of their peers that are not in our T12 program. 46.2% [snorts] of first-grade students are meeting the early reading benchmark, which is goal 1B, and that's within 1% of the actual target. Uh 38 33 of 38 elementary schools showed growth from fall to winter, Um, and 19 schools reported 40 to 50% of students with IEPs making excessive growth, which is it's considerable. Um, and just to sort of define that excessive growth is um, you need to make students were not proficient didn't meet Mitch mark in the fall, so they had to make excessive growth in order to actually meet proficiency there in the winter. And again, 19 schools had 40 to 50% of their students with IEPs actually meet that excessive growth target, which is pretty phenomenal. >>
030[snorts] >> Um, I'll stop there and then maybe we can open it up for for questions and and we can dive in. Sounds good. So, board members will begin with questions to help us better understand how we got to where we're at right now. So, kind of past focus questions and then we'll transition into the future facing questions of next steps and strategy changes. So, I will open it up to my board colleagues for questions to better understand how we got to our current state of the report. Um, anyone like to kick us off? I'll go ahead. Thank you, Maria. >> [snorts] >> Um, on page three, actually, now I'm going to go to my second question just because you were you mentioned um, IEPs. So, on page five under what's going well, um, as
031it relates to the science of reading, you mentioned that there are 20 or 19 schools that had 40 to 50% of the students with IEPs demonstrating aggressive growth. What constitutes the growth? Um, that aggressive growth that you mentioned and what would you attribute that to? Um, [clears throat] probably a few different things. So, um, I made some notes here, Ms. Maria. I'm going to kind of in terms of what's working, right? And it's not just in these 19 schools, but your question it these 19 schools actually um were tight in their implementation of these things, which allowed them to have um excessive growth uh rates that they did. So, um in terms of foundational skills PD in K1 uh K through 2 uh teachers are yielding really strong growth. Um that's especially true in first
032grade where we saw a 6% growth from fall to winter in first grade. Um our structured multi-literacy training for interventionists um in the L teachers is contributing to above average growth for multilingual learners. The reason why I say that is your question is specifically around students with IEPs, but we also have a number of students that are also multilingual learners that are also have an IEP. And so that combination of that um multi-literacy training is supporting students also with IEPs while they're also multilingual learners. Um the other thing that I guess I would offer that is um having a huge impact is classwide interventions are um are we're having more success in classwide interventions, right? So, um use of decodable text um and that to improve improve fluency and automaticity for students. >> [snorts] >>
033Um and those that's a change for us this year, right? And particularly in this fall of um applying classwide interventions as opposed to constantly looking at small group or individual student interventions, right? So, it's this is a a teacher move, right? When you begin to um um observe within the classroom a large percentage of the students that actually might need an intervention right then and there and rather than wait and then actually look to group them differently, you provide the entire class with an extension of that lesson, right? Or a different way of actually um learning that material, that content, or those standards. And so it um that's been really, really successful um up to this fall in terms of teachers knowing that that classwide intervention is um a tool in their toolbox, and they're
034beginning to exercise that and use that quite a bit. Thank you. Thank you. Matt and team, I um I'm wondering on page one, the developing you identified that this particular goal is developing towards the target. What specifically is preventing us from reaching meeting target and what changes are needed to accelerate the progress? Um [snorts] three things specifically. Uh the first is while we continue to ramp up and improve our overall um implementation of the GLEAM framework, there's still inconsistencies. Um and so those inconsistencies um come from probably a couple of different places, right? These are These are things that we need to explore a little bit. So, um some of it is uh just due to turnover, right? So, when we apply the the GLEAM framework training and PD, um we're seeing strong understanding of
035that and our um our instructional coaches and things like that, but we don't always have that same level of depth and breadth of knowledge um in our um admin and our central office staff, including me, right? And so, um as an example, um meaning that I am not I have not this since September placed a high priority on the explicit in you know, implementation of the GLEAM framework so that actually is a priority for our district. So, that's not been something that I've moved forward as the superintendent, um which is something that will change moving forward. Other things that I would uh maybe lift up and note are um there was reduced literacy PD for grades 3 through 5, and this is because we introduced new science curriculum. And so, the science curriculum that was
036introduced um took time out of the the literacy um implementation or a PD as well as the the GLEAM uh framework. So, um there's only so much time in the year for professional development and um, but we also needed to include new science curriculum. And so that training it's the same teachers um, in these grade levels. They do the science, they do the the literacy, they do the mathematics, they do the social studies. And so um, we need to prioritize our time better. Um, that again that that starts in my office. Um, and so um, I've got to do a better job of creating clear direction for our district that prioritizes the professional learning experiences that are that our staff and our building leaders are getting. So that we've got district leaders that are unencumbered
037in giving providing that professional learning and that that cascade begins to take hold. Um, so again, since September I've not done a great job of making sure that that is a clear priority for us as a district. Thank you for that uh, honesty and and vulnerability. Um, I appreciate it. >> [snorts] >> Matt, maybe some context. So um, backing up how long have we been since we introduced GLEAM and then how long would you expect when we have a new framework that would take to get fully um, implemented and established? Like just generally. Yeah, so this is year three. I'm looking for maybe I had an oddish. Um, year three. Um, and just real quick while I'm doing that. I'm going to take notes along with my team. If there's a question I cannot answer,
038which I'm sure there will be, I'll get back to you with that. Um, we'll I'll follow up with the team. Um, so it's about year three-ish um, that we've uh, in terms of implementation and any sort of The second part of your question is how long? It depends, right? And I get The reason why I say that is because Uh we've got a good understanding of Gleam as an organization, right? Teachers, administrators, instructional coaches, curriculum coordinators, chief officers, superintendent. We've got a good implementation framework in terms of folks understanding it. It's actualizing it and using the curriculum as intended is our next step. And so we're probably talking a 3 to 5-year endeavor um to make sure that um our systems are caught up to the expectation of the utilization of our Gleam framework. Meaning
039that um we can have high expectations of folks utilizing um and leveraging our Gleam framework, but if our supports and resources are sort of uneven and don't match that same high um expectation um in how we coach and how we clear paths for coaches and principals to do that work of supporting teachers in developing their knowledge, their depth and breadth of knowledge around the Gleam framework. If those systems, if those um supplemental resources are not completely available and known to staff and how to actually utilize them um to actually make those teacher moves in the moment, if those things are not known, then we're not fully realizing and optimizing the Gleam framework or that of any of our curriculum, right? Um that that's within that framework. So um 3 to 5 That was a long
040one that answered your question, but probably 3 to 5 years. Um I think research would say 3 to 5 years um is for it to take hold. So we're kind of right in the middle of that uh that threshold. What would you say is the biggest hurdle to getting to that realized implementation right now? You said turnover and time for PD. >> it's it's Yeah, great question. It's really I think it's around it's around two things. Um I just I I had spent a whole day in our professional development today with um our our partners from UVA and so um it was just a great um learning opportunity for me and and for a few others. And I was reminded in that conversation that um transformative work um is not always about how much. It's
041Typically it's actually about um not how much you add or how much you do. It's actually about what what you remove and what you take off the plate. So that's sort of I'm sort of prefacing my my first answer in that is that there's a lot on teachers' plates, there's a lot on principals' plates, coaches, curriculum coordinators. There's a lot on folks' plates right now in terms of not only the the volume of professional learning that takes place. And so again keep in mind every um you know, pre-K 5 teacher, you know, that yes they do literacy, they also do math, they do science, they do social studies. So there's a number of things that come up them. And when we are engaging in change management um it requires both that that cognitive capacity to
042absorb that change, but also to know specifically what to let go. And that what's letting what we're letting go of is actually where we're not hitting the mark yet. And [snorts] I'll continue to actually bring myself into the the crux of that because folks don't know what to let go of until I create clarity for them to know they have permission to not do that any longer so that they can focus on the actual target and the the literacy foundations that we need particularly in pre-K through 5. And so that's that's the first answer. So this is knowing what to remove um from folks' plates. Um that's a constant sort of feedback that we get is I'm overwhelmed. Um and that sort of leads into what I believe um this is a working theory uh
043right now. Is fatigue, right? It's it's initiative fatigue. It's decision fatigue. That that starts in August and now we're here in April. I think it's April. And folks like happens over the course of the year and when we don't acknowledge as a system when I don't acknowledge all that is on their plate it becomes overwhelming and things that were of importance of significance and of priority at the beginning of the year begin to fade because other priorities begin to creep in. You know, Wayfinder it's it's an amazing SEO curriculum. It's also something for someone to know about. It's something to spend time on and energy in learning. And so we our team's doing an amazing job of trying to integrate and embed that in in the professional learning for staff. And it's still a lot
044for folks to take on. So there my team and I I have a lot of work to do to talk about what is the the opportunity in front of us going into the the spring and into the summer months to work more deliberately around integrating those professional learning opportunities more cohesively. So that there is less sort of cognitive fatigue from staff members as we progress and sort of through the school year because the year gets hard. Thank you. Matt, I'll preface this question by saying I I did not submit this ahead of time. So if you don't have the exact answer, I'd be fine with a follow-up even. The question is really centered around over the past 5 years there has been a continuous summer slide or summer learning loss that happens between the spring
045and the fall semester every single year for the past five evaluate years that we have data for. Can you share what is being done during those summer months as far as programmatic work or kind of wrap-around services for students to address or support this? Um I can't off the top of my head, but I can find the answer for you. Absolutely. Yes. Uh kind of piggyback on on um on Skyler's um and then I apologize again for not sending this out, but um I know last summer one of the things that we were going to implement and we were going to try was Amira, which was going into our Metro Kids, I think for extra assistance. Um I mean that would be another thing that I would kind of want to see how that worked
046and >> [snorts] >> if we tried to use it during the school year at Metro Kids. Yeah, I can work with the time to pull that data and to see kind of how that's being applied and utilized and after what results we're kind of getting from that very specific program. Sure. Matt, we had an eventful fall. Uh to what extent do you think outside factors can contribute to district-wide um implementation and success in a large change that we're asking for when we have a uh particularly unusual fall that we had. Uh I appreciate the question. Um To say that it it does the events of the fall have not impacted adults in our system, I think would be inaccurate um and because multiple things happened. Um I think folks particularly, you know, may tend to
047say, "Well, one thing happened to an individual. Actually, multiple things happened in the fall. Several folks, several positions were moved. Um, several folks that were in one position are no longer in that position. And so, we made lots of changes. And so, there there in terms of a research base, right? In terms of adaptive leadership and what that means in terms of creating second order change and how you actually create change, um a few things sort of need to be in place, right? Um in terms of how people experience that level of change. Um, some of it is just logic, right? Like what like what's actually happening right now? Um what uh what do we need to be focusing on? What does this mean for me? What does this mean for my work? Um So,
048you talk about the not just some of the events that were very more public, but also just the changes in reimagined education, right? We've got, you know, staff members that are even speaking about that. Um in providing that level of clarity about like how should I be thinking about this in my next step and what does this mean for my priorities? Um, does the does the changes in the district change the priorities in terms of personnel? Does personnel changes change priorities for us? And so, in spending time and energy in those spaces, um it does cause, right? Some some angst and some anxiety. There's also um the sort of emotional aspect of this work, right? When it comes to change and and folks feeling motivated and energized. And while some may have um uh received
049and experienced the events of the fall as a as a motivator and something to actually drive the work to get more focused, others actually did not. They got more disconnected and were looking for answers and reasons on how to actually grapple with that. Um the other thing is about just clarity of the the habits and the norms of our district, right? And so um these areas that I'm speaking to I'm these are not I'm not making these up on the fly. This is actually by um it it comes from some research by Dan and Chip Heath. Um and so it's [clears throat] called um the switch, right? And so how when uh >> [snorts] >> the actual change is uh how to change things when change is hard, right? Um And so we've been no
050doubt engaged in a number of change um activities um in the fall and it's it's going to have an impact on how adults um experience um the day-to-day work um for us. But being able to measure that, that I don't know how to do yet. Um you know, other than through um sort of an anecdotal evidences and things like that. Matt, one more just clarifying. Could you clarify for me on page three and four when it talks about a strategic action around digital literacy strategy? Are we talking about digital literacy in the form of being literate on computers or are we talking about a literacy strategy that is implemented through the use of digital tools? Both. Uh you you actually just captured it perfectly, right? So it's it's it's both about um um having the
051appropriate device and digital um resources and content for students based on their age and their grade level, uh but also equipping teachers with that same level of knowledge about what is their wrote right and appropriate digital literacy curriculum and supports and supplements to actually utilize based on students' age and grade level. Um as we know, devices are prevalent, right? And so what we don't want to do is sort of engage in an um sort of um unmonitored device, you know, um deployment without any sort of understanding about what the intended outcomes are of that digital literacy curriculum, how we're going to see that, what are the evidences of that. Those are the areas that we have to really improve on is getting um really really clear about what is the outcome that we're after and
052what is the evidence look like? What is a high quality digital literacy curriculum look like, sound like, feel like? And are we all calibrated and have some interrater reliability on that? I say that only because this goal is about literacy. It's about making sure kids can read. And digital literacy is an incredibly important skill. And I want our kids to have it. But this goal is about literacy. And so from a from a strategic action standpoint, when we're monitoring this goal, it does give me some pause to think are we spreading ourselves out and not focusing on the one thing, which is the intention of this. I'd be interested in learning more about how the digital literacy piece, and maybe that would be good for the entire board to hear at a a work session,
053to hear about how those two things go together and that we are not straying into a focus on digital literacy when really it's about this goal is about the reading. We can certainly change it, but I I just I'm I'm not understanding the two and I think they could we could lose some focus here. Yeah, I think we could provide you some additional information and and maybe a way I would sort of frame it is that the digital literacy is a tool or a resource by which we actually enhance our literacy strategies, right? Um you know, even something as simple as making sure that the digital digital literacy curriculum includes those decodable text for students to actually engage in that automaticity and that fluency work Yep. um when they're not with the teacher at the
054teacher's desk, right? They can do it individually, they can do it in small groups, utilizing that as as a resource or as a tool. But I I hear your point. Yeah, and yeah, I think digital tools in literacy, 100% all for it. >> Right. But if it strays into focusing on uh a wider digital literacy campaign for our students, >> Sure. Yeah. I'm not sure those two things go together. So, I just would be interested to hear more if there is evidence that says, "Nope, that's the right thing to do to get our kids reading so that they test at grade level by third grade." That's the goal. That's the focus. Um Matt, on page one >> [snorts] >> when we're looking at our second and um third grade students, 2,157 of them are not
055meeting benchmark. I'm curious, what strategies are we using specifically for these students to get them to um meeting benchmark and what's having the highest um gains and leverage? Um how do we And how do we know that those strategies are working? Yeah, so the what we identified as as having um a lot of success earlier and and in some grade levels and in schools that were actually doing it actually with more fidelity in terms of they had um they had system and structure set up to implement more holistically those class wide interventions. Um and so we've seen the success of that, but we got to do more of it. We got to we got to multiply it and amplify it across more schools and more classrooms. And where you where we found some success in
056that um in both the fall and also the the winter data are in schools that had structures set up to support that. Um meaning that um they had their coaches positioned um with uh with teachers to um to to do that to model with teachers to actually engage in PLC work to talk about um how we're going to utilize those class wide interventions. Um and within those those PLCs and those team team meetings, it's also about bringing in the student work, the evidence of student work to to justify what we need to do differently in the next lesson or the next um you know, class [clears throat] period. So, where where we find those structures are much tighter is where we're seeing the larger results. And so, it's it's um part of the answer to
057your question is number one, we got to have that scaled um in more schools and more classrooms in terms of the structure and how we're actually seeing that take uh take hold. The opportunity to do that is to learn from schools and colleagues and neighbors that are doing it well and actually show that and have do some peer, you know, teaching and and have some some colleagues support one another in that endeavor because you know, where it's where it's not happening um with a great deal of success in one building um um it just down the street, 3 miles away, it is happening um at at at and with tremendous success. And we can learn from one another in doing that. We can actually share those findings and get those things um in front of
058colleagues so that we can see it is successful and it does work. It's just a matter of being able to put the structures in place and having teachers also feel like they can make those adjustments, right? That they can that they're confident and competent to pull that tool out when it's needed. Um just to give you sort of a an anecdotal um example of this. In in walking in some of our middle school classrooms, this is a an elementary um example our um goal, but in in our we see some of the same things in our in our middle schools where teachers um are um are pulling from tools that um that they are confident in because of stuff they've always used. Um and we want them to have that agency and that empowerment to
059see like I don't have to do that. I can actually try this differently. And that right there is, while it sounds small, that is incredibly huge. That's adaptive, right? That's that's having um a confidence in the system to know that you can try something um and if it works, phenomenal. Why did it work and what are the results that we get out of that and how are we going to double down on that? If it doesn't, that's okay also. We just have to figure out why it didn't work, right? We have to sort of embrace this notion of um it's okay to be where you are. It's just not okay to stay there. Meaning that we just have to learn. We have to learn from it as a as a learning organization about why it
060didn't work and have the confidence um and the courage to take that next step to scale that um you know, across our district. So, we've got really um great successes um in many of our classrooms and all of our schools. Um it's just a matter of replicating that. I think even hearing you say um to the teachers as as we are here monitoring this, hearing you say that it's okay to try something and um if it works, great. If not, that's okay, too. As long as we identify what what didn't work and make adjustments. So, that that ability to fail um and that freedom to fail and learn from that failure, I think is incredibly powerful. Thank you. Yeah, one of the highlights um in speaking with teachers and and school leaders that I would
061it it's maybe not always evident in terms of just data, but qualitative data is that we have incredibly passionate educators that have a sense of urgency about impacting students um in terms of their overall educational experience. That is evident in every classroom, every building I've ever been in. So, there's there's a desire to do really, really well by children and to give them the highest quality of educational experience. Um at the same time, that urgency and that motivation sometimes can be stifling because we don't want to make a mistake. We don't want to go wrong. Um and that's an area that we have to continue to improve upon, specifically again, coming out of um the executive team and and specifically my office is that message of um failure is okay as long as we're learning
062from it and we're actually utilizing that failure to improve our practice the very next day, the very next class, the very next minute. We're going to have things that don't work and it's that's okay. Um we just have to continue to operate with a mindset um and model for our kids what what continuous growth and improvement looks like, sounds like, feels like, that we're going to try things and we're going to create that opportunity for kids so that they also know, just like this young lady said earlier, her entire podcast was just gone and they got back in there and did it again and did better that next time, right? Like that's a that's a perfect example of what we want to hear from kids and from staff on a daily basis as this continuous
063growth and improvement and that we learn the work by doing the work. Board colleagues, any additional questions regarding the current state and how we got to where we're at? >> [snorts] >> Okay. Future focus questions? Strategies moving forward, changes and adjustments being made? Inquiries? >> I'll go on this one. Um and this [snorts] is going to be the same comment I've made for the last five times we've done this and so it shouldn't be any surprise. I noticed on page six that one of the uh things that we're talking about doing as a follow-up to some of the professional development we've gotten is more class-wide interventions. It sounds like that's a tactic that's working and I'm glad to hear it. But more opportunities for purposeful practice in decodable text and we've we've wrestled with this
064and talked about it a lot. I am still having trouble, I hate to be hyperbolic, but why there is not an army of volunteers that we are recruiting at the doorstep of all of the schools that need help in getting our kids more reps with reading. And um I think that there are some barriers there that maybe I need to learn more about uh from the standpoint of you don't want to any skill, you don't want to teach somebody bad habits. You want to teach them good habits. I think that um I hope that we are exploring some partnerships where we don't have to take a a teacher's valuable time or a the district's valuable time to train our volunteers. There have to be creative ways that we can get more people in our classrooms,
065and I just wonder, Matt, how are we going to get more purposeful practice in decodable text um as we move forward? Can we use people from the outside? They're waiting to help. Yeah, I'm going to restate what I what I think I heard uh you say, like, how can we use volunteers to reinforce or support additional practice? Um I'll need to actually spend some time with the team on that just to um make sure that that we're all calibrated. And the reason why I'm saying that is because um teaching students to read, right? The science of reading is is that there's a science to it, right? There's there's some there's some really um specific technical components of of teaching somebody to read. And one of the things that we want to be sure of is
066that um as we have volunteers that want to read to children and or have children teach teach children read to them, we want to be be sure that our volunteers are not teaching something that we're not teaching our own teachers, right? That we're creating confusion for students with really good intentions, right? And so um cuz we have some phenomenal volunteers that have uh that are very very knowledgeable um about literacy. And so we want to make sure that we're calibrated. So there would need to be some time spent specifically with volunteers, for example, to make sure that we're all on the same page. The other thing though that um I think is also really interesting about um your point around volunteers is much of the volunteer work is about connection, right? It's about that meaningful
067aspect of GLEAM, right? So when we talk about the GLEAM framework, we often spend a lot of time around the grade level and engaging aspect of it, but um the affirming and meaningful aspect of having a volunteer from the community that maybe you know, that you see, that right is friends with your family, there is some real meaningful connection that comes from that. and it could be as simple as just listen to this child read to you, listen for fluency, right? And um things that I would just need to sort of um work with the team on is making sure that um their time with volunteers is doable um given all that they they work on and uh but that's something that we can look at. That's something that we can talk about. >> It
068occurred to me today, I was at the Live United lunch and obviously education and particularly third-grade literacy is one of their highest priorities. It it feels like that might be an example of an organization that might be able to provide the training. We give them the parameters, they provide the training, the district is not taking its its its extra time and we just don't have it. >> Yeah. And so how do we get volunteers in that are well trained, that have some guardrails on them, uh but can get in front of somebody and I do agree, it's somebody sitting across from you saying great job. Yeah. You did awesome on that. Listening to an adult read and going, oh, that's what that's supposed to sound like. Yeah. Is a valuable skill that I think can
069help our kids be more fluent readers. Yeah, you we we could never undersell or underscore the value of someone sitting across from you that says I care about you, I love you and I'm listening to you actually perform and you're you're doing a credible job, right? Like that that means something to everybody, um not just children. So um there is real opportunity to sort of speak to the volunteerism um opportunity through the the Gleam framework in an affirming and meaningful for sure. Thanks for that. Yeah. Matt. Similar to Skyler's question earlier, looking at these data points, it seems like it's a consistent dip mid-year and then rise at the end of the year. What do you attribute that to and do you think there's a plan to work on fixing that? Uh yeah, thanks for
070the question. Um couple things, I think it's um and they're and they're connected. Um this is a working theory of action. So um these are things that our team will have to explore a little bit. But, one is that initiative fatigue of getting to this point in the school year. So, we're Right now, the data that we're looking at is April, but this data was collected in January, right? And so, end of January. And so, this was data from October snapshot through January. So, we're looking at about 3 3 and 1/2 months worth of um adjustments that we made from the fall data, right? So, when we got the fall data in in November, um there's 2 and 1/2 3 months to make any sort of adjustment system-wide to impact the winter data. Um and
071what I believe to be true that we would need to unpack a little bit is um from October to January when this assessment was was given to students, we didn't take much off leaders' plate. Matter of fact, actually more things were happening both in the district and around the district that created some additional sort of cognitive dissonance, some some emotional dissonance. And so, recognizing that, but also recognizing the impact it has on on teachers and and and associates and and school leaders, um that it did create some fatigue and we didn't as an organization I didn't actually do a good job of acknowledging and recognizing that soon enough to begin to remove some things so that we can reduce that scope for folks. Um So, moving forward, that is way front of mind for me
072around working with the team to create, which they're already starting, a a master calendar of professional learning where we can clearly see um every position by month what sort of professional learning experience they're going to get so that we can see are there gaps in those professional learning or is there a misalignment in the professional learning, and does that professional learning calendar actually create coherence so that we're all focused on just a few things to make sure that we don't get sort of that initiative fatigue at the beginning at the in the middle of the school year. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Maybe the [clears throat] related follow-up would be I think >> [snorts] >> So, you spoke about how um we try to what's working, right, in one building and how you share that
073or we share that. Can you maybe elaborate on that because I mean, we look at these scores this are across an entire grade, right? And we have schools that are doing different data points at different trajectories. So, when you see a trend that in one school is maybe positive, maybe they avoid that winter dip, like how do we share that information with the other schools? How do we lift up if somebody cracks that code, they crack that nut, how how do we share that? Um right now, we do it through sort of the the structure of principal supervisors and our and our curriculum directors of doing that in these smaller teams. Um so, that's actually a really good example. So, we do have schools whose their data did not dip from fall to winter. We
074actually they actually grew a little bit, right? We have groups of students that grew um from fall to winter. There there was no dip. Um leveraging that and optimizing that is actually a larger district system issue right now. Meaning that again, it's it the I'm I'm one of one responsible is not prioritizing that learning so that it gets to all school leaders, all teachers, all coaches so that they understand we have colleagues down the street that are actually bucking that trend of it dipping, and here's what we can learn from them, and you don't have to hear it from me, you can hear it from them because they're also teaching second grade or they're also leading an elementary school building. And what I need to do and what our team at the executive um level
075needs to do is create that priority for us as an organization for that to be a learning opportunity for us district-wide and to remove barriers where that it might prevent someone from attending that, from being a part of that, right? So, a lot of times we we set the schedule of the school year and we say that's the schedule. Well, moving forward that schedule will only be the schedule if it if we're aligned, if we're actually getting the work done and we're getting success. If we're not, then we need to be able to interrupt that mid-year to make that change so that folks can have that mid-year learning opportunity to make adjustments in their own classrooms or their own schools moving forward. And we didn't do that this year. We haven't We're doing it, but
076we're not doing it as a system. We're doing it because folks know it's the right thing to do, but it's not it's not something that we're talking about in operations, it's not something that we're talking about in business and finance, HR. Those are the systems I'm talking about. We got to have everybody around the table knowing that that is the only thing that matters for us right now is making sure that we are learning from one another and our colleagues from one school to the next, one classroom to the next. What the can the board do to support you, Matt, moving forward in in getting us to meeting our target? >> [snorts] >> Having these questions is is helpful. Um one of my um wonderings and is is when we look at the the strategic
077plan and we look at uh the the goals and the guardrails, there's a number of metrics associated with that. Um and part of my wondering out loud is um if we could explore an opportunity to maybe narrow that even further um to give us more focus as an organization um and and and maybe add a guardrail language or two around not to allow that um to diverge right in the middle of the year, right? If we know in terms of a theory of action, if we if we come to data that says, you know what? Initiative fatigue and actual just exhaustion mid-year is actually creating some dip. Um Looking at that, you know, having that conversation earlier on right after the fall data If we've seen the last 3 years, we should expect to see
078it next year if we don't change something. So, being able to pivot actually even at this table um to to account for that and to maybe consider doing some things differently even after October data. Um, you know, just being open to that would be great. That's a broad answer. It is. Um, certainly I think the board is willing to explore any conversation that's going to continue to move us in the right direction. So, we can plan on revisiting that in a work session if you would like to prepare a recommendation. >> Absolutely. Board colleagues, any additional questions regarding goal one? I have one other question. Matt, I appreciated the comment earlier about giving the teachers the ability to try something new or kind of this culture of being able to fail. I I I think
079it's healthy. One thing I do notice with the monitoring report general is that clearly there's efficacy behind what some of the teachers are doing. We've seen growth in all of the years, but it's very conservative growth since we've been measuring it. This data model has been built with a really large assumption that between spring 26 and spring 27 there is an exponential growth required to meet the benchmark ranging from 9% all the way to 14%. We have not seen those types of numbers yet. So, my question is similarly to kind of that culture that's been created for the teachers, what is the district doing to be bold and audacious to be able to get exponential growth in the next year? Um maybe a couple things. One speaks to this notion of recognizing that um our
080professional learning um model um maybe heavy for folks, right? And being willing to say, "All right, let's prioritize that. Let Let's look at that integration and let's make sure that what we're putting in front of our staff um is indeed um directly associated and connected and aligned with the goals and the interim goals that we've got in front of us. Um and then it actually comes back to the executive team and the overall broader cabinet at central office of being super calibrated about these goals and these um interim goals. Um while we have departmental goals and we have other areas that we need to meet metrics, these are the goals that actually matter. These are the ones that we're actually because these are about kids, right? These are about children and their experience. And so
081um students reading proficiently by third grade is the key. That That is the key actually to us moving forward and advancing all work. And so having all arrows at central office point towards what are we doing to advance that? And if we're not advancing it, how are we removing barriers and removing challenges that buildings are facing so that they're not spending time and energy on management, but they're actually spending all their time and energy on improving the third grade proficiency rates um for kids across our district. Like that level of commitment and sacrifice and selflessness um from our central office is um is incredibly needed and um and that's actually what's going to be expected and demanded. So, it sounds like it's more a shift of culture and alignment versus programming or because the the
082the one big thing I guess I see consistently here I'm like I don't know if that's the solution is the implementation of digital literacy. Is Is that the solution to getting 14% over the next year? It's not. Um it's it's a tool. Um, it's a it it enhances, right? It it helps provide It's part of the MTSS, right? In terms of that multi-tiered system of support of acknowledging where students actually need extension or maintenance or they just they need intervention. And so, it's a tool to help support in that MTSS. Um, and the the significant gains that we need are going to come from our our capacity to engage in adaptive change as leaders to stop doing things that are not positively contributing to the overall experience of students in our schools. Um, and again,
083that that's that begins and and and ends and and and with me in my office right now. So, um, and having commitment and understanding from all central office departments that the reason we exist is in service of schools. And what are we going to do to remove the challenges and barriers that they're facing so that they can solely focus on student outcomes and student experiences to improve overall literacy rates to meet those interim goals. So, um, it's not about a program or a um a process. It's about um fidelity and removing all obstacles from that implementation of that curriculum instruction because I think it's been a couple years since I've made the statement, but at at least in this state, but um on a good day, teaching's hard. It's it's really really difficult. It's complex.
084And when we have those components, right? That infrastructure, right? Of teaching and learning, um, truly embedded in our schools, right? Where the where the curriculum, the professional learning community that that teachers engage in, the assessments, all of those are working in tandem and in concert with one another, and they're doing so, um, with, um, a clarity as a as a staff member of where am I going not only in my learning target today and how kids are going to get there, but how are they going to get there by the end of the by the end of the unit. When they have that level of clarity and they're sharing student work samples because they need pure feedback around and collaboration around um does that meet our our standard of high quality um evidence for student
085learning um getting to that level and that depth and that granularity of work on a daily basis, that's what moves the scores. As a system, what we have to be able to do is recognize that that is the end outcome for staff for teachers, and then we need to spend time talking about what are we doing that actually gets in the way of them doing that? Or what are we not doing that's getting in the way of them doing that? And when that becomes our sole focus as an organization, where we are willing to actually change our behaviors and sacrifice things that we thought were important in order to elevate the importance of what teachers need to get done, that's when we will begin to see some dramatic changes. Thank you. And I don't have
086another question, but I do think it's important for us to acknowledge the good things that do happen. And I do want to acknowledge, looking at the data, that uh from the very start of when we began measuring this to now, it is nearly a seven, almost 8% increase. So, that is something to be happy about. Obviously, you want to get it to 100, but there's certainly some progress being made. Yeah. Thank you. Look forward to hearing more about that strategic abandonment and the successes that will come from that. We will now move forward with deciding whether we as a board accept the monitoring report. May I have a motion and a second? I also move. I'll second. Thank you. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? I think it might just be
087a good time to talk about accepting or this is part of the old framework, and so I think like I think it's just a good time to because this is the first monitoring report for two of our colleagues, just to talk about this decision because um accepting or rejecting I think sounds a certain way to folks who are sitting on the other side of the dais, and we know that this is a tool for us to monitor as well. Um, and so, I just think it would be worthwhile to to go through that. Yeah, so, um, this particular report, all of our monitoring reports play a role in our superintendent evaluation. Um, so, the superintendent is evaluated not only on reaching our goals, but also honoring the guardrails that we've set forth. So, every time
088we as a board monitor our goals and guardrails, we are essentially receiving input on the superintendent's evaluation throughout the year. The act of accepting the report is is essentially saying that we, um, we accept the action, um, when it comes to the last portions of the report. It identifies what's working, what's not working, and what action is being taken. Do we as a board accept the action, um, that is being recommended for this goal in order to make the necessary movement to get us to meeting our target. Um, so, if we do not feel that the action that has been presented to us is the right action based on the data that we've just reviewed and monitored or questioned and inquired about, then, um, we would vote no to not accept this, um, report. Voting
089yes is an indication of we understand the current reality, we agree with the strategies and recommendations for the um, the the district moving forward as have been presented to us in this particular report. Is that helpful? >> That is. Thank you. Additional questions or inquiries regarding our acceptance or our vote. I guess could you elaborate on if the monitoring report is not accepted, what are the next steps um for that? Uh we as a uh board would then need to have a conversation with the superintendent to indicate what is unacceptable about the actions that have been presented to us in this report. So, if um you know, our questions would lead to you know, the conversation that we've just had would lead us down a path of us identifying the areas that we did not
090feel were appropriate um when it came comes to strategy and uh aggressive next steps in order to meet this goal and then we would ask that an an additional report would be provided to us to determine uh strategy and data to support the strategies that have been identified as moving us in in the direction of meeting a target. Thank you. And how often are the monitoring monitoring reports brought to the board? Um so, goal monitoring reports we have an entire calendar that's laid out for the the the length of the goals themselves. So, we have a 5-year we're not at the beginning of that 5-year but we have a 5-year monitoring calendar. Um our guardrails are monitored annually and our goals are monitored four times a year. Um not every interim goal is monitored every
091time. So, there are every goal has interim goals. So, in some way, shape, or form we we are monitoring a goal via interim goals. Same thing with our guardrails. We're monitoring the um interim guardrails annually. So, um these particular goal one we we will monitor four times a minimum of four times a year. We as a board can request off-cycle monitoring reports if in fact um we would like to see for example, this particular monitoring report is not meeting the target. If we feel it's necessary to monitor this um off-cycle, we can request that. However, we need to be cognizant of the data and when it's available um and when students are are for this particular um goal, when they're taking the assessment and when that data is available. So, a minimum of four times
092a year. Thank you. All right. Um hearing no additional questions, board members, we have a a motion by Alonzo and a second by Howell. Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved seven to zero. Uh the next item on our agenda is goal two monitoring report. Um like goal one, this particular monitoring report focuses on literacy. However, um it is focusing on literacy for our um students at the middle school level. Um this particular goal is um the evaluation as it exists insufficient movement towards target and much like our previous goal, we will as a board inquire about how um just how we got to our current state on this goal. Any Anything that you would like to present or say, Matt, before we dive into questions? >> Uh yes, please. Uh just
093a few things that I would like to highlight. Um grade six, uh 41.6% of meeting benchmark. Uh the target um was 43. So, we're just a a couple percentage points shy there. Um grade 7 35.3% were meeting benchmark and the target was 38, a little bit further away. And in grade 5 41.3% meeting benchmark and the target was 42. So, a much closer there. Uh despite um not actually meeting these benchmarks, all three grades posted their highest winter data since 2023. And so, while we're not hitting those marks, it's the highest we've had in several years. Um 6th grade um IME that intervention minutes and enrichment period uh was implemented in all 10 middle schools for the first time this school year. So, that's a highlight and you'll see some of that in sort of
094my responses and maybe in some of the data where we're actually beginning to There's early indicators that that's actually um paying a lot of dividends for us. And then also all T12 schools increased their overall percent of students meeting benchmark this winter compared to last winter in grades 5, 6, and 7. And so, again um while we're not hitting that target that desired target yet this winter, um we're higher than we have been in many, many years. And all of our T12 schools um the from the University of Virginia our transformative 12 um they they all made gains that will have higher percentage scores this winter than they did just last winter. Thank you for highlighting those successes. Um On page one, I'll go ahead and get us started. Um page one go grade seven
095um students >> [sighs] [gasps] >> we've got 1,224 students that are that are not meeting that um performance level level, which is lower than our sixth grade students. Um what do you think this indicates about the effectiveness of the instruction from one year to the next or um the content? Yeah, I don't Yeah, I think it's um it's around a couple of things. One is the the seventh graders this year that were sixth graders last year, they didn't have actually the benefit of this new IME model in this new sort of structure for supporting sixth graders. And so, um we which we saw some some real positives in that this year so so far. Um and so, there were more students that are currently seventh graders that did not meet benchmark last year. And so,
096when they don't have that and they're not meeting benchmark, there's sort of a compounding effect that exists year after year after that if we don't make that a aggressive growth. And so, if students are struggling with comprehension as sixth graders and we don't make that aggressive growth by the time they're seventh graders, the text becomes more complex, it's more challenging for students. And so, therefore, you're going to see you know, unless we have a significant intervention reduced the smaller number of students actually meeting benchmark this winter because it's compounding for them. And so, again, you know, it's again going back to the importance of all students reading by third grade, this is what actually allows us to system-wide intervene so that doesn't become a challenge for students moving forward. But, that would be why seventh
097graders it's it's not it's not the curriculum, it's not the instruction, it's just we have more students um last year that were not meeting benchmark and so, there's a bit of a compounding effect going into seventh grade. And so, um the team and I are working to explore how we can aggressively intervene with that at a system's level. Thank you. May I notice this is almost the exact opposite from what I observed in goal one around that summer learning. Mhm. Um whereas each of these interim goals the spring to the fall during that summer is actually increased. So, I'm curious if you have thoughts around what's happening with this particular population allowing them to increase those scores over the summer versus what was happening with the I'm going to come back to you on that
098one. I wasn't ready for that answer to that question. So, I'm going to have to come back to you on that one. Because I don't I don't believe that anything anything different from what we did with sixth graders versus what we did with seventh graders over the summer. And so, there's going to be some things that that I'll have to explore with the team to come back to you on that. But yeah, love the question. On page five regarding digital literacy, you mentioned this in report in the first monitoring report on what's not going well. The efforts are on track, but scalar requires a lot of engagement >> Mhm. that competes with other worthy priorities. Um there might be a lot of priorities. What are the major ones that you think are interfering? Yeah, so
099when we think about um just going back to the the strategic plan, it's it's one of those things where all of the the priorities there have value. Um but some of them may not have value to the degree that um literacy has right now for us, right? So, we need to talk about um aligning and scheduling priority implementation um in a much more strategic manner where they're not it's not taking teachers, instructional coaches, interventionists, principals time um to learn a a new skill set or new management style or a new operating system because all of that um there's only so many hours of the day that they're there that they're available. And so, when we occupy their time in these other areas when it's not actually focused on comprehension and fluency in in our literacy
100goals it's it's time that's not it's not committed to this work, right? And and and serving and supporting teachers. And so um those are those sort of competing priorities. And so what the team and I have been doing is looking at those priorities around what must happen right now, how would we justify that, and is it taking away from the instructional learning time from principals and coaches and you know, interventionist teachers. And if so, then it can't happen right now. So how can it happen? When can it happen? Is that a summer learning opportunity for us? When when is it going to be the best time for that? So um as an organization, one of the things that that we've done over the years that we're learning from is um it's great that we can
101identify all the learning that schools need. Um uh things that are are really really important, right? That that we're going to lift up and we're going to prioritize. For example, we're going to prioritize um standard response protocol, right? That training and that that learning around um threat assessments in schools. Safety's number one, so we're going to make sure that that happens. And we're also going to have literacy training too. So we're going to make sure that we're balancing um the right time of year what trainings are being delivered, how much folks can take on so that we can um take our new learning, apply it, and then grapple with how it's working, how it's not working, what does the data say? Um and so we've got so many priorities right now as a district. Folks
102are um me included. We're looking at these going how how do we how do we get all this done? Um and and let's get into a conversation around let's let's make sure that we bring back teaching and learning as the number one reason why we show up every day is to make students um have that successful high-quality learning experience. In order to do that, we've got to make sure that we're prioritizing the time that we're actually given with staff members and with school leaders. Um there's just so many priorities right now. Um and again, it's not that they're not important, but they may not be the most important thing right now. I don't know if this is jumping [clears throat] ahead, Kim, but the um there in our consent agenda tonight, there's a GLEAM conference,
103I think. >> Mhm. Maybe can you speak to that and how that relates to cuz we we've heard about and we had a discussion about how we don't have time. Essentially, time is limited and and and is that an opportunity for additional PD? How is that conference going to work and how will that give our building leaders and and staff opportunities to dig in on this? Yeah, that conference is about staff that have not have that GLEAM training specifically and allow them to do it um sort of in bulk, if you will. Um because it number one, it it it's more cost-effective to do it that way, but also number two, it allows teachers to come back, talk about what they practiced, talk about the application of it, and work with their colleagues that have
104already been trained in it to begin to hey, here's my new learning. And so we actually need to incorporate that into their professional learning communities to make sure that what we're gleaning and what we're learning from those trainings is being applied and celebrated um and monitored um in the classroom experience. And so um that training is directly connected, right? It's a summer training that's coming up. And so um we're we're utilizing that time over the summer to get as many folks trained um in the depth and breadth of that GLEAM framework so that it becomes more around um teacher automaticity, if you will. Um you know, one of the one of the key indicators of a student's ability to comprehend is their fluency and their auto- automaticity of of their reading skills, right? Um that
105also holds true for adults, right? In spaces where um the the work is very uh sometimes abstract and complex, you have to have an automaticity of um the right teacher moves at the right time with curriculum to get the optimized learning experience for students um at grade level. And so that there's that's why they call it a science, you know, of of of reading. It's it's it's it's very very technical in spaces. And so having teachers um grapple with that um you know, in a in a very healthy environment and in a culture that celebrates you know learning the work by doing the work is is is part of that. And just following up on this, so is this the population that's going to be able to attend this conference coming up? And this is
106pretty on the spot, so I don't expect a breakdown, but is there a you know, our middle school folks, have they maybe missed out on the a higher proportion of of those staff and teachers had not had the opportunity to attend that yet or is will this conference shore that up for this population represented gold two unfortunately? >> yeah, it it does help to shore that up. I'd have to get the exact numbers of of what grade level everybody teaches. And there's also what we're also seeing is um just based on movement, right? Based on things that have to happen with staffing standards and movement from you know, um this year to next year. Um, some folks may have been trained, you know, three years ago and you know, we need an updated right because
107they weren't in a position to apply that particular learned you know, philosophy or that that style um uh and so it some of it's updated training, but a a large majority of it are folks that have not received it. Um and this is their immersive experience to get that done. Board colleagues, any Oh, go ahead. >> Listen, can I can I jump in? Is that okay? Um, so the sixth-grade experience, right? The the IME period, it's the intervention maintenance and extension that when I a lot of the cuz there a lot of the answers that that you might hear tonight from me, there's going to be some similarities, right? Just based on leadership and just adaptive leadership, right? And recognizing that the the improvement outcomes for us as an organization begin with me changing my
108behaviors and prioritizing this work moving forward, right? Making sure that our systems at essential office level um are responding to a um a level of urgency that is matched with um a monitoring and accountability system for um making sure that our resources are being deployed appropriately to our our curriculum instruction team and our schools. Um that being said, one of the nuances in goal two is because of the grade level and the implementation this year of this um this IME, right? Which includes um um more of a cohort model of students um having um a couple of teachers um teaching a couple of subject areas. Um so, they've got a a community, if you will, um within the school um rather than actually traveling to seven different teachers. Reducing their sort of environment and giving
109them um an opportunity to learn more each other uh more deeply. And um it also allowed us to actually um embed curriculum coordinators um you know, a couple of times a week in our sixth grade teams throughout the district. And um some of the things that that we're seeing even earlier on in this in this um implementation is uh I I believe I'm getting this right, but I can double-check my numbers, but um every single sixth grade at every elementary at every middle school um and every elementary um we have increased um attendance and decreased uh student referrals. Um I mean, we're in the 90s um 95% average of of attendance on um for students in sixth grade. Um and what that converts to is more time in front of teachers, more time with their
110peers, um you know, collaboratively solving complex tasks, you know, based on the standards. It it It keeps them in the classroom um more often, if you will, because of their high attendance. Um we've also reduced all chronic absent um not all, we've reduced chronic absenteeism in all six grades across the district in all schools. Um, those indicators are going to yield positive results um as we get further further, you know, into the months and into the school year. And so, those are great. Again, they're not um they're early indicators because this is new this year, but it's it's really really positive given that the the the sixth graders class, they missed the the target um by a you know, a percentage and a half if you will um in this uh in this winter even
111though um again just to highlight their their higher this winter than they were last winter and they're higher this winter than they have been the last three winters. Um, so there there are some some positives in that um as teachers are also grappling that because that's not an easy change for teachers to make um at sixth grade. Um, there's um you know, working in a um a collaborative team that you're with them all the time um also takes uh an adjustment um and so um it's there's some change management that also needs to happen there with adults. Um and and they're taking it in stride. They're doing really really well with it and we've got some early indicators of that. Great. Thank you. That makes me want to ask what strategies do you have in
112place to maintain that or to increase it? I mean, we are so wanting more time of the students in front of teachers. And what do you have in place to Yeah, well, one of the things that we're looking to do is um budgeting um and seeing how we actually can make that um you know, what's possible for next year in terms of looking at seventh and eighth grade. Um and so [clears throat] um you know, we've we've applied the same model in ninth grade through two this year in terms of the the ninth grade um teams and families if you will or cohorts. Um and we're seeing some some similar successes in that in that endeavor as well. And so, this is not the only example of that success where we're finding early indicators. So,
113we're looking at things like that, but um what it also allows us to do is the more teachers actually are placed in positions to collaborate with one another and share that student evidence of learning in the professional learning communities um and have a very structured professional learning community. Um the the better the outcomes are for kids, and but also it's it's it improves the agency and the empowerment for staff. Right? Um there's um there's a lot of research around um just um overall sort of staff agency and staff empowerment, and typically though where folks lose their empowerment is where they're not seeing success because often times what happens is if you don't see success year after year after year, you lose that um autonomy to make those decisions. We got to change that mindset, right?
114We got to recognize that we are where we are, but um we don't have to be there and we shouldn't be there. We got to actually in engage and invest in a mindset in these teacher teams that um again, failure is not terrible as long as we learn from it, and we do better the next day, and we actually look to actually in improve on it moving forward. And so, >> [snorts] >> that level of agency and empowerment at schools is going to be important for us as we move forward. Um because folks need to they need to know the curriculum, they need to know the PLC structures, they need to know the teacher moves, and all of that takes time to spend with it. And so, we've just got to create that time for
115teachers um in the year that that is uninterrupted, that is sacred time, that is not you know, we're not pulling them for this and that um for something that's just not a priority for us right now. Um that's going to be the the real opportunity for us moving forward. So, you started that answer with budgeting and ended it with time. So, in in the most recent iteration of the budget that the board um has has received and um will approve, did the budget account for this need? It it accounted for some of the need. Um yeah. So, there's there's still more work to be done um to ensure that if it's um it's indeed because this is again we're we're it's April, so we're 7 months or 7 months into this implementation. And so, we've
116got early indicators, um but there's some things that we just need to justify and we need to rationalize. And that also speaks to the to the discipline, right? That we need as a district, right? Um mean discipline meaning that um we need to continue to monitor our results. Um dig down to to root cause of of some of these, like why this intervention is working, why this is not working, why this particular program in sixth grade is working, why it's not, um to be sure that if we're going to invest significant dollars in it moving forward in the in the future, that it is the right investment to get the the biggest bang on the on the return of that particular investment. And so, that we just we need to make sure that we're doing
117our due it holistically and making sure that it is the right overall investment. Okay. Board members, additional questions? Yeah, um >> [clears throat] >> I don't know if we talked about it on goal one, but um the science of reading task force, when it comes to uh middle schools, what how is that looking? I mean, it's um on here it says it's building leadership. Um and I am hoping that separated from like the middle school or I mean, from elementary school and middle school and they're concentrating more on that. Um can you tell me a little bit about that? What Yeah, I can give you a little bit. I'd have to follow up with you to give you some very specifics about it, but uh in general, um it's it's actually um connected to Ryan's
118question earlier around like how how do we share that, right? So, that task force is um charged with a couple of different outcomes. One is what is the data tell us, right? What is the what is the data telling us as a district-wide task force that we need to do more of less of or differently at middle school in terms of that sixth grade experience or seventh or eighth grade experience. And then also it is um um what is the data tell us, but then what are the things that are working that we need to showcase so that others can again learn from their colleagues down the road to make sure that we're we're building that capacity and that that enthusiasm for seeing someone that I've taught with for 10 years that now is also
119getting amazing results and how can I also replicate that and amplify that in my own classroom and my own experiences. Again, um it's one thing to have a consultant come in and and and coach around that. It's another thing to have your colleague say, I just did this and look at the results I'm getting. That is super motivating um for anybody um and it would um so uh amplifying those voices um in that task force to say here's the here's how it works and here's how it should look. Here's what it sounds like and so let's get some really, you know, concrete language of defining what high-quality looks like, sounds like, feels like and making sure that that is disseminated um and that folks have training on that and that we actually have some interrater
120reliability when we're actually monitoring and measuring it moving forward cuz right now there's um staff are used to for folks coming into their classroom all the time. Um and so um you know, providing coaching, providing feedback but um an area and opportunity for us as a district is continue to improve in our ability to have an interrater reliability where what I say is high-quality teaching and learning experiences for our students in this lesson is the exact same that some um someone else would say in this building and this classroom because when we have variance that's when we have different experiences and different outcomes for children. We've got to get to a point where we've got a consistent understanding of what high quality teaching and learning and curriculum looks like, sounds like, and feels like in
121our classrooms. And and spend time in that, right? And talk about it, right? So, look the way you do that is to actually engage in it. Um and you have those conversations intentionally, and you carve out time in your week. That's what you prioritize. That's what you make sure that you get done. And as a teaching and learning department, as they create that schedule for them, the executive team and I look at how do we actually carve out um their time so they don't have to actually get pulled doing other things where that becomes, you know, the the sole focus of their work. Um that's how we we get major and dramatic uh changes in our outcomes. And then one thing, and I think they already left. Um so we saw something today with our
122middle schools, which was really awesome, the um podcast um that they're doing in the schools. And that, I mean, we heard from the two girls [clears throat] that said they build confidence and they learned a lot with that. Um and that is something that is an experience that we haven't had before. So, tapping that in and um kind of tracking or seeing how those students are participating in that has moved the needle in their reading scores. Um cuz I think when they're engaged and they find something they like, they're going to read or they're going to do more and investigate more. Because like they said, they've done their research, and that takes reading. Right. And so, to see that um how that would change, I'm kind of interested in that. Yeah, so I that that's
123a great sort of point um in the connection that you're making, right? Um learning actually is fun. And it and and it and it is joyous and and all of those things can can happen um across our district in every classroom. Um and um what you're referencing is this notion of right in terms of the gleam. This is sort of the engaging right and affirmative meaningful because it it means something those students to take the concepts and actually apply them and and have a a product. Um and it's something that they're interested in, it's something that they want to do, they want to talk about. Those opportunities exist in our curriculum. The the the question though that we need to begin to to answer or or as a as an organization is does everybody feel
124agency to actually try that, right? Because how many teachers like if I was a brand new teacher if I did the first year teacher, um I'm trying to learn this curriculum. I'm trying to understand how to how to embed it and how to utilize it and how to assess it and monitor it um cuz it's not as you know it there's direct instruction and then I actually move into small groups and then there's teacher time, right? And then there's a um there's a there's a intervention block and then I have to make sure that um I know what the kids were supposed to learn and I have to assess that on their way out. So there's all of these things that go into these teacher moves and so sometimes it becomes intimidating say and now
125I got to take the the concepts or the standards and actually come up with a project um that's going to be fun. So even that right so sharing those resources and having those opportunities for folks to know that that actually exists actually in our curriculum right now but there's also that's not the only place it exists. There's other ways that we can actually go about that um and that we can provide those resources um This may sound like it's off topic but it's really not, right? So just today I I learned a little bit about um a case study in Aldi. Um Have you read this case study? Um and it's specifically around reducing um the the stuff, right? When you I don't shop at Aldi. I will now that I've mentioned it. Um but
126um that you don't walk in to the the aisle around bread and see a thousand different types of bread. There's like four um and it takes out the the decision fatigue if if will so that you actually all right, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do that. I'm going to take that one piece of bread right there of the four and that's what I'm going to actually utilize. That's a sort of large, you know, an an an analogy of saying in many respects, that's also what it's like being a school leader, to be a teacher, is there's so much available out there in terms of that creates decision fatigue. Well, we can help support that by reducing some of that, taking the best practice, taking things like that that have worked really
127well and sharing those opportunities for folks to say, "All right, I'm going to of these three, I'm going to use that one right there. I'm going to give it a shot." And when I give it a shot, if it works, great. If it doesn't, I'm going to learn from it and how I can do it better next time. Even that is is an aspect of change management. Even that's that's how we adapt and and grow and create a culture where learning is is not something that is happens to us. It's something that's intentional that we're learning from those specific decisions and we do it better the next time because we we had the the support and the enthusiasm and the motivation to try it when we didn't know if it was going to work or
128not. Like that that level of enthusiasm is what our kids are begging for and and that was a case in point of taking a a leap and allowing to allowing them to actually engage in a podcast and take all of these these applications and and put it into their overall experience. Matt, we had a discussion and it's in the report as well about the IME or the team model. We've kind of been shifting. Can you help clarify for us the timeline? So, kind of similar to my earlier question as far as like where are we on that journey as far as >> First year. So, we're just the beginning and so when do you think that is fully implemented and when do you think we see returns in the form of results from that? Yeah,
129so we'll have an indication here at the end of year, right? So, our kids are taking assessments this week, right? They're taking Iowa assessments this week. So, um we're we're in the throes of the state assessment. Um and what So, we'll we'll know um kind of what have an indicator of of the success of that moving forward. Now, I say that and at the same time the the Iowa assessment right now, um as we've been told, has changed up a little bit and it may not be comparable to last year's Iowa assessments. And so, there there's there's some things that we're going to have to talk through a little bit about what we what we think about that as a as a board and as a as a as a system, but um so, but
130we'll also have those other sort of indicators, right? Of attendance, of of of student referrals, things like that. Those um sort of ancillary um secondary indicators of success um will be available at the end of the school year to let us know, all right, is this the continued the right investment for us to continue to make? Um and then we'll we'll move forward with it. But in terms of your is it fully working? Um you know, I I would never say the the board reports themselves are based on 3 years of data. And so, I would offer um that that 3-year model, that trend data, would be the the measure. Need more. Right. I mean, I would Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't feel comfortable telling you after just a single year, this is the this
131is the one. Um I think we would need a couple years of data to to make sure. Appreciate the question. Board members, any additional questions before I entertain a motion? Okay. May I have a motion and a second to accept the report? I'll make the motion to accept the report. Thank you. I'll second. We have a motion by Dixon and a second by Campos. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any uh questions? So, I'll make the motion to accept the report, but I guess the um there's there's a part of me that feels like it's really unfair to not accept this report uh because it really is very early in the time when you're being held responsible for what we're looking at here both from trend line data that you didn't have anything
132to do with and um the you know what we're looking at moving forward. I will say for myself, Matt, that I I really am looking forward to seeing and and to hearing more of the aggressive tone of what you talked about tonight uh both from a taking things off the board for our teachers from a PD standpoint uh and really prioritizing on this. Uh but then getting aggressive and creative with finding the that hockey stick move that Skyler was talking about to get to where we want to go but beyond that as well. I um you know, [clears throat] sitting here for 2 years, what we talk about here is really it's it's logical. It's effective. It's research-based. It's all of those things and one of the things that it's not is super aggressive. And
133it may seem aggressive in the classroom from like this is what I can do. Yes, that's totally right. What else are we going to do go do? What else are we willing to do as a community to help support this goal um and so I I'm looking forward to seeing more of that and I'd like to see more of that because the next time this comes up I am going to feel like it will be hard for us to accept this if we're not seeing that kind of aggressive um input into the outcome that we're looking for. >> Sure. Understood. I would echo those comments but and also offer uh you know, when I I was writing down for my reference next time we monitor this what I would be looking for and what I
134hear being some a large impetus behind what should be changing is around culture and behavior. And while I do think that will contribute um but it's it's not my role or goal to say if if it'll contribute to that level or not. So, I I am prematurely approving and or accepting this um because I believe that it will contribute to it. But, I I would agree I'm not sure a change in behavior or culture alone is aggressive enough um to get us to where we need to be. No, I appreciate it. Um I guess what I would offer is is um as a as a leader in a learning organization, um I look forward to learning whether or not it works and if it doesn't, what are we going to do differently? I want to
135um agree with both Skyler and Pat. Um one thing that I consistently see on the monitoring reports is uh inconsistent GLEAM implementation um um I can't even think of it. Yes, data across uh different schools. And I hope that other schools are seeing what the students did today, um came up with these podcasts and using GLEAM. Um and I want to see that change because I it's consistently seeing the same what's not going well. Um but like I I I am going to accept it, but next time, you know, I want to see that 100%. Understood. Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved 7 to 0. >> [clears throat] >> We will move on to the consent agenda. As a reminder to the board and public, the board will not engage in
136discussion or deliberation with a speaker regarding comments made to agenda items. Discussion and deliberation will remain among board members at the board table with speakers comments informing the the discussion, deliberation, and determinations as deemed necessary. Ms. Rios, do we have any speakers? No speakers. Thank you. Mr. Howell, I believe that you have the consent motion. >> [snorts] >> I do. I move that the board approve the consent items in accordance with the recommended action for each item on the consent agenda, including bills previously authorized, certified, and approved for payment by the board secretary in the amount of $12,563,447.86. We have a motion. Is there a second? Dix, second. We have a motion by Howell and a second by Dix. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes.
137The motion is approved or the consent items are approved 7 to 0. Next, we have two public hearings. The first item, F1, public hearing for CIP26012, McCombs Middle School CTE addition. The public hearing will come to order. Is there anyone wishing to speak to this item? Hearing no one, I will close the public hearing. Superintendent Smith, will you please introduce the matter? I recommend the board review the proposed plans and specifications prepared by Shive-Hattery for an addition at McCombs Middle School, hold a public hearing, and approve the plans. May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? Move, Mayberry Maze. Campo, uh second by Campos. There uh is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved 7 to 0. Next item
138is F2, public hearing for CIP26034, Weeks Middle School classroom addition. The public hearing will come to order. Is anyone wishing to speak to this item? Hearing no one, I will close the public hearing. I'm supposed to gavel twice. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce matter? I recommend the board review proposed plans and specifications prepared by Studio Maile for classroom addition at Weeks Middle School, hold a public hearing, and approve the plans. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? Hopkins motion. Second, Mayberry-Mayes. We have a motion by Hopkins and a second by Mayberry-Mayes. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. >> [snorts] >> The vote is approved 7 to 0. Now, we will move to our other business items. The first
139item is G1 personnel recommendation receive file and action. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? I recommend the board receive file and approve the notice of a recommendation to terminate the continuing teaching contracts for reasons stated within. Thank you. May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? Alonso so moved. Campos second. We have a motion by Alonso and a second by Campos. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved 7 to 0. The next item is G2 public hearing language. Um This particular item um was brought to um our attention regarding um uh the way that we do public hearings, which we just had two of them. Um Mr. Howell, you questioned the language that we use um
140regarding our public hearings. I would recommend that we adjust the language uh that we use as we enter into the the uh public hearings. And um that recommendation is that the board does not review and receive. Rather, if they would like to review and receive, they can certainly request it from the superintendent, but my recommendation is that um we accept the um recommendation of the superintendent. So, um that is my my recommendation. I would entertain a motion and a second to change the language for this item. I'll move and appreciate the the the motion and the the opportunity to to make that a fix. Thank you. Second. >> [snorts] >> We have a motion by Howell and a second by Dix. Board members, is there any questions or discussion? Okay, board members, please cast your
141votes. >> [snorts] >> The motion is approved. The vote is approved 7 to 0. Thank you. >> [snorts] >> Next, uh we have information-only items. H1 is the school board meeting calendar. Um board members, the school board meeting calendar, this is a first read. Um please take a look at that and we will vote on that under consent at our next meeting. H2 is a list of new hires for your review. And next on [snorts] our agenda is our items of privilege. I would like to ask if any board members have anything to share. I've got two. Um just a thank you to our culinary arts program for um uh taking Councilman Joe Gatto on a tour. I got to go with him. Uh watching a restaurant owner go through our culinary arts program was
142kind of fun uh and nice to hear some of the ideas and some of the thoughts that he had for our students. Great to hear our students give him some feedback uh about how hard it is to get a job as a teenager when your resume is not full of experience, but you've got this experience in our kitchen here. Um he had some great suggestions for them to try to help them out to get get more jobs. So, that was that was great. And the second one is maybe the the oddest email I've ever gotten as a a school board member, but I got an email from um turns out a colleague who uh just drives past Oak Park Elementary every day and he asked that I recognize the crossing guard who is out front
143of Oak Park Elementary because he said I don't have kids there. I'm not affiliated with the district at all but he said it is the best part of my day going by and seeing how enthusiastic she is with the kids, how they respond to her, rain or shine she is always there. I reached out to Oak Park and the principal there principal Denton and it was really um sort of heartwarming to hear her first response was we get messages like this all the time about our crossing guard Cora Musfeldt is is her name and and so just I think this is a great opportunity to just thank and recognize the work of all of the folks who the dozens of people that get our kids across the street safely, get them to school. They're like
144our bus drivers sort of the first people to give them a smile in the morning and get them home safe at night. They do a great job under sometimes bad winter conditions and so I just wanted to let you all know about the oddest email I got this week but it was a great one. >> [laughter] >> Careful what you wish for. I will just follow up on that with the crossing guards. I think we need to do like a video or a documentary or something on them because they are all >> [laughter] >> amazing. [clears throat] Eric is outside my office on 6th and Euclid every day and he is phenomenal and we love him so dearly. So it's really cool. Bravo. I wanted to acknowledge four gentlemen that in my other capacity I've
145had the opportunity to work with and just observe and the names are Brian Tate, Matthew Griffis, Demarcus Taylor from East High School and DJ Gotchet from Lincoln High School and you know they went out of their way recently to meet with the group of students during the school day but also on a weekend on a Saturday morning, not a lot of people are probably willing to do that. I question if I wanted to get up that early and do it, but they went out of their way to truly defend the potential of some high school seniors that knew in the next 60 days their life will likely look very different and didn't necessarily have a plan for what that would look like. And they said, you know, we're going to go out of our way,
146we're going to meet with these students to give them a plan post high school. And I know that that happens all the time in our classrooms with many of our teachers and support staff, but I really want to acknowledge them because there are people like that that are really the heroes in our district that that aren't always acknowledged, maybe because they don't have a certain title, they're not convened around a certain purpose or certain organization or group, but I really want to acknowledge those four for the work that they did. Um, and to see the students at the end of that program, there were about 20 high school seniors, um, come together with smiles on their faces because they now have a plan after mid-May really brought a lot of happiness to my heart. So,
147thank you to those four gentlemen. Um, so I have two things. Our, um, girls flag football, I'm trying to look it up online, I can't find it. So, it'll be on our website. Um, so our girls flag football league is starting up, um, I think this month, so look it up. This is a great opportunity to go support our young girls, um, in high school and empower them in this new sport. And also, um, a chance to go to Multan Elementary School, um, Thursday they are throwing a multicultural night. So, anybody in the community, um, is welcome. And if you want to see Multan, um, I know we're going to do some trying to get some tours, um, before we uh, close it and tear it down, This would be a great opportunity to go
148and, uh, tour it and then see what our students at Moulton is doing are doing. Um, it's a really awesome multicultural event that they throw every year. I have three things. Um, one, I believe that she is in the room. Is it Kelly Scofield? I would like to do I would like to give her a shout out. Uh, we, um, you know, talked earlier about how important it is to maybe move things out that don't work anymore in the district. Um, and I completely support that. I, uh, really appreciate though, uh, that we can see truly what still works for students in our district. And Miss Scofield was very supportive of, um, maintaining Latinos in Action and it's changing now to, I think, Alianza or something like that along those lines. So, um, Miss Kelly
149Scofield, muchas muchas gracias on behalf of all the students and the families that find that program to be life-changing. Um, I am so excited to be with them, uh, this weekend at Roosevelt. So, muchas gracias otra vez. Um, the other person that I wanted to give a shout out to was Mr. or is Mr. Leib. Mr. Leib at East High School is, I think, he deserves some medal of some sort. Um, he, you know, we talk about people going beyond what they really what their role is. Um, he has been consistently um, supportive. He is approachable. He is sensitive. He invites parents to come and talk to them. He, um, gathers people to become, uh, a support network network for students that really need the support. And so, today, um, Mr. Leib, he can have
150my Valentina because my Valentina is like the most Valentina right here. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Leib, this is for you. Thank you so much for the work that you do. >> [snorts] >> And the last one is to all the families that have graduates this year. Uh, what an accomplishment, not just for the students, but for the families behind them. Um, thank you for the teachers that have been supportive of them, encouraging them. Um, thank you for all the work that you do every day to make sure the kids get there. Thank you. All right, one more I'll pile on. I just want to lift up Last week I got the opportunity to attend, um, my first middle school track meet at Hoover. And I encourage everyone, uh, to attend one because I saw some
151of the best of our, uh, school district there. And what I mean by that is we had extremely committed volunteers and coaches that were encouraging a very wide swath of athletes, um, that were trying s- events that they had never done before. And we had everything on display from what appeared to me to be world-class hurdlers that were doing this with these two students, uh, who were competing and stopping to catch their breath while they were on the track. And we saw the supportive, uh, culture and community on those teams of everyone cheering on both both ends of that spectrum. So, I encourage everybody get out and see a middle school track meet. It was It was a joyful experience that I wish everybody could see. And sorry, one more thing. Just a reminder, next
152Thursday is the DMPS Foundation dinner. It's an amazing, wonderful night. Um I know that they've got several school choirs and um performers that will be there and it's just a really cool night to celebrate our district and all that they do. And there are still tickets available. Most importantly, it's a really great fundraiser, as well. Thank you. Um I will now turn it over to Superintendent Smith for the Superintendent's report. I don't have a report. Um >> Fantastic. >> [laughter] >> There's more work to do. We're We're not quite done here. We have a closed session. Uh thank you for joining us this evening. We greatly appreciate you all. And uh this meeting is adjourned at 7:34. We will take a 6-minute break and transition into closed session. 6-minute break. >> [laughter]