Lisle 202 Board of Education Regular Board Meeting September 22, 2025

001Good evening. It is 7:30 p.m. on September 22nd, 2025, and I would like to call to order the meeting of the Lyall Community Unit School District 202 Board of Education. Miss Sims, could we please have a roll call? >> Sure. Um, Miss D. Dominico >> here. >> Mr. Helderly >> here. >> Mr. Nigler >> here. >> Miss Novasel >> here. Um, Miss Foster isn't present. Um, Miss Sims is here and Miss Alman here. Thank you. If we could please rise 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 Lyall 202 mission statement, which is to provide our learning community with the essential education, skills,

002and experiences for future success. So, we'll keep those thoughts in mind as we meet this evening. Next on the agenda is our public hearing for the fisc year 2026 budget. An annual budget is to be adopted by all public school districts and prior to taking final action on the budget, the school board must hold a public hearing. The public hearing is an opportunity for the public to provide input on the budget. Illinois law requires that the board of education first adopt a tenative budget which took place at the June 23rd, 2025 regular board meeting. The tenative budget has been available for public inspection since June 23rd, which is at least 30 days prior to tonight's public hearing. A breakdown of each individual fund comprised of the estimated beginning balance, estimated revenues by fund, estimated expenditures

003by fund, and the ending balance is provided in the budget summary, which was reviewed in detail with administration over the past several months by the board finance committee of the whole. The board is pleased that the school district will have another balanced budget in the operating funds for the current school year. For the 2026 fiscal year, across all funds, estimated direct revenues are 45,253,517 and estimated direct expenditures are 46,83,662. The excess expenditures are the result of capital outlay projects or costs for the Lyall Junior High School HVAC replacements and theater stair renovations. The cash balance of funds related to the school district's operational levy was $40,52,632 as of the July As of July 1st, 2025. The budget is filed with the county clerk within 30 days of adoption and posted on the school district's website.

004At this point, the board of education will open the hearing for any members of the public who would like to make oral comments or submit written comments regarding the budget. In accordance with board policy, the board will not be addressing comments or questions during the hearing, but will provide an opportunity for individuals to share their thoughts and suggestions. At this time, are there any public comments on the hearing? >> I did not receive any in writing either. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Seeing that all persons desiring to be heard have been given the opportunity to present oral and written testimony with respect to the proposed budget and that the board has taken the statements under advisement. I would ask for a motion and second to adjourn the public hearing followed by a roll call. >>

005So moved. Could I have a second, please? >> Second. >> Okay. And if we could have a roll call, please. >> Mr. Nler, >> I. >> Mr. Helderly, >> I. >> Um, Miss Novasel, >> I. >> Miss D. Dominico, >> I. >> Miss Sims is I. Miss um Alman >> I. And Miss Foster isn't here. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Next is our regular public comment session. Is there any public comments or were there any submitted in advance? >> There were not. >> Okay. And I see no blue cards presented. So, we're at item six, which are action items. 6A, consent agenda. Six. Uh, before I begin, is there anything on the consent agenda that anybody would like to pull for further discussion? Okay. With that, um, we have 6A consent agenda. 6A1 board

006meeting minutes. 6 A2 payroll pay order. 6 A3 vendor pay orders. 6 A4 personnel. 6 A4A certified employment. 6 A4B classified employment. 6 A C uh 6 A4C extra duty employment. 6 A5 recognition of booster organization. 6 A6 shared services or outsourcing report. 67 fiscal year ending June 30th, 2026 budget. and 688 snow removal services bid addendum for the school year 2025 or 2025 to 2026. I'll entertain a motion to um approve the consent agenda as read. >> Somebody want to make a motion to >> so moved. >> Okay. Second. >> Okay. If we could please Thank you. It's Mr. Hilderley and Mr. De. >> And if we could please have a roll call. Mr. Hilderley. >> I. >> Miss D. Dominico. >> Hi. >> Um Mr. Niggler >> I >> Miss Novascel >> I

007Miss Sims is an I miss Foster is not present and Miss Alman >> I thank you. Okay. Item seven is our financial information and the board acknowledges receipt of the following reports. 7 A financial report 7B treasury report 7 C compensation reports which are in our packet. Anybody have any questions on those? Okay. Item eight is discussion items. First is our freedom of information requests and those were in the packet. Anybody have any additional comments on those? Um 8B, there was uh no public comment from the prior meeting to follow up on. 8 C is the superintendence report. I'll make that short tonight because we do have a lengthy school improvement plan uh presentation from the junior high. But included in your board information, um a lot of exciting things since our last board meeting

008at the elementary, a number of different activities really trying to build that foundation on character and in terms of you know what it means to be a good person, what it means to be a leader. The one that I was able to attend though that was extremely exciting was um Tim Hanning from Pro Kids. Um it was this incredible prep pep rally that had a lot of student activity. The students really really enjoyed it but with an overall theme of what it means to be a pro kid AK you know a good person that helps others and so lot of excitement there. Uh the junior high they were proud to share that the new technology teacher Mrs. Brawn is going to be offering in conjunction with Tupage County Regional Office an afterchool STEM workshop. So

009they have three that were listed in your board information. Hopefully, we have a number of students who are interested in being able to attend that. And then finally, I think many of you were able to attend the homecoming game and I know that the game is on Friday and it's very exciting and very well attended. Would have been nice if we got a W, but I think it was a good game all the same, but a lot of because of us being a unit school district and only having one um building at each level. I mean, we're all Ly Lions and so had an opportunity to have the high school students come to the elementary and have a prep rally which was very well attended. I I actually think the high school kids enjoyed it

010as much if not more than the elementary because they were the leaders getting the students excited in some cases um seeing teachers they hadn't seen for a number of years. But overall a great event. The junior high had very similar type of homecoming events at their building and then the high school the whole week long. I mean just so much excitement, so much enthusiasm for what the week meant for everyone. And so a great tradition and I really think the high school students just look forward to this uh being an opportunity to kind of show freshman versus sophomore juniors and seniors but actually building wide really coming together to cheer on the Lions for that Friday game. And then that professional development had listed it's uh the junior high and high school have been really

011leaning closely into doing professional development together having conversations as to making sure that by this time students come from the junior high to the high school that they're ready and that each of the teachers know what's being taught at each of the levels. So at the junior high know what the expectations are and at the high school knowing that uh kind of things that were covered to make sure there's no gaps or too many overlaps. Any questions related to the superintendent report or something you'd like to add? I just wanted to add that um there were several uh families that I talked to from ALS where the kids told them they had to go to the game because of the pepper alley and how neat it was. So it really it was really impactful and

012it's a great thing and also just a couple shout outs to I know homecoming week and organizing and I know Aaron Kern is overseas that at the high school and it's a lot of work. It was very successful from Decatharama right up until the dance I understand. Um, and also want to thank the district for the family night and especially Marilyn Buckolds for all the work that she did for that. So, thank you. >> I'll be sure to pass that along. Thank you. >> Anybody else? Well, with that, uh, we have item 8D, which is our school improvement plan, and we'll invite the Lyall Junior High Down administrative staff. Do you want me to put that in? [Music] Good evening. Uh thank you again for giving us the opportunity to uh come in and share

013all the wonderful things and all the hard work that we put in in the last year and the results we have from that plus all the goals that we have for this coming up year. Um so we'll get to that. Are you sending us up here? All right. Before we get started, I know you've heard me say this a million times, but how proud I am to be principal of Ly Junior High for a lot of reasons. Obviously, the support of the community, support of the school board, district administration, um our students that we have, our staff, um and that pride has always been there. It's my 22nd year, and I truly believe that the junior high is in the best place we've ever been. Um from again just the support that we have, the

014um staff that we have, obviously the administrators that you see here with me, um the team that we have together, uh our teaching staff as you know is incredible. Um not only great at what they do, but are truly really good people, which um who care a lot about the kids, um which makes obviously all the difference. That's what we all want for our own kids and for our kids at our school. um and just the supports that we have in place for our kids to be successful when it comes to the curriculum changes that we've made the last few years that you hear about. You're going to hear about it again tonight. Um done the student services department from all aspects of it. And uh again, we're going to share some of it tonight.

015I wish we could share all of it. Um but again, I feel so good and so proud of where we're at and um looking forward to sharing that with you. So, as we go through this um table of contents, I'm going to hit a little bit about the social emotional learning. Um Lindsay Norwood will talk a little bit about student services and then Tora and Vineo um hit curriculum, instruction, assessments, and results. And then we'll all hit kind of the five essentials and then our action plan. Talking a little bit about social emotional learning. Again, you've heard me say it a million times how important this is, especially at the junior high level. Um we use our pride system. This is what we look for in students. This is how we reward students. This is

016um the expectation we have for our students. Um the Ps for participation. Again, you've heard me say a million times, the kids have tired of hearing it, but I really want them to get involved in something outside of just the academic um school day. And we have consistently been over 95% of our students been involved. I think last year was around 97% and I do think this year will be the year that we meet our goal of all 100% of our students. Um, we've had a couple new clubs being pro promoted and some students getting involved in there and just watching and listening and having our assembly and just being able to celebrate what we've done so far. We have over 100 athletes participating in the fall between cross country baseball and softball. Girls basketball

017starting up today. Um, our band program is almost 50% of our students are in band. As you know, we've always had a strong program and that number keeps increasing. Uh, Mr. Stelmacher's done a great job with choir. So, we have an increase in amount of choir students. Um and again all the clubs and activities that have started and we got Dr. Sloak with game club is this week and um student council starting up. So again just the numbers just keep increasing. So I really feel we're going to get everybody involved this year and then going through not only participation in and outside of school but of course within the school day in class we want students to be actively engaged and participating in discussions and participating in class and supporting each other which you'll see

018as we go through the five essentials kind of the results we had and the work we put in for that. And then just going through integrity obviously. Um again just kind of talk to the kids about you know making the right decisions even when no one's watching and all the things and being strong. Determination is always a big one in in middle school and again it's easy to give up if things get hard but we really want our kids to push through and work um as we're challenging them and again as the rigor has gone up they have had those challenges and they've been meeting them and you'll see again in those in the results coming up and then obviously empathy and support for each other and treating each other with respect. In ourCCL program,

019um we do spend a lot of time on executive functioning, skills development, especially in the first month of school. That's what we use our umCCL days for. Um we do skill specific lessons um throughout that grade room time. And then what this year we've really focused on trying to do more outside of just we teach it in in home room, but we also extend it through the class period. So if you have an eighth grader, you'll kind of see I know Miss Blashley's brought in a binder system for organization um and different things like that to support get the kids ready for high school and we kind of scaffold it by the grade level and the expectations. Um help support the sixth graders as they're coming in with the transition to junior high and then

020obviously build on that seventh grade and then eighth grade preparing them for high school needs based instruction. We we do a lot of um gathering student feedback and teacher feedback to kind of see where we're at and what we need during the school year. So, um, we sent out a, uh, connection survey. Um, we always do that in the fall to find out, make sure students are connected with a staff member in the building. Um, but also, um, again, participating in different things and just we did a lot of things with safety last year, which again we'll hit when we get to this five essentials. Um, working making sure students are safe, um, feeling safe in the building. So, depending on how that feedback comes in, and again, it's been very strong this year. Um,

021all the work that we've we've done up to this point is is definitely showing. Um, and we then based it off of that. So if there's any extra needs that we need, then we will throw it into our um lessons during home room. And then if students that need additional support, obviously go into our small group interventions. And again, a lot of our that would fall on our student services department, which we have an outstanding department with social workers and psychologists that you've again I always appreciate the fact that you've supported us in that needs at the junior high level. So, I'm going to take a little bit of time to talk um about our student services department and kind of highlight um some of our needs. Um our next slide, that's okay. Slide seven

022um just gives you a breakdown of our student population that we've already identified as having some um needs outside of what our general education classrooms support. Um so, we have 21 students currently that have 504 plans. There is an asterisk there because we do have three open evaluations for additional 504 plans. Um that's roughly 6% of our population which is just an increase of 1% from last year. Um we have 45 total students that have been identified as um needing specialized instruction. Um and there are student with I students with IEPs. 40 of them um are for academic or social emotional needs and then we have five that are speech only. Um that can look a little different at the junior high. It's not just articulation and and sounds and things like that. It can

023be vocabulary or expressive or receptive language and things like that. Um that is 13% of our population which is an increase of 1% from last year. And then we have 88 students in our student body who receive regular um psychosocial work support which is 25% of our population. Um that did not change in terms of percentage from last year, but because our building grew in general. Um we had about 70 students that were continuously um seeing our psyches and social workers for a variety of different reasons. This year we have 88, but our building also grew um quite a bit. So although the percentage hasn't changed, um our psych and our two social workers are um working very hard to meet the needs of those students. And that looks different depending on um what the

024student is struggling with. Some students came into sixth grade already identified as having a need from the elementary school. Um but we also do an SEAL screener every year that gives us a beat on how the students are feeling whether whether they're internalizing any behaviors um whether they are you know feeling um connected or motivated or things like that. Um, and then we have the typical students that pop up because there's a family stressor of some sort, a parent who's ill, a divorce in the family. And so we want to make sure all of those students are supported emotionally so they are ready to learn when they're in the classroom. Um, we also do our signs of suicide screener at various grade levels every year and that also helps to identify some students that might

025be um either reporting self harm from themselves um or for a peer. And then obviously we scoop up those children and make sure that they are properly supported either in our building or that their parents have the proper resources to get them some help outside of school. So um again I just wanted to say our our department is amazing. Um we were fortunate enough to be granted a full-time second social worker right after the pandemic. And so I know I sat in front of you guys about 5 years ago and said we need help. Um, and you were kind enough to say that sounds like a definite need. And so, um, we feel very confident that we are able to support these students because we have three full-time people in that position. Um, and at

026the junior high, our full-time um, psychologist, Jenny Reband, is not just in charge of IEPs and testing and things like that. She counsel students as well. So, um, because we have a full-time person at the junior high, she's able to manage her case load, but also, um, meet the needs of some students as well. So, that's wonderful. >> Um, our next slide, >> if I get one question. So, uh, >> so being that our bubble is second grade through sixth grade, so there'll be even more students. So, if you're still at 25% as you mentioned mathematically, >> you know, it'll go up. Mhm. >> Do you feel you have adequate resources now and what should we look at in the next years as we'll assume that 88 will go up as a larger classes come

027through? So do you anticipate any need or >> obviously you can't don't have a crystal ball so you don't know how many students but just like one how much how full is our your your resources now? >> For sure. Um, so I I can confidently say that the students that we've identified, I feel like we can service if that number continues to grow, um, we might have to think outside the box a little bit. Um, one of the things that you'll see on our action plan later is, um, continuing to build relationships with outside agencies and really making sure that our families feel supported and that if there is a need for some outside therapy that we are helping parents to identify those resources, um, get them set up with some outside agencies. DuPage County

028has a really robust mental health um, department that they are helping a lot with. Um, we actually have some people come in and help us with our signs of suicide screener as well. And so, um, right now what I can tell you is we feel good about it. I I don't know what the future holds to be honest, but um, I'll come to you when I need help. >> Thank you. And that's what I wanted to hear at the end. So and then the second question as you see here the the servicing of these students in later slides there's some great numbers so I don't want to steal anybody's coming up but is there a connection between the service you're doing now and those increases in the meets and exceeds later. >> So I think

029that um one of the reasons why um we service the population that we do is because all the research says if you are feeling some kind of way you're not learning. Um, and so we want to make sure students feel safe and comfortable, that students um are able to manage their anxiety, that students are able to manage their workload, um, if they're having troubles at home, that they feel like they have a trusted adult. Our climate and connection survey that we sent out was really powerful because it actually um, we go as far as to ask the students to list their trusted adults. And so we send those lists to teachers and staff members. We even had one of our um bus drivers. I think seven kids put seven kids put Miss Mary bus driver

030for bus two um which is awesome but we want to make sure that those people know this is the list of students that may come to you. I mean everyone's window of stress tolerance is different but if I know that one kid put me as a trusted adult. I want to make sure I'm continuing that connection and saying hi in the hallways and making sure I have time to talk to those students when they ask. And so, um, while I can't tell you there's a direct correlation, um, I definitely think that what we're doing is good work to help the students feeling they're feeling ready to learn when they're sitting in those classrooms. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Um, so our next slide has to do with EL and bilingual services. I know again last

031year I sat in front of you and said um we had to hire a bilingual teacher, a full-time bilingual teacher because our number of Spanish speaking students um rose to 20 or higher. Um and so we continue to have bilingual services available at the junior high in addition to just e services. Um, all of our students that have different heritage languages that have not reached a certain level of English proficiency are receiving support from either our EL teacher Joanna Ing or our bilingual teacher Tammy Saltzba. Um, we have seven different languages right now of students in our building and that continued. That's just what I found in terms of students that get support. So, it could actually be higher than that. um of the students that are receiving support um for English language learning, 68%

032of them are Spanish speakers. Um and out of our entire population of students needing EL support, 20% of them are receiving intensive language support. And what that means is they are in a program um that's called full-time transitional bilingual education, which means they're supported throughout their day. So, those students um have a an English language arts period that is um co-taught with our bilingual teacher Tammy Saltzba. Um and they are also in later on in the day um a bilingual resource period where she can hit any of their additional needs in their heritage language. So, the students bring their work there. She can run mini lessons on any different um subject matter in their heritage language. um she co-ees a class in an ELA class in sixth grade and seventh grade and eighth grade. She

033has a couple of off periods where she tells the teachers, "If you have independent work and you need me to pull students or if you need to send them to me, please do." So she can kind of give them that support as needed. Um and it's been really helpful. So that pushin support that I'm talking about here on the slide is um where she is co-eing with the ELA teachers at each grade level. And then that bilingual resource period that happens during the student study hall is um their pull out support and she might pull them out of the ELA class depending on what the activity is, but she's in that classroom every single day can co-plan with the teachers, can help facilitate grading and things like that. So it's a really powerful program. Um

034uh we do have some students that her their heritage language is not Spanish and so we continue to have support from our um e teacher Joanna Ing who we share with the high school. This year we changed her schedule a little bit. We have some newcomers which means they have been in the United States and in um American school for less than a year. And so she is teaching an ESL1 class where they really focus on learning the English language. And so our newcomers are in that class. And then she also has an ESL resource period for our um our students that speak a heritage language other than Spanish. Um and I think we have six students in that this year. And so she's able to similar to the bilingual program, um she's able to

035hit any number of subject areas and really give them the support that they need to produce quality work that the the teachers are looking for regardless of their language needs. Did you guys have any questions about that? Okay. >> Okay. So, moving on to curriculum and instruction. Um, as Mr. Carney mentioned, um, Dr. Sloak and I will tag team this a little bit. Um, and I just want to encourage you to continue to keep this conversational. If you have questions or comments along the way, please let us know. Um but we are going to begin uh like we did last year with just a brief um overview of our four core subject area programs. Um and uh and again this is just to to reiterate what our focuses are, what programs we're using. Um and

036uh what our what our approach is in each of those. So for English language arts, uh this um is now our third year of uh my perspectives implementation uh that we've begun this school year. Um with this we have um seen uh that these bullet points that we um developed in the past have proven to be true even confirming them again with our ELA team in our department meetings um to start off this year um that the approach of having the integrated units of study um where we are able to address all ELA grade level standards um if we if we can make it through each of the units which you know proves to be challenging but the more the more times we go through the program, um both our teachers and our students are

037able to streamline things to the point where we are um you know more and more successful with with getting through um um nearing getting through all of the grade level standards. Um and feeling that we're finding ways to make that happen, especially given the flexibility of having both the language arts class, which is um where we um have a full-time focus on the My Perspectives program, but also then utilizing our literature class. they get that double dose of ELA each day and we are able to use that time to uh to be able to continue building on those skills and and hit some things that maybe we can't fit in um in language arts. Um we've also seen that um uh the students are responding well to the the texts that are used whether that's

038short stories, novels, um both uh fiction and non-fiction. Um the teachers have continued to be impressed with the diversity of those texts. Um uh both the diversity of the authors uh the diversity of the characters um again uh and and being at a level that is uh challenging to the students but also relevant for them to connect with. Uh and then another big advantage is the built-in performance-based assessments uh that that are part of this program. um where uh we've used the example before instead of just a multiple choice test um about you know the the characters in a novel or something um it's an actual essay u written response summitive where they have to be able to sort of put everything together that they've been working on in class things that they've discussed uh

039other you know more uh low stakes writing assignments that they've had and then being able to put it all together to show and demonstrate what they've learned um and their ability to um meet those learning standards within each of those units uh through again an essay or a presentation, something more of a performance-based approach for that assessment. Um in our math program, uh last year was our first year with the Eureka Math Squared. Um, so, uh, the bullet points you see here, these were, um, originally based on what, uh, we were promised, um, with the the new updated version of Eureka Math would bring. Um, and, um, we are happy to report back that it it proved to be true. Um, you know, we our teachers were able to get through um, uh, a greater

040amount of the grade level standards. um each grade level was um more aligned to what they call modules instead of units of study, but each grade level has six units of study now. Um and the uh the flow of those units I think made more sense to both the teachers and and students uh as they moved from one to the next. Um they were redesigned in other ways. um sort of uh being able to uh take out I guess I don't want to call it the fluff but the there there was a lot of extra um information at times and even complexity of of the written um tasks um you know real life world problem or word problem application type problems that were um unnecessarily complicated and and distracted from the math and they really

041did a good job of of rewriting it in a way that it really gets to the core of what they're trying to learn. Um but still, you know, allows them to show that they are able to apply that learning in a real world situation. Uh even the physical workbooks themselves um have have definitely benefited the students more workspace with them to show their work. Uh which we always encourage cuz if we don't see their work, we can't really help them uh work through with them how to uh find that correct solution if we haven't seen their thought process. Um and then again even the online tools themselves for both our teachers and students um just easier to navigate, find what you're looking for and and have both our teachers and students benefiting from that. So

042it was a successful first year and we'll see more as we move on into like the IR results and and what we saw from that. Um but uh we are encouraged that uh it was you know definitely the right move to make um to the updated curriculum and um we hope to continue to see those benefits. Um moving on to science. Um in science just a reminder that we utilize the open sed uh units of study. Um it is a free resource um but it was developed um similarly to like the approach with even making the common core standards and next generation science standards. Um it's a collaboration between higher education and and K12 educators uh to be able to write um units of study that really approach learning science as a scientist, you know.

043So it's definitely um you know no lecture of any kind. Um, and it's really hands-on, getting the students to be the ones that are doing the problem solving and, you know, basing it off of a um something that they're seeing in the real world and and needing to use those investigative skills that they're developing to figure out why things are happening the way they're happening. Um, and they, you know, all types of phenomenon, whether they're talking about weather or, you know, all fields of science. Um and again the it's sort of nice because in yes the content is important uh in middle school um but it's not actually the focus in science. I know as they move into their high school science classes that that gets a lot more content specific. Um but really in

044middle school it's about learning like I said to be a scientist. Um there's eight sc um science and engineering practices that the students are learning um when it comes to investigating and modeling and and then being able to even um interpret data and share results and uh again just that whole process of of figuring things out and then um working together and then sharing what you've learned. And uh no, we're seeing good results from that. Um it can be a timely process. It it it's hard to predict how long those units will take at times, but we have gotten to the point where we're covering roughly one unit per 9 weeks. Um per grade level. Sixth grade can be a little more challenging. We've talked about this before where um there's not a lot of

045direct science instruction in our elementary schools right now and and they'll admit that, you know, the focus has been elsewhere up to this point. Um, so there's a lot of foundational skill building that takes place in sixth grade. Um, but by the time that they're, you know, getting towards the end of sixth grade and then definitely into seventh and eighth grade, they're really able to apply um those skills that they're developing and uh and those practices that they're learning uh to be able to um work through those units of study more quickly. And then on social studies, uh with social studies, we don't have a specific program that we implement. Our teachers have um worked really well collaboratively, our social studies team across the three grades. Um they have, you know, analyzed all the middle

046school standards for social studies and civics education and um been able to determine what what fits best where across the three grade levels so that um it's just a seamless approach um in in order to meet those standards. uh really taking more of an inquiry based approach. Again, getting away from uh just a lecture of of uh information, but having the the students really um be investigating on the social studies side of things and um and you know, looking at um different sources um whether they be primary sources, secondary sources, and and um you know, really digging into the information themselves to gather what they need to come to the conclusions that that they are um being asked to find. Um, and last year we put a a really big focus on the writing uh

047skills that we wanted them to be able to develop in social studies and help the students to see the connection between um what they're learning in ELA and really across the curriculum um and to add a little bit more to that since Dr. Sloak uh has a background in ELA. Um he did a lot of work with um all of our departments really but uh especially social studies last year. I'm going to let him speak to that. Hi guys. Um yeah, so in the summer of 2024, um science and social studies departments met together to kind of talk aboutformational writing and kind of get on the same page. Um because we were both using like a claim, evidence, reasoning type formatting for ourformational writing. So um because that language was being used in both of

048these classes, we thought, you know, let's kind of combine forces here, get on the same page with what this actually means. Um, so we spent some time over the summer to kind of flush that out a little bit. Have some great organizers that we put together that we were able to deploy last year. Um, and what actually started just as a paragraphing exercise kind of evolved very quickly because we had this foundation offormational writing and what that looked like, our social studies department felt more confident and comfortable to p push our students a little bit more to go beyond just basic paragraphing, pushing them to write longer pieces, um, full essays. So, one of our um social studies teachers was initial goal after we were kind of wrapping up that summer was like, "Oh, I

049just want to have kids write, you know, a few solid paragraphs alto together and ended up being able to have the kids write two full essays before the end of the year, which is really exciting. It's really, really great." Um, I loved the organizers that we put together, too, because that was something, again, it was a collaborative. All four of us would meet and talk about our writing. We would share organizers together and build them out. um to the point where I was even writing um on the sixth grade one I said, "Miss Miller, your seventh grade social studies teacher will be expecting you to understand how to navigate this organizer next year." So, it was like their final piece in sixth grade um will be one of their first writing pieces in seventh grade.

050That of course would be elevated a little bit more based on those new expectations that we have. But super proud of the work that they were able to put in. And it was nice having this um pedagogical base, right? all of that work that we put in over the the teaching of it and then being able to use an AI tech tool like Class Companion to help support that writing process as well. Um, Class Companion was the tool where the students could submit their writing and get that AI feedback based on the teacher's rubric. Um, and I think that also helped kind of expedite our writing process to get that feedback to students, improve their writing, um, and being able to get them again to write longer pieces, which is super exciting. Um, and it's

051so nice too because, you know, you invest all of this time and it takes a full year before you can really even start to see that that growth, right? And so I was really excited to hear um both Jamie Miller, our seventh grade social studies teacher, and Jason Smith, who teaches seventh grade English, both reported that uh with a writing assignment that they had deployed normally at the be at this time of the year maybe take five days and now they were able to get that done in three, which is awesome. So, and the writing is good. So, that's even better. So, they're uh they're producing good work in a shorter amount of time, which means that we can get more content covered. So, don't tell them that uh they had to fill those extra

052two days. Don't tell the kids that they could have taken their time, but uh no, it's really exciting um to see the the growth that we're seeing in our students and just continuing to raise the bar and to continue to push them. It's it's awesome. >> All right, thank you. Um so, moving on to talking about academic acceleration. So um in our core subject areas we have felt it's been very beneficial for us to keep all students uh together for science and social studies. Um you know obviously there's um you know differing opinions in education about when to start um separating students out for honors or accelerated um but for for us again I think our students have benefited greatly specifically in those two courses um just with the conversations and discussions that take place

053um in both science and social studies there's been a lot of value of having all students together in those settings um for ELA um we do beginning in sixth grade and then all three years have an accelerated option. Um it is, you know, probably more like the high school model. We just we call it honors literature um in that class. Uh again, just more as a reminder. Um it is something that we're we are looking for students that are willing to take on that extra challenge when it comes to the um the expectations for uh their written expression. Um expectations in classroom discussion, um the level of reading um that's required of them um with the text that they're choosing for those for that course. Um it you know it is definitely stepping up the

054the rigor all around and uh it is it can be a challenging course and but for those that are willing to take that challenge I think we see a lot of good growth from those students as a result. Um for math acceleration options um we do have both a single grade level acceleration uh option which does start during their elementary years um and then there's an opportunity um along the way in middle school for a double acceleration option. And just to get a more clear picture of that, we actually did include a um a table that um Meredith McCormick, myself and Megan, you all at the high school all were all working together on this and uh Jen Angler helped to make it look nice too um to get all the information on on one

055page. Now this is just looking at the junior high and high school portion but just for clarity here um you know the top row there would be like our general math um pathway we'll call it. So math six just means sixth grade the sixth grade math class. They're covering the sixth grade um you know state standards for math. Uh same then with math 7 and math 8 uh which would prepare them for algebra 1 as a freshman. um the accelerated math class uh which is covering the 7th grade math standards for the state. At the end of that class um and this goes along this is also the same for the the students at the end of the general math 7 um they will take a um algebra readiness assessment. uh is not the only

056thing that we use for that but it's sort of a starting point to see how they do on this algebra readiness assessment seeing where their prerequisite skills are for what they would need to be successful in algebra. Um looking at that along with obviously how they did in class, how they did on I Ready I um a lot of factors um you know just looking at the historical trends with their assessment uh data um looking for the students that um we feel would be successful to make that jump into the double acceleration um for those that were just finishing the accelerated sixth grade math or those general 7th grade students as I mentioned that have shown um growth to the point where we feel like they're ready to skip the eighth grade math and go

057right into algebra. So, that's sort of those opportunities um to make that jump into algebra, whether that be at the end of accelerated math for sixth graders or the end of the general math for seventh graders. Um for those that do make that um that accel or do take that accelerated pathway, uh just on that second line there just to, you know, follow that through first before we talk about the double. Um, you know, the accelerated math would allow them to be ready for algebra 1 as an eighth grader. Uh, which sets them up for honors geometry as a freshman if they choose to continue down the honors uh courses uh which allows them to finish as a senior with AP calculus or again if they choose uh they could do AP statistics. Um for

058those that do make that jump to algebra after accelerated math uh grade 6 um now those are the ones that are going to um algebra 1 as seventh graders with the rest of the students in that class being eighth graders. Um and then as eighth graders starting their day at the high school. Um this year we have four students doing that. Um this year we have six seventh graders in algebra 1. So, we'll have a group of six um going over to the high school uh next year for a for first period honors geometry. Um, and then those on that double acceleration course are, um, if they choose to, again, are going to be able to take AP calculus as a junior. Um, which really, yes, AP statistics would be the course that's left as

059a senior. But, um, it does open up other possibilities if they want to get creative and, you know, work with College of DuPage or or, you know, other things like that for that for that, uh, fourth year of high school math after finishing calculus as a junior. Uh any questions about that before I move on? >> Can I just ask about the >> I'm sorry the the placement criteria link at the bottom of that page. Is that's the same as last year? Is the growth the same as last year? The typical growth and the criteria are the same. >> So I will speak first just to the academic acceleration portion of that. Um, and so that link that you're talking about, the first slide, um, just talks about what we're looking for for the criteria

060for students to be placed into that uh, academic acceleration. Um, that is the same. As you go through those slides further on that slide deck, uh, it starts getting into our academic interventions and that's where there were um, uh, definitely changes in the numbers. Um, I think what happened if you if they looked the same to you, uh, we figured that out. Um, which again I I should have said this at the beginning, too. We're trying to include information about the questions that were submitted to us, but if we missed something, please please interject like you are. Um, we realized that the link this is more of just a a tech thing actually. The link that was used for this year's um presentation was the same as the link from last year. So, when we

061updated updated the numbers >> um it it went over or like erased the ones from the year before. And we still have those numbers um from like you know being able to go back and look at prior versions of the document. Um but those numbers were updated for this year. Um so they um were not the same as last year but they've been updated for this year. >> Yeah. Thanks. Okay. That's helpful. >> Yeah. >> Um I think >> so I had a question on that. Go ahead. The academic intervention slide. You say for these inter the 58% of students achieve typical growth. These are this year's numbers, right? Or >> Yeah. I'm gonna hand it over to Miss Nor. >> Okay. I just wonder what the 43% versus the 58, but >> Sure. So,

062um, we, if I can go to this slide, which is on, um, our current presentation, our tier 2 and our tier three interventions, the criteria hasn't changed to be a part of those interventions. So, for a tier 2 in math and reading, we're looking at students between the 10th and 35th percentile on the I Ready Diagnostic. We understand that's just one data point. We look at AR, we look at classroom performance, teacher recommendation, and things like that. In our writing intervention, and that's the same for math. In our writing intervention, because there isn't a good um percentile normative based um test, we do work samples. What are the kids producing? Um and so if you have below grade level um you're producing work below grade level, we kind of take a look at that and

063see what your area of need is. and recommend you for the reading intervention. Um, but if you have significant writing difficulties in terms of like your organization is not there, you're having difficulty writing um writing in order to inform someone else in in a an organized way, then we look at a tier three intervention. um last year the so the numbers that are on your link is um the students that were in our tier 2 or tier three um reading intervention out of all of the students 58% of them achieved their typical growth. Now when we're talking in Lyall sometimes one student is a percentage point um and so of those those students that made their obviously if you don't make your typical growth you can't make your stretch growth. So of those students um

064in the area of reading 43% of them achieve their stretch growth which is attainable um but lofty and so what we look at is we really try to push those students to achieve their stretch growth because um what I tells us is year after year if you're getting your stretch growth you're continuously closing the gap between you and your same age peers. Um so that's in the area of reading. Um in the area of oh math um in our tier 2 and our tier three math interventions um 61% of the students that were included in those interventions achieved their typical growth. And of those students 52% achieved their stretch goals. So we feel really good about those numbers because we're talking about students that have some significant learning challenges. Um, and if we go back

065to our presentation here where I actually have numbers of who's included in each, um, we have 21 current students in our exploring math class. Um, at each all grade levels added together. Um, 13 students are in our tier three. Um, which means you're three or more grade levels behind in terms of your math knowledge. Um, in reading, we have 16 students in tier 2. We have 21 students in tier three. Um and then in our writing intervention right now we have one student, we should have had seven. Um because the way our writing intervention works is we make um recommendations for students to enter that class in January for part one. That goes from January until May. And then when you come back in the fall, it's part two, those same students. Um and then

066we get a new crop of students for the the following year. But um six of the students in our class are no longer in our district. And so, um, this is part two if you remember kind of how I said, um, we look for students. Um, so we only have one student right now. Um, when we get to a further slide that kind of shows our MTSS triangle in terms of how many student are meeting our expectations in a tier 1 versus a tier 2 or a tier 3, um, you're going to see that we're doing a great job at the tier 1 where almost 80% of our population is um, meeting expectations through just the tier one core curriculum. our tier two or yellow band and our tier three red band are flip-flopped from

067the way they should be. It should be um a higher yellow percentage and a smaller red percentage and it's flip-flopped. Um again, because LIA looks so small, one person can change that percentage. And um what we're finding, again, this is not the end all beall, but what we're finding is as students are moving into our district, sometimes they have really intense needs. um we have had quite a few students with special needs move into our district this year, but then also the rigor in Lyall is much different than the rigor in some other districts. And so what we're seeing is kind of gaps in those students knowledge. Um and so we are we are trying to scoop them up right away and get them in interventions because we know we only have them for a

068short period of time. Um, in addition, just speaking to the area of reading, um, we have a higher, um, number of students in our tier three intervention because what we've noticed at this, um, as incoming sixth graders or even incoming seventh or eighth, if they're new to the district, um, if you can't read, you cannot read to learn. And so, um, a lot of our tier three interventions are really focusing on phonics instruction still and trying to get those students up to a functional reading level. Um, and so that is done in very small groups and sometimes even one-on-one, but that's why that number is higher than our tier 2 um, group of students. Our tier 2 does have some phonics instruction, but it's primarily um, vocabulary and comprehensionbased. And so um, when we really

069have to teach a student kind of to relearn how to read, that has to be done in really small groups. So that's kind of the reason for those numbers being a little different than they have been in years past. Did I properly answer your question about the percentages? Okay. Just want to make sure. >> Thank you. >> Um so we do have a few new um instructional technology tools that we'll be implementing this year. Uh the first one is called Wayground. Uh formerly called Quizzes if you're familiar with that. Um this tech tool is quite it has a lot of features that are built into it. So, um it's not just quizzes, although assessments are a part of it. It also has interactive slideshows and video features that can be included, too. Um so, it's

070really cool. We have our um Spanish teacher who is uh normally when she does her um verbal or her oral um type uh assessments um she has to pull students out for that um session to be done one-on-one. and it can be pretty timeconuming when you have a class of 25 students or so. So one of the features that this tool has is actually an audio component where she can have the questions appear as slides and force the students to navigate and go through them at her pace. So she can ask a question out loud and then the students will be able to record their answer in Spanish and then she'll be able to move them on to the next question. So now what would maybe take a week to be able to do she'll

071be able to finish in a class period which is really exciting. Um we also have our seventh grade science teacher Natalie Kier who uses videos regularly kind of like a flip classroom type model um for her students uh to go through their content. And one of the features that Wayground has too is that she can take the videos that she's recorded embedded into Wayground and have questions. So the students can watch the video. It'll progress for a certain amount of time and then there will be a a stopping point that she can implement. Um and it could just be a note to say, "Okay, take out your notes and make sure you're writing this down." or it could be a comprehension question that they actually have to go through and answer um in order to

072progress. Um we hosted already um myself and the new um LRC director and technology coach at the high school, Nick Helms. We've already put together a professional development that um staff uh were able to get some experience with a wayround, but we also have uh training scheduled for them in the first week of October on that October 3rd institute day. So, everyone will be able to experience that. But it's nice to see that we've got some teachers who are already digging digging into this new tech tool, which is really exciting. Um, I'm also thrilled um that we uh just had a pilot um just started today actually um where we had representatives from school AI come and speak to us from all three buildings um and we were able to go through our training experience

073with them today. In school AI and BRISK 2 both have teacher facing and studentf facing AI components. Um what I'm most looking forward to is the um chat feature um that school AI and Brisk both have to offer. Um it's very secure and safe. That was something that was brought up several times. Um and uh with that safety um sorry give me a second give my train of thought back. Um so anything that would be inappropriate or the students not using the tech tool um accurately, the teacher would immediately get an alert. So, it's nice that we have those safeguards in there. The teacher can also go through and review the conversations and the chats with the students. So, um it's nice that we have that safety element first. That's of course our top priority

074when we have our students working with AI. Um it also has um some pre-trained models that come with it as well. So, something like Gemini, we might need to start from scratch with that, but with tools like this, all of that prompting and training kind of is already built in and then the teachers can just fine-tune it. Um which is really cool. Uh, I've already had um one of our teachers try this out in class, which is great. Um, she was a little ahead of the game, but it was really cool to see um because the writing assignment that the kids needed to do was a narrative non-fiction. So, they had to write about themselves in a specific experience where they encountered a challenge and how they overcame it. And inevitably, they all write about

075the transition from fifth grade to sixth grade and how hard it was to come for the to the junior high, right, with all the changes. Um, so our teacher, Mary Sour, who teaches 8th grade, she's great, um, wanted to try this out. And so she used this, uh, chatbot and said she wanted the students to be able to brainstorm different ideas. And what's cool about these tools is that their default setting is just like this coach mode where it's just going to allow the students to be able to share and just perpetually ask them questions could to continue to probe their thinking. And what she was so excited about is that the variety of topics was way more expans expanded than what she had encountered before. And all of the students were also to leave

076with their little like um planning organizer, just their thoughts completed before the end of the class period, which is great. She said that's never really happened before. Um so it was cool to see the kids get pushed a bit more by the by the AI. I'm also really excited too because um the teachers who are in this pilot include um Jay Grow who is our self-contained special education teacher. So we're really excited about the opportunities that this could create more equitable experiences for those students to be able to artic them articulate themselves in a better way you uh leveraging technology like this and also our bilingual teacher Tammy Saltza is included in this too and I was already toying around with um the school AI platform and it was able to um speak in both

077English and Spanish. So it was nice that we will be able to uh provide that support while also continuing to encourage English acquisition from our new students. So very excited about that. >> Can I can I ask on that? I don't know if you incorporate that. Are we still using any of the the Google Gemini or defer class companion from last year too? >> Yes. Yes. So we'll still be using those tech tools as well. Um, and I the school AI and Brisk do have some of the translating and text leveling components that um, DIT has to offer. So, it's going to be one of those things where we'll have to try it out to see if we would need a program like DIFFT if it's able to fulfill all of those needs. I will

078say DFIT also is able to create ancillary resource worksheets and extra activities that these programs don't offer at this time. Um, but AI is evolving so quickly, it's just going so fast. So, um, we really want to be thoughtful about which platform we go with and we really want to commit to one, but it's just even now Google Classroom now has different AI components that are built in. It's just evolving so quickly, but yes, we'll still be leveraging those programs, too. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on. I'm clicking on both didn't work. We're moving on to assessment and results. Um just again another reminder just a rundown of the types of assessments that we use and you know briefly what we use them for. Um you know obviously we'll talk more about

079I Ready. Um you know we're using that for our uh growth monitoring for all of our students uh fall winter and spring. Um along with the learning pathways the um individualized learning pathways that it provides for our students after each of those diagnostics. Um again still a big part of what we're doing on a weekly basis. um having extended home room time every Wednesday um that is dedicated uh to time spent on their learning pathways in reading and math. Uh FastBridge um is a tool that we've used some in the past at the middle school, but it is still important to us um as the uh elementary uh continues to use that as another one of their growth monitoring tools. Um and uh the data that we get from that can and definitely uh definitely

080helps us with um proper placement of students um especially with interventions. um our curriculum assessments uh again this is just talking about the ones that are either developed by our teachers themselves uh or the ones that are part of our programs that we've used as we you know mentioned open sad for science u my perspectives for ELA and our Eureka math squared uh for math um you know again the the information that we get from those um and the the progress and performance of our students throughout the school year on those summitive assessments uh you know is definitely uh important data for us to continue to you know monitor the progress of our students throughout the year. Um we all know um the IR um for the in ISA for our state testing. We'll get

081into those results. Uh and then just a reminder that uh again last fall uh was the first time giving the preacct 89 and we will share some about those results and try to answer some of the questions that you had along with that when we get to there get to that portion. Um we did not try to make any kind of parallels or connections to the PSAT9 results. Um College Board and ACT uh are quite different with the way they um you know display the results um with the way they um the set their college readiness um benchmarks. Uh it just was I think easier to just say we're starting fresh with preac and we'll and we'll um be able to compare from there in the future. So moving on to I Ready. Um you

082know one of the big measures for us um each year is to see what our growth looks like from fall to spring on I Ready. You know we have that midyear check at winter uh to see what kind of progress we're making. But but then you know the big thing is you know we talk about this in education that you know it doesn't matter as much when you learn it but if you learn it and some students will you know get you know be able to gain that learning faster than others and and be able to demonstrate that they've already you know possibly met that typical growth by by mid year. But uh the goal is that they are able to achieve that um by the spring. And um you know we're happy to say

083that there was significant growth for both math and reading. um both were at 63% of our students meeting that um what I already call typical growth but we referring to that as expected growth that's what on average you would want to see from the students based on the data um that is an increase from the previous year uh reading was at 60% growth in the 2324 school year um or 60% meeting that growth target um and uh only 51% u actually and 2324 for math so a nice significant increase there from 51% the year before to 63% of our students meeting that growth target last school year. Um, and we don't need to pull them up right now, but if you've looked at slides 40 and 41 at the end of the presentation, that gives

084a little bit more detail, um, showing those five placement levels, um, from, you know, three or more grade levels below all the way up to mid or above the grade level, um, with the green to red. Um, and, uh, again, we're seeing what we want to see. Um if you look at the comparison from the fall graph to the spring graph, um all the shifts are positive and and what we would, you know, want to be seeing in terms of the the darker green expanding um the the darker red shrinking and obviously there's going to be some shifting in between there that takes place. But um you know, the results um are clear um for us to know that you know, we're we're doing what we want to do. We're seeing the growth um from

085fall to spring. Uh, and I Ready is a great tool to show us that. Um, it still can be a little tricky to say for sure where that point is where, you know, we can, you know, say without a doubt they're going to meet or exceed on IR based on I Ready. Um, but one thing that is pretty much certain is that if we can get them to that mid or grade mid or above grade level, so that like that darker green by the spring, it's almost a guarantee that they're going to meet or exceed. uh that might not be a realistic target for all students. Um but if they're starting the year um we'll say in the green or close to it um meaning they're early on grade level or maybe just slightly behind

086that um you know a good portion of our students have that potential to get to that point by the spring. So this next uh graph is what u Miss Nora was referring to earlier. So this is what they call the beginning of the year view in I Ready. Um and it lays out the the three tiers. Um in in an ideal world, um we would like to see 80% in the green for tier one. Um probably about 10 15% in tier 2 in the yellow and fiveish% in the red. Is that accurate? Okay. Making sure we're on the same page. Um um so this is where um we're close to it as Miss Nord mentioned 75% in the green for reading and 78% in the green for math. So approaching that 80% mark that we

087would like to see. And really what that's saying is these students are ready for grade level content. Um they're overall, you know, on that again going back to that five level placement. They might be in the yellow saying they're one year behind, but but they're close enough to where in this in the beginning of the year they're included in the green because we're saying they're ready for grade level content. Those gaps that are there can be filled within the general classroom in a tier one setting. Um we would like to see that again as Mr. Norwood pointed out the the reverse there with the flip of the yellow and red where it would be you know more like 2/3 yellow and one/3 red. Um but for various factors that Miss Nord also mentioned um you

088know we do see that larger >> population in in the three or more grade levels behind that we are uh looking to address with those tier three um interventions. >> Quick quick question. So you're starting the year off with almost just under 80 for both numbers. >> Mhm. >> So that's roughly if I had to guess had math. So you're looking about 15 students that you need to get into, you know, to increase that to 80%, right? Roughly about 100% students 120. So I'm going to guess 15 students. >> Mhm. >> So do you have a plan to kind of, you know, keep this keep the 78% or 75% find those 15 students and get them into that 80%. >> Yes. Um so I mean the first step in that is um specifically for our

089math teachers and our ELA teachers sharing with them the beginning of the year I ready reports where yes they can get the data on all their students but really targeting in what we call like those bubble students that are um not just in the yellow which is the one year behind but um towards the high end of that yellow where you know again like you're saying that 10 to 15 students um that with just a little bit of a push can maintain that momentum and get to uh the point that we want them to be in the spring. So, um along with just knowing who those students is, which is, you know, very helpful for the teachers to to know which students we're talking about. Um also, we look at trends in their areas of

090weakness. So, there's subcategories that are provided to us and it's usually pretty consistent um where those weaknesses are um but we can look at those specific students and analyze that with our departments, you know. So I'm I go every two weeks I'm in a department meeting with each of our departments and we can look at that together or even if uh you know if teachers choose to sit down in you know individually with me and we can go through it together to see what we want to target um for for those areas for growth to get us to keep us on track towards that goal like you're saying. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right. So getting into our I results. Um so this past spring um well let's start with this. Over the summer

091um ISBY uh had a committee that was working on updating the cut scores u for what would be that you know that proficient mark. Um and uh you know a lot of work went into that. Um I'm not sure how much that's been discussed um with the board, but just to try to summarize it quickly, uh the goal was well, first the observation was made that Illinois with their state testing um had first of all one of the most rigorous state tests. Um and secondly, one of the most u one of the highest expectations when it comes to what proficient um what proficient meant, what it took to get to that proficient mark. um it didn't necessarily line up with the success that students went on to demonstrate as they went through high school and

092and then even on into college. Um definitely um was quite a bit off from what was considered college ready based on SAT or ACT. So the work of the committee was to really try to get these cut scores more to a point that um was a more true uh descripttor uh a depiction of where those students are headed and what their chances are for success in the future. Um so if you look at this for example um 78% of our students um did meet for ELA this year. Um when you look at the the total school population um but what we put there with the dotted line is showing that even if they hadn't changed the cut score we still would have gone up a couple percents to 71%. So even if that even after

093that huge 25% jump we made um with the implementation of my perspectives and uh a lot of dedicated work on essays um for the written portions of the IR um even after that jump still the next year we would have gone up more um but um you know again I think there were some questions about um you know how does this compare to those districts around us um this is still considered preliminary data until the the report cards are official. Um so you know once we have that uh which usually goes public end of October I believe you know then we would be able to you know share some of those comparisons but um you know we are um definitely pleased um specifically with the LA to see like I said that um even in

094that next year of implementation with my perspectives that we you know maintained momentum and continued to grow even after that big jump. real quick. So >> the for in the prior years the 44% and 69 those are on the old standards >> those are on the old cut score. Yes. Correct. >> So in two years you've gone from 44 to we'll say 71 using the same cut standards which is like a huge increase. So >> thank you. That's amazing. So >> no thank you know and thank you for the opportunity to be able to you know switch to a new curriculum. I know that I mean budget's always an issue and things like that, but um it has definitely been worth it when it comes to um the success of our students and again we

095have to have a shout out to Dr. Soak and and really our ELA teachers, social studies teachers and science teachers and math to a certain extent. Writing is not a huge part of that, but we did some work on that too. But just that focus on our students writing and and really getting them to to know what's expected of them and be able to demonstrate it effectively. So just to make sure I understood the selection of the curriculum has been one of the factors that has of course all the hard work in your building to to make that curriculum successful but that's aligned to I I ready and I so which is what you'd contribute that part of the 27% increase in in two years. >> I definitely would. Okay. >> I don't know if

096anyone wants to speak to that more. >> Um I would definitely say yes. It's allowed our teachers to teach, which is what they do best. So, they don't have to write the assessments as much and they do not have to create the curriculum that the curriculum's provided for them. And they do again what I said at the beginning of why I'm so proud of them. They love our kids. They teach our kids. They they support our kids in every need. And and that that's what >> Yeah. And this is year three of that curriculum. >> It is. Yes. Year three of that. And >> it's incredible for two years of a of a new curriculum. And kudos to your entire building cuz first year everyone's learning it. Second year, you know, they're getting better using

097the same jokes from the prior year they're refining it, right? And then third, but have that two-year acceleration. I can't say enough. Thank you. >> And then just reiterating what what um Mr. Carney said, um you know, obviously at the middle school level, our students are content area specialists as well. So, um, but again, just having that burden of of creating all of that, um, when it comes to curriculum and assessments and just being able to use their knowledge and skills to, you know, possibly modify, you know, make it more their own when they feel they need to, but but to already have all of that in place and know that if they use the units um, and cover the units, then they're addressing all the grade level standards. Um, and that's that's huge to

098know that that's already done for them. All right. So, moving on to um well, looking at the grade levels broken down. Uh just a quick look at that and if you have questions, let me know. Um but when we look at the grade levels, uh again, changes somewhat from one to the next. Um you know, we do sometimes see a drop off uh from fifth to sixth. Um but in this case, you know, looking at our current seventh graders, um taking the test last year as sixth graders, there was just a 1% drop if you went by the old cut scores. Um but they did end up again with the new cut scores reaching 80% um meeting or exceeding. Um for our current eighth graders, so when they took it as seventh graders, um there

099was a slight dip. They made huge gains um as as sixth graders to have 73% meeting or exceeding and they still came close to maintaining that with the old cut score. Um but again it was bumped up by the new cut score there. Um, and then our current ninth graders, um, you know, we we talked about them a lot and when we especially when we had our followup, um, meeting in, uh, last January, and again, they just continued, um, to show us what they were capable of and and really, um, demonstrated, um, that they they were serious about their learning last year and, uh, made another huge jump. Um, I mean, to look at them again, just going by the old cut scores to go from 41% as sixth graders to 57 to 71. Um

100and then on top of that with the new cut score. But again just um very proud of that group um and the work that they put into to um their education last year. So looking at math some of the same some of the same things going on there. Now we didn't see a 25% jump um like we did with the with the ELA. Um but um looking back even to you know before I was IR when it was park and I'm going years years back um I don't know at least in the years that I've been here that we've even been at that what the old cut score would show 48% achievement. Um uh the you know the math test is is definitely different and those achievement levels um you know you can't compare them

101to ELA um in terms of what those percentages look like. uh it's just you know measured differently but um to see like we had talked about last year that we had sort of leveled off with what we felt like we were getting out of the Eureka math program um wanting to move to the Eureka math squared um and then also putting an added emphasis on the um the written responses that the students have even on math for IR where they're explaining their reasoning um you know explaining the steps of their problem solving um doing some real targeted work With that last spring, we sort of um we shifted from our big I Ready, set, go approach from the last couple years and focused more in and we still used I Ready, but we used um

102the mastery um checks that that I has that that are aligned to the state standards, but also are purposely written to be like I um test prompts. Um and we use that instead of instead of really targeting, you know, let's get 5,000 plus um I Ready lessons done in these next 10 weeks. We really focus more in on let's do some targeted practice on um what this is going to look like on the IR um and specifically in math. I think we, you know, definitely saw benefits benefits of that. So, we're happy about that 4% increase that we made even with the old gut score. Um and we're confident that, you know, that's going to we're going to continue to see that growth even more. Um, you know, Eureka Math Squared is just a a

103better version of the older one and you know, so it wasn't like we reinvented everything. Um, but even with that, you know, that we seeing the improvement that we did again and knowing that we're going to continue to focus on th those uh same um same points that we feel we're going to be able to grow grow at, I I I think we'll continue to see a positive increase there. Um, looking at the grade levels for that, uh, again, it can vary from one one grade to the next, but we see, you know, at times that drop from fifth to sixth. Um, especially with last year's or our current seventh graders, last year's sixth graders. Um, the new cut scores, I know, can can make it a little complicated and deceiving, but that's why we

104wanted to include those dotted lines there to to say that or to show that, you know, for our current eighth graders, they were, you know, showing a little bit of incremental growth there last year. And again, another point of pride with last uh last year's eighth graders, our current ninth graders making a huge jump uh from 37% up to 49%. Um a point to make on the math cut scores, the new ones, um it's different than ELA, uh in the sense that um they actually have different cut scores at each grade. Um so the new cut score gets closer and closer to the old cut score as they get older, if that makes sense. So we didn't see a huge change there, you know, just 49 to 51 because I think in the end, you

105know, I believe 7 I want to say 750 was the old cut score and then, you know, for 8th grade it now is 745. So uh on the scale that they use for testing, that's not a not a huge difference. So we gained a few students uh and increased the percent there. Um but again, they they chose to take a different approach on the math side where incremental they just raised that cut score incrementally. um uh you know with the with the with the new approach that they're taking. So but again overall still you know very very pleased with the results that we're seeing on the math for science um science actually uh the state determined with their committee work that um the cut score was uh too low. Um so we would have maintained

106that 78% of students meeting or exceeding. Um but because they determined that the cut score was too low and and you know so raised that uh it did lower our percent uh to 67. Um but again knowing that we were maintaining and you know already almost at that 80% um meeting mark you know um we uh you know obviously we'll look at the results and see where we can where we can continue to grow in science as well. Um um but we feel pretty confident that you know as the results come out statewide uh that 67% is is is still going to be you know a relatively strong u performance for our for our eighth graders last year. And then finally the preacct 89. Um so there were some questions about um you know where's

107the average composite score? Um um and I think also asking about the reading score. Uh now when the results were given to us uh and again I I we can go back and dig in um further for this. Um we we did not see a separate reading score. We just were given what you see here with the um the math performance, English performance, science and STEM. Um we can look into it and and see if there are some specific reading scores that we could share as well. Um, we did calculate the average composite score. They do provide composite scores. Um, that did come out to 17.8. And now this is on a 30point scale. So it's different than the full 36 when they take the ACT as a junior in high school. Um but um

108even looking for a national average u composite um for preacct 89 um ACT does not provide that and basically they said that you know it's there's too much variation because students are taking it could be taken at the beginning of eighth grade or they could be taken at the end of 9th grade. Um that's all the preacct 9. Uh so they don't even provide uh an average um composite score for that and they say instead to focus more on um what we provide here with the um meeting the readiness benchmarks. Um so uh again this is baseline data for us really. um we'll you know be able to compare um from here in the future um you know how this um you know how these you know the percent on target versus the close um

109percent close to target um and how those numbers will change over the years. Um but one part of this that actually was very beneficial to us um was the percent in need of intervention. Um it provided us with a great opportunity especially with our reading and math interventions that we have in the building to to see you know the students that were designated as in need of intervention. Do we have them already in some form of of intervention in those areas and we were pleased to see that you know we had properly um um been able had already um been able to identify those students and it matched up with what we were already doing. So um I think that'll continue to be a worthwhile tool. But again, overall, I think, you know, we're going

110to have to take this for 2 or 3 years to really see um, you know, what our trends are and and how we're performing. >> I know I I just wondered on that question, Paulo, you had the question about reading. Are are you famili I mean do you >> I was curious because when I my understanding of the STEM score is that because if you look at the percentage of ontarget in STEM it's >> significantly lower and my assumption that I wanted to have clarified is that the reading score impacted that STEM score and so that's what I was curious about. >> Okay. Yeah. No, thank you for bringing that up. So we were definitely confused at first too. You know if they're doing so well for example in math and science why is you

111know why is STEM so low? Um, so what we found in that and again I still will dig into it further to see if we can find the reading but the explanation so and maybe I should have started with this actually the the definition of percent on target for ACT is it's saying you're on target for earning a C or better in a freshman level course in that content area in college. So, as a freshman in college, you know, 74% of our students are on target to be able to earn a C or better in their freshman level math course in college. Um, for STEM though, um they are considering that um not just STEM related courses, but students that um would choose to major in a STEM field. Um so, your engineering students, you

112know, um math, uh you know, someone majoring in math or majoring in physics, for example. um those students um their freshman level courses are um because of the path that they're on more challenging. So, this would be more like saying 41% of our students, if they were to choose a career in STEM, are on track to earn a C or better in uh we'll say like a Keelk 1 or a physics one um as a freshman in college taking that that it's the freshman course, but it's it's um you know those higher level courses that are on a path towards a degree in a STEM field. It hopefully that made sense. I I tried to use Vinnie's AI tools and it said that PAC was just these four subjects. So, I don't think reading's included

113in there. >> Thank you for your help. I appreciate you. Yeah, thank you. >> All right. Um, as I go through the five essential surveys, at least that's in our um presentation here, uh, I would like to encourage you to go through our entire report when you have a chance. Um, I'm very proud. I take um a lot of time over the summer reflection looking through the results. Um it's very important to me to get the parent feedback and student feedback and staff feedback and kind of see where we can improve. So the ones that we just chose for this presentation really I feel like really show what the work that we did last year and the results that we've we've seen the increase in this year. So as we go through here um academic

114press and course clarity are both tied and related to again the new curriculums that we've incorporated and just the um under academic press just the teachers expect students to do their best. A lot of the questions are all related to that. Teacher expects everyone to work hard. Class really makes me think. Class challenges me. Teacher asks difficult questions. Um they become better thinkers not just memorize things. Um, so it's all based on again the rigor that we've taken on with these new courses and our new new curriculums. Um, same with course clarity. There's clear learning goals, you know, support achievement. You saw those numbers jump from 51. Now they're up to 61 for academic press, which is in the strong category. Course clarity had a huge jump from 54 to 72. Um, which again very

115proud of and all the work that our teachers have done and again Vinnie and and Tour and Lindsay and all the work. Um, everybody did, especially the students. Uh, supportive environment. Again, these are all the student surveys. So, this is all coming from the students. I forgot to mention that. But, uh, we worked a lot in our units about, uh, relationships and treating each other with respect and all the things I mentioned too with our pride initiative. Um, and this is one of the things that we we've consistently been pretty strong, but it 74 is a really high number. Um, so this just that students treat each other with respect. They work well in class together. They support each other in their learning. um which again at the middle school level is not as easy

116as it seems to get and we do a really good job of that. So I'm proud of everybody for that. So we went from 67 to 74. And then as you mentioned our pres or if you remember from our presentation last year, safety was a big issue um specifically in the hallways and the bathrooms. So we did really focus on that. Um and as you can see um the results we went from 48, which is more low neutral all the way up to 63, which is now strong. And then the connection safety survey we just did this fall is giving us the same results. So, I'm feeling really good about that. The nice thing we did about the survey this fall is we um we specifically had the students that did feel any safety needs

117or did see something that might not be safe identify where that was happening. Um so like auditorium foyer was located one of the areas that sometimes students misbehave. So it gives us an an idea of where we want to make sure that we're monitoring to make sure that we don't. But seeing great great improvements with that. very proud. Um based on the staff survey, um I'll always have school commitment in here because it's important. It's just really that teacher teachers are just committed to the school. Um the one thing I always like to say it's one of the questions is would you send your own kids to to Lyall? And um why wouldn't you, right? Um we're a great place. Um great district. Um but again it just means a lot to me that this

118this teachers are committed to to everything that we do and obviously the students most importantly. So that number went from 68 all the way up to 74. Uh class disruptions again goes back to ourCCL what I mentioned before um based on the teachers um input it went from 72 to 78 so that students are are you know doing their expectations in class. um teacher parent trust. Um this is a big focus last year was and continuing this year is bringing um parents into our building volunteering um being part of us trying to build that uh partnership. Um and it shows here we went from 62 to 74 or sorry from yes 62 to 74. And the same thing with the involvement when the when parents are in gives us more chance to have communication and

119and the communication with the tools that we've used between um parent square and again having parents in our building and just having more parents involved with HSO and everything else that we do has jumped all the way up to 78. And then program coherence which again goes back to uh the curriculum went from 61 all the way up to 81 which is in the very strong category. So feeling really good about that. Um the parent survey came back. Our numbers are pretty much identical in a lot of the areas. So the school outreach um make you aware of important news 68 or 96% often um or every time there's an event. Um so that's again a lot of the work that Jenna helped us with with our weekly communication and things that we do um

120have really made a difference. Uh parents assessment of teacher trust um that teachers do the best to help to learn and that's what our our parents know. 97% feel that our teachers are doing the best to support our kids. Uh and then assessment of teacher trust discomfort comfortable sharing concerns with teachers at 89% strongly agree. So that's the same number we had last year. So we're consistently been keeping that which very proud of. Of course as you go through things you always look at things to improve on. Um so top one effective leaders um 60 is the the magic number to being strong. So we're right there. We've been there the last two years. um looking deeper into the data and the questions and what feedback we are receiving. Um that's coming from teachers. Um

121the one category that wasn't as strong is um it says principal. So I'll take I'll take ownership of it. Um does not go into the classes as often as they should to know what's going on in classes. Looking at that 75% of our teachers say that we do. So it's 25%. And so as I was reflecting on that um over the summer and I'm thinking back and in my notes and different things like that, I consistently go to the same classes quite often. A lot of times it's ELA and and math because that's our focus. Um so I'm doesn't obviously everything is not identified who's who's putting what result or what answers on. Um but I'm guessing it's probably some of the other schools. So, that's one of my focuses this year and I think

122it'll be all our focuses is being in all our classrooms and not just um again the LA in math. Uh collaborative practices um and went from 47 to 55. So, slight increase. Um the one thing that teachers put on there um we do a really good good job working together. We have a lot of collaboration time. Um, but the one thing that was marked down is teachers don't have the opportunity to visit other classrooms um to observe other teachers. They don't take have much time with it. And I'm going to be pretty honest with that. Um, when we lost our permanent sub after COVID, our teachers are asked to internally sub pretty much every day. Um, so on top of their five classes, they lose a planning period a lot of the times because they're

123subbing for another teacher who's not there. So it's hard for me to ask them to give up more time to do that even though it it is very important. So it it'll be something that we do focus on. Um hopefully we can get some more subs in the building so we're not using internal subs as much but um that is one of the aspects and then English instruction and the math instruction. Again we talk all this about uh how rigorous it is and then we see these results and it's kind of like oh my gosh like where where's this coming from? And um looking at again breaking it down, it's it's pretty interesting to think classroom rigor, which is another category in this that I don't have listed here, went from 58 last year to

12473 strong this year. So again, that's related to the the curriculum. Program coherence went from 61 last year all the way up to 81, which is very strong this year. And then I already mentioned the academic press that went from 51 to 61. So looking at all these, I'm like, this doesn't make sense that these would be lower. So, as we kept looking into it a little bit more and more, math was kind of an easy one. Um, there's all the different questions that they have for math. And one that we just scored, what's the word I want very poorly on um was having students write their own math questions. So that I guess must not be part of the curriculum as much but um things that we can do as an additional aspect but

125um it was 80% of our students um said that they did not do that at least more than two times a semester. So again we're going to kind of work on that. So that's kind of but the rest of them we were pretty high on. So I think if we can change that number we're going to be okay. Um and then also with English we have um the lowest one was where am I at here which was pretty like one of the things rewrite a paper or essay in response to comments which they do all the time but only 70% said that they do that multiple times a month. Um but the biggest one is debating the meaning of a reading which again we visit the classrooms quite often when it comes to ELA and

126they do that on a daily basis. So we think it's just the vocabulary word of debate. I think that if that's a discussion I think that they would probably answer this question differently. So, I think we're going to teach them the vocabulary, what it means for this question because again, they don't they might be thinking of as a formal debate or an argument or or whatever, but not just a discussion of a meaning of a reading because they do that all the time because only 67% of our kids said they do that multiple times a month. And again, we know we they do it on a daily basis. So, we're going to kind of continue to work on that. Hopefully, those numbers will change, but again, we're very proud of um all the results. So,

127>> that's a new chart this year, too, from last year. So, thank you for including that on the opportunities though. >> Sorry. Sorry. Getting into the action plan portion here. Um, you know, every August, you know, our areas of focus for each building and for the district are shared with the board. Um, and this allows us to expand on that a little bit um for what we're going to be doing um in these areas. So, starting with curriculum, um, with this being year two of our Eureka M squared, um, implementation, we want to continue to focus on, as it says here, addressing as many grade level standards as possible. Um, we did have, uh, quite a bit of success with that. Last year, uh, like I mentioned earlier, there's six units or modules is what

128they refer to them as, um, per grade level. um two of our three grade levels were able to get through five full units and sort of do a a mini unit, we'll say, with that final one. Um the other grade level was able to cover four of the four of the six. Um but also able to highlight um the main points um from from the two that they didn't get to. Um which again, I don't want to make it sound like they're not as important, but in this case, like it was percents and probabilities that they didn't get to. um which they were still able to highlight the the key points of of um those concepts and skills before I um so that the students were prepared for questions that would be along those lines.

129They just weren't able to get to the full units on those. So we'll continue to you know work on further implementation uh you know and getting through um you know eventually as we are more and more used to it hopefully all six units um per grade level. Um similarly we talked about my perspectives implementation wanting to be able to uh look for creative ways to um include my perspectives for example in the literature classroom. um you know having those two ELA periods each day um you know we can really be creative with maximizing that time and um ensuring that our students are if not getting to every single unit again being able to get to the majority of those and and again at least if nothing else hit the standards that are covered in those

130units even if they aren't able to cover them completely. Um but confident that as we continue to be you know like I said earlier this as the students and teachers are more comfortable and familiar with the program even with the students coming to us from the elementary version with you know with my view um you know we we're confident that we're going to be able to continue to progress on that as well. Um for assessment our areas of focus for that um we are continuing to push our reassessment opportunities. Um you know we feel strongly that that's an important part of learning uh especially on our summitive assessments or tasks when students are not able to uh demonstrate that learning the first time. Um we were able to successfully implement a uh afterchool teaching sorry

131after school testing center last year um that meets that's available once a week um and we saw some good benefits from that teachers taking advantage of it students taking advantage of it u and it's not just for reassessing or or making up miss tests um but even uh along with our star program which offers after school tutoring um 3 days a week um this was a a place where students could um do some of those relearning experiences as well. So, we want to, you know, continue to push hard on that and um make sure our teachers are promoting it. Um and then we'll do our part to make sure the students don't get on the bus when they need to go to the testing center on Wednesdays. Um the uh professional development portion of this

132um you know, we are um looking at different ways that we can you know, continue to meet the diverse needs of all of our students. Last year um with bringing on the bilingual um program in our building, we used one of our professional learning days to have a um a session on how to better meet the needs of our e student population. Um Dr. Sloak along with u Miss Ing and Miss Saltzba um did a great job of going through the meaning of access scores and um being able to utilize those results to um know where the students are at and how they can help them you know move from we'll say point A to point B just to you know continue to help them progress in their abilities. Um and uh we're going to

133look to have sort of a um round two of that um coming up uh later on this year uh this really this fall still um so that our students our teachers can can continue to you know look for ways to be able to meet those needs and and even integrate some of the instructional technology tools and AI tools that that um Dr. Sloick's been working with the the teachers on. Um along with that we're always looking for ways to better utilize the I Ready results. You know, we mentioned a little bit of that by being able to, you know, find those bubble students, for example. Um, I Ready also provides um instructional groupings based on what the levels the students are at. Um, so each teacher can go into I Ready and and see for

134all their classes, you know, what the recommended instructional groupings would be so that you can, you know, do some more, you know, whether it be station work where the higherend kids can sort of be more self-guided and then the lower-end students can have more teacher focused attention. It it breaks them all down into those levels for you. Um, and so again, just wanted to be able to better utilize um all of our assessment results to help our teachers, which will then help our students. And then uh finally um we uh began at the end of last school year, continued through the summer a bit and then um also this fall um we started a grading committee um 612 um Eric Martzoff um got the ball rolling on that and asked Mr. Carney if he wanted

135to um you know if we wanted to come along and be a part of that and we definitely do. We want to have that kind of, you know, cohesiveness um with what a grade means, um what should go into a grade, uh what should reassessment look like. These are all things that we're investigating within the um committee first and then those committee members represent all the different departments. Um so then when we have professional learning time on half days or full institute days we're able to dedicate some time to those 612 department meetings where they can dig into what the grading committee has been doing and um share what we've talked about in those committee meetings but also then gather feedback for you know what everyone how everyone's feeling about that. Are we are we

136you know moving towards uh a shared agreement or understanding of where we want to go you know in the future and what this might look like. So, um it's it's pretty open-ended. Um but there's a lot of good work uh and good conversations taking place. Um and again, in the end, I think, you know, stronger um grading practices where, you know, the grade is really communicating what we feel should communicate and um the things that are going into that grade um really are more focused on student learning and their demonstration of what they've learned. um in the end it's going to be better for for everyone but especi but especially for the students um learning for that grade to really reflect you know how they're doing based on the grade level or the course standards.

137Um so you know there'll be more I'm sure more to come on that. Um any questions on curriculum instruction before we move to the next portion? >> No it's exciting to hear about grading because it's probably been a decade and maybe three principles ago at the high school that we you know changes are made to that. So, >> right. Yeah. No, I think you're right. It's been about about 10 years when we made that shift to everyone going what we called like the 8020 with the 80% of the grade being summitative and 20% being formative. But, um, as you can imagine, over 10 years and from one, you know, school to the other, from one course to the next, one teacher to the next, a lot of variation might take place over those 10 years.

138So, it's good for us to sort of, you know, reconvene on all that and and get back on the same page and see where we can make improvements. >> Is it as a deliverable? Will you have like a written I don't call it policy, but practice? Um, I will say that in the end they probably will lead to some of those things, but we're still sort of in the early stages and and wanting um wanting all teachers voices to be heard and and making sure that um yeah, I would say probably there'd be some piloting of some new ideas before anything would become, you know, something that, you know, more across the board. >> Okay. I'm not sure the rest of the board would >> Yeah, it took a couple years last time. So, I

139mean, it's not a quick fix. >> I mean, I figure it's not quick. It's going to take a couple years. >> We'll see how it evolves. >> But if we can keep us, I guess at this point annually >> updated, if the rest of the board is also >> open to that, that'd be fantastic. >> Definitely. >> Thank you. >> Uh so when it comes to instruction, um one of the areas of focus is kind of expanding out going beyond our ELA, social studies, and science. And like Mr. Ericson alluded to, I've got my sight set on math next. I know that might sound a little bit weird, but um having the students go through and explain their thinking um of their math problems is definitely on my radar and I was really excited. Um

140Meredith McCormack from actually had reached out. Um, so this past summer I was able to collaborate with her and a group of teachers from ELEES just about strategies and acronyms that we could build out to help set the foundation for how students can um, write about their their math problems and their their uh, write about their thinking. So, I'm really excited to take that to our junior high staff to kind of be able to see how we can scaffold this up to make it more middle school appropriate, but for us to have a consistent framework on how our students can tackle writing and math is is very exciting as well. Um, of course, like I had mentioned before, we've got our digital instructional tools that we're going to be looking at. Um, especially AI in

141the form of Brisk and school AI, kind of our area of focus with that. Um, and how we can best leverage that, of course, with our learning targets in mind first, pedagogy comes first, and then we add technology as needed. Um, so we'll be investigating which tools are going to be the best fit. And like Mr. Ericson has already discussed um leveraging I Ready to use that information um to help uh inform our teachers about where our students are at. And one of the other um things that we did last year that we didn't really touch on yet um is that we were able to provide some individualized reports for students based on their I Ready scores. And we really felt like that went a long way. Um and we weren't using just the default

142settings that I Ready had. We really tailored it and personalized it towards the needs of our students to allow them that time to look at their score to be able to see okay well in order for you to meet your typical go growth to meet your stretch growth this is actually where you need to be and I don't know if that they had ever seen that before to be honest so it was really um it made the experience a lot more meaningful for the students um after their testing they were talking about in the hallways on their break like oh what' you get or like oh I didn't meet my growth or I did and I'm really excited you know like they were more taking it more seriously. So, I think that kind of um

143encouraged them to that it's not just some flippant thing like take it seriously. We're looking at it. We want you to do well and we really want you to do your best. And it really felt like they were able to take it more seriously um this time which was um I just want to throw in there Vinnie used the word we but Vinnie is the one who did all the work and he individually made each report for all 330 students. And it was good and it was so sweet cuz the kids really I did I did it was I have a new office now so it's great so I have room for all the papers but yeah before there were papers everywhere but it was so nice it was really like I loved being able

144to go through and see the kids and they were setting their goals and they were coming up with an action plan and they were really taking it seriously and it really I don't know it it was nice to have that much meaning come behind it. So that was really exciting. So um yeah overall um I feel like with the the technology and our pedagogy and our framework and just showing that individualized attention we're a small school right so this let's leverage that that's let's use that to our advantage so yeah looking forward to all that good stuff not as exciting but just as important the communication and that's again utilizing the the resources that we do have parent square um between our weekly newsletter um and any other type of things we have to send

145out to parents. Um but teachers, we really are pushing for um to reach out to parents in advance of assessments or re reassessment opportunities and different things when grade books are updated. Um just again having that communication so parents um have that connection and know where their students are at and reach out if they need any help. And then um our HSO has been outstanding. I mean, they've always been very supportive, but we have a a tremendous group that's really wants to do whatever they can to support us, and it's just been a great partnership um the last few years and continuing to build on that this year um again with having um parents volunteer within the school day, but also just in general to support our kids and give them some um outreach opportunities

146that we would not be able to provide without them. So, continuing that partnership. Um and then our last area of focus um is social emotional learning. So as we talked about utilizing those pride points um one of the things that we um are doing again this year is just expanding um some of our reward offerings um based on student feedback. So we've um always had some of the um consumable items I will say. So snacks um but also um we've tried to increase our student experiences. So, we've always had like um lunch with our therapy dog or um gym time with Mr. Carney, which is a huge um a huge prize that the kids like on Friday mornings. But um just having the teachers think outside the box. Miss Burn has done um like over

147the holidays, she'll do Boo Milk, which is basically you take marshmallow fluff on the inside of your cup and then you fill it with chocolate milk and it looks like ghosts inside your milk. Little things like that that the kids just love. Um, so we're continuing to expand those. Um, this year the kids can cricket their own drawstring bags to like bring to a sport or something like that. So just things that they um can spend their points on. And then um we're continuing to um focus on executive functioning and really trying to embed that executive functioning p skill practice into the classrooms and not just have it be um something that they learn about in their home room classes. And so I know Mr. Carney um focused on um what Monica Blatchley is doing

148in eighth grade with her binder system. Um but at each grade level, we're kind of scaffolding. At the sixth grade level, we're really helping the students to try to understand Google Classroom because often their assignments are done and they just haven't clicked the submit button or they're having trouble finding an assignment. And so there are different needs at each grade level and just really um focusing on how to build those skills. Um, and then again, as we talked about with our student services department, um, and just developing partnerships with our local mental health agencies, um, and then really helping our teachers to understand what they can do to support, um, our students. And so this year in during a lot of our, um, school improvement and professional development days, um, we have created individual um,

149professional learning cohorts and we've called it choose your own adventure. Um and so we have brainstormed a couple of different um categories of professional development and teachers are able to choose what they want to focus on for the year and we will have guidance for them. But it's really going to be um you know what can we learn more about this topic and how can we implement our knowledge of this topic into our classrooms. And so um three of the professional learning cohort kind of umbrellas that we're going to offer this year um is just executive functioning in general. What tools are out there? what can we implement in our classrooms? Um, SEAL in general and trauma-informed learning. There's one that people want to learn more about too that kind of goes under SEAL, which

150is the adolescent brain. How is the adolescent brain work? How can we leverage what students know and um are comfortable with and gravitate towards into our classrooms? And so, um, really, I think that's going to be helpful for our teachers to really be invested in in trying to gain that knowledge and implement it in their classrooms. All right. Well, thank you again. I'm sure there'll be question. >> One question. >> Sorry. Where do you feel you're at and in your journey towards being an exemplary rating because your m like they're looking great. A lot of the other things are looking great. Math, we have the new curriculum. Just wonder where you're feeling your head like trending there. >> I will let to Mr. mathematician over there. He's actually has it all calculated and >> I

151was expect Yeah, I was expecting that to come up at the end here. Um, no. So, um, again, thank you for providing the questions ahead of time so we can dig in a little deeper. Um, and as you all know, the the formula that's used for that can seem a little I bumped it. It can it can seem a little complicated. Um, so just a quick breakdown of that um of what goes into it and not not the exact percentages but where we are at in terms of maximizing each of those categories. Um so based on our 2024 school report card um we have 100% of the available percentage we'll say um for ELA proficiency uh for math proficiency for science proficiency for climate survey um we're nearing 100% where um with the ELA growth

152we are 92% of the available percentage for the ELA growth uh and those growth ones are the biggest ones um uh 25 to 26% % I think of the overall uh is just on that those growth measures um each one so combined they're like half of them half of the designation is based on those growth um so the math growth um the math growth measure we were at 55% of the available available percentage so there's quite a bit of room for um growth on that component um you know we're confident that that is going to improve based on the you know the the um growth that we saw just on the IR alone. Uh we're not sure how much that's going to impact it, but you know, it'll it'll definitely close that gap in that

153component of our overall um rating. Uh the other one uh that is not at 100% um we have 62% of the available percentage on chronic absenteeism. And again, just to clarify that to make sure we're all on the same page with what that is telling us, um, a student is considered considered chronic a chronic absentee if they are absent for any reason um, for 10% or more of the school year. So, it could be that they went on a long vacation, but it also could be that they had a medical emergency that had them out of school for a couple weeks, you know, what whatever the case might be. Um so 10% of the year is roughly um 17 and a half we'll just call it 18 days. So if they missed 18 days or

154more for any reason at all um they are considered part of that percentage. Um now we did see an improvement last year. Uh so the 20 24 school report card would have been based on the 2324 school year. Um for our average daily attendance rate um it might seem like a slight improvement but again every little bit counts. Um in 2324 we had a 93.3% attendance rate. Um for last school year 2425 we were up to 94.0. Um so again not quite a percentage increase there for our average daily attendance rate. Um and then for the chronic absentism rate in 23 24 uh we were up to unfortunately 19.6%. Um but that and that that would be what that rating was based on for the you know the last report card. Um for the 2425

155school year we did bring that down over 2% down to 17.4%. Uh so we're hoping that improvement um will also make a significant difference um when it comes to that overall designation. So we're headed in the right direction on the ones where we have room for growth. Um we will uh unfortunately just have to wait and see though if it's enough. >> Yeah. Are those weighted differently each of those areas or how's that? >> Yes. You know, and I apologize I don't have that pulled up right at the moment. No worries. >> I can get that waiting to you. I want to I want to say chronic absenteeism is relatively high as well. Maybe in that even 15 to 20% kind of range of the overall rating. Um yeah, unfortunately like the ones that we're

156knocking out of the park like the proficiency ones are only like 5% of the of the uh overall rating. Um, so, um, you know, the ones that count the most are the ones where we have the room for growth. Um, we are seeing it trending in the right direction though, so we'll we'll see. >> Being that you know the math, you know the breakdown? >> Yeah. >> You know what to track, right? >> We know what to focus on. Yes. >> Oh, awesome. >> Tori, does it does it not also factor in what the other schools do, the junior high comparisons? I thought that was a factor, too, cuz if they're going up, there's only a certain percentage that are exemplary. >> Correct. Yes. So um to get that exemplary um designation it is just

157the top 10% right? Yeah top 10% of the >> that factors into >> Yes. >> Okay. And just a quick question about the chronic the absenteeism. So let's say a student misses like one period for a dental appointment. Is that the same as a whole day? >> It's not a whole day but it is a half day as far as the state's concerned. Yeah. >> All right. >> Yeah. There's no such thing as anything. It's either half day or whole day as far as the state's concerned. >> We have a lot of orthodontist appointments. >> Excellent. That I was thinking of that. >> You're at the right age for it. >> Yes. Yes. >> So if they miss one to clarify, if they miss one period for an orthodontist appointment, that counts as chronic episc.

158>> Well, no, that would count as a half day towards their total. So, so again about 17 1/2 or 18 days would if they have more than 17 1/2 days um they they would be considered part of that chronic absenteeism number. So every one of those periods missed would be a half day. Yeah. >> Do parents know this? I'm just interested and I know some parents it's they have no choice. They have to schedule it when they can and Right. But I'm just wondering is like if how much our >> I know we covered it last year when we were talking about because I I remember >> um Paula had the question on I think on chronic absenteeism but I don't know that parents are aware if that can >> No, that's true. It wouldn't

159be it wouldn't hurt to give some more information on >> I guess you know if Yeah, >> I think there's a common kind of misconception between truency and chronic absenteeism. Um because we have worked very hard with our students that are considered truent in terms of um motivating them to we do there are a couple of students where we do a daily mystery motivator where they get to pull off a post-it and it can be like a pride point or um earn 10 minutes of free time to do what you want. And so those students we're working very closely with. But the the chronic absenteeism a student could miss. We had a student last year who um broke both of his wrists two weeks before the end of the school year and he moved he

160lost the last two weeks of school. He couldn't come to school. He couldn't do anything with his wrists. There was nothing we could do about that. And so that's one more student that kind of fell into that chronic absenteeism category. And so, you know, the state allows five mental health days. There are parents that still want to, you know, have that vacation with their kids. And so, um, as much as we can work to try to have kids coming every single day, there's a lot of stuff that's out of our control. And so, that one's a really difficult one to pinpoint. Um, and and you know, make that number kind of change. >> Well, it's we've had this in prior board meetings where someone said, "Look at your your chronic absenteeism." And it's been the

161confusion with truency and whatever. And so it's it's a really bad name really to for which in a lot of it's to your point out of out of the control of everyone. It's in some cases well in case of a medical thing like the risk it happens right or but if I had a choice if I'm monitoring my my students absenteeism going oh that's a half a day well maybe I'll schedule that at 3:30 instead of 2:30. You know what I mean? Like cuz then we can partner with our parents so that number doesn't increase. I'm not sure if we if that's a factor, you know, for these onesie twoosy, but to K's point, there's a lot of orthodontistry going on. >> You're the whole year, that could be seven or eight appointments for one

162kid. >> That's exact. >> And so that just ticks up. And then if you just happen to, you know, want to leave town a day early for a vacation and not that's okay. No, not not a not a not a criticism of anybody, but it's like then you're like, well, well, that's okay, but you don't realize, oh, you just went above that threshold, right? Because you had those orthodontist appointments plus that one day, you know, that's I'm just wondering just >> maybe we can just share a bit, you know, a communication with parents on what counts as, you know, I mean for the whole district, not just for the the junior high. That's a good point. But >> and also emphasize that it goes towards our exemplary rating. I mean that's what that connecting to

163that parents may not understand how that you know >> we're also still coming out of like I hate to say the c-word but like during co it was if you had the sniffles you couldn't come to school and so we're we're right now still trying to train our parents of like when it's appropriate to send your kid to school and when you need to stay home and that's changed in the past few years and so um we still have parents that are like well shoot um you know my kid has cold symptoms well cold symptoms are different than, you know, fevers and things like that. And so there's a lot of education by our school nurse on to when to send your kids to school and when they need to stay home. And she's doing

164an excellent job, but we're all still like I think the adults are still, you know, PTSD from like if your child has a sniffles, they can't go to school fearful of spreading anything. And so again, it's I think we're going to, you know, we're tackling it in a couple of different ways, but there there are some things that are outside of our control. >> Okay. Well, thank you. Uh, you know, your patient comes through uh very clearly and uh when you look at the results for all that you've done and you know from last year with math on but the I Ready I A the five essentials your hard work has really paid off. So thank you so much and thanks to your staff obviously and the students too. Great presentation. Thank you. Okay, we'll

165transition back into item nine, which is our committee reports, facilities. >> Just talking a little bit about next month, though. Are you sure you want the high school and the elementary to both go on the same night, or would you prefer we break it up? At one point, um, there was talk of having the elementary and the junior high in the same meeting. They weren't able to be here tonight for the elementary. Would you like both the high school and the elementary to present next month or would you prefer one? >> I I personally think there's a lot of time that can be devoted just to one at each I I would rather have them broken up, but whatever. >> Yeah, I'd rather have them broken up because I feel like the the the school

166that goes second would end up rushing and we wouldn't get like a full presentation. >> So, who should I notify? They're on. >> Well, let's let's get everybody. Paula, what what's your feelings? >> I was just going to agree with that. And that also gives us more time to look at their materials. >> How you feeling? >> I I'm good with it. And they can do rock, paper, scissors for next week. >> Yeah. Rock, paper, or if one has a preference, like if one feels like they need another month to present. >> Mhm. >> I guess you good for them. >> Okay. All right. We'll let you decide who's uh going to present >> themselves. Okay. >> Excellent. And then um talking about the exemplary uh versus you know the different categories the state superintendent

167did mention at a recent meeting that not for the year that we're living now but the following years um they're not going to use that 10 only 10% are in that top category they're going to have a certain level. So, similar to what we have for the academic excellence, for those you've been around for a while, it used to be the top 10 dinner and there's only 10 seats. And we said, why are we comparing? Why are we fighting each other with this? Like, if you can hit a certain threshold, you'll meet it. And so, they don't yet know what that threshold will be, but it'll no longer be only 10% of the state gets that top category. It'll be a certain threshold, similar to what we would do with students. and and even their

168grades. We don't say there can only be 10% of you that get an A. Like if you earn an A and you're at that level, you get an A. So, um we'll share that information a year from now, but for the year that we just parted on tonight, it'll still be the same way. >> Great. Thank you. That' be helpful. >> Okay. Now, we'll go into our committee reports. 9A is um the facilities master planning did not meet. 9B finance. We met earlier this evening. >> We did for 19 centilating minutes. >> Okay. It was it was okay and 9C uh policy did not meet. Um we did have a question come up or I I shared that email uh from uh ISB um about whether or not to look into um the press policies.

169And I guess I', you know, if we want to spend time now, if you want to think about that for the next meeting, maybe we could have that as a as a topic for our next meeting um under policy and see, you know, it'll be a quick response, but I know it's getting late, so maybe um it's up to you guys if you want to make any decisions on that now or wait. Paula, what's your thoughts? >> I I'm fine to wait till the next meeting. >> Okay. But we we won't have maybe it won't be in the next policy. If it's in there, then we'll I mean the next press packet. So that'll that'll jog our memories to make sure that it's included. So vision 202 um there's a summary in there uh from

170what we're going to be looking at. Keith, did you want anything? >> I won't. I just wanted to to let the board know that um Eric has met with groups of about 8 to 10 students at a time. His goal is to talk to about 20 students per grade. And so at this point, I think he's had six of those meetings. And so I'm sure they'll touch upon that when they have their school improvement plan. But uh that was something that we wanted to accomplish this year. And initially, I was kind of hoping Eric would do it his first year, but I think because he's been able to build the relationships that he had his first year, which was last year, I think students have really opened up to him and give their perspective. So

171um again, I'll let them share everything that they've learned, but I think the conversations have really really been good. And it's he randomly p selected those 20 students. So it wasn't who'd like to volunteer to talk to me and then you wind up seeing you know the students who would love to volunteer like this was randomly picking students. So we had a nice crossmix of uh students and the types of conversations. So more to come. >> Great. Thank you. Um 10 item 10 is our board representative reports. 10 A is home and school. U Paula did an excellent write up from her uh attendance at the council meeting and um any questions on that? is 10B is ISB delegate to board >> just the division meeting on October 29th but it's also the same night

172as the Bennett Lyall Bennett jazz concert. So keep that in your plan of mind. Also of course November 21st through 23rd is the triple eye meeting. >> And if you haven't already, please let Maryland know by October 1st on both of those meetings if you can. Okay. The the only other thing we we just just got hot off the press a letter from ISB. Uh, dear members of the board of education, congratulations. Your board of education is one of 42 to earn the Illinois Association of School Boards 2025 school board governance recognition designation. The recognition is designed to acknowledge those school boards that have engaged in activities and modeled behaviors that lead to excellence in local school governance in support of quality public education. um commend you on your hard work and distinction as a

173school board governance rec recognition recipient. So we're proud to receive that again. Want to thank Dan especially we worked on on that and you did the the bulk of the work on on compiling everything together but it's really on what we do things like going to these division meetings going to the joint conference contribute to that. So appreciate everybody's efforts and thanks for summarizing it. So it's exciting here. Okay. Um intergovernmental did not meet uh lend the uh meeting highlights are there. I think there's a re reoccurring theme in there about the loss in um revenue for transportation. That seems to be the theme through a lot of different things. Um also the um uh the legislative from our attorneys that summary is in there also. if you weren't Paula and I were able to

174participate in that as Jason and and and Keith were too. So um the summary is is there the slides are there there's a lot of good information the complexity gets you know once we get into the special needs um categories it gets very complex so Lyall Education Foundation those minutes are attached there a grant was approved so um I think those are all the summaries in were in there the other thing uh Paula and I participated in the uh legislative update that was on August August 18th. And again, main emphasis there was title one um Medicaid. It costs reductions for Medicaid. I was surprised to learn that one of two children in the state are on Medicaid. So those will be have a significant impact on some of the benefits. Also talking about um uh

175the the impact that uh transportation will be on and on McKenna Vento. So a lot of lot of different um aspects of it. The one thing that that was interesting was that the new the person that's the legislative leaison uh was Kristen Fitzgerald was formerly on the uh district 203 203 school board and the board president for several years um in Neighborville and when she decided not to run again she was also on the lend executive board and is asking her what she how what what avenue she could go into. So she has a legislative background. So she went the went there's a life after uh the board now. She's working for uh ISB. But she did an excellent job I thought. And Paula we talked about it afterward. She could really relate to school

176board work. It was the nice thing. >> Very clear and and direct and helpful information that that was shared. >> Yeah, it was good. It was a good it was a good session. Um so assassin uh did not meet. uh brings us to item 11, agenda topics for future board meetings. Did we have any uh in there? Okay. Well then if not I will entertain a motion uh at 9:38 to adjourn to close session for the purpose of discussing the appointment performance discipline compensation or dismissal of employees and security procedure school building safety and the use of personnel and equipment to respond to an actual threatened or reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees students staff the public or public property. Could I motion please? So, >> okay. Second, please. >> Second. >> Okay.

177So, roll call, please. >> Mr. Helderly. >> I. >> Miss No. Or um Miss Foster. >> I. >> Miss Novasel. >> Hi. >> Uh Mr. Nagler. >> I. >> Miss D. Dominico. >> Hi. >> Miss Sims is an I. And Miss Alman. >> I. Thank you. And we will adjourn to close session at 9:39.