001e of the education School District number 40 at 6m on Monday February 24th 2025 Performing Arts audre Evon here J Smith here Ramona Dixon here Jason Perell here Lindsay hind Here Andrew W here R Smith Abigail Greenley Kumar all right uh the recommended motions that the Board of Education approve Audrey Adamson to participate remotely during the Monday February 24 2024 Education meeting [Music] the United States America stands appointment of board secretary Pro 10 recommended motion that the Board of Education Dr Brian board secretary Pro for the February 24 2025 Board of Education Smith hia Dixon hi Jason barell Lind hind hi Roman Smith Audrey adson Audrey Adamson and hi hi sorry hi all right approval of the minutes uh minutes of the regular meeting of education of February 10 2025 all in favor iOS Communications
002public comment and participation right recommend a motion that the Board of Education approve the actions contained in send agenda as presented Jason Perell hi Lindsey hind hi Aaron Ren Smith audre Adamson J Smith hi Rona Dixon Andrew W hi Audrey you want to cash a vote hi thank you all right special recognition recipients of the isbe those who Excel all right I'm excited to recognize two of our amazing teachers tonight Tiffany Dennis if you could please come up and Miss Jenna venison could give them a round of applause opportunity publicly honor and celebrate our teachers and our staff we take every opportunity to do so um the work is hard um these amazing teachers are so many things to so many kids and they're there to support their colleagues and um they are just excellent
003representatives of our profession so I am excited to just publicly thank Miss Tiffany Dennis art teacher at Wilson Middle School and is a teacher at Franklin so these opportunities come from the State Board of Education the Illinois State Board of Education seeks multiple different opportunities to recognize Educators throughout the state there are various different uh awards from meritorious service to recognizing early career educators and so I feel and and the rest of us feel that anytime our Educators get recognized by the State Board of Education it is a huge deal so these lovely ladies will have an opportunity in May to go to Bloomington and participate in a formal ceremony and a special dinner and so we just wanted to take this moment very publicly here in front of our Board of Education to say
004thank you for everything that you do so congratulations oh my gosh would you tell them that I was J's teacher I will Circle thank you and thank you to the support of family and administrators um you know Educators lean on their family so very much we cannot do it without your support so what a wonderful showing of your beautiful families here well thank you but there's also another person that got award from the uh from this Dr Savage was also awarded a Meritage service award and that kind of speaks to her servant leadership uh style that she has um worked very hard to um cultiva in this district and it it shows the the transformative transformative leadership and uh you know we've done a lot of things here in the short period of time you've
005been here so I thank you for everything you've done for this picture before you guys leave all right all right so we're going to do um the next up on the agenda is a facilities update um fortunately Mr D could not be here so I will entertain motion that the facilities update be Ted until the March 10 2025 the hi Smith Audrey Audrey Adamson hi J Smith hi Rona Dixon hi Jason barell Andrew W hi all right ambitious instruction yes um so uh tonight with us we have uh Dr Rob Thornell from hmh and um you know part of our uh work that we've been doing with our essential framework is uh focusing on ambition instruction and that was one of our Pace SCS this year uh we set up this year to work on
006our rigor engagement rubrics and Dr uh Thornell um actually was working today and at the district and he will be working tomorrow so we thought it'd be a great time to update the board on that pce goal and the work we' be doing because it's really exciting work and it's really making a difference I'm going to turn it over to Rob uh you me plug mine in that just go good oh you come up here ladies and gentlemen and rest thank you so much for having me today it's been an honor to work here in uh mink Co Valley were about really about the last year and a half or so there we go go from there want to talk just a little bit about some of the things we did kind of the the
007partnership time the why and the work that we've been we've been doing so far this year as you know you're a longstanding partner with NWA you've done some amazing work and that's actually where my background came into I was uh I was working in NWA in Center model schools which is a division of M acquired inwa in 2023 and when we did that one of the things that or when they did that because I was working with NWA when they did that Molen coal was at the top of the list because of all the outstanding work that you guys have done with them and everything that has gone on and so we wanted to continue that partnership and met with your District leadership and talked about some different things on how we could continue that
008uh that thing and so the timeline was this uh last year came I got to to do a series of professional learning with some of your staff members I got to meet with your principles met with some teacher leaders some instructional coaches and then we also did classroom observations just kind of say hey where are we what does it look like how might we help what can we do and through that what did we see I did uh I did 54 formal observations and when I me formal that just means it was me by myself with our our rubrics and our guidelines just saying this is what I see and this is what I think in addition to that uh principles and teachers walk with me and we did about 60 others this was actually
009a classroom that I was in last year and I was in there again today over at John Deere middle school but the overarm on majority of your classrooms are such positive learning environments you've got such great kids and teachers it was just a a fun experience to do that and learn through that and then just some more pictures but I Bo you might recognize some of those folks though we've done just about every campus as we went through but so then last summer we went through and talked about what was your pace goals and what were you talking about doing and with that achievement piece the classes are academically demanding and engaging uh for students emphasizing the application of knowledge and that that's what we want that's ambitious instruction of the five Essentials and so
010in doing that when we look at the center for model schools we have a series of four rubrics that we use for rigor relevance learner engagement and relationships and we really tried to focus in on and say we would like to help you with your achievement on the rigor rubric during the fall semester like how what of those assignments in the rigor rubric has several different components that I'll talk about and then in the spring we're starting on student engagement and what it what does it look like in the learn environment in your classroom so that's what we've been doing this year this is a slide that I stole that you may have seen before because it was Dr Savages from the summer but this is where this is kind of your own Journey as
011a district and the five Essentials and you know you've gone from all yellow to you got a bunch of green and the two that you don't have green ambitious instruction and supportive environment we were looking at why would that be and so some of the scores that came out again I believe you probably seen this or seen data related to it but two things that I circled are the quality of student discussion and academic personalization are things that uh you know we could improve upon things that we want to kind of focus in on as challenges of our work and we do that through those supportive environment and ambitious instruction and when you combine those two together those two that you still have that are yellow that's when you get the most lasting direct impact
012on student outcomes because you have to have that supportive environment for kids and then you have to have an ambitious instruction so you see I highlighted some of those words there but that idea that teachers push all students towards High academic performance that's what we're looking for and how are we building and applying our knowledge and so that's kind of what we've done uh I was able and had the opportunity in August I did a short presentation for your entire teaching staff as part of their back to school I was excited I've done four half day sessions with your instructional coaches and boy I wish you had bu I wish you could clone them they're they're wonderful people they're helping your teachers do different things gotten to do two half day sessions with your principles
013but the majority of our work as has been walking side by side with your teacher leaders and your campus principles through learning walks and then the last thing I'm going to do in June I get to do some instruction leadership as an part of the administrator's Academy but I want to talk about learning walks real quick because that's that really is the heart of the work uh over the course of this school year uh we're going to do 12 days we've already done eight we've got four left and we we basically we divide the day in half and we have people from multiple campuses and today for instance we had people from John Deere and Wilson uh Middle School and we did half a day at one school and half a day at the other
014and they so they got to see each other's schools and their classes and their their campuses and we've actually been at Middle School several times and so they've got to kind of get that habit and it's different teachers every time and so they're getting to see others classrooms and uh I know the feedback I've gotten from them has been very positive not because of anything I do but because they get to see their peers teach and they've enjoyed that and working through that and so we do that uh we've done the we did the riger rubric and focused on that uh in the fall again and now we're doing the learner engagement one and so by the end of May we'll have done 22 different campuses uh when we do high school we do that
015all in one day but the Middle School comes and joins us it's so big 20 20 220 approximately different classrooms I will say you were going to far ex that number because just today the middle schools they put us through the paces we did 45 classrooms today we did the schedule we put in four different groups but we did uh we did 21 I think at Wilson and 24 beer so we got to see a a big uh sampling of what going on in your classrooms I know you can't really read that I'm sure that they'll get you the copies of the survey but just the bullet points we talk about the majority of classrooms your kids are working they're working on tasks that's one of the biggest things that probably we've kind of uncovered
016if you will you know if we peel back is we want to make sure our students are working on academically challenging assignments they're doing a uh your principal's probably sick of me saying this but I'll say your kids are doing exactly what we ask them to let's just ask them a little bit more and that and that's what we're trying to do that's that culture we're working through on that but they're definitely doing well you see the small group instruction it's been such an emphasis at the elementary school and your teachers are really experts at that as we get through how how are we meeting each other's each kid's needs and going through the different things and so what I do is I I take a lot of pictures when I go and I give
017them some comments and feedback and so in principle after their their visit they get to see these and one of the things I should have added is we work real hard on descriptive feedback not evaluation feedback and and I think the teachers that have participated would say this is not it's not evaluative at all we're just hey this is what we saw we know it was only 10 minutes and sometimes those 10 minutes are great and sometimes those 10 minutes are a struggle because that's real that's that's school and so we don't don't worry about that too much but here's another one I love this class you know it's just a simple assignment but through the teachers's good questioning and and a higher level question that they're asking which is part of our rigger rubric
018it takes that that assignment to the next level challenges the kids could think through that way and so that's some expert stuff we saw teachers using technology as a as a way to form Stu how all the kids are doing it once they can do it instantly so those are those are great things um this example I liked this was actually at the high school I believe and they were just talking about the Constitution and different questions and this idea because on our rubric it's emerging to develop oh sorry I went too fast is the same lesson can be different things for different kids based on how the teacher frames that how they how they ask the questions and also how the students respond to the question because that's next level one of the things
019we want to talk with is okay we got this great assignments but we can't let the kids off the hook we got to we got to force them to answer at a high level and they're doing and the kids are doing just that so that's been exciting just some more examples of kids talking working together analyzing text it's really important we want them to read and write something of quality every day read and write something of quality every single day and once they do that they get to share with their peers and and analyze their perspectives and so those are just this is a a math one that we have all those different examples of them doing things I just close with we're very excited about the partnership with Molen Valley you've been invited as
020one of only seven district what we call Innovative districts around the nation to represent this area in Washington DC and so you congratulations for that but again the work that uh everybody has putting in has just been been great and I hope that that said enough you wor go too long we're right on okay no I'll just end with this rob you know the advantage of having Rob here he travels to whole United States he's in classrooms from Maine to California and everything between and he brings a nice perspective when he meets with these principal meets with our admin and the teachers and you know um it's just like what he said I always steal those L we just trying to get a little bit better our kids are showing up every day they're ready
021to learn teachers have great classroom management and it's just pushing our kids a a little bit more because the task matters and I think that's what I take from this and um what's really nice to see is how the buildings the teachers love getting in and watching their peers I was over at Hamilton uh last week um they were doing their own walkthroughs right wasn't there they had set it up themselves and the conversations that these teachers were talking about like just complimenting their their colleagues on man that was really awesome I I gota I got to use that you know that approach um so it's it's been going really well and and we're hoping that um through this our culture will change because back when I was a principal I would be like hey
022uh you know um I call another principal up or a teacher would come say hey I want to get in a classroom and see somebody that might happen once or twice a year and we that might affect two or three teachers but we want the culture to be you know get our teachers in observe their colleagues and learn from that because we got great things going on and and I really thank Rob and his team for coming in because I think it's helped us um develop a a a way to recreate this down the road so that can be our I'm trying not to work myself out of job but that really is the goal and Mr be will have a role in that but his campus has done a great job taking it on
023and they do it I know they do it by themselves without me as well so thank you for that any questions let me off the hook thank you very much for the opportunity to share engage Services banking services recommended motion that the Board of Education engage in banking services with CBI Bank and Trust mustine Iowa for primary bank accounts of Link Valley School District any questions J here Adamson hi J Smith hi Ramona Dixon hi Jason frell Hi lindsy hind Hi and hi award a bid Browning Field concessions rest facilities facility improvements recommended motions that the Board of Education award bid for Browning Field concessions and restaurant facility improvements Centennial contractors of the Quad Cities in only Illinois for the amount of 1,934 call please Audrey Adamson I T Smith hi Rona Dixon hi Jason
024barell Hi lindsy hind hi ER Al Smith Andrew W right reports requests and open okay first and foremost I want to Echo what Brian said about our partnership with Rob and hmh um it has been a really really positive uh decision for us and help gain some strong momentum in our goal to acheve achieve um that ambitious instruction strong um category from the Illinois 5 Essentials it has been so exciting to see teachers so willing to open up their doors it seems like for years teachers had their doors shut and we were a lot of us operating like independent contractors but we have such Rich um instruction happening all across the district and so I'm just just elated that teachers are comfortable they feel safe they know that their leadership supports them and feel comfortable
025opening up their do so I'm just grateful for the work that Rob Rob is doing and Brian for uh taking the lead on that so thank you um speaking of our five Essentials the survey is launched to parents teachers and staff we have a goal to continue with the record high levels of survey participation as well as working on our ratings for um all of the five Essentials including um collaborative teachers and staff ambitious instruction involve families and community and supportive envir IRS we've planned for incremental District messaging about the survey and individual schools are also reaching out regularly to their families and internal stakeholders um as a reminder the election is slated for April 1st and the Molen Education Association in partnership with the Molen Public Schools Foundation plan to host a candidate Forum
026on the evening of March 12th at 6: PM in the Bartlet performing art right here in the auditorium I believe they send to send out a press release and promote that event and they are the entity sponsoring that event um there are there is also a multitude of information and support of guas for candidates on the Illinois Association of school boards and website um speaking of IB as a reminder uh we have a Blackhawk division event um that is going to be hosted at Rock Island high school Thursday March 27th I do know that is during our spring break but for any members that would like to attend just let us know we can get you registered I do have Jason registered and Audrey and so if anybody else um I know are you probably
027still working on your plans or already know you will be out of time we're happy to get you registered and eille and Abby that goes for you guys as well um we do have our mission and vision uh Community stakeholder event on Wednesday night um that will be um a two-part event to gather ideas and perspectives from both internal and external stakeholders for the purposes of refreshing our district mission and vision statements um this work is aligned to our pay school category P for people um the first event will be Wednesday night and the second one will be Monday night both hosted at the John Deere Middle School cafeteria from 5:30 to 7 uh light meal will be served and so we're hoping Wednesday night we'll finish at 7 and get over to Wharton in
028time for tip off at 7:30 so we'll just get packed up and ready to go so we can watch um some exciting basketball um and then lastly we are planning for a tenative open house at the Molen education center it takes a long time to move in as many of you know but little by little we're getting things ready to go and we're looking forward to opening up our doors for parents and students and staff and community members on the evening of April 23rd that's all I have for tonight Dr Savage all right student Board of Education M of yeah so uh first I want to touch a little bit about what Dr Savage highlighted which was two Educators that recogniz for the word today I want to specifically highlight Mrs Denny's who I don't
029know if you remember me but I was one of your students in class and I I have have so many good memories my sister was also a student in art class and I remember during Co times right we were remote learning all the you know inperson art was to computers you still made an effort to encourage your student St to create art at home and then put that on slideshows or share it to people in the community and so for for both of you guys you know going Beyond just what you guys are expecting to do or what you guys know are required to do is truly exceptional and I want to I want to recognize it I want and I want you guys to know that students like me truly value Educators like you
030go beyond you guys do every and truly truly set a new bar so a little bit about engagement what's going terms of Athletics basketball wrapped up wrapping up baseball is having their try in Spring and Bo tennis is be starting sport starting up pretty soon on the club and activity side today after school a meeting is currently working to organize the Charles Carpenter statue ceremony so the author of the book is actually supposed to come the daughter of Charles carer make she also we're currently creating four PLS for Charles Carpenter statue and going to get that installed have the ceremony sometime around in May and NHS is currently in the process of organizing it induction so everyone who applications privacy by and journalism has last issue already working next month issue tomorrow EXC educ M
031discussion um you should be good and really that was just account for um we're g to order pizza so really it was just account for that but more than we um how many do I can how many plan to attend on Wednesday sost I think should be able to be here we will go ahead and post both nights um on that's a good idea for February 26 and for March 3rd and then if you decide the last minute you are able to join officials come out s session to consider purchase lease or lease of real property and to consider setting a price for sale orase property and to consider student disciplinary cases and to consider the appointment all right back in the open session to the chair all in favor anyos