001have this too. >> That's me. >> Just step away from the mic. >> I'm done. I guess you're not supposed to have >> him talk. Just yell to >> It's always >> Are we starting, Julie? >> Sorry, man. Sorry, Julie. >> You want me to sound like >> All right, >> I'm going to call the meeting to order. Uh, we have a couple of additions to the agenda. >> First, uh, in the consent agenda under resignation, Matt Dwarf for head uh, high school cross country and middle school head track coach. And then we're going to move uh a new business a to unfinished business a-1 parents as teachers blue ribbon certific certificate. >> Okay. So with that said, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Casey and Curtis moved and seconded
002to approve the agenda. All those in favor say I. I. opposed. All right. Now I need a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> So moved. Casey second. >> Casey and Ryan Shriogal. Moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. Recognitions. >> Yeah, we just finished up the fall sports season and we had a a banner year. We usually have good years. The years was ex this year's was exceptional, I believe. uh football team went 8 and zero through the uh regular season. And most people say O. You notice that when they say 8 and zero, they mean to say but they say oh is a letter. Don't join my coalition. Eight and zero. Uh lost the second round of the of the
003uh playoffs, but exceptionally nicely done for the football squad. Uh cross country. Uh the boys cross country team got fourth at state. Well well done. Bro Dennon was champion again. So that's not just passing out cherries. Good job. Uh and Jeb Stoppppel got 19th. So boys cross country did a nice job. And we had Miss Artery's daughter ran for the girls. On the volleyball side, second substate and had the best record in history in the history of volleyball for the um the Longhorns. So an exceptional fall season in the sports world, Mr. Jones. >> All right. Let's move to financials. And Mike Okay. On page three of the warrants down at the bottom, the only thing really to point out is High Plains Co-op um state aid flow through $148,25. So the warrants for this
004month $288,533.77. And yes, board, we choose to make that payment to High Plains >> because we because we have honor. Because we have honor. >> Um then page four, you notice um we we haven't gotten any title funds yet, but I think that's open for me to start getting that money this month. So, I'll be pulling money in for that. Um and then page five, our fund expense summary. We're still sitting about where we expect to be. And then uh page six is our transfers and then after that's our high school middle school reports. So if you have any questions >> I just have a request Mike just make every month like those expenses. >> Yeah that would be nice. >> Yeah. You take out the high plains assessment in the months was only 140.
005>> Take it out. >> Yeah. Just take >> everybody else in. >> All right. If there are no further questions, I'll entertain a motion to approve the financials at $288,533.77. >> So move second. >> Ryan and Curtis. It's been moved and seconded to approve the financials. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. Uh, no public patron administrative reports. Dr. Meyer. Yeah, I've got a couple four things to discuss with you tonight or present to you. Uh the uh we are in the final year of our four-year memorandum of agreement with the city of Hulcom with our school resource officer. Uh if you'll recall, uh the first two years we paid for that and then the second last two years the city has paid for that. Well, now it's done. Uh
006so I uh asked Andy to come see me, chief of police, and we had a a good meeting a week and a half ago. Uh I'm very much interested in keeping the position. you never set a policy in place with a person's name or face in mind. Uh so I'm very much interested in keeping the position in place, but this is a time where I'm very also very interested in keeping Jason in that position. So if something were to happen with Jason, I'd still want to keep the position. But uh if he's interested in being here, I'd really embrace the idea that he'd come along uh and be with us. Uh the beginning salvo of the negotiations on this is uh the city is would like us to pick up uh $34,000 worth of the
007salary year one and then you know moving forward with baked in for not more than or less at least less than 4% raise every year. Uh and then 11,0001 $11,000 onetime cost to buy radio. A radio that works in the high school. Oddly enough, I don't must be lined with lead or something. The high school uh drops off. It doesn't work with our current um radio system. So, that's the beginning of the negotiations. We've got a long way to go before we sleep. You're welcome, Mr. Peterson. Uh bring that one back out. Um I'm very, like I said, I'm very interested in that position and with Jason in it. So, uh negotiations are meant to be, you know, back and forth, back and forth. So, that's in the works. the SRO uh internal audit is
008a foot uh next week. McKenna and McKe, that's our internal auditor. You if you'll recall, that's a statutoily required um process that takes place. They'll come in for a week-l long uh exam, if you will. Uh they'll look at our business functions and it's a week long process. Mike, um Robin, uh Kisha, Quesa, they all do a banner, a bangup job. Uh we do a nice job on this, but good fences make good neighbors. And so we want to make sure we never have exceptions. Uh they do seem at times they're looking for something. Pick the gnat stuff out of pepper. Uh and they they will find something here and there. But you know when you think of the thousand literally thousands of pieces of data that they could look at. It's not unheard of
009for them to find something, but they do a fine job in eight years I've been here. They've done a fine job. Um Sam I I asked the um directors to produce for me as this is uh related to our strategic plan work but it's also just something we need to do anyway. Uh asked them for their rotation schedules and so in meeting with Sam uh he is very interested in us starting on the process of purchasing a new um route bus. Uh the law says the route buses when they come off the line, not how many years they've been used, but from the time they take them off the line, uh they can only be in service for 25 years. It's not the case with over the road buses, interestingly. Uh and so we have
010one getting ready to age out. Uh just in case you're curious, the cost of poker has gone up to $187,000 now to buy a 72 passenger bus. Uh the last time we bought a bus three or four years ago is like $113,000. So this is all pre, you know, that was back in the day before anything else has happened. Uh I mean pre-tariff, pre- whatever. Um so we're starting the process. I'm not I don't have this on your agenda tonight to do. Uh but I'm just letting you know that this is it's coming. >> January. >> Yeah. Be called the Matt Jones Memorial Bus is what this will be called. Uh you could be making that motion on the way out the door. Uh final thing to discuss with you. Uh the track. If you've
011not been up to the track of late, get up there. Uh the orange has been applied. It looks really really good. It looks really cool. Uh the orange, if you'll recall, that is the those are the exchange lanes. Uh the gray is coming this week. you know, depending on if the dam don't the damn don't break and the river don't rise. Uh the gray should be applied and the striping comes along fairly soon after that. The dead date on this, if you recall, is November 21st, my youngest son's birthday. I believe they'll meet the deadline. And so that is coming to a successful end. Mr. Jones, that's my report. Right. Thank you. All right. buildings and grounds, >> transportation, >> food services. Oh, you >> Sam, how old's like the rest of the fleet? Like
012what's it look like in coming years? How many buses in which years? >> We're trying to get on every other year where we buy a bus one year and next year we buy a car, bus, car. >> We're about where we got, you know, about 15 of each. And that's what I have on on my on my desk, Curtis, is after this one, it's three years from now is when one is aging out. But the frustration on this, the last time we bought a bus, if you'll recall, it was a year and a half for them to deliver it to us. It was ridiculous. And that was before any issues were taking place. This I don't know how it lined up with CO. I don't recall. >> Yeah. They said they've got it is a
013mess. Okay. Food services, Monica. >> Nothing further. >> Technology. >> Nothing further. >> All right. Let's move to the principles. And Amy, >> she gave you that look. She did. It was the look of death. >> Are you wanting me to wait on the PAT? >> Yes, that is on the agenda. >> Well, then I'll come up with something different. >> Okay. So last week was voting week and at WY Elementary we hold an election every year and it's um fun learning for the students and they enjoy it every year. Our teachers really embrace it. They require the students to come down with their lunch IDs and show their ID to check in. They have a ballot and a voting box that's private. So the students kind of learn all about that. And preschool voted
014on goldfish or Teddygrams. Teddygrams won, I think. Yes. Um, kindergarten voted on their favorite cookie, Frosted Sugar Cookie won. First grade voted on Skittles or Starburst, and Skittles won. And second grade read the book Duck for President, and voted on either Duck or Farmer Brown for president, or they um taught their students about ridein votes. And so some of them wrote in their teachers, but they didn't win. So, Farmer Brown won. So, that was fun for our kids every year. >> Thank you, Amy. >> You got nine votes, >> Randy. >> I would just like to um recognize and congratulate Debbie Tidwell for being a Crystal Apple finalist. Um the ceremony will be November 20th and we're really excited that she has been recognized for her hard work. She does so much with um introducing
015our kids to lots of different instruments. She incorporates a lot of movement into the things that she does. The day that they came in to let her know that she was a finalist, she had colored tape on the floor and the kids were jumping through them both going towards each other. But however she had taught them, they didn't run into each other, which was awesome. I think they were working on rhythm in some way. Um, so she just does a lot of cool things with the kids, and it's it's awesome that she's going to be recognized for that. Um, also I just would like to highlight that Amy and I were able to attend the KPA conference this past week. And while we got a lot of great information that I can tell you about,
016I do want you to know that we were able to meet the founder of Witchah, Jay Abla. And if you'd like to know more information about that, you can talk to Curtis or Amy, >> the founder of Witchah. So this Jay guy isund heard. >> Okay, >> that's what we heard. >> Is that a real name? This guy was our Uber driver >> and he told us this cockami story. >> I found a lot of stuff >> including he is the founder of Witchah. It was founded in wait 1860 or something like that. >> He didn't say that. >> Thank you Randy. Thank you. >> Thank you Randy. >> Randy. >> All right Dr. Hilton. >> Ablah. Is that what she said? >> Sound like somebody used to call my dog. >> Um, our community
017garage sale this Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 400 pm. Um, that is an example of our IPS at work. Uh, Mrs. Leonard is is heading it up, but it's actually her class. Uh, she does, um, hospitality and planning. Um, so the kids have helped organize the event. They'll be there to help run it on Saturday. Um, and they've put put to mind some ideas of what they want to do with those proceeds. Um, they've been looking at recess equipment. They want to plan a fun day for the spring. Of course, they have a plan A, B, and C based on how much they raise. Uh, but, uh, there's a the community really, um, poured out a lot of stuff for us. Um, it's awesome. I think there's over 200 just categories of things that Miss Leonard
018put together. It's it's a lot of stuff. it's going to fill up our cafeteria. Um, so that's really exciting. Uh, so great job to the kids and uh, hope the community will come out and support the event on Saturday 8 to 4. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, Jerry Johnson. November, I usually try to highlight our uh, fall sports activities. Uh, Dr. Myers kind of stole some thunder there. uh giving congratulations uh to some of the different people. One thing that um failed to mention is this is probably the first time I've been in Hulcom for about 20 years. First time that I can remember that um we've had so many teams win league. Uh boys cross country were league champions. Uh volleyball girls were league champions and tournament champions. Uh and then football
019was league champions too uh this year. So, out of the five possible league champions that we could have, uh, Hulcom won three of them. So, that's a very successful um, fall activity, which means that we're rolling into winter now with uh, come to the end. One of our favorite times or one of my favorite times is the play this coming Friday and Saturday. It's um, our kids do a great job. Mrs. Bullard does a really, really good job uh, getting people involved into it. Uh I think one of the leads this year is uh Mrs. Tribogal. Leila is going to be one of the leads along with um Josh Crouch. Um and so I don't remember what the name of the play. I the biggest question I always ask is it going to be funny
020or serious? And typically it's always funny and they do such a good really good job. And so this kind of marks the end. Uh we always do that during fall buffer week. This is fall buffer week. Uh which means that at the end of this week, winter sports practices start. uh come next Monday. And so um school is flying by. It feels like we just started and now we are about six weeks away from Christmas break if you can really think about that. So thank you Jerry for reminding us that Christmas is upon us. All right, let's move to unfinished business and A1 parents as teachers blue ribbon certificate. >> All righty. Um, I am extremely proud of um, Carrie Vanpelt and Amy Albbright and Dina Novak, her predecessor, uh, for getting the well getting
021the PAT program going and then just, you know, shephering it through and just doing it. Our PAT program, it stands for parents as teachers. Uh, my youngest, once again, he's 27, uh, went through PAT. It's been around a long time. Uh, and it's the whole idea is to help people with uh, kids. we talk about the womb to the tomb anymore, but uh prenatal through the age of five. Uh and there's just a the work that Carrie does is just so important uh to set um young parents up uh so as to set them up to for the kids to come into school. Um and you know, Net and I are educated folk and we tried to kill our three kids multiple times. Not on purpose. Not on purpose. Uh just because we're ignorant. Uh
022and then we finally with a third went through PAT programs. Thought oh that would be I wish we'd had that 10 years previous. Uh just a whole slew of different things that are that uh Carrie teach works with these young parents. Uh not telling them how to parent but just giving them good ideas on parenting and then get also setting up a quality relationship with the families and the school. So Amy, I'll let you go from there. I want to steal your thunder or her thunder. Okay. So, every five years um PAT has to go through um a QEIP process. That stands for um quality endorsement and improvement process. Why don't you come up here too? And um it's a lot of work. So, it's essentially an 81 question um thing, but it's not like
02381 multiple choice questions. It's each question requires page after page after page after page of detail. We also had to create a handbook for our program because they just wouldn't accept like our regular school handbook as the PAT handbook. lots of detail in there that doesn't necessarily um work for our program because we are a oneman show and it's ran a lot different than a lot of the PAT programs are but we still had to say what if so literally this entire process has just been on well if we had a program that was not a oneman program this is what we think we would do like lots of unnecessary things but It was also a really good process for us to go through because her and I met a lot and talked about a
024lot of different things and we did come up with some good ideas and Carrie does an awesome awesome job of running the program and always finding ways to help our families and how to get our young families involved within the school and the community. Um it's I'm just so proud of her because she's worked so hard. There's been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into this and a lot of times where I've had to talk her off the ledge and promise her that everything was going to be okay and we would just turn it in and whatever happens happens. And it wasn't going to be, you know, a huge deal if we didn't get it because our program has never been blue ribboned. And we know that that's not going to
025be what uh makes our program great. At the end of the day, she's the one that makes our program great. And >> absolutely, >> I'm so proud of her because we met at least 80%. You have to get at least 80% on this in order to be blue ribboned and she did it. So I'm so proud. Do you want to say anything? >> I just want to thank Dr. Myers and Amy because they were huge support. She did have to talk me off the ledge a lot. >> I cry a lot. >> In tears, emphasis on tears. >> Yes, definitely. But it was a learning curve and we did I mean I did learn some other things that we'd like to implement now and stuff. But I just want to thank everybody for supporting my
026program and hopefully it continues. >> Very exciting. >> Thank you, Carrie. And continue on all that good work. Like I've told her before, she truly is doing God's work. some of the uh stories of and once again Annette and I are war and we still are ignorant. People don't know what they don't know and so we just help people that's all. So >> so now that I'm an empty neester should I get involved with the princesses? >> No Matt Jones you should not. Thank you though. Uh yes >> it's an idea. >> All right let's move to state assessment presentation. >> All righty. Each year, as you well know, uh the we uh have state assessments are take place in the spring and this is a piece of the balance assessment uh program that we
027have in our district. We have a variety of different assessments that take place. Uh and this is the one it's a lagging indicator and the principles we'll start with Amy uh because you know it goes all the way up through even though the at the at WY it's more of a practice test but anyway they will walk through some assessment data for you. We're not where we want to be. We're not there yet. Uh but we are continuing our good efforts. A lot of good work is in place and it's sticking. It's starting to to come together and I do expect that over the next few years these lagging indicators will increase. Uh but we do have some bright spots and you'll see that you know and I'm sure the principles will highlight for you
028areas of growth for you. So with that all I'm up here a lot today. >> Yes, you are. >> I'm special. >> Get used to this, aren't we? >> Certificate. >> No. >> Blue ribbon. Yes. >> Already got that. >> We should order some. >> It doesn't mean much if you give yourself a blue ribbon >> from Bies. Have a trailer. Ice machine works. $30,000 machine. >> Yeah, pretty much. It came with a came with a wallpaper. Wallpaper. It's not help if we put the Jeopardy music on. I can give everybody a subject and they can talk amongst themselves. Break out the tree. Put match piece of paper that I caught on fire. >> There we go. >> Hey All right, we're back up. >> Hulcom Elementary and Hulcom Middle School state assessment data presentation.
029Sorry, Jerry, you have your own. >> Okay. So, for WY, we don't have your typical state assessment. So, I'm going to talk about some longitudinal fastbridge data. um Amanda Rucker, the reading um guru years ago, she shared some of our reading longitudinal data with us um this year because we saw some great growth over time. And sometimes it's hard to see when you just look at current year data um that you're making progress because you still see um such a low percentage sometimes and you're like, gosh, I just don't feel like we're getting anywhere. But when you take a look at over time, sometimes you see that we're making some smaller gains. So this isn't actual growth over a course of period. This is just fall testing. So this is when we first get them
030at the beginning beginning of the school year when they've had nothing. So when you look at kindergarten, you see that we are down 6% from um 2021. But that is they are literally coming to us. So we kind of have no control over how many actually attend preschool, how many attend preschool in Hulcom. You know, we don't really know where they're coming from when they come to us. So this number when we are at 62% this year, that's great because they're just coming to us. This is their first school experience and we are just starting the year without giving them any instruction. We are are we are seeing 62% of them um meeting that that benchmark standard. So that's good news. Um, in first grade, first grade is always a grade level that it's really
031hard to see your hard work put in place because our first grade numbers are always so much lower than any other grade level, especially when you look at it district-wide like we did when we were working with Tasin. First grade was always one of the lowest grade levels. And it's because from when they leave kindergarten knowing letters and sounds and barely reading a few words to leaving first grade, they have to be reading a whole lot. And so the amount of growth that they need to make in one grade level is tremendous and it's really hard, but we still see growth over there. So looking at growth data in first grade is good. But if you look at this, they we have made um 20% gains from when we were um first starting in 2021
032to now. So that number 49% may not look great, but again, it's they leave first grade or kindergarten and just have to know letters and sounds to reading site words at the very beginning of first grade with no instruction. So that's still really good progress there. And in second grade, we are showing 18% gains from um 2021 to now. So, and you see some dips in there, too. But I feel like this is a direct correlation, especially in first and second grade, with our new curriculum and our new resources that we're using because we're showing some tremendous gains there. This is our math longitudinal data. And we also have a new resource as of last year in math, too. So again, kindergarten we're down a little bit from 2021, but as you can see, we
033kind of, you know, we hover in the low 70s, which isn't terrible, especially since this is our first schooling opportunity for some of them. Um, first grade we are up 5% and um, second grade we're up 4%. So, and if you look at that, like second grade from 2022, we're way up. So again, and the light purple at the top is college pathways. So um we are seeing a bigger number in that area too. And this is like I said assessing on that grade level material before they're ever even taught that grade level material. So that's great. This is our second grade state assessment that we take. It's nothing like third grade assessment or anything that they take after they leave our building, but it is their first experience with the online state assessment portal
034and everything that goes with that. So, the three areas that we assess in are the blue is the foundational reading skills. Um, the red is literary text comprehension, so comprehending what they read. and and that's like in um the fictional stories and the yellowish is informational text comprehension. So the factual information that they read. Uh the bottom number is the total number of questions possible. So in our foundational reading skills, we're sitting pretty good. We're almost at 17 out of 19 correct as an average for the grade level. So, I'd say that's pretty good, which is the biggest chunk of our um teaching in WY Elementary is our basic foundational phonics reading skills. Then we are sitting almost at 6% or six out of eight on our literacy literary text comprehension and closer to a
035five out of eight on thatformational text comprehension. So those are definitely our areas of growth is the comprehension. And it makes sense because we're still learning how to read at this grade level. So when you're still kind of having to sound out the words, you tend to forget what you've read when you're really focused on learning to read the words still. So um one of our areas for improvement there. And then this slide just shows the change because we also took this SAT assessment the previous year. So, I wanted to kind of include some longitudinal data from that. So, in our foundational reading skills, um, from the two years that we've taken it, we increased 1% in the foundational reading skills. We increased 6% in that text comprehension. And I do think that has a
036direct correlation with our CKLA um curriculum that we're using because every single day they're reading in their decodable reader and they're talking about what they're reading and they're having to they're being held accountable for that and having to go back and we're, you know, teaching them how to go back in the reading to find the answer. And so they're able to do that themselves obviously too since we raised 6% there. And we did drop 1% in thatformational text comprehension. And a lot of that could be because we just didn't have the background knowledge on what the text was about. Thatformational text is a little bit harder to comprehend. And it does tend to have um some more complex wording with that too. But overall um pretty pretty uh impressed with how our students did on
037that. That's all I have for WY. Okay. Um, at Hulcom Elementary, I chose to start off with our state assessments. Uh, the state assessments were just recently renormed. I think I said that correctly, right? Okay. Um, so when you look at this, this is information that you can find um at our where you can find our report card information, but I did think that it was a great way to be able to look at um the performance at our level. So one of the things that I noticed is that in reorming the test um you can see that our students we had a decrease from 2024 to 2025 in our level one students uh 10% which is awesome. And if you look at the green and the blue that increased. So those are our level
0383es and our level fours that increased from 2024 to 2025. Also on this um you can also compare how we did with the state down here and you can see that we have fewer students in level one. Um, and if you go up here, you can see that we're pretty close to the state uh on our level fours and just a little bit under and then we're a little bit ahead on our level 3es. Um, so this is in ELA and would combine all third, fourth, and fifth grade. Okay, you can see the same thing when you look at our math. Um, now when we look here at our math, it's not quite as big of a difference, but still decreasing our level ones. Um, and increasing our level fours. So, that's pretty exciting. Our
039threes and fours increased here from last year. Also, if you take a look and compare, you can see we're below the state as far as our percent that are in level one. And we're right there close with the state on levels three and four. And our only grade level that does science is fifth grade. Um the biggest thing that you can see here is the decrease in level ones. Uh but we also did have a little decrease in our level fours, but three and four's total was greater. Um, and the biggest thing I notice here is just our we're a little behind in our level fours in science, but as far as if we combine our three and fours, we're real close there. Um, so that that would be our uh state assessment data. If
040we take a look at our fastbridge data, this is going to be similar to what Amy showed from WY. Um, and I know these are kind of small, but you can see here in the beginning we have our Hulcom Elementary data and I went back to precoid in 2019. That's our first set of data here and then I pulled I just picked five that I could three in the middle and then 2025. Um, so you can see Hulcom Elementary as a as a whole has increased 19%. Uh you can also see a decrease right here in this hot pink which is would be our um high-risk category. So that's pretty exciting. And this um sorry I should have started by saying this is our RCBM which is our reading fluency. Um just how kind of
041smoothly they can read, how quickly they can decode those words and read them accurately. Um, one of the most exciting pieces of data here is this third grade class. And I I believe this is our first class coming through that has had CKLA since kindergarten. I'm not exactly sure if that's correct. Is that correct? Okay. So, this class has had CKLA since kindergarten. The same curriculum. And this big jump right here is really exciting to see. Um, so from 2019 until this year, there's 30% increase. And you can also see the increases in fourth and fifth grade are significant as well. So that's very exciting. This would be our A reading. I just took a snapshot of one grade level. Um, but I I could have included all of them, but I used our Hulkcom
042Elementary as a whole. Our A-reading um is just the total it's using everything in reading. It includes reading comprehension, but you're also going to have to be able to decode the words in order to do that. Um, so since 2019, we've had a 14% increase. And in fourth grade specifically, which is a grade that we typically um just see some challenges with as they kind of shift from that learning to read to reading to learn and focusing a lot more on comprehension and um difficult comprehension uh tasks, you know, we we have a little bit more of a challenge there. So, but 13% increase there, which is still exiting. Happy about that. Um, our auto reading, this would be um our vocabulary and our decoding really focuses more on word knowledge. And so, you can
043see a 19% increase here since the fall of 2019. And in third grade specifically, 21%. Again, this is that class coming to us that has had um CKLA since kindergarten. So, really great increases there as well. And then the final one is our A math. This is just our overall math. And um 8% increase 3 through five. and fifth grade specifically has had a 13% increase since the fall of 2019. Um, with our new I Ready curriculum. Um, I do hope that we will see even more significant gains in this uh area just because of the things that um, this resource has us do as far as talking about our learning and using vocabulary uh, and things like that. So, I would agree with Amy. It is awesome to look at the data this way
044because it can get very frustrating. Um when you continue to look at data that makes makes us feel like what we're doing we're not seeing seeing the growth um even though we're doing the things that we've learned should make an impact. So when we're able to look at it this way and we're able to look at it in the fall, uh where how they're coming in, um it just really speaks volumes to the hard work that the teachers have put in. Um and we should be really proud of the things that they're doing. >> Believe it's here. >> Okay. uh for HMS uh in general um the good news is level ones are down drastically and we have more kids in levels three and four across the board. Um now contributing to that the state
045as she said reormed it. They changed the cut scores. Um so you look at the bottom there um they used to range in the 200s now they're in the 500s. What does that mean? I don't know but that's what they do now. So now it's in the 500s. Um what what so the positive is yeah level ones are way down. level threes, fours, we have more representation. That's so that's a good thing. Where I'm still looking though, one thing that I think can carry over is doing our uh you'll see the minus numbers at the bottom comparing us to the state average because yes, our numbers were adjusted, but so was everyone else's. So, I would hope we're gaining there uh to the state averages, which across the board uh a pattern that you're going
046to see with the cohorts, something we need to look further into. The regression starts in fourth and fifth grade. it bottoms out in sixth grade and then we begin rebounding in seventh and eighth grade. It almost every cohort is that way. So there's an established pattern there. Um so this was this is the class of 29 currently freshman eighth grade class. Um they showed growth uh again lowered level ones got some rep doubled our number in level three which is above proficiency. Um and we closed the gap on the state average. eighth grade math. Eighth grade math um has always been a strong suit for us. We're 10 points above the state average. Uh they began that growth there again though. You see from sixth grade to seventh grade last year, even before the re
047it got reormed a nine point gain. We matched the state average last year. They did as seventh graders or two years ago. Then continued that gain into eighth grade. Uh looking at this would be this year's eighth graders. Again, that dip in late elementary bottoms out in sixth grade, but we made tremendous gains. Went down 30 points in first grade and closed the gap on the state average, cut that deficit in half there in seventh grade. So, around that sixth that fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, we've got work to figure out what's going on there. Uh, math, seventh grade math again gained on the state average or the state, yeah, the state average there. and then they haven't had their chance hopefully this upcoming spring to show growth in this year's uh seventh graders. Uh
048again continuing that that trough that shows up in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. Um one thing we'll be doing differently um the state does offer interim assessments. Uh the window for that opens in January after the Christmas break. um per our July training um you know being trained directly by the ELA director if we take those interim assessments we should have clear indication of what we can do between that window and and March to know where we need to show where we can improve so hopefully we get some data from that looking at that with our BLT um but that's definitely an established pattern um we will work through with BLT to figure out some different factors to that, but that's a three-year trough that has appeared over multiple cohorts. You have your own Can
049I just sit back here? Is that right? >> You do what you want. >> Well, >> changes the whole meeting here. >> Um, so, uh, we can look through and this is the state assessments results. Every year about this time, actually in about October, I get the smartest people in our building to put together our um results are we had our fastbridge results. MTSS math put those in in this and I can share this with you, but we won't go through that too. Uh just show you the state assessment results that we have. Our fast bridge is trending really well. Reading is trending very well. Uh we're seeing really good stuff with the onetoone um interventions that we're doing. uh double blocking uh kids are testing out and getting out of that and our um
050increases in in the fast for reading are taking place really well. This is the first year that we've done any kind of interventions for math. Uh so that that'll be something to be able to see afterwards. Um we leveled out classes this year, placed place students in classes by um a variety of different factors, a rubric. Uh and what we're seeing from the math teachers and several of the students are saying they they enjoy that better uh because it it's teaching them at the level that they need to be taught. And really it's the same standard that's being taught to the student. What's what the difference is um your more advanced kids is they can do more independent practice. The teacher can go over the standard and then get them going. Um where some of
051the um towards the lower end is they do more we do. uh in that teaching strategy is they go through the problems over and over and over and over again with the students till the students feel comfortable enough to start the independent practice. Um state assessment results, I think it's always tough uh to get a clear picture what state assessment results look like at the high school because you only take them your sophomore year. So you don't take any your freshman year. Uh you come in your sophomore year, you take them you take math and English and then you don't take anything till your junior year and you take science and social studies. So there's not like every year you take it to see the growth. And one thing that I think Mrs. Barrett pointed
052out when we looked at the fast results, you can't compare fast results from eighth grade year to sophomore year because that class changed 20%. Uh when you look at the kids moving out and the kids moving in, when you only have a class of like 57 60, if you move five kids that changes, well that's 15 to 20% of your classes changing. So your overall data then is it reliable data? if 20% of your students have changed from one year to the next. And so I think it's I think it's important to keep that in mind whenever you're looking at results uh with them. Our ELA cap scores, if you take a look at um over here to the left hand side, this is what the state averages are. Um and again, whenever you're looking
053at the state average and you get the mean score, the mean score is derived from your lowest mark, from your highest mark, and everything in between. Well, when it's 60 kids compared to the state is, you know, thousands of kids, two or three really low scores is going to move your mark one way or the other. Just like the other way is if you look at two or three really high scores will move your mark of 60 students one way or the other. Uh when I've looked at these in the past and I saw, man, our our average mean is way higher than what the state is. And then you go back, well, it's because six kids scored. You had a really good class of six kids scored really high. It moved your average mean
054way above. But if you actually look at your individual scores, you still had way more in ones and twos than what you did in the threes and fours. Um, so I think one thing that's interesting to look is, uh, ELA, we've continuedly to drop the percentage in ones and twos. And like Tyler alluded, they reormed the scores. No longer does it say like college pathway and this on your performance level indicators. What they say now is if you get a one, you're non-proficient. If you get a two, you're developing. Uh anything at a three is proficient and a four is advanced. And so they've tailored the scores more uh to what like almost standardsbased grading language uh when you're taking a look at it. So obviously ones and twos they're not meeting the standard at
055the level that needs to be. Uh we need to get as many students as we can to level threes and fours uh on the state assessment. Now taking a look at the state assessment. One thing that has helped too is the state of Kansas came out on their standards and showed us what a one looks like and a two looks like and a three looks like. They haven't ever done that before. And so beforehand you were playing the game of here's what the test looks like but you don't really know what a level three or four question looks like. Well they're ask they're they're letting us know that now. So here is what it's called Amos report. Uh Amos is basically it breaks down all of your data into eight different categories. Uh so you
056can see here it's like the lowlevel one uh students. So basically anybody that's in a level one are they lowle one are they high level one? Uh you can see we have zero students in lowle one which means we don't have any of those really really low scores uh on this and so you see high level one we had 15 which means those 15 students hey are within reaching distance of having a two now on the flip side of that lowle two we had 15 and lowle two which means they're closer to one hey than the three right and so then you see I think this data right here is really impactful to be able to show you how close you are to the next level like how close is our two-level students to a
057three and our three-level students uh to a four. Um so this is the AOS report and again this is just a snapshot of what would be this year's junior class. Mass scores are about the same. Uh you take a look at we have more students in level ones and twos that what we'd like. Uh same thing if you take a look at the state average if you're comparing it against um again it's a snapshot of 60 kids for us. So we're down just a little bit compared to the state average which again I don't put a whole lot of stock into that. Um the Amos report again is what you're taking a look at here. Lowle ones we have zero students in lowlevel ones. Uh we have 17 of our students in high level ones.
058So we were really close. The bad part though is we had 18 of our students in lowle twos. So we're right there in that cusp of we are developing which I would say with our math that's probably where we're at. We focused on reading really heavily for the last three years about building wide strategies and how to get better in reading and all that kind of different stuff. And we math has just been one of those things that we're just now starting to um go in that way. So, and then lo and behold, they don't have science scores this year. So, we took the science test. Uh, but then they went in, they did the recut, and when you went on there to take a look, it said insufficient data in order to rescore the
059test. Basically means is nobody knows where all the data is at. They didn't send us any kind of data results to say how we did. One thing you're starting to see about the what one of the things I saw and the reason that they had to rebrand this is for so long they kept saying the state assessment scores were an indicator how well you're going to do in high school or postsecary. The problem that they ran into is the te the test all these students were getting ones and twos but post-secary success rates were skyrocketing meaning is their data didn't correlate with what they wanted to see. if you got a one or two, your percent of being successful in college or having a job and being successful outside of that didn't have a good
060correlation to it. So, they had to go back and redo their test scores because the kids that were scoring the twos and threes and the ones really the ones and twos really that two, they had a really high rate of success after high school and it didn't average out to what the data on the state assessment were saying. So, I don't know if you'll continue to see state assessment scores and like rebranding the name of it because Kansas postsecary success scores are really high. Meaning when kids graduate from high schools in Kansas, they're doing really well. They're having good jobs. They're staying in school. They're getting degrees. They're making an impact. And so sometimes when we look at the state assessment scores, they're kind of skewed. and also is you're taking a state assessment score
061and my own plug, you're taking a state assessment score and you're trying to keep kids interested in taking a test that doesn't impact them any way. So, you're trying to bribe them to do their best. So, >> flush it. >> Okay. That's kind of drinking from a fire hose, is it not? Lots of lots of data points there. Uh couple takeaways u you know so you know so what are the takeaways Scott um things are trending up they are they're not where we want them to be uh and that will continually work toward that um golden castle on on the hill uh pedagogically why are they getting better uh pedagogically uh we've got better approaches at actual teaching going on due to the professional learning that's been taking place the and also the curricular programs
062and resources that we're utilizing. If you heard that come through a couple times with the uh different principles talking one more thing I do want to highlight to you. It's obvious your four leaders sitting around the table over there. They know their stuff. Uh they they will demure on this. Uh they will say oh no no it's not. They are quality quality leaders who are doing the right things working with our people and their people are drinking from the cup. uh and they are uh we're all on the same in the same canoe going the right direction and that starts with the people sitting around that table. They know their stuff. They're excited about it and they can speak intelligently about a variety a plethora of pretty um highbrow information data stuff. Uh and so
063you should be proud of of your administrative team, your four principles. They do a bangup job. Uh we're not finished with where we are and what we're doing. Um, we're going to keep at it. And so, a year from now, I expect those numbers to be even greater, even better. So, there you go, Mr. Jones. >> All right. Well, let's move to High Plains, Elkhart. >> All right. You can't have a meeting without at least talking about some insanity. Uh, it is it continues. Uh, the um leader, I'll call him a leader, and Elkart continues not to want to make his payments. Uh, and now Pearson is involved as well. That's the overlord, the evil giant of educational software. Um, they don't want to make the payment, make the right payments. They've made partial payments,
064but nor they do they want to adjust and allow the supervision of all this to go to high plains. So, I think this is double barrel shotgun headed toward a lawsuit. I think that's where this is headed. Uh, and there's been a, you know, variety of us saying get there as soon as you can anyway. Get it going. uh any which way you look at this the ultimately you know like I was talking to Alexa that's the um chair of the CEO of High Plains win or lose let's say the judge does not go along with the interpretation that students because that's how the interlocal is written right now uh that the word students is not uh exacting enough to include virtual students but last I checked virtual students are a subsection of students so
065they should count but okay let's Okay. Uh that whomever that judge is goes against that logic and ostensibly high plains loses meaning and in a loss looks like they don't get the full payment. That's what that looks like. Okay. Uh regardless, the interlocal is in the process of being rewritten. Uh and so in the near future, I can't say tomorrow, the next day, or the next day, but within the next year or so, the interlocal will be all fresh and new. and it will flat out dictate all students including virtual and brickandmortar students. I mean so there'll be no nothing left to interpretation uh will figure into the algorithm of the assessment and there's just no way around it at that point in time. KCA that's the group uh the um well the school for
066that Pearson operates for the virtual school for Elkcart. Can you follow the bouncy ball there? all these different entities will run. They'll run to the hills. When that occurs, Alcart will be sitting there high and dry. Uh and the sad part about this is uh they have propped up their title one uh funds have gone up because the that's based on poverty uh levels and with,200 students in their virtual school their their poverty their low seas numbers socioeconomic numbers have gone up. So their title one funds are almost $400,000 Mike way more than ours and their district farer does in brick and mortar. Uh so that'll go away. Uh that'll all go away and so will all the money that's been coming being generated by the virtual school. The sad part about this is uh
067that superintendent will go. He'll be gone. I don't know where he'll go. Hopefully back to Oklahoma. Uh, and so rather than making a deal or doing the right thing, working things out, uh, he's just going to pack up his bags and go bye-bye. Maybe they'll show him the door. I hope. Uh, but in the meantime, we're waiting. I I'm waiting for KSB to get back with me because the lawyer who's representing High Plains has said that KASB has said they won't represent us if we choose to file lawsuit with against Elcart because they have some work with Elcart. So I I want to know why because they're not representing Elcart in the legal matter. you know, they they've got a group out of Dodge doing all this work, but they are doing some, you know,
068contractual work for Elcart, at least KSB is, and so they must see that as, you know, mixing their peas and carrots, I guess KB is. So, if that goes down that path, we'll decision we'll have to make is, you know, do we retain different uh lawyer to actually file suit if we want to or not. Uh hopefully by that time because nothing says we have to. By that time we'll know that a lawsuit is a winner or a loser on this. I do know I can't speak for a single other superintendent officially, but I do believe of the 16 other districts uh we are fully in the back um fully support Alexa and her efforts in trying to get High Plains or I'm sorry getting Elkart USD 218 to just simply pay their bill. Uh,
069and so that's to this most surreal thing with which I've with which I've dealt in the realm of school business since I've been doing this for 19 years. It's unreal. You just can't wake up on I don't think a person should be able wake up on a Tuesday and say, you know what, I'm not going to pay that. I just don't want to. And that's what's occurred. And so, one more month of I don't really have an answer for you, Mr. Jones, but hopefully next month this will all magically be solved. >> January Come January, it's all going to be solved, I bet. >> Yeah. >> Can they not pay their bill? >> I'm sorry. >> I mean, are they in dire straits and can't pay their >> No, they have money sitting there. I
070mean, if nothing else, they've got three almost $400,000 in Title One sitting there. I mean, no. I I don't have their books, Ryan. But there's not a secret stash of special ed money uh sitting there because this is flow through money from the state anyway. It's money the state sends to the district. the district's supposed to send to the Why is it I don't know why it's done that way. It's just done that way. So, they're just choosing not to make that payment. He just I I'm at a loss. I can't say anything professional. So, I won't say anything. >> Can't say anything nice. Don't say anything. >> Just don't just don't say anything at all. >> That's what my grandmother used to say. >> All right, let's move to donations. >> Yeah. uh every
071month it just amazes well not to amaze me I've been here a long time now uh our our community the greater educational community supports USD 363 and the stuff that we do and so pretty much every month we don't go out looking for things but we have donations that come to us and you know in order for these things to be utilized it's the law so as the board has to take action on it well this year this year this month we have a $250 donation from Finny County4 for snacks Hes and then also a variety of items donated from community members to be sold at the middle school garage sale Tyler mentioned and Dr. Hilton mentioned uh taking place this Saturday. So I recommend the board accept the don donations as presented. >> So
072moved. >> Second. >> Ryan and Jill. It's been moved and seconded to to accept the uh donations as presented. All those in favor say I. I >> opposed. >> All right. 20 minutes. >> 20 minutes if we're telling jokes. >> Just you. >> Just me. >> Okay. Let's go into executive session at 7:05. You want me to go crazy on you? >> 706. >> 707. >> Okay. 707 for 20 minutes with Dr. Myers. Ryan and Casey >> moved and seconded to go into