LPSB August Board Meeting

001I should get started. All right. Thank you all for being here. I will call the uh regular session of the Lincoln Pair School Board to order uh for today, Tuesday, August 5th of 2025. Um I would ask that Clark Canterbury lead us in a prayer and David Ferguson will lead us in a pledge. If you all would rise for that, let's pray. Father God, just what a privilege we have, Father, to be able to come uh publicly to meet, Father, to discuss the business of the Lincoln Parish Schools. And Father, we just pray that uh as a new school year kicks off next week, Father, that you will uh provide safety, Father, that you'll provide wisdom and guidance for the teachers and the students as they start a new school year. And we just pray

002for a wonderful year um full of learning and and all that comes with it, Father. And just keep every one of them safe. Be with the teachers as they prepare to accept students next week, Father. just uh have them ready to go to school. And Father, we thank you for all that you do for us. Father, forgive us where we fail you so many times. It's your name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Hopefully before you you've had a chance to review the agenda for tonight's meeting and I would ask that you view that quickly and so we can approve that. Hearing second from the public

003and we approved it. >> Thank you Mr. Anders. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you very much. Um all in favor say I. >> Any post say no. >> Thank you very much. Okay. Also hopefully you've had a chance to review the minutes of last month's meeting that were produced uh July 8th, 2025. Um hopefully you had a chance to review that. If so, uh could I get a motion that we approve those? >> So move by Mr. Hancock. I have a second. >> Second by we'll give it to Miss Linda Henderson. >> All in favor say I. >> Any oppose say no. Thank you very much. Any unfinished business for this board tonight? Seeing none, we'll quickly move on to um to item number six, which is the policy manual revisions.

004Mr. Young, >> thank you, Mr. Phillips. I pretend like we do this every August um just about. So, these are all revisions from the 2024 25 uh legislative sessions. Uh the very first is IFA instructional materials. Uh this act 103 uh provides access to parents for our instructional materials including access to online materials. Uh ifa acceptable use policy for school computers and the internet student use and also JCBA and hazing. So act 686 repeals 17280 which address student training for internet and cell phone use and also removes teacher training on bullying and hazing from 17 4164. Uh JBD student absences excuses essentially takes our absences and excuses uh down to three categories excused unexcused and also suspended expelled. uh J expulsion act 497 uh that's effective on August one reduces the mandatory time of expulsion

005from four semester to two uh for certain fences in grades 6 through 12 uh JCB school wellness uh updates district policy to align the state requirements JCE child abuse effective August 1 it revises the children's code uh 603 and 610 uh to change the language addressing resource officer offers and their reporting procedures. Uh the new language says that any school resource officer that that suspects child abuse and neglect or if a mandatory reporter of child abuse reports suspected child abuse to a school resource officer, the SRO shall immediately notify his employing agency and also DCFS. And the last one is JGCF behavioral health supports for students and this is effective August one enacted provide statute 171731 requires that each public school make available to each student in grades 3 through 12 a mental health assessment

006by licensed behavioral health provider as long it comes at no expense to the school board. So I'm going to ask because a lot of these policies uh need to be enacted in our student handbooks uh for release next week. uh that we do this in two phases. Uh number one, wave the review period BD uh as a voting item and then after that if the board approves it to accept these policies as real. So two separate items. >> Thank you Mr. Young. Okay. So before us first of all is the um uh to get a motion that we wave BD which basically waves the one month um review period for these these items on due to the fact that they need to be in the student handbook next week. Do I have a motion that

007we wave BD? >> So moved by Donna Doss. Do I have a second? >> Second by Mr. David Ferguson. Do we have any questions about that from the audience or board? >> Mr. President, yes. Um, not to deter the motion, but one observation I want to ask the superintendent now. That was a statement regarding our board was to enact a school health advisory council. And is that something that that we customally uh do Mr. >> or is that something new? >> That's a part of the school wellness policy. Mr. supervises that if she wants to add some commentary about >> we um we we do have that listed like we put it out for we wanted members of the community to join. We did have some members join. We just completed our trienal review of

008our policy which is why we're um showing that we had some policy revisions. It came out of that trienal review. So we do have like a advisory committee that works with us. Each school also has their own advisory committee made up of parents and community members. Okay. >> One of the things we want to add are student we want students involved in those advisory committees at each school level as well. >> I can appreciate that. But yet you still it was stipulated that that was something that was to be have been provided Mr. by the board. Was that something that this board was made aware of possibly or no? >> So I mean we already had the committees. I think what was new here to my understanding is we had to provide the screener the

009health assessment behavioral health assessment on that and we as a district can do that with the mental health counselors we have on campuses at no extra cost. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Just wanted that. So, any questions about whether or not we vote on BD? Let me just be clear. That's the vote for this vote >> to wave BD. >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Say no. >> I'm sorry. >> That's okay. We'll wait that one. I hear you, brother. >> Sit this chair. It could happen anytime. I promise you. >> Been there. >> You've been there. >> Many years you were here. All right. Anyway, see what happens when you say that? You say stupid stuff. All right. Number two is to approve the changes that we saw

010in the policy manual. Do I have a motion that we approve those changes? >> So moved. Okay, we'll give that one to Debbie Abram. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> By Mr. Joe Mitchell. >> Any questions from the audience on that? Any questions from the board? I should say some feedback from the audience. >> It's good that we're doing this and we'll have this when we open experience is the first day that we will always need these things. >> All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Thank you. All right. Now we're going to move on to the crux of the meeting which is item 7.1 the accountability update. Mr. Young, is that for you? >> A portion of it. So we will have a few people present the very first part of

011this presentation will be you live presentation tech introduce themselves. Um, all right. About a year ago, we presented to you um a partnership that we were entering with Louisiana Tech where we were adopting the Youfly Foundation's curriculum. And we were partnering with you with uh Louisiana Tech to um help us implement this curriculum and improve the literacy outcomes of our students in grades K through two. Our literacy vision for students in grades K through two is that by the end of second grade, we want our students reading on grade level. That's our goal. Um I think our goal, our mission is mission measure is set at 85%. Of course, I've told you before, I won't quit until we're at 100%. Like that's truly the goal that we have. Um through the implementation of UFI Foundations,

012the Louisiana Tech Partnership has been so instrumental. They um provided professional development for our teachers on the curriculum. They've joined me in walkthroughs in all of our teachers classrooms throughout the whole year providing feedback to the teachers. They've helped me plan professional development for our teachers was where when we would do walkthroughs, we would look for okay, where areas that were doing really well and what are parts of the curriculum we might need to improve or work on. So we would develop professional development. Um so they helped me in that area and um we presented with to you um oh in addition we also reached out to the community. We had a lot of community support. As a matter of fact the community um we had donations that around $20,000 for literacy from the Rustin

013Lincoln Parish community which was phenomenal. With that um support, we were able to to make sure that all of our teachers had all of the resources that they needed um manipulatives, dry erase boards, all those kinds of things they needed to fully implement the curriculum. So, with that, all of that being said, I would love to introduce the Louisiana Tech team, part of the team. they're not all here and they're going to share their report of the findings from the first year of implementation which were um pretty impressive I think. So without further ado um well good evening uh my name is Dr. Dustin Whitlock. I'm the interim department chair of curriculum instructional leadership at Louisiana Tech University uh in the college of education and human sciences. Um with me tonight are Dr. Libby Manning

014uh and Dr. Marina Allen who are part of our literacy team uh who have been working through this project in conjunction with with the district. And so um we want to walk through tonight uh and just share a little bit with you uh about some of the initial findings. Uh we met last week with uh uh with the leadership team uh to kind of go through a little bit of of some of the data uh and then to to share with you all tonight uh kind of a synopsis of some of that and to walk through that with you. Um to to any of the board members or or to to anybody present. I'm happy to walk through the full data set with you at any time. Um should you be interested in that, I'd

015be happy to sit down with you and talk with you about uh the work that we've been doing uh in conjunction with the district. Um before I dive off into that, I do want to say thank you um specifically to to our faculty for being a part of this project. Um these these are are folks that um care deeply uh about the field of education, but also care deeply about this community. Uh and so I'm very grateful for them. I'm very grateful for the leadership team uh of Lincoln Parish School Board. Uh to Miss Thrower for her work in this um certainly coming alongside of us and and supporting us in that way. very appreciative of that. Um and very appreciative to all as the board. Um these kinds of partnerships uh are are are

016deeply important to the university. Uh and being able to connect with the community is very important uh to the work that we do from the university standpoint. And so I'm happy to share this with you. Um the slides are going to be up on the board. Um Miss How down? >> Oh, there we go. Okay. Um so uh just to before we dive into any of the uh of the data I I do want to talk with you a little bit about some of the information that was shared with you in previous meeting. You previously got to hear from Dr. Manning tonight. I'm sorry you get to hear from me for a little bit. Um but she'll she'll jump in definitely. So uh we started off with data collection strategy of of looking at opportunities

017to collect different sources of data in order to understand where the students kindergarten through 2 grade uh were in Lincoln Parish. Uh what we wanted to do is we wanted to look at this data over time and look at the growth of students at different intervals throughout the year. Uh throughout the presentation night tonight you'll see those intervals are listed as BOY, MOY and EOY. BOI standing for beginning of year, middle of year and end of year. Uh and what we wanted to do is we wanted to identify specific sticking points that were going on in classrooms. uh where students were struggling uh and where we could provide additional support uh to those students uh to those classrooms to those teachers. Uh the school debt level data uh is the literacy screener uh as I

018said collected beginning of year, middle of year, end of year. Uh and really what we wanted to uh look at from the classroom level was the dosage, adherence and quality of the instruction that was delivered. Uh Miss Miss Thurer talked specifically about the walkthrough data that we are collecting. Uh tonight I'm not going to report on that walkthrough data. Uh that's still something that we're analyzing. Uh it was something that we were as we met with these teachers, as we saw these teachers um in their instructional practice, we wanted to provide direct feedback to them uh via the thrower, via the curriculum coaches, uh via principles, assistant principles, all those folks. And so uh that dosage adherence and quality rubric um it is very important with a structured curriculum like this that teachers are adhering

019to the design of the model. Uh the UFly data that we collected is specific to spelling tasks at both a word level and sentence level. Uh and we're working to improve consistency in the upcoming school year. Uh this partnership when we came into it was uh hopefully looking at at at a three-year partnership uh where we came in with implementation in the first year uh and then slowly uh helping the district build capacity. Um, and and I told Miss Miss uh Thrower and the rest of the team the other day, ultimately my goal uh from from the university standpoint is is to uh have Lincoln Parish be doing this on their own that that they have the skill set uh and and the ability to to implement this curriculum uh at a high level and

020support these uh support these students. So uh we'll walk a little bit through the data here. Uh starting off looking at kindergarten uh through 2 grade. Um this uh bar graph here uh shows all kindergarten through 2 grade students uh over the last year for the 2425 academic year. Uh the population of that is 1,343 students. Uh and so you can see at the beginning of the year uh where these students were uh is the dark blue bar on the left hand side. And so you see there uh across the district there were 514 students that were well below benchmark. 237 students that were uh below benchmark, 323 students at benchmark and 269 students above benchmark. So what you're seeing here uh is beginning of the year to the middle of year which is the

021middle column in each one of those uh uh distributions and then uh the endofear percentages. And so what you're seeing here is uh is a significant growth of students across Lincoln Parish uh and a significant shift of students growing uh as they are participating in this curriculum. Uh to go a little bit further, this is a little bit better view of it in pie chart form of the beginning of the year data uh uh and and the distribution of those scores. And so what you see here is that at the beginning of the year this year uh or last academic year rather there were 56% of students who were either below benchmark or well below benchmark right uh leaving 44% either at or above benchmark. And so when we look at this the population of

022kindergarten through 2 grade students from beginning of year to now this is end of year. And so you can see that shift from beginning of year to end of year. And so at the beginning of the year uh where we were 56% either below or well below benchmark uh at the end of year we were down to just 31% of students below or well below benchmark. Um, now as we look at this, as we look at this data, we we start to recognize some highlights and we want to make sure that we're we're thinking about this in a way that uh both recognizes the growth that took place over this academic year, but also recognizing the growth that needs to continue to happen. Um, as as Miss Thorer said, uh, I'm not sure she's going

023to rest until the the percentages continue to go up. Uh, and and I could tell you my team is is dedicated in the same way. Um we believe very strongly in the work that's being done uh and believe that we can continue to grow over time. Uh and so uh you see some highlights there for uh the kindergarten uh through second grade overview, but the areas that we want to continue to grow is that there are still quite a few students that are not at benchmark by the end of the year. Right? Uh and this is uh one of the things that as we report this data to you tonight, I'm very happy to say that this is something that the district has already observed and it's already working towards eliminating the these are students

024that are already uh being supported and we're already identifying opportunities to continue to support them uh as they move into the next academic year. Um when Dr. Manning presented to you all earlier this year, she uh shared with you about effect size. Um so when we look at this uh this information we want to talk about statistical significance and statistical significance tells us that a change is likely because of this new curriculum and because of this change but what we really want to look at is the effect size because it tells us really how big the change is right and so for this last year uh link across Lincoln Parish schools the kindergarten effect size was 68 uh the first grade effect size was 084 and the second grade effect size was 0.94. And so

025you can see uh the kindergarten 68 falls in the desired effects range of Hadtie's effect index. Uh but then the first grade and the second grade changes uh not only are they within the desired effects, they're in the high range of desired effects. And so what we're looking at here is not just a statistical significance of score change. What we're really looking at is an effect size that indicates how big that change really is. Um as we look at uh specific to kindergarten data, we we'll look at kindergarten beginning of year uh uh data of the 414 kindergarteners across the district. 75% of those students started the year either below or well below benchmark. uh which is a a large percentage of students across the district uh leaving 25% of students either at benchmark or

026above benchmark. The change from beginning of year to middle of year was the most significant in kindergarten. Um but the the change from beginning of year to end of year resulted with just 31 students being below or well below benchmark. Uh and so we moved from uh just uh sorry we moved from just 25% of students either being at benchmark or above benchmark to 69% of students being above benchmark or at benchmark. I think this is is clear data that shows that the work that's being done uh uh at the kindergarten level is is showing success and these teachers are certainly to be commended for the work that they're doing. Uh when we look at the kindergarten highlights, we do see that there's a 44% increase from beginning of year to end of year for

027students that are at benchmark and above benchmark. Uh and the well below and below students actually decreased by 44%. Uh which is a really strong uh a really strong um trend for those kindergarten students. Um the areas of growth identified for kindergarten students is that our beginning of year below and well below numbers are still too high. Uh this is something that we've already started to plan for. Um, again, this is an opportunity where we report on this data, this data, and I'm happy to say that Miss Thrower's team is already starting to address these things. Um, but we also recognize that there's still work to be done. Uh, by the end of the year, there were still 130 uh, uh, kindergarten students that were not reading at benchmark. Moving on to first grade, uh,

028when we look at first grade, uh, first graders started the year, there were 477 first graders that started the year. uh 52% of those students were either below or well below the benchmark uh on the literacy screener. Uh but then when we contrast that to the end ofear data, only 32% were below or well below with 68% of students scoring at or above benchmark for that same population. When we look at those first grade uh students, certainly some highlights to look at is that the atbenchmark and above benchmark students increased 20% from beginning of year to end of year. Uh and the well below and below students decreased 20%. Um obviously we're we're again looking at those endofear numbers and we're trying to understand where those students are that are still not reading at benchmark

029and what kind of interventions can be put in place to support those students. Moving on to second grade. Uh looking at this second grade data, the beginning of year uh showed that there were uh 43% of students either below or well below benchmark. But the end ofear contrast uh is a drop from 43% to just 31% of students in second grade uh uh at or below benchmark for uh the literacy screener. Some highlights from the second grade. Uh that add benchmark and above benchmark students uh increased from 12% beginning of year to end of year. So a good number of students moving in that direction. The above benchmark increased 20% from beginning of year to end of year. Uh and then 69% of students uh in the second grade across the district are at or

030above benchmark at the end of the year. Again, very commendable for the work that's being done across the district, but we also want to recognize the areas for growth. We still want to be working with those students who at the end of the year were not reading at benchmark. Uh while our team has has broken down these grade level uh percentages, we also looked at a few uh different subgroups that I want to share with you tonight. Uh we'll look at just a few of them. Uh the trends across all of the subgroups. Um I I reported to the the leadership team last week. uh we reported to the lead the leadership team last week that the trends are really positive uh not just across grades but also across subgroups. So when we look at

031African-American students across the district uh we see that 65% of students started the year either below or well below benchmark. This is kindergarten through 2 grade. uh and you see there on the right the left hand side the beginning of year percentages and the uh right hand side is the end of year percentages with a reduction from 65% to 41% of students below or at below or or well below benchmark uh which is a a strong reduction uh in those areas when we look at Hispanic and Latino students uh they started the year with 59% of students being either well below or below benchmark mark with a reduction from 59% down to just 29% uh oh sorry just 29% there in the end of year with 73% of students moving to either at or above

032benchmark again commendable numbers uh for teachers working uh wi with uh students within the district um the other uh students categorized as other races um 60% of them started the year uh at either uh below or wellow below uh with a reduction down to just 31% of students at or below or well below benchmark by the end of the year. When we look at the the subgroups based on race and ethnicity, um we did see that there the African-American students are decreasing uh or students decreased 24% and below and well below for beginning of year to end of year. That was a consistent change uh across other races as well. uh white students actually redu uh decreased by 24% as well. And so the trend was very positive across all students. And I think that's

033the thing that we want to make sure we highlight. Uh specifically with Hispanic and Latino students across the district, they had the largest decrease of well below and below benchmark students. Uh and it was down 32%. Uh but again, we're we're looking for areas to continue growing and supporting the district as we move into year two of implementation. And so we want to see greater levels of reduction uh across beginning of year to end of year data. Uh when we look specifically at the subgroup of sped students uh we started the year uh this last academic year with 80% of sped students identified as either below or well below benchmark to start the year uh with a reduction down to 63%. uh which uh is is really a strong strong trend uh for students who

034are uh identified as special education students. Um and that that uh at benchmark and above benchmark group grew from 20% to 37% over the course of the academic year. Uh EL students, this is one of the groups that we really like to highlight. uh in Lincoln Parish uh English language learning students started the year with 31% of them being at benchmark or above benchmark and ended the year with 72% of students at or above benchmark. Um that is that is a very very very remarkable change in students uh who are uh learning the language and and who are developing those skills in kindergarten through 2 grade. Uh a reduction there of 69% beginning of year. uh to just 28% end of year. Um so again, big changes there. Looking at economically disadvantaged students, uh 65%

035of economically disadvantaged students started the year at either uh below or well below benchmark and ended the year with a reduction uh down to 40% of students being below or well below benchmark. Again, those students uh economically disadvantaged students uh only 35% of them to start the year were at or above benchmark. and then ended the year with nearly 60% of them being at or above benchmark. As we look at these highlights, we see a 41% decrease in EL students from well below and below benchmark from beginning of year to end of year. Uh a 25% decrease in economically disadvantaged students from well below and below benchmark beginning of year to middle of year. Uh certainly we see areas of growth. We want to continue to work with those sped students a and we identify

036that as an area of focus. Uh we've already started to have lots of conversations about what kinds of interventions can be put in place and what kind of supports can be put in place. Uh and also uh as we think about that, we want to make sure that we are um supporting all students uh uh these areas for growth. We're looking at all students across the district uh to be able to support. Um as we think about years uh two and three, there are some areas of further investigation that we're looking at as a team. Uh we're going to dive deeper into these statistics uh to better understand uh a little bit more uh about what exactly is going on. Uh taking those down to the school level, taking those down to the classroom level.

037Um looking at subgroups uh with co-variants a little more deeply. Um but we also recognize that the the Dibbles screener gives us information about subtests. what are the specific skills and what are the specific issues that certain students may be having, certain populations of students may be having or or certain schools are having, right? Uh and we want to build that capacity for those uh literacy coaches, for those facilitators, and for those classroom teachers uh to be able to provide quality instruction for students in Lincoln Parish. Uh we also want to make sure that we are thinking about um how students are growing in the interval time between beginning of year, middle of year and between middle of year and end of year. And so what we've developed is the interval progress monitoring of students

038where we want to not just look at beginning, middle and end of year but look at the changes that are happening between uh beginning of year and middle of year. uh what are the things that are happening in the classroom that are that are um a catalyst for changes for students and then taking it down to classroom level analysis. Um we when talking to the leadership team uh the thing that uh is very clear is their commitment to having tough conversations, right? Um that as as we continue to show this data, as we continue to talk with these schools and these teachers, um those conversations about improving instruction are going to happen and they're already happening, which is exciting for for us to see. Uh also, we want to make sure that we're looking at

039the the fidelity of implementation. uh as I said when uh teachers follow the curriculum the students tend to do well and I I I think that the data show that um when there's a strong implementation of the curriculum students are going to continue to grow. So that that is a whole lot of information. Um as I said I'm happy to talk with you all and share with you all the full data set at any time. Uh but I do want to leave opportunities for questions. Uh if it's specific to the data I'm happy to share. Uh but luckily I have a couple of literacy experts uh here with me tonight um who uh would would love to share as well. And so um if the board has any questions we'd be happy to answer them

040at this point. >> I have a couple questions. >> Yes ma'am. >> So when we talk about um you said the second grade is a 0.94 effect. Mhm. >> So, how many students are we looking at from second grade that's below well below that's going into third grade with and we know that we have a mandate that those students need to score on or above grade level. How many students are we looking at coming into incoming school? >> That's Yes. Yes, ma'am. That's a great question, Dr. Williams. Uh so 31% of students end of year for second grade and the population is 456 and I can't give that exact calculation off the top of my head but of the 456 uh uh percent of or sorry the 456 population 31% of them uh scored below

041or well below benchmark at the end of the school year. Now, Miss Thrower, I'm sure would be happy to talk with you about those are students that already have received implement or intervention this summer. Um, and so, Miss Thur, I don't know if you want to answer that question a little more effectively than I can. >> Well, we have we've tal I've explained to um talked to the board before about the um individual academic support plan. So any student that is below proficient from kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade on dibbles um they get an individual academic support plan and that plan is written for them. It it um defines the interventions that are going to happen. School leaders meet with parents. They go over that information. They share resources with parents that parents

042could also use with those students at home. Um and so you know we have a plan in place to meet intervention to and and the school's master schedule in addition to that has a block of time set aside for inschool interventions. It's a 30 minute window and in that window they divide the kids up into groups. Uh we you know we call it extra time to learn and so we want all of our students getting extra time to learn not just the kids that are below and well below. That's our main focus, but we also have activities and things for those kids that are benchmark and above a benchmark to continue enriching them as well in literacy. >> So, did we have this in place last year? >> Yes, the academic support plans. Yes. >>

043Okay. So, how successful was it last year with those second graders coming in? Because we had >> summer school students in summer school. So, we got an upcoming year. what are we going to continue on with the same interventions or what are we going to do? >> The the plans are built every year for those students and then we progress monitor throughout. So as we're doing interventions um we're progress monitoring those students weekly on whatever skill we're working on. So like and maybe Dr. Manning can jump in here too is like with reading development with literacy you can't just throw everything at them, right? We have to figure out where is the skill deficit and that's what we have to focus on. So we focus on that first. We progress monitor. When we see that

044they are making progress and that would be after three successful progress monitoring assessments, then we're going to look at them again and say, "Okay, what are we going to do next?" Like what do they need next? And so we keep working on that continuum to get them back to grade level. So that's that's just how we how we do it, how we work on it. Um >> I'm I'm I guess um that what 128 something students how um can we get a report about middle of the year to see what that group of students is at because I don't I mean concern summer school we want them on grade level or above grade level senior. So, can y'all report back to us an update on >> Well, we we're doing the screening three times a

045year. So, we'll have beginning of year data. So, this is end of year data. So, we know there's going to probably be some summer slide in there. >> So, we will have beginning of year data. And that's really the starting point of where we're going to determine interventions for this school year is from that BOI data. >> And that's the third grade group that I'm >> that's every group, kindergarten, first grade. Well, kindergarten, we start um their academic support plans after midyear assessments because we know >> we've got to see where they are and who they are and where they're coming in and give them some instruction before we can start intervening first, second, and third. We're looking at that BOI data when they come in, comparing it to EOI. Like EOI is a good

046starting point, but we want to see where are you now after the summer. Then we develop those plans and we start working with them and progress monitoring them. And as we're progress monitoring, we're hoping that what we're doing is working. If it's not, if we progress monitor and we get three in a row that say no, this isn't working. Like three weeks in a row, we're going to back up and figure out, okay, what what else do we need to work on? This isn't what's working. So, I mean, yes, we're tracking, we have a tracker, we're progress monitoring, then we'll have the midyear data report, and again, we're going to compare those results to beginning of year. Can I add one thing? Um, new to third grade this year will be interventions with you. So,

047Miss Thrower and uh Dr. Manning uh trained our third grade teachers at the end of the year on that. So, that's a new initiative in response to >> and that's what I want to hear. >> Will we create uh special programs for these kids that failed and the third grade? what program will we develop for them since they gonna be a repeat of the third grade because they didn't pass. So what are we doing to redevelop them and get them back to the standards that acceptable that go to fourth grade >> again? We'll we'll have the intervention groups and like Miss Howell was saying for those third graders we are going to be implementing you flat with them this year um in those small group lessons again we do we're going to do a diagnostic

048figure out exactly what skill they need where do we start and start working from there and these third graders um well those second graders coming into third grade only had one year of UFly so while we had a lot of success success and we saw a lot of growth. We know that there's still some gaps because they only had one year of a strong curriculum. >> So that's why we're implementing the the UFI in third grade for those students to help continue to fill those gaps. >> Other questions? >> I don't have a question. I have a comment. Just want to say thank you to the Louisiana Tech team and our and our leadership and our teachers that took this on. Dustin, personally, I this this is kind of a cool moment to to see

049a Lincoln Parish graduate that has come up through this school, a kid of two educators from this district sitting up here addressing us. It's kind of a a cool moment and I just wanted to say thank you for your leadership in that. >> Thank you for that. Um I I will say um h having students in this district uh and believing firmly in the public education in Lincoln Parish, I am incredibly grateful to you all. Um this was not a partnership uh that um that that we anticipated to start the year. Uh my our initial ask our team's initial ask was just to work with a couple of teachers at each grade level. Uh and it um it grew exponentially very quickly. uh but uh it showed only the deep commitment that the leadership team

050of Lincoln Parish has to serving students uh and and they said look if you believe that this works we want to do it for everybody we we want to work it in all schools for all students uh to support all students and so I'm incredibly grateful to you the board uh again to the leadership team to the Louisiana Tech team um this has been a true community effort uh Miss Mur mentioned uh we had local businesses local individuals who gave money to this initiative I'm just incredibly grateful for the way that the community has pulled together uh through the work that's being done in Lincoln Parish to support students. Uh and we're excited about what's to come. I I do uh in the conversations that we've had um we we hope very to continue to

051see very big things coming from the district and supporting the district and ultimately an opportunity where um the the district is is managing this wi with very little little support from the university. not that we don't want to help, but that we want to grow the capacity and support for the district. And then we get the opportunity to report this story and tell this story of the amazing things that are happening in Lincoln Parish. Um this this data as we look at it, it it is really remarkable. Uh when you look at you data um that there's not a lot of it out there that um that doesn't show positive things, but a lot of it doesn't show this level of positivity. And so we want to continue to see those trends grow uh as

052we deepen this relationship with the district. So, thank you all very much. >> And just a little plug, if you haven't had an opportunity to go and watch children and teachers engaging in this, I urge you to go and do that because you will leave so joyful. >> It is incredible to see kindergarteners who are writing. And y'all, their handwriting, that's another thing. The handwriting, the spelling, the reading, it is all just shot up. And the materials that you're you that they're using are good old simple things. Some dry erase boards and markers and pencils and magnet letters that they can move. And they are so proud of themselves. They are so proud of themselves. And the teachers are too. So it's just it's it's just a glorious thing. And it's almost like you walk

053in the schools and you just feel the warmth when you walk in. I mean there's just smiles on faces. So it's a beautiful thing to see. And we can't wait to come back and show you numbers moving in even better directions because we're not resting until they all read >> and right. By the way, while we're at >> Thank you all so much. >> Dr. >> Good evening. >> Okay, I would like to follow up um as the the group from Louisiana Tech shared the data for the literacy from kindergarten through 2 grade. I just want to give an update on the uh results of the third grade. According to act 422, which give us the guidelines and the policy for students uh promoting to grade um three, excuse me, promoting to grade four from

054grade three, we are happy to report that 98% of third graders met the requirements act 8 uh act 422 to progress on to fourth grade. Okay. Um, from there I'll go into the LEAP data. The LEAP data was released um, Monday, June 30th, uh, right before we hit the month of July. And so I would like to give a quick report on where we are with that. In this report, I'm going to talk about proficiency rates uh, or percentages. And when we speak of percent um, proficiency rates or percentages, we're talking about those students who score mastery and advance. Um as you know we're moving into the new school performance score calculator um that formula in the past we were awarded um some points 80 points for basic and then for mastery 100 points for

055advanced 150 um with this new performance score we are no longer awarded points for basic it is expected that students are reaching proficiency mastery or above so >> do you have a hand out I'm sorry >> I do not Okay. Okay. So, um with that being said, the grade 3 through 8 and this is um including ELA math and science social studies scores and civic scores have not been released yet. They will be released after the August 20th um Bessie meeting. They have to give some approval for for some cut scores. So, we're looking forward to seeing that um coming later this month. So the proficiency rate combined for ELA math and science for grades three through eight is 42% proficient. Um and when we compared it to the state that is um the state

056had a proficiency rate mastery of above of 35%. Okay. when we look at the rankings of the data that was released by the state department uh like I said the week of June 30th if we rank the the districts according to their percent proficiency then it is um we can see that Lincoln Parish is ranked within the top 10 districts across the state as far as the num the percent of students who are ranking proficient. Okay. When we move into um looking more specifically at ELA and math, the percentage proficient for ELA in grades 3 through eight is 48%. Um and the prof the percent proficient for math is 42% and that is up 2% because last year our proficiency rate in math based on mastery and above was 40%. We moved up to 42%

057and I'll back up and say ELA we're at 48% this year which was the same as last year. Moving from 3 through 8 into high school um and this data was pulled from our um DRC data file. DRC is the company leak um who who the vendor for that. So just pulled the data fer and calculated these numbers for all six tested subjects. Um that's going to be algebra 1, geometry, English one, English two, biology, and US history. 46% um of the students score proficient, that's mastery above on the spring um assessment, spring 2025 assessments. When we break that down and look at the English and the math, 55% of the students score proficient if you combine English one and English two. And then 46% score proficient in the math which is a combination of

058the algebra and the geometry. Any questions >> were those trending up too? Um for the >> the math and the ELA >> okay for overall for the six subjects u like I said that's the math ELA science and the US history we do not have the civic scores that uh that is in last year it was a 47% proficiency and uh we moved down to 46 uh percent uh as far as English one and two last spring 2024 we were at 57% we're down to 55% um however And and also for math, we saw a drop there. For the algebra and the geometry for spring 2024, we were at 47% and we're down to 46%. So we saw some drops in our high school. While we saw some increases in three through eight proficiency rates,

059we did see some drops in high school proficiency rates. >> What would you attribute that to? >> Could I speak to that? >> Falls. So, a lot of our dips were in the 10th grade, but uh the biology, the English, too, and then uh geometry. And so, I kind of went on a deep dive looking at that. And I I traced that cohort back to sixth grade in English because that I was ELA facilitator at that point. And what I noticed year over year is that while that group might have had a lower proficiency, they have grown each year. And so I did see that pattern of growth. Um that to me is something that I want us to be aware of this year as those children move into the ACT age. >> Okay. Thank

060you. So, as you were talking, um, I pulled up on the State Department the website the the data that you're going over. Um, what do you, um, what is the plan as far as with the subgroups, the big the, um, the gaps in the sub with the subgroups. >> Okay. >> Could I speak to that, too? >> You can speak. And uh we're gonna talk about this a little bit more on Thursday, but I'll give y'all just a a quick overview because obviously like Dr. Hearn said, the data came out on was June 30th. I think a lot of us were on vacation. I I started crunching the numbers. Um so again, Mr. Young will speak in detail on Thursday about updates to our strategic plan, but just a couple things that we have already

061started work on this summer in response to the data. Um, one, we would like to be more like K2 in being more strategic in progress monitoring throughout the year because when the LEAP scores come back, I mean, it's summertime, the year's over, um, I say it's kind of like a post-mortem. And so, we are coming up with district assessments, grades uh, 3 through 12 in all subject or the core subjects, math, science, ELA, and social studies. And we are working with uh JCampus to progress monitor throughout the year. And with JCampus we have the ability to uh disagregate by subgroup as well. So we have a plan to pay more attention to that. Um kind of a renewed focus on interventions. Again, Miss Miss Thrower spoke to that some. Uh we've done some trainings already

062in June with school leaders. We're going to do another with uh instructional coaches in August about interventions. And then we already talked about third grade interventions incorporating fly. So those are just that's just a quick hit of some things that we've already started working on in response to the data. >> So when you talk about the benchmarks, how often are you going to benchmark the students grades 3 through 12? >> It depends. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. It depends on the subject and the curriculum, >> but all of our district assessments will be curricular and it kind of depends on the module per unit. And so in ELA that may be a little bit longer, but we're looking anywhere from five weeks to seven weeks. >> Okay. So every five to seven

063weeks. And have we looked at the validity and reliability as far as the um the the assessments from J Campus compared to what the actual LEAP assessment like the rigor, >> right? Okay. So, what we're really trying to focus on is making sure we're aligned to the grade level standards, >> right? >> And so, um with our high quality instructional materials, we we know that those are aligned to the standards. And with Jampants, we have the ability to like tag specific standards and kind of keep an eye on those. >> Okay, >> thank you for those questions. >> And I would like to address the subgroups. I do have that. Um, as far as from last year to this year, spring 24 to 25. Once again looking at proficiency levels which is mastery um and

064advanced there was a zero change in the percent of students for um for black African-American regular education English learners and males. There was a 1% increase um going from 58 to 59 to 41 to 42 respectively for uh white students and female students. We had an increase of 2% from 10% proficient to 12% proficient with students with disabilities. For Hispanics and Latinos, we increased from 26% proficient to 29% um proficient. For African, for American Indian or Alaskans, we increase from 29% to 33% proficient. For Asians, we increased from 69% to 74% proficient. For students in false secure, we increased from 26 uh six 26% proficient to 33% proficient and for military we um increased from 21% proficient to 36% proficient. We do not have uh a high enough number for homeless for us to be

065able to see the um well we didn't have a high enough number in 2024 to be able to see a change there. And we did see notice some drops um for students who are not economically um disadvantaged. we drop from 65% to 64%. That's a 1% drop. For those who are classified uh as economically disadvantaged, we drop from 28% to 27%. For those students who identify as two or more races, we drop from 56% to 51%. And for students who identified as migrant, we dropped from 33% to 20% proficient. So those are the numbers. So why do you think it was a 13point drop in the migrants? >> I'm not sure um if the I don't have the number in front of me. I'm not sure if we had a increase in the number of

066migrants. I would have to talk to u Miss Hometock who handles that. So I can't tell you what happened there, but I can check and find out. I can check with her and see if our numbers increase or or what was what was happening there. So with the the the black and Africanamean, we are at 22%. >> Yes, we were at 22% last year, we at 22% this year. Any other questions? And you said on Thursday we're going to talk about the plan and all. >> Okay. Any further questions? >> Thank you for your attention. >> Thank you. >> And the last piece is a summer learning update or recap. Uh so our K through six summer learning program was held at Russ Elementary over 14 days from June 2nd to June 20th. Uh students

067were on campus for approximately six hours each day and also provided breakfast and lunch. Uh of that day students receive instruction in ELA and math uh and also have rotations. We got to make a little bit exciting for them to come. They had rotations of art. Uh they had STEM PE mixed in there a little bit and then also they had social emotional learning from our mental health counselors. Uh the classes were staffed by two teachers. We wanted to keep our numbers low in terms of the effect that it would have on uh students. So um each class for K through six was staffed with two teachers. Our selection criteria for the teachers were for 2023 24 in order to apply to teach some learning you got to be rated highly effective on your previous

068year's evaluation. So we wanted to make sure that our kids got the best instruction over that time period. Um in order to pick the kids uh we had to see exactly what uh model we would follow. Uh so there are four things that we use to determine which kid actually need to go somewhere. Number one if you were failing pupil progression plan. Uh so for most students below high school uh in order to pass to the next grade with the exception third grade um you have to pass ELA and math no questions asked and then science or social studies. Okay so that's one thing. So if you did not or were not passing per progression you needed to go to summer learning. Uh the other thing too is that if you singularly failed ELA or

069math that triggered you to go to summer learning as well. Uh and then number three was uh well below performance on the dibble screen. So students that were not uh performing well on their diff screen, you actually needed to go to summer learning. That's a an opportunity to retest was a part of the act 422. Uh so students did get a chance to remediate Gibson data along with what Dr. mentioned a second ago. And the last and and probably the smallest category was school and also parent recommendations. So, uh, in order to, like I said, to keep the class number small, we did take some parent recommendations of parents and principles, hey, uh, this student here needed to go, uh, we made a list of those kids and then as classes, uh, had sections that

070weren't completely full. We actually honored some of those requests to get students in there. So, a total of 258 students across the district in grades K through six were chosen to attend summer learning through those four categories. Uh parents also signed an agreement that they would get their kid to come for those 14 days. Uh and average daily attendance was about 165 students. So about twothirds of the students that actually signed up actually came got on the bus and went to summer learning. Uh in total 6% of the students who attended summer learning uh were actually retained. I know board members have asked in the past well how many students did actually go to summer learning and actually get held back. So a very small percentage of students actually went to summer learning and we

071retain those students back in grades K through six. Uh so what like a typical day for that student uh you would obviously get over two and a half hours of ELA instruction. You get math but also we would track things that would actually inform the teacher and also their IASP for next year uh in terms of how they would perform a writing task. So students that were in summer learning uh they worked obviously on Lexia and Zern and all the technology things but also they had extensive writing over the summer uh to get them to perform at u benchmark level. Uh so that's something that we uh worked on extensively over the summer. Uh just to add on to what Dr. Hearn mentioned earlier, this act 422 compliance, it's it's pretty rigorous in terms of

072making sure students are in those top three levels. We don't want them at, you know, just, you know, above um or excuse the, you know, just above benchmark. We want students, you know, at benchmark and above is what I'm trying to say. So, uh that's something obviously we'll track and we'll talk a little bit more on Thursday uh during that meeting about the specifics of what needs to go on with these students and how we'll track them going forward with mission measures. uh we'll have a dive off into uh accountability and then also uh there'll be a chance for the board to tell us if we think we're measuring the right things, if there's something else you think we should be measuring in terms of student performance. But overall, summer learning isn't success. What we

073want to do is take that number down. I remember a few summers ago summer learning was up around 400 students and um the the smaller we get that number, the better our students are doing. Uh, but I do think it's successful at the moment. If I had y questions, I can answer this about some of >> any questions. I will dig into this more on Thursday. Thank you very much, Mr. >> All right, Dr. Lewis. Yes, I want to report five faculty and staff resignations, 47 faculty and staff recommendations, 36 faculty and staff wants reference, four child nutrition recommendations, one transportation retirement, two maintenance retirements, two maintenance resignations, two maintenance recommendations, one transportation retirement, and three transportation recommendations. Thank you. You're getting busy. [Music] Let's move on to your fun part. Okay. You have the

074sales tax report for the month of July. This is the first month of collections for the new fiscal year. We do collect on cash basis. So in July uh we received 2 right at 2.8 8 million in sales tax collections which represents about 11.8% uh more collections compared to the previous uh July of 2024. Uh overall for the year this represents about 9% of prior prior year's total collections. Okay, moving on to our financial report for uh the period ending June 30, 2025. This is a full fiscal year report. It is however unadjusted for our autumn adjustments. We've made a lot of them, but we still have more to go. Uh so these are unawited figures, but it's going to be relatively close to how we'll see the end of the year uh results come

075out in the final uh financial audit once it's completed. For the general fund, uh total overall revenues of 70 million. uh with the revised budget that the board approved last uh meeting, we are at 100.9% of the budget that was approved. Uh those revenues are uh 3% higher than they were last year during due to the sales tax increase in sales tax collections throughout the year. Total expenditures in the general fund are 63.2 2 right at 62 3.3 million rounded up we're about 99.83% 83% budget and expenditures are up 5.7% compared to last year mainly due to the area of our pupil support services from moving visual health counselors from ESSER into uh general fund uh funding sources. Total uh net change in fund balance for the general fund that we're anticipating it'll probably fluctuate

076after we do uh all of our adjustments. Uh but it will be close as 6.4 million. uh and total ending fund balance of 43.3 million of that fund balance about 30 uh 30 million is um unrestricted and that represents approximately 47% to the budget expenditures for the year. All right, the next report is uh on the next page is for the special revenue funds total combined uh total revenues our special revenue funds collected were 39.4 4 million that represents about 101 uh point at 102% of our budget for the year. Uh revenues were actually down about 12% over uh revenues from the previous fiscal year again mainly because of the drop in federal funding um because of ESSER. uh we had a large year in 23 24 investor spending and um that decreased uh for

077this year with the project with the program for the program ending in September of 24th. uh total expenditures in the special revenue funds of 30.9 million which represents about 99.5% of total budgeted expenditures and a decrease of 20% again because of the um reduction of the test funds. Total ending uh total change in fund balance is a positive $2 million overall uh with an ending fund balance of 24.1 million in our special revenue fund. That's what we're anticipating. um in the results. Okay. And um moving on to our report on our group health insurance fund. We're six month in six months into the plan year. Uh total contributions uh at this point is 8.8 million. Total plan expenses is 7.2 million. Uh 7.2 to me is compared to 8.9 million at this time last year.

078As far as planning expenses go, I would like to note that our medical claims uh appear to be decreasing with approximately $2 million down to medical claims at this point uh last year at the halfway mark. Uh and our drug costs have increased uh a pretty good bit as well. Uh so we've kind of had that flip-flop there with our increase in drug costs. Uh we did receive uh our drug rebate payment from UMR uh to report it this month. Uh you see in the month of June we have approximately 486,000 and that's a combination of UMR and Blue Cross. We have did have a final payment with Blue Cross that came in as well to close out the year because our contract with them ended on June 30th. Um so total improvement in net

079net assets for the month of June is about $451,000 and overall for the six month of the plan year is right at one 1.55 million u positive uh change in our net assets. Okay. And so that's the Okay, just a couple reminders. Um, submit your annual disclosure statement that's due September 15th. That was in your packets last time, I think. Um, need another one. Miss Smith can help you with that. Um, we are about to start the 2526 school year. Teachers report Monday, August 11th, and then students will come on the 14th. Um just a note, Simsboro grades 6 through 12 will not report on the 14th. Uh we're pushing them back to Monday as the construction has um run over some and trying to get all the furniture back in and floors done and

080give teachers a day or two there to set up their rooms. So they will actually start on the 18th that Monday. Um that word has been sent out to everyone out there. Um, just a reminder, our board training is Thursday at the STEM Center starting at 8 o'clock. And then our September board meeting is on September the 9th. That'll be the second Tuesday, not the first one. And that's at Rustin Junior High School at noon. Uh, out there. Um, we are in a pretty good place with construction out there. Security things have been done at the junior high. We do have a meeting out there Friday with uh Riley Engineering and the city to make sure of that we're prepared for how to get in and out on Thursday when the buses start rolling. There

081is a little issue there and one at Rustin Elementary, but we have uh that worked out to where it should flow fairly smoothly. >> Right. best we could. So that's all. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Any board comments? Anything else? >> Not take a motion. We >> adjourn.