JCBE Board Meeting – March 18, 2025.

001Good evening everyone. Welcome to the March 18th meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Education. Thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy andice for all. Chief Carolyn Callahan will now present tonight's recognitions. Good evening everyone. As you know, great things happen every day inside every single JCPS school and these recognitions are one way to highlight some of that incredible work that takes place. So, first tonight we are recognizing our 25 JCPS educators who earned national board certification in 2024 through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. This is the most respected professional certification available in education and we are so thankful that these educators are a part of JCPS. So, please join me

002in recognizing I will name all 25. Mattaline Barry from Norton Elementary School. Julie Anne Balhauser from Farmer Elementary School. Benjamin Bush, Marian Seymour. Samantha Frasier, Low Elementary. Cheyenne Greenwell, Marian Seymour. Michelle Hall, Fern Creek High School. Connor Kinman, Dupont Emanuel High School. Brandy Clark, Goldsmith Elementary. Ci Kong, Cridge Taylor Elementary. Danielle Lamb, Eastern High School. Lindseay Lozi, Ballard High School. Emily McKini, Marian Seymour. Alexandra McFersonson, Marian Seymour. Devin Mudadier, Marian Seymour. Brittany Owens, Simple Elementary. Lisa Petri, Klondike Lane Elementary. Courtney Richardson, Height Elementary. Giora Richie, Athetherton High School. Carl Robinson, Phoenix School of Discovery. Helen Scholar, Wilt Elementary. Nicole Skeers Hayes, Marian Seymour. Katie Slaughter, Cameroer Middle School. Thea Smith Ramsey Middle School and Nicole Weekes Dupont Emanuel High School and Angela Williams Senica High School. Congratulation to our educators. Congratulations and thank you for

003all you do. Congratulations. Next tonight, we are honoring and recognizing our top three winners of the 15th district PTA spelling bee. We're getting them up here, too. So, Mazique 8th grader Zachary Rara won the district-wide spelling bee for the third year in a row. Yes. Uh Zachary then won the top prize at the Louisville Free Public Libraryies regional 2025 floor deb competition and he will head to Washington DC in May to represent us in the scripts national spelling bee. We also want to recognize great house fifth grader Aan Araal for placing second in the 15th district PTA spelling bee and Gabe Farardo Cruz a sixth grader at Barrett for placing third. Congratulations. We are so proud of you. [Applause] Great job. Next tonight, we are excited to recognize DuPont Emanuel High School student Jill Choy

004for being named a top 300 scholar in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search. He won the designation for his project design at a lowcost low inertia back drivable upper body manipulator for use in humanoid applications. Dr. Polio, you know what that means, right? The Regeneron Science Talent Search is the country's longest running and most distinguished STEM competition for high school seniors and there were nearly 2500 entrance. Congratulations [Applause] And now we recognize JCPS's director of leadership and professional development, Miss Faith Strad, for winning the National Alliance of Black School Educators, Marcus Foster Distinguished Educator Award. Faith received this honor for her exceptional leadership and her impact on the education field. Congratulations, Faith. Thank you for everything you do. And finally tonight, we have one of our amazing JCPS bus drivers who is going be above

005and beyond who we would like to recognize. He is also an Abraham Lincoln impersonator, just so you know. And he Yes, it's a true story. It is what he also does. Remember those super chilly mornings that we had just a couple of months ago? Well, Larry Elliot, who is one of our amazing bus drivers? He provided cozy blankets and books for his Cochran Elementary School bus riders. Uh he also likes to provide activity packets and plenty of kindness to his students. and he provided those blankets. There is heat on the bus, but he provided those blankets for a little extra coziness, a little extra warmth on those really cold days. And it meant a lot to those students. So, Larry, thank you for all that you do. We appreciate [Applause] you. Thank you so much.

006And that concludes tonight's recognitions. Thank you, Chief Callahan. Can we just hear it one more time for all of our really bright scholars and educators who are doing brilliant things in our community. Great job. Board member Bass will uh read the district's vision statement. Good evening. Um, all Jefferson County Public School students graduate prepared, empowered, and inspired to reach their full potential and and contribute as thoughtful, responsible citizens of our diverse, shared world. Thank you. Is there a motion to receive the recognitions? Mr. Bass, seconded by Miss Duncan. All in favor? Eyes have it. Is there a motion to approve the meeting agenda? Mr. Craig, seconded by Miss Strange. All in favor? Eyes have it. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the February 25th and 26th meeting? Mr. Craig, seconded by Mr.

007Bass. All in favor? Eyes have it. Thank you. It is now my pleasure to introduce our superintendent, Dr. Marty Polio, for his superintendent report. Good evening. Um, thank you board and uh, Chair Schul for this opportunity to bring you the superintendent report for March 18th, uh, 2025. And so today, I was not planning on presenting this today as my superintendent report uh as of late last week. Uh but obviously there's a lot of questions out there about change changes in music instruction in JCPS. And I wanted to provide the board and the public a little bit more on the why um and what's happened in the history of JCPS, who has access to orchestra instruction in JCPS and what we are doing to correct that inequity, which I think is such an important thing that

008we correct inequities. So we talk about equity a lot. We talk about how systemic equities have occurred outside of our school walls and inside of our school walls over the years. This is an example of how inequities have occurred for decades. Um I would like to say that I fixed this five or six years ago um and brought this to the board five or six years ago, but this is one of these things that um as my team began to dig into this found that we have real inequities when it comes to um the ability to access orchestra and other music inside of our elementary, middles, and high schools. uh I think it is imperative now once that it is brought that we obviously correct this and you will see how this has been systemically

009built over time. The first thing I'll talk about briefly is the history of especially orchestra in JCPS and what has happened. You got the Oh no, go one back. I'm sorry. So the history of orchestra in JCPS. So essentially what happened and it's tough to pinpoint the years. Many many years ago uh before I was superintendent probably decades ago orchestra was given to schools who had a large interest for orchestra. Clearly that means students who had had um orchestra training outside of their school hours because we didn't have it in elementary or middle school. So some of our lesser needs or poverty schools had the ability to bring orchestra into their schools. Um as time went by and there was only several of them and as you can imagine they were predominantly wealthy and east

010end schools and over time they began to lobby the board to say we need this to be an add-on budget to our budget an add-on person to our budget. So the board decided and the district decided at that time to give half teacher spots and asked the teachers then to split their time. So naturally those students who were g that given access were at those schools predominantly in East Louisville. The teachers then began to work on how can we work on our um our pathway through elementary and middle and I'll go to another school and it became specifically about that local regionally as you would imagine elementary or middle school which only exacerbated the problem of who was getting um orchestra instruction and who was not getting orchestra instruction. On top of that, we had

011a very broken, very broken student assignment plan that had pathways, as we would say, from elementary to middle to high for our East End kids and some of our other areas of town, but our West End kids had no pathways, as we talked about as a student at Ballard might be a middle school student at Steuart Middle School on the other side of town. We talked about that at great length. And so what happened is our current system essentially exacerbated the problem year after year after year. We dug into it this year and here is what we found. The following, as you will see, are schools that have no access to orchestra in their schools whatsoever. There are a few up there. That is the choice of the SPDM or the principal, but the vast

012majority of them are clearly on one side of the county versus another side of the county. The students in these schools have no access to orchestra nor have they had or what we call instrumental music for our elementary schools. So it may not be full orchestra but it's access to instrumental music have had no access for decades in their schools to orchestra or instrumental music and make let's make sure we see what the data shows about this set of schools. So that means 75% of the student body in those 32 schools are students of color, which is 8% above the district average. Far less white students in these schools. The free and reduced lunch in these schools is 78% which is 15% below the district average. Multilingual learners in these schools is 29% which is

0138% above the district average. So, let's be clear about who has access to orchestra and instrumental instruction and who does not. That is a clear picture of that. That doesn't even get into the schools where we haven't given kids elementary and middle school access and then go to a high school where it might be there. Orchestra, we know is something that a student walking in 9th grade is just not going to pick up. They've had to have had some history in the past. To make this more clear, I would like you to see the heat map. um that is right in front of you. So those 32 schools that do not have access to orchestra or instrumental music are the stars right there. Every school is represented where they live is represented there. The darker

014the blue the the the less it is more students who have zero access to orchestra. So, as you can see, out of these 16,214 students, the vast majority of them live in West Louisville, Southwest Louisville, South Louisville, and the Newberg area. And it is not even close. And so, when we talk about an inequity that has been exacerbated year after year, it is this system that has happened here that has led to this. And it is something that we must correct. And so here is what we are going to do moving forward. And I will admit our communications of this problem was not the best and that's on me. The communication we're now we collaborating with JCTA on this. But let's be clear about what is happening and what is not happening. First of all,

015no layoffs are happening due to these changes. Um we are actually expanding and adding. We will know what that final number will be for the first time. as many as 13 brand new orchestra teachers in the district. So clearly we have to add. Second thing we have to do is make it more efficient where we are ensuring that we are giving access to all of our kids. And so yes, we have principles and local sitebased decision-making councils. We know we've run into that the past two or three meetings where sitebased counselors are making decisions on programming. That is their legal right to do that. We have no legal right to impede that in any way. But as I said, we're expanding access to instrumental music for all students. So at the elementary school level, every

016student will have access to instrumental music and all of our middle and highs will now have access to orchestra music. We are following the JCTA contractual process, which a lot of this means um seniority. We have to provide seniority based on the contract with JCTA and the JC uh PS or JCBE board of education. We are pairing schools together regionally based so that we reduce travel time and we do support uh those pathways from you know from elementary to middle to high school after that. Next slide please. I want to make sure we're clear on this. Let's make clear on the expansion in and we are not expanding much funding in anything as you know talking about our current fiscal situation but I want to be clear the light blue is the dollars that we

017are giving to our fine arts programs um including orchestra and instrumental music at the elementary level. Last year we uh 13,765 that only went to two schools. We're now giving 951,000 to all elementary schools are having a line item there. And as you can see, we've increased our secondary by over $250,000. So what that means is as a board, we are investing in more orchestra teachers, and we are investing in more orchestra and instrumental funding to our schools like we never have before, which means all schools, all students will now have access. Next slide. That's the last side. So, as I finish up, I wanted to be clear about this. We met with JCTA today. Um, we are forming a 50-50 committee to look at the pairings, which is really the decision maker in this.

018The only real decision to make is what schools are paired together and ensure that we get input from our music experts about what are the best pairings for pathways and teachers and all of those things. Um, in the end, we will work with them on that. We will follow the JCPS or JCTA, JCBE contract. And at the end of the day, what I'm most proud of next year, all students will have access to orchestra and or instrumental music and all schools will have funding to support that. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Polio. I am pleased to provide the following updates regarding the ongoing superintendent search process. The superintendent search advisory committee met on March 11th. Chief Doss provided a summary of the community survey results. Mr. Ali with HYA reviewed the draft leadership profile and

019search process timeline with the committee. The next meeting of the advisory committee is tentatively set for April the 8th. The superintendent screening committee uh held their first meeting yesterday. Mattie Shepard uh was elected the chair of the superintendent screening committee. The committee reviewed board policy, state law, and confidentiality requirements uh governing the work of the committee. The screening committee will meet next on March 31st at 300 p.m. for a discussion with Mr. Ali regarding an overview of the leadership profile and the process for review of applications. Uh now I would ask Mr. Ali, he's on with us from LA and he's going to provide an overview of the leadership profile. Good evening, Mr. Ali. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the governing authority as well as the superintendent and community. It's most certainly a

020pleasure to appear before you today. Of course, I would have liked to be there in person, but we will settle for Zoom. And so, what's before you this evening is the leadership quote for our report. This presentation was presented several uh days past and so your community has indeed been in receipt of the draft document. Next slide. So, HYN Associates collected data from multiple sources to develop the leadership profile. Those sources also include the work done for which I must applaud by your staff prior to the commencement of the search process. And so what the document before you underscore versus what we were able to get accomplished by way of the development of comprehensive strategic plan which included engaging interviewing board members. There were individual interviews, focus groups held as well as community forums and

021stakeholder surveys again conducted by HYA in addition to JCPS. Next slide. So the focus group protocol, the objective here was to structure focus groups and allow these various individuals to have open you know free flowing uh discussion. Participants were asked to respond to the following questions as a part of that overall exercise. What do stakeholders value regarding the schools? What strengths do they desire to retain and build upon? The second uh block involved a question around issues that the district is currently facing and will face in the next 3 to 5 years. And the last was personal and professional characteristics for which individuals believed they desired in a new superintendent. Next slide. This is a a collage or an amalgamation of the organizations that were offered an opportunity to engage the process. These organizations provided

022input and they represented a constituency within your respective school district's community. And I'll just call out a few. civic leaders, the teachers association, business leaders, education collaboratives and collaborators, employees and the most important most important group within this collage students. We had an opportunity to engage your students. I believe they provided the best commentary with respect to that which they receive daily and that which they aspire in the next superintendent. Next slide. Survey. So from January 24th through February 14th of 2025, well over 4,500 individuals within your county responded to a survey and what's before you is a question that was asked. What role group best describes you? Select all that apply. tremendous amount of parents, tremendous amount of employees, tremendous amount of community members, but the minority were student participants. So, we did not

023capture as much student voice as we so desire. However, we did capture the student leaders during our Zoom engagement sessions. These students represented a swath of all of your student leaders within your respective high schools. So we do wish that number would have been a little bit greater with respect to student voice but again we were able to capture parents as well as a significant swath of your community. If you have any questions you can stop me. We go on to the next slide. Common desires of responding groups. And so when you look at this, 33% promoted academic achievement of all [Music] students. A focus on pedagogical best practices, realigning that which exist to looking at a system that benefits all students and raises achievement among those who are struggling. 16% focus on student behavior

024in the classroom. 8% ability to lead the team. These are again some of the very important desires they believe that the superintendent ought to have. 7% close the opportunity achievement and resource gap that's also couched within that 33%. Approve JCPS's transportation and operations. Very large number I might add. The 6% represents a significant swath of folk which I rarely see in these surveys focusing on on a particular operational area like transportation. Very important within your community. 6% promoting the social well-being of all students. 6% meet the needs of students in choice zones, English language learners, children with special disorders. And of course the ability to retain and recruit staff. I represented 6%. Next slide. Priorities. So these are consensus. Additional consensus as stated in this slide is we're looking at the following priorities is reported

025from the focus groups. This this is that compilation as it were. JCPS needs a transformational leader who balances operational expertise with a deep sense of community. that community connection and connectivity. The superintendent must fight for the district's needs to maintain a visible presence in the community. There a desire for the superintendent to have experience working with diverse population. So again looking at this consensus you definitely want someone who's community centric community focused and who can engage who has an ear willing to hear and who is actionoriented and not someone who's lethargic. Next slide. So looking at this slide, we're developing desired characteristics. And so we were able to uh triangulate a tremendous amount of data from multiple sources to arrive at a set of desired characteristics for recruitment and selection of the next superintendent. Now

026again, this is very important. Even when conflicting, contrasting, inconsistent, and contradictory desires are reported, there are common themes that continue to emerge. And so art charge was to find where the consensus exists within this process. Next slide. When you look at that consensus, this is what you come up with for JCPS. Desire characteristics. Visionary and proven leader for academic excellence. Student centered leader, community connector and a transparent communicator, supporters of educators and staff, teachers as well as classified. And then operational, financial, and strategic excellence. So, you're looking for someone who can most certainly take the district to the next level who understands the need to center students, center voice of of families and parents, respect and provide the educators on the ground with professional development to enhance a high level of of instructional knowledge as

027well as best practices, research base in order to deliver on behalf of the community. but who also understands the need to be fiscally a stir as well as maintain focus around the areas of operations which goes back to that 6% referencing transportation which is an operational issue. Next slide. So the next steps the board has been a receipt of the leadership profile report which is before you this evening. Your communities had an opportunity to receive it as well. and we look forward to any discussion and for the board simply approving the leadership profile report. That report will then be made uh public as not a draft document but a compilated excuse me a a consummated compilation of characteristics and desires that your community has stated that they would like to see in your next superintendent.

028Thank you, Mr. Ali. Are there any questions for Mr. Ali from board members concerning the leadership profile? Okay, hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the leadership profile for recruitment and selection of the next superintendent of the Jefferson County Public Schools? Mr. Craig, seconded by Miss Strange. All in favor? I have it. Thank you so very much. Um, also, uh, board members, there is a need to meet, uh, collaboratively with the screening committee on on April uh, 25th and or the 26th. Um, Mr. Ali is encouraging I think a Saturday meeting uh between 4 to 6 hours. Mr. Chair, can I respond, sir? Yes, sir. I believe you're you're muted. Your microphone. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Okay. Very well. So what the chair is articulating if you look at your

029calendars members of the governing authority we're looking at April 20 we can do the 20 4th and 25th and 26 or just simply the 25th and 26th of April. The objective would be we work collaboratively with the screening committee as well as the governing board in order to review the applicants. The position closes at the end of March. We would need a few weeks to be able to vet and screen and then rank accordingly. in addition to building a portal which will house all of the supporting collateral for the board as well as the screening committee. So those dates we're looking at April 25th as well as the 26th. That's a Friday and Saturday. How many hours do we need for that process? Mr. Chairman, that's always a very interesting question. And so I would

030probably say we appropriate five hours for each day. You're running, Mr. Bass. I saw your face, sir, but we don't we're definitely going to need you. Okay. Uh we're going to need you for at least 5 hours each day. Now, if we in early, we in early, but we're definitely going to need you because it's a tremendous amount of information to review. Well, our um vice chair is a budding athlete. He'll be running a marathon on the 26th. So is I Okay. So they're running um races on that day. So what I'm going to suggest is that we prepare ourselves to meet on April 2. The 23rd. Mr. Chair, can we do the 24th and 25th? That's what I'm asking for. The 20 What I'm What I'm asking for is for the board to meet

031on the 24th. uh beginning at 5:00 p.m. and um hopefully concluding our work by 900 p.m. um as to stay away from the weekend. Is that uh acceptable to everyone? Okay. So, um, I'll I would like to entertain a motion that, uh, the board of education along with the screening committee, uh, will meet April 24th at 5:00 p.m. uh, to go about the work of ranking candidates. So, moved by Mr. Craig, seconded by Mr. Bass. All in favor? Okay, you voted for it. We expect you there on April 24th at 5:00 p.m. Thank you. All right, Mr. Ali. I think we got to tie it up. We good, Mr. Brown? Thank you very kindly. All right. Thank you, sir, for your time and for your presentation this afternoon and we'll see you in April. Indeed,

032sir. Have a phenomenal evening to to the chair as well as members of the governing authority. Thank you. We will now receive the recommendation um for the monitoring report on interim metrics uh for guard rail 4 from Miss Strange. So tonight we're looking uh again at guard rails. Um this is guard rail 4 um that says JCPS should not allow inequitable resources allocation for ECE students andor ML students. And uh before we get started, I'd like to introduce uh Lesie Grant with the um Council for Greater City Schools. Hey. Um thank you, Gail. Uh, board member Strange, I appreciate that. Um, and as you've all just heard, your time is going to be pulled in many ways for the next few months until um your process for your search for the superintendent is completed. Um,

033and one of the things I just wanted to um talk with you a little bit about tonight was keeping sort of the eyes on the prize in terms of the work that you all are doing. um you've been doing a great deal of work over the past two years to try and help your board um become a board that is intensely focused on improving student outcomes. Um and by this we mean that the work you are doing, the time you are spending together um the time that you compel your staff to come together is focused on the high priorities that you've set in deter as determined by your goals and your guard rails. Um, and I just want to make sure that uh we are continuing to build time into uh evaluate those practices and

034to look at what you have been doing and to um just think about areas where um we can continue to improve. This practice is uh a continuous improvement practice and uh the more more things that you are looking at evaluating and making sure you can uh do best most effectively the more you're going to be able to save time in your own personal schedules as your time is prioritized towards uh really monitoring these student outcomes. So, I just want to make sure um that we understand. I've sent a request to have uh a new one of our new coaches, Greg Klein, come on board and uh work with you all at the April 8th meeting to go through a very thorough board self-evaluation just so we can get a check about where you are right

035now at the end of um this two years and before we build your implementation priorities for the next two years. So um part of the board self-evaluation is really understanding what you are spending your time on what what those um you know when you are uh calling yourselves to come together when you are requiring staff time what you're spending that time on. And so I've been able to do you've had five monitoring sessions so far. Um, and we're actually going back and uh analyzing the videos of those monitoring sessions and really breaking down the time you're spending during your meetings and what is that time being used for. So, I've added a tab to your um implementation timeline. I'll send that in a separate link. I don't want you to get bogged down in the

036tiny details of that tonight. Um, but I just want you all to be able to see what you are spending your time on. And our guidance is that our work with you um as you're being coached can become that your time can be spent more and more frequently on understanding the reality for your students in the district. Um making sure that the accountability is there, the expectation is there from the administration to focus their time, attention and the resources on the priorities you set. Um, so I will again I will share that with you all in an email later that certainly can be shared with whomever you choose. Um, but it breaks down the amount of time you've spent in those last progress monitoring sessions on uh, student outcome goals, monitoring those goals. Um, Gail,

037I appreciate you've been doing a great job in leading some of these conversations. I know that y'all have split up the duties of leading these conversations over the next few months. Um, I would appreciate time to work with each of you before that. there are going to be some requests, you know, just some uh if we're not looking at what we're doing, you know, uh we're not catching things that we could be doing better. So, there will be some um some suggestions around practice that we'd love to um get you all to work with uh us on. And just understanding as you're looking forward, as you're uh you know, uh again, Dr. Polio is uh stepping out soon and we just want to make sure that you are really well set for the incoming superintendent

038that that person understands the purpose of your work, the how you've prioritized it and that they're prepared to step into, you know, into this work as you want. So, um, any questions about where we're at with this practice, why you're doing it, um, what you should anticipate over the next few months. I think we're clear, Miss Strange. Well, thank you, Lesie. You are welcome. And you're going to begin the progress monitoring conversation now? Uh, yes. All right. I will hang on if I'll just stay in the background. I don't know if there's any questions um please feel free to ask but I appreciate you all of you and your dedication to this work. Thank you. Okay. So um unlike our goals, our guard brows are the things that we value as a board and our

039theory of action is that by strategically leveraging our resources to effectively accommodate the special learning needs of our ECE and ML students, we can ensure these students have equitable access to authentic and engaging instructions. optimizing their opportunities for academic success. And Dr. Tara Greenwald, you're going to lead. Um so we have three interim goals here and we will start with um 4.1 I believe. Actually, I think special ed starts first. So it's over at Kim Chevier. Good evening board members. Uh today we're going to talk about the least restrictive environment and being one of our guard rails. Um, the least restrict environment is one of 17 IDEIDA indicators that the federal government uses to for compliance to ensure that school districts are educating students with disabilities to the best of their ability. The goal of

040the continuing of services is to provide FAPE and to promote equity, inclusion, and access to highquality education. The research suggests that students with disabilities who are in a regular education classroom are more more than 80% of the day is which um our guardrail is improved academic and social outcomes and increased their self-confidence, self-esteem and sense of belonging. Students need to be in the regular ed classroom as much as possible. They have access to grade level content from a high highly qualified teacher and they have the same rich learning experiences that all other students have. Slide two. Without going into major detail of this slide, what does the LRE data reflect currently to tell you what the landscape of JCPS LRE is? least restrictive environment is our December one child count was over 13,600 students this

041year. It has incre it's increased over 8% since 2020 and the students with our most severe complex needs has increased over 14% since 2020. Due to the increased number of students with complex needs, we're providing more specialized resources and therapeutic services in a more restrictive setting based on ARC decisions. So our landscape total is 13 state agencies. We have three special education schools. We have multiple special education programs, over 255 self-contained classrooms, and many, many resource and co-eing classrooms. Over the 255 self-contained classrooms, 219 serve students with significant disabilities. Hence, our LRE is 55% in 80% or more in the regular ed environment. However, our students who are spending 80% of more of their time in the gened setting, they're showing higher achievement in literacy and math and math on MAP growth, which is commenurate

042with their non uh ECE peers. And several of our high schools have increased in 80% or more in the general ed setting. And students with our most significant needs are benefiting from positive impact on engagement, self-esteem, and peer relations in the general ed setting. Today, I have with me Carly Phelps. She is our MSD supervisor uh for our most complex need students and she's going to tell you a little bit about what that looks like in our classrooms. Good evening. Some of the key strategies that have led to our success with this guardrail include conducting record reviews and ongoing coaching and collaboration with school administrators, implementation coaches, and teachers. But what does this look like for a student with complex needs? And how do we support this? We look at the student as an individual.

043what are their needs? What are their strengths? And we program based off of those needs and those strengths. Our goal is for all of our students to be as independent as possible. However, it's important to note that some of our students transition into the general education classroom with the support of an instructional assistant. We coach all of our school staff to foster natural peer supports, ensuring that each student feels included as a valued member of the class. Instructional assistants are a true backbone of ensuring that this is successful. Special education teachers, general education teachers, and support staff work together to support implementation IEP implementation, and to create inclusive lesson plans and adapt curriculum materials. It goes far beyond just being present in the same space. It's about ensuring access to learning, social interactions, and participation

044in a way that meets their unique needs. We need a commitment to inclusion, and we must prioritize inclusive practices. This looks different, but some strategies that we do, I'm currently working with a school right now where we're developing an inclusion fair. So, what's awesome about this is it's developed by students and it's studentled and essentially it's a simulation where students they walk through what it is like to have varying abilities and different needs. It's very powerful not only for the staff but for the students. We also partner with community partnerships. Another key strategy is district and schoolwide trainings. Our team specifically, we offer a MSD cadre. It's a virtual training offered monthly to all MSD and autism teachers. They're instructional assistants, implementation coaches, building admin. You name it, you're invited. Our team has a focus

045topic each month and shares instructional behavior strategies, as well as bringing in speakers to support that specific topic. One thing that's really special about this training that we offer monthly is based off of attendance, our team, we pick a single teacher and we come out and we take over their classroom. It's not only impactful for the classroom, the students, but it's for us. It's the best part of our month. Another thing is inclusive practices for special area and related related arts teachers. This is a specific training tailored to each individual school to enhance instruction to help them support modifications and accommodations for our students when they're in their classrooms. Additionally, we provide schoolwide training on autism and students with complex needs. A big portion of that training is inclusive practices and what will that look

046like in your specific building. These inclusive approaches not only support students with complex needs, but it also enriches the learning experiences for their peers without disabilities. With that in mind, I'm going to pass it back to the chief. Overall, we need to ensure that our resources and our staffing is supporting all students with disabilities and we need to focus on that 80% or more in the general ed classroom. Thank you so much. Appreciate your all. We'll now turn it over to Dr. Greenwell, who's going to be talking about English language progress. Good evening. Thank you all for having us. As you know, we are so proud of our over 21,000 multilingual learners. We have grown rapidly uh in the past few years and really just in a short 18 months or so. Dr. Hanley and

047the team and the multiling multilingual learners have done an incredible job to support our kids. Um the focus in our department has really been funding and advocacy and I want to thank the board for the work that you've done to ensure that we get what we need. When we look at English language proficiency, we know that for our students the development of English language is more difficult when you don't speak that to also learn a content at the same time. And so what we see is higher English language proficiency strongly correlates to obviously their ability to comprehend and then their ability to process content knowledge. Those seem like common sense but it's really important because focusing on English language proficiency goes along with the English language development program and offerings that we have in our

048schools. So if you look at the chart some points of celebration are the percentage of multilingual learners who are growing. This data is indic ind indicative of two years of growth. And so when you look at those numbers of the students tested above, you have to have two years to show growth. So while it went down slightly, that is because we have more multilingual learners coming with lower English language proficiency, but look at the amount that are showing growth, which is what you want to see. So some of those strategies are going to be shared by Dr. Hanley. Thank you, Dr. Greenwell. As Dr. Greenwell pointed out, we are incredibly grateful to the board um and the superintendent for your continued support for equitable funding for our multilingual learners. One of the um most exciting

049pieces for me is that in the 24-25 school year, this was the first year ever that we were able to focus on an attempted um student teacher ratio funding formula. Unlike ECE, there is no federal guidance around that for for multilingual learners. And so this year that we're in, we were able to provide a ratio in which it's a starting point. I I would say that we're probably not quite where we want to be in comparison to some of our other sister cities that we've observed, but we're starting out at a 60 to1, which is incredible because years past there have been English language development teachers who've had upper of a 100 plus students on their case load. And so this year having a dedicated formula was a really great step. In addition to that,

050we recognize that the needs of every school are different. And so we want to recognize that and honor the autonomy of the school to be able to support their teachers, students, and families in a way that makes most sense. And so in addition to the guaranteed funding formula, we were also able to provide multilingual supplemental funds and again allowing schools to utilize that to the own autonomy. We were also um recognizing that while multilingual learners and families exist in all of our JCPS schools, adding to the beautiful fabric of our of our district, some of our schools do have a higher concentration. And so we were also able to identify high density schools. This particular year that we are in, the 2425 school year, there were eight elementary schools, two middle schools, and six high

051schools. And so we have been able to provide them additional funding, resources, support, and prioritize coaching. As we go into the next school year, we're excited that we are going to be able to continue that that teacher allocation, the ML supplemental funds, and then we've identified additional schools for next year, seven elementary, one more middle, and then two more high schools. So that that's some of the celebrations as a starting point. The other piece that we're really excited is is understanding that adding additional EL teachers is just one piece of the puzzle. It takes all of us. Okay? No one no one role group can provide support for an individual role group of students. And so in addition to the ELD teachers, we've been able to provide ongoing role training to all of our role

052groups from our bus drivers to our nurses to our front office staff, the principles, the counselors, and everything in between. We've also taken a really um strategic approach with our community partners by having monthly meetings with them in which we're providing resources. Here's what we recognize. Our families are already connected in the community. So why not go to where they're at, understand what their needs are, and provide them the resources with what they need. Um a great example of that, I know there was a feature recently around a family university in which we went into um there was a housing uh complex near Rutherford Elementary. a lot of our Kenya Wanda and and Swahili speakers. And so we did a six-w week family university series to where we went into the let them know we

053we practiced going to Rutherford Elementary to show families, hey, when you go to a school, you have equitable access to language support. Ring the doorbell, let them know you speak Kenya Wanda. You should be expecting to have an interpreter, equitable access to language. Um they were blown away. This is so wonderful. We'd never realized that. So just again meeting our community partners where they are. And then finally we will hear about technology support specifically for uh special ed and English language learners. Um really excited about what you will hear tonight as I saw in action today at TJ Middle School and we will be demonstrating it for about 20 other districts across the nation um towards the end of this week. and we are the only district who has in the entire nation right now

054who has access to this. So I'll turn it over to Eric Satderly. Okay. Thank you. Um so I'm representing the technology um division and I just want to throw out there that we believe that technology is um very important to the educational process and can be used to improve student experience and outcomes. So that's demonstrated in the research that's pointed out in the slide. The big takeaway that we want you to have from this is that there's so much research indicating that sound field systems or um audio amplification systems throughout classrooms improve outcomes in a multitude of ways. So we consider that very heavy pretext for how technology can be used as support for EC and ML students as we look through this. So moving to the next slide, note that this is a new

055metric um that we're working to develop. So you can see that we're we're building what will be the baseline numbers that we'll have in this. So the use of technology assistance services will increase um over the next two years. We are currently in the process of cataloging what those services are and then looking to establish what we expect the baselines to be and what are reasonable growth expectations. The specific technology that I'm going to highlight on this slide is audio enhancement. Dr. Polio alluded to that just a second ago. This is a system that we've been putting in across the district for the past couple of years. Is really a massive undertaking at a big installation. Um, and this really has a couple of phases that are productively used now and one that's um becoming

056um in use through a pilot that we're working on at TJ Middle right now. This will take over intercom and bell systems throughout schools. Um, and then within the classroom, it will allow voice amplification. So, normalizing the sound field across a classroom. The third component of this is translation technology. So a technology they call clear connect uh that we are piloting right now will be demonstrated on Friday. And this will allow for translation in near real time um to students with headphones on in the classroom for a teacher talking through the lavalier uh around their neck. So we have been aggressively installing this across the district. You can see the timeline on when we are expecting um completion of this. we expect to be installed uh by the end of the school year over the

057summer going live. We're working on it. Have to have um school staff to to turn it up at that point. So, we're working on schedules now, but expect completion very soon. Um and then just on the last slide, thinking about effective strategies in this guard rail. Um we believe that translation assistance is a very effective strategies. The audio enhancement translation is one that we're working on right now through the product pilot. We also have a couple other technologies that are in use. Pocket talk, a device that is used for translation productively now in the district. And then a Lex Mark translation assistant tool where we can translate documents um online um is in use. So again, as I mentioned, we expect to be completed with audio enhancement um by the end of this school year

058turning up. We expect to be fully deployed by the start of next school year. Um we see an opportunity for growth to be additional training continuing to train and help and support classroom teachers on effective use of the technology. Um we have an excellent relationship with the company that develops the system audio enhancement and so we have a seat at the table with them on product development ideas. We are currently working to look at ways that we can improve um the logging that we have on these systems so that we get not so much a metric that tells us um how many systems are turned on but how many systems are productively being used. We think that will help us really understand the impact of the system across the district. Um and so the continued

059development of analytics and metrics we see is important and then continuing to support the pilot on clear connect as well as a strong collaboration and partnership between technology and really all the divisions across JCPS but certainly um the office of multilingual learners. So thank you. And to finish I'll say I watched a young lady an eighth grader at TJ Isabella finish her um defense of learning today or practicing it. She was practicing it and she's been here for 18 months. And the ability for her to speak in Spanish with a lavalier around her neck and the adults listening in the translation made the depth of her conversation so much deeper than we would usually have with a multilingual learner who's that who's that new to to the uh to the country and to the school.

060So really excited about that. I think we're now happy to take questions from you guys. So I noticed that um I'm sorry. Come on. Sorry, Trisha. Sorry. Thank you. Um, I have one question about the technology. How is the Wi-Fi in the schools for supporting that? Is there a lot of lag when you're talking about real-time translation like that? Seems like it could be a problem. Uh, no, we really haven't seen that that's an issue. I think probably what you're referring to was um inherent within the system. So, it was a design component uh within audio enhancement of a delay to buffer up enough language to translate and then read back. So I believe that's a setting that they have some flexibility with and are working to adjust but that isn't related to the technology

061in the school. So there's two things it can do for kids. So the technology and this is this is going to require a lot of training of teachers is that the interpret when it interprets it waits for a pause for the teacher and for those of us who have been in a classroom before we know we may be talking and not pause until it then translates for and that's just a part of translation services. Um the second part though is it also gives a running um script in the home language for the student. Now that is in real time. So as the teacher talks that is pretty much giving them the running script in real time as well. So they have that on their computer as well. But the delay is a little bit of

062a challenge that we're just going to have to work through through training and and process. So I noticed that this is saying that we're off and I'm on the ECE. um least restrictive environment uh 4.1 that we're off track for meeting um for that guard rail. And so what will it take for us to change the status of that? Well, as we the ARC's determined what least restrictive environment every student goes to. So it depends on the disabilities of the student and what the needs and and resources that we're providing. And again with our increase of more significant needs and complex needs of students, the least restrictive environment in JCPS landscape is slow to improve in that 80% or more in the regular ed classroom. What we have done though is improved our co-eing strategies

063and have a formative process. So, schools that want to have co-eing, they uh have trainings, ongoing trainings, and um work with all of our teams so those students that can get in the regular ed classroom can get those supports as necessary. And we look at that as a moment in time that LRE was taken on December 1. So, we report that information every December one to the state and that is the state formula that we use. Okay. So is does the ratio of instructor to students um and our teacher assistants how does that impact? Yes, the state the state uh does have what we called case load laws. So depending on the students disabilities in what classroom whether it's MSD or LBD how many students can be in that classroom that is not dictated by

064JCPS. Currently with our staffing vacancies and our IIA vacancies uh we do have many teachers that are over case load. That's it. That's I had questions on the on the same uh front. Kim, you had a bunch of data at the beginning of your presentation that I did not have accessible in front of me because I didn't ask for it in advance and I apologize for that. I want you to run through it for me though one more time. I wrote down 13,600. Is that the number of ECE students that we have? That's the number that we report every on December one. That's our state number that we get federally funded for and they take that on December 1. And did I write it down correctly that that was in 2020 ECE students constituted 8%

065of our student population? No, it wasn't 8%. We're over 14% of our student population. 8% growth in students with disabilities since 2020. What accounts for that? I knew that would be the big question of the night. Um I'm glad to have it for you. Um nothing that I can pinpoint. We do have an uptick in the more complex need students. we have more students that um are that we're seeing coming from COVID that are staying home more and Carly go ahead and if you see you're in the classroom every day. Yeah, we're definitely seeing an increase and it's hard to pinpoint like she said exactly what is the cause of that. The only thing that we're doing is we're trying to proactively and reactively plan and train our schools to equip them with the tools

066to be successful to meet these high needs. Do we anticipate future growth in the way that we've seen growth in our ML population just because you're at the podium together tonight? You're getting lumped together. Yes. I I mean there's always an increase of students with disabilities. We have not seen a decrease since I've been here for sure. Um and also getting those students in preschool and getting resources to them at an early age. We are seeing a lot of evaluations for students coming through through preschool that students with autism that have have never been seen by a therapist prior to the age of three, four or five. So, uh expanding our preschool, getting more students in preschool so they are prepared and ready for kindergarten. Remembering that I'm not an education professional, right? Lawyer by

067trade. So help me uh articulate in my brain why the metric of 80% least restrictive environment getting a certain percentage of students to that number is what this board of education should be focused on for ECC ECE student success. So that is one of 17 indicators that the federal government makes us report on and we have to meet criteria in that every single year. So that criteria and actually it is 77% for the state of Kentucky. So or 80% or more in the general ed environment. But because our landscape and I want to make that very clear, we are the only district in the state of Kentucky that supports 13 state agencies and we have three special education schools which is fantastic for students with disabilities. So although we have to focus on that 80%

068or more getting kids in the general ed environment is the best for for students all students even students with complex needs. Absolutely. But to be clear none of the students that are in a special education school have any opportunity to hit that 80% because there is no general ed inside correct of their schools and many of the students are actually coming from outside of our district as well. Okay. Yes. I need a primer on the other 16 indicators and we don't need to get into them tonight, but if you could think about a way to present that data to us, I would appreciate it in addition to the other data that you rattled off earlier. All right. What's the biggest hammer, the tool, the switch that the board of ed has for you? Is it

069just and not just in the way that that might have sounded, but is it an HR issue to us providing you with the the people to provide these services or is it anything else that the board of education should be thinking about to help you meet these goals? Honestly, we work with Cynthia Groman on a daily basis. We work with her recruitment department. my team is out recruiting um really making sure that we provide the resources necessary and that comes with our assisted technology which we work with Eric um it's it's staffing vacancies HR assistive technology remember we touch every single school every single department um making sure that we have the uh correct facilities available but honestly it it It is staffing. It's vacancies. It is. It is vacancies and which is so help

070us under how do we compare on vacancies here versus the rest of the org chart vac? We have over a thousand ECE positions. I think it's right at 1,070,72 ECE teachers and we have over 115 teacher vacancies currently. So that's in excess of 10%. Mhm. Versus what we what do we look like on the rest of the order chart right now? Well, total we have about and this is I'm rounding about 6,500 teachers and about 300 vacancies. So, it's significantly less than in special ed. Okay. That is that is the highest of all of them. Special education could should could or should we be placing an emphasis on the way that we're thinking about these particular vacancies as compared to everything else? What should we be thinking about here? just simply identifying the problem. Now

071let's move to solution. Right? We are working uh directly with UVL and other um colleges, universities to make sure that they are bringing in their programs and updating making sure that dual credit Cynthia and I just talked about or dualert I'm sorry not dual credit. Um so so we can get teachers in. They're just not producing teachers either. MSD teachers, they're very hard to find. But UL has improved their program and we're working directly with them to see if we can feed staff and get programs to promote teachers. I don't want to inject too much politics here, but do you anticipate future risk around this with Department of Education conversations that are happening federally? Like what is this conversation going to be like for JCPS in the next year as far as funding or staffing?

072Funding, staffing, everything. I mean, I don't think the federal I fear if we're, you know, if we're having a serious conversation at the federal level about losing the Department of Education, what that means for IDEID, what that means for So, obviously seriously concerned about the federal dollars that are really one of three buckets, which are title dollars. Title one is the biggest one, which is going to students of poverty. um idea which is the special ed education funding and then um the nutrition services are obviously the three biggest buckets we have. There are some other grants that total about $160 million. Um we are very much concerned that there will be a cut to those dollars or a block grant to the state that just says instead of giving it to the districts here's the

073money to the state you divvy it up and it ends up because we have no idea what the block would be going to a whole state to whether it's cut that in the end that block will be less than what we get right now and any less dollars would then require coming out of general fund which would be a significant financial hit to us. So, we are really concerned about what's going to happen with that budget at the federal level. Thank you. Uh impressed as I have been with the ML population. Thank you. Welcome, Eric. Glad to hear from you, too. All right. Thank you, guys. Mr. Bass, uh yes. Uh, only question I had is, um, I know we said we're going to have it in the classrooms, but, um, about the frisky offices

074for their, uh, support, are we thinking about possibly putting those in nurses as well or just classrooms? Um, right now it's been classrooms, common areas in schools. If there are cases in schools where we need to look at that, we've got kind of a carve out for how we look at, you know, do we need to add audio enhancement in different spaces? But our right now our focus is to complete the initial installation and then come back and make adjustments as needed. Thank you. In addition, um a lot of times we know that our family resource center coordinators work with families and so our family resource center coordinators and all JCPS staff have access to ondemand interpretation. So currently um we if if a family comes to one of our friskies, they can sit down,

075they can speak any language. It's as simple as their phone or on the phone or all schools have iPads with the app to where they just tap a button, choose the language, and then they have automatic access to the interpretation. And then the pocket talks are also in many of the schools and on the buses uh to equip um all of our employees to to no longer being able to say we don't speak your language. That's really our goal. All right, Miss Duncan, do you Well, I have uh three questions, one for each each area that we covered here. And first one I'm going to hit on ECE which we've touched around it a little bit but if uh if co-eing uh benefits our special needs kids and we see how that leads to growth

076and proficiency which is a very difficult uh thing to accomplish. If we do that 80% of the time, co-e, why don't we do that 100% of the time? So students have a right to access their education, but we need to make sure that it's appropriate and it's meaningful. So it's an ARC decision as far as what those minutes look like. And when it comes to students with complex needs, we're very mindful that the ARC decision is made to ensure that the students have meaningful access to their educational environment. So, it's not always appropriate. All right. Thank you. Okay. On my my multilingual No, I think I'll go to the audio enhancement question. Um I just like to know you know the statement is made in here that we do see improvement uh academically based on

077the use of audio enhancement. But it I I'd like to know what evidence we have, you know, um what evidence is there that the expansion of the audio enhancement system has uh that like we had I think we started with 15 and when we were watching this in 23 24 and is now moving to or didn't move to 75. What evidence do we have that they did better after that expansion than they were doing before that expansion? So, I'll start and then if anyone wants to kick I mean we are too new at this to really show that we have any long-term evidence or research, we will obviously do that. Um so what we do have to depend on when it comes to the amplification system is the research that is available uh to us

078the peer-reviewed research which um is very evident and then we will have once we get this going the full district the ability to measure that a little bit more um the clear connect the translation is obviously way too early. I think this today was maybe the first real day we've even seen it. And so I mean this is going to be an ongoing process for the better part of a couple of years where we'll see what the re what the impact on achievement is with that. So based on what other districts have done, well of course other districts aren't using this, I guess. Um we we made that statement in there that it it uh it does increase um you know their the learning. So voice amplification by peer-reviewed research has shown to increase achievement.

079Um and so that's not just other district. Yes. I mean it not in this district but they it is peer-reviewed research. Okay. So, so we will we will track our own correct to make sure that that correct that that's happening for us too. And and I'll just add to that we do have a great partnership with audio enhancement and so we're able to help work with them to figure out the metrics that we want to develop on this. So it's it's great that we're kind of getting in at a point where we can figure out how we need to collect the data that we need to analyze for our research. Okay. Thank you. Very good. Uh now my question on multilingual see we we've been through this training where we have to ask these questions

080a certain way and and it's the questions become a little bit cumbersome so forgive me for that but I I have to look at them to see what I can't just rattle off my head. Um, oh, can you I guess uh let's see. Can you give us any reasons why we think an increase of 10% in our ELD staff will increase those numbers of kids that we see growing when an increase of 38% of the staff did not on that on the year of I think it was 23 4. Um, can you think of reasons why that when we increased staff, we did not have that increase uh in uh proficiency or or growth? I'll start and I'll turn over to Dr. Hanley. I think in just 18 months we've had to build capacity and

081advocacy at a level that is sustainable. So, I feel very confident in saying even a year ago, we've come so far from where we were. We've learned a lot. we've been able to uh build capacity not only in teachers but also in front office staff and changing the culture to be an assetbased approach. It's taken time to put the systems in place so that we now have the supports needed. Um and I think that that is an a testament to the work that the office of multilingual learners has done. We have a we have to have a level of empathy for our students when we're looking at English language proficiency. uh when we're looking at research, it's taking five to seven years to learn a new language. If they're early learners, they're more receptive to

082it, but we're seeing students coming in later in life. And we know that language becomes more ingrained. So, I think just understanding how the brain learns to read and the work that we've done with our HQIRS has been important. and then building the capacity for our multilingual learners to really understand how English language development occurs is going to now benefit the staff coming in that didn't necessarily get that in years prior. So I think it's a multitude of things but mainly having the right pieces of the puzzle in place to start accelerating now. But I'll turn it over to Dr. Hanley. I really don't have much to add. I I wholeheartedly agree with that. The other thing I would just emphasize as well is that the access test is much like any one test. It's

083taken in January right after we come back from winter break. I'm going to give this year for an example. Think about the way our schedule looked from January to February. The days in, the days out. Um some of the fear that ensues socially because of our students. So, so I think that I agree wholeheartedly. There is not one reason I can't think that an increase in staffing would not add to the benefit of our students. Um, but I think that we just have to be mindful that it is one data point and that we're going to continue with the work of building the capacity of all of our role groups to help support our students. Very good. Thank you very much. Thank you all so very much for this presentation and for this goal monitoring.

084Miss Reigns, do you have any final words? Thank you to the staff um for preparing this and enlightening us on what's going on. Thank you, Miss Strange. Fantastic job. Thank you uh all who participated in this presentation. Now, we would like to welcome uh Dr. uh an update on Evolve 502. Uh Dr. Marty Polio will introduce our guest for this session. Thank you so much, chair and board. Um, it is my honor to bring up Marlon Cole and her team from Evolve 502. It's been a while since you've heard and especially with new board members. I think it's extremely important that we share with you the impact that Evolve 502 is happening um on our students and lives in the district. Um, this has been uh the work, as Marland will tell you, for the

085better part of about 15 years in Jefferson County that really only took off two or three years ago. Um, and I started, and this really started as, and I don't want to take up too much of yours, Marlin, but a guaranteed scholarship program, a promise scholarship, uh, which is a big part of it, and has really expanded to be a way to provide additional wraparound services, tutoring, things like that for our kids. And so, Aval 502 is doing amazing job on both sides of that. Um, and truly Evolve 502 and the partnership with JCPS is recognized as a national model for having a backbone agency supporting JCPS. So, I'm really pleased to introduce uh the uh leader of Evolve 502, Marlon Cole. Thank you so much situated here. Good evening and thank you all so

086much for this opportunity to visit with you uh this evening. As Dr. portfolio was lifting up. Actually, we'll be celebrating seven years uh in October of this year of existence. Uh but Evolve 502 is just quite proud to be standing alongside JCPS and many other community partners to really lift up and support our students. Um so we have three goals tonight. One to just make sure that you all are aware of who we are and the work that we were created to really lift up and lead. Um second, we want to give you an update on our scholarship program as well as our comprehensive services um that we initiatives. And third, and probably most important, we want to say thank you. Thank you for your engagement. Thank you for the partnership um to this board,

087to our superintendent, to I think we work with pretty much every one of his chiefs um and in schools, with counselors, friskies, you name it. We're working across the board together. And so we thank all of them for for the engagement. Um, we clearly understand and as you all do, the importance of education that it really is the foundation for workforce development, community growth, and I think most importantly, economic mobility for our youth and our families. And we are just honored to be in this space. So, we're going to talk a little bit about who we are um and um have my team here that I'll introduce here in a minute that will get into a little bit more detail with our programs. But again, as Dr. Polio laid out um Evolve 502 is really

088a public private partnership that with a ultimate goal of growing the educational attainment of our community by really lifting up barriers and addressing those collectively with many partners uh to address the needs. We clearly understand the challenges that this this district has and really all districts across the country um in really supporting the whole child and making sure that students stay on a path to success. We understand the impacts of homelessness, of trauma, of food insecurities, um, and just the impacts of poverty as it relates to how that impacts learning with young people. These are community issues that require community solutions. The district cannot do this work alone and we clearly understand that and that is a big part of our role is really convening community partners around these issues and finding collective ways to

089work together to support not only what's going on inside the schools but really having that support out in community. So that's really what our work is about. Let's see. Thank you for clicking for me. And just quickly, I won't go through all of this, but as Dr. Polio said, this work didn't just start. And I want you to kind of see the intentionality and you all are from this community. You're aware, I'm sure, of a lot of the efforts that have gone on for a long time um to really support educational attainment in Louisville. Uh back in 2008, a little shortly after the merger of county and city government, our then mayor Jerry Abramson um really started looking at Louisville and comparing it against about 16 peer cities at the time on several different metrics.

090One of those being education. The education measure was really looking at the number of young people with bachelor's degrees at that time and Louisville was woefully behind its peer cities in that piece and again understanding the impact to business development growth as a city uh vitality of a city he knew that we needed to do something different. So he collectively pulled together a group of community stakeholders to start looking at the issue. Um then shortly after in 2010 uh 55,000 degrees was born and I'm sure you all are familiar with that effort that was really focused again with a goal by 2020 to have 50% of adults with a college degree. Um that was the first time I feel like this community really came together around a single metric and collectively used data and really

091collectively decided you know what do we do and how do we all play a part in making a change in our community. Um, Mayor Fischer then coming on board, continued his support for this effort and also then started looking at, you know, what does cradle to career really look like in our community as it relates to all of those pieces. A lot of progress was being made. Uh, but then a lot of other barriers were starting to lift up that were impeding progress. One of those being cost and the perception of cost and lack of support for our young people to pursue some level of post-secary education. And like the district, we were also concerned about the equity gaps and achievement and wanted to be able to do something about that. And then again, the

092things that I just mentioned earlier, the social and economic challenges that if we were not as a community able to come together and figure out a a process to address some of those issues, we were not going to be able to move the needle. So, the 55,000 degrees board really started looking who's doing this work out in uh the nation, what are some best practices, looked at other promise programs, and really started working with um Say Yes to Education as well as the Harvard School of Education that was looking at backbone organizations, cradle to career organizations like ours. And so, again, learning from some of those efforts led to the formation of what was Louisville Promise, but became Evolve 502 in 2018. And again, I've touched on this a bit already, but why is educational

093attainment so important to this community? Well, we know 9% of jobs created after the Great Recession required some level of college education. Only 18% of jobs requiring a high school diploma will pay a family supporting wage. And 62% of future Kentucky jobs are expected to require a college degree or some level of education, I like to say, beyond high school. And this was happening at the same time that we were seeing the collegegoing rate of our JCPS students declining. So we knew we were in trouble and we needed to do something. So again, we were established in 2018. In 2022, we announced the promise scholarship um to start with the class of 2021. And um we also then really kind of I think got our our convening muscle together again with partnership with the district

094to really lift up some efforts like our community learning hubs which we'll talk a little bit more and again with the hope of providing academic enrichment and collegegoing supports to our youth. So now I'm going to introduce Sarah Shabban our director of scholarship and student success and then Charles Dr. Dr. Charles Davis will follow her who is our chief of data and comprehensive services officer to really talk a little bit more about our programming and some of the progress that we've had and Sarah will start with this slide. Thank you. Um good evening everyone. Thank you so much for having us here. Uh I'm excited to share with you a little bit more about our scholarship program. Um so it was meant to increase um the access to higher education uh by making it more

095affordable and accessible to our our youth. So the Evolve 502 scholarship is a lastdoll scholarship uh which pays for um two years tuition free at one of our postsecary partners. Last dollar means that um students do have to apply for FAFSA and any federal or state aid that um is not covered, we go in and pay the balance. That excludes any any student loans. We want our students to walk away with little to no debt. Um the last dollar scholarship can be used at any of the um KCTCS community colleges um here in Kentucky such as uh JCTC and Simmons College of Kentucky which is our H.B.CU CU here in Louisville. Um we also provide opportunity grants um which I'll talk more about in the next slide as well as book stipens for our lowest

096income students. Um the promise um started as Marlin mentioned in 2021. Um and we the promise will continue until the class of 2033 uh for JCPS. Um so we provide additional wraparound supports for our scholars including an opportunity grant. Um, so the opportunity grant um is for our students whose families are uh income is less than 47,000. Um, and they uh receive $1,100 stipend um for the fall semester and the spring semester to really address the non-tuition needs of the student um that could be um accessing a laptop um regular internet um or transportation to get to and from um their institution. Uh we also provide uh student support coaches. Um all of our student scholars are assigned a coach um that is really there to um accompany them during their uh academic journey. Um

097ensuring that they have access uh to all of the resources they need to be successful as a student um and um ensuring that they uh reach their academic goals as well. Our coaches have access to emergency funds. Uh we know that many of our students are easily derailed. Um their education can be easily derailed uh by very small um cost or unexpected, you know, uh car breaks down or or something like that that prevents their education. And so our students have access to uh up to $500 uh per academic year for assistance in an emergency. Our scholarship gives students uh different opportunities. We want students to think of education post-secary ed um it's more than just a four-year degree. It can look uh many different ways. Uh students can earn an associates degree um and

098go into an in- demand field. Uh they can also earn a career credential um and go into the workforce such as HVAC or plumbing for example uh or even welding. Um, many of our students do wish to go on to get a a four-year degree. Um, and this is an affordable option for them to get their 60 credit hours or two years um and then transfer to um a 4-year university. Um, and we've had over a hundred students of ours um transfer to through our partnership with um UL um already. So, a hundred of them. Um, in order to be eligible for the scholarship, you have to be a Kentucky resident, graduate from a JCPS um, high school, and um, as I mentioned earlier, complete the uh, FAFSA application. Um, students, um, if they do

099not graduate from JCPS, but earn a GED uh, within 12 months of their initial graduation date are also um, eligible for our scholarship. Um and this is just a breakdown of our four classes that we've had uh thus far by the numbers. Uh so since 20121 we've had over 2300 students um JCPS students um uh take advantage of the scholarship and enroll at KCTCS or one of our other partner institutions. Um 48% of our students um come from families who earn less than $40,000. Um and 68% of our students are PEL eligible and that is um also a need-based um uh federal grant that students receive through the FAFSA. Um and 54% of our students identify as underrepresented uh minorities. Um since our first class, we have had 769 students earn a workforce credential or

100certificate. That is um as of October 11th, 2024. Um and 148 of our students have um already earned an associates degree. Um and this is uh just kind of a a breakdown, a demonstration of our current application cycle. So for the class of 2025, you can see the different high schools and and the percentage of where they're represented of how many have applied. We've already had over 2400 students um apply. Um the application is open till July 15th. So there's still opportunity um to for students to apply if they haven't yet. Good evening board. Um as Ron mentioned, my name is Charles Davis and I just first want to say I'm the one, you know, more than more than most promotes the power of partnership. Uh we're a small but mighty team at Evolve 502.

101Uh but there is absolutely no way that we would be able to accomplish anything without the partnership of the district that starts at the very top with Dr. for polio, uh, Dr. D. Ferrari, and a number of chiefs and staff, uh, going all throughout the organization. Uh, so we're currently gearing up for summer. Uh, and so shout out again to folks like Shelanda Foster, Chris Berba, Remy Yak, who are continuously helping us to provide free enriching learning opportunities for JPS students, nearly 10,000 per year. Um, and one of the things that I always like to toot the horn of Louisville is that currently, uh, in three colleges at Harvard University, uh, Evolve 502 and JCPS partnership is currently being studied. Um, even Dr. Polio and, uh, Marlin had a chance to be on a panel,

102a keynote panel, uh, last year at a convening talking about this work. Next slide. Uh, one of the features that Marlin talked about was our community learning hub. And I actually got this do this idea from Dr. Polio. uh this idea of how do we move student uh achievement forward? We can't make the school day longer. We can't make the school year longer. So what do we do? We look and try to reach into those untapped hours in out of school time spaces that a lot of our community partners are uh utilizing. So we partner with Boys and Girls Club. We partner with churches. We partner with community centers and other uh youth serving organizations. And this year we've grown to registering over a thousand students in afterchool tutoring uh where they receive uh small

103uh no more than 3 to one instruction uh on literacy uh uh components. Uh I will say that the new revamped reading curriculum under the leadership of Dr. Greenwell has been super helpful because now we have a common uh understanding of what we can shoot towards and so again that partnership allows us to provide the best uh that we can to our JCPS students. Next slide. This is just a demographic uh outlook and what we do is we believe that we are reaching the students who need uh support the most. Uh we rely on our community partners to provide outreach. So again those organizations we go out and we provide and infuse the resources. Uh we know that young people are going somewhere after school. We just have to find where they are. And so

104this is where our community learning hub program really uh shows up is that we go out into community provide supports uh even at the most unlikely places but we find that they are uh affirming spaces that are working with young people on a daily basis and so we're able to provide the academic and social emotional supports uh where young people and families can access them. Next slide. And so this is just uh from 20 from the 2023 2024 uh school year uh for we utilize a ton of data from uh JCPS. So thank you Dina Dr. Dosset um but our students who are regular attenders of our community learning hub program we're showing that uh in again the 2023 2024 school year there was a 7% increase between students who met their fall growth projection

105and their spring growth projection. So what we're trying to do is really provide a year-long opportunity in out of school time spaces. So that during the year we're trying to grow students as much as we can and during the summer we're trying to mitigate all that growth that happened during the year and mitigate summer slide. So again we're really trying to provide a year-long wraparound perspective of providing students in uh with enrichment and education opportunities. Slide um and then finally we're constantly trying to provide opportunities to engage and wrap around the entire child. And so we had an opportunity through a grant to pilot a family community engagement series. Last year we did that at five locations. This year we expanded to eight. Um already we've had 336 individual contacts with families and uh caregivers.

106These are just some of the survey data. After every session we have uh we ask for surveys about your satisfaction with the event. And these were just some of the comments about this was great. And what we do is we not only provide uh babysitting and uh youth opportunities for our young people if they're like my two boys, I can't listen to anything that's going on because they're grabbing on my legs. So, we have the young people in another space and we are able to talk directly to families and caregivers about par uh parental u support opportunities or hearing from city agencies or even district agencies. And these are just some of the comments that we hear uh that this is something that's valued and something that we should continue moving forward. So just in

107conclusion again, we thank you so much for the partnership. We feel strongly that the work that we can achieve together is really going to lift up this community. You see, and you all know these things, the impact that education can have on a community, residential growth, reduce crime, a skilled workforce to fill the jobs of the future, which is so critically important, and ultimately a larger tax base so that more people are able to contribute and be a part of um the success that we have as a community. So, um, we are looking forward to some partnerships that we're developing, uh, on a national scale to really help us grow and scale this work, um, and hopefully bring even additional funding to this city, um, as it relates to this placebased work. So, again, we

108thank you so much and are open to any questions you might have. Thank you so much, guys. We really appreciate the work you do with Evolve 502. And just to um kind of uh put an underscore on this, we are now we've done this kind of this model for three or four years and now we're kind of looking at how do we take this to the next level? How do we impact more kids with more resources than we have before? We have used Harlem Children's Zone as kind of a um example for us and worked with them. And so we're really working what the what the next iteration of this would be with Evolve 502 and hopefully getting some national funding to really support that for our students. And so just amazing work. I would

109encourage the board uh that this be an important part of the next leadership um is that continues this partnership with Aval 502. Thank you. Thank you all so much for being with us. We'll now entertain questions. Um, Mr. Bass, uh, no questions, but thank you for everything you all do. Miss Duncan, you know, I'm fascinated when I go to graduations and we hear the number of kids who have 502 applied for and are in 502 scholarships. And, uh, it's it's so heartwarming to see kids taking advantage of this. and it it's a blessing that you've brought to the to the community um for the the access that kids have now. Um I'm wondering you said 7,400 is that this year 7,400 have applied that was that this year? Do you remember? We had uh 2400

110uh students from the class of 2025 apply. Just to give you it's about 6,500 seniors. So that's about a third of the graduating seniors have applied for the of all 502 scholarship, which is a huge number. Yes, it is. And and I I think it it's wonderful that our our high schools try and make sure every child has a plan for graduation afterwards, post-secondary plan. And but and I'm I'm also curious about those who apply. What what percent of those apply actually take advantage of it? Do you Yeah. So So last year we had about 10% of um the graduating class take advantage of it. Okay. Take they ultimately make it all or or get become show up and and start classes. And that's what we want to that number. Obviously we want to continue

111to grow. Obviously during COVID that first year when we launched schools were I think what opened maybe two weeks and we had to get very creative of how we reached out. But I think now the team has done a very good job and the staff has been very open to uh getting us more access. Uh but we want to continue to grow that number um as we as we move forward. Yeah, that percent showing up is is so that's that's what we've got to to make sure people do. Um, one other thing. Do you ever have any thought about what this program could do to support um early childhood? Uh, you know, early childhood is very um it's our our big vulnerability because we have we don't have our kids in programs early that that

112allow them to get the heads the start that they need. when uh when I think onethird of our kindergart kindergarten eligible kids are in kindergarten so or not kindergarten but uh head start about onethird of them um are in it. So uh have you ever thought about how Evolve 502 could look at that end of of what we're doing? Definitely when we look at sort of the cradle to career continuum, it is our feeling and thought we we don't have to be the expert in all of that space, but we need to understand who is and who's doing the good work and have those people around the table. We are doing more and more to reach down further because we know the sooner that we're having these college conversations, the better. uh we've been able

113to um participate with some of the pathway work that you all are doing uh with the MI middle school kids and we're continuously trying to find ways to connect there and definitely in some of Charles's work we're doing more of that. Um we are also very excited that as you may know an effort called Thrive by Five that the our current mayor is launching um is coming to fruition. I helped um on that um committee to kind of help pull that work together um and then helped also I was on part of the um search process for their new executive director. And so we're waiting for her to get her feet wet and get her feet under her, but she'll definitely be coming into the fold with us and looking at that piece. But we

114very much care about early childare. We understand the importance of that. Um, and we'll continue to look at things. The YMCA is doing some programming around that as one of our partners. Um, so we continue to look at that and how we can fit into that because it's it's very important to have that conversation very early. It absolutely is. you know, even our monitoring session when we saw that achievement gap showing up first grade right off the bat. And and it's because that early childhood experience is so inconsistent. And when you have kids with big vocabularies versus kids with small vocabularies, there it's already you you've already gone or dropped behind. uh and and how can we help those early learners make up for that that I just think that's a huge challenge for us

115and but a a huge uh uh area that we need to to do work but I appreciate uh that you're thinking about that. Thank you so much, Miss Duncan. I'm going to tell Mayor Greenberg that you're looking for a little something else to do and uh that you would be a great advocate for his Thrive by Five initiative. Miss Listister. questions. Miss Strange, I just noticed that perhaps some of the schools in the most economically depressed areas of our city have the least amount of students who have applied for um this gift. Is there any reason or we focus in on that and I'll let Sarah answer that a little bit more but we really do look at that data and try to determine okay what's happening how frequently have we been able to get

116into those schools what are some of the other issues so we're working as close as we can with a number of those schools to think about what else might we be doing how do we really encourage collegegoing in those populations because that's critically important to us but we have student success coordinators that go into every high school um as much as they are allowed to get in uh whether it be college fairs, whether it be meeting with the element the um English classes and Sarah, you can speak more to some of that work. Yeah, I was just going to mention our student success coordinators. Yeah, we have four of them. um and you know any opportunity that they can get to um participate in any of the activities. We've had um them uh attend obviously

117the college fairs and uh we've had assemblies where um the whole senior classes come down um and you know if there are additional ones we're always welcome to engage and continue that partnership. So okay thank you. And I think example of that is Iracoy High School which 93% of their senior class has applied. Yes. And that is um a huge increase from from last year. So yeah and it's getting in working with the counselor those type of things. So we just got to keep targeting those. Yeah. Just thank you. I think the point of the presentation was to make sure the baton is not lost here in the transition with the next leadership. So yes, support from this board and we will push the next guy, next person to do the same. So thank you

118and we're here for you if you feel like uh that partnership waines in any way. We don't want to see that happen. Thank you. Thank you so much. We appreciate the time. Thank you all again for this presentation and thank you for your continued partnership with JCPS. We have been recognized nationally for our students recovering from CO and uh you all were a central part of that work with all that you did uh to set up hubs throughout the city. So thank you all for your partnership and for all that you do to continuously ensure that JCPS is success. Is there a motion to receive the update on Evolve 502? Mr. Craig, seconded by Miss Duncan. All in favor? Eyes have it. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? Miss Duncan, seconded by

119Miss Strange. All in favor? Eyes have it. Is there a motion to receive the planning calendar? Mr. Bass, seconded by Mr. Craig. All in favor? Eyes have it. Are there any committee reports? None. Are there any board reports? I would just like to say that um there and me being one of them had some angst about the merger between um Whitney Young and um Inglehart and um Dr. Lawrence and I met with Dr. Polio and I am elated to say that the real winners of that merger will be the students of Englehart. It is going I think going to be um another shining star. Yeah. Thank you, Miss Strange. Any other board reports? Want to send a special shout out to all of the students that Dr. Polio and I were able to witness yesterday

120receive scholarships uh from the Vote Foundation. Um special thanks to uh Mr. Henry Huer who uh coordinates was itiser? Heiser who coordinates that event. Um thank you for your contribution to this community. We have about 17 13 people uh requesting to address the board. So Chief Callahan, will you please um play the video? In accordance with board policy 01.421, 421. The board expects that persons who have signed up to address the board will limit their remarks to the subject that they listed at the time they signed up, that their presentation will not include any defamatory or abusive remarks about the subject, and that they will present their remarks in a manner that is consistent with the orderly conduct of the meeting. Also, in accordance with board policy, the board reserves the right to limit, extend,

121or terminate discussion on any subject. Discussion of personnel matters is not permitted as state law requires that personnel matters are within the sole authority of the superintendent. The speaker may not initiate charges or complaints against an individual district employee by name or position in order to ensure confidentiality and fairness for the employee. Speakers before the entire board are not allowed to use props, displays, or any other objects during their remarks. Each speaker is allowed three minutes to address the board and may not share these minutes with any other speaker. At the end of two and a half minutes, a bell will sound once. You will then have 30 seconds to finish your statement. At the end of 3 minutes, the bell will sound twice, indicating that your time is up. The superintendent will look into

122the speaker's issues and if necessary, represent the board in following up or recommend action to the board. The full board policy concerning public participation in open meetings is available for viewing on our website and at our sign-in sheet. Jordan Thomas. Good afternoon. I'm here to state my thoughts on the plan for the music educators for JCBS. I'm a senior at Local Mail High School. I've been in the JCPS orchestra system for nine years in total. I've never spoken in front of the board before if you couldn't tell, never thinking that I needed to until now. I would not be here speaking to you if it wasn't for my music directors. The fact that JCPS knows this very same sentiment to be true to so many students in the music programs that they have and still

123states that they are planning to do what they want to do to these directors and the students is immoral. I say students and teachers because JCPS you are making decisions. You are making the choice to make decisions on the music educators without speaking to them. You JCPS are making choice to transfer these directors outside of their chosen schools and experience levels without speaking to them. JSUPS, you are choosing to change the lives of these teachers and students, not for the better, without speaking to them. I stand here in front of you holding back my tears as I speak to JCPS and JCPS alone when I say you are making awful decisions regarding the programs for orchestra, band, choir, etc. that you have. I came here today because I want because when you are faced to

124forced to listen to me, you are forced to hear for the first time the voices of the directors you have made decisions for behind their backs. They want to say they want a counsel where they can make decisions for where they are paired on based on their expertise. You are moving these amazing directors away from their students that they know to better you and only you. Here I say though I am a senior in high school, me and my peers that are here will not rest until you make a sound and moral decision that is just to these directors and your students. With this, I end my statements by asking a question to think about before officiating this decision. You, who in the school, who in the school system knows more about the director's expertise,

125their proper systems, their most comfortable schedules, and what they want for their own careers, you or the directors. Thank you for your time. [Applause] Sabrina Mammadova. Sabrina not here. Ashley Homequist. Hi, my name is Ashley Homequist. I am an ECE instructional assistant at the Phoenix School of Discovery. I have been with JCPS for over 10 years and I love my job. I love the students, my co-workers, and I love making a difference. But the truth is, classified staff are struggling. I have watched incredible people leave our district, not because they want to, but because they have to. They cannot survive on our wages. And it's not just that we're losing people. We can't hire new ones. In January, JCPS had over a 100 classified job openings. That means schools are short staffed, students aren't getting

126the supports they need, and the people who stay are being stretched too thin. You cannot run a school without classified staff. We are the backbone of our schools. We are the ones greeting you when you walk in, keeping our schools clean, making sure kids are safe, feeding them, and supporting them in class every single day. Right now, the starting hourly rate for classified staff is less than $15 an hour. That is less than fast food workers and grocery store employees in our area. Meanwhile, rent in Louisville has gone up 40% in the last 5 years. Groceries, gas, everything costs more, but our wages, they have not kept up. I am fortunate that I don't have to support my family on my income, but there are many employees that do. I am here to fight for

127those people. Like one of my co-workers, she has been with JCPS for 36 years. She has dedicated her entire career to this district working with our most vulnerable students. And last year, she made $31,000. She couldn't be here this evening because she is at another job right now. Even after 36 years, she is working two jobs. So I am here for her. I am here for every classified employee who is exhausted, overworked, and underpaid. I am here to ask the district to please re-evaluate our wages. We need to start classified pay at at least 20 an hour. We need better incentives to keep people in these jobs and we need to value the people who keep our schools running. Dr. Polio, you said that what makes the school great is defined by the attitude, beliefs,

128and actions of the adults inside of it. And I could not agree more. You walk into my school and you see a school full of passionate adults. But if we don't take care of those people, those adults, the classified staff, we are going to lose them. And when that happens, our students will ultimately suffer. We are a group of exceptional people doing incredibly important work and yet we are vastly underpaid. So I am asking, what are we waiting for? It is time to do better. Thank [Music] you. Sherry Cox. Good evening. My name is Sheri Cox and I'm also an ECE instructional assistant and I have dedicated my entire 25 year career to serving as a classified employee. I am here tonight to advocate for fair wages for all classified employees in our district which

129is currently facing a c crisis. Classified staff have been constantly denied a living wage desite despite being expected to work alongside lead teachers under increasingly high expectations. During the pandemic, we received a temporary raise for $3.50 which has not been sustained. Each year we have to advocate just to maintain that temporary rec re increase and there is no additional raises since then. While the step ladder pay structure is limited, we urgently need further raises as we approach retirement. It is disheartening to work multiple part-time jobs after school just to make ends meet. I struggle to understand why classified staff in other areas of our district receive bonuses for attendance while others, including myself, work diligently every day without um recognition or appropriate compensation. It is difficult to see s um uh funds allocated to various

130district issues such as transportation only to be told each year that there is no money available for raises. For instance, it's hard to accept that Dr. Polio received a $75,000 raise while I have not even seen a 50 cent annual increase. Moreover, it's troubling to witness our district spending millions to reimburse parents for driving their children to school while we continue to be told there are no funds for any raises. The challenge of hiring qualified staff, classified qualified staff, has led outsourcing positions to university educators who often start at a higher pay rate than I have earned in over 25 years of service. We are tasked to teaching and nurturing our children to the best of our ability. Yet, we face larger class sizes without additional pay. Certified staff receive extra compensation for their additional

131work and we too have extra responsibilities that deserve recognition. Last year, I reached out via email to each board member. [Applause] Shannon [Applause] Keith. Hello. Um, I have the privilege of having Sherry in my classroom at St. Matthews Elementary. I am this year marks 24 years as an MSD teacher which if you listened earlier retaining MSD teachers is incredibly difficult right now and it's due to the support or lack thereof that we have. Um I'm here tonight to advocate for the classified staff in the district and to urge the board to address the inadequate pay that many believe undermines the essential role that they play in our schools. The responsibilities of classified staff are extensive, particularly in an MSD classroom. PAR professionals not only assist with educational instruction, they work on that inclusion piece that

132we talked about with spe with our special ed staff here. They work on the technology piece with augmented alternative communication devices, modeling those, making sure they're available. They provide tracheotomy care. We provide GTube feeds. We provide these instructional assistants have so many things that they do during the day. Not only that, they ensure that our children provide the educational instruction that they receive and they consider or they keep everyone safe. Um, currently JCPS is struggling to fill these vital positions. As of today, approximately 16 MSD classrooms lack appropriate staffing, leaving one of our most vulnerable student populations without essential support. To put the situation into perspective, my 18-year-old daughter began working this past year. She works at a coffee shop. She makes $20 an hour. For a pair professional in an MSD classroom to earn

133that same amount, they would have to have eight years of experience. Currently, the district is resorting to outsourcing positions to university instructors in an attempt to fill the vacancies. According to the publicly available contract, JCPS is projected to spend up to $27 million to address these staffing shortages. The starting pay for individuals hired by university instructors as listed on their website is $28 per hour. This raises a critical question. How long would an instructional assistant need to work to earn $28 an hour? Unfortunately, they don't have that ability. It is not they will not get to that pay scale. For instance, an ECE instructional assistant with 17 years of experience in our district earns just $24.55 an hour. This disparity, 28, for someone with no experience as opposed to 24 for someone with 17 plus,

134undermines the hard work and loyal Mattie Shepherd. Maddie Shephard. Hi everyone. I'm Maddie Shepard, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association. Earlier in the year when I addressed the board, I said I would be speaking at every board meeting that I could so JCTA and I are present in community conversations about our school system and the kids in it and so that we can be a partner to both the district and the board. I also shared that I along with almost 6,000 teachers that I represent care deeply about JCPS. And when you care about something, you celebrate it when it's doing well and you're honest about when it needs to do better. So, I have some things to celebrate and some feedback about what we can do better. First, the celebrations airing on WH several

135times a week. Starting this morning at 9:00 a.m. will be stories of JCTA members who are JCPS teachers doing amazing things. You'll see stories on WH in the next couple weeks about Zack Fischer, a teacher at Church Hill Park doing some of the amazing things that have been talked about tonight. and he's supported by the amazing classified staff behind me that are necessary and integral to the support our kids need. You're also going to see stories about a welding teacher, our JCTA treasurer at Irakcoy High School, George Nichols, teaching students skills they can use in a career or as a path to fund higher education beyond welding. You'll see Mary Sapienza, the steam teacher at Guttermouth, teaching students hydroponics, coding, and physics. Owen Guttermouth is an elementary school. Mary Sapienda Sapienza teaches these higher order

136skills and how to think critically and solve problems to elementary kids every day. But there is room for improvement. There have been changes to the way that music programs are organized and offered across the district. The fact of the matter is these changes were drafted without collaboration with stakeholders, without music teachers who are the experts closest to the situation. Collaboration for the sake of collaboration is something that we and JCTA stand for on principle, but it also makes the plan better. Our teachers are the closest to the issue and they have meaningful knowledge about the history, instructional practices, and real-time nuances of the programs and they should have been included. Our contention is that a collaborative structure, a committee made up of district personnel and stakeholders such as teachers should be convened. We agree that

137the goal is to offer kids more access to a variety of the great music programs we have in JCPS. The collaborative committee is the best way to assess if the plan proposed meets that goal, and if not, what we can do to better meet the goal. That's what I wrote at about 9:00 a.m. this morning, and I'm happy to report that JCTA met with district leadership this afternoon, and we have a commitment to do just that. So, we are excited to have that 5050 committee convened to work around the shared goal of more equity and more access to the amazing music programs JCPS has to offer um so that more kids in our district can pursue their love of music. So, thanks for that commitment. We look forward to working with you, Jason Gregory. Well,

138good evening everyone. Um, I'm a veteran music teacher of the district of 24 years now. Uh, well, 20 in JCPS, 24 uh total. Last 16 years being at the U Performing Arts School, Dupont Emanuel High School. Um, I'm concerned today with the sheer amount of overstaffings that are happening due to budget cuts and due to uh estimated enrollments for next year at specific schools. I won't name those schools. Many of my music colleagues are quite concerned obviously with what we just heard from JCTA. It sounds more promising. Um, I personally believe and I think most of my colleagues believe that music classes should exist at all elementary level at the general music. Okay. Every student has access to general music K through uh five. Um at the middle and high school level, every school should

139offer band, orchestra, choir. At the elementary level, we should be able to offer um orchestra and band at the fifth grade level at least twice a week. And at the very very least, once a week where those students are meeting by like instruments, this is what they do in Lexington. Um and it actually goes quite well. they meet by, you know, say trumpets on a Monday and saxopones on a Tuesday and those shared teachers with a middle or high school teaches those courses and they're very successful in that way and thank you Dr. Polio earlier for your vision with orchestra. We appreciate that. Um, to me it's concerning that principles at elementary schools have the right to decide whether or not music is in their building. To me, music should be in the building, period.

140And that should be driven by the school board. Okay? It should be a content just as important as any other content that exists academically. Um, I already mentioned the elementary band and orchestra. We do have that, but I think it's just important to note that we do not have elementary band and orchestra in all schools right now. And we also don't have general music in all schools right now. And in many cases, they're being taught uh by non-certified music degree people uh with the general music level. In addition, I really do feel that the current JCTA JCPS agreement for overstaffs is putting a lot of complications into what we have going on right now. I'll give you my scenario. I happily taught at Dupont Manual and Yass from 2008 to 2021. And in that time,

141my colleague I worked with for 13 years retired. I thought I had an opportunity to apply for the job. I lived and worked and breathed day and night in the YPASS building. I was not allowed to apply for the job. Not given applied because my name was not put on a transfer list in the old school I worked in. I didn't realize I had to put my name on a transfer list. Since then, that part of JCTA has been removed. Now, when an internal applicant sees a job, they can apply in the window, right? And then they have their opportunity to interview as it should be. Okay. The current JCTA JCPS agreement is harmful especially at the high school level. The best candidate should be in that job. Period. There should not be seniority. It

142should be that the person who Karen Turilliger. Hello and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about the importance of instructional assistance in MSD classrooms and the need for JCPS to provide competitive pay in order to attract more candidates to apply for the excessive unfilled instructional assistant positions in our district. MSD means moderate and severe disabilities. While these students are capable of amazing things, they require the most support. The job of instructional assistance is not easy. It's physical. It's mental. It's emotional. The range of activities an assistant will complete in a day's work is hard to explain. It's academic assistance, social coaching, toileting, feeding, behavior modification, notetaking, goal monitoring, the list goes on. Every student's success depends on the instructional assistance available in the classrooms. Their wages should reflect their value to our

143students educations. Instructional assistants are not extra staff. They are vital to the successful running of MSD classrooms. Understaffed classrooms are a safety concern. Students in MSD classrooms often have behavior issues. Both teachers and students are being injured in MSD classrooms because there aren't enough adults to help handle behavior and safeguard the other students. Teachers need to have the supportive instructional assistance. We need to fill these vacant positions. MSD teachers also carry out the IEPs for their students, the individual education plan. This is a federal document, a legally binding document. Having instructional assistance is essential for meeting the demands of the IEPs. Without a fully staffed classroom, this becomes very difficult. We need to get these positions filled. Quality instructional assistants are vital to the success of our MSD programs. We are not babysitting students. We

144are not warehousing students. We are providing opportunities and experiences to to develop college and career ready students who will leave the district being productive members of society. Every MSD teacher depends on their instructional assistance for positive student outcomes. We don't want to get by. We want to exceed expectations. Please use whatever power you have to advocate for fair and livable wages for our instructional assistants. Competitive pay will attract more applicants to fill these vacancies the district is facing. Thank you for your time and consideration. Jennifer Denny. Oh, okay. Rebecca Smallley. No. Okay. Katherine Donna. Good evening. My name is Dr. Katherine Donner. I'm a proud mother of a fourth grader who attends Bloom Elementary. I volunteer for JCPS. I'm an educator and I'm a professional musician. I come here this evening to speak my concern

145and to challenge each of you to do better for our JCPS music educators. I'm grateful for the commitment that you have made to our schools. And yet, I'm here tonight to plead that your communication be better articulated to all of our music educators. Two weeks ago, many JCPS music educators were alerted to the fact that they were considered overstaffed at their school. Grateful for the promise of future work as they have not been eliminated, but disappointed to lose positions that they have invested and loved their students. They were looking forward to jobs and descriptions that would be forthcoming. JCPS published March 15th on their Facebook site Fact Check about what was occurring with music in the schools. It was filled with buzzwords and beautiful ideas of equality for all, but nothing is stated how something

146is going to be occurring. What is the plan? Miss Listister, you're in my district and I voted for you. On your website, it clearly states that successful collaboration requires transparency and open communication, welcoming all stakeholders in decision-making. To my knowledge, there has been no plan that has been revealed as to how this will be carried out. Hearsay is that an HR firm create an idea and at no time were JCPS musical teachers consulted to come and share their ideas and thoughts about how a program like this could succeed until today and thank you for sharing that. I wonder if it was a news story though that is the reason for finally involving JCTA. As a parent, I feel betrayed. Didn't we learn this lesson two years ago? Was there not a lesson from the people

147that who are most directly involved that they should be at the table first to gather their wisdom? Where's the transparency and the invitation for all included? Every person who has chosen a career in music knows that music speaks to the soul of people. It teaches discipline. It encourages the power of community and from an interdisciplinary lens, it incorporates English, science, history, technology, and math. It teaches our students how to be and how to feel like a whole person. and thank you so much for making sure that we do include all of us. However, teaching lines have been eliminated in bands, choirs, and orchestra before there is a plan. One cannot say that music is the strongest it has ever been. And then in the next line state how there is going to be sweeping changes

148without plans in place. Musicians and music educators are always fully aware that despite how much important music is to the student that we are always walking a tenuous line with hoping that administrators recognize its importance. What a disappointment to learn that inadequate planning for music teachers was not in play or that a plan was not in place for music teachers and instead they are fearing fear, betrayal and sadness. Thank you for addressing music tonight and to all of you do better. Our music educators collaborate every day with junior musicians. I hope that you will all witness how creatively they can collaborate with you. Daniel [Applause] Patterson. Hello, my name is Daniel Patterson. I am a very proud JCPS student. I attend a very proud JCPS high school and yesterday I earned the Governor's Cup Writing

149Composition first place as a JCPS student. I really care about this school system and that is why it hurts to see such decisions made especially to the music program that are detrimental to the future. Now these choices that have been presented tonight have been made without any consideration of music teachers or those who are knowledgeable in the field of music that would be able to know what is best for the students and teachers alike. It it's imperative that we just we consult these people when we make these decisions or else the futures of music and music in the passion of music that students may find will just completely dissipate. Now I've seen lately elementary school programs completely just fall apart. They've it's I've seen high school teachers very confused and distressed about everything in the

150future because they are underserved because there has been a severe lack of communication about what is happening to the music program. It is clear that the um that this plan that has been constructed is not what's best for the students. It's what's easiest to manage by JCPS. It's not about equity because managing two complete programs would in fact create a difference in each school. One school is going to be shafted if one teacher is required to manage two complete programs on their own. You wouldn't expect a high school coach to manage two complete football programs. That's it's important that we recognize this because that's exactly what's happening right here. There's going to be a wider gap than there already is because of this. And it's just very important that we address this and we continue

151and we plan and we consult with people who are knowledgeable on this like music educators. We think about what truly is best for the students. I know that music hasn't just shaped the lives of me and my peers, it has saved our lives. So, thank you for supporting music and I hope that you will continue and change your way of thinking so that it does continue to help us. Thank [Applause] you, Mary Dennison. [Music] Hello. Um, I'm here to discuss a very important, long overlooked topic, classified staff and their salaries. I have been teaching for 13 years in a self-contained MSD classroom. Prior to that, I was an EC instructional assistant for seven years, and then I have one year as an office clerk. So, I've been around JCPS for a while. As a teacher

152of students with very significant and diverse needs, I depend on my instructional assistance tremendously. They assist with my lessons, making sure every student is on task, implementing IEP goals, making sure that they are independent, reaching their independent goals as much as possible in our everchanging world. I could not nor would I want to do my job without my left and right hands. Whether I am lessoning pl le planning, grading papers, um attending meetings or attending required trainings, they are there for our students. They not only assist with the education of the students, but they also assist with their personal needs such as toileting and medication and feeding among others. It blows me away when I look at how little pay they get for the work that they do. They are with our students more than

153anyone else in the building, including myself. On top of the assistance, our school depends on our security officers, our office staff, our clerks, our cafeteria staff, and our custodial staff to keep our buildings running safely and effectively. However, they along with the instructional assistants are the lowest paid employees and have been for years. They are very few who do not have to work a second job just to make ends meet. and there's a huge shortage in their position because of the lack of pay and lack of recognition. Please consider raising the salaries of these very important staff members. They truly are the backbone of our schools. Thank you. Thank you all for being with us tonight. I want to assure you that your voices are heard and uh this board will do its best to

154consider uh the best way of moving forward and uh we appreciate your service to this district. Uh we couldn't run our buildings day in and day out without you. So uh I think I can express on behalf of the board, thank you for your service to this district. Is there a motion to adjourn? Mr. Bass, seconded by Miss Listister. All in favor? Eyes have it. Thank you. Good night.