Volusia County School Board - Workshop⧸Work Session 7⧸29⧸2025

001I brought snacks. I didn't eat breakfast yet. It's been a busy day. >> Good afternoon. Today is Tuesday, July 29th, 2025, and the time now is 12:33 p.m. Welcome to the Valuchia County School um workshop. In just a moment, I'm going to ask those of you that are here with me and for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence and reflection. So at this time, will you please join me? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. I'd like to take a moment to just introduce those that are here with me. On my far left, we have Mrs. Donna Brosmer representing district

0024. Next to Miss Brosmer, we have Miss Christa Goodrich representing district two. Then we have Dr. Evans who is our schoolboard attorney. I'm moving over to the far right. We have Mrs. Celeste Gilmore, our agency clerk. Then we have Miss Jesse Thompson representing district three. Mr. Ruben Clone will join us in just a little while. He represents district 5 and is our vice chair. Then I have Dr. Carmen Balabin, our superintendent. And my name is Jamie Haynes and I represent district 1 and I'm your chair at this time. We have three items today for the workshop session. We're going to start under the category of teaching, leading, and learning. And our first item today is 2.01, our district accountability system. Dr. Balgaban. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, board members, members of the audience, and those

003of you listening at home. Welcome to our workshop today. As you know, our our strategic plan is a living breathing document, one that we use to continuously monitor, evaluate, assess, but also make adjustments when it comes to our plans. And approximately about two weeks ago or a little bit over two weeks ago, we received some really really official information regarding our the state of our county and the accountability process. So, as in past years, we wait until the data is official and then we take and we conduct our last progress monitoring of the year because it's official data at that point in time. So, we've got the team here with us. We've got Dr. Drayton, our executive director for secondary, along with Miss Chrissy Castellano, our executive director for elementary. We have two really important

004gentlemen to this organization. We have lots of important people in this organization, but these two individuals, Mr. Kyle Shaker and um Mr. Mike Seamino, they are your behind the scene guys. And I will tell you that I've worked with multiple REA research evaluation and accountability departments in my 27 years. 27. Yeah. you guys and this team here, the level of hands-on approach that they take in supporting our schools, our principles, our teachers, you're absolutely amazing at what you do and you're a blessing to this county. So, I ask both of you officially, I want to say thank you for all the hard work and nights that you've you've stayed up and Saturday and Sunday that you work behind the scene. You're truly invested into our county. Thank you. Thank you for all that you give

005to this community. And now come on up and uh do your presentation. [Applause] I can't ever open it. Sitting up here, >> right? Thank you for recognizing us, Superintendent Chair Haynes, uh Vice Chair, Mr. Cologne when you get here and all of the board members. Uh we are elated to be able to provide the result the state has provided a couple weeks ago. Obviously it is already news all around the county. Um but this is a true example of our classrooms coming together, our community coming together and our a so we're going to go ahead and dive in. Our district accountability presentation today will cover two major policies that the school board puts forwards which policy 308 consists of performance standards which talks about our monitoring of student data having assessments throughout the school year

006to ensure student learning is occurring and we're measuring that student learning and the student progression plan. Of course, it all aligns to that major strategic goal. Right. Guard rail two though is the direct one with teaching, leading and learning being the the key front there. Okay. Our school and district story of excellence is all exemplified within this presentation. You're going to see a lot of items within each slide. Right? We're not going to hit every single point on every single slide, but there's so much to celebrate and so many details that went into the work from making sure teachers are getting paid in the finance department, making sure school buses arrive on time, transportation, making sure the lights work with our FMTs and everybody else in the operating office, our administrators ensuring that teachers are

007supported, and all other aspects of Valuchia County Schools. This is a historic moment that we get to share as a community all across Valuchia County schools. Whether you have a student in Valuchia County or you just live in Valuchia County, we get to all brag that we are in an A county. It is a truly momentous occasion. This is the first time since the district grading scale is in its current status that we have earned an A. the first time that our district grading scale with 12 components Valuchia County Schools has ever seen an A rating. It's a true celebration. We have had four A's in Valuchia County Schools before. This is our fourth one. Let me clarify. This is our fourth A that Valuchia County Schools has earned. The last A was over 16

008years ago under an entirely different district grading scale. And we're going to explain what that district grading scale looked like, how it's transformed all across the last 25 years that it's been put in place so we can really get a further understanding of the amount of rigor that has increased by the state level from FCAT to FSA to FAST. Right? There's a lot of different things that occurred throughout the history of the grading system. Okay, highlighting that once again, we have an A in Valuchia County Schools. the first time under this district grading scale 16 years since we saw our last day in 2008 2009 school year and we are number one this year in the amount of points that we have earned across every single year. This is the highest amount of points that

009we have earned with that A rating. [Music] [Applause] So the overall A is obviously very celebratory, but what goes into that A is even more success story. There are 12 components that the school grading system and district grading scales has. Seven of those 12 components reached the highest they have ever reached in Valuchia County Schools history. This is another huge celebration, right? We should be ecstatic that this this last year 20 2024 and 2025, these seven components are the highest that they have ever been, right? Our ELA achievement, our math achievement, our science achievement, our social studies achievement. That's four for four. All four academic areas that are tested on have reached their highest they have ever reached in Valuch County schools. [Applause] There are more to the district grade than just those four though,

010right? That includes learning gauge, graduation rate, college and career acceleration. Our graduation rate was released back in January. You already knew this number. It carries over for the district grading scale was again the highest Valuchia County Schools has ever seen. Our students are walking out of our schools with diplomas in hand, job ready due to care college and career acceleration opportunities increasing. Our learning gains and our students with disabilities, our English language learners are all closing the achievement gap, the highest close that we have ever seen of Lush County Schools as well. So, we're leveling the playing field for all of our students, increasing the rigor, and increasing the expectation for every student in our buildings. Their learning is evident in the measurements that the state provides. I'm gonna slide it on over to Mike

011me. We're gonna bounce back and forth uh on the slides here. What's even more amazing too here is when you look at the school grade distribution, you'll notice that 100% of our schools are proficient. Every single school in Valuchia County earned either an A, a B, or a C rating, which is absolutely outstanding. [Applause] Our A schools increased year-over-year from 11 to 20 in the elementary division. We had a total AB school increase from 26 to 31. zero DRF schools and one school stark which we'll talk about a little bit more in a moment went from a D to an F which is an extraordinary leap and what Kyle only one of how many schools was that? Two schools in the entire state that right >> had that um had that growth. >> One of

012two elementary schools in the state of Florida were able to achieve this jump and we here in Valuchia County schools are proud to call one of them our schools. So, it's not just the elementary division either. It's across the board. So, when we look at the middle schools, all middle schools are also rated A, B, or C. And three of these schools improved from a C to a B. Zero D's or Fs. And 75% of schools increased their point totals this academic year. and our high schools as well. For the first time ever, all high schools, no matter what high school you're attending in Valuchia County, you can proudly say you are going to either an A or B-rated high school. Our A schools increase from four to seven. And we had three schools also

013increase from a B to an A, which is an again a remarkable achievement for our high schools. [Applause] So in terms of some historic milestones that we had here at Valuchia County Schools, I mentioned earlier, no DRF schools. So for the first time since 2008, Valuchia County has no D or F schools and no schools identified as turnaround by the Florida Department of Education. All of our high schools are rated A or B. And among all of the school districts in the Central Florida Coalition, we had the second highest graduation rate among those districts. So from elementary to high school, absolutely historic achievements for Valuchia County Schools. >> Mike, I'm sorry to interject. Can you share the 94% does that include charter schools? >> Yes. So So Kyle, you want to >> Yes. So all

014of our components that we dive into, all components that we get rated on, ELA achievement, ELA learning gains, lowest cortile learning gains, all 12 of these components, including graduation rate, college and career acceleration rate, include charter schools, but not just charter schools, alternative sites, department of juvenile residential facilities, Steuart Marchman, all of these sites, these alternate sites that come from other schools even some students that get put into our system from other counties um and they attend uh the Daytona Juvenile Residential Facility or or corrections um alt sites, charter schools are all included. If they are inside Valuchia County borders, they're going to be impacting our ELA achievement all the way down to the graduation rate. Right? Third grade to graduation rate. All of these components, all 12 include every single student. Lucia County public

015schools, Lucia County charter schools, Luchia County alternative sites, correction sites, >> all encompassed within our >> one more question because we're going to we're having a discussion here and we want to make sure that myths and misconceptions are clarified. So if you were to take out subtract the charter school scores from our graduation rate, what would it be if we were just looking at just our 10 traditional high schools? N in this past cohort class of 2024 would have been a 96.3% graduation rate for just our 11 schools. If if I'm being clear, I'm talking about Valuchia online and then all of the the others the 10 brickandmortar sites would be 96.3 if we were to get rid of all those alternatives. >> Oh wow. >> Can I can I ask a question? Does this

016include the Richard Milbour Academy? >> The 94% rating does include Richard Milbour Academy. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> We are the LEA for charter schools. So therefore their their scores are part >> I just want to clear up any things I've heard out in the community. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. Yes, >> there are students. >> All right. So we've seen significant growth in our overall district our district ranking. So when you go back to 2023, we were ranked 40th among Florida's 67 school districts. So you would say we're in the bottom half of all districts in central in all districts of the state of Florida. When we look at 2025, we are now ranked 24th, almost pretty much in the top third of all districts within the state of Florida. So, we've had a huge

017steady upward trajectory from 23 to 24 to 25, showing significant improvement in all tested areas throughout the past three years. We mentioned earlier about certain schools and we're just going to touch on a few of them here. Uh, first off, Edith Stark Elementary. We mentioned earlier the amazing success that Edith Stark had going from a D to an A. And we mentioned earlier one of only two elementary schools in the entire state of Florida this year to achieve that success. This was due to multiple things. Implementing a comprehensive literacy initiative, extended learning opportunities through afterchool programs, enhanced parent involvement, targeted professional development. It's not just a one-sizefits-all. There's lots of people that have come together at all of these sites to have them achieve this level of success. Mainland High School earning its first ever

018A in school history. That's a monumental achievement for that school. We've seen expanded a advanced placement courses and dual enrollment offerings. There's been implementations of new careermies, innovative and high demand fields, focused ninth grade transition with those dedicated support teams, and large amounts of increased graduation rate through those targeted interventions of 6%. And then also Taylor Middle earning its first B in school history [Applause] again creating personalized learning pathways for those middle school students. enhanced vertical articulation between middle and high school programs and those datadriven instructional practices across all departments. This is not just you you're seeing success across the board at so many different sites across Valuchia County schools. This is not an isolated thing. It's a way of work of how things have transformed over the past five years here in Valuchia County

019schools. >> If you don't mind, I'd like to say something for just a moment. So, as far as Stark Elementary goes, we've watched them be under the state and the state come in and out of that school and everything. But I want to give a huge shout out to the staff there this year because the teachers and the staff there this year worked really hard together. And I know that there are some individuals out there that left other positions that they had and they returned to Stark because those students had their hearts. And this is amazing. But anytime I visited that campus, what I saw was intentional instruction and them closely monitoring their students. And there's always been that saying that what gets monitored gets accomplished or done. And that's what happened at Stark. And

020we as a district need to be congratulating that group because not only while this was going on, their new school was being built in the background with a principal that was trying to manage a brand new school being built, but make sure her students were getting the education they needed. So, thank you. [Applause] Uh we would be remiss to also mention um Enterprise Elementary School. they went from a C to an A. So that was one of our other schools that was able to jump u more than one letter grade. So I want to celebrate Enterprise as well. A lot of that same intentionality in the building occurred. Um the support of the district staff to uh support all the students in their learning accomplished at Enterprise as well, jumping up two letter grades. [Applause]

021All right. So, we said we had all those district components go up, right? So, I'm going to give us those exact numbers right here so that you can see them in comparison to the 23 24 uh report card as well. Um, you have grade three ELA achievement which this is the second year that that is a separate component for the district rating scale and for our elementary schools as well. And when we look at that school that score that 58% that is our district grade score and that number has actually gone up 2% not just last year but the year before and the year before that. So every year for the past three years we have increased our third grade achievement by two points. Our students are leaving third grade ready for the fourth grade

022and we are on par with the state when we look at our raw test score numbers in grade three ELA. Our graduation rate of course going going up two points. ELA achievement, mathematics achievement all increasing. We have our ELA learning gains and our lowest cortile learning gains. Social studies achievement saw the second highest increase with a fivepoint increase. Then we have our acceleration, middle school acceleration and college and career acceleration. This is that opportunity to provide students with the next level of curriculum, the next level of rigor. They've shown that they have the opportunities by putting these opportunities in our classrooms from CTE to higher level courses like AP ACE and IB. These numbers continue to rise because of the opportunities and the teachers that are teaching them, allowing them to learn skills that will

023support them outside of the school system. Okay, we're going to drill back down into some elementary and then middle and high celebrations. All right. So, when we dive into our elementary schools, 69% of our schools increase their total possible points compared to the 23 24 school year. And even like this next stat, it blows my mind. It is so impressive. We had seven schools increase in every school grade component across the board. That's ELA, math, science, learning gains, lowest quartortile, all of those components. All seven they increased in our A schools increased from 11 to 20. Our A's and B's increased from 26 to 31. And again, no D's or Fs and all schools exiting turnaround status. Our elementary improvement strategy has been focused on those strong foundational skills in literacy and mathematics while fostering

024creativity, critical thinking, and social emotional development. The dramatic improvement in school grades reflects both those higher achievement and greater student growth in all elementary grades. So again all lots of elementary schools showing that increase uh this year and we again mentioning that Edith Edith Stark going from a D to an A but also those B to A improvements as well. We had nine elementary schools increase from a B to an A including Beachside, Citrus Grove, Horizon, Indian River, Ostein, Port Orange, Reed, Patillo, Timberrest, and to Mocha. These schools enhanced differentiated instruction practices. They integrated technology. They expanded STEM opportunities. They implemented enhanced literacy programs. And they focused on professional learning communities. All of these things helping to play a part in their overall success. And additionally, we had five elementary schools go from a C

025to a B as well. George Marks, Manatee Cove, Pride, South Daytona, and Spirit all showing those that area of growth. again by implementing early warning systems, expanding before and after school uh programs and learning opportunities, enhanced parent involvement, targeted interventions for specific subgroups, and using data to drive instruction were some key things to helping these schools meet this level of success. It's even more impressive when you look at the grade distribution. So when you're looking at this graph, you can see the light blue being last year and that darker color being current year. You can see the number of A's going up and you could see no Fs, no D's, and that overall decrease in the number of C's as well. We're moving a lot of our schools. It's a whole change in the way,

026you know, in the process going from 24% of elementary schools earning an A all the way up to 44% of our elementary schools earning an A. And then 56 earn% earning an A or a B to 69% earning an A or a B. So much success throughout all of our elementary schools. I just want to highlight those bars one more time because when you look at the fact that our number of C's are decreasing, our D's are completely gone, and the number of A's is nearly doubled in one year's time is truly impressive. Schools getting into that top tier category and almost doubling that quantity in our elementary schools is not an easy task. It's not easy to get into that A dis designation, right? Getting into that A designation requires a high amount of

027points across all of your components. You cannot just rock in science in order to get an A rating. Science needs to be strong. ELA achievement, math achievement. Then you have your four other components is learning gains. So an equal weight not just in academic achievement but growth as well. You cannot just be strong in achievement. Your students need to continue to learn year-over-year in order to get to that A level. And the fact that elementary school division was able to nearly double that number in one year time is is truly significant. >> Historic. >> Miss Goodrich has a question >> because this is a conversation. I do have some more questions. Um and I just don't want to forget them as you go along because there's a lot of information here. So these numbers for

028whether it's elementary through high school, these are numbers from state tests, correct? So we're compared against everyone else in the state. Are there any um so I've heard out there that we pull students out of schools to and and only test the ones that are more likely to succeed. Is that real or is that a social media rumor? No, we we we cannot withdraw students and make them disappear. Um that's that's not that's not how I don't know any other way to put it. Um because the students need to go to school, the students need to learn. And when we are if they're put into Richard Milbour Academy for an example or any other charter school or alternative site again those test scores are included their learning gains are included in every one of our

029components. >> So we're not asking um ESC students to not test. >> I just these are just things I hear on social media. So I just want to dispel them because this is the place to do that, right? >> Yes. So, um, okay. So, I I don't believe that to be true. I just wanted to make sure we said that out loud for the public. >> And I'm I am going to in in this presentation towards the end, we talk about the requirements that a district must must meet in order to even receive a district grade. And and part of that is testing your students, is testing at least 95% of students. Um, and you'll see in the presentation that we are above that number and we've been consistent with that number. >> Awesome. Thank

030you. May I add something, please? So, um, to piggy back off of what you said, one of the roles that I had prior to being here on the board was I was a testing coordinator for 10 years at, um, schools. So I was responsible for ensuring that all students were tested, they all received their accommodations, they were given the right test because some of our ESSE students depending on their ability level, there are some that are administered a different type of test. And I will tell you that was one of the best things that happened because years ago when testing started, every child had to take the same test. So, there was a time period where yes, they had an IEP and they could be a third grader that is finally starting to learn their

031letters and sounds or they may be nonverbal with an IQ that was lower that you're teaching life skills to, but when we would go to take the test, they had to sit and have the booklet put in front of them whether they could read it or not, and they had to take the test. So I was very happy when the state realized you need to give them something that's assessing what they're working on. So there are a handful of our children in Valuchia County that take like the access test which is based on where they're working at because why would you set a 10th grader down that is never you know basic reading or no reading and put a 10th grade test in front of them like that. There's just no point. You just frustrate

032a child. And on the other side is it is so important because if you don't hit the 95% you get a letter I. You don't you do not get a letter grade you get an I. And that has happened to some of our schools of Lush County. You know it's happened to some of our high schools elementary middle. You as a testing coordinator and teachers you work really hard. And I this year even was at Stark Elementary two days where the principal there was nicely calling parents and saying, "What will it take to get Susie here tomorrow so that she can take her test?" Because kids get sick and I actually was a bad parent. I'll be honest with you. As a testing coordinator, I sent my daughter to fifth grade one morning when she

033told me she didn't feel well and she threw up on her science test. So her test did not count for Valuchia County Schools. We lost her in the 95% mark and she was so devastated cuz she said, "My test doesn't count now, Mom. And I tried to tell you I didn't feel good." And I raised my hand to tell my teacher and she just shook her head and said, "I can't talk to you because they're not allowed to talk." So, she threw up on her test. So, I will tell you whatever's being said along those lines, it's not happening because the people at schools, we want the kids to take the test. we need them to take the test because as an instructor that told me what type of job I did. Did I have

034them prepared for the test or were there areas that I should have done better preparing them for the test? >> And chair hands I want to just add this Florida alternate assessment um for students with severe cognitive disabilities. they are on access points curriculum and and it's allowing them to have that modified curriculum to to meet the student where they're able to learn and those students performance including learning gains um are all included within our calculations as well. The state adds them into our calculations based on how they perform on that assessment. They actually add them into learning gains, lowest cortile learning gains based on their growth from the prior one. Right? So if they if they took that alternate assessment in grade three and then they took it again in grade four, they calculate

035that learning gain. How much did that student grow within the curriculum that is appropriate for them based on their IEP? All right. Students with disabilities may not test on the first day. They may get pulled to a small group because that's the accommodation that's within their IEP. So that could be another u myth uh is that we pull students out of testing rooms. We place them in the room that is appropriate for them based on their IEP. Yeah. And that that's an accommodation that the state and the IEP team have designated appropriate for that student at their level. >> What on a middle school? >> Yeah. On a middle school. >> And all those things apply to middle schoolers and high schoolers as well. So as we continue forward. >> Yeah. So when we look

036at our middle schools again, when we look at the total amount of middle schools increasing or maintaining their total possible points, 75% 3/4ers of our middle schools showed measurable improvement in their performance metrics. In addition, nine middle schools earned an A or a B in 2425, which is up from six in 2324. So that's a 50% increase in the number of high performing middle schools in one year. [Applause] We had three middle schools also improve from a C to a B. The Land Middle School implementing targeted literacy interventions and enhanced STEM opportunities. Galaxy Middle School expanded advanced course offerings and implemented personalized learning initiatives. And Heritage Middle School enhanced professional learning communities and datadriven instructional practices helped guide those schools to their success. And again, no schools receiving a DRF rating ensuring that all middle

037school students, regardless of school, have access to quality educational environments here in Valuchia County schools. There were a series of factors that contributed to this, but some of those key initiatives were enhanced transition programs from elementary to middle, expanded access to high school courses for advanced students, implementation of targeted interventions for those struggling readers, and an increased emphasis on STEM education and career exploration. And this graph honestly is again truly remarkable. Look at that difference from the same format as we saw with elementary. Look at B's specifically though. Doubling from four to eight your number of B's and decreasing in half your number of C's from six to three. And again, no D's or Fs. So that's sustained improvement across the board with all of our middle schools. And last but not least, our high

038school performance. 73% of our high schools increased or maintained their total possible points and an unprecedented 100% of high schools earning an A or a B, which is the first time ever in Valuchia County school history that all of our high schools are A or B schools. Another historic achievement uh when we look at Seabbze High School increased to 72% total possible points which is the highest total points earned by a secondary school in the history of Valuchia County schools. So congratulations to Seby's High School. Three high schools improved from a B to an A. The Land High School, their enhanced AP program with 15 new course offerings and an increased participation of 22% helped drive that B to an A. Mainland High School, again, we mentioned earlier their first A in history through expanded

039careermies and improved student proficiency across all subject areas. And University High School implementing those innovative college readiness programs and expanding dual enrollment opportunities. And of course, Taylor earning its first B in school history with a comprehensive academic reforms, including that redesign master schedule, enhanced vertical articulation between middle and high school programs, datadriven practices, expanded career and technical educational offerings, and those enhanced college readiness initiatives really helping that school achieve their first ever B. [Applause] And I just want to uh give high school they're they're not as well like I gave elementary high schools have 10 components that they have and and a matter of fact u you you have Taylor who has 11 components. So the fact that they were able to get their first ever B with that many components and high schools to

040increase that many A's and B's overall is again truly significant because you're talking about more metrics that they have to get above that threshold. All right? If if a if there is a component that is underneath that a threshold, then it's going to pull that average down. Right? That's the way that averages work. So, if they have more components, they've got more things that they have to keep their their heartbeat on, right? Their their pulse check. So, all of our high schools, uh, a huge nod. Um, Dr. Drayton and your team. And again, this graph here that you see is again, it's it's outstanding. So, when you're there are no D's or Fs, and this time here, there's no C's either. You can see that zero in that dark blue. And you can see the

041number of A's almost doubling, going from four to seven. And then of course having those four B's as well. Just an amazing amazing improvement for our high schools. Well, all right. So, looking specifically at multi-year growth since the 2122 school year, the thing about this A that we have that we have been able to obtain here in Valian County Schools is not a flash in the pan. A there is systematic change that has occurred going all the way back to the 21-22 school year. The the fruits of the labor of things that we put into place back in the 21-22 school year post pandemic. All of that hard work that started a long time ago has led to this constant and consistent improvement that we have seen over the past four to five years. So

042when we look back at 2122, we only earned 57% of the total possible points on the school grading scale. During this time, we were reflecting and trying to figure out what can we do in order to improve. We were fresh out of COVID. We were trying to identify those learning gaps. We were trying to figure out what ways we can come up with academic recovery programs. We were trying to enhance our professional development. We were trying to figure out ways to represent data better as well. How can we get our teachers the data that they need? When we implemented those things, we saw a substantial growth to the 2223 school year where we moved from 57 to 61%. Now, this school year, I believe that was the baseline year, right Kyle? That's 61%. So, we

043showed significant growth. We're able to see as a result of the enhanced curriculum alignment. We expanded our intervention programs for struggling students. We implemented instructional uh instructional coaching model. and we increased our focus on early literacy and mathematics foundations. So that sort of set that groundwork. Whereas when we had 20 the 23 24 school year, we were almost an A. We missed the A by three percentage points. However, this kind of it fueled our determination in order to get to where we are now. We came up and reflected again, how can we improve? What do we need to do to move our school district forward? We came up with targeted support for components that needed improvement. We enhanced our data driven decision-making process. We expanded advanced academic opportunities and we strengthened our professional learning communities.

044As a result of all that work that we started back in the 2122 school year, we have earned our first day in 16 years here in the 2425 school year. It was that persistence that we had going all the way back to five years ago that led us to this point today. And it's not like we just jumped up one year. It's a consistent achievement growth pattern that you look and see all the way back from 21-22 from that school year. These are all very highlevel systems. Schools have their own systems. Districts have their own challenges. Schools have their own challenges. Even with all the challenges that a school has faced, families have faced, and our county may have faced, we've been able to maintain these systems and reflect and refine on them. And that

045process continues into the 2526 school year so that our growth can maintain not only just an A, but to get deeper into the A. All right. Yeah. So, when you look at our and this chart really is amazing as well. This is our percentage of schools who earned an A or a B. So when you look back to the 2122 school year, 46% of our schools earned an A or a B. And you could see that consistent growth throughout four years. It's not like a one-year flash where you saw a huge jump in one year. It's a consistent pattern of sustained success and improvement over a 4-year period from 46% to 55% to 62% to now 75% of schools earning that A or B rating. That is huge improvement over the past four years for

046both our elementary and our secondary schools. All right. So now going back to high school because that is one area that we saw huge growth in A's back to 2122 just like Mike said zero of our high schools were an A rated through consistent analyzing performance developing customized improvement plans enhancing professional development and beginning expansion of advanced academic opportunities from ACE IB um CTE uh opportunities as well. we were able to increase to get one high school up to that A in 22 23. Now that we have a model, we have the exemplar that were able to take and learn from and implement those actions into other schools and begin begin to permeate the rest of our division. 23 24 we saw an increase of four high schools. And then 2425. This past school year,

047we have seven high schools to have the most amount of high schools A-rated in Valuchia County schools. I want to uh also go back to that timeline that Mike showed really quick because there was a transition from FSA to FAST within this. And when that transition happens, the grading scale hits a baseline again and they have to reestablish what the cut scores are. We're going to dive into the cut scores and everything like that of what that specific change was a little bit later in the presentation. Our three-year academic achievements over the these past school grading and district grading releases, our graduation excellence has maintained an increase over the past three years. Science and biology specifically have been above the state average for three consecutive years. Our math achievement this past year, geometry was seven

048points above the state average. And our language programs have begun to expand as well over the 23 24 25 school years, allowing students to have even more opportunities outside of your core curriculum. The A rating is nice, but Valuchia County should be seen on a national scale as well. So, we have plenty of national recognitions here that we'd like to show in that three-year history as well. Our Cambridge International Distinction uh for being district of the year by the ACE Cambridge Foundation. And our ACE exam excellence students are getting recognized on a national level for their highest earnings and highest markings on their ACE exams. And Coronado Beach got a 2024 National Blue Ribbon Scholar. [Applause] Okay. We also have divided up achievements and recognitions throughout each district to allow you to have a plan

049a pamphlet or or a quick access to how your district did over the past 2425 school year. And these are all just copies of those. Okay. So now I would like to take you on a trip 25 years ago. Okay? So stick with me here because I'm I'm going to throw a lot of things on this timeline, but I'm going to try to phase it in. Okay? Based on where we started in 1999 when school grades were first announced and first began to be released. In 1999, a school grade had three components. Three components. And if you you'll keep recalling everything I've said, we're just talking about 12 components now. So in 1999 you have three components and they are reading, math and writing. Reading, math, and writing. That's all that was reported on a

050school grade. >> Writing was the push. >> No, I'm not kidding you. That's all we heard. Everybody had to write. >> FCAT writing. >> It was the push. >> That's right. I'm sorry. I did not know that note the FCAT piece of this. Right. This is during the FCAT era. um very beginning when not only the state is trying to figure out how to rate schools, how to measure student learning, but obviously as a system we're trying to learn how can we ensure that our students are learning by these metrics. So in 2002 they added a few more components. The learning gains, right? Showing growth from one year to the next. So they added that for reading and math and they also added a component to talk about our lowest performing students and that's just

051for reading right now in 2002 though. All right. In 2004, Valuchia County Schools earned its first ever A rating under the um district grade scale and that has half of the components that we are dealing with today. 2007 they introduced the science achievement component and then they decided that we should also focus on our low students in math as well. So they added the learning gains for the lowest 25% of math in 2008. So the year following th that addition now we have eight components. We got an A 2008 and an A in 2009. And as we move forward to 2014, to the last year of FCAT, we have our transition to 2015. This was a transition from FCAT to FSA. And with a new assessment, a new measure of student learning, we are now

052adding four more components. And these four components kind of begin to round out everything that is happening within our schools today. The measurements at least. So we have social studies achievement, middle school acceleration, graduation rate, and college and career acceleration are all added as measures of student learning within uh district grading scales and school grading scales. So that last day was in 2009. And as we continue forward a whole era of FSA and now we're a couple years into the fast era, we've added another component. So when we added social studies achievement, middle school acceleration, graduation rate, college and career acceleration over that that entire era of 16 years, we did not have a single A. And with the fast assessment, brand new assessment, we were able to achieve that A rating with 12 components.

053So moving from eight components since our last A to 12 components, not only have we changed the district grading scale, but the assessments themselves have become far more rigorous in how we measure student learning. Right? All right, I'm going to move on past the timeline. Right now, in order to get those ratings, percent tested has always been and will always be part of state accountability. We have to test the students in order to have an accurate measure of student learning. If I test half of my students, it's not a good judgment of how my school is doing. I'm not going to be able to tell you that my students are on grade level or below grade level. I need to have at least 95%. Um, and I've got Mike. He is our statistician and assessment

054um warehouse powerhouse. Um, I'm going to let him talk to you about really quick, Mike. Why why is testing 95% of students um very important both statistically uh and and ethically when we measure student learning? Honestly, it's kind of like if you flip a coin. You flip a coin once, heads, tails, you have a 50-50 chance. You don't really have causation. In order to get causation, in order to get reliable and valid results, you have to measure 95% of your students. If you don't test enough kids, you're not going to get a valid representation of what that district has for that whole cherry-picking scenario. You you can't have that because then it's not going to be a representation of the student population. So in order to get a reliable and valid measurement, statisticians have shown

05595% is that key number within a population to identify whether or not a school has met this criteria in order to earn an A. So that 95% tested is found in statistics and is shown to have a reliable and a valid number of students in order to have an overall um measurement of how that school performed. Thank you, Mike. So, you did a great job, right, without using vocabulary that that confuses me half the time. Um, I I appreciate that, Mike. Um, so what we're looking at, I know you can I know you can can prank them out. Um, so what I want to show in this this chart here though is the percent of students that are tested in Valuchia County schools on a on a historical scale. Right? In 2020, we had co

056we didn't test at all. Right? So that's why I'm starting at 2021. And you can see that we were not able to get to the 95% threshold. This was not a Valuchia County schools problem, right? This was not a challenge um just in Valuchia County schools. Um but if I don't say uh Florida, I'll say nationally to get students to come in during this year was very difficult in order to measure their learning. Right? So the state did have flexibility where if a school would like to opt in or a district for that matter would like to opt in to receive a grade that they can, right? But when we think about the percent of students that you're able to get in that year, then you may or may not want to opt in because

057you don't have an accurate representation of your student population. Right? That following year, we were able to rebound, of course, get to 96% and ever since that 2023 year, we have been consistent the past three years. the same number of students have been assessed 97% 97% of our students are assessed which is over that threshold of 95% in order to have an accurate representation and that 97% includes all of our Valuchia County public schools right all the schools that we have within our district that includes charters alternative sites when I say alternative sites I'd like to further define it because you're talking about corrections um charter schools like RMA Burns Ivy Vhan, Samsula, Reading Edge, U Pace Center, um we had Legacy Scholars, um not not a charter, but was one of our alternative sites.

058All of these students, they take the tests, they get counted in our percent tested, and if they've taken the test, then they're going to count in our district grade, our district grade, and our school grades. All these students are included. Um, English language learners. I also like to talk about them because some people think because they are fresh from a different country. Um, they haven't they haven't been in United States school system for um, you know, a year or two that they're not included. But students who are within our school system and they take that test, they can be included in our district grade in our percent tested all these numbers. Hospital homebound students are even included. any student charter, non-charter, alternative sites are all included within our school grading scales and district grading scales.

059Okay, so that's past, right? That's the past. Now we're looking towards the future, right? And I said we are aiming higher, right? We're we're going to be aiming higher. Of course, um a is not a question, right? The the A is where we are going to be. It's how deep into the A are we shooting? So the escalator clause is a fancy word for the rigor is going to be increased at the state level for certain types of schools. Um by type of school I'm talking about elementary, middle, high, combination. These are all types of schools. So the escalator clause states that if 75% of a school type earn an A or a B, so across all of Florida, if 75% of high schools earn an A or a B, the rigor is going to

060increase, right? So now the bar to get an A or to get a B, C, D, or an F goes up a little bit. Okay, the specific number is to the next five or zero. Okay, so I'm going to give a chart here in the next one so you can see exactly what those numbers are to help demonstrate what the next five or zero will be. But the ultimate goal here is for the state system to match what normal thought process is about an A, B, C, D, or an F. Right? When we say A, first number you think of is 90 to 100 probably, right? That's not the way the school grading scales work. That's not the way the district grading scales are right now, though. But this escalator clause is essentially the goal

061for Florida to get there and the goal for Valuchia County schools to get there. So, a district is essentially a giant combination school. We have K12, right, across all of our students. So, Valuchia County Schools falls in that combination school. 75% of combination schools did earn an A or a B. So that means that they will be changing the district grading scale for the upcoming school year, right? But the great part about the escalator clause is that it's for next year, right? We know what the target is going into it. It's not a surprise. We don't have to wonder all year what our goals need to be. We know at the very beginning of the year, this is where we're aiming. The district, the state cannot change something in the middle of a school year

062that would impact the accountability system. Okay, that did happen for high schools as well. All right, so you're going to see a shift in high schools, right, which is of course the high schools that we have and combination schools, right? So Taylor uh although they are a high school, we uh consider them a combination school because they are 612. Uh so you're looking at the left of this chart. It's telling you what the current scale was in 2425 and it's moving to like we said the next five or zero. So we see that A go from 64 to 65, right? Maybe not that big of a deal. The B's one is really the one that that we are looking at because it is a larger jump. It's going from 57 as that lowest threshold to

063a 60 as the lowest threshold for a B. Okay. And you can see the rest there, C, D, and F. Um, all moving up one point based on the minimum threshold. Okay. Elementary schools and middle schools will still be within the normal scale that they had this past year. Okay, that scale will continue which again is an advantage versus much prior years where we didn't know what the scale was even going into the summer. Right? So now we know what the scale is. We know where the goals are for all types of schools across county schools. Right? And that is our closing. I I appreciate the opportunity to to share. I feel um I know there's a lot of jealous people out there. Um I wish Dr. Vier was here to share this good news

064with you as well. Um but we we feel very lucky to be the ones who get to share the good news um of such a historic time in Valuchia County Schools um as a a former Valuchia County school student um Valuchia County Schools uh teacher and now being able to to work with everyone here in the district office. um being able to see a 16-year in the making a um across those 12 components. First time that Blush County Schools has received that um testing 97% of our students um is truly a a significant and it's a blessing that me and Mike are able to share this presentation with you and yeah, >> thank you everyone, >> Miss Thompson. Thank you and thank you guys so much for all the hard work that you've put in

065behind the scenes. I know a lot of the stuff most people don't see all the work that goes in and all the data that gets collected and I believe it was uh Kristen and I were at an event recently speaking to a table of people you know just casually about like what goes into it and how the data is collected and how the data is used and how it's distributed to teachers and it's so in-depth and I feel like we blew minds a little bit um which was great. It's always fun to do that. But also, thank you for the in-depth presentation that you gave because I know there's a lot of people that have a lot of questions and so when you provide all of this, I think you answered a lot of questions

066that people have. So, thank you so much for that. >> Dr. Bachman, >> I I will go last. Let Miss board member Thompson. >> Good. >> Thank you guys again for all the hard work from the the first time I met you guys and you showed me all your data. You knew how I felt that day. I was very clear about it. We are as you know uh we are sitting on a program that is phenomenal and you guys implemented it through times where people doubted it where you know there's a lot of noise out there and you guys stuck with it and the whole district stuck with it even when it was hard and you you all worked together to get us here. So congratulations wholeheartedly. Just for a quick review, we are not

067moving students from our schools to other schools to get them off our books, right? >> No, we are not. >> Okay, just quick review. We are not having groups of students stay home because we think they're going to test poorly. >> No. >> Okay. We had 2% more than the required amount test, which is my math tells me about a thousand extra students tested than we were required to. >> It's actually about 2,000. Okay, my math. student is economics. >> Yeah. Wasn't my major%. >> I wasn't at Spruce Creek with their amazing math teacher over there. But um are private schools held to these same standards? >> Private schools are not held to these same standards. >> Okay. Um and so any thoughts on what we can do? You know, there's so much misinformation out

068there and it spread via social media. We know this. And so can you give us bullet points and stuff? and you guys have continued to do so. But we need to stop the misinformation, stop people from saying, "Oh, they're doing I've heard all of these things. I heard this two years ago. I heard it last year. I heard it recently." So, I appreciate you guys sharing this. Continue the hard work and let it be our job to let the community know what's going on behind the scenes. >> Mr. Rosmer, >> I attended the uh the new teacher event this morning and all of this data makes me very proud of our teachers. uh they do yman's work in getting the kids across the finish line and um I think it it's especially brave of a

069lot of them to become teachers because it it can be a minefield um in the classroom each day and they talked about some of that in in the presentations this morning. So, um it makes me especially um proud and and grateful to the teachers and thank you for bringing all of this data forward because that uh helps tremendously too from a personal point of view because I was um lobbying 25 years ago when when um this grading system was first introduced. I especially appreciated the timeline because the state keeps moving the goalposts and that complicates your job. It complicates the job of the district. It complicates the teachers role and understanding that that timeline and that progression and the upcoming changes also helps a lot. So I just wanted to say thank you for all

070of it. >> Absolutely. Yes. >> Absolutely. >> Dr. Bachman. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Guys, phenomenal work. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. So, I will share this with you. You know, I'm in those at a stage in my life reflection is key. In Florida, we've had many governors. I will tell you that our current governor has done an exceptionally good job in ensuring that when it comes to the accountability system for public education in the state of Florida that remains very rigorous. As a matter of fact, nationally, we're being recognized for our educational system here in Florida in terms of the level of rigor that it embeds. So that's first and foremost. Second, I remember my time here in Valuchia County from the time that I got here pre slightly before CO

071went through the COVID motions with everyone and then out of CO right to where we are. I remember where we were. I remember where we were. And the reason why Valuchia County is special to me because I had a sampling of the people here and this community and truly truly what this community is about. This is a dedicated community that if you have an opportunity to experience them, their heart is fully in embedded in the work that we do. And that's what moved me. That's the reason why I chose to be part of Valuchia County. Yeah, we hear a lot of noise out there. And I will tell you, Miss Goodidge, I've been here. I feel like I've lived here my whole life now. It's orchestrated. It's generated. It's by a handful, a small handful.

072My father also taught me growing up, consider your critics. Right? I always said that if you're an expert in your field, I will listen to you. If your life in itself shows that you have no understanding of what you're talking about, I will save my time and my energy and put it elsewhere. But when we talk about achieving an A status, it's our students. It's the work that they have demonstrated. It's the skill set that they have learned. You don't minimize that. No one should be minimizing that. And to be frank with you, I have the opportunity of seeing our students in action. And when I see many of our students, the way they conduct themselves, the way they talk, the way they process this world, their thinking, I said, "My grandchildren will be in

073good hands." That's the reassurance it gives me. So our kids deserves this. Our teachers who are in the front line every single day. And a lot of these great teachers out there, they don't come out, they don't say anything. their servant leaders. They'll show up and they'll do their very best every single day. Those are our superheroes. They're our superstars. >> Okay? Like I I said this morning, no teacher joins this field because they want to get rich, right? No one in the field of education. But also, I will tell you, I've worked with four teams. This is my fourth team here in Valuchia County. And I will tell you singlehandedly, these groups, these people that we have in our county, the majority, they want to be here and they want to do the right

074thing for kids. Okay? I've worked with complainers in my life. Trust me. But this group of individuals that we have here, the majority of them, they want to do what's right for kids. So when this team came here and and rise and and said we're going to set the expectations high and we're going to help you rise to those expectations. That's exactly what they did because we didn't have to, you know, get them to se want to do something. They wanted to do it. They just needed the guidance and the support mechanisms. So I say this to you. We will never work in a county where you will not have a group of critics. Always consider the source. Always consider the source. That a is every single one of our students. That a it's our

075teachers. It's our school-based team, our districtbased, the parents who've chosen Valuchia County to provide that service to their students. And to be frank with you, you guys probably owe me some days because I I did go on vacation, but I I couldn't rest because once the grades came out officially, guys, you guys know this. For about six to seven days, nonstop, my phone has been like blowing and going off text calls from the state, other states within the the state of Florida, people who are happy for our children. So, we should be happy, too. And for anybody that's not okay with that, well, you know what? Have a good day. All right. So, good job, guys. >> And I'll wrap it up. Thank you very much. Thank you for um all that you've done. I

076also want to thank you that you um along with Danielle Johnson's team created and shared with each of us a highlight page for our districts that can be shared, you know, with community members, parents, um business people, everyone. So, thank you for all the hard work you did. I, to tell you the truth, appreciated the walk through history of where we started because it was the California Achievement Test prior to starting all of this and and the high school competency test. That's what the high school kids took. So, it brought back memories because seriously, when it started, writing was the focus. Who would have thought that that would be the focus? But that's what Florida focused on. Um, and so I I enjoyed that. And I think people that have been here a long time

077or even those that have recently retired, I think they would appreciate looking at where this started and where we are now. And Dr. Babbin, to you and all of your team, it is true. It's it starts with instruction, but it starts with our students. Our students have to be willing to learn. They have to embrace the knowledge and they have to ask the questions and as I always said they then need to show off. I used to tell my kids it's your chance to paint a picture of everything you've learned that will tell me what information I gave to you that was accurate and where I need to continue to grow as a teacher because I left something out if you didn't get it. And so really thank you to everyone. You know, we today

078this is a celebration of our students, our teachers, our staff. staff, including everyone. The bus drivers that got them to school, the school aid cafe people that fed them, the custodians that kept their rooms clean, and the office specialists that handled everything along with the nurses and the administrators, and then all the district staff that went out because there were a lot of district staff that went out every week and supported at schools. And I'm not surprised by elementary, I'll be honest with you. Middle school kind of blew me away because that is the toughest group. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, >> they are one of the most interesting groups, but that is the toughest group to provide instruction to actually get them to focus and listen without a lot of drama

079because there's a lot of drama in middle school and have them achieve. And to all of our high schools, I am so proud of our high schools because there's been times our high we've had some high schools not earn a grade because they couldn't get 95% tested because that's actually the group that's the hardest to get them to show up to test, especially when they drive themselves. And so I just want to say thank you to everyone and we should rejoice in this. I think back to that 2008 2009 year. I'm I'm dating myself older than that, but Archie Gallon was the head of federal programs and grants. And as he chose to retire and walk out the door, he said, "I'm walking out the door and every Title One school is an A or

080a B." And that's what it was at that time. and he was so proud because he ran a tight ship and we provided a lot of support to those schools. And then we hit some rough roads. And I remember sitting and crying one night when our elementary schools fell apart and 30ome of them dropped letter grades. And I was actually happy the year we did not accept coming out of the pandemic the grades because had we accepted it, we would have had some Fs. So to look at it today, there's no D's, there's no Fs, and just look at what everybody did. So honestly, thank you and I'm proud of everybody. And so we're going to take a 15minute break so this group can close up and we'll come back in for the three-year reading

081plan. So thank you. starting that now. >> No, we did the best part. >> Welcome back. It is 2:04 p.m. and we are now moving into the second item 2.02 science of reading the three-year plan. Dr. Balapen. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, board members, members of the audience. So, we are very uh grateful to be having with us here today Dr. analysis Kennedy. Dr. Kennedy, she's a lecturer from the University of Central Florida, but she's a theorist and a a practitioner at the same time when it comes to the science of reading. Um, as you know, we have embarked into this journey for the next three years. When you look at reading in general, you'll see that there's two categories under reading. You have students that are in the category that they're learning how to

082read and what strategies accompanies that group of students that teachers need to be aware of that they need to employ during small group whole group instruction, right? And then we have those that are reading to learn and we're talking much much higher level thinking skills, analytical skills and so forth. How do you infuse that those strategies as you're working with students during whole group small group instruction but understanding the theory behind it but most importantly how to apply that in the classroom. So we're doing a full top all the way down approach meaning Dr. Kennedy came and worked with our cabinet board members. You have attended that training and we have a timeline of a series of additional trainings that will be coming to our district. But basically we want to ensure that we that

083every teacher in our school system but also every educator doesn't matter what what you know what course you teach or where you are that we understand this premise because this is what's going to guide our work for the next three years to come. So thank you Dr. Kennedy for being here with us and of course everybody knows Heather Norris our coordinator for ELA. So they have a a short presentation for you. >> Well, thank you, Chair Haynes, board members, and Dr. Balgamin. So, we're very excited today to discuss the science of reading and our implementation plan for um our professional learning with our teachers. So, I'll let Dr. Kennedy take it away. So, I want to start by saying I had our first meeting in the spring and I met with the ELA team. Since

084then, I've talked to the ELA team, the executive directors, and Dr. Bay the I presented at the administrators institute. I've also met with the cabinet and today I'm here I have the honor to meet with you all. It's incredible just the commitment that you all have and I just this is piggyback offing like a a little bit of a extension from this morning with your amazing results. I am not surprised at some of the the growth and the commitment you have to excellence to continued lifelong learning and then of course to your students because um I have worked in many districts. I've worked in many states and I've never seen um this commitment to have all stakeholders involved in this process. So I I just want to number one congratulate you on those amazing results,

085but number two, I'm just overwhelmed and grateful to be part a small part of this process as well. So So thank you so much for having me here this morning. Um so we're going to do a little we're going to start off a very um oh actually I should introduce myself. Let me introduce myself a little bit. Um I'm Anna Kennedy. Um I am currently a lecturer at UCF. I've been there 10 years. I'm part of the elementary and reading education faculty. So I work with um graduate and undergraduate um teachers um or pre-ervice teachers um in the reading reading education. My bachelor's is in elementary, my master's is in reading education, my specialist is in literacy and then my doctorate is in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in literacy. So, um I do

086obviously have a a passion for what I what I do. Um I love everything about teaching, reading. Um I would say that mo most prized time is when I'm in schools working with teachers and with students. I very selfishly ask districts when I work with them, put me in classrooms. I want to work with kids. Um so I hope to have that opportunity. I think we have some plan to do that in Valuchia as well. So, um, thank you again for that. So, today we're going to do a little digging into um, an introduction to the science of breeding, what it is. There's a lot of talk out there about what it is. Um, probably lots in social media that you may have seen. So, hopefully today will give you a good kind of um,

087perspective on on what it involves, how it came about, and actually how long it's been around. So we'll start by talking about um this is our goals for today. We're going to start with a little bit of an exercise. I am going to ask you to read a little bit. I hope that's okay. The um so we're going to start with the complexity of reading. We're going to talk about the science of reading. What are those implica implications for classroom instruction? And then what is that role of professional learning in all of this? And then Heather's going to continue on with what the plan is going to look like. So again, as promised, I'm going to give you a little bit of a reading exercise. Now, there's no test at the end of this, I

088promise. But I am going to challenge you with to read a small piece of text. And I just want you to think about how you're feeling, what makes it difficult maybe, perhaps. Um, just anything that comes to mind as you read. I'll give you just a few moments to do that, even if you don't get through all of it. All right. So, um, again, I promise no test, so there won't be any test. Now, I want you to think, the reason I'm having you do this right now is because I want you to really think about this type of text, that experience you just had. For some of you, it may have been something that was easily understood. You knew exactly what was happening. You right in your lane of of understanding. For some of

089you it was a little bit more challenging right there could have been factors that contributed to that challenging that the reason it was challenging number one motivation and engagement I am sure nobody walked in here today thinking you were going to talk about stamata guard cells osmosis right not the most exciting topic right so already from the gate you are probably not super motivated or engaged with this topic number two the vocabulary may have been difficult um background knowledge maybe it's been a while since you've heard about these topics or photosynthesis in general, right? It's not like we walk around, you know, um talking about photosynthesis or just even familiarity with this very technical genre, right? But in addition to that, look at all the other things that are part of what makes it complex.

090The fact that it's multi-step process, the fact that it's an abstract text structure, that the phrases and modifiers are also embedded and are are complex as well. All those things cause it to be a challenge. Right? So I'm this experience that you had. Yes, I chose a text that is typical at a high school level, but knowing that the similar challenges appear in text from kindergarten on, it's just different types of challenges. So the purpose of this activity is to share a few things. Number one, kind of step in your students shoes. kind of feel a little bit of that empathy for some of what some of them might be feeling when they're ex, you know, reading text that could be complex in your in your classrooms or in classrooms, excuse me. Two, showcase complexity

091in text. What I mean by that, and then three, if this is where our students are going, then how are we getting there? Right? If this is what they're expected to read, then how are we going to get there? So that's what we're going to talk about today. So the science of reading, this is what it's not. So these are some some points and this is Louisa Moes. This is actually also published in the reading league. It talks about um these are some often things thrown out in regards to the science of reading, but this is what it's not. One that I like to highlight is that it's not a program of instruction. A lot of times publishers will say, I have a program and it's science of reading. They can they shouldn't say that

092they should say it's aligned to the science of reading or the principles of science of reading but if they say it's a program that is science of reading already we should be like whoa whoa whoa let's let's talk about that a little bit more what do you mean by that right um it's also not a one-sizefits-all we have very different students in our classroom with many many different backgrounds knowledge motivation engagement skill sets so we want to make sure that it's not a one-sizefits-all We're going to address all strengths and all opportunities in all our students. It is an emerging consensus from many related disciplines. So this is by the way five decades of research. So this has been around a long long time. The science of reading term has kind of is a term

093that's come become popular over the last few years but it's really been around for five decades. So it's been around a long time. um different fields or disciplines that have contributed contributed to this research base are like cognitive psychologists, uh developmental psychologists, educators, special educators, linguists, neuroscientists. So we've got a lot of different fields contributing to how we know how we become proficient readers and writers, how we assess effectively, how we teach reading effectively, and then if students aren't reading and writing effectively, what can we do about it? So all of these are coming together to kind of as a consensus to determine these ideas. So we're going to take a little bit of a of a kind of a historical walk here through um different models. Um, I promise you that this is I'll

094I'll make this as not as technical. I don't want it to be like that photosynthesis article or anything for you, but I do want to kind of showcase that how long this has been around. So back in 1986, so it's hard to believe, but over 40, well about 40 years ago, um that was uh go and tunmer came around and they tried to make this complex process that is reading into something that is understandable, right? So they took they made it into a mathematical equation. They said you take decoding which is actually reading the words on a page times language comprehension equals reading comprehension. The idea behind the simple view of reading was that if any one of those factors are impacted reading comprehension is going to be impacted. So let's say you cannot decode

095the words. So that's a 0.5 or you have minimal decoding 0.5 but you have strong language comprehension that's a one. you're going to have 0.5 reading. You're not going to have full reading comprehension. Right? So, that's the idea behind the simple view of reading. I hope I did that math right. Did I? Did I not? Yes, I hope I did. So, okay, good. I'm not a reading person. I mean, excuse me, math person. Um, then in 2001, Hollis Scarboro came around and said, you know what, we need to revisit the simple view of reading and we need to look at what do we mean by word recognition and language comprehension. So that's where Scarboro's reading rope came about. So now we know these are the elements or the components that make up language comprehension. These

096are the components that make up word recognition. When those individual parts of that rope weave together and become stronger, that's where you get skilled reading, right? So that's the goal, right? Skilled reading. But we have to have all these pieces coming together. Now in 2021, so 20 years later, now we've got Duke and Cartwright saying, "We love we we need to advance the reading rope. We need to reook at it." There's two things that Duke and Cartwright did that made that created this model. They still have the word recognition just like the simple view and the rope. They still have long language comprehension. Now they've identified, well, we need that green bubble. We need to be aware of what motivates our students. We need to know what their executive function skills are. We need to

097know if their ability to use strategies. All of that is helpful before we even teach those skills. And then in addition to that, they did some other bridging process which I won't go into. But all of this contributes to the successful reading. Right? So this is in a nutshell everything that a teacher needs to consider when we think about the science of reading or how to teach reading effectively. Now one big misconception that exists is that it is a that for example in the early grades we need to do just decoding that means that phonics work and then once that's done then we can pass the baton and then comprehension happens and then then we can work on comprehension when in reality it's a three-legged race. What's happening is those processes need to happen together.

098those we cannot separate them. We need to have strong phonics instruction and decoding and we need to have opportunities for students to practice those comprehension skills alongside their decoding skills. So we want to make sure that that is something that we also clarify for our teachers is that these need to work in tandem K12. Now we're going to step into the classroom a little bit to see how this looks in our classrooms. Um, this is actually um I wouldn't call it science of reading, but I definitely want to include this because I don't think that everything else is possible unless we address the gradual release of responsibility. Um, this also has been around since 1983. I know I reference a 2021 citation. That's because it's from a book that I typically tap into, but in

0991983, this model came about. This is the how. This is how we're going to teach those skills. We're going to be very explicit with our instruction. We're going to guide our students in small groupoup instruction. We're going to give them opportunity for deliberate practice through collaborative learning and independent practice. And all of it is going to be aligned. We want to make sure that there's from beginning to end that there's opportunities for practice and alignment from that focus lesson to that independent practice so that we're are having students become independent readers, writers, learners. This is what a a science of reading classroom looks like just to give you among these are some among there's others but these are some of the highlights. Some of the biggest ones that I would say um that I want

100to highlight would be that explicit systematic phonics instruction, meaning we're going to be that is a big big shift over the the last few years. Um even at UCF, I would say that is a shift we've made for our pre-ervice teachers. It's a shift in how um we approach decoding and word recognition. Being explicit and systematic in our phonics instruction, meaning there's a scope and sequence. We know what skills come first, then next, the next. Um and that we are very explicit. There's a routine that we follow in order to make that happen every day consistently with our students. Uh there's opportunity for practice. A shift is also leveled readers. That's a big shift. We're moving away from that leveled readers to more rich complex text that allows opportunities for students to be exposed to

101rich language. Um, and we will then equip the teachers with the proper scaffolds to help support students through those rich text. So that's a little that's a big shift as well. Um, those are some some key ones there. In addition to that, I also want to highlight that we um this is actually was um presented in the association of supervisors and um of and curriculum developers um that organization. I think I messed that up. Um but this is a um we also want to address all the different ways that different subjects approach literacy. Meaning, if you're a scientist, there are going to be skills that scientists um prioritize when it comes to reading, writing, listening, speaking, and thinking. When you're a mathematician, there's going to be things that they prioritize when we're thinking about math,

102when we're thinking about history. So we want to make sure that we also equip our content area teachers, our discipline specific teachers with those skills to not just layer random reading strategies on their content, but to help them see what which ones are specific to helping their students unlock the content in their classroom. So now literacy is seen across the day versus just in silos in an ELA or reading classroom. Now how this is all going to kind of come out or to our teachers, our coaches or and to our administrators is through professional learning. This comes from the standards of professional learning. It's going to be ongoing. It's going to be data driven. It's going to be differentiated depending on the skill set of the teacher, the school, um the team, evidence-based, reflective. Um,

103it's going to be a shared vision which I think has already started with all the different folks that I've met with along this process of putting this together. Knowing that this type of professional learning is not going to be where the most bang for your buck happens where not it's just not a pouring of knowledge. We want to make sure that we offer opportunities for modeling for teachers, opportunities for them to practice, for them to observe, and that they're also receiving coaching and feedback. And this shows the percentage after three months time of that what that would look like if in the different ways that we provide provide skill development. Now, I'm going to pass it on to Heather. All right. Thank you. So, as Dr. Dr. Kendy already stated, one of the things that

104we are ensuring here in Valuchia is that we're not just teaching and training and working with teachers because all that means is that our teachers understand what to do. But we need every stakeholder to understand that process and as you know we've already had admin institute where we had our first session of connecting the dots. we've had um with you guys um at our cabinet meeting and then here today. And it's not stopping there. As we're going to train the teachers throughout the year, we're having a pattern of first having cabinet members because they're our leaders working with our leaders and then our school-based leaders, our principles and APS having that training prior to teachers so they understand the language and how to look at it through their leadership lens of how to support teachers

105and students at their schools. We're also working with our coaches. So, we're real fortunate that next week at our secondary ELA kickoff, Dr. Kenny will be um speaking with all of our secondary ELA and reading teachers. So, we're super excited about that. So, that they will have that first session all together. And we're then also having coho cohorts of teachers. So, because this is such a big undertaking, we can't do this all at once. So we're strategically looking at different groups of schools and looking at their feeder patterns so that that way we are going across from elementary to middle to high in a certain zone to make sure that those teachers across are getting that training. So now I'm going to dive into a little bit of what that looks like. So we already

106had this at admin institute but connecting the dots is really understanding the background of the science of reading. a little bit of what you've heard today, a little bit deeper dive for teachers and really understanding that gradual release. So, with more examples and more hands-on work because when we're doing this, our team is also going to be there and we're working with teachers with collaborative planning as well. And when she talked about differentiating those, we're having them by their grade level bands so that we're able to really look at their content for that grade level to work with them. So, as you can see, we're starting a lot of this work in September, and that's starting with our leaders first. Everything is going to be done with leaders first, and then moving on to our

107teachers, but because we're only able to work with about a third of our schools at the first year, we can't forget everyone else. So, we are also working with the teachers who are not involved in that first cohort. We're still having our best practices. So we're still ensuring that those who are in K2 35, our middle school and high schools are still getting best practices. So we're going to gear those towards the schools that are not in the cohort to make sure they are still getting all those trainings and strategies that our team has been providing. We're not dropping that. We're just adding an extra layer. The other thing we are doing new this year is we're kind of and our team having a little pilot of working with some of our struggling schools that

108have second grade struggles. And so we're taking 10 of our second grade um schools. So we're taking two teachers from each of those schools and trying out a pilot of really using the science of reading, looking at their materials and resources and diving into collaborative planning to really help them understand those gaps that are happening in second grade. As we move throughout the year, we are continuing to now look at we're starting to get data. We're having PM1. We've had VBA1. We're working with our leaders to understand that data. We have data meetings constantly all year long with our executive directors and directors. And now we're making sure they understand how does that data align to the science of reading and what does that mean? Which students do I work with? What what resources should

109I use that vary from school to school and classroom to classroom based on the kids that are in there? And then we're working with those teachers as we get that extra layer of data. Now that I have this data, what do I do with it? How do I know what my students need? What do I need to adjust? Understanding those students as readers and writers and what does that mean for them? And finally, that last push right before we have VBA3 and we're getting into that last push of the year. We are working with our teachers on refining small group to its highest level. And this is where we're hoping to then have we have observation days. We've been doing that in K2 the last two years with our being a reader program. Um, and

110it's been very successful. And now we want to take that to the next layer and have that at our other grade levels as well. So that teachers are getting the opportunity to see other teachers working with students. What does that look like? And we're not saying it's picture perfect. We're saying what are we learning from each other? And the feedback we've had from teachers, because they're not only just watching teachers, they're getting feedback from teacher panels and student panels is what's working well and what can I borrow and take from each other. And a lot of times our teachers are working the silo of their school. By having them working together in these cohorts, they're hearing from their peers things that are working at their school and they're hearing from across the district things that

111they may not get that chance to do all the time. So, we're very excited about that opportunity for our teachers. And of course, I have to plug away some of the things that we do that um I work with Dr. Robensky and instructional materials. We have our our superintendent ring challenge. So, if any kids are out there listening, you have until Thursday to log your medicine bean stack um to get your um to get your free pass to the August 31st game at the Tortugas. Um so we had those celebrations um every year and those challenges and of course our battle of the books because this is what we're doing for our students to encourage them to read especially during those times that we are not in school. Um and we know that by what

112we're doing with the science of reading it's not like Dr. Dr. Kenny said it's not a program. It's a way of looking at strategies and systematic approaches that no matter what you're using, using best practices to instruct our students. And we should see that with our students now having more confidence in their reading. So, to give you a look at those cohorts, we have um and I color coded them based on feeder patterns. It's not by like school colors or anything. That would be a little impossible with the different groups. Um so our year one our goal was to have a variety of different types of schools so that we're not oh these are all the schools in this particular area. We're trying to pull and have a mixture also because of size of schools

113and the numbers of teachers we're pulling in um for room capacity. But you can see they're that first group and we're having that variety of some of our maybe some of our struggling schools, some of our more affluent schools, some of our schools that they're they're on the right path but they just need some more strategies. We're blending it all together. We're not having like, oh, these are all of our struggling schools going first. We're ensuring that we are pushing those limits for all teachers to learn more and work together. And then they're able to work with people who maybe have different types of learners and get those ideas from each other. Here you can see year two. So, the year two and year three cohorts that you will see will be the ones that

114are being provided additional um best practices from my team that may not be going to these signs of reading trainings this year, but they will be. Um so, we're still making sure they have that professional learning opportunity. And then finally, year three. And then um this is our contact information questions. >> Mrs. Brosmer, >> I just have one. Um thank you. This was excellent. Um I've read, and this may be kind of a random question. I I've read um a number of times over the last several years that teaching cursive writing enhances learn um learning to read and I wondered what your opinion is of that. Do you think there's a relationship between the two? >> I don't have research behind that. That's not um something that I've personally researched, but um I mean I've

115I've heard those as well about cursive writing. I mean Thank you. I I just that's why I said it's kind of a random question, but I I wondered if there was a link. So, >> I know I believe I'm pretty certain it's in our benchmarks. So, >> as required. So, >> thank you, >> Mr. Cologne. >> So, first of all, thank you. Thank you for uh taking us on this journey. Uh it's a three-year journey and I think that that's an important aspect of this. Uh I also want to thank superintendent and your team. I know we had a meeting prior to I know you weren't there but I heard wonderful things about you. Uh and so I I I appreciate the fact that a lot of methodical thinking and how we're rolling this out

116is is is happening across the district. Um I think that it's not lost on any of us that we have opportunities as does the state. Uh as and I think this is important but I think that there is um if we add measurable goals to this which is important you know you want to be able to measure your success. I I I'm really excited because as we go on this um it's not a sprint it's it's really a marathon. I I think it's going to make a difference for our students and you know the momentum now is uh you know we we've we've learned to focus on the individual students. We've learned to focus on their skills. We've learned to focus on not only the students but also the adults. Um, one of the things

117that you shared in our call, uh, was, and I think this is huge, was how we g asked the kids a question and we gave them the answer or our current system allows the student to look at the pictures and sort of make up what they think they see. Can you speak a little bit on that? I think there's because I I I think we're changing a culture here and that's hard because I've been doing it this way since I started teaching at Enterprise Elementary in 19 in 1887. [Laughter] >> He's referencing me. And so can you talk about that because I I think I and and if I had to guess this is probably when you get in a classroom you could see that crosseyed look you get. Can you talk about that a

118little bit? >> Yes, of course. Um so I also actually when I did my um my both my graduate and undergraduate work that idea of the three queuing systems which is what you're referring to and I'll explain gra gu guided reading leveled reading all of that balanced literacy all of that was how I was taught how to teach reading um what we now know is that um the three queuing system which is what you're referring to is what What it would do is it would require or would it would um encourage students to look at pictures in order to try to figure out a word that they couldn't read. So, let's say the word was in the sentence the the dog um picked up the bone but they couldn't read dog. If the picture had

119a dog and they said puppy, you know, they it was it was because they were looking at the picture. So they were yes sure they were getting the meaning but they weren't really decoding the word dog. Um same they were also teaching them for example to look at the visual of the actual letter formations to try to make guesses as to what the word is. So there was a lot of and that's how I was taught. So we were doing our assessments that way to determine if it was one of these three that they were using to determine the meaning of the or to figure out the word. Now, what we're doing is explicit phonics instruction, which means that we're teaching them to decode patterns in a systematic way. So that it may be unknown

120right now, but eventually they're going to be able to decode those sounds and letters and put those letter sound correspondents in order to be able to code and not guess, which is what those three queuing systems use. It was really kind of having them guess, but that only takes you so far. The moment you give them a photo photosynthesis text, that's when you start seeing the gap increase and increase and increase because they can't use pictures anymore to figure that out >> as an example. >> And we do not use the three queuing system in Valuchia at all. It's also in our state statutes that that is not allowed. So that would explain why as a gentleman I take out the IKEA manual, I look at the pictures, I start to put it together, and

121then I realize I can't do step number 26 because I didn't read that it said in step 20. Let me go back. Step two, that you needed to do this. And so that's when we go back and read because we guide ourselves by the pictures and we think that that is suffice. And so, you know, I I appreciate that explanation because I I think that that is huge because we're guilty of a society that has been raised to do that. Like I said, I use the IKEA catalog. Not that I'm guilty. I read every word that it says and every instruction one by one, but I think that's huge. So, thank you. I think what this does too is that it um empowers teachers to look at instruction, look at programs, look at their curriculum

122much more critically because if they have a a solid foundation about how we know we can support kids on how to teach reading, then they will automatically start sifting through practices that may not be the most effective. >> You good, Rich? So, thank you very much. Literacy um rights as we know have been a big issue and a big struggle for us. So, I'm very glad to see and proud to see Valuchia taking proactive measures saying this is something we have to work on. Let's bring in some experts, an expert like yourself and let's come up with a a good strategy that will create eventually data to see if it's working that we can measure and see the success. And so, I'm glad that as a district we're acknowledging the literacy issue and addressing it.

123Um, as a non-competitive person, I'm not competitive at all. I couldn't help but notice that district two got overlooked in cohort one. So, go beachside. That's all. >> Miss Thompson. >> Thank you. And thank you again, Dr. Kennedy, for being here. And thank you, Dr. Balgabin, for making sure everyone from the top down gets this instruction. You and I have had so many talks about literacy, and you know, this is close to my heart. And not only for my kids, but all the other kids, you know, they're even our older kids, if they don't get these base concepts when they're younger, you see them 10, 11, 12th grade really struggling. So, I appreciate that we're doing this. I can't wait to see the data. And I'm so happy we're an A right now, but this

124I feel like is just going to skyrocket us. So, no matter how much the state moves, we are still going to be an A. So, thank you so much for all of your work. Thank you for being here. >> You're gonna go. I'll go last. >> You're gonna go last. Okay, >> that's fine. Yeah. >> You know, I'm the teacher that taught back in the 1800s. No. Um I will say this. I was so happy to see that you talked about that reading comprehension comes right along with everything because I was fortunate as a child that my parents read to me. It was a very important thing. So by the time I got to kindergarten, I already knew how to read because they did a lot of reading with us. And I think that's I've

125watched the pendulum go back and forth. And I've taught, you know, I taught where we did explicit instruction. I taught where we had the whole language movement, which I'm I'm going to tell myself I didn't like the whole language movement. So I walked in my classroom and I shut the door and I knew I did what I knew was right because and and this is what whole language was so you guys understand. You take a big book and you put it up in front of the kids. And the idea was you would just read them the story and that by osmosis you would hit a word that started with a J and they would know that that's a letter J and the sound that it makes. Oh no that's not going to happen and it

126didn't happen and it didn't last very long. I also lived through the writing to read course. Did you live through it as a student? >> My brother did and it was awful. And I I still am not sure he can read. So yeah, that was awful. >> Did he teach? >> He is He's a fantastic PE teacher >> in Miss Haynes district. >> Love you Brock. >> This message is approved by >> I was thankful that >> not express the views of Valuchia Coast. I was thankful we cut writing to read just before my children started school because I was like, I can't do this. I couldn't do it as a teacher because basically you just gave them a word and you let them spell it however they thought and you never corrected it. Well,

127I was one of those people that loved spelling and and wanted it perfect. And so, as a teacher, this went against everything that I knew to not teach children how to spell correctly. just but we're they're going to write all day but we don't care if anybody can read it. So seriously >> it was a real thing. >> So I have went I experienced this and and I have a sister who I love dearly who's only 20 months younger than me. She got the part where they stopped teaching spelling for a period of time. So she couldn't spell. To this day I love her and she's a nurse. She can't spell because she missed that explicit instruction piece. So, this is what's happened. I mean, it's across the United States. I didn't grow up in

128Florida, but the pendulum comes over here and we do explicit instruction and then it comes here and we stop and we do a mix of something. Then we come over here and just say, "Oh, they'll figure it out on their own," which they won't. But your presentation was wonderful and you kind of showed what has happened over you know the last two decades of education and I think people need to stop and realize that and you have to be flexible. I do truly believe that teachers that have been in that time period they've learned what works and what doesn't work. So, I don't I really hope you won't be met with a lot of people saying, "I don't want to try this." Because I really think the great teachers out there that children walk out

129of their classrooms reading and learning, not only learning to read, but they're reading for information, I think they will embrace this because you're going to bring them back to what they need to do. But that reading comprehension is so important because we need to get back to sharing with parents. We need you to read. And teachers need to read to their students. Especially in elementary school. It didn't matter what grade I taught in elementary. I read after lunch every day to my class to calm them down, but also so that they could hear an adult reading because I wasn't struggling to sound out the words or I could put annotation when I was reading. And that is so important. And I think I thank you today for everything that you did and everything you've shared.

130And I look forward to this. And I've got I've got schools in every one of the years. And and and I'm fine with that. >> You're a three-year process. >> I'm a three-year process. There's so many schools over in district one. I'm a three-year process. And so, thank you for making sure that all of the schools are there and that this is and and so here's my challenge to you. follow through on the three years. What I've seen of county sometimes is we start a program and then we stop it. I'd like to see this one go from start to finish and I'm looking forward to the data. Mr. Col, >> just real quick and so we talked about the challenges of the different methodologies used to teach reading and so you brought up a

131good point. I wonder if there's a component that we can add because I know for example Mr. Tidm Marsh, they do at Timberrest, they do videos of, you know, we we can control the things that we can control. And so if we have a reading campaign where the students log in and we read to them, again, I mean, Tid Marsh does it. It's it's the most funnest thing ever at Timberrest. Yeah. It's the Excuse me. It is the funnest. Is that not a word? It is fun. >> Most fun. >> It is most fun. Okay. Sorry. at Miami Day County Public Schools. Uh and so, uh with that being said, you know, again, are there things we can do to bring that reading to home realizing that some of the parents may have been in

132the funnest class and maybe didn't have that and so we can't expect them to do it. But as part of this, if they bring it home and let's say it's loaded on canvas or they have an iPad or whatever the case may be or you know as part of this incentive, we send them home with something to read. It's a little bit out of the but you know we don't know that the parents are able to and so if they can't do it they're not going to definitely do it and I think that will help close that gap. Just an idea. Thank you. >> Can I add one thing? >> You can add all you want. Stark Elementary actually did that this year. So, that is one of our schools that um needs a lot

133of extra support and they did a great a school >> and it's a it's an A school. They did a great job this year. They invited community members and business people and I had a chance even and they invited us to show up and they recorded us reading a chapter or two chapters or a book for primary and they collected all of that and they made sure the kids got to hear different people reading from the community and business and I could have sat there and read all day and I truly hate being in front of a camera but for that I was happy to read the books because I knew kids were then going to get to hear someone. So, I love that idea and I think we should continue it. Okay, Dr. B.

134Thank you, Madam Chair. I think each of you as you were sharing your story, it really summarizes why we're doing this. It's a perfect example why we're doing this training at every level. I actually when I was growing up and and being a teacher, I was part of that whole group, >> you know, that that whole language approached by Stephen Crashen. >> And you and you immediately learned to read by listening to somebody else. >> Absolutely. Some of it was by guessing to being guessing really well. But but we understand the important the scientific understanding that's needed. So when we go in our classrooms, what you will see it's everyone operates based on their schema of understanding, right? and and for some of it for some of our people we have to change that schema

135and re do a re-entry so that so that we can embrace the the the research that's behind the science but anyway that explains why but there's another component to this Mr. Cologne. Um, as you were alluding to in terms of, you know, the the recognition and how we're going to get students, but also their families engaged in the process. And I'm sorry for doing this on the spot, but uh, we've got a few partners in education that are that they're they're they're thrilled to be part of this this work that we're going to be doing for the next three years. And believe it or not, Advent Health is one of our partners along with Jeep and there's a few more. So, we've had a few meetings with with with these groups of partners and I'd

136like for Chrissy to share with you where we are because there's a recognition component and an engagement component that goes with it to get everybody hyped up and excited about reading. So, can you share Christie where we are with that? >> Yes. So, we we had an initial meeting with our partners and we are very excited to get the community involved and and because it it does and what I hear everybody saying, yes, we we need to support not only our teachers in the classroom and the reading instruction that they provide every day, but it takes a community. It takes more people to get involved. So, we're working with Advent Health, with Jeep, um with Mrs. Hosini NAACP is involved. Um, and we're working with all different organizations across Valuchia um to really get the

137word out there and to really get them um, you know, organizations involved with us and bringing incentives. So that might be more book vending machines within our schools. Um, we have a donation from um, Starbucks um, Starbucks furniture that's going to be brought into one of our schools and transform the media center. I mean, how cool is that? That the kids will go to like a reading cafe um that's with all Starbucks furniture that's in there. So, there's a lot of things to come and we're going to have a lot more meetings and a lot more time with our business community, but um it's exciting to see that everybody knows the importance of reading. I think we all do. We've all known it forever. Uh but we're putting a spotlight on it and we're saying

138this is what our students need. Um, and we have the teachers who are in the classroom supporting the students every day, bringing in Dr. Kennedy and her knowledge and and working with everybody and putting it all together. I love how Dr. Kennedy said, "This isn't a program, right? This isn't something new. We have the resources in the classroom. We're just showing the connection and that connection, how that supports reading and how that's going to help our students become better readers because it's not just a foundation, right? When we get up to those words, you read that passage up there that Could you read every single word in there? Probably not. I couldn't either, but it of course Mr. Cologne could because it's the funnest passage that he has ever. But it is it it's that

139connection. So it doesn't stop. So that's why you see elementary school all the way through secondary um is involved in this. And then like we said and like how everything continues to happen and we've seen the transition of where we were even from the data and where we are now. It's not just teachers in a classroom. It's not just our schools. It's a community. It's partnerships. So to get the partners involved and just to get those incentives out there and the students to work for those um incentives because we all like something there a little dangle in, you know, to say, "Okay, I can go to the book vending machine and with a coin I can get a special book." uh it just makes students really en engaged in the learning. So we're excited for

140those partnerships. >> So our principles were part of the brainstorming, teachers were part of the brainstorming. We had our partners in education and they came up with a pro I think seven different areas in which the business community can support us and like we said the Starbucks whatever they call it the cafe at the schools um you know and and recognitions too for families. So a family a a a student that that might be the winner one month or students that might be the winner their entire family will be celebrated in one way or another because we recognize that there are students that are extrinsically motivated and some that are intrinsically some that are combination. We wanted to ensure that this plan covers for all. >> Yes. >> Awesome. >> That's it. >> Great job

141guys. Thank you. Thank you. >> We are now moving right along to item 3.01, the fourth quarter, House Bill 1473 report. Dr. Balcomin. >> Yes, Madam Chair. And this uh our director for safety and security has assured me that this will be perhaps one of the shortest presentation for this workshop. >> Think he can be >> and I think he will come through for us. But I'd like to present uh Captain Todd Smith, our director for safety and security. He's going to share the presentation for the fourth fourth quarter in House Bill 1473. >> Good afternoon, superintendent, madame chair, board members. I'm Captain Todd Smith, the director of safety and security for Valuchia County Schools. Today we will get be discussing the quarterly safety report in accordance with Florida State Statutes. This presentation aligns with

142policy 511, safety of facilities. This presentation also aligns with guardrail 2. Provide conditions that enhance student learning. In accordance with House Bill 1473, school districts are required to report four things each quarter. The number and percentage of schools, including charter schools, inspected or reinspected during the quarter. The number and percentage of schools with no school safety requirement deficiencies. In the fourth quarter, seven schools were inspected or reinspected by the Office of Safe Schools. This represents 9.33% of the schools inspected or reinspected. Six schools had no school safety requirement deficiencies. Therefore, 85.71% of schools had no school safety requirement deficiencies. The one school that did have an issue was a single closed and locked door that did not latch. This was an equipment malfunction. Maintenance did maintenance on the door and fixed it. The principles and

143staff are taking these audits serious. The results show they care. We've created a culture surrounding safety and security and we are working hard to ensure compliance. And that concludes my presentation. >> Thank you. Any questions? All right. Hearing none. This it is um 2:55 p.m. and this meeting is adjourned. We'll be back in here at 4:30 p.m. Thank you. >> Thank you, Captain.