001Oh, I have to. >> Okay, good. >> Folks, we'd like to call this meeting to order and we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. And Mr. Chris Breedlove, would you lead us in that? >> Thank you. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Chris. Um, first off, we'd like to excuse Courtney Hoffmire tonight. She's at a training, so she won't be here with us our in our meeting, but u we're always encouraging people to get more training. Um, Mr. Rolof, I'm going to turn the these recognition awards on over to you so you can take care of that and go take that through this part of the agenda. >>
002All right. Uh, welcome everybody. is our favorite part of the meeting as always. Uh we would like to call up the principles so we can start by recognizing our students of the month and we'll start with Miss Butler. So our student of the month's going to be presented by Mr. Dan Robinson and I don't see her here so he's just going to say some words about her. So, um, our student of the month is Abby Livingston. Um, kind of looking at Ryan because, uh, we've put a lot of effort in this young lady. And it's with great pride that, uh, I'm able to, um, state that Abby is our student of the month. So, she's a fourth grader. Um, she's in Mrs. Reynolds class and the reason for nomination is she has shown outstanding progress
003in the areas of behaviors and self-control. So, Abby struggled with emotions. She struggled with behaviors for several years. >> I think we have someone coming in right now. >> Praise God. Come on, Abby. Right up here. All the way up here. So, here we are. Abby, uh, hey, did you ever think you'd be up here? >> No. >> Well, you know what? I'm proud of you, Abby. And you should be up here. So, this is Abby Livingston. She is a fourth grader. She's in Mrs. Reynolds class. This is the reason for nomination. She's made outstanding progress in the areas of behaviors and self-control. She has struggled in the past. She's made a complete turnaround this and she's exhibited appropriate behaviors. What a blessing it's been to see her grow. Uh I just look forward to
004her smile every day. Abby, we're proud of you. So Mrs. Reynolds uh is a classroom teacher. These are her statements. She states that students are willing and you know desiring to interact with Abby. She states that Abby participates. She interacts during group activities. Miss Reynolds states that Abby works well in small group settings. She states that Abby is willing to take responsibility for any of her behaviors. Um, and she also comes back and owns her behavior. She she made a comment uh that Abby wasn't really wanting to do an assignment. Um, and then she came back the following day and said, "Miss Reynolds, I'm sorry. I can do that assignment now. So, uh, Abby has been known to break down. This year, she's asking help before she breaks down. And I just want to say,
005you know, Kayla, thank you. You've come a long way. Um, it's been a it's been a long road. Uh, you've reinforced the school expectations, Kayla. Um, you've held Abby accountable and you've never made excuses. So, this uh this is a miracle right here. Just wanted to say, Abby, nice job. What do you think about all this? >> It is amazing. And I don't know what else to say. >> Does it make you want to keep going and working hard and keeping your behaviors in line and all that stuff? >> Yes. >> All righty. Well, you have been a blessing to me. Thank you. And at the junior high, we want to recognize Zoe Cole. Zoe, come on up. And we want to recognize Zoe because you can be up here too if you want because
006um you know student of the month isn't just about those kids who um are doing great things. It's about those kids who are overachieving and those kids who um are really owning their own journey. And one of the things I kept hearing from teachers about Zoe this year is that she's really taking personal ownership over her education and that she's become the hero of her own story and that she is um grabbing the reins and taking advantage of every opportunity that's presented to her and her grades are outstanding and she is doing amazing things and we look forward to her um continue to do great things on through junior high and on through the high school. So we congratulate her as student of the month. Good job. Do you want to do you want to
007say something like she did? >> Okay, that's okay. Good job. >> All right. Good evening. Our high school student of the month is Camila Gutierrez. Camila is a senior with us this year. She was on the soccer team. Um, and she is actually going next semester to Seagull in Washington DC, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Inde. So, it is the school for global >> ethics and leadership. Um, and so I have two teachers nominated Camila this this month. So, Mr. Vest shares that Camila is an exceptional student and a joy to have in class. He knows that she works diligently and her English skills have shown remarkable improvement over the last few years. She consistently demonstrates accountability, asks thoughtful questions, engages in complex ideas, and sets ambitious goals for herself. He highlights that Camila exemplifies
008the qualities that we strive to foster in all of our students. She has strong character, academic excellence, well-rounded involvement, and an impressive self-level or impressive level of self-motivation. Mr. Scowson also nominated Camila. He reports that she approaches his later so he has Camila later in the afternoon because she is with our Navit program in the morning. Correct. And he she approaches his later day class with a positive attitude and a smile every day. And her interactions with her peers are consistently kind and encouraging, creating a welcoming environment in the classroom. She works hard to overcome her challenges and demonstrates strong academic ability and is frequently helpful to other students. He states that he that she is a genuine pleasure to have in the talent lab in the afternoons. So, Camila Gutierrez, congratulations ladies Abby, Zoe,
009and Camila on the nominations and earning the student of the month award. Uh, keep up the good work, ladies. Um, next we would like to invite Coach Kluff up um to recognize our November student athlete of the month. Ex. Exactly. So, that's one of the nice things about Noel. If if anybody knows knows Noel, I got to stand on the spot. X marks the spot. Um, Noel's one of those girls that's uh she's phenomenal. And in talking to a lot of her coaches and her teachers, people that have been here for a long time know that Noel has probably one of the greatest opportunities to be one of the the strongest female athletes we have had come out of Blue Ridge very long time. Uh, extraordinary in everything that she does. She's a three sport
010athlete. Competes in volleyball. She was just a first team allconerence hitter, middle blocker for us this year. Um, she's going on the basketball team right now. They have a game tomorrow night against Valley Christian home 7:00. We'd love to see you guys all there. Okay. And um she also runs track. And as a freshman last year, she qualified for the state meet in four events. Um she ran a low 102 as a freshman in the quarter mile. So if anybody knows anything about track, that's pretty impressive. Um I wanted to read what her coach said about her. Um Coach Fergen nominated her and a lot of people uh um agreed with his nomination for athlete of the month. He said, ' Noel is the perfect example of when hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and good character
011pays off on the court. She is dedicated to her academics and family as well. Great job, Noel. You deserve it. So, Noel Harris. All right, we'd like to invite Dr. Johnson back up to recognize our November teacher of the month. and come on up. I know I'm gonna recognize David Butterfield as teacher of the month. Um I know he hates recognition, so this is miserable for him, but he I told him he had to endure. Um we just want to recognize David because uh Mr. Butterfield is an amazing teacher. Um I kind of want to talk about what his day looks like because he rolls in never past seven. Um is getting his lessons ready, prepping, going through the standards, making sure everything's right for the kids. um teaches his classes, is a wonderful teacher,
012uses great techniques. Um lunchtime he donates his time and has kids in his room tutoring um playing chess. Um he he he does he volunteered to do brain games for first period and and help us in other ways. Um he's now tutoring uh math and science Mondays and Wednesdays after school for two hours each day through the 21st century grant program. Um and so that's just the extra effort that he puts in and we really appreciate that. And the other thing that he does is those those aren't just efforts that go in vain. Our eighth graders um go into the high school prepared for math. Right now we have eighth graders at the high school taking geometry and algebra. And um of course the credit goes to those students, but Mr. Butterfield puts a lot
013of his own time and energy and work into making sure that those kids get those extra um things they need to to advance and go even further than grade level. Um and his students that are struggling below grade level benefit from his tutoring. um he grows everyone. Um he takes it personal when um kids don't reach proficiency, I think. And uh so we really appreciate him and want to honor him as the teacher of the month. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Butterfield. And anybody who loves math as much as I do and is passionate and excited and enjoys it as much as you do, congratulations. You deserve it. Um, now we want to recognize someone who's equally as passionate about what he does. And, um, you know, all around we get to hear about our
014fields and how great our fields look. And so, I think Mr. Bosley's going to do our next nomination. Come on up, Mr. Bosley. >> Hello, board. Uh it is the job of support services to give our students what we can with the resources and give them the best of everything. Uh it's our job to keep things working and looking really good. Uh but every now and then somebody goes above and beyond. So we're here to recognize him tonight. Uh Jared, come on up. And no, he did not see this coming. He could have looked on the board to see his name, but yeah, he didn't. He didn't. Uh, now here you go, Jared. Uh, Jared will be the first one to tell you that it was a team effort, and it really was to see
015the whole transition. It took the whole team. Uh, we had Mr. Kluff out there painting the field, but it's really his passion that drove this whole thing. A couple months ago, he came in from a weekend in the valley. he'd learned that globe had received an award for having an excellent field. The competitiveness in him took over and uh that's when this passion green project uh really started. Uh he is competitive. Uh he is an ath he he is an athlete and um so he also spends his time coaching our youth. Uh he does a lot with that as well. uh he's been it's been said that he is not only a positive influence but how well the kids respond to him. He does have his role in support services. We kind of call him
016our head grass guy. Head grass guy. We'll go with that. Um but he also is the first one to get in the hole when we do need to get the dirty work done. Uh he never complains and if he does start to moan, we call him Oregon and he gets offended and then he gets in the hole and does the work. So we love him for that. Uh really it's his passion throughout this that's really made these fields what they are. We've had people of visiting teams love his fields caught feeling the lusciousness of our green green grass. Uh so it is with that excellence and everything that we give him this award that he deserves it. So round of applause please I think for the next picture too. I looks like all of his
017colleagues are here supporting him. I think you guys all need to get a picture together with Jared because I know it is a team effort and you guys bust your tail out there. So, I'd love to see you guys all get a picture together. I don't know if you guys read any of the Facebook comments, but across the board, Blige has the finest natural grass field in the state in the state of Arizona. So, congratulations. All right, as these gentlemen are getting their picture taken, we would like to invite up Dr. Johnson to recognize our volunteer of the month as well. So, come on down one more time, Dr. Johnson. We have another shy one. So, we want to recognize Stephanie Juel as the volunteer of the month. Um, at open house, we had a
018poster up that said, "Sign up here if you want to volunteer." And she was the first one to sign up. And, um, I'm not sure if she's missed a school day since. Um, our bulletin boards are the envy of the district. Um, her artistic ability and and all of that's amazing. And, um, when she's on campus, there's not a minute she's not busy. um all the way from I mean if there's nothing going on she'll walk into a random classroom and just ask if I can help and help kids and works with the kids in special ed and um she's there every day from the time school starts to the day it ends and um to show her commitment to the school district and to the junior high um she's on the docket today to
019get approved as a substitute teacher. So she's uh going to start subbing for us as well and um we are just so grateful to have Stephanie and and you deserve this honor and we really appreciate you. >> Thank you. I say this all the time, but honestly, we rub shoulders with the cream of the crop. We have the best people in this school district that exist. Appreciate them so much. So much. Now, into the regular portion of this meeting is the uh consent agenda. Next item on is the consent agenda. There's quite a bit on the consent agenda. There's a lot of u fundraisers. Is there anything anybody would like to take out and vote on independently or >> um Mr. President, I'd like to move that we move uh 2.5 on the on the
020fundraisers. Move that out of the consent agenda. >> Okay. We'll just uh vote independently on vote item 2.5. So, are there any other items you'd like to vote on independently or can we accept the consent agenda as presented with the exception of 2.5? >> Have a motion by Margaret, second by Siliana. All in favor? >> I. That's unanimous. Okay. Item 2.5 is a recommendation to approve fundraisers. Um, and there's a list of them. Michael, would you like to take over? My my only I mean I just see a lot of concessions and it's I I don't know if what it's all for. I mean do we have like a calendar that people are signing up for to do concessions or these at different events uh different schools and and stuff like that. So maybe just
021a little bit of I'm assuming that well I don't know who know who knows that. Do you know that Mary? Do you know who's doing what on those? So, as far as I know, um, Mrs. Blake and Mr. Grace can speak to that if you would like. There is a calendar and they do sign up for that. So, if you'd like to speak to that, >> so these are high school these like high school games. Okay. >> Yes. Go ahead, Mr. Grace. >> Sure thing. So this year with concessions, in the past, the way we did concessions was that we if you signed up for a specific sporting event, you had to go shop, you had to set your prices, you had to stock the you had to do the whole thing. This year, we've
022kind of streamlined that. We have Bridget Blake um who runs our FBLA. She is overseeing concession stands. Um we have a vendor for all of the food and everything. She set the prices to where she goes in, stocks a concession stand with what you're going to sell. You sell it, turn your money box in, she deposits everything, does all of the work, and the money goes into your account. And so she's running actually a raffle. Dustin was just at this hard-hitting raffle for um some of the the highly desired events, I'll just say basketball, um these larger scale events. So, she has a whole system in place for how people are getting these. There is a calendar in advance. Um, so she just finalized the winter sports and I think we have everything but this
023Wednesday and this Friday's basketball games covered. Um, everything else for the entire winter sports season for wrestling, for boys basketball, and for girls basketball is covered. >> So, so all of these ones on here that say concessions are one of those. It's just a different group that's seeking approval for that. >> Correct. Yes, sir. So, our student groups all do their do concession stand to be able to put money back into their account. So, um one of the ways we wanted to do this was kind of just a general concessions for like the very top on stage craft. They did a a football concession. They'll do a basketball concession as well. What day that is, I don't know. Right. >> Um, but the other thing would be if something comes up and they can't do
024their concession, then we would have other groups that are already approved to do concessions that could step in and do it um as well since there's the upkeep is already there by Miss Blake. >> Oh, and and for postseason because we don't know about those games, >> so we can't guarantee that we have a home game. it would be really hard to put one onto the board agenda since they're, you know, placed after the board meeting. And so, uh, we just to be able to do concessions at high school sporting events. >> I have a question. I don't know if it's for you or for Dustin, but the texting fundraiser for the basketball, I thought it was both for boys and girls, and I just see that boys are listed. >> It I think it
025is. It's just the girls called it something else. It's called >> the girls is called Money Dolly. >> Thank you. >> And which is the same fundraiser that uh volleyball did. >> Um it was really good fundraiser. Allows you to just contribute or to purchase things from them and they're drop shipped to your house which means we don't have to handle the merchandise which takes one less thing or one one more thing out of it that could you know cause people stuff to go missing. >> All right. Thanks. >> Yep. >> I think the rest of them are pretty self-explanatory. So, thank you. Thank you, Ryan. >> Well, I'm glad we got that explanation. I remember years ago the only people that got any benefit from the uh concession was the Spanish club >> and
026they made a hall every year. >> Years ago, it was a junior class. >> Yeah, years ago it was a junior class. So, this looks pretty fair. Appreciate the work and effort that's gone into that, Bridget. So, do we have any more comment or questions about item 2.5 or can we accept item 2.5 as presented? If so, can I have a motion? >> I'll move to accept item 2.5 as as presented. >> Second. >> Have a second from Margaret. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> That looks to be unanimous. All right, >> Mr. Merrell, before we move on, >> um I know we just met Stephanie um as one of our new substitute teacher. I also want to mention our other new employee that we're hiring is in the crowd tonight as
027well. Um Miss Ryan. Huh? Okay, I guess she's not in the crowd tonight. I was They were telling me she's little because she's real little and we couldn't see her. >> But um >> but I guess that was just Mr. Cloth over there. So, okay. Scratch shot. Thank you. >> Good deal. All right. Item 3.1. Uh this is a about youth basketball booster club. Um, would you like to address that or is somebody here like to address that? >> So, uh, Mr. President, I am actually the only officer of the booster club that's here, so I'll have to recuse myself from any vote on it, but I am here to answer questions about it if you have any >> and I can answer I can talk a little bit about it too because Mr. Reek
028and um, and I have talked extensively, but yeah, Mr. Gineo could probably talk a little bit more about the booster club. Well, that's all the information we have >> is the booster cup 25 26 what what's the purpose and what are we going to do? >> So, basically we're just here to support um all organized basketball teams in our school from junior high up through high school. Um and our main um and it's mainly financial you know assistance obviously and we do that mainly through our fundraiser which is our youth basketball program. Um, all that money has traditionally gone into our booster club fund and then we we use that money to to give to boys and girls uh equally. Um, I know this year that's going to be a little bit different because we
029had we have some different sponsors within uh the Suns are going to sponsor part of our youth basketball program and so they're going to I believe work directly with the school and probably bypass that. But we still have we still have funds in the booster club and we'll still be spending them. So we we're continuing to exist as an organization >> and a big part of >> I like it. I mean I like the idea of it. I think it's important and I think it's >> and I can tell you like we bought basketball shorts for the junior high. We bought basketballs for the high school um warm-ups, practice jerseys. I mean whatever they might need that are big purchases that the school can't handle that year. We we try to help out with those
030things. >> And so I'd like to piggyback on that because Mr. and I did have a um Zoom meeting with um some executives from the Suns who help with their youth basketball and their desire to support us and uh contribute funds so that no kid in our community every kid can participate and so they'll take care of fees and help out for so every child in our community can participate and um you know and I appreciate our basketball team and they want to have one thing I really like about it is um that Mr. was talking to me about is having our basketball players be the leaders. So, you know, the young the youth in our community look up to the bigger kids and they're out there refereing and helping out, coach the kids and
031I think that's just a great way to grow that program and and I really like it. So, >> sounds great. It's always it's always good that uh younger kids have somebody older to look up to and uh that older child kid young adult it's uh is is worthy of that. So I think this booster club will help that along. I appreciate that. Any other questions or comments or shall we have a motion to accept with Michael Gino recusing himself from this vote? Any other uh we have a motion to accept item 3.1. >> Have a motion from Margaret, second from Sylvian. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> I. Okay. That also looks to be unanimous with Michael Gorno recusing himself from that vote. Okay. Item 3.2, recommendation to approve the BR elementary
032school parent/teer student PT PTSO. Um, Mr. Roloff, would you explain and introduce us? Well, I think we'll ask Miss Holloway for some of the details about the PTSO. >> Hi. So, um we're here to support I think there might be um so we are the Blige parent teacher student organization. So we are here to support the entire school district not just the elementary. So that might that part might need to be corrected. Um so that part is important because it is um we are here to support the entire school district. So we are here to raise money, raise funds and to give back to the students where needed um and the teachers, the staff um and the district and have fun while doing it. Like that's my motto. Um I took on the role um
033well a year and a half ago and that was part of what I set out to do is if it becomes stressful then it's not fun, right? So, um, part of it is to, you know, bring in the volunteers, um, you know, uh, and to grow and to make this more and ties. We we really want to tie this into the community. Um, I really feel and we've said it, we've had the conversations, but Blige is the heart of the community and our school district is so important. Um, I myself grew up here. I went to Blige my kids now my grandkids and it's so important and it is important to give back and it is important to appreciate those who are um teaching and having such a critical I mean an an imp impact
034in our lives and who have had. So we really just want to continue that and continue our mission and have have the best time while doing it. So, but again, it is a district-wide we're we're trying to really um you know, make um you know, get those fundraisers out there and draw in the town, the chamber, the community, and really just try to fundra, you know, give it all we got. >> Thank you. I like the spaghetti dinner myself. >> Yeah, it's been great. >> You know what? It's a brilliant idea. I'm open to all ideas. Like I love to brainstorm. >> Spaghetti. >> I'm here for it. >> It's always been good for me. >> Okay. >> Doesn't it show? >> You know, if you see it on the agenda. >> I'm just kidding.
035Thank you. I appreciate that. And um we do have an awesome PTSO >> and uh I did scratch out elementary and put district in there. So uh with that correction to item 3.2 two from elementary to district. Is there any objection to that? Can let that be part of the record then? So, thank you. >> All right. >> If unless anybody has any questions, we'll let you sit back down. >> And I think you'll find that in our articles and everything, you will see that elementary is included in that. So, >> okay. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. So, we have an item to accept 3.2 with the revision discussed. I have a motion. I have a second. A second. All in favor say I. >> I. >>
036All right. That appears also to be unanimous. U Mr. Rolloloff, a district update. >> All right. Well, last month we went over our test scores and I'll go ahead and pass these out because district letter grades, school and district letter grades have been released. And so, do you guys want the bad news or the Well, we're going to do the bad news first and then we're going to talk about how we're going to um did we get enough? Okay. So, we're going to talk about the letter grades and I think they were a little bit short of what what they were hoping for last year and so but the good thing is is we have this year to to get it um up and running a little bit stronger. Um so the first page uh
037if it's hard to read so the very first category is proficiency and stability proficiency. So what percentage of your students are proficient and highly proficient and so we got 16 this is for the elementary school 16 out of 30 points for that which is fairly normal for um for the state. On the growth points we got 39.54 out of 50 points. That's an area where we really want to push um to get more growth points because that's on the lower end of the state average that was attained last year and um out of 50 points we left 10 points on the table right there. So um really targeting a lot of our minimally proficient students and partially proficient students will be will be very important to continue to grow that. Now, EL proficiency and growth.
038Last year, we got four out of 10 points. And I'll I'll circle back to that because that's that's another area where I think we're missing some points. In acceleration readiness, those are all the non-ESTED items. Uh chronic absenteeism, um third grade, third grade move on when reading, eighth grade math achievement, um and then subgroup improvement. So, there's a possibility for 10 points on that. And those are areas where we really should be um striving for 10 or you can get more than 10 points, but they cap you at 10. So we really need to strive to get 10 or more points than that every year. Um so we ended up with a total of our total points earned were 71.17 and as we look down below a 71 so it gave us a C. A
03971.99 is the top end of the C and then a 72% is a B. So, our elementary school missed a B by a fraction of a point, but it still gives us a lot of areas to look at and all data is, you know, you got to put it into context. So, we're looking at it and we're using that to grow. Also, I wanted, this is important because federal accountability, our elementary school was also in TSI. It stands for targeted school improvement for our EL um proficiency at this point in time. So what we need to do is we're we need to take strong looks in these areas based on our 2425 data. Okay. Um any questions on the elementary school before we move on? >> The previous year there was an A at the
040elementary school. So there was a little bit of a backslide on that. Okay. Uh Blige Junior High last year. Um so similar proficiency proficiency we'd like to bump that up a little bit. The growth was once again we really want to strive for 50 growth points and um getting between 45 and 50 is a realistic goal and once again a lot of that comes to targeting our minimally proficient or partially proficient students. Um our EL proficiency and growth once again we got two out of 10 points. So we're leaving a lot of points on the board there and uh they got the full 10 points on the acceleration readiness which are those not necessarily tested items again. And so they ended up with a 64.63 points, which is a a middle of the road C,
041but I think there are there are a lot of areas that we can target for growth for next year. Um, and I believe they were a B last year. Is that is that correct, Dr. Johnson? At the junior high or Okay. And then at the high school, the high school actually um bumped up to a B. And so they're a B letter grade. And if we look at the points at the high school, their total points earned are 81.79. It's a little bit different at the high school level, the scale, than it is at the K8 level. And if you look down there, they were fractional points away from an A last year. So an 82% will get you to an A. And we were at 81 point or I wasn't helpful with that last
042year, but the team last year uh earned 81.79, so they were really close to an A. Um a lot of this if you look at the graduation rate uh both the graduation rates I got 10 out of 10 points uh college career readiness index. So there's a lot of indicators on that. It's a menu that we have to self-report and I know Mr. Grace worked with them a lot last year even when he was at the elementary school. So they got 20 out of 20 points on that. Um once again I think a lot of points were left on the board with EL proficiency and growth because we had a three out of 10. And so those are definite areas across K12 that we're looking at targeting. Um proficiency and growth were in about the
043average range which we we always we have a growth mindset. We always want to get better on those as well. Um but then we also want to look at our um glaring areas. Oops. I have the high school twice. I figure since it was a best grade, I guess we'd include that one twice so you can see it again. Um, so our district letter letter grade, they just gave us an overall letter grade, so we got a C. Um, I can tell you walking around the district, I've been in a lot of classrooms at each of the campus and I see quality teachers. I see quality students. I see quality support staff like the folks we saw here tonight. Um, I don't think we're a C district. And, um, being in different districts with different
044letter grades, I know we have a lot more potential than that. Last year was a year of a lot of change and I I think that um we definitely have room for improvement to grow there. So what we've already started talking about is the plan to address the need. So here's the good news. The good news is we've identified a lot of the areas where we missed points and how they can grow. Oh, you're going through those quick. But um we've already started with EL meetings at the elementary school, junior high, and high school. We met with our EL coordinators. um our administrators and um at the junior high and high school. We have one teacher who's in the audience right now, Miss Langto, who we we we brought with because I think she has
045a lot of energy and and some good ideas on how to support our students. And we we've already started talking about programmatic and curriculum changes that that we think we can push forward to help our students. This year is already in progress, so we're we're going to continue to do the best that we can this year, but also in years moving forward. I think we're going to look at some more programmatic changes on um because the state offers different ways to service our EL kids and I think we can get more bang for our buck from our professionals with doing some programmatic changes especially at elementary school and once again looking at our curriculum. So you know we have um appropriate curriculum for our students coming in who have that need. Um next what we
046did is as we were going through the stipens last month we found out that Mr. and Miss Woods are our data coordinators and so we are wrangling them in. We actually have a meeting tomorrow where we're going to be looking at um the A throughF data and a lot of it um you know it's like when you play a sport and you go out if you don't know the rules of the game and you don't know um some of the nuanced items and how to you know and how to win a game or how to lose a game. um you know sometimes it it burns you and I'm looking at our point totals and I think we did a lot of good things with a lot of students but I think we're missing some of
047our the rules of the game type of things where it so in a lot of areas the partially proficient range it's a tiny range so the minimally proficient range is a huge range the partially proficient range is a tiny range so our kids who are partially proficient are are within typically one to three questions away from passing so But we have kids that are right there. So, how can we use a 21st century grant? How can we use our resources, our amazing professionals here to push them above and try to push them? And you know, I know our teachers give everything they give just to get them there, but it's so close. So, how are comm we communicating with families that we're so close? How are we looking at those individual skills? Well, we have
048these data folks who are very intelligent, smart, math-minded people who were going to look at some of these things and try to figure out how to how to help our kids with the 21st century grant and getting them over that finish line. So, and not only that, that that's where we really get a lot of our growth points too is from what we would call our bubble kids, our kids right around that proficiency mark where pushing them over the edge. And the other statistics on that is once you get children to proficiency, just their whole demeanor and their, you know, the way they view school, there's there's a lot of difference. They view themselves as successful, how they view themselves, how they view school. So getting them across that line. And so we're going to
049look at look at our areas where um we can target instruction and and help students and just give students that little extra push and that little extra confidence to get them across the line. Um curriculum review. Um we're we're doing a a comprehensive curriculum review and I I started that. Uh Mr. Grace and I had a had an extensive meeting. We're looking at all the curriculum um across all of our campus. And what we're going to do is try to try to be as resourceful as we can. And then as we go down here to professional development, once we have all these aligned, we want to put some professional development forward so we can help our teachers because sometimes we get a curriculum and you get this box of stuff and you don't know how
050to use all of it. So we want to do is we want to be wise and show people, you know, what should we be using in our core curriculum? What should we be using to intervene when kids aren't getting it? How how do we use the pieces of the curriculum that we have so teachers don't feel like they need to go off to teachers pay teachers or or look on the internet and go searching for things that we can assess what we have right there in front of us um that we can use to um teach our children. And so what do we have in our curriculum? What do we possibly need? do we need to look at um expanding our curriculum for some of our programs like ELD and stuff? Um in addition to
051that, we're looking at professional uh learning communities. We had that training at the beginning of the year. Professional uh learning communities are one of the highest thing for collective teacher efficacy. And basically what that means is believing in ourselves and knowing what we're doing is the right thing. And so working in those professional learning communities to push our um teachers to continually grow and to be the best they can be. um John Hadtiey's effect size those are looking at all the components in education that have the highest impact in student learning and so what are what are our practices that we're doing in our classroom so that we have the highest impact on student learning and we're doing the best that we can in the time that we have um Erin Hansen's this is something
052our administrators did we did a book study it's called heroes within and what it talks about is empowering some of our most disenfranchised students like what do we do to motivate our kids who are a little bit disenfranchised or completely disenfranchised and maybe they don't want to be in school. Maybe maybe they have a lot of barriers built up. Maybe they've been a lot, you know, we have a lot of uh students who are still trying to recover from COVID and how do how do we reach our kids who are the most disenfranchised and our administrators did a good job with that and I know they've been sharing professional development with their staff based on their learning there. We got the data project we're going to continue to move forward with. Um, once again, we're
053going to go through once we go through the curriculum and have a really good grasp on what what our staff needs, we want to help them out and provide training so that they they know um what's all there in the curriculum and what what can be used to help them. And then also this year we initiated a mentor mentee program and I know Mr. Butterfield who and you know Mr. and others are are part of that program and I feel like our we just had a meeting last month and I feel like it was a really helpful meeting and it was a great collaboration and I don't like to waste time with meetings. I want to be effective in time with meetings and I feel like you know the um the strength is in the
054room. We have the people we need to move our district forward and so now it's just tapping into it and being efficient and wise about what we do. So that's as far as A through F. Are there any thoughts, questions on that? >> I have lots of thoughts, but um no. Um I know I I just want to talk or throw something out curriculum wise. I know that we are kind of locked into some of our curriculum for a couple more years. So financially, that's a you know, you can't really dump that and and start over. But I I just didn't think at least I I'm mainly speaking with math that it wasn't great. Um, and so I would just like to throw out there that we involve those those experts at all levels, elementary
055through high school, in helping to pick the curriculum. Um, I feel like our our country has put such a emphasis on technology and I and I don't think it's helping as far as in the classroom. I I mean, it doesn't seem like it. And I I mean our our scores continue to go down in our country where other countries are going up and I don't think they use tech some of them do use technology as much as we do. Um I think sometimes it's hard for the for the students to to deal with and probably hard for the teachers. Um so that's just just my two cents about that. I know also we use how how often a year do we do like practice um tests for the for the state test? >> I'm sorry.
056Can you say that again? >> How how often a year? How many times a year do we do like benchmark testing? >> So, we do quarterly benchmark first three quarters and um to prepare them for the state state assessment. Um, I know there are also different components online where we can pull where teachers can do individual questions and hopefully with the professional learning community, they're they're working with teams to have tests so the kids know the type of questions in addition to the content. >> I think it's a catch point. Are we still using DNA? >> Yes. >> Yeah. I feel like this and again just coming from my own classroom experience that some of the students get almost disenfranchised by taking those practice tests because they're like I have no idea and so they
057almost give up months before the test even happens. Um just because I don't I don't know that DNA has the best program for that. But so I'm just throwing out that, you know, like I said, from my experience, maybe some things we could look at to to do those things a little bit better. >> And let me let me address your questions because these are conversations that are coming up. So when we talk about the curriculum, you're right, the curriculum is adopted and um it's it's what we have and it's what we need. When we talk about curriculum, what we like to look at at the beginning, I don't want to get in the weeds too much, but you know, you want to start with the fidelity of the curriculum, where you're using the curriculum,
058but then I think what you want to do is empower teachers to start to put in the art of teaching where they can deviate from the curriculum where that, you know, it's that monitor and adjusting piece where they see necessary the teachable moments where they can teach children because ultimately it's not the technology that teaches kids, it's teachers that teach kids and um you know and it's not just necessarily about teaching kids too. It's how to empower them how to advocate for themselves because you know we live in a world where you know the world's at our fingertips and so how do we advocate for ourselves and how do we learn? So technology is a tool like everything else. Um but how do we you know how do we empower our students to be productive
059members of society and and learners lifelong learners. And so the curriculum that we have, we're going to do what's best what we have with the curriculum that we have. Um if we do get to a point where we um are considering adoption, obviously that would be something at the board's will that we consider adoption. And we would invite lots of people in um experts to look at that curriculum. In the meantime, hopefully with the professional learning communities, they can look at appropriate supplements if we need to supplement the curriculum so that the teachers don't feel like they're on an island and have to dig for resources every year, every lesson for multiple years because that's that's how you get teacher burnout. And so that's what we don't want. Technology, I I agree what you're saying
060loud and clear. Technology is a tool. Technology is not the teacher. And yeah, sometimes it's a tool to help supplement, but the teachers are what put the rubber to the road. Um, and yeah, those are things it sounds like we're in alignment with. Did you have another question? I'm sorry on that. Or Okay. And and these are ongoing discussions and I'm happy to meet with you guys as well and talk about um going more in the weeds with some of the components because this is kind of a 30,000 foot view of all the aligned pieces that we want to continue to grow. >> I actually did have one more question I forgot. So, these categories that are that make up these letter grades, um, is there any way to get a description of what they're
061actually measuring? >> Yeah, there's, um, >> attendance, test scores, all that, all that types of stuff. >> There's a there's a technical manual that describes all of the indicators and all the categories. And, um, I actually know someone on the A throughF technical advisory state board committee. That's a committee I happen to be on. So, it's something I've been on for the past 10 years where we make recommendations to the state board and the the committee is very diverse and you have different folks on the committee. So sometimes my opinion the state board doesn't always agree with I don't know but uh I know but um you know we have some good state board members we have some good committee members and it's something I feel like I can talk about in depth with and
062that's why I'm excited to meet with our data committee um or our data chairs tomorrow to start to work on that because I'm I I know my way around the af decently. I'm super encouraged and I'm glad we're going to involve more local our teachers that are in the classroom, our administrators. They're the ones that are in the trenches. They're the ones that know how to make the changes. They'll make the changes because they're professional. >> Yep. Have a lot of confidence here. >> I do too. We got good people. And so, kind of move out to the doom and gloom. Now, here's the good news. Uh we just want to take a second to congratulate our fall sports teams. And I think they did a really good job this fall. And you know, I'm
063I'm very encouraged with the students and the coaches and we want to uh wish good luck to our winter sports who's starting to kick off and um and move across. Also, we wanted to mention United Way. Um I was able to meet with United Way a couple weeks ago. Um they have a project that they um do they've done for the past few years and Miss Butler can talk about it too and Mr. Grace could probably talk about, but they come in and they offer it to students who are going to be kindergarteners at Blige and they give them some kindergarten readiness skills and they bring them in and I know Miss Butler was raving about it and they're really excited where they pretty much sponsor it and take care of it and they just
064use our facilities and some of our neighboring communities have wanted to tap into the program and they've said no that our relationships with Blige so I feel very fortunate that we have that and it's a really cool program and so that's something that they do to support us as an outside business partner. And they're actually extending it. They're going to invite 20 freshmen. Um they have a leadership academy and they're going to scholarship our kids to go go to that. And United Way is looking to um develop some more of these programs in our community to support our kids. And so that's been a good relationship. So I'm excited for that. And then donorsech.org. Already this year, we've raised over $14,000 where people outside have funded projects for our teachers where they put projects online.
065They want to do a science project or different cool projects. And since 2012, our teachers have had over $253,000 in projects funded through donor choose.org. There have been 288 projects that have been funded. And interestingly enough, 23% of funding has come from outside of the state where sometimes it's a relative who lives outside of the state. But then sometimes there's corporations who will just pick up um some of the projects online. They'll see them, they think it's really cool. And like Bank of America or you know, I know the NFL when they had the Super Bowl in town, they picked up, you know, like a hundred projects statewide. And so there's different organizations that do that, but it's something our teachers have tapped into. So, um, I appreciate them trying to be resourceful and and
066good at that. So, that's that concludes my superintendent report. I tried to end on a positive note. >> Thanks, I >> Very well done. Thank you. Appreciate that. Um, next item on the agenda is a call to the public. Anybody that would like to address the board, we invite you to do so right now. Keep your comments to about three minutes and and uh keep them in regards to u the school, not uh individuals in the school district. Open that now. Going going gone. Oh, come on up. We >> Yeah, there's a form at the back. There's a form at the back and and uh we need you to sign your name and everything. Give it to Mary Ford so we know who you are. So you can go into the public record for eternity.
067>> Oh, right now. >> No, before you leave tonight. Before you before you leave tonight. >> But you can tell us who you are and why you're here. >> Okay. All right. I'm Sada Chednoff. I'm a hydrogeeologist and I'm an executive director at a nonprofit, the American Groundwater Trust. So, just a comment. I got to do STEM takeover a couple of weeks ago, K through six for a whole week and I cannot say enough good things about our teachers. Um, I will also comment that I hope in the future we can continue with these smaller, you know, teacher to student ratio. It was fantastic when I got the fourth graders in there and I was only handling 20 versus 30 to 35 in the sixth and fifth grade. But I really appreciate y'all letting me
068come in. I also did seventh grade. Um, this year we're starting to plan the project wet water festival. We held it last year. This is a program for fourth graders. We have a number of entities that fully fund this to bring all of the fourth grade students from the White Mountain region to Mountain Meadows for a day of learning about all things um, hydrarology, watershed, water cycle, storm water. So, we have that scheduled April 30th. We'll start fundraising for that next year. um as the project wet water festival. Another thing we did with that last year was we trained 24 eighth grade students to come out and volunteer for the festival and Mr. Vanaten and I will start that in the new year. We bring them in for science in a slice. Um so I
069hope next year we can um give all of our teachers raises and keep those class sizes small and get those grades improved. And now we'll move over to the giving tree. Yes. Um so I am Jenny uh Holloway with uh president of the PTSO and Sada is working um is also with the PTSO and we have um annually always worked on a project called the giving tree. Um, in the past it's always kind of stayed um just within the elementary school and this year we have decided to rally the community and um and expand this into a district-wide project. And so we just wanted to share this. We are going to be placing some uh donor trees throughout the community. Um, so they'll be at our various local businesses, um, at the chamber, uh, various
070coffee shops in the district office, um, at all the schools, and we will also have a QR code on our Facebook page and, um, in case anybody wants to just give us a good oldfashioned, uh, donation um, to put towards any of the fulfillments that we will be doing. But the giving tree is basically um just we've asked for um just kind of likes um from each of the staff. So it took a little bit of an undertaking um to kind of reach out to everybody within the district. Um, so most everybody has responded and given us um answer to our survey and then we try to just give just a thank you um just kind of a recognizing we appreciate we appreciate you. So it's just something to spread some good oldfashioned love appreciation
071um from the PTSO >> and those will be going up Friday and Saturday for three weeks. So, please announcing the building. >> Yes. Tell all of your friends to pick a tag and bring some joy to a teacher >> or faculty me or just a a staff member. So, >> we'll be announcing all of the locations. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Now, you're on the record for eternity. >> Thank you very much. Anybody else like to address the board? Not. Next item on the agenda is uh is a evaluation and review of our superintendent Jonathan Roloff and we will be going into executive session. So I would like a motion to go into executive session for this portion. Have a motion to do that. Have a motion from Michael, a second. A second from Margaret. We
072will adjourn in here to this little classroom behind us or a gathering room right behind us and it'll be private and