001[Music] is now 7 o' the board is back into Open Session Kathy are there any public comments there do any board members have any changes to the agenda no see if there are none uh Mr gats sorry it's a unique set uping the other side of the room um good evening everybody uh we're just coming back from spring break uh and getting students situated back into the buildings uh students in third through fifth grade started I testing this week so um certainly that's something we want to get finish as quickly as we can and get back to the business as usual but something we have to take care of every year um after school today at Central uh the artists and residents that's starting next week um Erica Ranna and her painter were here and
002they bring and prepping the wall where we're going to be putting uh a very sizable mural in the main hallway here at Central uh that's been the opportunity has been afforded to us uh due to the central PTO so I definitely want to thank them for for helping make that happen every student's going to have an opportunity to participate in creating that mural um during their art class this coming week so over the course of the next couple weeks we see um um the mural start to take shape um and then also today after school we had the first of two days of a auditions for the central talent show it's not an audition to be part of it just to make sure you put something kind of thought about it a little bit ahead
003of time put some some organization and creativity to it but we're looking forward to to that um that talent show in a couple of weeks and then later this month we have all the District Band course and Orchestra concerts there's a lot going on in April uh really excited to to see all these things happen so thanks everybody thank you [Music] thanks I think I got a little head up myself you do not have superintendent report today correct this because it's committee the hall so yeah we are now into committee reports Mr baradi so uh let um so there's a few things on here know we got a presentation but just to sort of talk about the Salt Creek Valley Transportation I know um Jim put up together a memo here um I don't know
004if he wants to talk about it but Jim do you want to they're so far away but the the short the long and the short is that we're still having trouble finding reliable and permanent transportation for the sporting events we don't have enough business that right I guess I was wondering so is the message of this memo essentially we're going to continue doing the thing with parents is that yes yeah yeah that's all all we have right now and we've just agreed to keep you all up to date I know it's not not the preferred method but also having a bus company that's unreliable is not the preferred method so we're we're in a bind here Barrett yeah well I think the parents are much more reliable as you said and definitely having kids who
005missed events and were late to events for best company mess ups If the parents are willing and I appreciate that they are um you know that that's probably the best TR to continue maybe get a larger fan base there too well April and Christof shared that you know parents I think we had one parent Express concern they they thought we were maybe doing it as a way to save money which really is not a way to save money it's really our best most reliable option and but I think many parents do enjoy it they're going to the games anyway happy to take a small group of kids and so we yeah absolutely Dan your points well thank we very much appreciate it still very much remember the Pet Parade I forget what year but the
006Pet Parade where the bus company never showed up at all and so you had a bunch of people ready to march in a big parade and just couldn't go Martha do you know how big our largest teams are that need to be shuttled I would think soccer's our largest team again just making a good guess so it would I don't know that we ever fill a full-size bus but getting the smaller buses is equally as problematic I was more gauging like how many parents are we do we have oh I got you you can certainly find out for everybody and so and then I'm going to turn it over to Don because we've got a a technology Road B so thank you Mr you're welcome good evening um it's kind of that time of year
007again for the uh technology road map um the presentation may look a little familiar it's uh just been updated it's the last one but be easy to follow that way um going to be covering the same areas that we traditionally talked about kind of talk about different environments in terms of where our resources are connectivity and infrastructure um our our premise Network Hardware that we have here our devices Safety and Security and then our web and social media presence um so the first area just covering the our environments local premise hybrid Cloud she supposed to be on Zoom she's she's there she's there Sor so um just to kind of summarize what you know what what all this is is really saying here in our different environments is the vast majority of our resources are
008in the cloud um and that Trend will likely continue and that even some of the things that uh we currently run in a virtual environment technically in the cloud on an Azure server like our um uh Access Control Systems and actually over at Hower their intercop system that as we move to different systems those will really truly be purely cloud-based and those virtual environments will go away um and so but doing so it obviously also means that we're we're very dependent on our internet connectivity um but with the the critical systems that we have out there they are are all being they're being backed up in our different environments and and really it's more of a uh protection from some type of uh cyber security type EV event uh but in the event of of
009anything like that we do have everything in our critical systems backed up so this is really just a summary of the things that we've completed uh uh which uh were things that were you know on schedule to complete uh again we we've just been moving stuff off off site uh like our phone system is currently in the cloud now uh uh and then as we're looking to move our like our security cameras that will be a cloudbased system our Access Control uh while technically it is in cloud in the sense that we don't have it on a local server it'll be truly out of our environment uh completely uh once a new solution is selected and the same thing with the intercom system as far as connectivity and infrastructure um as as planned we doubled
010our internet bandwidth uh for our primary uh services this year um so we did move from uh from Comcast as being our provider to uh AT&T through the Illinois Century Network now what Illinois centry network is is a state funded um entity so what ends up happening is the state picks up part of it through e rank the FED picks up the other part and we essentially have zero we are paying zero dollars for that internet connect for our primary internet connectivity what we did add and we do pay for is a 500 Meg fail over backup through Comcast so that in the event that our mean uh connectivity goes down it automatically kicks over to um our redundant system um also within this uh I just also added that in our in our data
011closets we do have about 10 to 15 hours of backup power in our data closets just through uh uh um uninterrupted power supplies UPS's uh we're in the process of replacing those it's it's been about five years batteries start to fail and we'll we're doing some this year and and uh budgeting more for next year so do we have much equipment that needs to be backed up there any it's all well backed up or power not backed up I'm sorry for power up it's really just our switches which then also Powers our wireless access points and any other Poe devices that we have our phones and so forth so in the event of an outage even if even if we lose power what that ensures is that we have wireless most people are using battery
012operated devices so they you know they can go as long as their battery can go on their device but phones remain up and wireless connectivity remains up so those systems all so even if the power is out again prevent depending on the timing of the outage so if the outage happened right after school one day and and it persisted through the morning of the next day then we might be running into more a Critic issue with with with being able to maintain that power and you need all that power to run the locally present security stuff that's on Poe right it's it's all that it's all that switch Hardware the switches and the routers that you know connect to schools and then also connect us to our internet connection to our internet service providers so
013that's that's really primarily what we have on prems now we're essentially purely switches and routers uh and then the poe devices that that power off of those which are primarily phones and uh wireless access points so in talking about that premise Network Hardware um the switch Hardware is due to be cycled in a fiscal year uh 30 okay um now some expansion might be required uh as we add additional IP based systems Okay so the chances are the intercom system is going to be IP based so then we have to look at if additional ports are needed possibly need switches a lot of the new systems they they come with kind of these intermittent switches that are maybe put in hallways that connect to so so it's not actually anything in our data closet but
014there there are switches that are just part of the system but if there were other switches that need to be in our data data closets because of some type of expansion or use of um IP based products then you could see some some some need to expand like the number of ports that we have available the uh the wireless network um is scheduled for replacement this summer and it's on the agenda to talk a little bit more about after this and we'll get more detail there our devices uh and classroom Tech um this is an area where as with a lot of the areas that we purchase uh in Tech we don't have a flat cycle you know it is it we have Peaks and troughs in terms of what our needs are relative to
015purchasing because items can be on a a a fiveyear 7ear a depending on the the type of equipment it's a different different purchasing cycle so we have these different Cycles running but we do have some purchasing some larger Cycles coming up in 27 and 28 uh we have uh at our elementary schools the Chromebook Replacements those are on a fiveyear fiveyear cycle but we staggered them as half of the elementaries one of the so Central and Hollywood are one year the first year and then the second year were Ames and ble so they were were split and stagger that way um also our classroom a our projectors they're getting to that seven-year eight-year-old Mark which is when we traditionally have looked to well that's when things start to fail now we do annual preventative maintenance
016on on this equipment so where we change the filters which does help to prolong the life so it's very rare that we we we very aware that we have had any level of a failure of a device occasionally a lamp goes out but these the last ones we had did last about eight years nine years before we before we replace them but these are things that are going to be coming up on the horizon in the next in the next three years um but with this and also with our staff devices we have again have kind of a uh a peak in terms of when some staff devices are coming up for replacement that are kind of out of the norm where it's it's in that cycle yeah have we go from replacing 30 50
01760 devices to then like 150 it's just a again it's just a it's just how our purchasing Cycles run traditionally um but I have been in communication with the business office and Jim and and Maha and just letting them know in terms of forecasting that these things are coming down the PIP in terms of Safety and Security um you know we continue to use onsite and offside content filtering for students um there is a need to review and update our Internet safety curriculum so so that is something that is probably more near term in the next next year or so and then uh as you know the upcoming security projects are very likely to require uh a structured cabling project which that's currently out with the engineers right now and we hope to have some
018more information on that in in the coming weeks and then finally uh our web and social media presence um we launched the website and a companion app uh this year uh feedback thus far has been positive um and uh you know things are just really be status quo on that it it is more integrated with our social media so I think overall from a community standpoint I think it's we're in a good position there and that is it any questions so I was wondering so it sounds like eate came up a few times given things is there any issues with everything that I'm hearing is that it will continue now the the question has always been r r kind of runs in fiveyear cycles in which they get approval for for five years what has
019typically changed is well well what is now allowable as uh for uh for some level of a subsidy it used to be that our like used to be phone service was qualified V that went away and then the heavy Focus was on you know internet and uh your network infrastructure um I don't see that going away because there there's s there are areas that are still so highly dependent on those resources to maintain that connectivity in their schools and libraries where I see maybe them shifting some dollars is um towards uh cyber security uh and services at that level but it's still TBD so shifting money towards those Services yes because that is now like that becomes a vulnerability for for for all organizations but that is also an area where um you know uh
020K12 is not necessarily I mean the primary focus isn't on you know I mean it's always a focus but it's not like we don't staff a cyber security it's usually you know it's largely consulted it's how you how you design or structure your infrastructure don't want to get too much into that yes it's uh I I just see that that could be a direction that it goes but that's just you know that's directors talking to each other but also from what you said we've got so much that's cloud-based and being hosted by such large organizations that we benefit from that right definitely I mean because it's not yet we don't but we still have for instance what would be a vulnerability would be like our our Google environment now that could be um if if
021there's some level of a uh um you know ransomware malware but that is also why we have those systems backed up it you know we those are systems that we pay for to have it backed up so you know could it be that e rate will then cover part of those costs to make sure that your your position so that in the event something happens you can get up and running fairly quickly and that you know your your uh data is protected MH so you you mentioned that we have a failover for a Comcast line where as we're doing the AT&T line for primary we had to use failover anytime recently um anytime we do it's like for a few minutes yeah the so far the a you know the AT&T connectivity has been you
022know pretty uh pretty stable um you know but it's something that you know it's it's it's our insurance policy that if if we had any amount of time and really it is I me we did some testing with it where um it didn't even interrupt the the the the failover process didn't interrupt the phone call and in some instances it did but some instances it didn't so it's fairly you know depending on how you know uh uh I'm not sure what the variable that that where we didn't even lose connectivity but uh but it's it's pretty quick so typically it's going to be something that is pretty transparent to the end user that it actually occurred um but in some instances they make it a drop call that I think that would be the biggest
023thing maybe a page if they're loading a page at that time maybe it takes a second longer but uh drop call would probably be the only indicator of a fil so one point I didn't see in the presentation that was anything about um what any preparations for AI or any kind of additional needs coming down the pike or we have some things that are you know I think it's going to come out of more of the Ed committee okay but we I Know Myself Angela and and Chris harval have been working with with some teachers to come up with some guidelines and uh we kind of have a little we kind of a AI group not not not a formal committee but we're we're you know developing some guidance and then also looking to identify
024uh what add what resources might be uh needed in future so okay you thank you thanks thank you than another one [Music] we need an introduction just go into it again so this is yeah I mean I I Jo I don't know but it this you had presented some of this before the this here I thought you or not this but the next one I did when we purchased it like eight years ago Oh I thought you I thought you had discussed we I dis we did discuss it in the last time I presented this that that it was coming that because the last time I presented this it it was technically last fiscal year but it was like a year and a half because it was uh I think it was fall of uh
025of 23 okay so it was more towards the beginning of the fiscal year whereas now this is more the end so it's been like a year and a half but it was brought up then at that time that it was coming down the pipe and so now it's here so um what uh the information that was presented it's a project that's currently planned for for this coming summer it's partially subsidized by the federal eate program and was vetted under those programs requirements originally it was presented in August of 2023 um as part of the FY 24 Tech road map uh the project replaces equipment originally installed in 2017 so we had got some good good life out of the equipment for the the wireless access points it does bring our wireless network uh up to
026current Wi-Fi 6 Wireless standards uh the solution encompasses the hardware software implementation services and five years of product maintenance and support um there were a total of four responses to the request for proposal through eate of the four proposals two of the responses were for our our incumbent provider which is uh Cisco moroi wireless networks we had one for Ruben networks and one for Ruckus um proposals were evaluated and scored based on four criteria we did price which through eate price always has to be the uh the one with that's most weighted understanding of the district's needs prior experience and continuity interoperability with our existing infrastructure um So based on that we are recommending continuing on with uh Cisco maroi it's it's worked well for us um no need to uh at least make a
027change at this point um the project cost uh post e- rate rebates will be about $117,000 uh that's after the discounts through e uh the project details were reviewed with the finance committee in March and also with the incoming director of Technology um and we'll be seeking board approval um at the next meeting uh to move forward with it so you you mentioned that we currently have Isco moroi I guess it's not the lowest cost on this list I didn't know what what was it just the the fact that we have the Cisco moroi Hardware we're familiar with it does that weigh outweigh the others we're we're What's um we're what you kind of call a full stack moroi environment in that we're kind of end to end on our Network so it's one PL
028pain a glass of management not that you can't have different systems for but we also you know I talked to Martha about it talked to Molly about it it's a transitional period uh like do we want to make a change uh at this point in time um again it's we've it's treated us well in the sense that we we've gotten a lot of years out of it um their their product support and uh you know and with all our equipment when we've had like we did have unbeknownst to you know really the people accept I think more but we had for we had a failure we had a failure of one of our Network switches at Hollywood um about a month month and a ago um it happened at about 7:30 at night and we
029were were here till about 1: in the morning just moving things off of that switch to so that come morning everything was up and running and again very transparent to the end users they didn't know that that anything had gone down and the device was here within 24 hours and then we had new equipment up and so again when you there's a level of security and confidence uh with uh with the product and it's and it's also very easy to configure and manage uh so that's just some some big positives to it t how many pizzas were consumed that night zero zero wow impress no actually and Charles was there too was there too he's like wishing he'd had the pizza it's like you're holding didn't know it was an option any other questions you're
030none see none thank you thank you all right and I know uh Marlo is on Zoom Marlo I'm happy to jump in I believe next one is education committee right I'm sorry I'm not don't mean to in front of you that's okay oh that's okay um I was going to say kick it to Angela who's going to give an update on um our two new curriculum we've had the amplify CK and mystery science as well as an update on the World Cafe that the um fifth through e8th graders uh participated in all right thank you Marlo uh good evening everybody so as Marlo said I'm going to give a brief update on amplify CK the implementation of our uh new language Arts resource amplify core knowledge language arts and also an update on M A
031Brief update on Mystery Science our new science curricul um so these are the things I'll talk about just a overview a brief overview of the amplify ccla program the impact it's had on student learning using student growth data the impact on student learning using student Reflections as well as staff Reflections and then our next steps for CCL Alo give an overview of Mystery Science and the impact again on of Mystery Science and student learning given student Reflections and staff the impact of Mystery Science on staff instruction giving staff Reflections so starting with amplify ccla amplify cka is a tier one curriculum which means that it's a curriculum that we're working to shore up and have a strong curriculum for all students if you think about the mtss model with tier one tier 2 tier three
032services tier one is for everybody and so the theory behind amplify ccla is that if you have a strong tier one resource less students will need tier 2 and tier three support and that's the basis of this program it's a dual strand model which is different than most language arts curricular resources most language artarts curricular resources have um have literature whether it's uh informational text or it's uh fiction based text that they use and then incorporate different skills when teaching those texts with amplify CK it's a deliberate at dual strand model where there is deliberate systemic instruction on foundational skills there's a process as well as a um a path for those foundational skills that are being taught from kindergarten through second grade and then integrated into the instruction in third through fifth grade and
033then there's the content-rich knowledge strand which builds from grade level to grade level so for instance um kindergarteners will learn about the five senses uh in their one of their CA domains and then in first grade they'll learn about uh nutrition and then in a subsequent grade they learn about the human body systems and so it continues to go on and builds on what they learned previously cpla is dedicated um has a dedicated Focus to listening comprehension our primary grades which is um a change in instructional mindset for many teachers usually you would see with most curricular resources Primary students who have books in hand read all the time from a from some type of book whether it's a textbook a basil or a novel they're reading from that book but the focus on listening
034comprehension with CK is done because students can comprehend at a higher level when listening rather than when trying to decode so by focusing on listening comprehension our Primary students are exposed to higher vocabulary higher content knowledge and the primary grades without getting caught on the decoding of words in those areas there's still books in hand when they're using decodables to practice their skill based knowledge and they're still responding to text with those decodables but for listening comprehension skills for comprehension skills at the primary grade level a lot of it is done with the teacher or with the text reading the story to the kids with a picture card shown while they're reading it and kids answering questions based on what's being read to them writing tasks are integrated in both strands for both skills and
035knowledge so again kids are responding to what they're reading but there's also writing built into those skills lessons that they're learning um they're focused on Phonics and phic awareness so when looking at how we're doing with growth we as you know assess students in the fall the winter and the spring and in first and well first KY and through fifth grade we assess using fast Bridge um and then in second through 8th grade but for this purpose second through fifth grade we assess students using math so what you see here is this first slide primary student growth and what it looks at is kindergarten first and second grade growth and for kindergarten first grade what I looked at was students growth for fast Bridge early reading testing because they don't do map Reading and then
036what I looked at was second grade map testing and you see the percentage of students in kindergarten first and second grade who are above grade level at grade level below grade level and then well below grade level and what that translates to in mtss is our tier three would be well below grade level our students receiving tier 2 Services would be below grade level and are at grade level and above grade level are tier one students the blue and red bars show our data from um last school year when we were still using ready jet the yellow and green bars show our data from this year using CK for the first part of this year from our fall benchmarking to our winter benchmarking so what you can see here is when you look at that
037above grade level piece for the yellow and green bars from the fall of this year to the winter of this year with CK we've had the largest amount of growth in all the areas in all the years and that has a lot about foundational skills learning that's happening in our primary grade levels right now specifically at our kindergarten grade level where that percentage in the fall was 86% of our students being at or above grade level and in the winter becoming 90% of our students being at or above grade level so 90% of our kindergarteners are at or above grade level and when you compare that to the year before with ready Jen um at the winter term 8 4% of our kindergarteners were at our below grade level at that point so 90% using
038CK 84% when we were using ready gen so just a comparison there for you so it's really showing that the foundational skills are being taught and it's making a difference at that primary level you can also see that the um well below grade level decreased from the fall 24 to the winter 25 and the below grade level increase but that's going to happen when you're tier three students are moving out of tier three they're going to move usually to tier two and then to tier one so you would expect a slight increase at tier two if you're seeing a decrease at tier three um with looking at intermediate student growth you don't see the same type of growth happening at the intermediate level part of that though is because these are the students who are
039jumping into a program in the middle of that programming so those kindergarteners now who have 90% ad above grade level when as they progress through the program in subsequent years their student growth is going to continue to grow because they've been in the program from ground one like from the first part in kindergarten but these third fourth and fifth graders are jumping in right now and some of the material is more complex for them some of the material is new material for them because they didn't have those previous years of the knowledge building because they're just guarding it for the first time this year some of their decoding may not be where it would be if they had been in the program the whole time because we didn't have a systemic a systematic um instructional
040practice for teaching phonics in previous years with ready Jen we were doing many different things um but now we're all doing the same thing with the same steps and that wasn't happening across the district previously with ready Jen because ready Jen didn't have a solid phonic program um we also now with ccla teach more grammar and morphology which is um word structure looking at prefixes suffixes root words and so forth and that's something that wasn't happening before so these are all things that the kids who are starting in their primary years of Freddy Jen when they get to the intermediate years they're going to have that knowledge when they get there but our current third fourth and fifth graders are just ploted into this program and so they're working off of their previous knowledge which
041came from a different programs so you're not going to see the same type of growth in this beginning of the implementation of CA that you see at the prime AR level I asked our staff to just send me Reflections on how has cpla impacted their instruction and um I won't read I have six of them here three on this slide three on the next slide I won't read them to you because you are all very capable of reading um but I will summarize that not just these six but most of the staff members who responded the things that have come up are um some staff members it's very time intensive everyone agrees it's time intensive it is takes a lot of time to plan for instruction um but you will have some staff members who
042feel that that's been hard for them and possibly a negative for them the amount of time it takes to plan and then there are some who have said like this has really helped me be more focused on my instruction and use my time better so I I feel that a lot of that is based on it's a new program it's a new style it's a new mindset and so changes always hard and also if you don't know exactly how to use all the pieces of a resource it takes more time to do it so as we continue through the program in subsequent years it's going to get better um and I'll continue to work with the staff and reflect with the staff on if it is getting better and how I can continue to support
043them um other things I've come up are appreciating just the structure with phonic instruction appreciating the structure with morphology lessons appreciating um that there are writing assignments on daily there are some staff members who don't feel there's enough writing so that's something that I'll address in our next steps um and there are staff members who have acknowledged that the text complexity is higher and the questions on assessments are harder and that's what we want we want a high rigorous curriculum um and it's our job then to help our students and support our students in being able to meet that that bar so these are the um other three of the six staff reflections just give you a second oh and then another concern and a valid concern is that CK is um 120 it's supposed
044to be 120 Minutes of instruction kindergarten through third grade and 90 minutes at Fourth through fifth grade and our teachers do feel that 120 Minutes 2 hours is a long time for students to sit for instruction and they get bored not bored necessarily well some of them said bored when you see that in the next slide but they do um it's hard keep kids engaged for two hours and I mean we all know that it is hard to keep kids engaged for two hours it would be hard for us to sit for two hours and listen to someone teach to us or talk to us and so um in talking with the principales and looking at scheduling we're looking at how can we break up those 120 minutes so that it doesn't feel it's not
045two straight hours or it doesn't feel like it's this long block are we breaking up with specials are we breaking it up with a recess is it breaking up with lunch but how are we still having the 120 Minutes at primary but giving it chunking it so that it's not feeling like it's a long intensive time of English language arts instruction here are things that different students said about c um the good and you know some of them feel it's boring that's what I was saying some feel it's boring um boring because they already know it or it's um like there's one student says their least favorite because they need help with it right so um but a lot of kids who like the content who you you'll see um kindergarteners at the time that
046they were asked the kindergartens across the district were learning about the farm or about farms and so a lot of kindergarten comments were about liking pigs and liking that they learn ducks quack and they like to learn about Farms um older kids um have talked about that they've likeed different content you see a third grade student there like the Roman unit and the light and sound unit so the kids enjoy the topics um but the like I said the text complexity is harder and the questions are hard and so we want to continue to work on that with our kids too so our next steps given the student growth data given the staff Reflections given the student Reflections right now primary instruction should be 120 Minutes that's how you should be able to do it
047this year we did primary um Everybody K through 5 was only 90 minutes of instruction and what our primary teachers and the instructional coaches have said is that it's just it's too hard to get through everything you you can't and they were feeling that they weren't going to cover everything and that was causing a lot of stress for them so we're looking at the uh principales and I are looking at how can we increase instruction to 120 minutes but like I said blocking it so it's scheduled throughout the day it's not a straight 120 minutes but how are we blocking it so that it's not too long for both teachers and students we're also looking at alignment of Assessments um including removing fontis and panel we're not going to have that assessment um as part
048of one of our benchmarking assessments because it doesn't fit with the amplify philosophy so we're going to remove that and then we're also looking at what assessments does amplify have us doing at the beginning middle and end of the year that fast bridge is also doing at the beginning middle end of the year and what can we remove so that we're not having that overlap because we also know that we do have a lot of different assessments and so we want to figure out how can we take some of those out um we're going to have continued professional development on writing instruction with both uh CCL consultant as well as our instructional coaches and we're going to have continued professional development on meeting um our higher students needs from our instructional coaches and then next
049year we're going to do what's called learning Labs where we'll have a teacher similar to for those have been around with mcmi when we worked with the mcmi consultants for math we would have um one teacher teach a math lesson while half the grade level watch that teacher with the mcmi consultant and then we'd go back and be brief and talk about what we saw what worked what didn't work suggestions from the consultant from the team about improvements we can make or things we could do differently we're going to do that same structure with ccla and so working with the CK consultant we'll have teachers observing other teachers in our district teach and then come back and debrief about what's working where do we need assistance the coach the consultant will help us with that
050place that we need assistance and working to um have that actual one-on-one or that group Dialogue on how we can continue to improve our instruction in CA um so now I'm going to move on to Mystery Science but before I do do you have any CA questions okay so the mystery science is our other new crcular resource it's an inquiry based science curriculum which means that it's based on um having students answer some type of question it's aligned to the Next Generation science standards and the key features are that it has an anchor phenomena and a real world connection so for instance um one grade level might have a starting point of how are volcanoes formed and that's what the whole unit is going to be on is learning about how volcanoes are formed there's
051a three-part lesson structure where it starts with a video um or it starts with a question then a video then the lesson and there's also extensions to that lesson if uh teachers want to partake in that there's Hands-On learning in each unit um so that students are able to work with different materials um whether it's pieces of paper or it's sand or it's um sugar cubes I know there was a lesson where one of the grade levels were shaking sugar cubes to simulate erosion so there are different types of Hands-On learning that go with each of the units as well and one of the big things is the ease of use knowing that we were implementing a huge reading curricular resource this year we knew that we did not want to implement a huge science
052Resource as well so it's that this is a very easy uh uh resource for teachers to utilize and plan with and our teachers have thought that to you can see the second reflection is that it's easy to use and requires minimal preparation our teachers like the mini lessons because it allows classes to learn cool things it is engaging includes a lot of real life examples and videos um also really appreciate that it provides all the materials in Spanish so everything that's in English is also in Spanish so it's make it makes it accessible for our Spanish speaking students and they're able to participate fully in what's happening with the lessons and one of our teachers had said and I really like this that every lesson is a mystery where they use science to figure out
053the answers to that mystery and then just a few uh Reflections from students and you can see there're all the positive Reflections that they're really enjoying it um talk about maybe specific lessons that they've done but just that they really enjoy the Hands-On pieces and the projects that they're learning as well and so that's the curricular update any questions on that area does the CK klaa have any Spanish component to it it does so um our El teachers use they have a a separate um series called Caminos so they use Caminos to teach um our TBI and TV programs with tvi it's more supplemental to what's happening in the classroom um with TV it's a separate Spanish language arts curriculum and then they also have access to the English language arts curriculum too thank you
054yeah the intermediate student growth in the C with the c program I you sort of downplayed the um the like growth that we've seen there but it does seem like there's some students at grade level or above grade level are higher than what they were last night there definitely is growth and I didn't mean to downplay it um just yeah I just when I was talking to principles about it and Talking Tom Marlo I did point it out I don't know why I didn't tonight but yes there is still growth you're absolutely right and you can see that at grade level is um at an above grade level still shows growth compared to before we were using ctla you can see that again we decreased at well below grade level and also decreased at below
055grade level because of the growth you see at grade level so yes thank you for pointing that out there is there is still growth with the intermediate level too good I think it's seems really encouraging it is and I know that once we continue to get used to the lessons get used to the unit get used to the program that um it's just going to continue to show positive outcomes and everybody I talk to who's in your two or year three of implementation does say it gets easier from that first year even um you know Aaron DWI who's going to be our Hollywood principal her current school's in their second year and during her interview she even said it gets better trust me it gets better so um yeah just looking forward to when we
056get over that pump of of the the implementation of that first year and we think a curriculum is generally supportable for four or five years at least and we've we've had these discussions multiple times but I thank you yes yep and you want to give it that long just because of how long it takes to get used to the curriculum well and that's you wouldn't want to start switching it in year three once people are starting to fill and that's kind of why I'm asking so I mean once you've learned it and this seems to be so good that if there's a way to extend it with whatever resources they provide it might be worth it right yep right so then we'll talk about World Cafe all right so the um what we'll talk about
057with World Cafe was the purpose for worldy Cafe how it was structured who participated and then what the data has told us so far as well as our next steps the purpose of Ro Cafe was to gather student insight into to their experiences and perspectives and so what we did to do that is we had a free flowing dialogue and response to three questions and by free flowing that means the facilitator who was a staff member with a group of anywhere between five to 10 students would give the kids a question and the kids were able to just say their answers and give their answers and so some staff members typed for btim what kids said and some staff members um paraphrased what kids said but we got the general idea of every group was
058saying um as feedback and then analyze that data we did fifth through eighth grade students so fifth graders at all four elementary schools and then we did sixth seventh and eighth grade every grade level was had about an hour and they were divided into smaller groups so we at the junior high we took about an hour with sixth graders divided up into small groups of 5 to 10 students with one facilitator at the group asking the questions and kids giving their answers and the facilitators typing the answers in um the three questions we asked everybody F fifth through eighth grade every group got the same three questions what do you like most about your school what do you wish were different about your school then in what ways does your school do a good job
059in making you feel safe and welcome and also it should have said what in what ways could we do a better job of making you feel safe and welcome and then the third question is what is something you would like us to know and they spent it actually not an hour it's was about 45 minutes because they spent about 10 minutes on each of those questions so everybody was to participate um if those numbers do not match attendance it's because someone was probably absent on that day but we had um we adjusted we didn't adjust we had groups for Spanish our Spanish speaking students were led by our El teachers students who might have had special education accommodations and needed like more processing time or might need visuals or something we ensured that they had
060those resources as well um but then all the other groups were random groups of students put together um and you can see that when we were finished we had 760 students who participated fifth or eighth grade and out of those S those 760 kids were divided into 91 different groups so when we analyzed the data for fifth grade what are fifth graders like most um they have positive feelings towards the welcoming and kind nature of teachers and staff they feel that they have a positive learning environment they enjoy the availability of various activities such as lunch recess Sports and clubs um they will also say that they wish there were more Sports and clubs and longer lunch and recess but they do enjoy it they appreciate the effort that the efforts they see of making
061the school environment safe and secure and then what students wish were different um they wish that there is a change in the structure and content of the school day and that change in structure for fifth graders is just that they wish Ela wasn't so long they wish that there was more science they wish recess and lunch were longer um and they wish that there was more social studies also they wish there were better playground facilities um and we dug into that because we wanted to know like which schools were saying that um and surprisingly it was uh Ames and Central that said that and it's things like um that they wish there was it rust on the playground and I guess one of the playgrounds temp R Us the spinner at Central is fun but
062they're worried that it might be a little bit dangerous if you fall off so it was things like that that came up with better playground facilities um they wish there were more comfortable learning spaces and by that they were talking about flexible seating so wishing they had more wobble chairs or cushions to sit on or the reclining pillow things there in some of the rooms um fairness with access to Green Space and playground equipment there are rotations at different schools on who can use the fields or who can use the playground and so um you know at one school the foot the kids who play football get a certain part of the green area and the kids who play soccer get another area and the soccer kids feel it's too muddy and they don't think
063it's fair and the girls feel the boys always get this the green fields at one school but the girls always get the muddy area and they don't feel that's fair and then I know at one school um the younger kids get the playground but the older kids get the the field space and so the older kids are like we want the playground too um and the younger kids get the playground but they can also go to the field space and they're like well if we can't have the playground they shouldn't be on the field so that's like the fairness piece um and all the schools have their individual pieces their individual data so they're going to be able to look at this and they're going to be able to work with their leadership teams at
064their buildings to talk about these very things um to figure out how to better act uh better allocate those spaces so that people feel that it's more Fair um and then they're looking for consistent rule enforcement there's there were comments that they just feel some teachers enforce certain rules of certain people but maybe not with others and as a leadership team we talked about you know that might be happening but what they also might be seeing is um just their different expectations of different students and so they might be seeing a student that they feel is not getting a certain consequence that they feel they should get but it's what's appropriate for that kiddo so that was something that we talked about as a leadership team as well for fifth graders across all four schools
065they like the presence of safety patrols the locked doors our visitor protocols and that teachers and staff greet them by their name they would like to see an improve Supervision in certain areas like more people outside during lunch recess and certain spots they have some ideas on how we can revise our safety drills to be more effective um things like if we put blinds over the windows on the doors the doors that have Windows they like blinds on those um someone one had one group had said that they'd like ladders for second and third floor classrooms so that if there's a fire they can get out the window if they need to so they just offer different ideas for us to think about for safety drills um they'd like us to address bullying and you'll
066probably see bull you won't probably you'll see bullying throughout this presentation I want to point out that it's not bullying it's what kids call bullying but it's really social conflict so they feel that um we could better address social conflict uh they want to make sure sure all students feel included and supported some groups had talked about that they feel not all kids are welcomed into groups with friends um and then they're looking for more mental health support and that was something that we also dug into wondering what exactly that meant for uh fifth graders and it's also on the junior high one too more mental health support and what that is is um comments like I want to see a social worker but I don't get to or I've asked to see a psychi
067psych a psychologist or a social worker but I'm dismissed or I'm not I'm I'm not given that opportunity or a lot of people get to see a social worker but not everybody sees a social worker um we'd like a group for kids who have troubles like um who have experienced trouble like divorce or depression or they had named a whole bunch of different things and have some type of group that kids can sign up for but don't have to have their parents sign them up so there is a some need that our students are expressing fifth through eighth grade for more mental health support it doesn't necessarily need to be a social worker and that's something that as a leadership team we've been talking about like what could that look like we do have suggestions
068from the World Cafe data that does talk about different types of groups so is it some type of group or a lunch group or a social work group or a group that's headed by a trusted adult so that's something we're still discussing um we acknowledge that if the kids are saying it and what happens here these are things that were repeatedly said um so obviously this has come up repeatedly so it's something we want to make sure we're acknowledging and looking at how can we address and then they'd also like more opportunities for open communication and then things our fifth grade students want us to know that third question they have opinions on the learning environment from the temperature of the room to the availability of supplies they care about fairness they want more clubs
069and activities they would like better food they have specific suggestions for safety drills they want to feel heard and supported especially regarding bullying or social conflicts and mental health they value the efforts made to welcome students but they want to make sure it's extended to everybody and they want the adults to understand their perspectives so then at Hower students appreciate the friendly and fun teachers they enjoy the variety of classes and activities including Encore and clubs they appreciate the opportunity to socialize with their friends they like the food and they enjoy moving between classes um what they wish was different they'd like longer lunch periods and passing periods they wish there were breaks they would like less homework and they'd like less screen time and where that comes up or how that's mentioned is that
070they feel all of their work is done through most the majority of the work is done through schooly and on the computer and they're saying that they there were comments that they'd like to get back to using books they feel that um there are books in their room just collecting dust that's not true but that is what they feel um and so that's where that less screen time comes from they have a dissatisfaction with certain facilities at Hower um specifically the bathrooms and the locker rooms there were I think just about every group had comments about the locker rooms in the gym and the bathrooms um they also dislike the use of smart pass and I like what April May had said when we were talking about this as a leadership team she's like they
071dislike it because it's working um for those that don't know what smart pass is it is a way students sign out to be able to go to the bathroom or if they need to go to the office or something so if I'm sitting in my class and I need to go to the bathroom I ask can go to the bathroom yes she can I sign out but if there are a lot of kids out at that time a significant number smart pass is going to tell you you have to wait um or you have a certain amount of time and if you don't come back within that certain amount of time smart pass is going to let the staff know so the kids are upset because well maybe I need more than four minutes to
072go to the bathroom and you I was listening in on many of the groups and um someone had said like I need more time because I want to stop at my locker and get a drink and we're like well again that's the purpose of smart pass you're not supposed to be doing all that you were going to the bathroom so they don't like smart pass but it's because it's working um they also fill there some overcrowding and hallway traffic in terms of our safe and welcoming environment they appreciate the presence of friendly staff the locked doors safety drills the efforts by Administration and staff to create a welcoming environment and the availability of social workers and resources teachers at Hower how we can improve in their eyes increase supervision address bullying or social conflict in
073student Behavior improve cleanliness and condition of facilities they'd like more inclusivity and a greater emphasis on listening to student voice and what some of our junior high students would like us to know they have opinions on the use of Technology like Chromebooks andl uml they just they don't like EXL it's kind of like smart pass they don't like it um and that's their opinion and they would like us not to use it um but our data shows it's working so we're probably gonna keep it um and then with Chromebooks it's part of that's that technology of they feel they're on it a lot and then part of it is they feel that the Chromebooks work slow but to what Mr harval was saying when we were talking about um Royal Cafe and the data is
074that you know some of the kids who are complaining about Chromebooks are the same ones who don't take care of their Chromebooks so yes it's not working as effectively as you would like it to quit dropping it um while they like the food options they would like some better food options they want rules to be applied fairly and consistently they want more freedom and choices like being able to choose their seats wear hats and use their phones in the auditorium before school and they also would like more mental health support so what does all this mean and what are we going to do with all this we're going to explore the specifics aligned with our values and goals through conversations with our leadership teams so we've started discussions with the district leadership team we'll continue
075those discussions um we're looking at the values of equity and inclusion collaboration engagement specifically but also just how it fits into our other values with our strategic plan um and then our our building leaders will take it to their leadership teams to have further conversations with their individualized school data and then when we start to talk about our upcoming strategic planning because we know that this one is going to Sunset shortly um when we talk about an upcoming strategic plan this would be one of the data points to help it inform what we might address in that next strategic plan so thank you and are there any World Cafe questions what's LL is um a individualized math program at the junior high that we use so we have I ready that we use for math
076at the elementary levels um sixth and seventh graders use ISL and then eighth graders and the advanced math students use Alex which is another individualized math program so you mentioned that the there's a lot of uh a lot of mention in the survey from kids about bullying and you're saying that's more social conflict didn't know if you could elaborate a little more on that I can so bullying the technical definition of bullying is something that's severe and pervasive so something that is severe and happening over and over and over from the same person to the same person we don't have bullying that's happening regularly in our schools um but we do have what we know as social conflict which is where kids don't get along and kids are saying mean things and those are the
077things we're addressing or kids are doing mean things and those are the things that we're addressing but it's not bullying because it's not something that's happening repeatedly and severely to the same person by the same person and not to say that it never has I mean those are those that just bullying takes on a different definition than sort of the negative kid interactions both of which I believe our staff's really good at dealing with addressing so I had a question about the mental health support it seems to be another topic that was Universal I guess can you elaborate on what they what seems to be the what's I guess the driving force behind it is it like um like housing insecurity is it just social emotional issues is it from the comments from the groups
078it sounds like it's social emotional issues um and also some of the social conflict it sounds like it's um maybe not feeling included I know that one group said people like to hate me so it's it's just it's um we need someone to be able to talk to when we're feeling upset or down or when we're having a bad day so I think it's more the social emotional who can help me address these thoughts I'm having so is that in regards to next steps is that sort of falling under like how that might address like the future strategic plan is that what you're talking about or I guess I because I didn't see just because it was so preent throughout the I guess what are the next steps for that we are talking as a
079leadership team about what that might look like we've talked with the principles about how they might dig deeper into that talking to talking having different types of groups with students trying to figure out where that's coming from and then looking at how can we meet those needs it's not necessarily hiring more social workers or I mean if we need to that's something I know Martha and Nora are constantly watching and looking at um but besides that being an option being the solution how can we address the students mental needs um in ways that can be done by any staff member that you don't have to be a licensed social worker to address it so you know some of the kids talked about could we have different groups that might be able to have these discussions
080so it might be something like looking at certain support groups that are held during lunch or held after school or something like that um we don't have the answers yet it's something we're still discussing as a leadership team but looking at what the specific needs are and then who on our staff do we feel could could work with that in the buildings would you add anything to that no I I think you said it really well we had a really interesting conversation on the topic I mean it caught all of our all the members of the leadership team kakau our I what do kids mean where does it take that licensed clinical professional or is it like I need somebody to talk to when I'm mad or when I didn't get along with my friend
081or you know so it's it's really I think it's going to require some more sorting out um we've talked about taking this back to our building leadership teams we also have talked about somehow taking this back to kids you know um student council student leadership teams you know how do we take they gave us this really great feedback and and it's very real to them um some pieces I think are probably Universal about schools and areas that ways that we try to improve schools but um making good sense of it and and creating really actionable steps around it because I think it's it's very relevant there was a group called platypus a number of years ago is that still a thing that group doesn't exist that was like a after school kind of a book
082club right um I think with Katie small group discussion supportive in that sense there's a peer mentor group um there is a group um there's a student leadership group different schools have sort of student councils or student leadership clubs um actually that's one of the goals that family Community Partnerships had pointed out too is there a way that we could or should be aligning our student councils and I wonder if there's something in this information that there's an interesting way to revisit this with children you know they said they liked having their voices heard right and so we heard their voices now how do we do something with it too not just this was interesting but it's we're we're meant to do something with it right yeah all right so I'm sorry one one more
083question so you mentioned under next steps uh you're going to explore the specifics aligned and you mentioned equity and inclusion I didn't know what does that mean I guess some of the things that came up where students don't feel that everybody is included into whether it's friend groups or included in like some of those fairness pieces so just looking at we you know we have the values of equity inclusion collaboration engagement and so how do some of these things align with those values and where if anywhere do we need to look at how can we um better support in those areas okay all right thank you sorry I'm now messing up my next is you facility advisory it's facil sorry I have now managed to completely to share my agenda I just messed up my
084zooming on this document and it's so next is indeed the facilities um we discussed a number of items that you can see on the agenda and I have to apologize Don was mentioning the technology item in our last facilities advisory and that's where I was remembering it from um the grassy area at Ames continues to be a point of discussion there was uh some consideration about what we could do temporarily and any tempor fixes were going to cost as much as something permanent so that's more of a summer project um we had talked about the IGA and obviously that's been for the most part uh moved along to some good place um technology sorry I'm looking at both my notes and the agenda um like I said the blle park that's that's now in a
085different spot and we're working towards uh directing D to start thinking about a playground design um we have the summer projects that we know about and we voted on and actually a third of the discussion of the last facilities was the uh technology update um and there were some minor problems with the boiler at uh blle and that's been fixed it was a control unit and the summer projects just as a reminder include the grassy area at ases uh the boiler at Ames as well stck pointing here or sorry at Hower uh the roof at Hollywood and then the security and then our next meet meeting is in about two weeks so so for the as grassy area that's part of the newer playground area or what what's that's part of the newer playground area
086that it's towards the back of the play area when looking from the street and it was just a flat SED area and it doesn't have any drainage so it when it gets wet the kids beat it up and so the goal will be to provide additional drainage and then a kind of a wood chip surface that should get rid of the mug problem as well mhm other questions and then the next was the policy review cycle which uh Stephanie would have engaged in but as you know early on we talked about a I am just a regular reminder to this is really a reminder to review section five thanks you this document is completely destroyed on my computer might but it is review section five so this isn't a formal review or approval of new
087policies this is the the periodic overview reminder that that we all had agreed to yes and that ends our regular meeting do we still have personel is there any updates on no yeah no no personel updates can you go to the agenda here's any additional public comment do we have any additional public comment we do not all right is there still a willingness on the part of this group to go back into close oh sorry go ahead go into Clos session after um yeah for half an hour for no action afterwards yes yeah no I was going to get I'm getting the I'm taking the poll of is there still willing us to go into a Clos session yeah if we agreed on thumbs up thumbs down oh yeah thumbs up all right this board
088will go into Clos session after I say a couple more things there will be no action taken um that will be to go go into close session to discuss compensation and uh of one or more groups of people same reasons as I spoke about earlier today and our next group of meetings is April 16th regular business meeting that will be in Hower then May 7th that is the banal organizational meeting to induct the new members which includes a couple people here and Stephanie and the new gentleman and then May 21st is the next regular business meeting also in Hower and that ends our Open Session [Music]