Committee of the Whole - May 6, 2026

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Good evening and welcome to the Committee of the Whole meeting. Hi, welcome to the Committee of the Whole meeting on May 6th. The time is now 5:30 p.m. and we are calling the meeting to order. Can we please call the roll? >> Mr. Bresnihan? >> Here. >> Mrs. Lewinsky? >> Here. >> Mrs. Hassler? >> Here. >> Mrs. Asif? >> Here. >> Mrs. Troutman? >> Here. >> Dr. Henry? Mrs. Arvanitis? >> Here. We have six board members present and one board member absent. Uh I will open this up for the Committee of the Whole meeting then. We I'm seeing that we don't have any public comments, yes? So, we'll skip the public comments section of the board meeting. And we will now stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay. I will turn

002it over to Dr. Campbell, who is going to kick us off for the Committee of the Whole. >> Yes, good evening everyone and welcome to our third and final Committee of the Whole for the 26 20 25-26 school year. Tonight, we have two specific agenda items that we're going to share. The first being an overview of the new Illinois accountability system and then the second being secondary student supports. To to launch us off in our first conversation regarding the Illinois accountability system. In 2018, the Illinois State Board of Education introduced the current system that's used for recognizing school performance with a system of school designations as required by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Throughout the 2024-25 and this current school year ISBE has led a comprehensive review of the summative designation system that was

003shared with you during our first Committee of the Whole meeting that we anticipated some pretty significant changes. So tonight I have asked my colleague Dr. Jacob Werts to come and to share with you what those changes are and just to be aware of how moving forward the that Illinois State Board of Education will share publicly progress of our schools. At this time I would like to turn it over to my colleague Dr. Werts. >> Thank you Dr. Campbell. Good evening everyone. And here we go. In tonight's presentation, we've got information on updates to the system for issuing school summative designations. Beginning with a brief overview of what summative designations are and why we have them, how they've reflected performance of District 205 schools in recent years. We'll then discuss why and how ISBE's changing the

004system. The bulk of the presentation will cover the details of the proposed new system, specifically the profile of performance model which is a substantial shift from the system we've used previously. The presentation will close with some information about the upcoming steps and how our team's preparing for the fall 2026 designations. Following the presentation, we'll have some time for board discussion. To start with the most general context for the designations, uh as Dr. Campbell mentioned, federal law under the Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to assign each school a summative designation based on specific criteria in accordance with federal guidelines, which I'll highlight in a moment. The criteria used for summative designations are a small subset of the data we report publicly and accessible through the Illinois report card. Illinois has proposed changes to its system

005for using data to calculate summative designations and expects approval of these changes to come this summer. If approved, the new system will apply to the fall 2026 summative designations, reflecting our current school year performance. ISBE is proposing these changes primarily in response to three concerns with the current system. First, the current system is norm-based. Like grading on a curve, it's designed to make comparisons between schools rather than providing schools and districts with clear performance targets to aim for. This leads to a second concern, which is that the current system provides misleading data on improvement. Because it's norm-based, it masks statewide improvement trends. Currently, a fixed percentage, exactly 10% of schools, are labeled exemplary each year, regardless of how much school performance may have actually changed statewide. And finally, the current system impedes resource targeting. Although

006District 205 schools are not directly impacted by ISBE's targeted school improvement efforts, this work has guided the state's overall strategy for school accountability and impacted the redesign. ISBE has shared that the new system is designed to ensure that state and federal resources are being most precisely directed to those schools most in need of significant support. While ISBE's working to address the concerns I just identified on the previous slide, it's important to note that the state must continue to adhere to requirements established by ESSA. The law requires states to use certain measures, such as graduation rate and English learner progress, while allowing flexibility on others, like how each state defines targets for student achievement and growth. Within that flexibility, the metrics included in the summative designation must meet certain criteria, which limits the types of data

007that can be used. One requirement is that all measures used in the summative designation are collected statewide. NWEA MAP assessment data, for example, is used by D205 and many other districts to monitor school performance locally, but it's not utilized universally across the state of Illinois, and therefore could not be used in the summative designation. Before diving into the details of the new system ISBE has proposed adopting, I want to establish some local context by briefly reviewing District 205's historical performance under the current accountability system. The key takeaways here are excellence and continued improvement. Since the summative designations were first introduced in 2018, all of our schools have consistently been rated as either commendable or exemplary each year, and we've seen significant improvement over time, with nine District 205 schools receiving an exemplary rating at least

008once in the past 2 years. Our district's steady improvement in our summative designations is a direct result of concerted efforts. As a district, we prioritize robust school improvement planning and aligned professional learning. These efforts have resulted in better outcomes for our students, which are reflected in the designations. In addition to our school improvement efforts, we work continuously to refine our data collection systems and processes to ensure alignment with ISBE guidance, which undergoes minor, but potentially significant revisions annually. This year, the changes are more substantial, requiring additional focus and attention on our data collection and reporting. These efforts ensure the hard work of our students and educators is accurately reflected in the state report card summative designations. Moving on now to the details of the new system. The five designations used in the new system shown

009here are intended to provide clear signals about a school's overall performance. Importantly, these signals appear both in the form of an overall summative designation and as signals of performance on each individual metric used in calculating that summative designation. For example, a school may rate as exemplary on one measure of performance and commendable on another. Next, uh we'll take you through the process of translating individual indicators into a school-wide designation. The new system establishes a three-step process to combine performance across individual indicators to calculate a school's final profile of performance summative designation. First, the system determines core performance. A school's initial performance level is set by its strongest score on the core indicators of proficiency, growth, and graduation rate, with some caveats I'll discuss later in the presentation. Secondly, the system accounts for elevating indicators, which

010are metrics intended to identify whether schools are organized for improvement. If a school achieves high performance on its elevating indicators, it can potentially lift the school's final summative designation. And finally, the system factors in student group performance. The system calculates steps one and two for the whole school as well as for individual student groups, such as students with disabilities and English learners. If a student group has particularly low performance, specifically, if a group has a comprehensive profile, this can lower the overall school designation. So, what are the metrics that define core and elevating performance? In the redesign process, ISBE also made adjustments to how it defines and calculates certain measures. The proficiency measure has been redesigned as a single composite score combining ELA, math, and science. This replaces the three separate measures previously used for

011each subject. Growth is also being redesigned as a composite of ELA and math. This replaces both the previous ninth grade on track indicator of growth in high schools, as well as the separate ELA and math growth metrics for K-8 schools. Because science assessments are not taken in each grade level, there's no growth measure for science. And the attendance measure has been renamed and reframed to focus on a positive goal of supporting more students to attend school regularly. Individual students are defined as demonstrating consistent attendance if their attendance rate during a school year exceeds 90%. This aligns with the previous benchmark used for chronic absenteeism, which was defined as the percentage of students who were absent for 10% or more. This slide presents the benchmarks for each level of the indicator on each metric included in

012the new system. Schools receive an indicator on each column applicable to their grade span. To give one brief example using the composite proficiency column, a school with over 75% reaching proficiency targets on average across ELA, math, and science would receive an exemplary rating on the composite proficiency indicator. More importantly, this slide shows that there are transparent benchmarks with robust targets that enables our school improvement planning process to align with clear defined goals. This replaces the previous system where performance levels were moving targets based on the performance of other schools statewide. So, with scores on each indicator calculated, the system now moves through that three-step process to determine a profile of performance. The first step in the process is determining a school's core performance. In K-8 schools, core performance is defined by the strongest indicator between

013proficiency and growth unless any core indicator is comprehensive. In the example illustrated here, the strongest core indicator is exemplary. And the other core indicator is higher than comprehensive. Therefore, the core performance of this school would be defined as exemplary. The core requirements for an exemplary designation at the high school level are slightly more complex due to the inclusion of graduation rate. The example shown here illustrates this. The example graduation rate is in the exemplary range. However, that fact alone does not grant a high school an exemplary core designation. High schools must also achieve an approaching exemplary designation or higher in either proficiency or growth to obtain an exemplary core designation. Because the example school shown here has achieved approaching exemplary for proficiency and growth, its core designation is exemplary. Moving on to the second step

014in the process, this slide highlights the role of elevating indicators in the new profile of performance model. Their purpose is again is to allow strong performance on key support metrics to lift the final designation of a school. This is a strength-based feature that critically can never lower a school's designation. Elevating indicators work in two different ways depending on a school or group's core performance. In one scenario, school A shown on the top right has an approaching exemplary or commendable core performance. And it is able to elevate its summative designation by one level if it has two exemplary elevating indicators. In the other scenario, school B with either a developing or comprehensive core performance has lower bars to meet to qualify for an elevation. They can be elevated by one level by attaining one exemplary and

015one approaching exemplary elevating indicator. The third and final step in the profile of performance determination is to consider performance of student groups, which are calculated whenever there are 20 or more students within a school who share certain characteristics. This can include students with disabilities, students sharing a particular race or ethnic background, economically disadvantaged students, and English language learners. Steps one and two are calculated for each student group. If any group has a comprehensive rating after accounting for its core and elevating indicators, the overall school designation can be no higher than commendable. This is illustrated in the example shown here. The overall school indicators shown on the left would initially result in an exemplary rating because of the exemplary graduation rate and approaching exemplary proficiency. However, one of the student groups within that school has a

016comprehensive rating, as shown on the right. Because of this, the school's final summative designation would be lowered to commendable. This example illustrates the critical importance of monitoring and ensuring success for all students we serve. With the transition to this new system, ISBE has also adjusted the number and names of summative designations available. This slide presents a comparison of the new and old systems of designation. A key shift in the is the creation of an approaching exemplary designation, which contains many schools that would have previously been classified together with a large band of commendable schools. The chart here, provided by ISBE, provides a visual representation of the distribution of schools across the various designations, illustrating a comparison of the old and new systems using the 2025 statewide data, for example. The current 2025 column, shown at

017the bottom, reveals how wide the band of commendable schools currently is. This wide category masks significant variation among schools that currently share a summative designation. The new K8 and new 9-12 distributions modeled using 2025 data are shown above. The key shift here is the breakup and reclassification of that large middle band of formerly commendable schools to designate more schools as exemplary or approaching exemplary if they meet the rigorous new benchmarks ISBE has proposed. And this final slide now outlines the key next steps in the timeline. ISBE submitted their proposal to the US Department of Education on April 17th. We anticipate final federal approval this summer with the new system being implemented in October. Data for core indicators comes from state testing including IAR, ISA, and ACT which we completed earlier this spring. We expect to

018receive the preliminary results of those assessments in June. Uh those are preliminary results um provided for internal review that official results sent to families come at a later date. And that will give us clearer picture of our performance before the official fall designations are released. All D205 schools have already secured one exemplary elevating indicator by meeting the 95% student participation benchmark on the climate survey. And as we close out the year, we remain focused on promoting consistent attendance. I'll just note that we're going to revisit tonight. I know this is a lot to take in and we'll revisit this information in the fall when the summative designations are announced to clarify any questions regarding how our designations for the current year were calculated. And with that, that concludes the presentation and I'll turn it back

019over to Dr. Campbell to guide us in discussion. >> Take a sip of water, Dr. Wertz. You did it. We um just so the the give a little context we have been living this and talking about this for the last two years. There they is be his engaged districts. We've looked at various drafts and iterations and provided information and been on listening tours and webinars and all the things since this was voted on as recent as the April 14th. Knowing that the current data will be used in this particular format. We wanted you to have an initial introduction to it. I will say that it there is some complexity to it. And we also gave Dr. Wertz a very clear time frame of sharing this journey of how we've arrived here over the last two

020years in 25 minutes. And and so I know that there were moments when board members are like what is what wait what is going on? So I I I think for for us a couple of things if you all will go if you could go back to slide nine. I'm sorry. It's the one that has the three steps for the performance. Yeah. So in in the slides after Dr. Wertz kind of walked us through for the elementary and in the in the elementary space versus the high school space what's considered core indicators what's considered elevating indicators and then the factoring in of the student groups. So just really I think the first and foremost is just framing it in that way. When we look at our like their core indicators, once those core indicators are

021are determined, then the elevating indicators can impact that. And then lastly, um the student group performance. So, I think that that framing is is first and foremost. And then you all can see on that next slide that you go to, um gives an overview um of of those indicators. All right? And so, um yep. >> Question. It says "Add elevating indicators if applicable." What's the if applicable? Why would we have them or not have them? >> Uh it wouldn't be applicable if the school's core indicator was exemplary. Because there's nowhere to elevate to. >> Okay. Got it. Okay. And then the factor in the student group performance, if applicable, that's if those >> Uh if I mean if the school was very non-diverse and had no >> Got it. Okay. Yep. Wait, so to >>

022Didn't have 20 >> Didn't meet the threshold of the 20 students that create a group. So, that that would be not applicable. >> Yeah. So, but to clarify, you could you know, be exemplary in the three core indicators and completely horrible in the elevating, and it still would not affect your exemplary rating. >> That's That's correct. >> No, see? There you go. It's correct. >> The elevating indicators cannot lower your uh cannot lower your >> That is just mind-boggling. >> but let's take that example. Let me Let me add some context around that. When you have high-performing schools, they're not going to the who are already at, you know, if we looked at the percentage indicators, for example, right? They're hitting 83% proficiency in the old model or or something higher than that, then they

023probably are not likely to have a factor that's going to reduce There's not an add-on that's going to reduce them because they're already hitting these high levels. Is that >> That's correct. I mean, I think that um you know, one um if a school is is if we if we just look at like what they are, 95% of students, you know, or sort of your participation rate on the climate survey may be something that if a school is hitting exemplary proficiency growth and graduation rate, they would say we're not going to invest time in ensuring that we reach that target anymore because we don't need to worry about that elevating indicator. And so, they might have terrible participation on their climate survey and and decide that that wasn't a priority for them or um And

024so I will just say this I don't want this to be the guide of how we here approach our priorities, right? It's great if we're going to walk out with an exemplary because we have all the you know, composite and growth and proficiency and graduation rate. If we get exemplary there, I don't want us to ignore EL. Right, like I don't want us to be less important just because it can't hurt us. >> Absolutely. Ms. Troutman, I 100% Yeah, agree with that. And and what we also know, even in our current the way the current system is set up, that there are still elements that we here in D205 value a part of our measurement and our assessment of school experience for our students. And so, um yes, we uh want and continue to to

025to monitor this data, but in addition to this, there is also other things that are of value to our community. And so, I 100% appreciate you um saying that. >> It It kind of takes me back to when we first, you know, maybe even 4 years ago when we first started defining how we're going to measure um growth in general. And uh at the time, uh especially in the creation in the kind of foundation of the strategic plan, we uh made it very clear what how we wanted to measure, of course with the help of Dr. Campbell and her team. And even at that time, we often said things like the state report card is a state report card and it's one indicator. Yet, we have all these other indicators at play. And it's a

026reason why we offer the MAP test and the NW the other one, I forget the acronym. I'm sorry. And what was it? >> NWEA >> I got it. NWEA, thank you. In addition to the IAR or at the high school, starting to look or looking at number of students enrolling in AP scores, their outcomes of their scores. Those are all variables at play that we use to monitor. I I do agree with you, Courtney, in that I wouldn't want a subgroup to fall aside in effort um because it's not going to negatively impact our score. I don't believe that that's how we've approached it, but I also believe that um the we're at a place where when we're looking at our what I'll call subgroups, they're calling them something different here. Um the board has

027put in significant resources to support the growth and development in those areas for all students. And that those core principles don't change. Right? This is one indicator. We know there are many other points of indication that help define our student experience and the opportunity to grow and learn for all. And so that core stays. I'm seeing a lot of head nodding. I do have a question if I can move away a little bit. This criteria indicator performance bands, it's like the next slide. Now, I think everyone, the community, the state, residents of the state are used to seeing percentages as scores. Um this kind of summary here is I see that percentages are still a part of proficiency ratings are still a part of the composite scoring now, but is that going to be very

028visible in public still or are percentages kind of are we kind of diverting away? What do we know? >> Um so uh ISBE has not um we don't have a very entirely clear picture of exactly what this is going to look like in terms of how this is going to appear on like Illinois report card. My anticipation is that um you know, in a the the way things are currently with Illinois report card, there's a summative designation that includes these things, but then also within Illinois report card, you can go in and you can see what is the percentage proficient on IAR math by grade level. And um they haven't announced any intention to redesign or you know, eliminate that data transparency. So being able to see those individual measures that are broken out um

029should still be uh my anticipation is that that still will be available. >> So if you have a group, which we do, right? English language learners or special needs, those groups and those kind of percentages or ratings will still be visible to us. >> Yes, that's my anticipation and also that uh that piece around how steps one and two are calculated for student groups. Um and currently within the existing Illinois report card system, you can look at like what the designation is of a school for the student group. And so um I anticipate that the those uh I kind of after step two of the process, the core and elevating indicator designation that a student group receives uh will be visible. >> Mhm. Okay. So, we are able to monitor it to continue to monitor

030it. We're hoping that we're going to We'll see next year, right? But, we're hoping that we will still get the similar type of information in to that we've been using in our monitoring of these areas. >> Absolutely. And And our school leadership teams, as you all know, we have our school improvement plans and those plans look specifically at the students that we are serving, all students. And so, our entry point in school improvement planning is starts with the data that we're looking at that is inclusive of some of these metrics, but also inclusive of other things and as well. And so, school leaders and school teams continue to prioritize for us to closely watch and to examine how students are experiencing and continuing to be successful. It also raises questions when we're not seeing growth

031or when we're not seeing the intended outcomes. Allow school teams to kind of dig a little bit more for us to then determine and for us to ask the questions. And so, we've shared We have various tools internally. We've talked about Next Path. You'll hear a little bit about that tonight and how we're continuing to increase our data literacy and our understanding of how students are growing individually within schools and across various subsets and in tiers within our district. So, 100% that work will continue and a lot of times what we share publicly, there's so many more layers that happens at the school level and with our school teams and our We are just so fortunate to continue to be very thoughtful and and grounded in student fo- focus, but then also how we're utilizing

032data to really track and monitor our our strategies and is this our strategic work leading us to the outcomes that we have intended and that have been prioritized by the Board of Education. >> Any other thoughts or go ahead, Courtney. >> Can Can we look at the I don't know which number chart this is. This one. >> Oh, I was there, too. >> Okay, I like Can I look at this one? So, um Mhm. Thank you. Um so, this chart is basically saying my understanding of it is that instead of having this big chunk of 73% just like commendable, when we break it down under these new like I'm I'm assuming that these top two bars of what it would have been if we use the new ratings with this data? >> Yes. >> Okay.

033So, then is the the goal then is to try to narrow down where the focus should be to improve? Is that why I'm just trying to decide whether I like this or not, quite frankly. But, I want because more schools are getting exemplary, >> Mhm. >> right? And so, and less school I mean I just want to understand when you look at that new data right now. Say Say 205 was that bottom line. And for for the current year. But, if we use the new system, we would be one of the top the top two lines. What do you take away from that? Like what is it different under this new system and where would our focus be differently than what would they used to how they used to grade it. I don't I'm not

034saying it well, so I apologize. I just >> No, I think you're very clear. I honestly think that um looking at this graph, a district could not identify their priorities. Like I honestly think that the the state and and every school district and every school would have to go in and really dig in and look at their individual data to to underscore what are some areas of prioritization. I think one of the things that was shared and I know Dr. Wirtz can probably say this much more eloquently is that when you look at the current they all schools were ranked order based on these various indicators. They were put in like a like a chronological ranking. And they said after they put all of the schools in a chronological ranking that the top 10% of

035the schools, you're exemplary. And what they're trying to do is say that it's not necessarily your exemplary status should not necessarily be based on where other schools are falling. Your exemplary status should be based on the core you know, of criteria within your school. So, the state's is trying to take it off of being less about where everybody is performing and more about your specific school and your specific district performance. So, back to your question, right? Like how do you then utilize this data? They they have and I've heard and I don't want to put words in our state superintendent's mouth, but listening to him talk about this work, listening to his their their as as we identify what they were attempting to solve for, their hope is Troutman is that schools will have a

036better understanding of where they're currently situated and how to continue to support student and school improvement based on that, not from this constant moving target based on where all other schools within the district lands. >> Well, wouldn't it be Sorry, just to like question / add to that. Like the reason I would assume they're doing that or why it would be beneficial to for any school would be because like what we're doing in Elmhurst might be very different or or a school that's in the top 10% and is exemplary in like Southern Illinois could be completely doing obviously they're doing different things, but they might not be at the same level as another district, right? Or another school. So it's beneficial because then we can focus more on what is um where we are and

037what needs improvement versus like just working at schools that maybe not aren't even the same caliber as us or you know, or above or below. >> Yeah. >> Is that correct? >> Yes. I Yeah. I think it you know, it I'm sorry. On that um I want to say that was like slide number four when it says uh areas ISBE is addressing in the new accountability system is 100% it's normed and it's about that curve. And so, you know, there are um various makeups of schools and districts that I think based on a curve um can present some questions of of equity um and truly being able to communicate to their community um and to their stakeholders where they are in that improvement process. >> Mhm. So just add a couple of things. The um

038current system that we are transitioning away from is really focused um a lot of the resources from the state and the idea around it is that those are really the only schools that need to work on improvement. So, if you're in those bottom two tiers, um then you really you're going to get a lot of intensive support from the state um uh Board of Education. Um you there are required plans from the Board of Education, that sort of thing. In the new model, um the idea is that everybody can really be exemplary. If you um work hard enough, if your data is good enough, and that you should consistently be evolving and changing to grow more, and that the more student growth you have, the better off your scores are going to be um and

039more in the exemplary um category. So, it's based on that continuous improvement model for every school district and every school across the state, rather than just focusing on that small um percentage of uh schools who are um not meeting the targets. >> So, are they changing the funding model at all then? >> Uh there to our knowledge, there is no plan to change the funding model. The um current evidence-based um funding model will still be the um the norm there. Um what I'm talking about is um if you go back to that other chart that you um here uh in these in the um uh scores that are in the yellow and orange, those come with additional support requirements. Um so, they will be identified for um State Board improvement, and they do actually they're

040required to set aside a part of their title funds, they're required to do some other things there. >> I As you were talking, Kevin, I had this like thought in my head about just grading practices in general, right? And so, the concept is really easy. You have a classroom of 25 kids and you say only 10% can get an A. But a kid earned a 91. >> Yeah. >> And that kid that student should earn the A. So, that's the difference between grading on a curve and then grading for attainment of the learning benchmark or whatever it is, right? And so, I often wonder about the 11th percent school, the school in the 11th percent on the old model. And so, it does look like a really good faith effort to say, "No, once you

041hit a certain This is the criteria we're looking at and once you're at a certain place, you've earned that designation. It doesn't matter if you're 11% or 12% on the list." >> Correct. And with those elevating indicators, it also gives us some really bottom line numbers to aim for so that we know that every elementary school has to have 90% attendance, which all of our elementary schools already do. Our high school has to, you know, like we know what those numbers are and can clearly establish plans right now rather than focusing on the chronic absenteeism number, which is a moving target. >> Great. Thanks for that, Adam. Anything else on from the board or admin? >> Um so, I know the state sometimes changes these and they also come with some mandates. Are there any

042man additional mandates that they will put on the schools and any specifically unfunded mandates? >> Uh Dr. Rubenstein, maybe you can add to this, but they have not communicated anything about changes to additional mandates or any any changes to funding or mandates along with this has not been part of the conversation with what they've presented. >> Okay. Good. >> Okay. I think we can safely transition to our next topic. I know we have a second presentation, Dr. Campbell. >> We do, and I think it dovetails nicely into what has already been stated in terms of our board and our community. Um, there are multiple things that we value that might not necessarily directly be seen in certain metrics and specifically that that is attached to the accountability system. But one thing that is true here

043in D125 is that we care deeply about our student experience, and we care deeply about making sure that we have systems and structures in place to continue to elevate our student experience and to identify what additional supports might be needed. So, I am so excited and so pumped tonight, um, in response to that feedback, in response to knowing what our board of education has shared and valued, to share tonight that I we have a presentation that's going to, um, prioritize our student student-centered approach to supporting secondary students that's aligned to our journey of excellence framework. And so, at this time, I am going to pass, um, the stage and microphone to my dear colleague, uh, Dr. Rubenstein to take us from here. >> Great. We are excited to spend, uh, some time with you this

044evening, um, sharing the secondary student supports in place across our middle schools, um, and at York High School, and offering a look at ahead at how we'll continue to strengthen our support for students. Um, it's interesting that Dr. Yonke started out by saying, um, that, uh, York High School and high school in general is not preparation, um, for a life in the future. It is life, um, and, um, we really strongly believe it. Um, as we begin our focus this evening on um, grade 6 through 12, it's helpful to recognize that this is a uh, meaningful and dynamic stage in a student's development. Um, in elementary school, um, our students go from really self-contained um, settings. Uh, students are typically grounded in one classroom community. Um, as they move into middle and high school, uh,

045they gain increased independence and um, begin navigating a broader environment um, with more opportunities for growth. At the same time, um, students experience really significant development. One of the stats that often comes to mind is that in 7th grade, your um, the typical brain uh, rewires itself uh, faster and more efficiently than any time since early childhood. So, um, there's more brain development and growth going on in middle and high school than at any previous time in a student's history in our school system. Um, it's why um, sometimes when you ask your teenagers why they did something, um, their answer is legitimately "I don't know." Um, because they really don't know. Um, because not all of the brain development is uh, in place yet and that is something that we expect there. Um, their thinking

046really becomes more complex, their identities really begin to take shape, uh, and they start to explore their interest and passions in much deeper ways. Um, that growth happens alongside increased academic expectations uh, and a wider ranges of uh, experiences including some new courses, uh, new relationships and really important milestones. Um, in many ways, students are expanding their world. Uh, they move from that single classroom of 25 peers to multiple classes with new peers in each of those, uh, different teachers and that shift really creates rich opportunities for connection and discovery and growth while also reinforcing the importance of strong coordinated supports to ensure every student um, feels known, supported, and positioned for success. Um this is also one of the reasons that a focus on social emotional needs and overall mental health begins to take

047center stage really in middle school and high schools in each of our classrooms there. So um when we think about this from a systems perspective, it's important to recognize that a comprehensive approach to student supports strengthens academic outcomes. And so just as we were just talking about here related to our consistent attendance and strong academic outcomes, efforts to refine our curriculum and focus on student success are most effective when they're part of a broader connected system which also focuses on attendance. When schools prioritize a strong school climate which my colleagues Mr. Dyck will talk Mr. Dyck will talk about in just a second and strong attendance and supportive behavioral structures, students are better positioned to thrive academically. Research continues to reinforce that connection and this is study from January of this year from the University

048of Chicago which highlights that students who feel safe and supported at school tend to have stronger attendance and in turn stronger academic outcomes. So creating environments where students feel a sense of safety and belonging is a powerful foundation for both engagement and then stronger academic achievement. So in our work we are intentionally aligning programs and support services to our strategic plan so that students experience cohesive and connected system. We know that strong academic outcomes are built through the combination of high quality instruction which we have talked about at length here at this table. Align supports and a positive learning environment. When those elements work together students are well positioned for long-term success. Um, at the core of that approach are clear expectations, um, some uh, predic- uh, predictable routines, and positive reinforcement, all of which

049help create schools where students feel safe, supported, and ready to learn. Um, a central priority is ensuring that every student feels known and connected, as we just talked about. Um, we're working toward a model in which each student has a trusted adult, um, their voice is reflected in our decision-making, and they're supported by a collaborative team that includes school counselors, social workers, deans, um, and that really, uh, strong team-based approach allows us to respond in real time, uh, while providing comprehensive supports for our students who need them. We also remain focused, um, and have a renewed, uh, focus on helping students to stay on track for what comes next. Uh, so, beginning in their first year, students engage in goal setting and planning, supported by access to strong curricular experiences, a whole bunch of new

050of them, um, and aligned to college and career pathways. Uh, that creates meaningful opportunities for students to explore their interests and build toward a clear sense of purpose. This work is ongoing, uh, and continues to evolve as we, um, learn and grow as a system. So, this evening, you will hear more about, um, those three key areas of focus under our strategic plan, educate, engage, and empower. Um, I have to my left, uh, Mr. Tim Dykes, who is our assistant for culture and climate at York Community High School. He's also a parent in the community, um, and, um, he's going to share the work underway to strengthen a positive school environment, um, including efforts to ensure every student begins their experience at York High School with a strong foundation. Um, Mr. Mark Talbot, uh, who

051is sitting, um, further to my left here, is our division chair for counseling. Um, and he is going to highlight our student support structures, including how students are identified and connected to the right supports. Um, we are definitely encouraged by the progress in this area and the ways we're using data to strengthen connections and support. Um, one of the other things that you should know about, um, uh, Mr. Talbott is that he, um, is the father of, um, an incoming student, uh, to D205 and, uh, he's also a York alum. Um, so we have several alums sitting at the table. And then, um, finally, um, uh, finally, uh, Mr. Mike Pietschinski, our assistant principal for special education and student services, is going to discuss our current approach to college and career readiness, uh, and provide

052a preview of what's ahead with our implementation of Schoolinks, which has already launched. Um, and so I tell you their background and experience to say that this work is really deeply personal for all of us, um, but, uh, improvement at York High School and focusing our students' experience, um, is done, uh, no better than, uh, by the people who are sitting at this table here. And so, um, with that, I'm happy to turn it over to Mr. Dykes. >> All right, thank you, Kevin. Um, so I also was going to steal something from Dr. Yonke and what she said earlier, and that was she talked about being emotionally invested in the building and it kind of ties to what Kevin just said. Uh, I am a community member, I'm a parent, um, I treat York

053High School like it's my home, like it is a second home, and and for that reason, my goal since I started here, uh, almost 3 years ago now, is to to make York a place where people want to be, uh, to to put it very simply. We have about 3,000 people that come in the building every day, and I want to make it a place where people want to be and try to make a really big place feel smaller. Um, and so along those lines, talking about culture and climate and and the work that we've done, kind of starting with, uh, the first slide here, the York Culture Committee, and kind of why that came about. Um coming in in my first year, knowing that getting getting feedback from staff would be a fairly easy

054thing, but hearing from students themselves about their experiences and what they think works and what they think really kind of needs to be looked at more closely, uh we created this committee um with a lot of help from our student services team. As we basically said, we're looking for a true kind of cut of our demographics, a true microcosm of our student body to represent um the students and the students' opinions. And so, this is easily, and I tell the the kids this all the time, we meet once a month, it is my favorite day of the month uh because it's it's it going back to my my original roots as an educator, it's when I get to really interact and dig in with with students. Um and so, that committee started in about November

055of uh my freshman year. We're not ready to go on just quite yet, but um uh some we basically try to tackle some major initiatives, just kind of one major initiative a year. Um working with some of the adults that are on the committee as well as the about 30 students. So, the first year, we we really went after this We Are Dukes initiative, which many of you heard about last year. Um and then last year, we created Duke Olympics, and you're going to hear more about this all this in a little bit. And then this year, we created kind of Duke Olympics 2.0. Uh um so, we're going to go on to the next slide and talk a little bit more about what We Are Dukes is, uh kind of that first initiative. So,

056the purpose of We Are Dukes is to create clear, consistent, aligned expectations building-wide for all of the members of our school community. So, that's that's our students, but that's also our staff. Um and if you've been in our building, you will know you see We Are Dukes everywhere, and that is intentional. Um it's outside the building, it's inside the building. Um but just kind of go running through how this process came about. Again, in November of '23 the York Culture Committee, the YCC, we sat down and we kind of started these focus groups of figuring out what do we want to be about? What do we want to be known for? What characteristics represent a Duke? I think a lot of times in organizations you'll see these acronyms come out and sometimes people are like

057where did that come from and what does that mean? And we're really proud of the fact that we kind of we reverse engineered it. We started by listing just a bucket like name all the characteristics that you think a Duke should be about. And then from there we we kind of came up with synonyms for those characteristics and then we created the acronym. So it wasn't what are five what are five words that that start with a D U K E S, but it was kind of reverse on that. And so Duke stands for dependable, unified, kind, engaged, and strong. And we were able to wrap that up at the end of the 2020 23-24 school year. Um we met with our building leadership team then and and that's our division chairs and our deans

058and said, okay, now how can we delineate what this looks like in the classroom, what it looks like in common areas of the building, and in extracurriculars. So if you actually look at the slide on the far right there, you will see our head softball coach created we are Dukes characteristics and expectations for the softball program. So this is happening all over the place throughout many areas of the building. That summer then we really got to work on branding and and it was really exciting time for me. It was my first full summer working in this position and if you've been at York, you know, that's that's where all the we are Duke stuff started kind of pop it up around the building as well as a lot more just York colors and and York

059green and and you just know you're at York when you're walking through the entire building. Uh, when August rolled around and we started school, um, that's when we rolled this out to staff at large and to our student body. So, it started with our institute days, um, meeting with staff and explaining to them kind of this process and why it's important. Um, in individual departments then in in their PLCs, they met to decide, "Okay, what does this look like in US history classes? What does this look like in algebra one classes?" And so on and so forth. Um, and then finally in terms of rolling it out to students, on day two of school, uh, we had an we have an extended second period. We did it again this year and we'll do it again

060next year, uh, where the classes themselves really take time to talk about what does this look like in our individual classroom. We also have a student, uh, a student produced video that we show where the students kind of roll out, "This is We Are Dukes" for the year. Um, throughout the the course of the school year, we are constantly kind of coming back to this uh, in a number of different ways. We have signage up around the building. For example, every classroom has a sign up that says, "We Are Engaged. We are not on cell phones in class." Uh, if you look at every external door in the building, uh, there are "We Are Dependable" signs. We do not walk out this door during the school day. Uh, so it's just a way that we

061can kind of continue to couch it in that, uh, in that framework. Uh, and then finally we have a a lot of celebrations where we're celebrating when people are doing the things that exemplify being a Duke. Uh, we have Parade of Champions for our for our athletes and our our other extracurriculars who are reaching state levels and we have our Duke Olympics, which I will talk about next. Um, so Duke Olympics was the kind of the second, um, major initiative that the Your Culture Committee embarked on. And the idea behind this was a couple of things. Number one, we want to make sure that we are really pumping school spirit. As one of the things that I heard when I started um my first year was that school spirit had kind of waned a little

062bit and and we know that part of a lot of that had to do with COVID um and being away from school, but really trying to build that back up um to highlight the Dukes pillars. So, not have it just be something that's talked about at the beginning of the year, but something that we're kind of reaffirming throughout the year. And then also just trying to have some fun. Um raising raising spirits during a difficult time. We know that coming back from winter break tends to be kind of a low point emotionally. This is a good kind of little pick me up uh to raise interest. Uh so, it's an 11-week campaign in the second semester. Each 2 weeks we focus on a different pillar of of the Dukes acronym. Um there's a bunch of

063different ways that students and staff can participate. Uh one of the things that we do is we give students the opportunity to earn points by going to other extracurricular activities. So, students supporting each other. So, if I'm a student who I go to a lot of basketball games, but I've never been to a choir concert before. Hey, go to a choir concert. Go go support some students that maybe you you normally wouldn't interact with. So, kind of creating that uh bigger sense of community. Uh we have opportunities for staff to nominate staff. We have have opportunities for students to nominate staff. Um and call them out for doing great things. And then in the final week of Duke Olympics we have a lot of competitions. Um and as you can see in some of the

064pictures there, we have a big assembly at the end that's that's both competitive, but also a lot of fun and a way to kind of celebrate the culmination of the entire process. Um so, the the the the the assembly itself is great. It's a lot of fun, but it's the lead up to that that's really important in really uh exemplifying and calling out all of these we are Dukes um characteristics. So, other things that are that are happening in the building that need to be stated that are really important uh to just when we talk about the the learning environment, um, I think they can kind of be broken up into four buckets here. So, facilities, and I'm not going to go through all these for the sake of time, but for facilities, if you've

065been inside York in the last couple of years, you know that we've really gotten a refresh, uh, whether it's paint or flooring or the cafeteria tables that you all very graciously, uh, were a part of, uh, it makes a difference. And and students are going to take more pride in their space when they look around and there's something to be really proud of, and they are very proud of it. Um, and it definitely feels like York when you're there. Um, our our safety improvements are are very very key. With the new security team, with the new secure vestibules, um, upgraded lighting, silent alarms on the doors, those things all matter when it comes to students feeling both physically and emotionally safe in the building. We know that when students come to school and they feel

066safe, they feel like they can be a little bit more vulnerable and they're open to to learn and to to participating in class. Um, celebrations of of success, we talked about a few of these, but one thing I I do want to point out is the Duke of the Week. This one is so simple, but kids love it. Um, basically the idea is like I I call four random names on a Friday, and you just have to be in school. And if you're in school and your name is called, you get a t-shirt. And you would think that this is like above high school kids, but man, they love it. They're coming up to me all the time like, "Can I be Duke of the Week?" Like, "No, it's random. It's random. You just see

067You got to be here." Um, and then some of the systems that we've put into place to to to really support and make sure that, uh, our attendance rate is staying high, that we're staying on top of things. Uh, two that I want to point out are an attendance attendance intervention system that Mr. Talbot was a big part of and and helping with and our counselors are a big part of. Um, we have a tiered system where if students are missing class and are unexcused, There's different levels and various different adults that are having conversations with those students to get to the root of why they might be missing class. And on top of that, this year we rolled out our York Student Success Center, which is a tier two behavioral center. And we have

068tier two behavior groups that are happening in there, which is something that is pretty unique for schools. Not a lot of schools, especially bigger high schools, have something like that. So, those are all very, very important. So, some data that I that I think is really important to call out. The impact on attendance has been pretty dramatic. Um in 22-23, in the 22-23 school year, York had the third highest chronic absenteeism rate. It's ironic that we were just talking about the shift away from chronic absenteeism, but had the the third highest chronic absenteeism rate in the West Suburban Conference. Last year, we had the second lowest chronic absenteeism rate in the conference. So, that that's a big, big jump in a short period of time, and a lot of it has to do with creating

069a space where people want to be. Um and and so we're very, very proud of of those numbers. Um so, the final thing we want to talk about and and Kevin had alluded to it, creating a strong start for our ninth graders. That's really a focus that we have that's going on right now in preparation for the class of 2030 coming next year. Um some of the things that we already do that are listed here. We go visit all of the D205 middle schools. So, over the last two weeks we visited Churchville, we visited Sandburg, we visited Bryan. Um we offer summer tours over the summer. Principal and assistant principals are in the building, so we offer it up several times where families of ninth graders can come in and get like a 1-hour tour

070of the building just to feel a little bit more comfortable. Um we have our back-to-school bash, which is generally like the night before or two nights before the first day of school, students have their schedules, they can come in, they can walk the building, check out their their schedule, see where their locker's at. Um and then our freshman orientation day. This is something that's going to be new this year. In years past, the freshman orientation had been from 7:40 to 9:25. So, we're talking about an hour and a half. And then it was like go get them. Um and so and you talk to you talk to upperclassmen out and they're like I don't remember much of anything. Like there was all these people talking and I was just scared and I didn't know what

071was coming next. Um we are uh excited to be bringing something new uh this year, Link Crew. Uh so, Matt Johnson is our student activities coordinator. Um and Matt and I went to a Link Crew training back in the beginning of March. And I say March because this has been a lot of work in a very short period of time since then. Um Link Crew is a national organization or a national program that kind of has two goals. It is to support incoming ninth graders and make sure they have a sense of belonging and feel like strong support, but also to develop upperclass leaders. Um and so, we are bringing Link Link Crew to York next year. Um and I think it's really important to note we had we asked staff to recommend students. We

072gave them like a one-week window and we got a lot of recommendations, uh which was great. We then had 250 rising juniors and seniors apply, which is crazy um because we were worried we might not have enough. Uh we had a lot. And so, we we chose 190 out of those 250 students who are who are going to be Link Crew leaders. Um Link Crew is is 95% student led. So, we had a training last Wednesday and then we will have two full training days on August 6th and 7th, where Matt and I are training the the the leaders. The orientation day itself is pretty much all the leaders that are running the show. And that's pretty amazing. I'm super excited about this uh to see our students leading our students. And really the goal

073of it is um each 9th grade student is going to have two or three Let me back up. They'll be put into groups of 10 and they will have two to three Link Crew leaders per group of 10 incoming 9th graders. So, the the goal is that every 9th grader has two or three upper class students that they they look around and they see in the halls and they see throughout the year and they're like th- those two people have my back. Whether they have a bunch of friends, they have all their brothers or sisters, they've got those two people that have their back and they're always there for them. Um and so it's a really exciting program. But again, the the whole goal here is to create connections for students because we know that

074when students have connections, uh their attendance improves. When their attendance improves, their engagement in class improves. And when their engagement in class improves, their achievement improves. So, um that is all for my presentation. Thank you. >> So, uh now that we've looked at how we intentionally connect students in our school to ensure strong outcomes, next uh Mr. Mark Talbot, our division chair for counseling, will highlight our student support structures uh including how students are identified and connected to the right supports. Um we are certainly encouraged by the progress in this area and the ways that we're using data to strengthen uh connections and student supports. Yeah. >> So, as we hopefully have drilled down a lot, when students are engaged, they tend to do things well in school. We tend to see a lot of

075those engagements and those outcomes increase. Our goal is how do we emphasize that from the very first day as Link Crew, which I'm super excited about. We want to help make York, which is a big school with a lot of resources and opportunities, feel small to students. So that way, when there are those inevitable moments of feeling overwhelmed, we want students to help them find that their community. But we also want those systems that are working within the school day structure to identify students both during, before, and after those struggles that we can continue to provide that continual support. We really want to identify students early. A big mantra within our student services team is we want to be first and foremost student centered, but we want to be data informed. Those two systems, that

076qualitative and quantitative balance, helps us, A, from a staff member perspective, it lightens that pressure because it is really hard to be that to feel that you're the only safety net for 270 students on your caseload if you are a school counselor or 500 students if you're a school social worker or school psychologist. These systems exist to help to help identify students, but they also don't exist to support those relationships that our team members are building with students, with family members, with older siblings. So we're going to we have a lot of data systems to sort of help proactively identify them. They're on the screen. I'm going to dive down a little bit deeper into the three on the top, which are academics, attendance, and behavior and well-being. Those are what we look at very

077frequently. Not that we don't, we also look and we're going to talk a little bit more about student voice, college and career, and those support indicators, but the most impactful data that we really get to wrestle with on a day-by-day or weekly basis is how are students doing in school? How do they feel that they're doing? And then how do we support once we see trends start to emerge? So for academic progress, those are that's that's like the most traditional set of data, right? We we want to make sure that students are doing well in their classes, that they're are placed, that they're appropriately challenged, but also appropriately supported during while they're engaging in a comprehensive high school education. So, during that, our teachers are first and foremost on the front lines identifying those those

078students on a day-by-day basis of what they're experiencing in class, and we're able to sort of take a little bit of a step back and look at like their formative data and kind of dive a little bit deeper and what trends do we see across all of their classes, but then we also get to look at like where academic concerns are popping up, but also like where students starting to exhibit pre-signs of academic concerns of are missing assignments starting to come along. Are we starting to see some absences to check track up in particular areas or particular times of the day? And then of course, over the four years, we want to make sure that we are not just preparing students to graduate with in terms of their GPA, but we want that their high

079school to be, as Dr. Yonke mentioned, that four meaningful years that they're going to look back on finally, but that four years also serves as a springboard for their future post-secondary goals. Um as Mr. Dykes mentioned, our attendance system, we really are able to focus on both macro level, so like how often a student is not in school at all, but we're able also to to Sorry, to drill down and really focus on period-by-period absences and intervene with students before it becomes an all-day thing. So, as an example, one of our attendance systems is when a student is missing a particular class, we want that we want to have an increased level of parent communication. We want to have an increased level of communication with the stakeholders. So, the teacher or the co-teacher, if that

080student has a case manager, they're getting enhanced levels of of email communication during the first and second sort of absences from class, but then before they even see a dean for some sort of consequence or like restorative conversation, they're checking in with their school counselor first to say, "What are we do We're seeing this trend. You have skipped math class four times, or you haven't been in math class four times, what's going on behind the behind the curtain or under the surface so that we can better identify that. And it may mean that, hey, you're not feeling confident in this class. Let's try and support that. How can we connect you with some additional support? It also has a lot of impact and we've seen this data of students knowing that their their team, their

081trusted adults are aware of their attendance. You know, almost a third of our students that meet with a counselor before their fourth absence in a class don't get a fifth absence to that class. So, like right then and there, we're not we're eliminating that concern before it becomes an ongoing thing that our deans and our campus supervisors are having to deal with. Um we also and I it's mentioned on the slide, but we also want we look at our attendance, we also want to look at engagement both in class in and in our the wide range of activities and opportunities we have for students. So, if a student has gone through the first semester of their freshman year and they haven't yet engaged with a club, a sport, some sort of activity, we want to

082sort of that's a good opportunity for us to check in with them to say, "We want you to have opportunities to make this school feel like it's yours. Then, let's think about what are the some opportunities? What are you interested in? Let's try and find some some outlets for you." Again, going off of that for behavior and well-being, we want to stay on top of our discipline referrals and trends earlier. We'd rather I'd rather see them quickly than having to wait of like, "Oh, you have now 20 referrals." Um but we're also identifying those. Where are these behaviors happening? When are they happening? What time of day are they happening? And then we're able to pair that student with an appropriate response, whether it be through one of those behavior groups that Mr. Dykes mentioned

083or just sort of a regular cadence of checking in with one of their team members. So, we are going to dive in a little bit what those systems look like are kind of some examples here on our present work in our current systems. The first and foremost, the one that happens most regularly is our problem-solving teams. So, each student at York has a dedicated school counselor, school social worker, school psychologist, and Dean. Those student support teams meet weekly to do some data review meetings and problem-solving kind of identifying students both terms of what they are bringing, what awareness they're bringing, but also using our and leveraging our next path data and academic concerns to identify students in need of support ideally before it becomes a a red flag. We want to deal with to see

084it while it's a yellow flag and then intervene appropriately. How those problem-solving teams kind of what comes out of those, we often and we've seen a really big push and expansion of is our tier two SEL small group curriculum. So, we identify students that have a particular need in a variety of social emotional areas. We want to then pull them and get them into a small group environment to work on some building, increase coping skills, targeting that intervention, and then we are able to really leverage some dedicated space in our building, but also some progress monitoring tools. So, that way we're not just providing a an opportunity for a group to happen, but we're also saying, "Hey, we are we know with confidence that we're providing and developing this group curriculum to align with the

085student needs." And then we're able to say, "Hey, they've made this tangible progress in whatever skill we're looking at." We also have our bridge program. This is an intentional re-entry program for students returning from long-term absences, whether they be medical absences or mental health hospitalizations. We know and we've seen especially as we've gotten gotten further from the pandemic, we know that our students are prioritizing their mental health both in school and outside of school. We want that transition as students are getting that support out in the community to be a smooth transition back to school. So, that way they can transition back to where they should be, which is in their classes building those engaging and meaningful learning moments. We've already talked about the counselor in intervention. I just wanted to say like it is

086it has been so heartening to see though that impact and then to hear from students Tim and I had an had an exchange with a student in our first year of roll out where he had missed a he had missed a class, he didn't feel it was important to be there, but then he was like, "Well, I missed one and my parents got an email. I missed a second one, my parents got an email. The third one, you know, I got another I got a lunch detention and the fourth one my counselor came in and checked in with me." Like and that student would report like it was really important for that student to know and to feel that there were adults in the building that cared about him and wanted to help hold him

087accountable but also help him recognize that like, "You matter. You being in classes is important. We want to help support you in that." Um lastly, we've been really fortunate and again with Dr. Rubenstein's kind of work of like leveraging our systemic like data collection with Panorama and Five Essentials to kind of use that tools and use those data insights to figure out where are some opportunities that we can further expand some of our group offerings, what are our building level needs in terms of the social emotional learning and then we've leveraged that into into tier one opportunities like happening in the classroom led by teachers with pushing from student services but then also how do we build out some skill some skill-based groups and curriculum for students who may be struggling. To kind of highlight

088that we and again we really want to students to feel engaged. So on on the slide I have two examples of our tier uh two um of our tier two small group um curriculum, crafting with a purpose and calm collective. These groups serve very similar students. These are both anxiety um processing skill-building groups, but we know that we want students to feel comfortable, to feel confident, and to feel empowered in those groups. As the least artistic person in this room, which I can say confidently um I would not identify with crafting with a purpose. Um where but I know other and I've seen the power of students being able to go into that group with the mentoring and support of a school psychologist and a school counselor in there to engage in creative expression while

089also working on some coping um, skills some and just working and rehearsing how they're feeling about their day, what they feel in terms of like their mental load. And then the other kind of opportunity, the calm collective is an example of a more traditional processing group where students are meeting weekly with that small group of students and a co-facilitated model with other student services team members. They're working on supporting each other by talking about uh, you know, it's important for students to hear that what they're experiencing is also likely being experienced by some of their peers. And then being able to talk and build that community and then be introduced to some coping skills and coping strategies. In each of these groups, we've identified these students through a variety of ways, whether it be through

090systemic Panorama data review, student referrals, parent referrals. One of the most impactful we've actually seen is teacher referrals. We did a level a level up learning with our with our teachers last year I telling them and explaining what the purpose of a tier two group is and what our tier two group curriculum are. And we got a flood of teacher referrals of like, "I know I've been talking with this student about this in class. I think this group would be a really good idea." We would also wanted to leverage that strength of the relationship is that we can tell, assuming the teacher's comfortable with it, like telling the student, "Your teacher recommended you for this." And we've seen a lot of a lot more increase in our students' willingness to participate in that group. All

091of our group sessions typically happen over between six to eight weeks. It's typically once a week and we'll rotate the periods. And then we progress monitor student experience, how they're feeling about the group, but then also how they're self-reporting about the skills and the the thing that we're trying to get at. What are we working on? How are you feeling more confident in expressing those and using those coping strategies in your day-to-day life. We would We would be remiss without talking about data. If we're going to say we're going to be data informed, we got to be data informed. I have been really fortunate. I'm going to give a huge shout out to to Dr. Wertz because of his his help and support with Next Path. We would not We candidly would not have this

092level of data at the granular level to talk about our tier two and tier three supports without this comprehensive system of Next Path. So, we have been doing a lot of professional development with our teams of how to track this and in doing so in a way of like we want to do this because then it shows it it allows us to effectively see a history of that student. In the without a system like that, when a student is a junior or senior, you may have to like go back into your mental Rolodex to be like "They were in a group freshman year. Like, how did that go?" But with Next Path, we're able to see the past, the current supports that a student's engaged in, and then also use that data to predict future

093supports. So, one of the things that we've been really proud to see, especially with our school counselors, is that we have 525 students this year at York participating in tier two and tier three school counseling services. If you want to look at an MTSS model, that's about 20% of our building, which is kind of where we want to see about that that we are know we're servicing most of our students at the tier one level by pushing in, but we've been really fortunate to be able to use this data to track these more these students that are requiring like more frequent and more kind of periodic check-ins where if they're meeting with their counselors say every week or every other week, we can get we can capture that data, but then also use Next Path

094to track how are they improving in their academic journey. Kind of going kind of to summarize what we what we look to do and what we're excited to continue to build is continuing that the development of our tier two group curriculum. We're really excited to use and we just did Panorama, so we're going to see our data in a couple of weeks. Identifying and continuing to identify student needs in our building and then finding opportunities to develop new tier two group group curriculum. But additionally, we want to help with our with our students of what does tier what does a group and what does prioritizing your mental health and your social emotional learning look like in addition to building out your comprehensive academic schedule, your comprehensive extracurricular demands. And then we're really, you know, excited

095using that that next path tool to implement and enhance our progress monitoring. Not just that we can see how we're supporting students, but then how can we reflect back and see how can those group curricula continue to support the next wave of students and in future years. Um with that, I'm going to transition to Mr. Piechocinski to talk about how we're going to empower students as we look to life after York. >> All right. So, tonight I'm going to kind of break down our current state and our current system that we have in place, but then more importantly, I'm going to kind of talk about the evolution of next steps and where we're headed. So, currently our system um has a lot of strengths, but there are some some limitations. And when we look at

096it, our current system is very, I would say it is very college centered, task driven. Have you done the checklist? Have you submitted your application? Have you requested your transcripts? Have you done all those basic things to get into those college admissions? Um which it doesn't really dive into an individual student and look at what other supports and what other things can we put into place and what other interests do those students really have? And so, we want to explore looking at what pathways those students, when they enter high school, can they go through all the way up to senior year. Also, our current system is is very adult driven. It's a lot of the counselor pulling them in for a one-on-one meeting. Did the staff member check in with them? But that kind of

097limits the student ownership of really diving in and doing interest inventories and exploring their their real interest and kind of what they want to do for post secondary. Uh, also our current system it it's a little aged, so it's not the best and easiest to navigate for our students who are becoming very tech savvy. Um, you know, so we got to kind of keep up with the times with them as well. Uh, also it's very limited on being able to see the the current usage of when students are jumping in and diving into different, you know, post secondary and colleges. Uh, so, you know, when we look at next, um, next steps, we really do dove into and this is prior to me, uh, but we I was part of the okay and I think

098you guys did it with the Schoolinks and said, now we are going to move into Schoolinks and the great thing about it is that it's this platform where everything is kind of in one spot. There's no more longer of piecing things together, going from one platform to another. With Schoolinks, it's going to be all in one place looking at some, you know, really those key things of counseling, uh, CTE work-based learning, accountability where the students are now able to kind of do a cohesive journey from from start to finish. Um, and it allows them, you know, to really dive into their interests, post secondary plans, as well as it will gives staff, um, and counselors a kind of a broader picture of where a student wants to go and wants to be. And then on

099top of it, the last great thing it does is it connects with the alum. So, alum are able to reach back out on the platform and tell us, I'm attending this school or I've transferred to this school. I've graduated with this degree or I'm going out to get my master's. Um, so it's a great platform that kind of puts all together then we can look at how did we prepare students for post secondary, um, and where our D206 205 students have landed, um, after leaving New Uh, so it does look very different. Um like I said, it's more for the the tech-savvy students, um more up with the times. Uh but the biggest thing is it really looks into uh different types of assessments to explore what the student truly is interested in and what

100are options out there besides the, you know, the five universities you hear everyone go to. There are so many different op- opportunities across the the nation that they can go to. So this platform kind of puts it, like I said, all in one place. Another great part is it multi-year plans. Um so it'll be rolled it'll start rolling out with the sixth graders where they can see, all right, in sixth grade I'm interested in this. What did How did it change in seventh grade? And so on all the way through a senior year. Um and then also, like I said, it tracks progress in real time. So anyone from the YSS team can jump on and see how many students are doing what, when are they doing it. If a student hasn't engaged in the

101the the platform, we all those are the times that we need to have those one-on-ones. We can pull them in and say, "Hey, I see you haven't logged on and done your career in- interest inventory." Um and like I said, it it's just a modern interface that with our new tech-savvy students, they, you know, can use it very quickly, easily, um and and at any time they can access it. Um So also the great thing about this is it builds a student profile while they do it. Um so like I said, as they are going through and doing their different interest inventory, career inventory, college inventory, um it starts to build a specific student profile. Students then can enter their uh what goals they have, what aspirations, um where they want to be, and then

102they can create their own resume all in one platform and it is housed there. Then they are able to use that resume and they can send it out to colleges, um and it just kind of really throughout the entire years of using it it It It builds their story. So, it they have their own personal profile that they can use for any sort of pro secondary that they choose to. So, it really is them driving themselves in this platform with obviously the the assistance of the staff, but it's really honed in on that student center. They are exploring what what makes them what is their interest in what makes them the student that they are. So, the great part about it is we just had just implemented this with the juniors in March. And when

103you look at it um with our current stats, we had 78% of juniors have already done the career engagement survey. 83 have already done the career path assessment as well as there many more diving into the colleges. So, um on average students are favoring six colleges. And then when they do favor a college, they're able to to look at admissions requirements, what the college has to offer. Um there are there are a few students who I I will say that we have one student has has favorited 67 colleges. So, we might need to hope we might need to hone in on that one student. But it's just great. We get this real-time data. We can we can pull it at any time and see who's who's engaging with the platform, who's selecting colleges. But it's

104just really great to see that really 83% of our juniors from when we implemented in March are already on the platform and you know, kind of doing the work as then we progress in the fall when we it's everyone let's get let's get in there and you know, see where we can go. Um And then kind of just moving forward, we want to just continue to expand on the career pathways. What does a student want to do? Where do they want to go? And this this platform it has that capability for students to really dive in and look at all the different options. As well as it it'll align from sixth grade all the way through senior year. And kind of how I mentioned that they when they as a 6th grader they can see

105and everything gets ends up saved on there. So, you can see how you've progressed as a student. Um you know, so if you decided you wanted to be this, your you know, your career interest was this 6th grade, and now you're a senior and you're like, "Whoa, what was I thinking?" Um it's great for them to see where they where they've grown, and as a staff, you know, those are additional data that we'll be able to pull and see kind of the trends of where our students are go lining up to and what colleges they've all favored and are liking, and then it you know, kind of then drives us when we look at instruction type things or college admissions if we see that, you know, a large percentage of our students are looking to

106go to this college, okay, those are the things that we you know, let's pull that college rep in to see if there are things that have changed for admissions. Um so, it's just really the big thing is keeping students engaged in their own um outcomes in their post-secondary, and kind of letting them, you know, steer the ship with us helping them in the in the background. Um and I think that is >> Yeah. And so, uh as you've heard this evening, there's a great deal of work that is being done, um and intentionality in that work that has gone into how we're supporting our secondary students. Um with that said, there is also a lot more work ahead um of us to ensure that our students are able to identify their passions and purpose, that's

107part of our strategic plan um along our student journey of excellence. Um as we do that, we will uh really focus on ensuring that all students have meaningful and fully aligned first-year experiences, uh Mr. Dykes talked about at York High School that sets them off on that path for success. Um we're also going to identify the supports, um additional opportunities for additional student mental health supports that can and should be provided to our students. Um and then finally, we'll continue to align our work um to the Illinois PACE framework, um and our own strategic plan as we continue to identify um opportunities for students to explore some new career opportunities. Our vision really here is that a student will as Mr. Pieczynski was talking about will start in sixth grade start to identify some of

108their passions and purpose that we will have a fully aligned college and career pathway for each of our students so that they can say maybe I'm interested in the health sciences. And where we are going with that is that that there would be potentially a college and career pathway of courses that are available to them at your community high school that they could maybe earn some sort of a certification an additional piece there and be able to explore colleges and universities do all of that in our secure platforms and with our different student supports. So with that I will turn it back over to all of you. We listed some questions here. I have seen all of you writing some questions and so we really are excited about this work passionate about it and would

109be happy to entertain any questions. >> I think Dr. Rubinstein I'm going to jump in here for a minute because before I'm sure that there are some questions and some points of clarification that the board would like to share but I do want to first provide an opportunity for board members to to also give a nod to some things that they heard that are are important and are of value and things that also aligns with the direction and the work that they expect of us as administrators and I think there's so much that has been shared and I first want to say thank you to the leaders that are in the room, but I also know that there this work is not just because of the three leaders in the room that this work is

110because of really dedicated staff and students that have come along this journey and as a district over the last 5 years we've been on a continuous improvement journey. We've made much progress. We've heard some of the highlights and we also understand that there still is more work to be done. And so I first wanted to just say thank you for sharing that, but also want to give my board an opportunity before we dive into questions to just speak to some of the things that they heard that they are proud about and feel is important to reiterate for our community. >> Okay, can I go? Or do you want me to start? >> No, you can go. >> Thank you for the presentations and for just the very comprehensive overview of what's happening in the student

111services departments. Couple things I really loved hearing about was I love the new link crew. I think that's such a great idea to help incoming freshmen who are nervous and and just need someone to connect with in the building and have kind of a person. I think that's great and I also like you said I love that it also helps develop leadership qualities and skills in 11th and 12th graders. So overall I'm excited about that. I also loved hearing about the tier two interventions and the SEL groups. I those are near and dear to my heart. I'm very fond of those and I I I do have some couple questions when we get to the question part about just a little more information I'd be seeking about those, but I love that there's different groups

112happening for students who are in need of just a little more support. And um I know there's been lots of hard work done on the We Are Dukes campaign. I I will say I know you had said coming into the building it just feels more Duke-ish. Um which it does. I mean, I haven't really been in the building a ton prior to a couple years ago, but it feels very um you know like very uh it it just feels you can feel that strong vibe there. And my favorite though is um driving down St. Charles when you kind of go through the whole like I want it to be named something. I've actually said this. Like I want it to be like called like Duke Alley or like Duke Street or something. Cuz like the

113whole you know, when you go up there like where the football field is and like the York's on this side, it just feels like like you're in Duke territory. So, I I I love that. So, thank you again for all the work and and for this presentation. And I um I I appreciate all the support that students are receiving because of of this. >> I think we can go into questions. I mean, I think we're going to go all over the place a little bit on this one. So, if you want to start with it, I mean, I don't Yeah, what are we doing? Yeah. >> Stick with uh Dr. Campbell's? >> I mean, I think it's a it's meant to be a committee and a discussion. So, I I'm >> I I just had

114some um you know, I know you're not like you obviously didn't go into great depth about each group and each uh tier two intervention group, but um just curious. I mean, I love like crafting with a purpose and calm collective and I'm sure there's many others. I I think that's super fun and probably very helpful to a lot of students. Um but also curious if there are like evidence-based groups like um I just some that I know about without my head like the Rush University executive functioning group or like CBITS cognitive behavioral intervention for trauma in schools. So, just like things like that that are more evidence-based and really focused on specific either skills or um deficits that are that can help students. And then on top of that, how are we measuring I know

115there's Panorama, but like how are we how are we identifying if those skills are are being applied in in school and then also like how it's about if it's effective if it's helping a student. >> Yeah. So, I can talk I will say that we what I didn't mention is one of our groups we talked about two anxiety groups. We also have a set of of executive functioning groups and you guessed it like many school districts we are also using the Rush curriculum. Um someone somewhere along the way is going to come up with a better one, but for right now Rush is kind of the gold standard. Um in addition to as Miss as Tim mentioned we also utilize um our character strong group which is a tier two and tier three. We primarily

116use it in tier two for some of our social emotional learning groups um that don't have as much of a as a as a creative outlet. But yeah, so we've we do have a set of evidence-based curriculum that we use both at the tier one and at the tier two level. That would be like in larger groups, but then also like working with smaller groups of between six and eight students. Um So yeah, so there are we do have other examples of evidence-based groups and we are looking as as many districts are to I continue to identify those particularly at the high school level because as you as you also asked um our progress monitoring is largely right now focused on kind of a pre and post both at the beginning and end of the

117group, but also pre and post like during. So, we're taking those sort of like dipstick um measurements of like how students are experiencing those. We're getting that um we ask students to fill out a pretty lengthy reflection at the end of each group. Um and then in terms of monitoring we're continuing to monitor those students on some of those those problem-solving um like if a student is checking into student services, how often are we seeing a decrease in them coming down in moments of maybe not full-fledged crisis, but if they're coming down in need of like just-in-time support, um we want to see that decrease. We want to see them increase their time in classes as well. >> Again, I'm I'm assuming you're doing all these things, but you are measuring like number of crises

118in a month or whatever. >> Yep. Yep. So, we had Yeah, so we while we highlighted our tier two and tier three group, we also have a system where like if a student is checking in with a team member, that is being logged and then we can go back and pull we can go back and pull that. We're also logging in our like kind of sign-ins to our student services teams and when we see both into student services, but also into like our say our health office, if we're seeing an increase or a recent increase in that, that's an opportunity to sort of check back in to see what's driving um that increase or at least an increase in in that behavior. >> Thank you so much. Beth. Okay. Thank you so much. That was

119I'm we kind of got a little bit Okay. Okay. Sorry. We got a little bit of a presentation when Kurt and I were at York in this in you know, I was impressed with all the work being done then and it's just really nice to have a comprehensive overview of all of it. Um one thing, Mr. Dykes, is that I love the student involvement and the student voice and I think that when you have students developing um ideas and programs and engagement, students tend to attend it, you know, like we can make up whatever we want, but a lot of times you think, "This is the coolest thing." Being someone who's you know, planned parties for eighth graders where you think you know what they want to do and then they're like, "We don't want

120to do that." So, you know, you can create anything you want, but getting them to come and participate and be a part of it is you know, the most important part of it and I think you engaging all of the students in that work is really impactful and I hear kids who are talking about Duke Olympics that wouldn't normally be, you know, into something like that. So, I feel whatever, you know, students are doing to get other students involved in what you guys are doing to get students to engage in that is obviously working. So, I'm sure you've seen attendance um higher because you've got that involvement from the students. So, and we heard from them at the York tour and it was they were really great. Um, and then I um, Mr. Talbot, you

121were talking about the attendance piece and I love the, you know, checking in with students. You know, they've missed a class once, twice. I I've In the past, I had heard like, "Nobody cares." Right? You hear it in college, too. You have this huge class and they're like, "You don't go to class." Like, "Well, nobody notices. Nobody cares." So, obviously, somebody's noticing and now they know that and I could see the difference that that could make for a student when they know, "Oh, someone is going to notice if I'm not here." And um, how that can change their behavior very quickly. So, I love that. And then just helping at the same time to build those relationships that we talk about being so important and just having opportunities to check in with those kids. Um,

122you One question, you talked about if, you know, noticing those patterns of attendance and noticing if kids are not involved in clubs, do you have a way of monitoring like if you have a student who's been in a lot of clubs and very involved and then all of a sudden not so involved, maybe second semester they're not going to clubs, they're not as engaged as they were before? I don't know if that's something that um, you guys are able to monitor through these systems as well. >> All right. So, student activities five-star um, is a program that we use to to take attendance at clubs. And I will say that it is developing. Um, there are some that that do it consistently every time they meet. There are others that it's building. Um, you know,

123this is Matt's first year in this position of student activities coordinator. So, he's done a tremendous job of kind of really pulling everything together and I think that is one thing that he's really focused on this year is getting some really true accurate data. Um cuz we know that sometimes there's students who say they're in like 19 clubs, but they go to like one all the time, and they've gone to a whole bunch just one time. And so, it's really seeing what's the true representation. So, to answer your question, yes, and still developing. >> Great. Great. It just seems like a change like that could indicate something going on. Even if it's not in class, and they feel compelled to go to class every day, some of those things they enjoy, you know, dropping off

124might be another way to, you know, track an issue. >> That's a That's a really good point, too. And I think what we also see is cycles um that students go through. And I was We was I was talking to Athena about this earlier. Like, there are moments in time where, you know, tryouts. And like, there's very, you know, um you know, entering into a new sport, right? Or during a time where we're getting closer to the end or the start of the semester. How is that impacting where students are um emotionally? And is there data that we can look at to then be able to be responsive? Um I think it's something that is an opportunity for us, definitely. >> Great. And then lastly, um we are talking about the, you know, college or

125career path exploration, and the fact that kid that students can start looking at that earlier, like in sixth grade, is amazing. I think as a parent, I never knew about all of the opportunities available at York until sometimes it was a little too late for my kids. And like, you had to have done this class in order to do that class. Or So, being able to like look at those things early and then be able to talk to somebody about what does that look like for me, not just as a career, but at York. And what might I think about in my, you know, class planning so that I can make sure I can do medical health pathways or or medical, you know, career pathways. >> So, it I'll give you the the boring behind-the-scenes

126right now for the course planner. There's a few of us that we have to take the program of studies, and Kevin was talking about like creating those pathways. So, right now we have to put taking all the everything from PowerSchool into schooling so the students when they dive in and they actually can select their course their courses for all four years, and you can change it, but that's kind of like what we're going to go towards when we're when they sit down with their counselors to schedule their courses. But, they'll be able to select a class, and if it doesn't have the right requisites, it'll give a a red X. So, they'll be able to plan freshman year all four years, and that's kind of like what we're talking about the course pathways. If you

127want to go into like the health field, then the idea is that you'll select health, and then you'll see all the courses that kind of lead that way. So, we are just piecing all those pathways together right now. It's a tedious process, but it's coming along. It'll be ready to go for the fall, so. >> Great. And it seems like a lot when you're in middle school, but also it's really important if you do want to take advantage of those opportunities to know that ahead of time and kind of know your strengths and your, you know, skill set. So, I appreciate all that work. And then lastly, I know you guys are doing a lot of work that not only is going to help students choose their next steps um after York, but also helping

128to build some of the skills that they'll need to be successful once they get there. I think the mentoring program that you were talking about you see that a lot in college and in the workplace that you're working with someone that's more experienced or older and you get to go to that person as a mentor and ask questions and so having a system like that in high school, then when they get to the next place they're going to be they're like, oh I've seen this before, I've done this before, this is, you know, I'm just wondering if there is ever a time where we engage with leaders from maybe some of the colleges that our students go to or common workplaces that hire a lot of young people to find out are there things that

129we can do to that kids might be um just lacking a little bit of. I hear about it at college presentations that I've been to about 900 of. Like, you know, just like kids knowing to advocate for themselves and not feeling lesser than if they need to go get supports or time management and, you know, executive functioning, uh studying for difficult comprehensive exams, things like that. Is that something that we ever, you know, I'm sure in your work you're thinking about those things all the time, but just wondering if that's feedback we ever receive. >> Um so there are some structured um ways that we um do that through our college and career counselor um at York High School who regularly gets feedback about um how well prepared our Dukes are as they are headed

130into school. Um we also just um know informally um about um how students are doing, not necessarily our students, but what, you know, we are hearing the same things um from colleges and universities that students are um uh needing to develop more of their time management skills and those uh pieces needing to come into place earlier in high school. Um and so that's part of that intentional work there. So um I certainly think that our schooling's platform is going to allow from uh for some greater intentionality around that work um and um continue to allow us to progress in that area. >> Great. So, thank you all so much for being here and sharing everything. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um no, very impressive work. I think it was great to hear about all of

131the um systems and programs you put in place. Love the student involvement like others have said. Um I think Oh goodness. Um just some highlights. I don't want to totally repeat what others have said, but the LINK Crew again, just love that I I have an incoming ninth grader next year. So, just the thought of um students and I've heard that transition can be really really challenging. So, I do think having lead or leads that they can connect with that are students is just an amazing opportunity. Um I love how you're using Next Path. You know, I remember being at these meetings and talking about do we approve Next Path and what are we going to do with that? And so, actually hearing it come to fruition and what you're doing with it and how

132you're applying it, I think is great to see in terms of like the um student supports for tier two and tier three. Um and then I again, the college and career pathways. I I just think that the improvements that you're talking about making and really making that more um modern and more applicable, I think is really great. Um I love the the comprehensive assessments and I was curious where and when does that happen? So, you said there it's introduced to them in sixth grade and it's very student driven, but do they like do they learn about it in class or how is it introduced? >> actually next week I'm meeting with the middle school counselors. So, there have already been um in place some uh lessons um that have gone with our current college and

133career pathway system um and so, we are plotting out really intentionally next week um where that work will occur. It'll more than likely occur in like our flexible learning lab where every student will you know take a career pathway assessment briefly talk that through work with others on that and it's sort of intuitive in that way that once we open the system and the system is actually open now but once we open the system and really help students to understand it a little bit more they can go back and take that any number of times that they would like to to see if they get a different result. They can really just better understand what that looks like. So our goal is and we're not quite there yet but our goal is that every student

134will take those a series of those eight assessments any number of times so that they can really have a well-developed idea about their pathway for the future. Um by the time they are done at York High School. >> That's great and I I love Beth what you were talking about is how do they um kind of learn more from maybe people who have gone through it. So I think whether you have people in the community and maybe you're already doing this or student alumni come back and kind of talk about that transition because it makes it real for them versus my teacher is telling me I need to get better at time management. Maybe to have someone who's just graduated talk about that or you know I remember graduating high school thinking I could be

135like a teacher doctor lawyer like those were the three things you know and seeing how much people's career paths change. I mean so often they're not actually ending up where they where they thought they would. Um so I think you know having people show them you know the just the different paths that you can take. Um I'm going to say last I think it's last and I have a question. Um I like the idea one of the questions you had is, you know, how do you share this work with others? And I often sit in these meetings and think, this is so amazing and I don't know that I would know it if I weren't on the school board or if I weren't watching these meetings, which I don't know that a ton of our

136community members are watching these meetings all the time. >> there, yes. >> So, I do wonder, you know, um and Tinya, you do a great job of like getting out communication. I I even wonder, you know, is there an opportunity for like a parent open house? I mean, I know, you know, I've got a thousand text messages between eighth grade parents saying like, what's happening next year and what's going on and what tools are available? So, I'd even wonder you know, as these parents that are still super engaged in their kids' lives, they I think they'd be really impressed to know all of the things that we have to offer at the high school cuz it feels really overwhelming to parents. Do they Do they Did I miss that? >> I >> Did I miss

137that part? >> We So, specifically for incoming freshman, we do have uh rising freshman academic night and activities and athletics night. >> Yeah, I think it's almost Yeah, sorry. >> That's more involved >> Yeah, like more Yeah. >> connect this video, this section of this meeting and put it in the email. >> Yes. And maybe it's even just for parents and families, not even students, just like hear all the things. >> is that. >> There There is some. I think that what I'm hearing >> parent night, right? >> uh that what I am hearing here is that we can maybe be a little bit more intentional about that and um share it in some different settings. Um that maybe the messaging isn't um quite as clear as it needs to be and so we can

138get there. >> I I also want to put this out there. A lot of this is relevant to where you are in the district and what So, so the school, of course, has a open house and a welcome parents into York, right? And this is what you can expect. I know that your uh staff go out to the middle schools or and with York students and say, "Hey." And talk to kids about what they can expect. I think a lot of this happens with an embedding with it's when it's it's most effective when it's embedded at the right time line, too. So, I can sit here and listen to an hour presentation that is fantastic, but depending on where my child is, I'm going to have a different need. And I think that's the hardest

139part about communicating as a school um all the information to parents, family members, or students, and community. So, so I think there's this ability to or an opportunity per se where and I think it's happening in all three of the areas that you are speaking about. There's opportunity for this to happen, especially like the easy one is the college career with the sixth graders. Like there's these bridges that we can build that help with that transition to York, and it's outside of a program of studies that explains every class and pathway, soon to be. Um it's it's more real and relevant when your child is in that place. And so, the way I see that, and I'm going to cut line if you don't mind um on our thing, is that And I I I

140know about the push from, you know, pace and the state and career exploration at young ages. I also want to highlight and remind us, and I know that you guys know this, but I'm saying it in this room, that there's something really normal and acceptable for a child to explore and not know. And I don't want uh us, and I I know that I have a lot of um structured people of structure and processes uh that I'm surrounded by and um but we have to remember that it is okay to and this is where I feel like it's more appropriate in a middle school to explore. And so, and I think we see this with like Project Lead the Way, you know, it is a big deal in a lot of our middle schools to

141a lot of our kids. It's a wonderful program. It's not for everyone. But what I do want is that is for children to have an experience to decide for themselves if it's something that might be that they're more interested in. And then once they have that experience, they get to learn and understand through the wonderful stuff that we have, what those opportunities look like as they continue on in their education at in D205. So if I'm a sixth grader who loves STEM, what does that look like later on? Or what part of, you know, Project Lead the Way do I like? Is it the design element? Is it CAD? Or I don't even know if they're using CAD anymore. Is it the manufacturing side? Is it architecture? I don't know, but we have a comprehensive

142menu of course with a breadth and depth of curriculum that students then can be exposed cuz the goal is that they're going to make an educated choice when they're juniors and seniors, right? And they may career change. I did. I mean, I did at a young age. Um, many of us have around this room. Uh, but that we're really focusing on exploration and identifying passion more than I need to know if I want to be a doctor today. And that's the framing of it that I'd love to hear us kind of dive into a little bit more when we're talking about this publicly. Um, and the opportunities that lie for kids. Uh, because again, they're children and it is okay to not know. And I think the biggest asset for kids is to just expose

143them to create opportunities for them to be exposed to a variety of experiences so that they then know more about themselves and they learn and they grow. So even when they do the career interest survey in sixth grade, I mean, we all know that 95% of them are going to look different by the time they're juniors. So and we need to say that. We need to make that okay for kids. Rather than we want to make sure that we get through eight assessments and you know, it's that kind of quantitative versus the qualitative. They are children and what is our goal and our goal is to expose them so that they have a good understanding of who they are and who they want to become. That's kind of the the big picture. I will I

144know you had more so I'll just >> I was just thinking when you're saying that about the some of the things that we approved with the foundation was helping us with at the last meeting and just those experiential learning opportunities that come into the classroom and I think those are those more, you know, organic, natural things that they get to engage in and do that help them to say, "Oh my gosh, I love doing this." Or I really don't like doing this, which is also just as important. So, that just made me think of that. >> It's the meaningfulness of the experience, right? I can check it off my list and get it done, but what what am I taking away from that? And that happens between educators and children in the room. And so,

145we can tell mom and dad about it all we want, but it really is most profound when, you know, we're working with our students in the way that we do in a really positive manner. >> I would I couldn't agree with you more. I think that what we want to make sure of is that every student's able to explore and explore and some of them are going to find it right away. You know, I some of them know already. Some of us >> She knew I did. >> pathways to finding their careers. Some of us even when we get into our careers do a little bit of you know, I have first master's degree in something else other than educational leadership and so, I think that that is really important to point out that it

146wherever you're at in this journey as a student or as a family, things are going to end up okay. We just want you to we want to um allow you to continue to explore as time goes on. >> Yeah, and that's really the comprehensive high school experience, right? It's having the opportunities built in and available. Nikki, back to you. >> Yes. >> Or gap years. >> I do I to answer that, this is actually a good time to tell talk about my example. Um What I I took the career in interest inventory just to see I just wanted to see what it was like and it came up that I was interested in agriculture. >> I >> Yeah, I mean >> So, it's not necessarily just college, right? >> Yes, exactly. >> what you'll what

147we'll see and what's really exciting about the SchoolLinks is we get the opportunity to sort of shift that focus from students of what is it you want to do in your life? And for like it whatever that as they're continuing to experience and get exposure to different things, if they identify a career field, we can then talk about what is the journey to get there. For our met for our future doctor that knows at the first day or our future teacher that knows, we know that we can set them up for that pathway, but as they as they get exposure to different careers that are tied to those those content areas in the classes they're taking, we can then also talk about what does that journey to your goal look like. I'm really excited about

148the SchoolLinks being able to say if it's identifying say a career that they're interested in or that they may be interested in that isn't necessarily a four-year college four-year college track or pathway. That's amazing. Then let's talk about what does that what does your journey look like after York and how can we also be meaningful and present in the moment of let's continue to explore this interest. It may not you may pivot to another thing, but then we can always can come back to what are you interested in? What does that journey look like to get you to that destination? >> Whipping to the left side of the room now, my left by the way. >> Well, >> He's got a lot of notes. >> There are >> They're stressing me out. >> They should

149not stress out. >> kids out real soon. No, I'm >> I had so much to say when Dr. Campbell said, you know, let's give kudos to you guys. So, that's most of my notes, so don't worry about it. Um I could tell how passionate you guys are about this. It's it's awesome. It's refreshing. I love it. Um it might be no energy auction, but still it's still wonderful. Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. >> How much money is >> That's a little inside joke. No, but so I'll just go over things that I I heard even if I'm repeating some of the things. So, I do love the the career and technical education and the work-based learning platform. I think it's great to have pathways for students whether they're going for college, but especially for

150those skilled trades, technical and even the arts after high school. So, I love that pathway centered planning. Um I love the data-driven proactive approach for attendance behavior and so academic concerns, but also for those tier tier two SEL groups that was mentioned before as well. Um I love that we're reaching out to students who have not joined groups and encouraging them to come in and I hope that um the development of the LINK Crew can help with that, too, and encourage people cuz sometimes it just takes somebody to um reach out and to invite somebody for them to join. Um I love the support-driven uh remedies rather than the consequence-driven. I mean, not saying that there's not consequences to everybody's actions, but the focus is more on how do we how do we get past

151that? How do we grow from that? How do we make better decisions in the future? So, I think that's um super important that you guys focused on. Um I love that you mentioned about supporting other groups and getting points for going to other things. Um if I went to the uh the clock daughter clockmaker's daughters play clock daughters clockmaker um play, it was fabulous, and I did notice that there were tons of other students in that in the audience that I have not seen before. So, whatever you're doing, it's working. So, keep it up. Um and I loved to see how integrated and kind of ingrained that uh you know, the Dukes um acronym is, whether it's in sports or drama or curriculum or social. It's uh it's good to have that base that every

152everybody can refer to throughout. So, um my only only question, and I I might have to, but once started uh one is you said you were here 3 years ago, and and that's when kind of this started. Was that your idea? Did you um were you the point person for that? >> The We Are Dukes stuff? >> Mhm. >> That's a good question. Um so, there was a uh PLC in student services that had started the year before me as a restorative practices PLC, and I have a big background in restorative practices, so I kind of came in and joined that group, and they were like, "Hey, we've got this idea." And they kind of already had the idea for an acronym. Um and hadn't really gotten very much further than that, but they'll they

153had also just started talking about it in the spring. So, we just kind of took it and ran from it from there the next year. >> Cool. >> So, to add on to that, to be clear, Mr. Dykes on his second day was asking me like, "Where is the like where is the data? What what are we looking at? How are we going to drive this forward?" So, he's not um giving himself enough credit for that. Because um you will you have heard this evening just the um need to really rely on some of those key indicators that we have uh come to rely on, and that is really driven by the um current leaders who are sitting before you. And so, just really appreciative of that hard work. >> Excellent. And I think that

154whole um developing leadership can kind of lead into the second question, which is more for us possibly, but it's it could be to think about um putting something on an agenda in the future about maybe having a student representative on the board. And I think that's a good pathway to maybe get that discussion started. So, thank you, guys. >> Thank you. >> I'm not going to go into all the things I love, because all of you sitting here know that I love all this. I But, I just want I think I as I was sitting here listening to the presentations, I I tried to think about like why is this so successful? And I it all comes down is to because whatever you did, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a specific program, but

155you all got student buy-in. Like you got the kids to believe that they were going to make a difference. Um and they are. And you know, we all have kids coming to York or at York. Um and it's making a difference. If if uh from sitting here today to sitting here 3 years ago, I can tell you that it it is it's been impactful and it's because of your leadership. So, really appreciate everything that you are all doing. Um So, just a couple clarifications for me. Is Is Link Crew going to replace FOG? Freshman Orientation Group. >> Do you want to talk to >> Yep. I So, um Link Crew is the start um to our So, FOG is our first-year um orientation and guidance uh curricular program. It is going to help to um

156elevate that as we continue to evaluate what components are really necessary. So, we know that we are going to need to embed further college and career pathway readiness pieces there. Um and so, over the course of time, we will utilize um the momentum from Link Crew um to help elevate that experience. >> Cuz I mean, FOG is a small window at their lunch period and it seems like Link Crew is more of a relationship. >> Th- And that is That's exactly right. >> So, I can I can speak a little bit. The reason I was hesitant to answer is I par- the the training that we've gone through isn't complete yet. >> Okay. >> So, again, we we took we d- went through this first phase of training in March and that was just to

157get us to the point where we can run this orientation on the first day of school. There is a follow-up training for all the people that attended that training. For some reason, they do it in September or October. I'm not sure why, but then at that training, they talk about potential follow-up opportunities throughout the school year. So, we know we're going to do more >> Okay. >> next year. We just don't know exactly what that looks like yet. And FOG will still be happening. So, it's it's kind of like both happening at the same time. But, I I think there there is definitely um there's opportunity for both to thrive and and to take from what we're what we're learning with Link Crew and and apply it. >> Okay. Yeah, I mean I I think

158every everyone here has spoken to the point that the more resources we can give in, you know, incoming students the better. And so, if it if maybe the Link Crew doesn't, you know, you you didn't connect with your Link Crew person, maybe you your fog person is the person you connect with. And it's just another face in the hallways that those incoming freshmen will know. So, >> It's also another leadership opportunity for our juniors and seniors. >> Um could you just talk a little about the York Student Success Success Center, those tier two behavioral supports, and what that looks like? >> Yeah, uh so, this is the first year. And again, it's not something that you see in very many places. So, uh I'm going to I'm going to name Matt Bold. He is our

159He is our student success center coordinator, and he's done a fantastic job of basically creating it from scratch. Um it's been a lot of "Hey Tim, can we can we try this? Can we do this?" Uh looking at different curricula that's out there uh to support the work that's being done in there. And then, I I he's work Matt has worked very closely with Mark as well in terms of tracking data, progress monitoring, and seeing kind of where what students do we want to try to get into these groups, and then what's next for them. Um some of them, you know, we basically have three different avenues they can go. Like, "Hey, this worked great, and this kid is is really thriving. They don't need much of a follow-up. This kid could really use some

160sustained support, and let's keep them in here for another 6 weeks of support. Or, you know what? Th- this wasn't enough. We need to be a little bit more intensive when it whether it comes uh working with social workers, working with deans, um to to to follow that MTSS model of moving up to tier three support. >> So, all those kind of um things that you're looking at with the data, are is that how you're targeting the kids that are using the the supports center? >> Yes. So, we're we're looking at Swift data from the previous year to see like, okay, who are our who are our and and we intentionally this year really focused mostly on sophomores and juniors. So, looking at looking at their ninth grade data from last year. And we're we're

161going to look to expand that a little bit more, but we really since it was the first year doing it, we really wanted to have kind of a more of a control group. Um knowing that sometimes our seniors that stuff can be they can be a little bit more difficult to reach with groups, but yeah. >> Okay. Um and then SchoolLinks. All right. I have tried. I'm sure it's very intuitive to our students. It is not intuitive to me. So, can we put some kind of parent tutorial? I don't need an in-person thing. Make a video because if I have to ask one more question and get the side eye about you get this? >> Yeah. >> I might lose it. I want to understand it better. It just and again, I've only done Naviance,

162right? So, I'm sure I just need a tutorial. So, if we could put something out cuz I'm sure I'm not the only junior parents and now sophomores and freshman like as you roll this out to all the other grade levels, a parent tutorial would be awesome. So, this is a little PSA. >> That is all correct. Yes. >> So, we wanted to start with the juniors because that is where they're beginning. Really it is that will really have a full onboarding in the fall that will introduce to parents and families exactly how to access that data, what they're using it for, what that really looks like, and so that you'll be able to see your own child's you know, not exactly you know, where they chose their pieces there, but so you'll be able to

163have an informed conversation. Looks like you're really interested in education. We've never talked about education, right? Like as a career for you um to really help to um onboard parents to that. >> Yeah, and I think like has been mentioned here before, I think once that gets down to those the middle school rising freshman, that's going to be really great platform to parents to have those conversations. I think when you're the juniors rising seniors, you're kind of more nervous about is it going to be as effective and getting all the things out of it they need to apply to college and moving forward. Like I couldn't find like where are the letters of recommendation uploaded and how does it link to the common app? And you know, these are the things that the people in

164my gen my year of of high school are trying to figure out. And I'm I'm assuming it's all going to be seamless linked with common app for applications and stuff like that because I couldn't figure it out. >> So, a lot of those efficiencies that we see like and this is like the the logistics of how SchoolLinks or how of Naviance are supporting students that are applying to colleges, a lot of that will kind of just transfer really seamlessly over to SchoolLinks. Um we're also in addition to our parents in our senior in parent night where where we we do every year, we also have a series of programming in the summer for students to work on their applications. A lot of this is going to be onboarding students as we continue to onboard that,

165but also helping parents be informed to help them navigate because we know that as when a child leaves York High School, they're still working on their college application and trying to figure out how to sync common app and do all those things. And parents need to be able to be literate and informed enough on that system to help them figure out where to click. So, we are already starting to revamp like what our materials look like for our senior parent night um that's put on through our CCRC, and then also thinking about how do we You may not be able to go to the CCRC parent night or and we do put that up but like how can we also have some like, you know, evergreen or lasting resources on our website so that families

166can connect with that and can connect through Schoology with the class of 2027. >> Yeah, and I I I know uh Kevin and I have spoke about this that, you know, waiting until the fall though is really I will just say that creates such anxiety hearing me you say that to me because the, you know, obviously I'm on this college journey right now with my junior and there are schools out there that are saying that their, you know, their applications are opening July 1st and July 15th and kids are being told, "Well, you can't have your letters of recommendation or you can't get a final transcript." And it's creating a whole level of anxiety for them, you know, like, "Well, how am I going to get my application in, right?" And these rolling applications that

167these universities are doing we we have to keep up with it and I think Schoolinks, from what I when I went to the uh rising senior parent nights when from the CCRC, which I loved, um they said Schoolinks would help address these deficiencies that Naviance hasn't uh or didn't. Um so I just, you know, I'm hoping to see that somehow like before July 1st or July 15th. >> Yeah, we're we're we're excited to use Schoolinks. I'm Sorry. Sorry, nice. Um we're also in it's been really heartening to have some communication talking about how those timelines are moving up um and we don't control those timelines. We we can voice some frustrations and I I don't know if if those timelines are ultimately serving students, but we also need to support students in that, which is

168why Dr. Rubinstein and um Rudy have been really working on like how do we streamline our process so that way we want we want to be able to send out student documents earlier in the cycle. We want to be able to have them to have a clear vision because the last thing I want and the last thing we as a as a team want is for our students to be stressed unnecessarily. We know that there's going to be some stress as they're navigating this transition, but the logistical stress we want to try to minimize that. >> Yeah, I think it's a really tough nut to crack because you have to choose which timeline you're going to go from. And so, you know, many of our kids apply early action, which the earliest is going to

169be like October 15th deadline. Many of our students also want to submit Common App but before the first day of school so that they, you know, maybe they're in a fall production or a fall sport. And so, and we're balancing, you know, the need to give staff time to write letters of recommendation because that is such an a big responsibility and we want them to have the time to do that thoughtfully and well, of course. And then it's also your annual turnover of transcripts, right? When grades are due and how we roll into the next school year. It's just such a It's such a robust system. And I think if there's transparency in in what the we can expect as parents as far as timelines go, then it's like, "Okay, at least I know. At

170least I know I could submit my Common App and the school, when I put in the transcript request, is going to initiate that when they're ready on whatever date it is." So, some like little tweaks like that could be helpful to the whole process cuz I can submit my Common App and then wait for ACT and the school to send all the other resources, right? So, but but I think I don't know for sure cuz my oldest is not of this age yet. She's a freshman, but I'd imagine it's that, you know, that desire to be done with this to be done with this process early and earlier. It's the college push of I need to get it in, but it's also the what are we realistically able to take on and how do we

171communicate and set those expectations for for everybody and and and try to reduce that anxiety or stress. It's a stressful I mean Dr. Campbell was just talking about May. We were both like when is May over? But you know >> But but I I want to caution us that you know that we need I think what you've said but we need to be able to I guess for my frustration is like if there's a kid and this is not my kid who is applying to a program that opens on July 15th and it's a program that has 85 you know you know a specialized program right? That has only 85 kids getting accepted to like aviation programs across the country. They take 80 to 85 kids and once those spots are filled so these kids

172now they're it's getting backed up backed up and I don't want us to be the reason that their application is not considered because every box is not checked and the and the boxes that are holding us back right now are letters of recommendation and submitting a transcript not even a final one not even an official one just an unofficial one. And so that's the stress that this I've heard from the last senior class that maybe I'm manifesting it for the about to start this summer but I just I don't want us to be the cause of additional stress for our students because I think there's so much good stuff going on to to minimize that stress that we that that should not be what holds us up or those applications totally That's all I have.

173Thank you for being here. >> might for now. My lord everyone has said it all I feel like I just have you know some just food for thought just things to consider or just voicing some things in the room that maybe haven't been voiced but I'm sure are part of the work that that you're all engaging in. One is I and I don't know this I'm just assuming because I've had experience in schools that you know at times the wonderful work that's being done to support students throughout student services, as educators sometimes we if I'm not a student services educator and I'm an academic educator I'm I'm in academics, I I say, "Well, that's Dr. Campbell's job, right?" And I've really been a part of a system where the core of student-centeredness and support really

174is owned by all of the adults in the building. And what I mean by that is relationships with kids. And that is that is fundamentally the most important piece. And what I hear from you all is that that's the work that you're doing, establishing relationships with kids. And my hope is that the entire school is focusing on building positive and supportive relationships with kids. Because that is going to be what ultimately has the greatest impact on the school culture, climate, and environment. And so so even things like um talking with staff about when do we call home? And not send the email. Like is this a time that whatever the circumstances are, whether it's a third absence or a missing assignment or a grade in a class. But just having those conversations about practice and

175why we do what we do, um because I think we can get caught in systems and boxes of that's your job and not my job. And I've I've um I know that this is an you know, an area where it's it lives in every building. So I'm not going to accept that, "Oh, no, we do that." No, no, this lives in every building and we just have to acknowledge it and work towards that common understanding, you know? And we're not all going to be great at it and that's fine. But that we all have some onus over building positive relationships with kids, being mindful of their lives, stress, anxiety, what they have going on. If they're missing my class, I want to know why, and that might mean that I talk to them and not

176their guidance counselor. You know, and so it's those things that I feel like I just wanted to put in the room around how how we really have profound impact on the student experience. Um Another one is around, and I think that many of us, especially those of us who've been around for a while, have seen, um you know, growth in our students' experience in 6 through 12. You know, it has, um improved. I do also think that in like even in this conversation, it's like, well, it feel you know, we talk about how it feels now, uh which is very different, we say, from before. I would encourage us to look at really like because we're talking about the environment for kids, and so they should be the ones telling us if it's improving or

177not. And so, how do we create some opportunities, and I'm not talking about 30 students in a group with who are leading something new? I think that's great, but how do we reach the kids who are flying under the radar? How do we know that kids aren't falling through the cracks? And I'm not talking about the kids who are struggling academically or have something going on social emotionally, I'm talking about the kids who are getting by, and that we are always focused on maybe a certain tier two, tier three, but that all kids have have adolescence happening. It's their life right now, and they're all in different places. And so, how So, that was just a thought I had about, you know, measuring our impact, cuz there's a lot of good work happening. How do

178we measure our impact through the students' lens, um and and have them holding us accountable to our work. Um And and what I loved the most about tonight is that you all are trying new things and you're implementing things that are new and different and taking those risks. I think that's awesome. I also think that there's these moments where as you continue to develop where you say, "Yeah, that's not working the way that I wanted it to work." And that's okay. And we're going to figure it out and we're going to keep moving forward because we have to model that for our students if that's what we're expecting them to do, too. And I know that we're expecting them to do that in class every day or on the soccer field or in the performing

179arts program or, you know, in their art class. Like it doesn't matter what they're doing. So, um, so modeling that I think is and being explicit about it I think is super important. You know, I mentioned a little bit about and and I just don't I know there's a lot of work going on and I I think it's like the next phase of student services work, maybe, is is those kids who, you know, um, aren't your typical they're going to end up on my list who I have to follow up with, you know, and but I I I'm just being forward thinking in that. Um, and I'm not saying that anybody needs to do anything or explain anything to me. I know there's a lot of really great work going on and I I we're

180so fortunate to have the people in the places that they're at uh, in their roles that they're in leading this work and being creative and focusing on kids and that I know will continue. Uh, and as this kind of evolves it's kind of like how we used to talk about the academics, right? We're just we have to you know, the foundation had to be the foundation before we could focus on some more narrowed um, goals, right? And and that's okay to just say that. Like it's fine. It's a part of the continuous improvement process. Um, so that's kind of my feedback. I Listen, you crammed a lot into 56 minutes and there's a lot of inform- that was just your section, by the way. Um, but I just took a note. It was 48 minutes,

181but that's okay. Um, I mean I'm not digging that. There's a lot of good work going on and the fact that just the simple fact that we're doing it is what's most important. So, keep doing what you're doing. Keep thinking critically. Keep thinking creatively. And please, whatever, you know, I know that you're working with a great district team, too, who's laying a foundation and and providing the pathway for you all to move forward in a really positive way. >> What What I hope came across in those 48 minutes, though, who's counting, um, is >> Just me. >> is really, uh, just a passion for the work that is being done and for, um, making sure that every student has, um, an outstanding experience not just at York High School, but in beyond. >> Yes. >>

182Um, and so, uh, that it really creates a, um, better community. It creates a better district and, um, uh, I know from talking with these three individuals, but also from the others who are doing the work at York High School, that there is a lot of passion and purpose, um, behind every single, um, piece that is coming through. We don't always get it right on the first try. >> That's okay. >> Um, but we are genuinely working to improve processes for students, um, and their families. >> And it's hard work. And you're doing it. Thank you. >> I meant it when I said when we were talking about Dr. Yonke and and Mr. Build by Build Build taking over. Um, you know, there's a very, very strong assistant principals, directors, you know, there's very strong

183people and these three sitting here are examples of it and that's why I feel so confident that we're we're going to be good this year, even though it's not where we want to be, but it's a very strong team supporting, um, Dr. Yonke and Mr. Bild. So. >> Anything else from anyone, including Dr. Campbell, who looked like she was going for her mic. >> I was just going to just reiterate to the Board of Education how grateful I am for your support. Um since since having that privilege of serving our community um you all continue to have have very high expectations um for the administration. And you all have expressed that in many different ways. Um you've come alongside and and really first and foremost set very clear directive in establishing a strategic plan with

184very robust goals. And as has already been mentioned, continuing to hold um me personally and our administrative team accountable um to in service of our students. And I just wanted to say thank you. Um the fact that we even took time and really thought thoughtfully about tonight and sharing this information um was because of feedback that I received from the board. Was because of feedback of participating in board tours and saying um our board and our community needs to know this. Because of hearing from the Board of Education that we can are concerned about the whole child. And we have continued to work on our academic programming, but a value that this board has raised to me personally is that we need to make sure that our students are doing well not only academically, but

185emotionally and socially as well as having all of the supports in place. So, I just want to end by just saying thank you to the board. Myself and my team that is sitting in this room and so many others that are not in this room are committed to our the continuous improvement efforts in service of our community and every student that we have the privilege of serving. So, thank you. >> Thank you. And thank you for a very robust Committee of the Whole meeting. Item four on our agenda is Board Communications. Are there any board presentations or conversations you'd like to have at this point? I'll take that as a no. Upcoming meetings, we have May 19th, 2026 the Board of Education regular meeting at 7:00 p.m. here at District 205 Center in rooms 215,

18616, and 17. The time is now 7:56 and we are officially adjourned. Thank you.