Lisle 202 Board of Education Regular Board Meeting June 22, 2026

001It is June 22nd, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. And I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Lyle Community Unit School District 202 Board of Education. Ms. Sims, if we could please have a roll call. >> Sure. Ms. Di Domenico. >> Present. >> Ms. Foster. >> Present. >> Mr. Helderle. >> Present. >> Mr. Nagler. >> Present. >> Ms. Novasel. >> Present. >> Ms. Sims is present and Ms. Allman. >> [clears throat] >> Present. >> Thank you. Before we proceed with the agenda, I want to take a few minutes, sadly again, to recognize the unimaginable loss of a cherished member of our 202 community. On June 12th, Ally Fips, a beloved student at Lyle High School, passed away suddenly at age 17. Despite physical challenges Ally met throughout her life, she was always smiling, cheerful,

002and optimistic. She was recognized for kindness, sense of humor, and contagious smile. And she brought happiness and a loving spirit to everyone around her. She It was evident in the pictures that her family shared and in the number of people that came to honor Ali yesterday. She made an indelible impact on her family, friends, students, and staff. Ali was an accomplished athlete who earned numerous medals and state-level honors in basketball, track, and field. And it was only 4 months ago that the Lyle Booster Club gave a shout-out to Ali as she participated in the wheelchair division state bowling competition in Rockford. Ali loved people, and in turn she was loved by everyone who knew her. She will be missed and remembered forever. So, if you would, please join me in a moment of silence to

003honor Ali's life and legacy and to lift up her heartbroken parents and siblings, and her family and friends in Lyle, too. Too. Thank you. Next, will rise, please, for the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Next is our vision and mission statement, which is to provide our learning community with the essential education, skills, and experiences for future success. We'll keep those thoughts in mind as we meet this evening. Public comment is next on the agenda and we do have a blue card from Chris Pysack. It doesn't say former mayor, but I will invite our former mayor to to speak on civic engagement. Looks like you

004brought visuals. >> I did. Thank you. Thank you. Um Good evening, President Harmon, board members, staff, as well as the public at large. Um I was here for the a bit of the uh finance committee meeting and I found that in- informative and engaging. Um I'm here on a on a slightly different effort. Uh I can't offsite your whole budget, but I do come bearing gifts. So Um My name is Chris Pysack. I'm not here as a former mayor. Um just here as a a private individual. I am here tonight to tell a story of civic engagement and public charity. This year the United States of America celebrates 250 years of freedom. Let's get this correct. 250 years of freedom. And so to that end I'm going to see if I can weight that down

005a little bit. Uh to that end an organization called Invest Lyle reached out to the public to fundraise for the purpose of presenting a brand new 4x6 stars and stripes flag and 3x5 America 250 to every school in Lyle. I'm here to report the public knocked it out of the park. While we aimed to present one of each flag to each school, a total of 20 flags, within 2 days the public donated enough for over 50 flags. We're We're the effort to the Lyle Woodridge fire District firehouses and the police station in Lyle and others as they may come along. Donors from outside of town donated as well. The list continues to grow within our community and outside the community people have specified schools outside the community they want their donation donated flags to go

006to. So it's it's growing. The point of this is to raise awareness before the 4th of July for America 250. So Major sponsors kicked in Stevenson Crane, great great sponsor. They knocked it out of the park. Tom Murray, Glenn Grutzmacher, Jeff Bender, Chris Bennett, many many many other private individuals all pitched in, committed to purchasing a flag and I'm here to to distribute them to the to the district tonight. This project will be followed with more larger projects in the future. With that, I present the board with one of each flags, one for the Lyle Elementary School, Lyle Junior High School and Lyle Senior High School. They'll be packaged up. This one is unfolded. I can fold it back into the bag into the box it came in. And who can I present this to?

007Okay. Would you like it in a box or individually? >> [laughter] >> I would like it in a plane, I'd like it in a train. Give me the box. >> There you go. Okay. Dr. Polliard. >> Thank you so so much. We will display these with pride. We appreciate all the support not only the flags but also the community what they have given us over the years. So thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. Would you mind could we get a picture or somehow? >> Of course. Would you like it with the Board of Education? They're a little bit better looking than me. >> [laughter] >> It's It's two-sided, so >> [laughter] >> A tricky >> I'm sure it is. >> [laughter] >> All right. Thank you all. >> Thank you so much. Great

008initiative. >> Thank you. Here's Here's the bottom. >> All right. Five Number five is our action items. Five Uh before we start with the consent agenda five A, does anybody have anything they want to pull for discussion? >> Um can we pull five A nine? >> Yes, we can. Yes, I was actually going to pull it also, so um that's that's fine. I I don't know um why don't we discuss that and then we'll go back and and determine the vote. Um Heatherway, would you What What questions did you have regarding? >> Um they're not I guess I don't have I do have specific questions. It's more of a discussion because the last time we talked we talked about this topic, it was more of a theoretical intergovernmental agreement and we hadn't necessarily seen it

009and I know at the time I had expressed concerns about the length of this agreement and that we were definitely um committing the district to something much beyond any of our tenures. And I wanted to be sure that the language was favorable to both parties. And so I was hoping if the administration is prepared to share what our lawyers' feedback was on this. There are a couple of things that make me feel like less comfortable than I probably would like to be at this point, but I'm not a lawyer, so >> So we had a lengthy presentation. I think it was in Feb February board meeting of 2026 in which we shared the I'm trying to think of the word we used, but it was kind of the memo of understanding. And so the agreement

010was based on that memo of understanding. Our attorney John Fester spoke to the village's attorney. They worked out all the logistics. And so this is reflective of everything we talked about at that February meeting. >> And our lawyer, I think is Heather's has reviewed this agreement. Okay. >> Had a number of modifications in which the village embraced and made it reflected in the document you're seeing tonight. >> And my questions with that were just an understanding of of the terms in surplus. Some of the technical terms it does make a definition, but I just want to be certain what surplus amount would be given to the district. They refer to our frozen base EAV and actual incremental EAV or regular EAV. Those are kind of under page four. So it just just to fully understand.

011>> Sure. In very simple terms, the two big projects here are Arbor Station, which is right behind the village. And then there is what I'll call Family Square, even though I don't know if it's been named yet, which was the former strip mall. So when a TIF comes in place, whatever the property value was, it's they what they call frozen. And so regardless of what happens to that property value, whatever you got before as a taxing body, that's what you'll continue to get. If there's any growth, for example, Arbor Station, if you've driven by recently, there's a lot of growth already. They're putting in a foundation probably very soon. That area, when it's built out, even though it'll be frozen at what it was when the TIF came in place, all the growth that we'll

012see in all of those townhouses, I think there's 60-some townhouses, half of them are in the TIF. Um according to this document, that will all be deemed surplus. It's This agreement is not only for the school district, it's for all taxing bodies. And so, as it relates to Lisle School District, we think we'll get about $400,000 more in property taxes specifically to Lisle School District from Arbor Station. When it comes to Family Square, very similar, whatever that property was valued at at the time of the TIF, it's frozen there. We'll continue to get the property taxes, which was not very much. But any new property taxes from the apartment complex they're talking about building will go to the village. And so, that is something that the village felt very strongly they needed those property taxes

013in order to give an incentive to that developer in order for the project to actually be profitable. So, frozen EAV is when the TIF comes in place, whatever the property was valued. Um the surp I don't know, what was the other term you you used, but it was the incremental EAV, which is whatever the the current is in terms of its value after the things are built. And then the surplus is anything that incremental new property taxes, particularly as it impacts us of Arbor Station. >> Anything to add related to TIFs or terms? >> No, just I think in exchange for that surplus being distributed, which I think Dr. Filipic mentioned is about $400,000, the only thing that the school is giving up is related to the Flaherty and Collins project. Um there's typically a

014set-aside for the school district. So, if any new students come into that uh particular development, then that set aside, based on the number of students, part of it gets distributed to the school district. So, in exchange for distributing the surplus from the Arbor Station, we are waiving our rights to that set aside. So, that's effectively what this agreement is formalizing is uh those two aspects of the terms. And and and And in its most simplest form, it's those two pieces. >> And And that was, I think, very clear probably to everybody. Um the waiver was It was just those technical definitions that I wanted to be sure wasn't kind of messing anything that And And Randy, I think you had a question. >> two, and I'm sorry I didn't bring them to your attention ahead

015of time. Um I'm a little confused on annual actual incremental EAV versus the actual incremental EAV. Which one is it that is the surplus? Are they both surplus? I was trying to figure that out in here, cuz I know when you have to like file a levy for to collect the funds from, and I wanted to make sure if that was the one that we're getting that we know when we have to file that levy, and if it is part of our regular levy, or if we have to do some sort of special levy for it annually. >> So, it's very complex, but in general, we apply our levy for our current EAV. They use that rate for these areas that uh we wouldn't have access to and use our current rate, but we'll we'll

016make sure when we apply our levy that it excludes the TIF areas, the incremental, but then that rate is what's used to actually send out those bills and have the money to go to the village, which according to this agreement for Arbor Station will be distributed to all the taxing bodies, but when it comes to Family Square, uh the village will get that portion. Um the frozen amount that school dis- our school district will get that frozen amount for Family Square and Arbor Station regardless if we had this agreement. It's just now we're going to get the additional amount of money from Arbor Station. You look like you have follow-up questions. Are my hands aren't the visuals you were looking for? >> confused on if So you're saying that our regular levy where we filed

017this or it the regular one that we do, that will include the portions that we should be able to get like the frozen amount that we would be able to collect. Um but there was just a different part in here where it was talking about where we had to file for this surplus amount every year. And so I was confused if that is some other kind of taxing body that has to do that or >> So Sorry, go ahead if you Uh it's not my understanding that we file for that at all. It's just when those taxes are collected, for example, from Arbor Station, um the village at a certain point will need to call 100% of that surplus. And so we got a little bit into the timing. I think where it landed in

018the end, it was October that they need to say everything from Arbor Station is surplus so that it gets sent back to the county treasurer and county treasurer and then distributed to all the taxing bodies, not just Lyle School District. But there's no action on our part. That's That's on the village end to declare that a surplus, send the money back to the county so that it can be redistributed to the taxing bodies for Arbor Station. Is that getting closer to answering your question? >> It kind of is. It says that in there that they have to declare a surplus, but then it says the taxing bodies have to file for a file a levy to collect it. So that's where I was getting confused if that was like a separate thing. >> you have

019to file the levy for them to even figure out the numbers as to what that amount of money would be specifically for Arbor Station and also everything within the TIF, but really it's Arbor Station and Family Square we're talking about. And by us following the levy, filing the levy, they'll know how much our tax rate is to apply to those properties. >> Okay. You look like you have something to add. >> No, you touched on it there. >> Basically, we have to file the levy so they know what the rate is to apply to the surplus, but I guarantee you we will file a levy every single year. >> No, yeah. We didn't learn anything from the presentation. >> No, yeah. I know we file >> [laughter] >> I know we file a levy every

020year, but it just made it sound like there was like a special levy we had to do separate. And so, that was where I was getting confused. So, if that's included in the regular levy >> talking about. I'm looking at it like, "Oh, yeah, that is confusing." But, we will file the levy. >> And I just think probably for the first couple of years we would monitor this closely between the village, this county assessor, the county clerk, and all of this >> It's already in my budget notes for every year until this thing expires. >> I'm not surprised. Thank you. >> I just those questions sparked a question remembering the initial discussion we had on this a while back about the boundaries of this TIF. And a follow-up was that these could expand with this

021formalized contract and the boundary drawing that's within this contract. Does that mean it cannot expand past the boundary now that it's here? Was that potential expansion of the boundary only for the part where they were completing the agreement or is that still it could expand post the agreement? >> It seems like TIF law keeps changing. And so, what we know for sure is that Arbor Station, the taxing bodies in our community, will get the EAV and property taxes of that development. Um we will not be getting the money for Family Square. Whether the village expands the footprint, that's probably something they could do, but that doesn't negate what I just described. >> But they'd have to re-file everything to do that was my understanding. They have to go through that whole same formal process. >>

022would still need to go through the whole process of showing the why, the how, but that wouldn't negate anything we're approving tonight. >> So I will just take this opportunity to point out all of these questions are great questions, but there is section nine in here validity that if any section subsection sentence or clause of this phrase or phrase of this agreement is for any reason held to be invalid such decision or decisions shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this agreement. So that's a pretty binding clause when we're talking about TIF law in flux and asking questions about the calculations and what our requirements and not. This could become in the future fairly one-sided. That's my statement. >> Specifically the language on number nine is what you're >> Right. Like, you

023know, section four we waive our right to any statutory fees and that's a standalone section. If a different section that's really what this district is agreeing to and why we're entering into this agreement is thrown out for any reason or the calculations or the definitions are for some reason changed or discarded from this agreement for whatever reason, the rest of it is still technically binding. And so the village has a few avenues for exit here and I don't see that the school district has the same favorable language, but I am in a position here to trust that our lawyer and the administration feels comfortable with it. Um perhaps that could have been more of a discussion prior to voting on and accepting the agreement. >> Understood. Yeah, and I think Randy and I had a

024lot of technical questions since our name goes on it, and that's binding as as well. Any other questions on it? >> Can we pull this for separate vote? >> We can. Sure. Certainly, we can. Let me just uh pull the language further. All right. Anything else for that item? Let me get into it so I can have it ready. Ah. Of course, it just went out. Okay, I can pull that up. With that, I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda 5A1 Board Meeting Minutes, 5A2 Payroll Pay Orders, 5A3 Vendor Pay Orders, 5A4 Personnel, 5A4A Substitute Pay Rate, 5A4B Administrative Resignation, 5A4C Certified Employment, 5A4D Classified Resignation, 5A4E Extra Duty Employment, 5A4F Extra Duty Resignation. 5A5 Working Cash Fund Transfer Resolution, 5A6 Debt Service fund inter-interest transfer resolution 5A7 fiscal year 2027 tentative

025budget 5A8 amended intergovernmental agreement and amended memorandum of understanding between Lyle Community Unit School District 202 and the Village of Lyle for the provision of school resource officer services. And Let's see an amended that is a joint agreement amended joint agreement bylaws for the school association for special education in DuPage. That is 5B. >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second you. >> Okay Mr. Hilderley. Could we please have a roll call? >> Yes. Mr. Nagler. >> Aye. >> Mr. Hilderley. >> Aye. >> Ms. Foster. >> Aye. >> Ms. Novacel. >> Aye. >> Ms. Di Domenico. >> Aye. >> Ms. Sims is aye and Ms. Allman. >> Aye. >> Thank you. With a separate vote on the inter- 5A9 which is intergovernmental agreement between the Village of Lyle and Lyle Community Unit

026School District 202 relative to the sharing of a portion of the tax increment generated by the Village of Lyle downtown development project area. Any more questions before we vote on that? If not I will entertain a a motion or um a motion yes that the Board of Education approve the intergovernmental agreement between the Village of Lyle and Lyle Community Unit School District 202 regarding the sharing of a portion of the increment generated within the Village of Lyle downtown redevelopment project area. >> So moved. >> Do we have a second on that? >> Second. >> Okay could we also have a roll call? >> Yes. >> Mr. Helderle >> Aye. >> Mr. Niggler >> Aye. >> Ms. Novosel >> No. >> Ms. DiDonmenico >> Aye. >> Ms. Foster >> Nay. >> Ms. Sims is an aye

027and Ms. Allman. >> Aye. >> Thank you. Thank you for the discussion. Next is item six, which is our financial information. Six A is a financial report, six B is our treasurer report. Received no questions on that. Are there any questions now? Okay, we'll accept those as presented and item which leads us to item seven, which is our discussion. Seven A, the use of artificial intelligent in student learning and review of the impact of the part-time librarian and instructional coaches. So, invite our guests down. Thank you for sharing the slide presentation in in advance and we welcome you to to the discussion. >> Good evening, everybody. It's so exciting to be here. Um I'm excited to be here with Tor from the junior high. Tor and I usually come here and we talk about things

028more from a macro level. Um but tonight it's really exciting because we get to talk about where the magic really happens and that is inside the classrooms with the teachers and our students and that is a life of an instructional coach. So, I'd like to introduce today uh Mr. Nick Helms and Dr. Vinnie Soliak and they're going to take you through um a day in their life. They are going to share with you how they have collaborated across buildings, um not only just within, but also two. We have articulated quite often this year and last year between the junior high and the high school. And um I'm excited to um have you listen to what they have to say. And um if there are any questions further up to um Tor and I are here

029to answer any of your questions, but I think the real show is going to start now. So, thank you. >> Hi, everyone. Um thank you so much for having us here tonight. We are so excited to be able to share with you the work that we've done over this past school year. Um we're really thrilled. So, again, thank you for uh inviting us in and giving us the time to be able to share with you. So, um Okay. So, um for this presentation, uh our conversation today, um just to give you a preview of where we're kind of headed, uh we'll start with a little bit of background information on us, uh going into a day in our life collaboration, and our major successes this school year, and then what we've got um kind of

030in the back of our minds as we as we go forward in this upcoming school year and beyond. So, um just a little bit about me. Um I got my degree in English as did Nick coincidentally. We were just 2 years apart going through the English teacher certification program there. Um I have my master's in educational technology and doctorate in uh instructional technology leadership. And I started teaching in 2012, so coming up to 15 years in Lyle 202. This is the only district that I've worked in, and I'm super grateful um to have been able to spend my time here. Um I started off teaching English, and then gradually with time moved part-time to coaching, and then full-time coaching uh in 2020, um which we know was a super uneventful year. Um but uh >>

031[laughter] >> But it really was um uh pivotal moment, obviously, uh the timing, as was the hiring of Nick. If you want to share a little bit. >> Yeah, and uh, hello. Hi, my name is Nick Helms and uh, just like Minnie said, I also went to NIU. So, we both graduated similar times, similar places. Um, I got my master's from uh, Western Governors University in Curriculum and Instruction and I'm also certified to teach English, social studies, uh, special education and have my administrative credential as well. Uh, I began teaching in 2012 also, so also coming up on uh, 15 years as a full-time educator and uh, started instructional coaching when I moved back to Illinois from the West Coast in 2023. So, this is my third year as an instructional coach and part-time uh,

032library resource director as well. So. >> Um, so, we kind of wanted to start off just giving you a little bit of insight into what our day-to-day is like and as we kind of were talking about it, we realized that it's actually um, very complicated to be able to say what an actual day in the life is like because it does vary so much um, from day-to-day. So, uh, we do have standing meetings that of course that um, we're able to attend um, but it also goes so much more beyond that um, where and I know this photo looks incredibly staged. I can assure you it was not. I promise you. As my witness, this is an authentic coaching experience. Um, it can take place um, in a hallway troubleshooting an issue with Google Classroom

033as what was going on here. Um, but it can also transcend through full coaching cycles which Nick has done some tremendous work with um, to throughout this school year. So, um, we uh, are definitely able to leverage these scheduled meeting times among these informal moments to um, to help keep our fingers on the pulse with what is going on in classes day-to-day um, what our students are learning um, as well as even what are the nitty-gritty lessons that are going on like um, Dr. Ewald had alluded to. So, um, for example, um, there was a lesson that I was working on with our eighth grade ELA teachers about metacognition and retrieval practice, which is one of our PLAs that Nick and I had done the school year. We were coming up with the lesson with

034that. And then because of these standing meetings that we had at a social studies meeting with Ms. Blatchley here, she had also mentioned that she's doing something with metacognition and retrieval practice. I was like, "Well, this works out perfectly because you're getting teed up with success cuz our ELA teachers are actually starting off with that then being able to connect those dots among the staff, being able to function as that eagle eye view to be able to make those connections that our staff doesn't always have that luxury of time to be able to do that. So, that's definitely something that I really value and enjoy. >> Yeah, and similarly in the high school, obviously it was a new role. We did not have an instructional coach before this year. It's a hybrid role. So, a

035lot of what I spent the beginning of this year doing is building frameworks for how this was going to work and Lyle 202. Thankfully, I had a great mentor in Dr. Slowiak here to help me through all of that and he had a great reputation before I came in and it was a lot easier for me to then build that capacity that we could use both buildings to be able to inform how we're going to move forward in the district. And a couple of different places where we've been able to do that together is I'm meeting in the building leadership team meetings in Lyle High School and I'm also going to the department meetings at the same time as well. So, we're getting a lot of different face time with a lot of different individuals

036where we can hear about the needs from different staff members. We can also hear about what students are telling us too because obviously in both schools we have advisory committees and Eric Martz off at our school is able to tell me about things that students are talking about. And I can take a lot of that information and we also have students in our study hall all day and I can get a lot of anecdotal evidence from kids that way in a similar fashion that teachers are coming up to us in the hallways. We have students coming up to us in the hallways and uh while none of our days are ever really always the same, there are certain touch points that we have that uh Vinnie and I actually meet every single Friday so we

037can collaborate on different projects that we're working on across the district. Uh it allows us to get a lot of different voices and start to find out what the needs are from the actual people themselves, the teachers, the students, and that way we can then turn that around and use it to our advantage to be able to plan for what we're going to do next. >> Mhm. >> Uh which is also a couple of things we're going to talk about later on in uh I believe slide six. >> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um it is like I had mentioned before um with the standing meetings um but also bringing our own flexibility on a day-to-day basis is also one of the things that makes it hard to describe a day in the life because I might

038go into work that day not having any meeting scheduled and yet all of a sudden I have a teacher who comes up to me and is like, "Hey, um I was going to have the kids do this presentation on Canva, but I think about I'm thinking about pivoting and doing it on Google Vids. Do you think you'd be able to come in and uh help the students record?" And I would say I said, "Yes, absolutely. I would I would love to do that. When are you thinking about doing it?" Um and she said third period. So I was [laughter] like, "Okay, this is great. Um but this is one of the things that um as Nick and I have talked that uh as we're building this trust with our our staff, right? Um we always

039say that it's um What do I say? >> [laughter] >> It's gained it's uh draw like drops in a bucket, right? Gained in drops and lost in buckets. So even these little moments um that happen all the time. Um being able to leverage that. This is an opportunity for a teacher who wants to take a risk, right? They want to try a new tech tool. Um it's a great opportunity for us to be there for them and to be their support system. So >> uh, coaching and what their experiences was like have been like um, throughout the process. So, Nick, if you want to speak a little bit to >> Yeah, and this was in regards to us trying to find a way to get feedback on how the process was working. Again, in at

040least at the high school level, we had a brand new school year where they had not had this previously. So, we wanted to get some feedback with some of the teachers that we worked from worked with previously and determine what had gone well, what they thought was successful in the classrooms, and the reason we pulled this quote here is that I think it kind of speaks to the environment that Vinnie and I are trying to portray when we're working with teachers and trying to make them feel comfortable in that having a safe space to ask silly questions or fail at a new tools are really really valuable thing for an educator and having a safe space to come talk about it or a sounding board to talk about it. When we were preparing for this

041presentation, we we kind of landed on the fact that like 50 to 60% of what we're doing is just listening to what staff members need and trying to not pass judgment on what those things might be. So, being a safe place for them to say that this is the problem I'm having and seeing if we can come up with a solution together, typically driven by what the teachers are trying to do. And in doing those things part of what my goal was when I was working with Dr. Yule at the beginning of the year was just building those relationships. I I came in as an unknown entity for most of the staff members in my building. I definitely was an unknown entity for the staff members in Vinnie's building and thankfully I've gotten a chance

042and it's great that Lyle is small enough that we can work across all three levels. When we have done PLAs, any of the information that we've started to work on up to and including the artificial intelligence things that we're working with and AI resilience with assignments and different platforms that we might use, eventually that's going to go all the way up and down K through 12 depending on what appropriate level is deemed for each of those students depending on those teachers and how autonomous they feel with those things. So, a lot of what we did was building those relationships and and I think that based on the results that we got, a lot of the teachers felt that they had increased confidence in trying new things and I think that that is one of the

043things that we're trying to really capitalize moving forward is that if we can get them to to want to keep coming back to us and continuing to try those new things and go outside of the box to make sure that they're getting better results for their kids, it's going to be better for all of us across the district, too. And we do have more information from them. Across the major things that we really worked on is that instructional redesign component. So, trying to find new ways to either update previous assignments or build assignments that were better suited for the environment that all educators are now finding themselves in. As Manny just pointed out, it's a very different world in the last 6 years since we went one-to-one across most districts. And part of that was

044building the capacity of our educators to be able to work with these new tools at the same time. Not not everybody was at the same comfort level. And I think that because of the work that we've been able to do across the buildings and having PLAs where we can have the K through K through 6 and then K through 5 and then 6 through 8 and then 9 through 12 all in the same place at the same time talking about the same tool was very very helpful for us and is something that we're going to be continuing to build on as we move into the next few years, as well. >> Mhm. Yeah, and just another thing that had come up with this throughout this process as we're going through coaching, something that had come

045up. We have three staff members who are going through a master's program who have done a lot of work with climate and culture. And there was a really interesting chapter where they had certain roles that people play in the building and how they function. So, some of the ones that they had listed and they had one for me, too. Dave Carney as our hero, as someone who you can always go to who will rescue you in difficult situations. Monica Blachely is here as our priestess who was the one who protects our school climate and culture. And so, when these three individuals had come to me and they're like, and we have one for you, too. And I said, okay, this is I'm so excited. Is this and even when Nick and I were talking, he's

046like, oh, are you really like the wizard or like a warlock or like, where did you kind of fall into this? And they're like, well, you're not going to like it then. You're not going to like it. I'm like, what do you have what what is going on here? And they're like, well, you're the spy. And I'm like, the spy? I'm like, this sounds like sneaky and like I'm propelling from the ceiling to like, are you using the instructional strategies we taught you? And you know, like that's that's not the vibe that we're going for at all. And they one, [clears throat] Rebecca McMahon, shout out to you, and Jamie Miller and Natalie Lockyear who were there, too, but it was Rebecca's idea to change the title from spy to liaison, which I was like,

047okay, I feel a lot better with that than spy. The bar was very low. But when they described the qualities of my role as an instructional coach, it was someone who will listen, someone who can gather information, someone who can plan, someone who can identify problems ahead of time. And that made me feel really good. So, I feel like that's something like Nick is saying, that component of listening being so vital to be able to hear people out. And I do sometimes kind of feel like a mechanic, too, where someone will come in, you know, like you have this banging noise, you bring your car into the shop, and there's this banging noise, but as soon as you bring it to the mechanic, the noise is gone. So, I mean, I can't say how many

048times that that's happened to me, where someone's coming in, they have this tech problem, and then we're going through the website, I'm like, oh, and then you it worked. So, I like when those problems solve themselves. Um, this is my favorite slide. Um, so, hopefully you guys were able to kind of go into it, kind of take a preview, click around, because these are the things that I feel like both Nick and I are so incredibly proud of with the work that we've done. And like I had mentioned when I moved into that full-time coaching role right at 2020 as such an inflection point in my career. I feel like this is another one of those years with having Nick on board specifically at this time being such a pivotal moment because >> First semester,

049I feel like was very much a typical coaching experience. We had new tech tools um in Wayground. We were also seeing some new updates and features in Diffit, um which are two great tech tools that I I won't go too far in the weeds with, but they're they're really powerful. Um so, a lot of our um structuring was around different tech tools and instructional strategies um and things things of that sort. And then, second semester was when things kind of um evolved for us um with the support of our administrators, of course, and Jason Markey, who has been um such a pioneer for us in terms of our AI integration um and getting us set up with um training and having an understanding of how we can leverage these tools ourselves. Um so, the one

050I'd like to speak to um Well, actually, we did some IAR stuff that was cool, too. I don't Okay. Um I'll go into some Homework Hotline things um because Homework Hotline has a been a process before where, again, at 2020, this was kind of our um big landing space where everything was going through our Homework Hotline. And not to brag, it is the most um frequently uh accessed website on Lyle 202's page, so just saying. Um but Homework Hotline has gone through some uh renovations where now some our teachers now will receive a daily email where they'll be notified that they need to update, or if it's already been updated, they'll have a preview of what they've already put in. Um so, we're getting that timely access right away for staff who may be, obviously,

051are very busy, but they get that quick reminder in the morning um that it's ready to go. And then, uh once they input it, they can also add a section for summatives where our staff could um Is it a test? Is it an essay? Is it a presentation? What Whatever it might be um can be indicated along with how our students can prep. So, um Homework Hotline is there for our students. Uh it's there for our families. It's there for staff as well during study hall time. They'll have it up and displayed. I'm also really proud, too, that I don't need that Gemini plug-in because I figured it out on Google Sheets of how we can go through the translation process. And this was I cannot tell you how laborious it was to have to

052go through and create the spreadsheet and then to manually copy and paste the formulas to translate it to Spanish. And now it's just something that's all done behind the scenes. So, it's making my life easier and we're getting um more consistent high-quality information to our family. So, super proud of that. And then as well with our i-Ready goal setting, which we have talked about with you guys before at previous presentations, um I was manually going through. We I love the size of our building. It is such an asset to us that I was able to go through and manually create the graphs for our students to be able to track their progress and set their goals. Um but now being able to leverage the tools that we have access to, um we can now not

053only get our students um access to that information, but I also um was able to imagine myself having the conversation with our students of what I would tell a student who went um from fall to winter if their scores had dipped, if they had gone up, if they've already hit their stretch growth. And being able to customize and leverage that information um to create a customized goal setting and reflection experience for both their math and their reading scores. So, I was really excited about that. >> Can you ask a just a quick question? I I tried to um go on to that link and it it's saying unable to open the file at that time for the i-Ready adaptive link. >> Yes. Okay. Okay. I can go through and I will update that. >> user

054error and you could work with me on it. >> But I >> [laughter] >> Okay. Okay. >> Yeah. Every everything else opened well. >> Excellent. Okay. Thank you for letting me know. I will go through and um update that link and so that you guys can get a better better idea of of what that's all about. Um but yeah, I felt like those were two of my projects as well as, you know, the coincidence of Jason Markey and I working on our um math things kind of siloed not realizing that each other um were working on the same task, where we were wanted to create a mastery check for our students based on certain math standards. He was working on one, I was working on one, and then when we had realized that, we kind

055of came together and took the best parts of each to be able to build out a more well suited tech tool. So, very excited about that. And I should notice to mention to, and I think this had come up last month as well, that all of the things that Nick and I are building are housed in our Google web domain. So, when it comes to student privacy, student information, all of that, that is all safe and guarded and protected. So, we might be using these ancillary AI tools to actually build, but once they get implemented into our Google, it is a safe space for all of their student information and data. So, just as a as a note. >> Uh and on my end, when it comes to the major successes, ultimately, I think that

056I was able to be as intricately involved in so many different teachers' planning processes as I was. Being my first year at the school, I was very, very happy with that. Um I I came in trying to slow play, so to speak, how I was going to kind of ingratiate myself with the new staff, and a number of people that didn't know who I was, and had never seen me in [clears throat] a classroom previously. Uh and then within 2 weeks, I was presenting to every single English class on artificial intelligence literacy, and how we're going to roll out this uh our AI stoplight features for the classrooms, and and hopefully how that can move down from 12th grade into 6th grade. Uh so, ultimately, I felt very, very happy that we ended the year

057in a place where I was continuing to get more and more teachers asking me for questions and for coaching cycles uh than we were at the beginning of the year. And I think it's a testament to the district listening to what teachers wanted and needed, and that right away, I was getting people requesting me to come to their classrooms and start working with them. Um and hopefully, it's only been able to continue to grow from there. And so, I I I do want to stress, while I don't have, other than the feedback that we received and we shared with each of you in the previous slides, tangible effects of that, I I do think we're going to continue to see the effects of that, I I do think we're going to continue to see that

058growth as we move forward into the next few years because we're going to have more and more teachers reaching out to work on these things. And some of the ones you might see, and similar to what Vinny was talking about, is with with Jason Markey helping us along, we've been able to build custom web apps and and scripts that are all housed in this Google ecosystem that is safe and secure for students to use. Then you can see under that assessment redesign link that you had there what we started with and what we moved to. Not only was it better for students and more interactive and also kept them better focused, it was also a much easier data collection tool for the teachers so that they can make sure they're giving timely feedback and responding

059to students in a way that made sure that they got what they needed from that particular lesson, especially because it was a test preparation tool. But I also felt very confident and and very happy about the AI literacy work that we did for both students and staff. I think that's really laying the groundwork for you know, we while we do use a lot of AI tools and you know, it's not lost on either of us as former English teachers that this is a different paradigm that most staff members are are focusing on now and that are having to deal with and and they've tools and things that they've never had to compensate for previously. I think the better we do at educating our students about what they might be compromising and the skills they might

060be losing if they're not doing these things. And then also, when we get to when we're talking about the future, building in these AI resilient steps that are going to make it not necessarily gatekeeping students from using artificial intelligence, but teaching them the right way and the wrong way to using it. And if they're not using it the right way, they're going to be compromising these skills that are going to come at a premium. We've already had different staff members go and meet with community organizers and employers, people at higher learning that are saying, "Why didn't you just use AI to work on this? Why wouldn't you use artificial intelligence to help you along with these prototypes or these tools?" And this is the better it'll be for our kids that they can they aren't

061compromising the critical thinking skills that they need to have in this day and age, but they're also going to be gaining those 21st century skills they're going to need to be successful moving into the workplace. Um and I think a lot of that also helped when we are working together across a lot of a few different platforms of of trying to decide what is going to be the best for Lyle moving forward that uh none of our students have access with district devices to any sort of artificial intelligence that isn't provided by teachers at this point. Um so, they can't use it on their district devices, they can't use it on district Wi-Fi if they didn't get access to it from a teacher that's using it on purpose. Um but I think a lot of

062the work we did with the school AI pilots and the brisk pilots helped not only Vinnie and I, but also other staff members start to think about what are the AI tools we're going to be using moving forward, where we'd like to focus our efforts and what type of learning and professional development we need to be able to continue to leverage those tools. Um and I think it also really showed up in not only those PLA experiences, but our our county wide day that uh Vinnie and our um librarian in the junior high hosted for us, but uh you know, that was that was four librarians and it was a really cool experience for us to be able to have uh as you can see from the video kind of just this packed house that

063wanted to learn how we had created a custom GPT as a book library for for students that can make recommendations. So, um it's not just, you know, finding out ways to be able to use these but it's also a new version of media literacy that's really playing out in the the LRC in the high school right now because we're we're having to redo how we're doing research, how we're vetting sources, how do you know if a source is reliable or not, and all of those things are getting wrapped up into this new version of what uh media literacy and what AI literacy is going to mean into the future. You want to start off with that future >> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so really as we're kind of looking forward um with this um whether it's

064artificial intelligence or instructional strategies too. I do want to speak to our when it comes to our analytical writing especially with our reasoning. This was something that you know when Nick and I have a standing meeting every Friday where we connect. However, our communication is everyday. It is G chat first thing in the morning. Hey, hi if we're in meetings all day that might be the only communication that we have. If we have some more flexibility then we are connecting with one another where Nick is sending me articles. If I'm able to attend we're also a part of our um Google >> co-op yeah >> It's a Google co-op that he and I are both are part of. So if he can't make it I'll go be able to share that information with him. So

065we are constantly with each other and one of these things that had come up is when it comes to our reasoning our English department had done some great work towards the end of last school year but hadn't had a chance to kind of follow up with one another. So I was talking with Nick a little bit about that and then he was able to go through and go reconnect with our English department to come back to see here are some things that we've produced when it comes to levels of reasoning. So then I was able to take that then and adapt it to our middle school expectations. So now as we're kind of looking forward I'm really excited to see what that how that presents itself is our freshman now coming in with stronger analytical

066abilities to be able to leverage these reasoning sums to dig a little bit deeper into the content and then constantly just being able to have those touching points to ensure that we're continuing to push our students and to move them in the right direction. So outside of the instructional side yes with the technology it's just so exciting to be able to create Lyle's already small enough that I feel like there was a lot of personalization that was already happening within this district which is so special but now for us to be able to to take it to this next level, to really ensure that we are setting our teachers and students up for success, to give them all the tools that they would need to um hit these standards and push these students. Um it's

067really exciting. And the fact that we're able to tailor things specifically to their needs is great. Like going back to that homework hotline, um I was really excited as I was going through and presenting that. Um I was looking for feedback from students and shout out Joey Z, um who was the one who suggested that he wanted to have the ability to go through and favorite his classes. So then he could hide the rest of the classes and just show his schedule. Brilliant. So then I was able to take that, add that feature in, and now when he goes through he can see his schedule. And then when he uh finishes his assignment, he could check it off and it crosses it off for him, which I thought was was phenomenal. And I also got

068another note from a uh parent who said, "I love the countdown for the summative, but it would just be helpful to to show the date." 100%. I'm able to go back now and create those customizations. So again, this is just more of that listening to what are those instructional goals that our teachers are going to have for their students. How can we ensure one, is this the best approach, right? Because we don't want to use tech for sake of using tech. Um even though we have this ability, we always want to be thoughtful about when we're going to go paper pencil, when we go tech, is this the appropriate avenue for it? Um and just like what Nick was saying with these um school AI and Brisk, this pilot experience which was a AI chat,

069um it wasn't hitting the mark for us. It wasn't something that we were really wanting to pursue or move forward. Um and so we didn't. So we're not going to just rush this just because this is the new thing. We want to make sure that we're vetting every tool and ensuring that this is what actually our students and staff need. Um yeah. Anything else? >> Give that uh I I did want to point out that we are uh part of my summer work that I was doing with the English team uh over the course of the summer the last month or so is creating these AI resilient assessments. Um so the link that you have there is a link to a tool that we can utilize to go through our previous assessments and determine how

070much of this could a student have uh done using artificial intelligence as opposed to their own thinking, obviously. Uh currently it's only skewed towards English assessment development, but hopefully moving forward we're going to be able to apply this to all content areas and also different development levels as well. So uh down to the junior high, possibly into the elementary school if we have staff members that would like to use it. Um so we're really looking forward to uh just as Vinnie said, trying to leverage as many of these tools as we can without turning off the critical thinking skills that our students are going to need. And And again, part of that is going to be the instructional side of coming up with maybe we don't start with the computers right away or maybe there's

071another approach or there's a different strategy that we can utilize that's going to be better for this particular lesson. And then when there is a tech tool, let's figure out the best way to approach it. Uh what what is the best way that we can use it? How do we make it best for our students? So um ultimately I think we're going to be able to do a lot of that moving forward. So >> I do have a question actually on that the AI resilient assignment. Is that something you fill out or the teacher or or collaboratively? >> Could be both. Ultimately I would I in working and coaching cycles with staff, I always want them to do uh their own side of it. And so they go through it and then I go through

072it and we can uh kind of cross check that way. Um but it was new, it was just designed. It was something that I came up with just so we could use it uh going into the summer and it seems to have gone pretty well so far. Um we're actually going to have that shared out tomorrow, I think. Um so hopefully we're going to have some better assignments going into the new school year already. >> Well, I know it's I would suspect as AI gets better to make it more resilient it will be more difficult. >> If I could just say, I think that our approach, first and foremost within instructional coaching, and I think that this is something too I'm coming with the mindset of because I was an instructional coach for a good

073portion of my career about 7 or 8 years of it. Um I think in anything the very first thing that you think about as an educator is how do I make sure my students are meeting the standard or exceeding a standard or working towards the rigor of a standard. So really unpacking that and looking at the verb. So what is the skill exactly? What is the content that they're doing? And what is the cross-cutting concept? So how does this go across all different content areas? And anytime you design a lesson, anytime you uh start with a unit, you're always thinking about from the assessment, what am I going to do and work backwards? The assessment is where I want them to go and it's all directly aligned to the standards. And so as an instructional

074coach, the job is to figure out how you can support the teacher so they can do the work in the classroom to make sure that the students are meeting the rigor of a standard. Where are those gaps? How can I help to fill that in? In some cases it may not be a tech tool at that because again, it depends on the skill, depends on the standard. In other cases, there may be a tool that might be able to help to enhance to make sure that they're actually meeting the level of that of that skill and of that standard. Just as we did I mean for me, gosh, it was a while ago I was in the classroom but like 10 years ago when we were doing more things too one-on-one with Chromebooks and having

075more technology in the classroom, it's not shying away from that and it's not really um I don't know if the proper way of saying is AI resilience, but it is more of how can you leverage AI in a way to meet a standard that you couldn't do before. And so being able to use these tools, these resources, so you can get to a higher level of evaluation, of analysis. If you think about Bloom's Taxonomy, the more you could get up that ladder, the better, rather than sticking to those lower depth of knowledge, identity, or identify, or match, right? And so, in thinking about those AI resilient assignments, and it's twofold, what you're also doing is reminding yourself of the skills of the standard and making sure your assessment is directly tied to that, and then

076utilizing those tools to build it up to where that standard is. And so, truly, if we are creating our standards, or if we are creating our assign- assessments, which is our goal that we're moving through. Sorry, I get excited with assessments and >> [laughter] >> You all know this is my jam. Um I get to talk about it on a Monday night. Um is that the the whole purpose there is to be able to utilize those tools in order to meet that and design those assessments that actually align to them. And I think what happens often is you end up >> [sighs and gasps] >> because that's not where you're spending your time, right? Because it gets very busy. Now you have instructional coaches that help to step in to then support you in those

077areas that you didn't have the time to before cuz you had that assessment. I'm just going to reuse that assessment, but it was from 1975. Um which is not going to be very AI resilient, right? Because it's again might be lower depth of knowledge types of questions, but that's not where we want to go, and that's where we want to we want to make sure we're at the rigor of a standard. So, um I think what was great about this is they were able to work with our teachers throughout the year in identifying those different AI tools, and we had many different conversations around it, too, as a piece for CNI, including with Meredith and just talking about what are, you know, what does School AI do for you? What does Brist do for you?

078And in the end, I I think we all kind of settled on well, I think Google in our environment that we already have and with Gemini, it already meets the match um and it's free. So, it I think that's kind of also too why it worked out so nicely is we all work together thinking about it from different perspectives as well as from the teachers and them being directly in the classroom to know what that looks like when it comes down to the level of instruction and when you're really looking at a lesson and making sure that they are really evaluating in that lesson and what does that look like and why not have multiple different essays that are brought up from AI for them to evaluate that you have right away in front of

079you and now you could do something more further with it uh which is where we want them to go. Critical thinking is what we want them to do every single day as much as possible. So, don't shy away from the AI component of it. Use it at our advantage to get to the skill. >> I I I just I have a a quick question and but I want to start with a comment. Um it's for Dr. Sullivack. I have personally witnessed what you've done with these personalized learning plans and the adaptive um to unique students and I'm beyond impressed. I I watched that and um I felt like Lyle already does such a great job with what they offer students, but seeing you do that at the junior high and what you've offered those students,

080it just levels it up. So, you're doing an absolutely incredible job. I've been so impressed with the work you've done. So, >> Thank you so much. >> wanted to start with that. Thank you so much and I'm so glad you're um mentoring Mr. Holmes as he joins us in Lyle. So, um and then my question um is really for the administrators. Is there ever like So, it sounds like there's all these great opportunities to pull um you guys in the classroom which I think is wonderful. The teachers can say I need help with this." They'll pull you in. It Do we sometimes push? Do you guys ever notice like trends in data or trends in performance in a certain class and say, "You know what? We're going to make sure you really partner with your

081liaison" um in these moments? >> Now, I can speak to that first. Um I definitely like you're saying like you're looking at the data, whether that be I-Ready for us or IAR data, you know, um you know, I think back to one of the earlier slides when it talks about the thought thought partner um and Vinnie's not just a thought partner for the teachers, he's a thought partner for me. I mean, we're constantly talking. Um uh if not daily, it it seems like it and sometimes multiple times in a day. And um even digging into that data together and looking for those trends like you're saying and seeing across the board, um is there a need, you know, for a whole department, let's say, math for example, where, you know, what are we doing to

082really get the students to understand uh not just how they got the answer, but to be able to uh articulate uh the steps that they took and the reasoning that went into it and things like that. So, uh again, um definitely um it there are those opportunities um then for us to be able to gather, um you know, just speaking for the junior high at least, uh for Vinnie and I to be able to go talk with the grade level team if it's a grade level matter or a department team when we have our next department meeting and and really um work with them, collaborate with them to come up with the best way to start to implement that into the classroom. And that might be a tech thing uh like we keep saying or

083it might be um paper and pencil and making them, you know, have to put their thoughts down the old-fashioned way or whatever's going to get the um the point across and get to the actual depth of knowledge like Megan's talking about it, the true rigor of the standard and and what we want them to be able to demonstrate to show that they truly have uh achieved that and met that. >> Thank you so much. Yeah, and I would think, too, as far as in pushing, um I might have pushed, but um I do all this I do gentle nudging and um, I think Nick did a phenomenal job too this year now that we have access and there's many different AI features with Albert.io, but um, one great component of it is our ability to

084provide ACT prep, AP prep, also to just specific content area prep and have every single high school student have access to it on a daily basis and so I was able to uh, again, Nick is a member he's a consistent member of our building leadership team and he's always there to listen to departments needs as well as other trends or patterns that we're noticing as a school. Um, and so identifying that, you know, maybe teachers didn't have as much although so many of them did utilize Albert.io within their classes on specific math things or specific ELA things. Um, what was great because we had our pre-ACT data from October. Um, he was able to work with students during one pride who signed up for that and do so consistently as a library series um, mostly

085second semester building up into April. Um, it was a great way for him to have that data, have that information um, and then being able to provide specific personalized assessments for them to work on. Um, but also too with his experience I mean he has actually a depth of experience to doing ACT prep on a prior life as well. So being able to use that on top of the addition of the tech tool and then working with students in a very small group on a more consistent basis um, did kind of come from our conversations that we would have in BLT and where we needed to provide more of that support um, within the school day. So that's just one example. >> Thank you. >> But with all the you know, all the data that

086you have, um, can you describe what you've been doing to develop tools so the teachers can find those students who need the most assistance and what you're planning to develop, kind of like what that looks like? >> Um, so we do use our i-Ready data at the middle school level, so that is something that we lean on a lot. Um, and I think just, uh, one of the aspects of that, um, specifically as it relates to students' reading abilities, um, will, uh, provide whatever Lexile they are at. Um, so I think, uh, it's able to organize the students based on partnerships, small groups of what would be the most optimal experience with that. So, I know that that's one thing for sure that our teachers have valued. Um, I think for me personally, what I'd

087like to see with that because it automatically just puts the students all into pairs, which is really nice. But there are sometimes when you want students with the same abilities, there's sometimes when you want students with mixed abilities, there's some, uh, in pairs, in groups of three or four, or whatever that might be. Um, so I know that's one of the things that I'm looking for, too, is being able to take that data and allow our teachers to create more customization based on their classes, um, and, uh, ensure that they, again, are strategically grouping the students, um, in a way to meet whatever the standard or expectation is. >> Right. And I kind of imagine like when you get the I, the i-Ready scores that, you know, there's further breakdown. So, you know, you get

088a student that may get, "Hey, that's a great score, but 25% of the class missed these two areas, you know?" So, we're not looking with that one aggregate number, but where is there a weakness in a teaching experience, a curriculum weakness, or whatever that you're using to Is that where the student pairs come up saying, "Hey, these are all the students that have had the same challenge in the in the in aspect?" >> For when it comes to those pairings, that's specifically for the students' Lexile and their reading ability, but it does have a whole other, um, facet when it comes to citing informational text and it does drill down a little bit further that our staff have used again for strategic grouping purposes to spend you know if we're going to organize and do

089some station rotation experiences where I've pushed into classes I've manned a station and the teacher has manned one and the students are rotating around. There's also been times where there's maybe a group that I know needs a little bit more of that extra TLC. So I'm able to be more mindful of that to ensure that I'm checking in on them maybe a little bit more. We still follow discretion cuz we don't want students to feel alienated or isolated of course in any way but I want to make sure that I'm doing my due diligence to ensure that those students are getting the support that they need. >> We're also Vinnie and I talked a lot about moving forward how we can use I mean we don't have the same test at the high school level.

090They're they're not continually going to take those same types of assessments just because they're not state mandated assessments. But what we can do is start to operationalize that information so that while we don't want kids grades to or scores to follow them necessarily eighth grade and beyond there's not any reason why we can't start to give ninth grade teachers a better understanding of the types of students that are coming into their classrooms and so we are working on trying to find ways to have that data not only help those freshman teachers but then we can also leverage that data going into pre ACT because students are taking those tests in ninth grade and tenth grade and then hopefully again doing better in the 11th grade year when they're taking it for real that time on

091account of the fact we've been able to shore up all these weaknesses they may have had in previous years. So this was only the first year that we've had an opportunity to work on all of those things but ideally that would be the goal moving forward is that we we use this sea of data to operationalize every day how we can get teachers to make better decisions for students to have better outcomes. >> And I was just going to add to that too cuz I I also think of that more within the micro level though too and if you're thinking about it within a lesson I've seen how both of them have been able to really work with teachers in collecting formative data within a lesson to know where students are at in order to

092then figure out how to make sure that they're again meeting the rigor of a standard. So, I think although yes, it's great to have this data from these larger standardized tests, I think it's even more important to have that daily information to know where they're at amongst the standards of a content area um and what what the skill level is in order for them to be able to continue to work with the teacher and consider more strategies to make sure that more students are meeting or exceeding those standards. So, um I think that's also too why they um their work this year has been so phenomenal is because with all of these tools that you hear, a lot of these tools are formative tools where you're using that to get information about where the student

093is at in that moment in time to then figure out where you need to get them next. And I I think that that although it seems more mundane or not as exciting, but that's really where the meat and potatoes are. That's That's where the students are doing the learning and that's where you grab them to figure out where you need to go next. So. >> So, you can take if I'm paraphrasing from what you said, you can take some of the summative and formative results, let AI kind of figure out the statistics from it. So, you can No. Good. >> Humans are important for the analysis of that and that's why we have educators, right? And so, um no, there's none of that. I think again, when you're doing formative data, if I'm doing a

094formative check, I'm talking about an exit slip. If I just had them do a chemical equation and I have them do one I have them write it out, I collect that data. They work with the teachers then to sort that data and be able to identify, okay, this group, they've got it. We're going to have them continue to move forward and excel, right? Whereas these two groups, this one's struggling with this, this one's struggling with this, tomorrow we're going to do a station rotation and we're going to make sure that they're getting more practice to actually meet that standard. That's all from the teacher and their critical thinking, non-AI. >> That's great. Thank you. >> I like to hear that because then you're you're doing it more frequently. It's not just waiting for like whatever

095answers from the ACT or So it's more on a daily and weekly kind of timeline. And so you're getting to students a lot faster and able to give them like quick data and quick turnaround on helping them where it's needed. >> I would just add to that the word authentic. I think that's important, too. Like helping the teachers find authentic ways for the students to demonstrate whether or not they're meeting those expectations. You know, tests are great. Um the standardized tests can give you a lot of you know, macro data like we've been talking about. But if you really want to know where each individual kid is, we can just use Megan's example about the you know, balancing a you know, chemical equation. Um that's very authentic. They can either do it or they can't.

096You know, you know, it's going to be clear on each student's paper where what they understand and what they don't. So then you then you can target them and meet those needs individually or in small groups. >> I just have a comment. Um I just really appreciate the balance that you guys have shared. You do like it sounds like presentations to all the staff. You have some formalized coaching that happens in cycles, but you're also there for like, oh, I I actually cannot teach third period unless I can click the button and it works. So like I need someone who's available to help me out with that and it's just really nice. I think teachers make thousands of decisions a day, probably thousands of decisions an hour and don't always have access to the information

097as things are changing in the context around us. And so it's nice that you're able to provide that so that they can know what questions to ask and how to approach some of the changes that they're facing, but then also help them problem solve. So thank you for the work that you're doing um at the school. >> Paula, did you have other questions on the librarian aspect of it? Do you want to >> I I do have >> other questions on the librarian aspect, but I think we're going to table that for a off-future board meeting, so we can chat more at another time. >> Well, you >> I would just like to give a huge shout-out to Mary Pat Hamilton because she is um at the high school, it's a little bit different structure.

098Um so, although we have Nikki in there um as point four, we also have Mary Pat who is there um who is exceptional um and fills in many of the librarian roles there at the high school. So, I'd like to give a shout-out to Mary Pat. >> Thank you. Well, your your passion and enthusiasm is contagious and I'm sure it has an extremely positive impact on all of the teachers. So, uh appreciate also your collaboration across the two schools. That's that's excellent. So, thank you. Uh we'd love to hear more about slide three and your families and the beagle and and all of that, but uh I know you probably have the rest of your evening. I just want to say and it's kind of in conjunction with that, we IASB just put out a

099we get monthly journals and their whole May-June journal is devoted to AI and there's two excellent articles and I'll I'll I'll email them to uh to the board members, but one is on a board member's guide to EI AI and responsible AI use in school board governance. And some of the terms that that you threw out, authenticity, integrity, privacy, all uh you know, it's very assuring to know that those are all being addressed. So, uh we won't we definitely want to support this. So, thank you very much for all you do. Anybody else have anything before we I mean, you're you're also welcome to stay, but before you want to go, you can. So, and I also appreciate your cheerleader in the back there. It was nice But it's nice uh nice uh Monica to

100you know, that that shows support from the staff and that's that's really important. And you'll sign autographs on your slide later, so. >> [laughter] >> Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> [laughter] >> All right. The transition here. Go on to our item 7D, which is our um school board policy. >> A microphone now. >> Oops, I'm sorry. Yes, uh well, transition is complete, so we'll move on to 7B, which is our school board policies. Um Jason, would you like to lead that discussion or is who is who is leading that discussion? >> Yes, I would be happy to. >> I know what exciting transition to policy after >> what it's always >> teaching and learning talk. Um and thanks again for guest for presenting this evening. Uh so we have three policies, each kind

101of coming in front of you for a different reason. Uh the first one, policy 6235, was actually there was some significant revisions, I think right before I started last year, last June, so I think you're probably most of you are pretty familiar with that one. This is up for annual review, so that's the only reason it's in front of you tonight. There's no major updates being recommended by the or no updates being recommended by the administration, but certainly have the opportunity to look at it for first reading tonight and discuss. The second policy, uh 4140, you will recall um from last month's finance committee meeting, we discussed that uh with the waiver of student fees, and there were a couple of small updates, if you missed my email this afternoon, based on some board member

102feedback, um that are now reflected on there. One is just a simple uh mention of designee after superintendent. So, thank you for catching that. And then the other one is just to be clear and have consistency across the policy that we're using the term extracurricular instead of just athletics to make sure it's more a little bit more inclusive than athletics. So, thank you again for that feedback. But, I think other than that, it's pretty much the same as what Dave had presented the previous month in the finance committee. And again, the administrative procedure draft is also attached for your reference. That's not necessarily something for approval, but so you have reference to that document as well. And then the third policy, and we can certainly take questions on any of them in any order you

103like, but the third policy was a recommendation from our schools and as our principals were reviewing policy and administrative procedure, and they were talking with some of their colleagues in other districts, they realized that our policy 6280 was just a little bit unique and a little bit different than a lot of other schools and a lot of the other press policy um uh kind of model policies that were out there where it went quite a bit further and had quite a bit more detail than is typical for a grading and promotion policy. So, essentially what was recommended from our administration is that we basically just truncate that, summarize it to be more in line with what is typical in other neighboring school districts and in press policy, um and leave more of that detail to

104be administrative procedure. Part of that is because at each level, as we all know, elementary grading looks very different than junior high grading, which looks very different than high school grading, particularly when credits become involved at the high school level. So, there was just some specifics there that there's nuance and differences at each of those levels that we can adjust to a little bit more easily if there's not an overarching policy over all of those things. So, it's not because there's any major intended changes in grading. They were just looking at that and didn't know if it really was speaking to all of our practices. So, happy to take any questions over any of those policies. >> And Jason, now the language for the um policy for the 6280 that actually matches 201 and 203,

105I believe, right? >> Yeah. Yeah, it's I think when we look back and it gets a little bit a little while that the press policy is what most other districts are of very close version, right? The press policy. So, what we went to is very similar to what many of our surrounding districts have. >> Yeah, I I looked at 201 and 203 and I casually looked at it, but they look 99% >> Pretty much verbatim. >> Yeah. Yep. >> And I appreciate you putting in the the E3 exhibit for 4140. It's all It's already in policy. It's in our board policies. >> Mhm. >> Um that way it's just uh a kind of a good cross-reference in there together. >> they've worked on and Jenna worked on kind of just updating it to make sure

106it was the same formatting that we typically will use. So again, these are all first read. Certainly, if there's questions that come up after the meeting, feel free to reach out between meetings and we can prepare for uh to move to second reading and approval next month. >> Um and does does that does the E3 exhibit help with your question? You had one about the um activity fees and >> Yes, and I just I thought I the addition of extracurricular in the college >> care of that. Okay. >> Mhm. >> Thank you. Okay. And the the rationale for 6280, thank you for providing that. There's a long history on our >> Yeah, and it was a significant change clearly from what we had, so completely understand the questions. >> So, um thank you very much.

107Anybody have any any questions for Clerk Okay. And we'll bring those for second reading at uh the July meeting. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right, item 7C is amendment to the 2026 2026 2027 and 2027 2028 school calendars. >> So, for those of you who've been in the board for a while, around 2017, the state really started coming down hard on school districts having a half day on the first day of school and then a short day on the last day of school. And so, they pretty much mandated that all schools have a full day of school on that first and last day. And so, we adjusted. This year, while spending time on the last day of school, uh at each of the schools, it was brought to my attention that some of the

108staff at their own school that their own children went to, uh they were having a half day. And so, there's there's a whole lot I think we can do in that afternoon. I do think there's a lot of celebrations that happen in the morning, cleaning out the lockers, um some assemblies. The high school it looks slightly different. That's usually the last day of testing makeup if they have an exam, but um in the afternoon, there's a lot of great things I think we could do at the staff level in terms of PD, closing up the grade books, getting everything closed out for the year. And so, we did a little research. We specifically reached out to a few of our peers who have a school improvement day in the second half of the day on

109the last day of school. We talked to the regional office of education, and they said, "If you can bank enough hours in the school year, you can apply it to get to the 5 hours." And so, we have an extra half an hour of instruction per day we're able to bank. And so, we far exceed any banked numbers we need. And so, unless the board felt strongly otherwise, we were going to bring to you in the month of July a proposal to amend the school year we're about to start in the following school year's calendar to have that last day a half day for students, full day for staff. >> Anything to add about the calendar and the rationale? >> I think you you said it, but just to be clear, so really wouldn't be

110a change for the high school. Really, the only change would be for the elementary and the junior high. And I think in the high school, unless I'm mistaken, but I'm I'm pretty sure it's accurate. And that afternoon, the students are done with staff or tests anyway. And so, what we're proposing is kind of what we're doing at the high school anyway, but this would allow all three buildings to take advantage of that afternoon. >> Um >> Questions. >> Just a quick one, I think, but I just want to understand the last sentence in the write-up is that the amendment that the proposed amendment will not reduce the district's total instructional time, and I didn't understand how that would be possible. We are taking hours off the day, so what do we mean by that? >>

111I I have to look at the sentence again, but basically it's saying we'll still meet the minimum of 5 hours because we banked uh half an hour per day for the previous few weeks to go from the 3 hours that we'll have uh in reality to the 5 hours that we'll have uh recorded for the state. >> Okay. So, we're taking We are taking out instructional time, though. Like, we're not adding another half day somewhere else. There wasn't it I read that as that we were there was going to be a trade-off, but there is a reduction. We're just more than clearing the the statutory requirement. That's >> meeting the 5-hour threshold by banking other days. And it's an enjoyable last day in terms of instruction. That might be a very loose word when it

112comes to that last day, but uh we are definitely meeting the minimum requirement. >> Any other questions regarding? No, good. >> So, just a clarification on that last sentence or correction. >> All right. Uh item 7D is freedom of information requests. There were several in file and there's in our packet, and they've all been responded to. 7E is public comment follow-up. There was none from last month. And 7F is the superintendent's report, and it's new summer bulleted format. So, I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Filipiak. >> [clears throat] >> Um for the superintendent's report for this month, uh traditionally it's pretty short. And I think I got triggered these last few weeks as people usually are like, "Oh, do you work in the summer? Oh, are you guys closed?" And I was like, feels

113like we're we're pretty busy. And so, sorry if it seemed like this month's superintendent report was quite lengthy, but this was an opportunity to show that even though students aren't here, there's a lot that's happening. And so, um just it was more just to give you an idea of all the things that are actually happening in the summer in terms of closing out the previous year, evaluating what worked, what didn't work at our team meetings, and then making sure that we've got a good plan. So, by the time staff come back, we have a really good handle what that school improvement plan looks like, what our areas of focus will be. Obviously, we share that in the fall of the new school year with you, even though they've been developed in the summer and shared

114with the staff at the beginning of the year. Um luckily, there's always ups and flows of hires. And so, uh we're really disappointed our Dean of Students at the elementary left, but um other than that, I think we're in pretty good shape of having hired everybody and been in a good position for this upcoming school year. Uh any questions related to some of the items I identified in the things that we're focusing on this summer. You'd be surprised the number of cars in the parking lot. There's a lot of summer curriculum work happening. So, um the lot of work reflecting on the year and getting ready for the upcoming school year. >> No questions. Thank you. Thank you for the report. Eight is our committees, facility master planning. 8A did not meet. Finance, 8B. >>

115So, the Finance Committee met this evening at 6:30 p.m. in this very chamber, where we discuss the fund transfer uh the SRR agreement and the 2027 projected budget. >> Thank you. Excellent. And policy, we didn't meet but we did discuss. >> We reviewed three policies earlier tonight and they'll be for second reading next month. >> Excellent. And 80s our vision 202 did not meet. Nine is board representative reports home and school did not meet ISBA delegate to board did not meet intergovernmental did not meet lend again the report from last month is in your board information. The foundation did not meet at SASSID that report also the last agenda is in your board. >> Yeah, though there is kind of an important update. They are moving forward looking for a new facility. They put out

116letters intent of intent to four buildings. They have a favorite in mind. We have been warned that the board of governors may need to make a special meeting in order to approve any efforts to pursue one of those assuming that they get a response that they like. >> Okay, great. We wish them luck with that. Okay, agenda topics for future board meetings item 11. I'm [clears throat] sorry item 10. Does anybody have any? I will say that Heather and I are meeting on July 14th with Mr. Markey and Dr. Filippiac regarding board policy 7180 and we've been talking about them for some time and then monitoring responsibilities. So we'll be bringing back information after that. Paula, you had questions about 7150 and the language but did Did you want to address that or >> I

117just when I was reading the agreement and then our current policy I noticed that they were different, but as Dr. Filipiac said, they're the spirit is the same. They're mirrors of each other even though the language isn't exact. >> Okay. And then believe we talked about the librarian information library program at the and the librarians role will be bringing that information back. I had a couple things. The board calendar reflects that this is the month that we determined an ISB workshop. So there are several workshops that are offered. There is a new one entitled use of student data that we've not had before. Um there's also monitoring district goals using data, but use of student data I thought might be an interesting one. I'll send you the link on that and then kind of ask

118for feedback. I'll also send you the link for the other ISB workshops, but that's that's a new one and um it it might be very worthwhile to at least talk about how it how it could be and how it could be incorporated into some of the data that we'll be looking at in the future. Um let's see. Oh, just to I'd mentioned before in speaking about ISB about the the last journal and the articles and I'll also send you the links for those. It's it's really timely information, but they were really good articles about the responsibilities. Several articles throughout that that journal if you remember getting that. June 24th is the date that our the evaluations are due to Randy. If you remember that by 6:00 p.m. and then our future meeting on June 29th

119for the superintendent's evaluation. Um I think those are the main things that that I had uh which leads us to the July 4th parade. I think there's all but one that was available. So, um just find your shirts. Uh If you can't wash them, at least iron them, you know. The candy's in, so we'll be ready for that. I'll get you I haven't gotten the information. I'm assuming it's at the junior high at 10:00 in keeping with tradition, so we'll go with that. So, anybody else have any other future agenda items? If not, I will we'll move on to item 11 and I will entertain a motion to adjourn to close session for discussion of the appointment, performance, discipline, compensation, or dismissal of employees. >> So moved. >> Second. >> And if we could have

120a roll call, please. >> Mr. Helderly. >> Aye. >> Mr. Nagler. >> Aye. >> Ms. Novosal. >> Aye. >> Ms. Di Domenico. >> Aye. >> Ms. Foster. >> Aye. >> Ms. Simonds and I, and Ms. Altman. >> Aye. >> Thank you. We will adjourn to close session at 8:59 p.m. Thank you. >> Mhm.