Urbana School District 116 Board of Education 01 06 26

001All right. Uh, welcome back everybody at 6 o'clock. So, let's kick off this study session of our Bana School District 116. Uh, roll call, please. >> Uh, member Cheryl, >> yes. >> Member Hixon, >> yes. Here. Member Maribou, >> member Jones >> here, >> member Langorf here, Vice President Baxley >> here, >> President Palowski >> here. >> We have a quorum. Are there any additions, corrections, or modifications tonight's agenda? No. Um, >> is now call for citizen statements. If anybody here present wishes to make a statement before the board, please fill out a golden rod sheet in the back of the room. I hand it to our recording secretary, Lori Johnson. We haven't received any tonight. Going once, going twice. Um there is no call for an executive session after tonight's meeting. So the chair

002would entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda as published. >> So move. >> Second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> The only thing I noticed is that our first presentation is not here yet. So if she's not here by the time we get to her, we may have to adjust the >> agenda for that. >> Okay. Well, we I mean we still have uh board reports and student ambassador reports yet. So, we'll have a little bit of time here. Um, student ambassador report. Sorry, I caught you at a bad time, Catherine. Okay. Hello. Um, this is our ambassador report. Um, first off, like to say happy new year to everyone. Um, it's 2026. Um, Google forms. So, for the second semester, um, we have two new Google forms. Um, one

003uh is the is the parking lot expansion form. So, we're hopefully um trying to get um trying to get another parking lot built um kind of on the west side uh just off to the west side of the of the student lot that we have now. Um there have been a lot of issues with parking um with teachers and uh with teachers and students especially just with non-P passholders parking in spots that they're not supposed to. Um or like uh or uh Promise Healthcare has been parking in staff spots or student spots um and it's just really kind of a fight every day. But also students are you know um students are being late to first hour because they can't find a parking spot. So, we're hopefully trying to um we're trying to get rid

004of that cost by um hopefully having another parking lot. So, we hope to um share those results with you um at the next meeting. Um and then our student reflection survey uh which is similar to the uh similar to the previous student survey that we sent out um the student concerns and recommendations survey. Now we wanna Now now we want to kind of have a reflection Now we want to kind of have a reflection survey um to see kind of what has changed um and see if you know things are improving. Um we have had a lot of concerns recommendations and so we have been trying to do as best as we can to get to all of those um and so far we have done a lot and so we would like to see

005um if things have gotten better. So hopefully we can share those with you. um either at the next meeting or um maybe sometime in February. >> Okay. So, we have a new quest manager that we are planning to meet with Janess. We are planning well we got her email today and we met her today as well, but we're just planning to catch her up on like previous things that we talked with the previous quest manager and then focus on things that we spoke with equity like committee about a few weeks ago. and um Tiger Academy lunches. Um previously uh the the equity committee was also working with us to um to um improve the school lunch. Um we had got some we had got some really you know valuable information from them um along with

006JJ who works at Tyer Academy. Um they expressed um some things um such as they feel that um feel that Tiger Academy um they feel that Tiger Academy um students have not been getting the same portions as um has not been getting the same portion as the high school students. So, we're trying to make sure that Tiger Academy kids are getting, you know, the same uh portions um and that they're not getting, you know, middle school portions uh because we do know that those are different. Um and so we have been working to um hopefully change that and um make sure that they are getting high school portions. Um some they some other Tigers some other Tiger Academy students um along with Tiger Academy staff um has expressed that they feel um that the lunch

007that is provided has been kind of like the leftovers um or you know kind of like um you know something that Tiger Academy kids will get to eat after everyone else has already eaten. Um, and so we are working with the new quest manager um to um to ensure that that doesn't happen. Um, and that all mess are >> being good time for maybe to bring Janess and Chris up. You want to come? We'll just You don't have to say anything, but you could just come forward so the board can see who you are. Yeah. So, um, Sophia said this a few minutes ago, but this is our new Quest director. You guys are all really familiar with Emily. Emily is still with Quest. Um, and she's taken more of a dietician assistant kind of

008director role, which is what her degree and a lot of her background is in. And she kind of stepped up when we lost our former director, and she's done a fabulous job, but now she's happy to be able to step back and um, let the new director, so this is Janess uh, Huerta and Chris Hazelton, who are both from uh, Quest, who are here tonight, and we we've been kind of talking about the student ambassador report for the last couple days. Um, but this was a good chance for just the board to see Janness. I know Sherry's at the high school a lot and works really um Sherry is wave your hand Sherry. She runs our Tiger Market and works uh with Emily a lot. So that'll she'll be someone. So I wanted Sherry to

009kind of see your face too as well. Um and so we've done a little um just to clarify and Maryann would have done this but she's sick. So I'm kind of introducing them on Maryanne's behalf tonight but she's sick with a little stomach bug. Um but um we have been doing a little uh we have had a lot of uh email exchanges the last couple days um around the uh the bullet points here related to Tiger Academy. So Dr. Weel's been in the loop and u Janess and uh Emily. So um I think the word leftovers is the word that we were kind of wanting to really uh clarify. So the um as you guys know the uh middle school is our cooking kitchen. And so the middle school cooks a lot of the food

010and then they satellite it out to our elementary a couple of our elementary schools and they bring the food from the middle school to Tiger Academy. Um and they actually bring it pretty early in the launch schedule. So um so I think the students might be thinking they're getting the leftovers, but really they're getting um what they should be getting every day. What we do want to work on though is giving them more variety, giving them more choices because I do think one of the things Dr. We said that the complaints he hears is they just they aren't being given the same options and choices that the kids if you were to eat lunch at the high school, you get, you know, you get the deli bar, you get the hot bar, you get chicken

011sandwiches, you get, you know, salads, you get all these other options. But when they're here, because of the food sanitation rules, we don't have, you know, we're not able to keep certain things cold and we can't keep things as hot. Um, and so they bring it over in the hot cart and um, and they kind of get the two choices that are probably the easiest to bring over. Um, and so we do want to work with Janness and our student ambassadors to kind of be the liaison, but to work with Dr. Weim on giving the Tiger Academy students more choices than similar equitable and on a more equitable level of what their peers get at the high school because there's some students who have to eat lunch here based on the schedule that they have.

012They may come here from 10:00 to 1 and then go back to the high school. So, they're here for lunch no matter what. Um, and then we have students who are here who are here in the morning and then they go back and eat over there. And so, it really isn't equitable when some of the Tiger Academy students get to have lunch with their peers over there, but then there's some who based on their schedule just have to eat here no matter what. So, we want them to have the same choices. So, we appreciate you guys bringing it forward. I appreciate the students who have come and talked to you and the staff member. Um, and I think Quest is really willing to kind of work with us to make it better. Do you want

013to say something? You don't have to, but it's up to you. Okay. Well, welcome to Urbana. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> Janess is an Urbana grad, by the way. I know. And she's all Yeah. Just thought I'd share that. >> Okay. And our last slide is on the executive internship. This started I think their first meeting was actually today and pre like seniors this year, juniors last year could apply during the springtime to do an internship in a career they're interested in. And it looks like they work about 5 to 10 hours a week and they I think it's after lunch they go to like I know Mia she's working with um a professor at the U of I like psychology. So, it's a really great opportunity for like students to get experience in a

014career that they want to like possibly pursue and then also like they get to like like be there in person rather than just learning about the course. >> Thank you. >> It's now time for board reports. Um, I'd like to kick off uh our board reports. Uh, it's that time of year. Uh so uh we have gotten into the habit finally of doing our superintendent valuations on schedule as determined as specified in the contract itself which says they need to be done by the end of March. Um >> I think March 1st. >> Oh actually March 1st. Sorry. So so I guess sometime over the next eight weeks we need to perform and deliver the evaluation to to Dr. Apertatum. Um I guess last year you and Lola uh >> Tori >> oh it's Tori.

015That's right. um >> a new volunteer. >> So yeah, we need but basically volunteers well I'd like to kick off basically a discussion both on the timing of it and to if we wanted to make any modifications to the process >> and right now I have it kind of pencled as the ex um at for the February 17th exact session. We could always move it back. I mean, that gets it done before the March 1st deadline, but if we were pressed for time and needed to move it back a week, we have the flexibility to have a special meeting and do that if we want to, but right now I just kind of have it pencled in for our business meeting in February if if the timing works. >> We can always change that. >>

016So, I'm open to discussion. >> I suggest that everyone go into the Illinois um school board of association of school boards. Um there is a webinar that I've watched a couple times now and I watched it in August about evaluating superintendent. Um and then I watched it just recently when I knew this was going to be on our agenda to get a refresher. And basically they're really trying to promote an online platform called um a um super eval which you know that information is is useful but um they did have a a long discussion about what goes into a super superintendent evaluation and the role of the board and I think that that'd be very helpful for everybody to go in there and kind of get an idea so we're all on the same page.

017Um, the one thing I did have a problem with with the previous evaluation form that we used was the Excel, Excel, you know, exceed exceed. I mean, I think that that was just not really very helpful. >> Um, they suggested um four different ones, ineffective, developing, effective, and highly effective or has not been addressed, working on, achieved or exceeded. So whatever components we want to decide on would kind of mirror those type of um um expectations. Um they also go into really a lot of the focus and the role of the team of eight. How you have the seven board members and the superintendent working together on the same goals. It's not just the superintendent who has the goals that she has or he has to um achieve, but we should be working on those

018same goals as well. So we've had some opportunity last year to evaluate how we were doing. So that's part of the process too. And another thing that they had that we didn't do last year was as you get to the point where each each board member does his or her own evaluation of the superintendent. We didn't come together that I don't remember to discuss it to come up with a consensus. And I think that that uh conversation which is closed to the superintendent would also help us as a growth for our for our board. And if we could implement that I would also suggest that as part of being part of the process. >> Yeah, we could definitely I think we could probably do that in a single meeting still just have a initial portion

019where the seven of us are are are closed and then we we bring Dr. Aubbert Tatum in afterwards. We've done that in the past, but we might have missed that last year. >> I think we're also focused on getting the form completed and and making sure and the most important part is is that Dr. Ivory Tatum is is doing her reflection, her self-reflection, and that's the information that we're using in order to evaluate because we set the goals along with her for the year and she's giving us indication on on how she's met those goals and there are so many things that happen. There's as as you want to be as transparent as you can be, but we're not in the office with her, you know, from morning till night. We're not on every telephone

020call with her, every meeting. So it's really on her it's her responsibility to let us know how she's achieved those goals. So I think that's a very important component of it. So if the timeline's good for you, Jennifer, you you have to do the majority of the work. >> Um so thank you. >> Okay. >> Any other discussions on the on the on this timing and the process? So I mean typically we had I mean Lola didn't help with this last year but we have people who are responsible for collecting the survey responses from the direct reports and then coalating all that data and giving it to the the seven of us and then we would you then we all fill out our forms. So >> maybe the new vice president should be >> maybe

021I should volunteer to help out, but I I need some help. >> Well, I know John Whoops. Sorry. John has kind of been the go-to. I don't have really much to do with it. Tori and Lola work more directly with John to kind of send everything out, right? >> Yeah. And if you want to continue the electronic format, then everything is already set up. It sends out anonymous tokens that validates people. And if you don't want to do that, my feelings won't be hurt. >> Yeah. I >> I mean, why not? We don't want to reinvent the wheel. But if there's change changes to some of the language, we can >> I don't think we'll have any chance of meeting our self-imposed schedule if we make big changes. >> Right. I don't think we >>

022So yeah, >> the only thing that has to be changed are the goals. They they might not have been the same one last year as they are this year and that's the only thing that we'd we'd have to tweak. >> Yeah. And TR typically with in previous years, I'll get you a copy of the folder and you can change the goals and the verbiage, but like the process would stay the same. >> Everything behind the curtain students. How difficult John would it be to move to the because I agree with what Sherry's saying about the the rating names the names were it is kind of ambiguous going from the four to the you know >> how difficult would it be to change that is that a lot I mean if we went to more with

023the IA the two options at the IASB >> maybe we can touch base offline I'll get the copy probably set up later this week uh now that we're ready to do it and And like the actual form you could probably change however you want. Just aggregating the data becomes just as long as it still aggregates the data in a way that you guys can utilize it. >> Okay. >> It might change though because I don't I think right now we have five and then which they're recommending four. >> So sorry but yeah >> four or five it's it doesn't matter. It's all the same. >> Okay. Did Laura did you want to continue doing it or Sure. I can definitely >> Okay. Can we have a group of three then or? >> Probably not for

024all may reasons. That's it. Probably better. That's right. >> Probably better if we had had two volunteers. >> Okay. >> But if John communicates with Sherry more about the scale >> because it sounds like you have a lot to share about that from the what >> because yeah, if you prefer to do it that would be fine. >> How about how about we we propose just that Sherry work exclusively with John for getting the just that portion. form and the scale form and the scale >> the front end >> and then and then in terms of like executing the process of making sure that the direct reports are getting their surveys in on time and delivering aggregating things and delivering it to us. They can put that on on Lola and and Ben. Does that

025sound good along the way? I know this because I would be happy to confer individually with Ben to get his feedback after I do work with John and again with Lola one on- one so that we're not meeting three together but just getting their feedback. >> But I think that's okay. >> Okay. >> But you can but you can't say well and when you're talking to men you can't say well Lola told me this. >> Yeah. >> Right. That's that's still that's still an OMA violation. >> You have individual conversations with >> Right. I just want input. So, thank you. >> All right. So, I think we're set with a target of February 17th. That's great. Uh any other board reports this evening? Okay. Uh moving on, we have a study topic this evening for

026National Mentoring Month and Community Involvement. Antie Armstrong's here with us tonight. Hello. Before I leave, I have something for all of you. So, I want to make sure that you get that before I go. And I just hit the arrow. I just hit the big button to move on. Okay. So, good evening. My name is Angie Armstrong. I'm the district mentoring and community involvement coordinator for Urbana Schools. Thank you for having me. I'm always excited to come and share with you everything that my staff and I have accomplished throughout the year and what we're doing, especially this month because it is January, um, which is National Mentor Month. Oh, I thought you were talking to me. So we've seen in over 31 years of CU1 mentoring a growing request and desire for more mentors to

027serve our students in the elementary and secondary schools. This is due to the program exceeding expectations and proving that mentoring does indeed work. Um we just celebrated 30 years last year and we did um our scholarship board did a large campaign on um just acknowledging the program and um setting forth more mentors to come into the program which we got more mentors that came to the trainings. Um but again we are relationshipbased program and I wanted to share with you some quotes that I received. We do a um questionnaire survey every year at the end of the year with our mentees, our mentors and our teachers. And this is information that I receive from the m some of the mentees. He allows me to express myself without being judged. She talks to me and asks

028me how I'm doing. Having him there knowing he cares about me. We have one of the most important bonds in my life. And I'm have to share with you also, and I don't have it on this slide, but it's my favorite of all time. And the quote is, "I'm the first person I know in my family who has graduated from high school. None of my cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, or siblings have, and I would not be graduating if it weren't for the support and encouragement of my mentor." And just hearing that, um, I don't know, tugs at my heart. This slide shows you everything that we have planned for this month because it is National Mentor Month. So January 7th is I am mentor day. That's where we ask our mentors to post on

029social media and to just advertise that they are a mentor and hopefully others will see and ask them what is that and they can say well let me connect you with Angie Armstrong. That's the plan. Um, also tomorrow morning I am going to StevieJ radio um to do an interview with the radio which we do that every year. January 12th news cazette ad. On the 14th is thank your mentor day and that's where we um have a benefit card that we have mailed out to all the mentors that they can use on that day with these participating vendors and they get a discount or a halfp price item or sometimes a free item. We have some really great businesses that participated this year. Um January 22nd is our mentor lunchon at Stone Creek Church. Uh

030last year we had uh Karen Sims speak. This year we will have a panel of seniors which we decided um Lauren and I came together and we decided that it would be really beneficial for our mentors to hear from our other senior mentors and mentees and ask them what kind of activities that they did throughout their years and what actually kept them going. Um that's always the question for our pairs. What keeps you going? So we're excited to hear what these pairs have to say this year. And this is the slide from last year's National Mentor Month lunchon. Again, this was Karen Sim speaking. Um, and of course, our next one is January 22nd. This billboard has been posted up um several years, but this year it will be posted up in Champagne because I

031decided to use my funds in a different manner. Um I'm not quite sure exactly where this is, but I know it's in Champagne somewhere. I have not meandered around or even asked Lauren where it's located. Um, we also have banners at every CU school that say mentoring works and I know Randy puts helps put them up at the elementary and middle and high school and then their digital marquees. The coordinators asked the principles if they could put something up about National Mentor Month. We also have yard signs which are scattered throughout the community in Champagne and Urbana. And again, um, I will be doing a radio interview with and Stevie J broadcasting. And then I did send a press release to Katherine and Lauren sent one out in Champagne with their district as well. So

032this year I decided I wanted to change it up and do something different. I feel like um we have a program that's very promising and good and I feel like more people need to know about it because there are times I'll go somewhere and someone doesn't even have a clue what CU1to1 mentoring is. If we've been strong for 31 year 30 years more people should know about this program. So I was driving behind a bus one day and I was like oh my gosh I could put an ad back there. So, I reached out to MTD and that's just what I did. I created this orange ad and I put our QR code on it and our website of course and then I told Champagne about it and they did the side. So, we have

033two buses out there. So, if you are driving around town, look for this ad. Um, on the side of one bus will be the white ad to your right and then behind one bus will be the orange ad um on the back of the MTD bus. And that will run all month long. And then I decided um I was approached about doing a commercial and so we created a commercial. So the next slide is a commercial that we made that I cannot wait to show you. Super excited about it. Do I need to hit play or will it just play? Okay. Oh, I'm so excited. I have it on mine that on my laptop. You had it, Lori, didn't you? Oh, >> okay. Should I go ahead and then we could come back to the

034commercial? I will tell you that the commercial um is going to be it's already scheduled. I'm not 100% which game, but it's going to be aired during Ali basketball game and then it will be aired at two pre and postal aligni basketball games. So, I'm super excited about that. I can hand you my computer, too. So, Oh, okay. How do I move on? Okay. So, this next report is of the statistics of this seme this past semester. So, when I go in and do our reports, I get them from the coordinators at the schools and they essentially calculate everyone that has signed in their times um and evaluate their hours and the people that are signing up to do volunteer work. So, in King's School this year, we have nine mentors. We're up by one

035and the hours were 73 and that's up by 11. Over in the red is the volunteers and he has 36 volunteers. He's up by 10 and his hours are 652 up by 77. And then the types of volunteers that go to that school are mentors, community volunteers, I count, America reads, America counts, and observers. Then we go down to Le. Le's down by one mentor, but they happen to be up by 16 hours with their time. They are up 22 volunteers and they are up by 358.5 hours of donated time. Dr. Williams is down by two mentors, but they happen to be up by time by 10. Volunteers, they have 71. They're down by or I'm sorry, they're up by three and the hours are actually down by 130.5. And some of that might be

036because they have students that come in and just need to do a certain amount of hours. So, it looks like they have a lot of people, but maybe they don't need that many hours. Urbana Early Childhood is now included in this report. Um, previously I would put them with Dr. Williams, but we are having more and more tutors and volunteers and um observers coming into Urbana Early Childhood. And so I feel like this this needs to show. So they had 14 volunteers come in and um that was an additional 1,17.5 hours. Those were tutors, community members, and observers. Thomas Payne is up by one in mentors. Obviously, early childhood doesn't have mentors because we recruit from third through fifth grade. Um, volunteers, they are down by seven and the hours at Thomas Payne are down

037by 143.5 as well. Yankee Ridge is down by two and the hours are down by 17 with mentors. with volunteers, she's up by 22 and she's got an additional 567 hours. I will say with Yankee Ridge, we are focusing on getting more bilingual mentors and to the schools. However, we have to make sure that they speak English as well because that's what our training is done in. And so, um, I'm working with Miss Erica Diaz, who's the coordinator there, and she's got some connections with some bilingual groups that she's working with right now to get more mentors at Yankee Ridge, Urbana Sixth Grade Center, and Urbana Middle School. I did not feel like it was fair to compare them with last year, so there's no comparison because we broke them up. um sixth grade center

038obviously is all new. So they're they have 16 mentors at 153 hours, 21 volunteers at 720 hours. Me personally, I feel like that's low and so we're doing our best to increase those numbers. That's one school we'll be focusing more on. Urbana Middle School, I wrote high middle school, sorry. Urbana Middle School um has 33 mentors, 349 hours, 53 volunteers at 1,700 hours. Urbana High School, they're down by six mentors and 45 volunteer or 45 hours. And they have um decreased their volunteer numbers as well, but the hours in volunteers has increased by 346 hours. So then when you go down to the very bottom where it says total, we have 118 mentors in Urbana. We're down by six compared to last year. We have 425 volunteers. We're down by 21 compared to last year.

039However, we are up by 2,45 hours compared to last year. So to me, um I feel like that's still a very good number. That shows to me that we have people coming in and they're serving more hours and we have coordinators that are making sure that they're there and they're doing what they're supposed to be doing and they're putting their time in. So, um I feel like that's a testament to our staff doing their job. I also have down below those total hours comparison with 2022 and 2023. And then if you go to the very bottom, I always figure out the Illinois value of a volunteer per hour, which is rated at 34.29 right now. And our volunteers have donated $468,36711 of volunteer time this semester, which is outrageous. I think that's very good. Did

040we get it? my Oh, sorry. Would it be an email or a text? I would not work so hard to show you this, but I'm so proud of it. And it's such a great commercial. And we recruited um actual mentors and mentees to do this commercial with us. And it's so good. Okay. Well, my phone's >> Yeah. So obviously I give you statistics and numbers but I always want you to know that um as the director of the mentoring program I focus on relationships and the impact that they give to our students and how we can increase those numbers and what we can do for those students. So, I want to show you our seven pairs that we had in 2025, the graduates. And then we have 11 um pairs preparing for this fall. But

041I'll go slowly so you can see how cute these pairs are. But they have been they have been together for a lot of them have been together since third grade or fourth grade, elementary school. This mentor right here decided she wasn't done and came back. This pair, they were like two peas in a pod. I just love how cute he was when he I mean, they're just so happy when they're in elementary school and they get matched with their mentors. She was matched at middle school. Yeah. So the bottom picture of this is um her first mentor which is still very very involved in her life and actually got so close to her she decided it would be best if she was not her mentor anymore because she became very close to her family even.

042So then we rematched her with someone else and they they became very very close and she saw her through graduation. So this is just information on our next training. Um we do three trainings per semester and our next trainings are January 29th, February 4th and February 12th. And then we have a part two training coming up. Um and the that's for mentors that have been mentoring for at least a year and it just is the next level of training questions a lot of them may have that they just need that extra support from. We also do a coffee table talk twice a year as well. We invite our mentors to come too. Well, I was trying to log in. Here we go. Okay. I always brag about our mentoring program and what's going on whenever

043I present to you guys in January. However, I want you to be aware that we do not take our volunteers for granted and our positions and titles indicate that we're more than just mentoring coordinators. We're community involvement coordinators as well. And um we know that our volunteers do change lives. and without the volunteers, tutors, observers, parents that contribute, um, we wouldn't be able to be doing what we're doing. So, we acknowledge them and we thank them as well. And in April, we always have, uh, National Volunteer Week and that's a week where we actually acknowledge our volunteers specifically. Um, I also want to let you know that each school coordinator is busy at work managing mentors, volunteers in their building. They welcome and construct new orientations for all tutors, observers, community members, and mentors, all

044while making sure each individual is either background checked or has fingerprint clearance before they begin volunteering in our schools. These district coordinators have been busy within our community as well. We've manned recruiting tables at farmers markets, UVI volunteer fairs, the CU church volunteer fair. We also go off campus to um do orientations and trainings with IMP and I count I read and um anything our scholarship foundation board has requested that they attend if they can come. I usually don't make it mandatory. >> Are you in control of this or am I? >> Okay. Okay. And no, it's okay. Um, again with our volunteers, um, these change makers are coming in daily, weekly to serve as oneonone tutors. They are playing games with our K1 students with I count I read. We have Visav and ARAC.

045ARAC is America Reads, America Counts. They're tutoring in classrooms and individually. Most of those or all of those are U of I students. Um, we also have individual U ofi students reaching out to us asking what they can do. They want to volunteer. They want to give back. They want to do something in our schools. Another group serving in our middle school and high school is Law Collectiva. It's a UVI group as well. They come in once a week and they meet with our bilingual students encouraging them to focus on career readiness and that group is growing rapidly. We're also in the process of starting that group over at the sixth grade center. We have IMP which is the ali mentor program through the U ofi and that group visits it's oh probably 70 um

046ali uh U ofi students they visit TP once a week and Dr. Williams. Twice a week. We have the education 2011 Spanish, French, and theater students that have to volunteer and they must do 20 hours a semester before they can get into the program that they're applying for. Uh we have 19 UHS students that walk over to on Wednesdays during 8th hour to do PTP tutoring and we have a request for about seven more of those students. We also have community members that are reaching out on a regular basis to give back. And of course, we can't forget about our parents and our PTA members throughout the district that give back as well. And I'm sure I'm missing someone, so I apologize if I have missed a group. And then finally, I just always want

047to give you my goals. Um, at this point right now, I would like to see the sixth grade center increase in mentoring pairs and I would like to see the teachers utilizing more volunteers in the school. However, um, the coordinator and I have talked and she's talked to teachers and she feels like the teachers are just trying to get acclimated in their buildings and that sort of thing. But we would like to get more volunteers into sixth grade center. Um, we would also like I would also like to get more Yankee Ridge mentors in the with the bilingual students. And we do have some French and Spanish. So, not just Spanish. We have both mentors that are there, but they are bilingual, so they speak English as well. Uh, again, uh, goal of mine is

048to continue having retention with my coordinators for them to work 15 hours a week. I would like to see um if at all possible to get more hours for the Dr. Williams person. She works at Dr. Williams and Urbana Early Childhood and with Urbana Early Childhood increasing their numbers. She's very busy. And then of course increased mentor mentee matches continue maximizing volunteers in our schools. That's always a plus. Did we get it? No. I signed in. Let me sign in again. >> I'm sorry. >> Okay. Yeah. Why don't we do do that? Let's just get it ready during the next presentation and we'll take a break at that point for the commercial. But uh at this point, are you ready for questions? >> Yeah, I am. Do you guys have any? >> Go ahead. >>

049Um I just have a question. I just happened to um be with a friend today who was a mentor at DPW >> and um she does complain that when the student is absent, she drives in from >> Sullivan, >> nobody calls and says don't come today. So, I'm wondering if I know teachers are busy, >> but if if there since we do have a person who contacts parents when students are absent, >> um I wonder if there is a system. >> There is a system actually. Um my staff are part-time, so they're not there every day either, right? >> And of course, a teacher cannot contact a mentor, right? >> So, we ask mentors to call the school before they come. And the secretaries are fine with them asking if a student is present. And

050all they have to do is say, "I'm Angie Armstrong. I'm the mentor of soandso. Are they there today?" >> Okay. So, I should tell her to do that. Okay. Because >> and they're told that during the training and during their orientation, >> she's a retired teacher and she didn't think she could call and say, "Is this student who was not my child in school?" So, >> okay, that's I will tell her that. >> I mean, that's all they can say, of course, but yes, they can tell them if they're they're Anyone else? >> Right. Thank you so much, Angie. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> We do. Now, one thing I always have to remind teachers and other staff members about is that our program is for students that are at risk of succeeding. So,

051we're asking someone from Buucy Bank or from Shnooks or from another facility or business, typically not from the education world, to come in and mentor someone. So, we will not match them with someone that has behavior disorder or some, you know, a student that um is a struggle. We want to match them with someone that they can make a difference with and support and encourage and help them along the way. But we do have a waiting list of students. Yes. >> So, no, I don't I >> The people at home can't hear you, Jessica. So, so could you come up and and and since you're doing the next presentation anyway, So my question was um do teachers do we think teachers know how to recommend students for the mentor program? And the reason why I

052asked is like I've been sitting in some like tier 2 MTSS meetings and like one of my recommendations like this student would b probably benefit for a mentor um and some of the teachers just didn't know how to recommend. So maybe we can like brainstorm of maybe doing a presentation to our teachers >> on how to recommend. I highly recommend that. >> Yeah, I think that' be a great idea. >> Thank you. Uh, anyone else? >> Thank you so much. And thank you for all of the mentors and all the volunteers. Please go ahead, pass it out. But >> the the people donating all their time, you're a godsend to this this district. So, thank you all so much. >> Thank you. I if we don't get it, I'm going to send this to you

053guys because this commercial is awesome. You can you can work with John here and hopefully uh >> do you want this back? >> Uh next up is our administrative report on district policy uh acceleration uh district acceleration policy procedures. Excuse me, I'm stumbling over my words. Yeah, I just want to say um my niece was in the CU mentor program for Urbana and Miss Swisser was her mentor and uh it was a really great pairing since elementary to high school and even after she graduated high school they were still in contact. So it it's a really great program and partnership. So okay, good evening board. Um I am here tonight to talk to you about our acceleration plan and um our policies and procedures for acceleration. So um there is a link to our actual

054acceleration plan um if you want to review it any further. So let's go ahead and get started. So the first thing is really what is what is acceleration? Um, so acceleration is just placing students in an educational setting with a curriculum that's usually reserved for students who are older or at a higher grade level than than what the student currently is at. Um, we have three types of acceleration here at Urbana for our students. Um, we have early entrance to kindergarten or first grade. We have um single subject acceleration and then we also have whole grade acceleration. So there's like three different ways a student can be accelerated. And then the next slide just talks to you about like what that means. What's what does it mean early entrance to kindergarten, first grade, and then

055what single subject acceleration is and whole grade acceleration? Do you want me to read that or are you guys good? Okay. So um how does how do students get accelerated here in Urbana? So the first part is they have somebody has to complete an acceleration referral form for that student. So um the recommendation can come from a parent or guardian. It can come from a licensed educational professional like their teacher. Um and it actually can come from a student um if they get written consent from like the parent guardian. Usually that's more at the high school level that we get recommendations from students for acceleration. um actually get quite a bit of those at the high school, but a student can refer themselves for acceleration. And so um once that form is completed, um the

056form is turned into um our kindergarten coordinator, which is Kelly Allen for uh early entrance to kindergarten. And then I collect all the other referrals. And so those referral forms have to be turned in by January 31st because we have to screen students for acceleration. And if students meet the requirements for the our screening process for acceleration then um and I'll talk about this here in a minute but then it gets goes back to the team and then the team has to do like an evaluation and that evaluation is very extensive and the school's psychologists usually do um the evaluation so it takes time and so they need from like February to like May to to complete all those like evaluations. So that's why we have a deadline um for acceleration to get those requests

057in. So um those who do qualify based off of the screener, they have time to do further assessments and evaluation for acceleration placement. And so we can start the the student out the next school year um at the beginning of the year if they are going going to be accelerated. So that's why there's a deadline. So I wanted to kind of explain the deadline to you. So really the first part is just turning in the referral form. And so um the decision um to move forward with an evaluation um we use map um data really for most of our screeners. Um we also use Ames web uh writing and we also look at um panorama um the student surveys um because we also want to see if they're age like appropriate socially developed to be

058accelerated as well. So um we have to have that data for fall and winter. So um that's another reason um why we wait until January as well because we need that data for screening. And so, um, Kelly Allen, myself, she has to do additional testing for early interest to kindergarten, but I I use the map data that we have and our AS web writing and look at panorama. And um for those students requesting acceleration who are not currently enrolled. So like we just had a student enter at the middle school and they were asking about acceleration and so luckily the student got in before like the deadline for the map window to be closed and they also had map from where the student was at previously. So, we were able to get that student in

059and test test the student um for the winter map data to give give us some information and the panorama panorama survey. So, um we collect the data and then we determine if they meet the screening requirements. um if they do meet the screening requirements um that referral form is forwarded to the school that the student is attending or will be attending and then it's up to the school to do the next process. So um if the student and I'll talk about this here in my next slide but um the school has to do a a team an acceleration team and um which includes usually a building an administrator the school psych um social worker classroom teacher and then the parent and guardian and then um they will set a date um for a meeting um

060to look at what they will be looking at for the evaluation process to move forward. And if the student does not meet the screening requirements, um we have a form uh actually it's the acceleration request form. It's on the back, but we'll let the parents know either way like what the decision was. So, uh Miss Allen and myself do notify the parents by January 31st. So, that's the referral part. That's how we get the process started. Thanks. So once a student qualifies for the screening um it goes back to the buildings and the building set up a meeting to look at the evaluation process and we do have if if you click on the link and you look at our um acceleration plan, it does give the cut scores and it does tell you like

061what assessments we'll be using for evaluation. So the team will decide um who's going to give the evaluation, who's going to give the assessments, and then they set a date to come back and reconvene to look over the assessment data. Um we do have some exceptions and extenduating circumstances for the evaluation process, like if they miss that January 31st deadline. Um the first one is uh the Illinois Accelerated Placement Act. So for high our high school students um we look at um we have to look at our um most recent state assessments and those students who meet or exceed um have to be ex automatically be accelerated or rolled in the most rigorous level of English, social studies, humanities, math. You can read that there. So we look at that data. It's in October and

062we look at those students to see if they are already. Most of them are already placed in an irrigorous or accelerated course. But if they're not, we can't um we reach out to the student in the in the family to let them know and um usually start them in January if they want to. They can opt out if they want to. Um but we have to give them the opportunity. Um and then um so if a student moves in from a different country, we also take that into consideration. Um some I've I've had this happen when I was a principal, but like a student will be in a different grade, but when they come here, they're placed like the what they taught maybe was more at a higher standard. So sometimes we have to like

063move a student up or we never really move a student down, but we move a student up based off of like what they were learning their country because it might be a little bit different. So that's another um exception that we might make. And then if a student moves into the district um after the request for acceleration um if they have the screening data, if they have um those standardized assessments that we could look at, we will make an exception to look at that to see if they they possibly could qualify for acceleration. So all right. So um eligibility determination. So once the schools do the evaluation and they have collected all their assessment data, they reconvene back as a team with the with the family or the parent or the guardian and then they

064decide whether or not the student will be accelerated based off of their scores. We do have specific cut scores and so um if the student is eligible for acceleration then the team will prepare an acceleration plan for the student for the next school year with the family or the parent and the parent has to provide written consent. They also have to give written consent for evaluation. But the parent also has to approve the acceleration plan and is also part in helping create that. Um if a student is not eligible um then the you know the parents and guardians are told but um they do have um the right to appeal but it has to be within a certain amount of time. Um and that appeal goes to um the superintendent. and then the acceleration plan.

065So, it just depends on how the student is accelerated. Like I said, we have three different types of acceleration, whether it's whole grade um to kindergarten uh to first grade or whole grade acceleration. Um or really the plan that we have to be really specific on is the single subject acceleration. Um cuz if they're only being accelerated in one subject, they're still staying at their grade level, but then we have for the most part um like we give them put them up in the next grade level for that single subject. Um and so we have to write a plan for that um and what that will look like. And so um then we check back um on the plan within 30 days to check in to see how the student's doing. Is the student being

066successful? was this a good placement? And then um students who are accelerated will continue on that acceleration path um until they get into secondary um and most of the students do anyways, but when they get to secondary, they have to take an end of course exam um for the grade level that they're skipping. So if they don't pass that end of course exam, then we don't accelerate them because they're showing us that they don't have the skills for the grade that they're skipping. So like once they go to sixth grade, they have to start taking that end of course exam. We don't have them do it for elementary. Um so um and then um I just wanted to give you some numbers. Um so uh students who qualified for acceleration for this school year um

067we didn't have any students that qualified for early entrance to kindergarten or first grade. Currently we have 16 students um at the elementary level who are doing single subject acceleration and then we have one student um who qualified for whole grade acceleration and then in secondary um we just have the single subject acceleration. So, at the sixth grade center, we have five students who go to seventh grade math at S for first period. And then at the middle school, we have we qualified six new students to be accelerated and at the seventh grade and then six students who qualified um to accelerate at 8th grade. So, they go to the high school. Most of them go for like math and science. Um, and at the high school we had six new students that were um

068that qualified for single subject acceleration. These aren't our total numbers, but um those were the new students that qualified under our acceleration plan. And then since we're in January, our deadline is appro will be here before we know it. Um but so far for this school year, we've had one request for early entrance to kindergarten and one for first grade. only one for single subject acceleration and one for whole grade acceleration. We've not had any requests at the sixth grade center. Um we've had two requests for single subject acceleration at the middle school and so far we have eight at the high school. So, and then next steps to consider um we need to so I'll put together a committee um here pretty soon and uh we need to look at our screening and evaluation

069criteria for MAP because um what we have is the 2020 um MAP uh achievement percentiles and as um you know uh MAP just changed it for 2025 but when they changed it it was in August August and that's when our acceleration plan is is due to our to to our families to our schools and so we didn't get a chance to look at the the um new cut scores for MAP. So we're going to have to update that to to align to the 2025 MAP scores. Um we also just want to get better at the communication process with our families about acceleration. Kind of feel like it's a hidden secret. Um, and so we just want our families to know more about what it is and and how what it looks like and what the

070process entails and how they can uh recommend their students for acceleration if they they feel like their student um could go on an accelerated path. Um, this is a big one. We want to make the referral process for our acceleration equitable for all of our students and our families across K through 12. um give everybody the same opportunity. That's really important. So, we're working on um I want to work on that. And then um our fifth grade acceleration um so our students who are in fifth grade, most those students are in single subject acceleration for math. um and they stay at their building because we just there's a lot of reasons, but um right now they stay at their current building and so the teachers are responsible for teaching them sixth grade math. And so

071we have to get pretty creative on how what that looks like, how that plan is implemented. But we want to make sure across all buildings that it looks the same and that it's equitable for all of our students. So we're working on a plan for that. And then um I've taken the course exams this past summer because I had to give them to some of our students and they are old. They're extremely old and outdated. Um so I wanted to um we need to update our sixth through 8th grade end of course exams for math. I don't I don't even remember the last time they've been updated. No one could tell me, but I know that they're old. They don't look like our illustrative math that we use. Um, so that's something that um we

072want to work on for the summer to have available for next year. So questions, >> board members, anyone have questions tonight? >> How is how is the acceleration process right now like not equitable or how like how are you planning to make it more equitable? >> Yeah, that's a really great question. I love that you asked that question, too. Um we have families that are aware of our acceleration process and then um we have families that who are not. And so those families who are not aware of our acceleration process, if they don't get a referral form in by January 31st, then that student does have doesn't have the opportunity to be accelerated. And so we h like I said, we use our MAP scores as our screener. And um starting in third through up

073to high school, we use the 90th percentile for fall and winter at their current grade level. And we have a we have some students sitting out there that score above the 90th percentile that aren't being accelerated because the form hasn't been completed for them. And so when we say being equitable, um we want to look at that process of how we can make families aware or even teachers to make those referrals. >> Can I add to that? So right now the families who know how to advocate for themselves and who know how to find this know about this information are the ones taking advantage of it. But we have a you know we have a couple students probably every building whether they're black, Latino, whatever. Um white, lowincome, special ed, doesn't matter that would qualify

074who maybe don't even know about it and aren't asking about it. And you know, we have those families who know how to navigate the system and they do it very well and those are the ones who are um kind of taking advantage of the acceleration process, but we want to make it equitable >> for any student who has that MAP score. I know at the beginning when Jesse said they could be nominated, like even an administrator could say, a principal could see, "Wow, their MAP score is really great." And reach out to a parent and say, "Hey, your kids's MAP score for fall and winter was phenomenal." I would I would encourage you to consider this. >> Um so >> yeah, >> as part two to what Jesse just said. Yeah. >> Yeah. And that's

075why we also need to imp strengthen our communication process. Like how can we get more of our families aware um of this process and this opportunity? Yep. You're welcome. >> Your your mic isn't on, Jennifer. >> Um because I knew this was going to be on the agenda. I did look up our policies and in both the handbook and the sixth grade handbook um it uh the policy says the same thing. Um, and it says basically the automatic enrollment in the following school term of a student into the next most rigorous level of of advanced coursework offered um by the oh oh that says high school students. Um and but it says it basically says if you are in I mean this is in the middle school and sixth grade handbook that um you would

076they would use the state test and if you meet or exceed on the state test you would automatically be put into the next most rigorous course. And it and when you look at the state um code, it basically says by 2728 that's going to be for not just the high school, for everyone. >> That's by 2027. >> By 2728. >> Yeah. >> Until I think it's April of 2027. >> Yeah. >> Right. And but but that would address your question I think. >> Yeah. That's another way >> because then it is incumbent upon the school to automatically put somebody up >> into the next most rigorous course. Um, and I'm I'm wondering why we're I mean, we know we're going to have to do it in 2728. >> Um, why are we waiting to 2728?

077And I guess my other question is um this was brought to me by the question about um >> accelerated placement was brought to me by a parent, but it kind of hit home with me because of a little kid I knew at the sixth grade center, but he had >> totally um always exceeded >> um in all of his state tests, >> you know, I don't know, third through fifth. And yet when he got to the uh middle school, he didn't do as well on that MAP test, I think, because he was in a new building that was much bigger, that was much noisier. >> And he was told the parents were parents who maybe didn't understand the system as well. >> Right. >> And um so he he was he told this teacher all

078year, "I've already studied this math. I've already studied this math and nothing could be done. >> And um when you have consistent >> uh I I just think that I'm just wondering why are we waiting to 2728, why are we not doing what's really in the um sixth grade and middle school handbook which says this is what we're doing. And um and I think this for for middle school was it supposed to start in 23 24? >> I don't know. This is only my second year in the district and my second year with acceleration. So >> I thought I read something about that >> tell you about that but I've not I've recognized what you've recognized and there's a lot of other people that have as well. And one of the thoughts that um that

079we're looking at for next year is I already have a list of students who have met the fall and winter screening requirements. And um we we're going to talk about like mailing letters out to those families to let them know that your child has met the screening process for acceleration for single subject or whatever whole grade. Um we recommend that you complete the form for the student by the 31st. So, like contacting those families um to make it more equitable. Um but also too, I think our teachers need to be trained as well. Um I was at the sixth grade center probably in October and I was looking at um talking about I just observed a teacher and there was a student that was just brilliant and I was like why why is the student

080not accelerated? I'm like, "But you can make a referral for the student to be accelerated in reading." And the teacher's like, "I can." I'm like, "Yeah, you just have to do it by January 31st." So that's why one of the things like like our communication process has to be strengthened for this. So we we are aware of, you know, what you just brought to our attention and we're working on it not for next school year, not for 2027. So 2627. So, >> and uh one of the questions that this parent asked was if if the student has already been um accelerated. >> Does the student have does the parent have to fill out the request form after that? >> No, the student is automatically continued to be accelerated, but they do have to take um

081the end of the course exam >> if they're in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. >> Yes. >> Or middle or high school. >> High school. Yeah. Yeah. So, sixth, seventh >> for the first time. So, whatever course that they're skipped for the first time. So, if you're a first-time student being accelerated, you have to take that into course exam to go to the next level. And then if they're successful in that level, that's why we follow up on that plan. Then they can continue to be accelerated. >> Okay. And they don't have to fill out the form. >> No. And if they're elementary, they just meet the team just comes back together the re to revisit the plan >> to look at do we need to accelerate another grade, a whole grade, another subject. So

082they don't have to they don't have to go through the referral process again once they already have an acceleration plan. >> Okay. And also according to our um our policy um if if they are if they have meet met or exceeded in English they would automatically be enrolled in the next most rigorous level of coursework in English, social studies, humanities or related subjects. Um, so are we doing that or are we just >> just for our high school? >> But but as of 2728 it will be everybody. >> And so then would we be putting those students in the next grade? >> That's something we have to discuss. Um, we haven't had that discussion yet what that would look like. So >> and the policy, right, and the way it's written, it doesn't require us

083to do that. As long as we provide acceleration, right, >> we can still accel provide it. Specifically, I'm talking about elementary. I think we we're already taking care of this at the secondary level, but at the elementary level, it's yet to be determined, but it doesn't say that we have to send kids out building. We just have to provide the differentiation and acceleration. >> Oh, okay. I don't I'm not Maybe maybe that is that is true. That's not how I read the the state law for 2728. Um they did say that you should start putting um doing you know uh like critical thinking and stuff like that in all of the grade levels to kind of bridge some gaps. But it it stated more or less like like this, you know, that you shall do

084blah blah blah blah blah. Um, so, uh, I don't know. I just I would like to see us making sure that all of these students including the parents who aren't good at filling out the forms and um if we have identified a student I would like to see us in fact one of the statements in the in the state law said you will inform the parent and you will inform the parent of the supports that you will of that child, you know, in order to make it in that accelerated class, >> right? That's why we have the acceleration plan. >> Yeah. And so, um, I would really like to see us work toward that. >> Um, >> absolutely. >> And I hear you. Yep. >> Anyone else? Go ahead, Sherry. Going back to the student

085in October that you saw um you said that that student you thought should have been accelerated. Well, does that student have to wait till the following year in order to get some additional supports or a different um educational program for him? >> Um we had our uh we can't accelerate them because that's not our current policy. We just we can't take a student in October and accelerate them because what I do for one I have to do for all. Um so if I so I worked with a teacher and actually that day our intellect coach um from HMH was there with us and so we um have been we showed them different resources that that teacher could use with that student for to provide differentiation. So we gave that teacher some ideas of how to

086excel that stu that specific student and that teacher had some other students in there too that were performing pretty high. So we worked with that teacher kind of on a differentiation plan on how um that teacher could accelerate those specific students with the into literature program. >> I hate to see a whole year wasted because of the um because of the deadline. And the other question I had was regarding the amount of number of students who might think that they're ready for kindergarten and apply but you only selected one. um how many had applied or >> for last year I think >> or as a trend I >> um I only have last year's data uh because this is my first year. So I think last year we may I think we had five um

087that applied for early entrance to kindergarten. Uh only I think one went to kindergarten, one went to first grade. They just weren't ready. >> Yeah. And those referrals came from their families. um they just they weren't ready in several areas. So >> with the number of uh students who are born in the summer months, I can understand that there's uh a concern about the parents that maybe they don't need another year of preschool. So >> right any >> Oh, I was just gonna say something. >> Go ahead. Oh, I just basically I'm really glad that you are, you know, tweaking this program. Um, and basically I think it is does have a lot to do with the communication with the parents knowing that um that's available out there. So, >> but also our teachers our

088teachers in the classrooms with our students every day and see their abilities and so I think um getting our teachers to recognize that they can make those referrals is also really important as well. Mhm. >> Anyone else? >> Thank you, Jessica. >> Thank you for having me. >> Is it time? Are we Are we ready for the premiere? >> I hope so. >> Just one hour a week during the school year can give a student hope, confidence, and someone who truly believes in them. Join over 450 CU1 mentors in Champagne Orbana schools and make a difference one child at a time. >> Yeah, that's awesome. >> She just asked me if she could sign up. You could all sign up. >> Thank you. Thank you both. Uh our last administrative report of the evening is

089technology in our schools. Um so uh some of this is from last year. I put that little uh skip intro and uh skip recap button in the bottom you might see. So, I'm going to go a little quickly over this first part since uh some of it is like just an update from last year. If you'd like more information, uh if any of you would like to come in for your board orientation or like a board orientation refresh, I'd be happy to go into more detail. But to start out with, uh this is basically kind of everything we have in the district. I talked last year that you can kind of think of the technology like a pyramid where at the bottom we have kind of all the structured cables, district networking and then we

090work up to like building networking, all the Wi-Fi and then we have all of our devices and then on top of that is the application layer at the pinnacle of the pyramid uh where all of the magic happens and where you actually do all the things. But you can't have that without uh everything that's supporting it. So uh to that end, we've done a lot of things this year. Uh one of the biggest things we did this summer was built a whole new building. Uh we stripped all of the network out of the sixth grade center. Uh put in all new entry building network, which I'll talk about in just a second. And uh if you guys haven't yet been into the sixth grade center, it's a really beautiful building with like all new network,

091all new structured cabling, uh all new wireless, uh all new AV systems, which make it a lot better place to host meetings and do things. And it also got all new classroom technology in the building. So, uh hopefully you've all gotten a chance to walk through there and see all the updates there. uh some of the existing stuff and I talked about this last year some uh all of our classrooms now have these interactive displays uh this lets people put up their things but as they're doing them they can also annotate right on top of uh their classroom curriculum or whatever else they're doing in the classroom. Uh it also functions as just a plain whiteboard if you kind of switch over and you can do all your math and science and sentence diagramming uh

092that you like to do there. Uh this and it also lets you cast in remote control. So this is casting wirelessly from anywhere in the district. You can cast to any of those boards. So for devices, we have kind of a tiered level of devices. Uh, kindergarteners get iPads because that's what's developmentally appropriate uh to kind of transition. First graders get uh Chromebooks, but they're touch Chromebooks. So, it's kind of halfway between an iPad and a Chromebook. And then starting in second grade through uh 12th grade, everybody has basically the same Chromebook. It's the base level clamshell Chromebook. uh they keep them in carts at elementary school and then they get assigned to the kids to uh take home and use for homework uh for six through 12. Uh really helps with equity like a

093lot of kids don't have a computer at home to work on things. So having advice that they can take home as you get to kind of those higher level classes really helps things out. Uh and then we have been uh when they get to 12th grade, they have the option to either return their uh Chromebook to the district to use for loaners for other students or if they want to continue to use that in uh college or whatever they're doing after high school, they have the option to keep that with them. So, and those are used for pretty much everything uh top to bottom. and we purchase them every year on a rotation so that we always have kind of a consistent level of budgeting for those uh teacher devices. We did do a big

094forklift upgrade uh a few years back and now we're kind of at the point where we start needing we also need to start doing the uh device rotation. So this year we upgraded our uh teacher Windows PCs from these Windows PCs to these ones which look totally different. Uh and uh we are one of the only districts I know that actually gives teachers a choice uh for what device they want to use and what kind of platform. So we also upgraded uh a portion of our MacBooks from this MacBook to this completely totally different looking MacBook. Uh but they do have like every year they have a little bit better specs and everything else. Uh teachers also have document cameras in most of their classroom. And one of the other bigger things we did this

095summer was put in a lot of uh large venue projectors. So you can look at the list there. I won't go through all of them, but this gives us a lot more capabilities to do a lot more PD, a lot more parent events, a lot more uh student incentive events in the schools. Uh and finally, uh this summer, we did a lot of uh upgrades to the core network. Uh you see kind of the sixth grade center in the middle. It's right at a place on our network where lots of wires come through going lots of different places. Uh, and if we lose the sixth grade center, we also lose facilities and King and then we have a degraded network for the rest of this side of the network. So, this summer you might have

096seen lots of equipment out drilling holes in the ground and uh running cables all through town. Uh but we ran an additional uh fiber optic network cable from S to King that closes that loop. So now if any of those uh buildings go down, the network won't go down at all the other buildings. And then we also added connections from S to Le and to the sixth grade center. MS is our core uh where all of our network connections come in from the internet. Uh we also, if you noticed, we switched from our upstream connection of AT&T to Comcast and that's now a completely diverse path to the internet. Uh basically from the time it leaves that network rack, it goes in opposite directions. So no single backhoe can take down our network anymore. So

097uh very exciting for there those two little lines there represented an immense amount of work. Uh so I did want to highlight that we're also upgrading uh our firewalls. Right now we have a new pair of firewalls that in addition to being faster and having more capabilities also has about 20% 80% less uh annual licensing fee which will pay back for those in uh probably two or three years. Uh and we're in the process of upgrading all of our VM hosts and storage. uh each of those servers kind of up at the top there uh can hold like up to 40 or 50 virtual servers. So instead of having a hundred physical servers, now we have three physical servers that have the capacity to hold uh 80 virtual servers. And if any one of them

098breaks, they just pass the server from one to another and nobody ever knows that they were broken. uh they are in our core data center. Uh last year I talked a lot about camera upgrades. Uh this year we added an additional 80 cameras uh just providing uh more security around the district. And we also consolidated everything onto three uh network video recorders which makes it a lot easier to pull video and for administrators to ask access things. Uh and then we've also made some changes to metal detectors at the sixth grade center. Uh finally uh on this portion uh district security we've been making a lot of upgrades. Uh we implemented multiffactor authentication for all of our systems. Uh have done additional fishing training. We have been getting and you guys have probably seen them

099as much as anybody else inundated with spear fishing attacks which might look like they're coming from Dr. Ivory Tatum or me or Angie and they look uh thanks to AI a lot more legitimate. So getting everybody to be just very suspicious of those has been difficult. Uh we've done additional data safety training for administrators and we've been auditing access to all of our systems uh to implement the least access uh principle so that people don't have a lot of access to student records and information that they don't need. Uh and finally and I think we'll talk about parent square. We had a whole presentation on it, so I won't redo all of that. Uh but we did break down break ground on the cell tower going in uh behind the football field uh in December

100and we're hoping to have construction completed in February uh weather uh helping uh and then we've been continuing to update our radios to uh update some end of life radios and create better interoperability especially now with the sixth grade center coming online. So the last half of this presentation I wanted to talk to you guys about AI in our schools. Uh you may I'm sure you all read uh in press 818 that they added a kind of chunk for AI there. Uh I'm not going to read all of this but a few highlights here. Uh we are with the new policy uh required to develop a district-wide AI plan that addresses how we use that in the schools and then also to establish guidelines for teachers, students and staff uh and provide AI tools that

101comply with uh our district policies. So to that end, we've had some recent communications we sent out to teachers uh as kind of a first step on this path toward uh finding how we can use this in the school. Uh and I will give very brief highlights of that. I'll send you guys the entire uh email that went out if you'd like to look at it later. it was uh a lot more in depth but uh one nobody should be representing AI generated work as their own work not teachers not students uh they should be doing their own work if they're using AI to get ideas and things that they should be open and upfront about that and teachers should be very clear about what their expectations are. Uh but also we know that students

102are already using AI and they're using it in a way that really doesn't have any guidance and really doesn't have any controls or guard rails on it. Uh I see some nods from our student ambassadors. Uh so uh working on getting safeguards in place and putting it in uh where they can learn about it but learn how to use it responsibly. So we are governed by certain laws. Uh SOAPA and FURPA uh relate to security of student data and our data agreements. Uh COPA is specifically for students 13 and younger. Uh and so there are a lot of additional constraints on the software makers of what they can do with those younger students. So that's basically like eighth grade and below. Uh we want to look for things with teacher controls where we have student

103sign on. Uh and then the last for this page uh walled garden is basically if you go on chat GPT everything that you put in there becomes part of chat GPT. So all of the questions you ask and data you put in there is integrated into the database and who knows how could come back out and another question somebody asks in Abu Dhabi three months later. Uh we are looking for systems that are kind of walled garden systems they call them where they train them in ways outside of the district but whatever you're putting into them stays in a walled garden for you and your data isn't going out into the void where we don't really have a good idea for it. So three tools that we have that do that. Uh Gemini for Ed

104is the Google implementation. Notebook LM is a slightly different uh Google tool I'll talk about a little bit. And Magic School is a AI tool designed specifically for educational environments. If you'd like to know more, there's a link there uh to our whole student data privacy page that has a lot of information about all these laws with some videos and more information. So, guidance we're providing to teachers. Uh we know that age appropriate use of AI does not look the same for high school juniors and seniors as it does for fifth graders and third graders. Uh and so we want to target what we're doing with different students to their age groups. Uh and very importantly, younger students really need those same foundational skills. Uh I made an analogy of a calculator. Uh when you're

105in second and third grade, you really need to learn how to add and multiply and do long division and multi multi-step uh multiplication. uh when you're doing trigonometry and calculus, you need those skills, but you don't have to type them every day. You can use a calculator to get 437* 832. You don't have to write it out every time because you're working on bigger things. Uh and this quote really stuck out. uh AI can't help students build schema, the building blocks of learning power, but it can offer students more information uh that gives them conceptual understanding. And that's the bedrock of schema. And that's what p productive struggle does. So struggling with a multiplication table, even though it seems hard when you're in third grade, is going to pay huge dividends when you're doing calculus

106your senior year. So the biggest thing for teachers is effectively communicating uh what their expectations are for students uh and reinforcing those throughout the year. Uh we're not saying that teachers need to use AI in the classroom. I say that every time I bring this up. Uh and if they don't want to, they need to communicate that and reinforce those expectations as they go on. Uh so finally uh ways that they can kind of uh use this in the classroom uh in the formative and summitative uh assessments to understand skills. Also, for teachers, if you don't want AI in your classroom, a really easy way is to do a diagnostic preassessment and you understand your students writing level, the same as kids plagiarizing from the World Book Encyclopedia in 1987. Uh, if your kid is

107writing at this level today while he's sitting in your classroom and his homework's coming in at this level, like, it's time to have a conversation and say easy things like, "Oh, hey, Billy." like what do you think that word means that you wrote? And if they don't know, it's a pretty good uh indication that there's something going on. Uh and in my email I sent, there was a lot of other hints for how to kind of identify AI as it comes in. Uh and last on here, like AI should be a tool that students are using to learn, not a crutch. And I'll go into that a little bit more uh a couple slides down. Uh so AI for equity is a huge opportunity that we have. Uh looking for ways to build equity in

108the classroom. You can adapt uh texts to make them more culturally responsive and more meaningful to your students. You can take the same news article and have AI write it three different ways. Uh you can also students can use AI for tutoring at home. I personally don't have any problem if you want to go on your chemistry homework and ask AI to explain a con complex concept for you and then you go and do the work. Uh a lot of people at home have parents who are there every night for them to help explain the different atomic models and help them with their five paragraph essays. A lot of students don't have that. And if AI can fill that gap, that is something that would make me really happy. Uh I will this last one

109I think we talked a little lot about acceleration earlier and there is a huge opportunity uh for you guys mentioned the fifth grade uh like inclass acceleration and differentiation. It is really easy to have the same assignment for all of your kids and have an AI tool say, make this one 20% harder and make this one 20% easier. And those kids who were kind of bored sitting in the classroom now can be doing the same assignment as everybody else, but they're not bored anymore because they are have something a little more challenging in front of them. uh accessibility. There's like opportunities for uh making text more decodable for students with dex dyslexia, students with HD. You can take the same text, break it up, put little like mini questions in the middle to keep them

110engaged as they're reading that. uh and then ELLL DL you can uh get like lectures and translate and summarize them in real time with contextual AI translation that's not just doing a word for word translation. So uh we're presenting this framework for something that teachers can use as a really easy way to communicate what their expectations are with students in the classroom. So, it's a stoplight. We all know how those work. Red, don't use AI for my classroom or this assignment or whatever you want to say. Uh, my expectation is this will be your original work. Uh, yellow, you can give them specific things they can and can't do like, oh, use AI to help you make an outline, uh, but don't use AI for your actual writing or use AI to like work on

111some concepts of math. uh but don't use it to do your problems. And then green is where you're kind of incorporating AI into your assignment. So you're saying, oh, start out your assignment by asking AI to create some prompts uh and create uh things and then use that to develop uh your uh project or your essay. And then also uh again for equity like I'm happy to proofread all my kids essays at home. Uh I don't really have a problem uh if people have AI proofread their essays particularly for spelling and grammar. Uh the same thing that I would do. I shouldn't be proofreading for spelling and grammar. That's my wife's uh perview at home. But uh so these are some of the tools that we recommended. Uh they all have a lot of the

112same features. Uh Gemini for Ed since it's built into Google. It has school level security features. We can turn it on and off uh by groups. Uh it has teacher controls. Uh again that walled garden data that's not used to train things. And uh we can also if there's problems uh we can go back and uh pull data back of like what students were doing and what their responses were uh the same way we can for email and uh the other tools classroom that we build into our things. Uh notebook LM uh is one of my favorite tools that's why I included it here. Just really briefly you can upload whatever you want into it. audio, uh, video, YouTube's uh, text, and then you can ask it questions based on what you uploaded, and it

113will give you answers based just on that data set. So, if you have like all of your course notes for a whole semester, you can upload it and say, generate me a study guide, or uh, what are some of the things that I was missing as I was going through here that might be on the test. Uh finally, Magic School is kind of uh pre-made for schools. It has a lot of tools that are specific for education instead of the kind of free form chat mechanism. A lot of them it has. It uh looks a lot more kind of like it has a lot of icons with suggestions of tools that you can use inside that uh tool. Uh again, teacher controls, student filters, and uh all of these tools that I mentioned right here

114are FERPA and COPA compliant. So students under 13 can use them if the teacher decides that it's appropriate in a educational setting for them to use those. So here, I'm not going to read all of these, but I've got some uh ideas for prompts of things teachers can use for students. And then these are this is kind of what magic school looks like here where it's got a worksheet generator or help me with lesson plan or rewrite text at different levels uh all customizable and really tailored uh for uh the educational environment. So at the end now uh we have some next steps that we're working on uh as we're required in the policy. Uh we're going to be doing some training for staff. We're working with uh the uh LTC at our regional office

115of education has some resources and some people uh and I've been talking to some other people about getting some training and uh Yvanda uh on PD and getting some stuff for staff kind of like after school in the next couple months here. We will be having additional communication uh with staff as we kind of get further along in this path. And then we are going to be uh providing help and assistance as we do for everything with anybody if they request it. We're very good at that. uh and we are uh using our technology committee to develop the AI plan once again as required by our policies uh to move forward and then building on that to provide teachers with additional guidance uh in this next semester. So uh with that uh if you guys

116have any questions I'm happy to answer those for you. >> Board members ambassadors any questions? >> Can board members take this training too? Uh the AI training absolutely uh up to two of you or maybe three if you don't talk to each other. >> Anyone else? >> Did you at the very beginning when you were talking did you say that you could cast from any computer in the district to any of the whiteboards? Did I misunderstand? >> That's 100%. So, if I'm I'm here at Tiger Academy, I could cast from my computer to King's School. >> Yeah. >> Clear across. >> Uh, most people don't. I'm casting from >> Oh, I'm sure they don't, but I'm I'm That's a possibility. >> Yeah. I'm casting from here to there. I don't have There's no >> Right.

117Right. >> No strings on me. Uh, but like the same way it's all the same. It's just traversing the network. You do need the super secret code that's on the other school. So, if somebody called you, that would be actually a great idea if you had two classrooms that wanted to do a uh like joint lesson. Uh if the one teacher gave the other teacher her code, you can cast. >> Well, actually, we did some King and Le back when I was teaching. We did. That would have been great >> instead of I mean, we did take them over on a bus, >> but it would have been great to be able to do that. I just I thought I thought maybe I had misunderstood. I'm sorry. >> No, you didn't. >> No, it's good.

118Good question. >> Good question. >> Great. Thank you. And anyone else? >> Thanks so much, John. >> All right. >> We do have a single action item for us tonight. does this for um memorandum memorandum of agreement negotiated between the district and the UEA. Uh John, could you could you provide context for the board before it goes to the floor? >> Uh yes. Okay. Uh yeah, this is uh just recommended by our lawyers. uh after we had a data incident, we wanted to provide uh the affected staff with some additional uh tools for security uh but we are not allowed to uh engage in direct dealing with individual union members. So this MOA is just to say that we can offer them uh this lifelock service without offering it to everybody in the union because

119it doesn't really apply or affect them. >> Okay. Is there a motion for the floor? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Been moved and seconded. Any further questions or comments? Roll call, please. Member Hixon, >> yes. >> Member Jones, >> yes. >> Member Langorf, yes. Vice President Paxley, >> yes. >> President Palowski, >> yes. >> Member Cheryl, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Um, there is no call at the moment for future special or executive meetings. So, it's time for a superintendent report. >> And a very short one tonight since we're just coming off of break. Um, and this first slide I'm actually gonna let John um because we he did the parent square presentation and we're getting ready to roll out our communication about parent square to the district. So John's

120going to do this first slide for us >> and because you're not sick of listening to me yet. Uh so yeah, this is it's very exciting. Uh we've been working so hard this last semester to kind of get to this point. Uh we had the pilot at the three schools. Uh we've gotten great feedback from the people who've been using it. Uh and then so starting yesterday, all of the school level communication should be coming out to all parents uh via parent square. And then we've uh offered to let classroom teachers and activities use it voluntarily for this semester. Uh we're going to be doing some additional training with staff on that. But yeah, parents at home, uh if you haven't already, you should have received not one but two invitations. One right before break

121and one right after. Uh so go ahead and uh hit the invitation. It'll ask you a couple questions to verify your information. And then if you get the app, you get a lot of bonus features where you can get uh summaries of things. If you have the app, it will send it to your app instead of sending it to your text, email, uh, voice, and you can customize all of your communication settings in there. It's really a featurerich tool that we've been missing these last few years. >> And as you heard in John and Katherine's presentation, this was um, kind of uh, driven through our strategic plan work. Um and so Katherine and John are the facilitators for that priority area and we'll be sharing it with our steering committee on Thursday night. We'll be

122at the sixth grade center um giving them the midyear update on our uh strategic plan goals. And so this is a great win I think for your um priority area for um family communication and engagement to be able to roll this out. And it's not even the end of the year yet. So congratulations to you and your team for getting this done. I'm really excited. I had my training and so I'm looking forward to using this as well. And so I sent out a lot of sky alerts, but Parent Square is so much nicer. So I'm really looking forward to it. And >> and one more great thing, uh, if you do get the app, like you get the full featured. Uh, but even if you don't get the app, uh, you'll still get all

123the same communication all the same ways, email, text, and because we're rolling into this new app, uh, people are opted in to text. uh people who had blocked us mostly during COVID uh from a lot of emails are going to get a second chance to not be blocked at the start of this roll out. So, we're looking forward to being able to reach a lot more uh parents. >> One thing that I'm really excited about is Parent Square. Um the blocking part. Um we have families who on the days when we're closed for weather, we actually have kiddos. Randy can attest to because his guys and his folks find these kids showing up at school when it's 15 below because a parent blocked us and didn't get the emails or the news report or the

124news gazette or the whatever. Um, but in Parent Square, emergency notices and crisis messages cannot be blocked. So, if they've blocked us from email um or something like that, if they're if they're listed as guardian one or guardian two, they will get the notice that school is closed for weather. And so, it won't matter. I'm very excited about that. So, we don't have little ones showing up at school. Whether they read it or not or listen to it is one thing, but at least they will receive it and they won't be missing that messaging because they've blocked our communication. So, that's exciting. >> Were you gonna say something, Jennifer? Go ahead. I was gonna ask a question. Yeah. >> Um, are the apps free? >> Yep. 100% free. >> Okay, great. >> Not for us

125before. >> It's free with our district purchase of Parent Square. >> Absolutely. I know. I was just being facicious. Yes. >> Um, thank you, John. Did you guys have a question too, Keandre, about this? Nope. >> Sophia, go ahead. Uh starting with this, students uh at the secondary level can get emails and texts if they go put their information in there. Uh if they desire, you can change your own notification settings. Uh and you guys can also get the app. You guys hopefully probably should have also got a invite to join and sign up if you want. uh when stuff goes out, administrators decide who to send send it to so they can send it to staff, families or students or staff families and students. So some stuff you guys probably won't get because it

126doesn't apply to you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Which is a really good I'm glad you asked that Sophia because um I mean this is something we've been talking about through Skyward for the last two years, three years. We've had students saying we would like to get some of the messages or not just or the phone calls, but we've not had a good way to be able to do that using our current system. So, if you guys go in and put your cell phone numbers in and things like that, then you can you can get the same messaging. We've not been able to do that with Skyward. So, >> yeah. Well, and even crisises, if the crisis, if there's a lockdown at the high school and you don't know what it is, administrators now have

127the ability to send the stuff to the staff with what the staff needs to be doing, but they can also send updates to the students just so you guys are >> which we couldn't do before, which is exciting. Yeah. Um, next is uh UHS swim and dive team competed in the Neighborville um North Boys diving. I did a ride over the uh break and won first place. >> Yay. Here's a picture of their plaque. Um the the swim and dive team is amazing. So, I'm sure this is not going to be the last first place uh team uh win that we'll see for the year. So, congratulations to them. And just a couple updates. I just mentioned we're going to have our our steering uh strategic planning team tomorrow night. For those watching, if you're

128on the team, we are going to be at the sixth grade center um from f on Thursday from uh 5:30 to 7:00. And then um next week uh the eighth grade curriculum night is at UHS. This is when all of our eighth grade families are invited over to learn more about the courses. Uh a lot of the departments kind of share um about electives and different uh course offerings and our eighth graders um get to see those for the first time next week. And then we have a staff development day um Friday before Martin Luther King weekend. Um, so no school for UECs and then early dismissal and then we'll share out um I'm sure there'll be lots of um MLK Martin Luther King events and things happening in the community that we'll share out

129um for that weekend in a separate email for board members to know. So that is it. >> Thank you. Um so I guess our next meeting will be January 20th. Um I guess board members if you have questions with regards to the packet to try to get in I guess early as possible because people aren't working on Monday typically. >> Yes. While we are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King for sure on the 19th. >> Okay. Um I think that's it for the evening. Uh the chair would then entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I. >> All right. We'll see you in two weeks.