001Senor representative VP president vice president but I need some bu talk oh they did them that yeah yeah did [Music] well no CH they got a new guy in there even not e e e [Music] Mr H sit in for Miss okay first first item is to receive personal updates and work St boardon supervisor good evening good evening our report is not that long we just had a few changes from last month and that was uh two terminations you'll see the effective date and positions and we also had one resignation right now our current staffing needs right now is a fifth grade La teacher 8th grade math teacher uh one codian and then we are advertising for the athletic director's position as you look at the dashboard I made a few notes some of the
002some things didn't change if you look at the action items we are the crdc report is uh near completion um the system went down so they extended the deadline so right now um my next step is to certify and then run the audit report before I hit uh the uh submission button we did finish the intent to return forms and that's complete everything's been turned in our next steps for that is to start doing our staffing discussions for the 25 26 school year if you look at the top you'll see the intent return statistics we had 120 120 responses 2017 said yes they were coming back we only had one person um who said no and that person is leaving education we had two undecided and we also had two that wanted to transfer to
003another school space um we are still working with the alternative certification program next week we'll have an alternative certification meeting on the 18th I've met with LR spoken with lrce and they're going to send a representative out to speak to our uncertified teachers and then also we'll also have our oneto one meetings which our educated support meetings that is going to be done with the first week of April to provide them one-on-one support to get them ready for things that they can do over the summer to kind of move towards your certification and we've already discussed staff and needs on the personnal report do you have any questions about any of this you getting any responses on Athletics yes yes oh good several some we have about four four M okay okay literally I just
004looked at my uh computer I just had saw those two names yeah okay okay that concludes the Personnel committee budget and finance will come to order bell pres Miss Lind CH Kell here Missy okay um first item reing consider for approval request to advertise for new audit firm yes uh committee um I'm requesting that we advertise for a new external auditing firm as you know you know inter turval on um received a uh negative uh review from the legislative Auditors and so we went into we went into an agreement with another firm this year um to complete the audit however um we need to go back out and uh look for another auditing firm that would be able to do all of the things that we need to have done um within the audit uh
005honestly um I'm learing about the work that's that's currently being done now I don't feel like it's going fast enough um we're coming to the end of the fiscal year and we still don't have a an audit report so I think it's best that we go and look for U another auditing firm that way we have enough time to review um any applicants and and make a really good decision for the next uh company so I'm making that request that we go out and search for a new auditing fir okay can I get a motion I don't see where we have any any choice right we have to have the audit completed IO move a motion by U Miss chain second by Miss Porter any other questions take a vote Yes M Lind CH yes
006M yes okay that concludes the Budget Finance Mr TR chair Miss bill can you TR committee U policy committee will come to order M Porter pres Lind Cheney Dr Kelly Joseph here Mr okay uh first item receiving consider for appr approval revisions to policy jhb activities fund management um committee I'm going to ask that we look at both items collectively because they all it's all basically the same thing okay so is that okay all right so I am currently reviewing all School activity accounts um at each one of the schools and also the policies that govern all of the work that the schools do regarding School activity accounts and there are a couple of things that were discovered with the policies the first um the policy J and also policy DK are basically identical with
007the exception of some uh wording so we need to just eliminate one um and I Revis the other to include more spe specific language uh regarding restricted and non-restricted funds process uh for approval of expenditures um prohibited use of funds uh incurring debt and also establishment of a teacher courtesy fund uh those that specific language needed to be spelled out in the policy and it was not and so I'm requesting that um we include that language um to have a clearer understanding of how uh School activity accounts and funds should be utilized at the school sites okay so you want a motion to uh consider combining these with additional specific language yes we basically need to eliminate one because they're basically the same and then revise that one to include more specific language with regards
008to the things that I just listed okay so okay I get a motion to eliminate one of these policies and um combine them with additional language I so move who who moved that Jo okay I have a motion by Miss Joyce second by Mr Hughes Mr Mr Hughes not on this committee Miss CH I'm Sorry Miss second second about Miss ch um any other questions on these policies okay okay yes M yes Miss Lind Cheney yes 30 motion car for okay that concludes policy oh is he build is he building and grounds too okay building and grounds will come will come to order roll call Mr TR mge Porter pres Mr George Hugh Dr Kell Joseph Mr Ed okay um receiving consider for approval request to declare trailer at a sh uh football field Surplus
009and are no longer usable I'm sorry s s Lena College and Career Academy football field Surplus no longer usable yes uh committee um if you recall this is the trailer that was originally behind the high school back before 2011 um it was moved to the stadium after we did all of the construction and Renovations of the at the high school it was moved to the stadium and now it it is in dilapidated conditions um and uh it's it's a more of a hazard now than it is um a help for uh our players and our coaching staff and it was recently vandalized um because the doors don't even lock so uh it's of no value to us and we need it needs to be removed so I'm asking that this trailer be declared C Surplus
010and then someone can come and remove it um where it's no cost to the district I so move okay got a motion in a second any other questions on the Surplus okay yes yes that concludes building and grounds I need to add a [Music] calar 25 26 so she need call call the education committee into all Miss Virginia B present Miss Lind Chene present Dr K Joseph here here Brown here m n yes Dr Joshua John Paul yes misson yes first item is to revise they want to add a revision for the 2025 2026 school calendar yes um education committee um I do apologize I needed to add this item to the agenda um um neglected to add it um it's in regard to the MRA holiday um we have the MRA holiday Set for
011February 16th and 17th of 2026 and I'm asking that we add an additional date so it would be the 16th through the 18th which would make up uh 3 days for the mik ra holiday I'm asking to add this day because we find that um on that Wednesday um we have a lot of teacher absences and it's really hard to you know maintain continuity in at the schools when we have limited number of teachers so I think that if we added that day give the teachers and the kids an additional day for MRA we'll have a better turnout on Thursday um when they return um I do not want to go past three days I just want it Monday Tuesday and that Wednesday um just for that for that reason um in doing so we
012would still have $1,380 dollars minutes uh embedded in the instructional minutes uh which would equal to uh 3.29 days B days in the calendar so I'm asking that we add that additional day for the mod R holiday which will be February 16th 17th and 18th also move that we add 18th second Miss Lita Porter yes Miss Virginia Bell yes Miss Linda Chen yes three motion car to the to vot [Music] right for for done learn this Lord God we pray for peace and unity like all throughout these and all blessings ask your darling son in Jesus Christ's name we PR amen amen to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible Li and justice for all the meeting room comes to ERS we're now
013holding a meeting of the s school board roll call Miss Porter Pres Miss Lita Porter Miss Linda cheny Mr George Hugh Miss Virginia Bell pres Mr Alon Travis all members are present item C approve minutes and agenda from February 13th 2025 committee meeting February 13th 2025 regular board meeting and the current agenda can I get a motion to approve those collectively motion by Miss George qu second by Mr D Hughes any questions no questions item D director's report we will begin with Dr John Dr John Paul director of academic programs for Math and [Music] Science good evening board members M Singleton is passing out the one pager of my update I'm here to present um the update about our department Math and Science Department over the past several year several months our team has been
014dedicated in enhancing the student work student achievement um improving the teacher Effectiveness um Etc today I would like to share some key accomplishments our department has done um in the past few months I would like to start off with the Benchmark data um as you look at the graph on the one that you have in your hand um the one on the left is The Benchmark second Benchmark uh which was recently conducted um during the month of December um as we speak you know this week they're taking the third Benchmark so the comparison shows especially third to sixth grade um the first presentation shows you the difference between uh the first Benchmark and second Benchmark assessment index and we can see that you know there is a increase across the boat uh but the increase
015for the third and sorry fourth and fifth grade uh needs needs some improvement can you go to the next slide I'd like to give you some update about the science performance uh across the about especially third to sixth grade um you can see there is a growth you know the one on the left side with the blue bar is for the second Benchmark and um even though we have seen the progress across the board uh still there is a um need for improvement especially the third and fifth grade next um the math benchmark so we also did some analysis comparing the Benchmark versus the last year leap um leap uh assessment index uh across the board math has seen um the you know the significant growth I would like to give you the reason later
016in the next SE exessive slides um there's a huge growth especially in third grade we see the continuous Trend across the boat and especially we could see that the instruction strategy that are applied in that classroom is very consistent throughout the year so uh we see the same significant growth um every year especially in third grade and also you can see sixth grade that is a huge increase but especially fourth and fifth grade you know especially the fifth grade there is a need for improvement as far as the science can you go to the next science benchmark and the leap 2024 comparison um you can see the third grade and fifth grade needs Improvement uh whereas fourth and sixth grade have shown some improvement uh uh still there are a lot of areas to improve
017and we are working closely along with the master teacher Mr Allen to work with the teachers to ensure that uh they are implementing the strategies that we are giving through the cycles observation Cycles as far as the high school math performance you know uh we can see the eighth grade has has shown the big Improvement even the geometry but right now we have vacancies in those two areas um so that is a concern but we are working with the principal Miss Butler to ensure that you know those Learners are uh receiving the support that they need in the next five weeks before the leap test um I will tell you the action steps in the next step sorry next slide so the overall Insight um there is a significant gain across all grades especially third
018fourth and sixth grade um science the growth is evident but um the Third fifth grade um require Focus support um so the several action steps we have taken in the past few months uh one of the key step is to analyze the end of mission assessment scores which we started with ELC uh to identify the gaps and so we can provide the targeted support and also during our cycle two support uh we um started the short leap like assessment every Thursday so that way we can um identify the gaps and address the gaps uh one of the action St that we took was um recognize the gains and uh we started the new recognition program called Z teacher of the semester as you see from the picture Miss Cosi and Miss Wright from ELC and
019Miss Davis from um sha were recognized for having the high completion um uh learn completion throughout the semester um another action step that we have been taking every week was giving those learn completion data to the principal so they can have a clear idea of how the Learners are improving making a progress with the completion every week and as you see in the last column the mandated increase the principls and the teachers are tasked with you know having that percentage every single week uh so they will know where they are and where they need to head to and uh we also give the action steps and the recommendations you know the measures that they need to take every week to ensure that we are they are reaching the goal the goal is to reach 85
0208 80 to 85% completion every week and we have seen a significant growth especially at Shara so we we are excited to see how it's going to make an impact in the on the leap test so next one so and another big major step that we have taken is the observation cycle we started um around the September or October of last year um so we have completed four cycle so far you can see all the topics that we have covered so far during the first week we identify the um the gaps through the learning walks and then second week we provide the PLC support and third week we will be in the classroom to provide in classroom support and then we will analyze the data and repeat the cycle that's it any questions thank you
021Dr John Paul next we'll have uh Miss Christine nles our director of academic programs for ELA and social studies good evening board members Dr Joseph directors this evening I am going to be presenting Department data I have some initiatives going on in my department and I'm going to focus and share my information using those three important components in our district Vision which are learner success educator Effectiveness and building public confidence not in that order so can you go back to the first okay educator Effectiveness this is very important in our district so um I along with Dr John Paul are working on we're working on a teacher observation and support cycle for ELA it's a structured continuous framework designed to build the capacity of our ELA teachers through professional development classroom observation feedback and targeted
022support we believe that this cycle will ensure growth and impact instruction practices and there's three main components planning observing and feedback and classroom support next slide this is just a quick overview of what the action items look like each week how we are supporting our ELA teachers throughout this cycle and this process and I'm not going to read through every word but I'm just going to give a a quick overview when we're planning we have a professional development that's held here conducted here at central office we deliver a comprehensive focus training on curriculum implementation strategies and data analysis our week two is when we that's myself and Mr Lawrence go into the classroom and we do classroom observations on the Tuesday but we give that immediate feedback on that Thursday so it's that same week
023they are provided that observation and feedback support and week three is our support classroom instruction we also do what's called um during this week called whisper coaching it's just a subtle way during instruction for teachers to get that guidance like you know instead of us saying you are not supposed to do that you know it's more it's subtle it's a subtle way to kind of you know guide our teachers into the right direction for instruction so my question was is this cycle yielding positive results for Learners because it's about our Learners how is this translating from what we're doing into the classroom to our Learners as a result of this targeted support cycle teachers will improve in delivering evidence-based Ela instruction and it effectively engages Learners which will result in improved literacy outcomes and an
024increased academic achievement so with part one our teachers are in a professional learning session that is then transferred their new learning into the classroom during instruction which does yield as you can see in the pictures positive results for learners but let's look at the data to you I can we can look at pictures and say this is positive but let's look at some data so I am not going to say that just this cycle is making these improvements I can say it's contributing to these Poss possible small gains that we're seeing in the ELA classroom teacher one assessment 1 2 and three this was before the cycle even began the average of their class assessment was a 28% at the very beginning of the cycle the teacher score actually went up to 36% again it's
025short small gains but it it is gains towards the ending of this cycle it was a 52% so we're we're making those Gam again not as fast as what we would like but this cycle basically is providing teachers with actionable targeted support to improve instruction which does yield positive results for Learners and the second piece of data is another teacher that we're working with as well that class average went from 32 to 44% our component is our learner success I am extremely pleased and excited to discuss and talk about our Amira tutor is she's an AI tutor our Learners are actually tutored through amir's assess instruct and tutor it's an AIT method the AI tutor delivers tailored micro interventions and micro lessons to the learner as they read aloud passages into the program it's wonderful
026to watch this program in action and basically the students read aloud the AI tutor detects any type of reading risk sends an alert they receive an intervention in the moment and then they repeat using that intervention that was provided by that AI tutor and again it's not a quiet process because all the kids have on headsets and they're talking in it's it's robust vocabulary going on in the classroom you hear it you all the kids are talking into the computer different Passages at their grade level so it's exciting so let's look at some data the goal for Amira is for each learner to have 30 minutes on this program a week so we were able to receive through the state department 303 licenses for our Shota School site and for the ELC we were able
027to receive 236 Amir Li es for free from a grant for a from a grant that was provided from the state department so we have a total number of k6 Learners is 539 Learners and this graph just shows over the weeks how at the beginning again it was just us beginning this process of how this tutor works and we we do see some steady growth Learners are getting and hitting that goal of 30 plus minutes a week and I don't know if you can see in the picture but he has on headphones this is an Amir this is part of the Amira tutor and my last slide is basically the microphone has a um they actually they talking to the microphone on the computer some of the some of the teachers purchase their own with
028the microphone but yeah the they just hear it and what happens is if sometimes some of the Learners they're not speaking loud enough into it so the tutor doesn't hear her and it alerts them they have to speak a little louder but they all they can't hear her feedback on on their earon yes so it's it's pretty exciting okay and our last component is building public confidence when our Learners win our community wins for our district social studies Fair we had 86 Learners that participated at Shota and 55 Learners that participated at the high school this year we did more of a Project based social studies project that means they were given topics based upon the instruction that was going on for that unit in that classroom at that time so as you can see
029our fourth grade first place winner and I I expressed to them in passing I said oh you can dress like your project to bring your project alive I said it very very and she did she definitely understood the assignment and um dressed up you know to bring her project alive she did win first place and we are yes this is Sparta we are headed to uh the regional social studies Fair on Wednesday it's going to be eight Learners and um I'm excited for all of us to participate in that and I will report the winners and updated Benchmark data next month thank you thank you Miss n yes good evening board uh good evening committee I only have one thing that I want to present and I I'm going to put Miss Singleton on the
030spot where she uh spearheaded our accredit re accreditation process so I'm going to ask Miss um Singleton to please come up and just explain what we went through and when we should receive the results of our re accreditation as you know we went through our initial accreditation back in 201 uh 13 and uh we've been a district accredited uh organization since then it was Advanced Ed at the time it has now changed to cognia and so uh Miss Singleton take it away uh so yes we did on February 27th we had our accreditation Engagement review uh it differed vastly from previous years previous years they did a sight to sight uh visit it was very very robust this year um it's more streamlined because the standards did change so they streamlined the process to where
031everything is uploaded into a workpace our narratives about our engagement um our uh community supports our academic supports um and then the actual review is just uh it's not even an interview it's a u just a hourlong meeting where you present uh an overview of what you put into the workpace and uh our uh lead evaluator is Mr Robert piku uh and he and the associate evaluator Mr Ryan Piper uh they had a few questions about a really heavy focus on financial literacy and just what we gained out of the process and um it was a long process for us but the review itself seemed very short and we were prepared and the team so our team started in the fall uh with myself and the principal meeting weekly to gather the evidence uploaded everything
032into the shared one drive folders and then in November uh I created an additional Committee of uh administrators and teachers and District staff for our review team where we went through the narratives um and the full on process and so for the Engagement review uh it was myself uh our district Personnel Dr John Paul Miss Valdez Miss Watson uh and my and our principles and uh they did an outstanding job of uh answering those questions as well and so we are really uh positive about uh what we presented and what we have provided to them and we will know in June what our scores were but they seem very impressed with everything that we talked about everything that they' seen from us thus far so I just want to take this opportunity to publicly thank
033Miss uh Singleton and everyone else who worked to get all of those documents together uh this is a fiveyear uh every five years we go into the review so they had to collect five years uh worth of data and share that information with the um the the team who came in to do the the review it is uh intense in that you have to make sure that your your information that you provide tells a story of how you are progressing within the district and so I believe that come June we will be re accredited without a doubt so thank you Miss Singleton and thank you everybody who did make this happen let's give yourselves a round of [Applause] applause all right that concludes my item eight approved committee reports uh March 13 2025 got I
034get a motion motion by m Joyce Porter second by Mr George Hughes any questions no questions she pass by item F executive session I move we go executive session motion by Mr Alton Travis second by m Joy Porter any questions no questions Mich shall return e [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] sh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what [Music] h n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] d [Music] h [Music] h a [Music] h [Music] h [Music] n [Music] he [Music] I [Music] a [Music] he [Music] a [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] for [Music] e she me to call this a we were not School Board motion that we return from ex made by Miss uh Virginia Bale and second by Miss Jo Porter any questions no questions
035by General uh the two items that were on the agenda for executive session there was no action taken upon on those two items so we're moving to action item G meeting closing the next meeting date will April the 10th 2025 um committee meeting starting at 5:45 regular board meeting 6:00 closing comment board members yes I have one um as you all know down in the Fifth District we've had in a matter of three to four weeks we've had five murders dead people just in the Fifth District three stabbed one shot and one they they found a couple of Saturdays ago so um I have um got with my Park Board and we're going to have a day of prayer for our parish for our district and for the entire Parish so it's the first Saturday
036of April please tell your ministers I hope you all can come but let your ministers know as well that they're welcome we're inviting ministers from across the parish to come out and let's pray uh for this Parish because that is absolutely obscene that five people young men all young men are are are dead and in a matter of 4 weeks so so if you all could um um contact your ministers and let them know about that that's going to be at 10:30 in the morning on Saturday that's April the 5th I will be sending Flyers email Flyers to everybody on the board here I'll be sending you all flyers and you can pass them on to um to uh people in the parish to let them know of course this this prayer is specifically again
037uh for S the parish but as you all know if you're watching the news we should be praying for this whole country uh as you can see what's going on here so but this is specifically for St helina and and we're asking that you uh participate or ask your ministers your pastors to participate thank you any other comments I would just like to say uh as we slow approach to the testing cycle please remember to try to keep the kids as calm the Learners as calm as possible so when they go in for testing that they have a clear mind and a clear conscience about what they are doing um because we definitely want to see same okay and I get that's fin comment any other comments oh [Music]