001so may I have a motion for adoption of the agenda yep we have a motion a second for adoption of agenda as presented any discussion we're ready to vote so we are ready for school highlights and I see dr. Anderson thank you our senior of the month comes from Topeka West we have our awesome principal mr. Dustin that will come up share a little bit about our senior of the month and let our senior the month comes up we'll want them to share just a little bit about themselves and their plans for the future mr. do I have to represent with me tonight achievement people West for the last three years he's a senior this year she's been part of Chargers friends for life the time she's meant to be questioned they're part of the
002math club in Spanish club she's a cheerleader JV and varsity this year she's in our leadership Studies program she works in the coffee shop for the last couple of years we open our coffee shop but she's an excellent trainer to train me one evening to help in the basketball game so I can make the Frappuccino now and do all those things she had work outside of school she's a pretty busy young lady and she has taken many dual credit courses with Martin she's been with us and I think probably she will end up with the most college credits next year she plans to go to Washburn I believe she wants to be a nurse [Applause] I am Tori okay I want to express that I've been I've really enjoyed my future computer such people in
003high school I feel that while in Topeka West I've signed how many opportunities and been very involved my favorite things to participate in are definitely cheer and living in the coffee shop they've made me more outgoing and I've made lots of friends after I graduate in May I'll attend Washburn University where I've been accepted with all 2018 I'll enter with the 29 credit hours that I have obtained through the concurrent credit from they're heading west and I plan to major in nursing after college I went to work as a nurse in an ER or as a traveling nurse and after giving experience that way Allen pursue a degree as a nurse partition [Applause] any questions dr. McCarthy so two questions for you I always ask people if there's well certainly if they're saying they in
004the audience with you that you'd like to introduce who's here it is for you and do you have any favorite teachers or stories about Topeka West and I'm also interested in hearing what it has been like for you to take the concurrent credit courses and how that's worked for you my two favorite teachers right now my history teacher from last year mr. Perry he's been awesome and really a role model for me and my English teacher mr. Daniels I prefer him this year so I help out that way I mean the classes have been I think they have helped me and the transitional period from high school to college and have they been difficult to manage with the rest of your schedule or as it worked pretty well I think that worked I think it's
005been pretty easy to put into my schedule because there I mean pretty regular classes that I can just get the credit for taking thank you very much and good luck to you mr. woods Thank You mr. president welcome we're really excited to hear about what you're gonna do and all that you've accomplished already quick question I was gonna ask you how did you decide you wanted to become a nurse it seems like you're on a pretty direct I know a lot of people change their major anything which is would be okay I just was curious if you how you interacted with your counselors or because you've been taking enough classes why you had a major decisions earlier I still have a lot of runway your schedule we'd only piggyback on that did you have a
006role model and a medical fashion or nursing profession [Music] great we old people will meet you so any other questions congratulations [Applause] we also want to move a transition to talking about our commended scholars at this time what miss Morrissey are awesome principal form Topeka high school come forward and we will leave it to her to share a little bit about what the commitments dollars what that is and who our students are is Morsy good evening president worsens members of the board dr. Anderson it's always a pleasure to get to present to you but it is a special pleasure when it is students that I'm getting to introduce the commitment scholars are part of the National Merit Scholarship Program and it obviously means they're very smart tested very well and they've made it through that
007first wave of students that are recognized for how well they're done on their testing so it is my honor to present two commended scholars to you tonight the first one is that they either good to see you or the paper so for the favor my first time to read this evening is Jada Gardner and although she is still connected to ths Jada has been attending the camp's program and Fort Hays State University I'll get this right it's the Kansas Academy for science and math and she has been there I've ironically never met the young ladies at all so when I came in tonight I've also not met long so I had to look around for somebody that might be mom from the picture of her as a sophomore and I found while she is here
008to give him another please this is Gloria Gloria Danner to accept this this evening for Janice that she is at Fort Hays doing her college work interestingly she had a four point one for weighted GPA as a sophomore when she left us in a perfect 4.0 unweighted because I didn't know her I asked her teachers about her there were many wonderful and very consistent things that came up such as she's extremely quiet was buried to herself especially when she first came as a freshman over time they said she joined the world and she shared her talents with them she was very hardworking and very intelligent she's part of the band was very good at math that had a very analytical eye she was a natural science that she knew and knew how to collect a
009data and do lots of that before she would draw conclusions not a surprise she's in the camps program interestingly in spite of her very quiet nature whatever teachers stated that although she was shy she was extremely clever and very witty these comments certainly make me very curious about who she is today after two years of Jorge state I imagine we would be thrilled but not surprised to see who she's become and I hear she's come out of her shell she has thoroughly enjoyed being involved with other students who are also passionate about the same things as she is so it is my honor to present commended scholar Jada Gartner in absentia there her mother Gloria [Applause] [Music] even the Bible all just a big sister somewhere and so and it's a very any little child
010and that just kind of carried through and and I'm pretty quick shoes can be worn in school so and she went through the gifted program through Bishop which was great so we were kind of looking for something similar to that in high school and we were across the campus programs and she accepted and two braids well tougher on me as soon as she left the house two years early mainly uh I guess what are the immediate plans well immediate she's already decided to go on it committing the county over the summer she came home and one of the professors out there she did it you know she brought the pecan congratulations - thank you [Applause] our second Trudgen honoree tonight is an ambush myth amber has a 4.14 weighted GPA and has been a four-year
011member of our golf team classroom teachers agree that she is highly intelligent and has a very scientific mind I see a common theme here she has clicked to put ideas and concepts together she her four challenges and very excited about learning MS Pat's our shared that even after she had finished ap physics she continued to stop by to discuss things like black design gravitational waves and the curvature of space-time have with the teacher her questions were so well thought out the student that Miss dancer said she couldn't even come up with an answer teachers are gracious of delight to have in the classroom she makes teaching a joy to exemplify her focus on academics she passed up the opportunity to miss two days of school and participate in a golf tournament because she couldn't miss
012miss Sigler's AP living class I'm also told by missing out mr. Nelsen her golf coach that she loves dolphins mr. Yu makes said she's an and a girl and I said what's in the end of girl he said well she's an academia and an athlete and the musician I got to introduce to you several weeks ago the other member of the national choir miss amber Schmidt was the first named student from T high to the national choir she's a member of our band her goals and she is our student director this year so it is my privilege to - you miss amber Smith daughter of Tami and shun who are here in the audience went there as our second commitment scholar so any questions what do you want to do once you get out of
013high school I am going to a liberal arts college yet to be determined I am considering going into music education well of course you can use your physics wave sound waves etc and I share your interest in black holes and fine science theory as well as well I bet you can use those those skills right here - in Topeka public schools I mentioned we have a [Music] okay congratulations and now at this time we will transition into talking about our September attendance award it's very heavy and the award winner at this time and every for those that don't know that the schools compete across the district and their highest attendance it was pretty hard zones one hundred percent ninety seven point eight three percent so ninety eight percent attendance for the school one of our
014largest schools it is Scott duel [Applause] [Music] board members mr. woods hi Lena so you're in fourth grade okay you're in Vienna Alena we may encase - uh - classic Abuelita okay asunto ela Mathematica to associate la [Music] that the teachers are awesome [Applause] [Music] really with all of us and then also their attendants team behind the scenes work making sure our secretary and without the both set of losing your tendons teeth your parents and students and it I'll be washing start with our very first picture with our four members or members can we transition if you're ready to take our photos students ericksontv that one that one who's miss Ethel Edwards and Edwards let me read this to you before I know you've heard it before so each page will be limited to one
015appearance not to exceed three minutes in duration comments but would be limited to accumulate over 30 each patron must state their name address for the record in the topic they wish to address and may not there further times another patron Public Communication shall be respectful failure to observe the requirements of this policy may result in loss of privilege to address the board in the event the board believes that the normal flow of business is being unnecessarily delayed it may waive the participation of a majority vote allegations are complaints against individual employees are not allowed in an open meeting these must be presented in writing to the superintendent and must be signed by the individual organizations many contents allegation are complaints against superintendent and not allowed in an open public meeting that must be presented in
016writing to the president or the Board of Education good evening first thank you for serving on the Board of Education it is oftentimes a thankless job my name is Ethel Edwards I live at 36 34 southwest Spring Creek Court I'm retired having been an elementary school librarian for 12 of my 39 years in public education several years ago Mike Nash at Nash's husband and a retired physical education and teen topics teacher at Shawnee Heights High School recommended that I read 13 reasons why and I did if you had not had the opportunity to read the book I recommend it if not a brief synopsis 13 reasons why is a young adult novel written in 2007 by Jay Asher it is a story of a young high school student as she descends into despair brought on
017my betrayal and bullying ending with her suicide she details the 13 reasons why in an audio diary which was mailed to a friend after her death it highlights the fact that words and deeds impact lives clay returns home from school one day after Hannah's suicide and the tapes arrived the first tape is about how Hannah and Justin kissed in the park once he tells his friends that more happened in the park than a kiss earning her the reputation of the next person Alex publishes the hot-or-not list and awards Hannah the title of best ass which reinforces her reputation as a on another tape Courtney tell us about the sex toys non-existent by the way that she says she finds in Hannah's bedroom continuing to further Hannah's reputation as a on one of the last tapes
018Hannah tells the counselor she was raped and asks for help he basically tells her that if she is unwilling to press charges against the boy she should just try to move on after clay finishes listening to the tapes he sends them on as the novel ends clay reaches out to a classmate who thinks who he thinks may be considering suicide from a reader referencing Paul Rangel in his book how banning books marginalized his children and I quote keeping books about certain types of children or experiences out of libraries are putting them on separate shelves perpetuates a troubling vision of a sheltered American childhood that in fact has rarely existed and from another reader this book changed my life Thirteen's the reasons why is so much more than just a suicide book the gripping storytelling Ryan
019motion dark themes blended together perfectly to create a shocking tale that was heartbreaking to read Hanna slow descent the depression was so difficult to read I cannot believe the cruelty of some people thank you Jay Asher their book has truly changed my life in more ways than I could ever Express besides receiving numerous awards 13 reasons why I was on the New York Times bestseller list for over 250 weeks now the point of this not one TPS high school took advantage of this opportunity to hear mr. Asher talk about how he came to write this book and the writing process how he was rejected twelve times before it was accepted and published how the original ending differed how it had been translated into over 30 languages and how the covers differ in each of those
020countries I did a print attendance presentation last week with Jim my husband as did students and teachers from seaman high school and st. Mary's high school they had an experience they will remember and share thank you for listening and again thank you for serving on the Board of Education okay we are now ready for a disposition of business by consent mr. president I move the board approve the items of business by consent as presented and authorized the board president or superintendent to sign the special project and purchasing contracts or on behalf of the board we have a second miss Johnson say any discussion ready to vote so we come down to the superintendent's report the first item on this under the superintendent's update the first item is fundraising and we would like to pull the
021ECAC president ask him to come up to me to talk about the DC AC study topic of fundraising we do have some college and career readiness updates and a new language update but we'll start off with our DC AC president to share with the topic of study is good evening thank you Mike my name is Daniel vote and I'm serving as the 2017 2018 DC AC president this year as you can see up on the screen we've got the topic this year of fundraising and solicitation in schools obviously this is a topic that touches just about anyone who attends or knows someone in the school whether it's a student or just even someone who works there there's an incredibly broad variety of fundraising that goes on and it's also very different at the the different
022levels of school elementary middle school and high school we see a lot of PTA fundraising also actual building fundraising there's outside organizations like nonprofit organizations that come in or are invited in to to have you know students to take things home with as well as you know any number of things that are that are sold and that that's just at the elementary level and we've seen that you know we've begun our subcommittee meetings and so we've seen you know and then we started a lot of different perspectives at high school we've got all the different booster clubs and all the different booster organizations rather and the clothes that all have different needs and have to raise money so we're starting with you know very broad we're looking at you know we're serving that information collecting
023stage currently looking at policies that currently exist in this district and externally both you know county state and potentially beyond and just looking again if there exists some best practices so again this is just the beginning but that's just any questions dr. McCartney Morecambe and I just say this is terrific I don't think I've ever seen this question before investigated by DC AC has there so so this is this will be new information for us and it's a member of the policy committee and I really welcome that then to see if there are any changes we need to make to better suit the students in schools one thing that we've noticed was that the the longer Apollo's current district policy was from 2010 and a lot of things have changed just in that time you
024know a lot of external pressures and so we're just looking to you know again see if there's anything we can change and report back and see if there so yeah and of course the whole online presence - now with the GoFundMe and sites like that I'll be really looking forward to hearing your results thank you thank you very much thank you our next item is on the topic of dual language Miss Anita curry it's coming forward to share briefly a little update about where we are with new language and recent visitors to the district thank you thank you for the time tonight I'm glad to be up here sharing my passions with you about the district I'll start by sharing with you that Scott dual language magnet school was selected to be an international Spanish
025Academy and this was due to their academic excellence in Spanish so they have two representatives come from the Spanish Embassy to visit the school and the student council took them on a tour of the school the whole tour and all the question/answer periods were all in Spanish by the students if you want more details there's pictures and some details on Facebook but some of the benefits are that it includes a teacher visiting program and online Spanish library networking with other new language guys throughout the world and Spanish lessons next thing I want to talk about is our visit from dr. Richard Gomez dr. Gomez is one of the founding fathers of the Gomez and Gomez dual language enrichment program which has been practicing throughout the country for about 22 years and it's had amazing results
026and so first we hadn't come back from September September 27th and 28th and what he did was first we did classroom visits together to kind of form a baseline of where we are right now in relation to professional development and Hounds transferring actually into classroom practice and then that night we have aired meaning that dr. Anderson helped us facilitate if dr. Gomez facilitated and it was just an informational and some slide show about some of the work he does and the results and then there was kind of a question-and-answer period with dr. Anderson talked a little bit about how we're going to start working on figuring out what high school we want the program to be and starting some focus groups and that kind of thing and on September 28th we had a whole one
027whole full day of professional development it was based on the observations that dr. Gomez and I made in the classrooms on the 27th and then we had an administrative meeting to come in debrief and discuss on that and then dr. Gomez came back just this week he was here Monday and Tuesday October 16th and 17th and we've got so much done that I'm gonna I know I try not to ever read on these presentations about unfortu so the first thing we did was we reviewed and discussed the district strategic action plan and the five pillars and have a dual language program fits into that and how it contributes to those plans and then we just discussed important considerations for the high school Dual Language Program and some of those considerations include considering our Dual Language
028Program as a newcomer program for newcomer students who have very low English skills also we discussed the financial and quality implications if we provide busing or don't put enrollment caps on the program things to consider when picking a location let's see whether the implications of having more than one location for instance it would be great to have it at more than one location so that people in different parts of Topeka have an easier community but then again that puts a stress on the HR department to try to staff to programs let's see offering advanced Spanish with AP tests to receive college credit forming partnership with University provide college credit at no cost II said in tech throughout Texas they have a program where they have formed partnerships with universities there and they offer everything for
029the students to leave high school with associate's degree not having to pay any tuition so they start they leave high school they start as juniors in college but of course they attend the college where they got those original credits and that would be some kind of rustle of intimacy we can offer to our students and also one thing he really impressed upon us was that the critical makeit or break-it for a dual language program from pre-k through high school and especially high school he said the three major breaking people are your building principal HR department and the school counselor so those were a lot of really lots of insightful information for me then the next day we conducted classroom walkthroughs to calibrate dr. Gomez's environmental and instructional checklist and it was simply to calibrate it
030wasn't evaluate it was just for all of us it was all of the dual image principals all the instructional coaches from the dual language programs dr. Gomez and myself and we went to six different classrooms of God and we took this checklist that he has habits for the rural environment and have to explore instructional practices and so first we did the environment and then we did instructional practices and then we went out in the hall talked about we calibrated to see how close we were to what his I his definition of ideal is so we really walked away knowing what we should see and what that checklist means but that was just a calibration then we debrief with all three dual language leadership teams leadership teams dr. Gomez and I went to each school and
031met with the whole entire leadership team to talk about what we saw and what we felt like needed to happen and we created a new language accountability plan with timelines and all of the leadership teams and principals agreed with they helped us create that plan and they all agree that's are going good idea so what we're going to do on a rotating basis is the dual language principals two assistant principals to instructional coaches and I are going to be going to every single do the language classroom in this district once every two weeks from now until January 3rd dr. Gomez comes back and we're going to be focusing on the environment part of his check made sure that was done truly well and truly with fidelity and then after that he'll come let's see okay
032yeah so the goal of which is to be utilizing those aspects we want them to be utilizing with passion rigor and fidelity so then on January 3rd it's a district-wide PD day dr. Lewis is going to come back and join us for that whole day and he's going to offer the next phase of professional development which is instructional it's called the the lesson plan cycle and which is really a it's a great system really we talked a lot about it but the whole day will be for all Elementary and Secondary dual language staff and administration that can come and then on January 4th dr. gomez and I will do classroom walkthroughs again and utilizing that official Gomez checklist and this time it won't get calibration will be actually going in there and utilizing that checklist
033to see are they really doing this with fidelity and then the evening of January 4th dr. Gomez will join you all here for a board meeting to present to you and answer any questions you have more members do you have any questions for mr. curry as you remember in our strategic plan we put dr. Gomez is helping us roll out the strategic plan and that's really our main resource mr. woods thank you thank you for the very comprehensive even though still a very brief presentation quick question on kind of the next step was the secondary piece what are we thinking when regarding honestly well the timing we talked that before selecting the iTunes right now method and then of course the scaffolding around it building the program right the focus groups sign-up sheet went out
034this today or yesterday we sent that out so as people sign up for the focus groups for each one of the strategic plans that group that's the first thing we'll talk about in terms of early next semester determining potentially the two high schools or the one high school that we select and that'll be the group that that plans that will you be joining that group mr. woods at the grade the the email yeah so it's really just RSVP and Sam like focus groups so then for board members as you look at those goals those five goals if there's a particular goal you feel strongly about then just let us know or mr. Krueger and we'll let you know when the focus groups are meeting on that particular goal but early next semester is when we
035would want that decision made by an opportunity January February meeting early that semester by that focus group okay any other questions or miss Kurt I noticed too when I read more docs today there was something on there about wanting to get informational changes from Kay's to e I've been answering the questions on that I wasn't sure exactly what one more question I guess my problem this may be even more so but now that we are going and we actually have a formula in a place with weighting is based on student ID imagine that we will see a revenue for our language programs with teachers if we can find a way to help teachers get their endorsement that don't have it I mean we've received the whitening this year too right now the auditors come in
036November and they'll let us know our DLL numbers are going down so we will get affected by that which that's like the first time I'm in yeah so their weather passing through faster it's easier to pass the Kelvin now I went to one year turnover two years in a row usually dark want our students to go to monitor status but you should get maybe get maybe 30 or 40 in this year 110 past anemometers which is successful that's good that's a great job thank you at this time the other update is from both our supervisor for counselors was also the assistant principal at Topeka West and mr. kis director of assessment miss Nichols is the supervisor for counselor since we did just talk about dual language I'm Miss Nichols can you share briefly where we
037are with the by literacy seals she's leading that committee and then we'll go straight into the college and career-readiness some updates she'd like to give and mr. Kemp we'll take it from there good evening so I actually going to meet with Miss coked mom to start drafting policy to add the literacy seal to our graduation closes post we sat down and talked the other day about requirements and how we're gonna facilitate all of that in the school level so now it's just getting it in the book getting everything ready so we hope to have that January in policy and gives you kind of the goal so the show before the policy committee event right we're going to meet tomorrow to just you know outline some rough ideas and that that will come to the policy
038committee and we're hoping that in two or three policy committee so I'm doing policy stuff I'm just showing up I'm not excited [Music] okay so the other things that I want to talk about were the fast food Commission events that we've been working on and we held an informational meeting late September to get ready for that October first opening of the application that was not as well attended as we hoped however the completion event was very well attended I think we had about 200 people about 50 applications completed so so that went really well we had some follow-up completion events at each school last night during conferences you know we got some folks then at Topeka West last night and that was the kid more people today who shared back FAFSA completion information with us
039so we'll continue to get that and we kind of talked about some things that they can also provide that are helpful as far as when kids go to verification and how we can support our students I don't through that process because that can be a little bit stressful anything about fast whether you guys are curious about or you was there um a probe in the spanish-language version I'm sorry that's gonna add about how that way and we did it on so Wednesday night we held the one at Washburn and then Thursday night at Quentin Heights folks Tonya Bingham and actually her counselor speaker West who is a bilingual admissions rep from Emporia State for the last few years they really kind of took that on and got a lot of folks through the application answered
040some questions about what status that you know students need to have and parents need to have to be able to complete the application that is a really kind of dicey thing and uncomfortable as you can imagine for some family so we held they they did that quit in Heights they had some legal counsel involved so we try to provide some resources we also had some bilingual college reps attend so they could talk to students about admissions and tried to kind of make it a one-stop shop for those families in a place that was comfortable for them so I think we'll do some follow-up stuff obviously the application opens in October and we want to get people going but sometimes people aren't quite ready yet so we have some conversation about some follow up events both
041the Quentin Heights we have some stuff scheduled at Washburn and then we'll do more in our buildings too so we did that was new this year some things for I think it was pretty well attended not everybody got so with the update on the FAFSA miss Nichols is going to stand by as we talk about graduation rates so if you have questions about college and career readiness between the two of them on myself or will answer those pieces now the new structure that we're really provided for you is that under superintendent's update a strategic plan update is being given so every meeting something on that one of those five goals will be given as the update for the superintendent with that we're going to go straight on into graduation rates these are still preliminary numbers
042but they can only go up from here as students who have moved may have graduated tract where some of those students are if they didn't ask for records yet or they haven't told us that they graduated it's really checking social media and other kinds of ways to try to find them so there's still some unresolved students so the rape may continue to go up but mr. Kipp you want to take it from here thank you good evening yeah I want to talk about our [Music] we've been doing a lot I mean instead of team effort to try to reach out my operation [Music] so so unhappy say as of now our district for year eight to seventy six point six that's how almost two percent [Music] so [Music] to see a jump for instance all
043the beautiful thing is all the high schools have graduation rate increases the average graduation rates year's highest and free lunches that is free reduces impurity so you speak of increases it's refreshing to see that we are [Music] she's honored with that question that woman was passed he said too soon [Music] which is a good thing because it was too yeah I mean they use the shower a long time graduation to reflect until here a draft now we would like to see that's how to know the five years different started and have too many left as a senior they're gonna try to touch our back to every single kid so I said so this middle slip the talking to one of the different last year that's a pretty big jump over the years for three years
044and then in the last year they introduced my eternal to say or we need every student every school and this year is was utilizing it which documented completely actually in the questions from only change in terms of when you can share what's on that sheet so you know rather very slowly it's everything from did you go back school do you have a career plan or college community your application to play college sports [Music] cool [Music] see what is beyond you know but it's college whether it's career but making sure that students have a vision beyond high school so they are so I think is I hope this picture that hurt Toby students find the places of us and so my mind did they get a degree that they know after two years or three years
045or where did you know how did that work out for them so hopefully if you see some of us we know who did this [Music] by the trauma training those counselors the feet I saw PDS his instructors they actually maybe that confidence I would definitely agree that [Music] other than us [Music] see students [Music] it's [Music] our five-year rate is at 91 103 percent probably the part of both of those [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I they started you [Music] but [Music] anybody visited that would be our survivorship [Music] but just to I'm always you're [Music] here's some horseshoes you know clashes [Music] I mentioned it already but I want the recipe to hear about them yeah we do and I started thinking about all the things that's we put on the boards but 10 years for
046you and like Janelle and less than 11 years for okay then recipe became on a little later but all that we have accomplished I think administrators [Music] my come on City Arts when everything was falling apart financially and we said no we have to move through that's some way to do so I'm just just but every time you go through place you learn something right beside them public schools [Music] anyway they were able to do they they brought together the leaders the shakers of lures if you will of the community because they have to our kids [Music] very good only one thing that him to be he said his director and he's had trouble getting new hires that no he did that person who's in charge feels see the other thing I do is just
047give a shout-out to our thank you to the elements for your discussion the book forcing I just Wednesday he knows that major Vegas plan they have they have to business the business [Music] doesn't great job of nursery business partnerships lots of recognition you