Gilbert Public Schools Board Meeting 3/3/2026

001All right, we're going to go ahead and get started. We'd like to welcome everybody to our uh executive session and brief board business meeting tonight. Not going to welcome you to the executive session because you're not welcome to that. Uh but we will go ahead and start with uh a motion to move into executive session pursuant to ARS 38-431.03A1 03A1 to discuss the potential appointment of Lindsay Duran or Duran >> Duran like the band like Duran Duran. Okay. Or Duran Duran. Okay. Lindseay Duran as director of Sorry, I'm being silly tonight and this is no laughing matter. As director of career and technical education. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you very much, Mr. Brainer. All those in favor of moving into

002executive session, say I. >> I. >> And we're going to go ahead and go into >> first floor conference room. And we will come back when we're done. Thank you. All right. Sorry we're a little bit late tonight. We're going to go ahead and move on to our brief board business meeting and I'll call this meeting to order and we'll ask Miss Wilson to do roll call, please. >> Dr. Blake Robersonson >> here. >> Mr. Jesse Brainard >> here. Miss Jill Humphre >> here. >> Miss Shaina Murray >> here. >> Mr. Chad Thompson >> here. >> Mr. President, you have a quorum. Everybody's present. >> Thank you, Miss Wilson. Moving on to action item 3.01, appointment of Lindseay Duran as director of career and technical education for the 2627 school year. Is there a motion?

003I move that we appoint Lindseay Duran as director of career and technical education for the 2026 2027 school year. >> Thank you very much. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. I there's no discussion. Is there a discussion? >> Doesn't have to be. >> There could be, but >> there could be. But I think I think we've had our discussion. Uh, we'll go ahead and I'll go ahead and call for the vote. Uh, all those in favor of appointing Lindseay Duran as director of career and technical education for the 2026 2027 school year say I. >> I. >> Any opposed. And that's that. Let's go ahead and take a brief moment and we'll celebrate uh Mr. Anne and then we'll move on with the rest. >> Can we give her an opportunity to

004speak? >> We can absolutely do that. Would you like to say a few words? >> Come on up, Lindsay. Right there. First of all, let's give her a hand. Welcome to Gilbert Public Schools. We're very happy that you're here. Um, I had an opportunity to talk to you a little bit before the board meeting. And, uh, before we do that, I want to say thank you to Doug Daly for all of his years of service, not just to Gilbert Public Schools, but CTE. Let's give him a hand. Thank you, Doug and Lindsay. You're going to be stepping in and uh the mic's yours. >> Well, thank you um board president, members of the board, superintendency. I really appreciate this opportunity. Um very big shoes to fill with Doug um retiring. So um I am very

005excited for the opportunity to work with all of you and the leadership here in Gilbert and the teachers and the administration at the site. So, thank you again for this opportunity. >> All right. Now, let's go ahead and take a little break and say congratulations. And we're back. We're excited for uh Mr. Ran and her family and for GPS and what what this means for GPS and going in in the right direction in regard to our CTE programs. So, we're excited. We're going to move on to 3.02 02 discussion and possible action to change spring break dates for the 2026 2027 school year. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Dr. Robinson. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Murray. All right. Uh Dr. Robinson, you brought this up.

006Why don't you go ahead and kick us off? >> Yeah. Uh so mainly just wanted to start with a discussion and and uh and hear what my fellow board members uh think. Um so I and I and I let Dr. Martin maybe tell a little better. we can correct correct the record here, but I think uh Gilbert Public Schools was the first to come out with the calendar and I think uh of the surrounding districts and I can see kind of the wisdom in choosing the dates we did and um after speaking with him it makes sense. Um unfortunately all the surrounding districts chose a different week. So, um, that's that's Charter. Um, and Chandler, Mesa, Queen Creek, Higgley, every other district starts the week before ours. So, districts that have a oneweek break, we

007miss them completely and then and then the two weeks breaks, we're just we're off by a week. And so um so I actually had a a few families reach out to me and that's that's what started this where they um you know have decided to have you know one child with one district and one child with another district and the first answer is we'll bring them all to Gilbert public schools. We'll take great care of them. Um and so but I do understand parents um you know make those tough choices that they think it's best for their kids and and so there are um some families and so asking just just about that hey like uh we have a oneweek break here and a two week break here and they don't line up and three

008weeks apart and so the question with that and then also with sports um I've actually had a couple coaches this this year said even with a twoe break how how difficult it is because they have no games or matches scheduled during that time. So then they really stacked it in to the other other weeks where you know they have what the coaches felt was too many games in a week and it kind of put a burden on on the team. So um so that was with a two week break with overlap. So, I just think with a with kind of three weeks, if they don't have games for three weeks, is that going to really pile it in in the other weeks or then or are they going to have games during the break or

009I'm not sure what the best option is, but they probably won't be able to have games the week before spring break because everyone else will be on spring break and then we're on spring break for two weeks. So, so just question about those and and what's best. And I'm also um heard and and you know everyone got email um from a teacher who brought up great points as well about um why to keep it and so I can understand um kind of both both sides and so just wanted to hear I guess maybe more from Dr. Martin if you he wants and and from board members on on their thoughts. >> Thank you Dr. Robersonson and governing board Dr. McCord. So, uh, just a little review. So, this current calendar iteration was about 3 years

010ago in the spring of 2023. So, uh, doc, uh, Mr. Thompson and Mrs. Humphre were on that board and went through the three-year calendar cycle where we put out to the community about, uh, surveys of looking at the 121 and the 222 calendar, which we'll be doing here in the next month for the upcoming three years after 2027. Um, we went through that process. Um, I do remember that the governing board did talk about um, philosophically, do they want to have a longer third quarter or a shorter fourth quarter because there are going to be 91 days we knew and it was just do you do the 48 days in the third quarter or do you do the 43 or vice versa. Um, some of the other topics too were the uh March of 2027.

011On Sunday, uh, March 28th is the Easter holiday for those that celebrate that holiday. And so the spring holiday that normally falls on our calendar was going to be on March 26th. And so if we came back to school that week, we would come back from 2 weeks if from your proposal of the 8th and the 15th, have a 4-day week, have the 3-day weekend for those that celebrate the Easter holiday, and then it would be approximately 8 weeks of 5 day weeks until the end of school on uh March or May 27th, excuse me. So that was one talk about two of folding in within spring break, the Easter holiday. And what we did then is we gave off Monday, April 26th on this calendar to ensure that there was um getting out of

012school on the Thursday before Memorial Day. But it also then too the discussion amongst board members and some community members was it was nice to have that 3-day weekend somewhere in the middle of the fourth quarter versus that very first week back and then full five weeks back. So those were some of those conversations that took place. terms of overlapping, we always look at that. You'll see that for the upcoming calendars, I'm always looking at that at fall and spring break. Those districts or charter schools that only have one week, it gets a little bit harder because of course we either hit it with one of our two weeks or we don't. Um sometimes even Chandler, just to give you an example, fall break with Chandler School District and Gilbert School sometimes, even though we're

013both two weeks, you would think we would overlap, sometimes we don't. Even in fall breaks, there's some years where Chandler has their full two weeks off before Gilbert Public Schools. And so, like I said, we try to look at that, but everybody comes out with calendars at different times as well, too. So, the only thing real quick before we hear from the only thing I'll say just to that last point is is this is the first time I can remember where every other district starts the same week and we're the we're the only district. So, usually there's like a mix, but this time it's just we're we're the only outlier. It's it's every other district starting their break on the 8th. Um, couple things that I thought of. First one, when it comes to AASA

014testing, um, so if they they come back, they have two full weeks off >> looking at testing coming up midappril, right? As from a teacher's perspective, I would almost want the 22 the the weird 4 day week because I would want a little extra time before testing to go over materials and I know math gets really crammed in. So sometimes it's helpful for teachers to be able to have that extra time >> to to cover those standards before they take state testing. Was that part of the conversation when you looked at the calendar? >> We definitely looked at that. In fact, I've talked to our curriculum instruction assessment department even right now when I heard that this was coming up and obviously there's a there's a big window in our state testing calendar. So, they

015felt like whatever choice if we stay with what the board voted 3 years ago, we can we can get testing done. There's plenty of weeks to doing that. But to your point, too, some people might see that having an additional week. When we come back, you can spread testing out even further. So, but it can be done either way. >> Okay. And do we know as far as our our teacher population is concerned, how many teachers that we have who have students in other districts? Because I know there's situations out there where you may need the calendar to overlap and that may affect some of our staff. >> I don't know if we have that information. And I do know 3 years ago when we put it out to all of our staff and all

016of our community that I think staff was at 75% in favor of this calendar and those three calendars that were put out there. So I would hope they would take that in consideration. Uh and then how much was it for our families? >> It was like almost 70%. >> Yeah. So okay. >> Yeah. Sorry. Again, that was three years ago. >> And to the point, not all the other calendars were out then as well, too. And I will say, I don't think always a lot of people look at the exact weeks, even when you're looking at a 222, but it's 3 to four years out. I mean, those are just things that some people don't pay attention to at that time. And now it's a year ahead. >> People's radar. Now, when when you say

017they looked at three different calendars, >> the three years that were presented, >> oh, but but was one of those the option to have the spring break the 8th to the 19th and one was the 15 to 26 or was it the two week versus the one week? >> Two week versus one week. >> Okay. >> Was was about the two week, not necessarily the Yeah, >> I think it was more about Yeah. about the the 222 and not the two weeks being those specific dates. >> Well, I we do go through a very rigorous community process when we do our calendar. We present it to the uh parent superintendent counsel, the teacher superintendent counsel, the staff member superintendent counsel and the administrator superintendent counsel and we do send out a survey. So, I feel

018like um that's a lot of engagement and the decision was made and I feel like it's not fair to change the decision and and put aside all that community engagement for some um people who want something different without weighing in with everyone. The we made the process, we made the best decision at the time and it's not going to suit everyone. There's going to be if we change it a week, there's going to be issues or problems for people that are currently planning on this calendar the way it is that maybe have already established travel plans or something. But I I we went through that process and we got the community engagement. So I feel like we should stay with the decision that the community wanted us to make >> and settled on. So, I

019don't know if I' if I'd classify it as fair versus not fair. I think this is just a situation where the board made a decision and now things other things have changed or or have have carried out. And so, I I don't know if changing these dates would necessarily be going against a decision the board made. it would just be updating to accommodate, you know, to accommodate the reality of the situation. I did want to put on uh Dr. McCord's radar and your radar that I want to have a discussion about um any kind of survey that goes out before we send it out. Um I'll just end that right there. Um but I Yeah, I I get it. I get it. We made a decision and you know, but I don't know if I

020fall in the camp of by golly, we made a decision. We're going to stick by it no matter what because things change and I think that we would be it wouldn't be wise to consider those changes and and because those changes carry weight to um to what we're dealing with right now. Um, but I also understand that, you know, yeah, we made a decision and other districts made a decision knowing where we were at. And so that's kind of not there's a part of me that's like, well, those other districts should have made a different decision. Well, that's that's where I I would say, but I also think it's really hard to have >> eight weeks of five day weeks with no break at all, especially when we've had, you know, two weeks of spring

021break, come back and have a 4 day week and then another day off for Easter. I think that's and that makes also makes it the longer quarter at the end. And I think those two things together, no break and having more days makes the end of the year, which is already a bit of a hard slog. People are tired. They have worked really hard all year and kids are, you know, ready for a break. Um I I think that makes it very challenging and I think for every if we do change it for every person we benefit, there will be someone that it will be a disadvantage. So, it's the decision was made and and we got a lot of community input to do it. And so, I I I don't see that there's a

022a great need to change it in in my opinion. >> But the question is with the community engagement, they didn't have two options of two weeks and two weeks. They had one option of two weeks and the rest were one week. So, my question is if we provided two options of two weeks, which one would win? 8th to the 15th or the 15th and the 22nd? I don't know if we have the ability to get that information or if we have to make this decision tonight, but um >> I I would not prolong this decision one way or the other. That's just my opinion. I mean, I don't I like has been stated, this decision was made. I mean, if you guys want to go back and reconstitute all the calendars, you can do that.

023That's within your authority, but I think you'll make a an issue of a week much bigger. Then we're going to start debating a lot of things related to a calendar and I don't know if that's something you'd like to do right now. >> The calendar is one of the most controversial decisions that we make. >> Yes. I get to vote on it in Mesa all the time. So it's okay. I just I'm I would think that the 8th to the 15th if the Gilbert population had the opportunity to vote on those two weeks back three years ago that probably would have been >> well I I will say there I'm sure there was discussion in those committees those four different committees about what the calendar looked like and why it looked that way. So I

024would say it was more than just a vote. I mean, it was presented and from what I remember of attending the parent superintendent council, you know, parents got to put their input. They could look at the calendar and give their input. So, it wasn't just a yes, two weeks and or no, one week. It was I'm sure there was discussion at that time to give input. >> Okay. I was just making the point that the option wasn't presented. So, >> well, >> yeah. And I would philosophically I'm definitely different on on this um than you Jill. I think that the the the default the inclination is definitely to not change things unless there's a good reason to. But I would never say we're not going to change things no matter what ever because we got

025community input. And I would also say you didn't get community input because at the time, the only reason why we're talking about this is because every other district chose to to have it on the 8th at the time. No other district had it on the 8th. So you got zero community input on whether they wanted to have the week the same week as the other districts. So there so there was no community input. >> Well, there was there was no other district that had put it on their calendar when decided. >> I agree with you. So there was no community input. So it wasn't possible to have community input, but if every other district would have chose the 15th, we wouldn't be having this conversation, right? And so that's so I I would I I

026dis disagree strongly with with your point as far as community input and and not changing things because the decision was made once. With with that said, I I don't know that um just kind of hearing from everyone whether this kind of rises to a change. It feels like the the the feeling from the administration is it doesn't. Um, can you speak a little bit to I don't know if if you can to like sports schedules and I I don't know exactly how that is worked with the AIA and other groups. >> Those are AIA generally make up those schedules. I mean there's some freedom games that are uh the schools are able to schedule during certain times. I know during uh a lot of fall breaks whether they line up or not because you know

027we've got a lot of school districts within different regions that we play and they don't line up and so sometimes you're playing tournaments uh within your fall or spring break or winter break and um sometimes you're not. It just depends. And so I know the AIA runs into this too. They're going to try to accommodate school districts and schools as much as they possibly can, but with as many schools that compete, it's it's makes it very difficult. And so, yeah. So, Dr. Martin, what would I if if we were to make a proposal tonight, I just want to make sure that I've got my my brain wrapped around this. We would basically propose to move the week of the 22nd, the break the the week of break of the 22nd. >> Basically shift it a

028week a week, right? >> And then what was the discussion about Easter? Is Easter that March 28th? >> It is. So, I would propose that instead of giving off Monday, April 26th, that the board would give off Friday, March 26, which is the Good Friday spring holiday for that 3-day weekend. >> Is Is it Is it required? >> Not required at all. But I can tell you from experience, one year we did not give it off and you thought that we had a lot of community members quite upset that they did not have off Good Friday. was quite it was when we first moved here and there was um quite a kurfuffle about it. >> It was a lesson learned I guess. >> Yes. >> That's fair. So to your point, if you were as

029a board to move from March 18th or from March 8th through the 19th, I would also propose moving the spring holiday from April, Monday, April 26 to Friday, March 26th to cover the 3-day Easter weekend. I I had a couple questions. Um I know we adopted the one of the work calendars this previous board meeting and how does that impact um >> what would happen is if if this changes and um we would just bring them back and um we've put a hold on inputting any of those into our system for next year and so we'd bring them back reflecting when spring break uh has been uh reselected too. >> All right. And then I know we're going to have discussions soon for the the next 3 years. When does that discussion start happening? And

030do other districts have those discussions at the same time? >> Some of those calendars are out now for many of those years, but just like I said, some are out two years, some are out three years. So, you'll see when we start talking about it in in another month and in April that I will take a look at all those calendars as well too from both charter schools as well as surrounding districts. and we try to build our proposed draft calendars around what we know at the time. So I will say there are quite a few calendars out through the 29 well the 28 29 um year right now. So and there are a couple other districts I know I stay in contact with the surrounding ones that are also working on there. So we're

031also communicating to as well. You know, I think one of my concerns is if we um you know, I think district other districts can change their calendars or charter schools can change their calendars as well. And you know, I'm worried if we keep, you know, if we will just like seed to whatever they they change to, you know, ongoing. Um you know, will they change theirs after we already adopt this new one and we have to go back and rewrite it? Um, you know, that's that's kind of my concern as well as some of the people who've already planned uh for this upcoming year. >> Are there any that haven't decided on their calendar on their 2728 calendar yet or their 26 27 calendar? >> No, I mean I I went through they all have

032them. I mean because that calendar is coming up here in just five months. So that's the reason why too we have to work as an administration and board here in the coming months to get the 2728 and beyond calendars out because we already are going to start having families they have find out what is the first day of school in the fall of 2027. So just over a year from now. So that's why we like to get those out. So, I I I think if if we were voting on this tonight, I I for me the the clear choice would be to to do it the 8th through the 19th. I mean, that's that's what I would vote for. I think that um again, hindsight, we we didn't know what the rest of the districts

033were going to choose at the time. Um, but I I am I am concerned. I think that there I think the two-week break already makes it challenging um with you know for our student athletes and essentially making that a 3-w week rather than a two week. Um I'm concerned about that and the burden it puts on families. I'm concerned about the families that again the solution is bring them all together for public schools but but I am concerned for um one if if the parent works in another district or or vice versa or those families and not having that lined up. Um I I I do strongly feel and and you know Miss Humphre may disagree but I do strongly feel too that that that is what the community would would vote for as well.

034like I I I I think overwhelmingly that would be the choice. Um with that said, I think there's definitely some and we already know of at least one who would who would vote to keep it where it is. So, I guess at the end of all that, I'm going to say I I think hearing from Dr. Martin and and speaking with Dr. record and and and kind of the some of the negatives of changing at this point. Um I I won't make a motion to change it. >> Any other discussion on this? Well, I I appreciate that because I think that, you know, um we can look at when we do the next calendars, we can look at that carefully, but I I have been also gotten feedback from the community that people have already

035planned for that spring break. So, >> appreciate that, Blake. >> That's some serious planning. >> Yeah, I'm I'm a I'm a planner as well, so I I plan out and so I I can appreciate that. I guess what I I would just state is uh for me I'm I'm definitely not a hey we we vote this once and and we will absolutely never change it again. So I I think that the hope is that you don't change it again, but I I think as circumstances arise and so um so I think we should do things as early as possible and as best as possible, but um when when people say like they have a a board approved or contractually approved, well, I guess that I guess that came true last week, but it wasn't true

036prior prior to last week. Just because just because the board had approved it doesn't mean that that that's contractually what it's going to be. >> That's always going to be what's >> what's best. So you don't think this rises to the level of of wanting to make a motion? >> That is that is what I'm currently feeling. >> Okay. Well, I appreciate the input, appreciate the discussion. Um, okay. All right. Let's move on to agenda item number four, our consent agenda. All those in favor of approving >> make a motion. >> I'm sorry. Thank you. It's been a minute. Uh, is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda as outlined? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Murray. Uh, all those in favor

037of approving tonight's consent agenda as outlined, say I. >> I. >> Thank you very much. >> And we're going to go ahead and adjourn our I guess. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Like I said, it's been a minute. >> Is there a motion to adjourn uh our brief board business meeting? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Brainer. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Humphre. All those in favor of adjournment, say, "I." >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right. Thank you. We'll roll right into Does anybody need a a break before we go into our work study? >> No. >> Okay. We're going to roll right into our work study. I'll call this meeting to order and we'll go to agenda item number seven, our district continuous improvement plan

038update. Dr. McCord. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Governing board members, uh we'll start off with Dr. Ryan. I believe he has some other people that are going to help him present this evening. Um as you know we have our uh district continuous improvement plan uh which is um constitutes a lot of individuals from within the district and it's something that um as the title suggests we're continuously working on and um they just want to give you an update of where it's at. We've made a couple changes to it and additions and so I'll turn it over to Dr. Ryan and his team. Nobody wants to sit with you it seems like. I'm sorry. >> Apparently not. So, Julie's feeling bad. So, she'll come and join me. Dr. McCord, Mr. President, governing board, thank you so

039much for the opportunity to present this evening. Uh, we are excited as as Dr. Accord outlined, we've we've been at this process for a while now going on two and a half years of the creation of a district continuous improvement plan, but it as so many other things is continuously changing and moving and we're analyzing um so many things have been created since that point in time including our data and research team. Uh we have formed the district continuous improvement team by way of teachers, instructional coaches, site administration, district administration, representation across the board. Dr. McCord gave us the opportunity to embark on this this journey and I I truly believe it has been the impetus to really jumpstart our academic growth. um to really focus us on the areas that that need our our

040greatest attention and ensure that we have a plan in place moving forward in each of those areas. So tonight u we do have teams of each of our five goal areas that in of of itself has changed this year. Uh in a recent revision we added the number one goal is now culture. after we would talk about reading and writing and early literacy and future ready graduates and all the pieces that are within our document. Our document's now grown to 58 pages in length um full of every bit of of data and detail you can imagine. Um and we looked at each other and we said we're missing something. And what was that something? It's fundamentally who we are and that is our culture. That is who we are as Gilbert Public Schools. uh family

041members and employees, um our community, our students, uh our governing board, and our administration team. And so I'm going to turn it over to Julie. This will be a little bit unusual. Miss Auster being our director of professional growth and development will kick us off with goal number one. And then as we go through each goal, we have a couple new people that are going to come up and and help us with the presentation and and we'll go through. But any point in time you have questions, stop us because somebody might leave that you want to talk to. So, um, with that, we'll turn it over. >> All right. So, um, like Dr. Ryan had mentioned, >> can you speak into the mic more because they got to pick you up? You can move it.

042There you go. >> So that you don't have to move forward. >> You don't want me like over just so that they can they have to hear us when we record it. >> Oh, wonderful. Okay. So, thank you. So, um like Dr. Ryan mentioned um we added the culture goal actually this year and we realized as we were going through the intentional systems and processes that we have in place to support all of the people within Gilbert um we're missing that vital piece and that's the human experience and and the intentionality of making sure that each one of our our critical groups that make up Gilbert Public Schools um has that exceptional experience. erience that really defines who we are as Gilbert Public Schools. And so as the committee met together and we started to

043talk about the different groups that make up this goal, like where should we start, where should we focus and of course we automatically went to students. Um but even before we go to students, we were talking about the staff. So, we're talking about the staff experience and how can we make sure that our staff um have the most amazing experience here in Gilbert from their very first interaction and how can we put systems in place that allow that to be intentional and replicated. And so, we started talking about our onboarding process. We started talking about how we do a really good job when it comes to onboarding teachers, but maybe there's areas and and different groups of staff members that we could do a better job at welcoming and onboarding. And so we have been

044digging into what does that process look like with our classified staff? What does that look like um in making sure that everybody is is properly trained? And so, um, we have some work to do and we've raised a lot of really good questions and we're excited to really dig into what onboarding could look like in Gilbert for all groups of staff members. Um, and then creating that process. Uh, the second piece is our community and parent experience. And so really um digging into making sure that our parents and community members feel special and they feel um part of the family from the second they walk through our doors. And that's every door that's school doors um any of our district building doors. And so what does it look like? And when we were talking about

045the feel of it, you know, how can we replicate that? How can we be intentional about what good customer service looks like? Because you guys, I'm sure have all visited a variety of different places and the feel is different each place and it's be for good reason. You could put your finger on what makes different places stand out. And so we are really digging into what that looks like and how we can replicate that and how we can put systems in place to make sure that every single person that walks through our doors is having that similar experience where they feel like gosh, I don't want to leave this place. this is wonderful place and I'm excited to bring my kids here. I want to be a part of this. I want to work here.

046Um and then of course it leads to our last one and that is our most important one and that's our student experience. And so we want every single student to feel connected um from their very first day here. And so we um in looking we have a really good welcome system for students who start on the very first day of school. But how about the school the student that moves in in November? Or how about the student that moves in in October or any other day other than the first day of school? And so how can we make sure that that student feels so excited and so welcome and they're not stressed about who am I going to sit with at lunch? How does this look? Who, you know, am I going to have friends

047here? Um what does it look like to be, you know, a member of this school community? And there's certain things that we can be intentional about. And there's certain things that our schools, certain schools are doing really good at that we can replicate everywhere and make sure that every single student that we get into our system is feels like part of the family and is excited to be there. We want them going home after the first day and telling their parents what an amazing experience it was and they can't wait to go back. And so, um, it's all about building systems within Gilbert Public Schools that make everything intentional. And that's again focused on these three different groups of people. Um, I can go into more detail. Um, do you guys have any questions? I

048don't have questions but I I think this is really really important because having a sense of belonging connection um especially as we get into a more competitive educational environment. >> Yes. I just I want us to be best at that because I think that is what travels word of mouth with families was oh I just I went into this school and I felt such a part of the school and I was really you know I saw the I did the tour and I talked to these teachers and they were very impressive and that's I think that's just a key really key part and >> um you know we do we do want to feel like a family for everyone. We do want everyone to >> to feel like they're wanted here and and that their

049voice matters. >> Absolutely. >> Um I I just want to say, yeah, I think it's just to kind of jump on Jill's point, I think it is so important. I think a lot of people choose Gil Public Schools because of the culture that we have here. I think it's important to maintain that. um how do you um you know evaluate like the effectiveness of like own school culture? You know, >> it's it's hard and that was actually one of our most challenging pieces because we came up with some fantastic goals as a committee and then when we took it to the rest of the district continuous improvement plan group, they're like these aren't measurable because that is a challenge. And so we're in the process of reworking that. Um we know that we do want

050to look at um like survey data but at the same time we have so many surveys out there right and so how do we get intentional about making sure that we don't have survey fatigue that we are asking the right questions that we are actually using the data that we're collecting in the best way possible. And so um through like the staff um for example we can look at retention data um we can look at you know how many of our teachers how many of our classified staff members stay year after year and what was it about their experience that caused them to stay you know what was it or caused them to leave and then we continue to grow from that and learn from it and make adjustments um with students it's our retention

051you know how are we getting that student enrollment? How are we maintaining it? Um how are we intentionally looking at because the transition from sixth to 7th grade and from 8th to 9th grade is huge. So how are we making sure we do have those um programs, you know, that we we do use, but how are we collecting data and making sure that we're as effective as we possibly can and making sure those kids are feeling like they're welcome and they're excited to go to the next level. um for the community members if we have culture surveys that go out and just continue to check the pulse of how we're doing. And the one thing that we do talk about as a team over and over again is it it's important to gather that information,

052but it's even more important and what we use it for, right? And the adjustments. And we have to have a system in place to constantly be evaluating that data that we're collecting and showing everybody, you know, you we we are hearing you. We are making adjustments and we're going to continue to refine our practice to make sure that this is a great place for everybody. So, but it is a challenge. You are you are right. >> Thank you so much. It's so important. I do have one more question and that is because of the security measures that we found necessary. >> You walk into the school and you know like at our high schools we have this more secure entrance >> and how how are we working to help people overcome that more physical barrier

053that we've had to put in place to help people feel like they can be a part of the school? Well, I think that it's identifying what that gold standard looks like because you can walk into a campus, you can have, you know, three different walk into three different schools with that secured entry and feel three very different ways just by eye contact by um the people that are behind the glass saying, "Hey, you know, welcome, you know, make sure you sign in here. What can I help you with?" Um, so there are intentional pieces and we're working to define exactly what that looks like and define the success like what is that culture? What does that feel? How does it feel? How does it sound? How does it look when you walk into a campus

054that is that welcoming even with those security measures which are incredibly important? We can still make people feel like they're safe and welcome, you know, at the same time. We just need to be intentional about it. So regardless of whatever campus they walk into, they have that great feel walking in. But >> thank you. >> Yeah, >> that's that's you know, it's a I think a ch more of a challenge than before we had those um you know, because you could be more face to face, but >> it's just a I think it's a we have to work a little harder under the circumstances. >> I think it it can make us better, right? And I think we're paying more attention now than we than we maybe were even prior. And so, um, you guys

055have heard me often I refer to the Savannah Bananas. It's a it's a baseball team, but it's more than that, right? It's this culture. And, you know, Jesse and his wife take over this program or this baseball program and they turned it into something that isn't just a baseball team. And they always talk about what are the controllables and we control the field. We control the first five minutes. We control the interactions. So we could have security standing out front and not in a negative way but security to greet them, security to say hello, security to show them uh where they need to go. So I think it's actually helped us really think more intentionally about what does the field need to be? What does the training need to look like? So that's a big

056piece of this with culture is the training and and so um this team is doing a lot of work right now and um we're really excited to see where it leads us. >> All right, thank you. >> Yeah, thanks K. Right. Okay. >> We are going to turn it over to Dr. Cox and Mr. Burcher. >> Right. I feel like we're in hockey. It's a line change. Quick. The presentation's still going. Right. >> Do you mind going? >> Well, I don't do silver either. So, >> all right. So, we're going to talk about goal two, which is moving students from early reading to complex literacy. Um, that's got to be the goal in our K12 reading. So, I have the pleasure of leading a team uh with creating the goals around K12 literacy. You'll see

057that the goals are all focused on increasing proficiency while decreasing the minimally proficient. So, that's kind of the the basis of our game. We kind of picked in 2023 an arbitrary 10% was the goal. Uh, you know, but we'll definitely fine-tune that as we go through this process this cycle again this summer. Uh, for the data, we just had a presentation with you all in the data. So, I'm going to go hit a couple of the highlights, but again, first grade is a marker that we put a lot of emphasis on through the science of reading. Um there's data across the state right now that says 88% of struggling readers at the end of first grade still struggle at the end of fourth grade. Um so that is a key metric. The CBMR is how

058many words can you accur accurately read in one minute. Um again some students aren't fast readers but it's a way for us to measure the cognitive load that students are expending while sounding out the word in front of them because if they're still taking a lot of mental energy sounding out the word, they're not focused on comprehending what they're reading. So, we've got to make that shift somewhere, you know, first, second, third grade to where they're comprehending the text. Uh, that has grown 4% over middle of the year from the last two years. So, that's super exciting. We are making some progress there. Fifth grade is one that we watch because it's the end of the grade band. So, our standards are group third, fourth, and fifth grade. So, they kind of build on each

059other sequentially. They get more rigorous as the years go on. And fifth grade's the end of that grade band. And then we switched sixth, seventh, and eighth. Uh I'm super proud of this one. So it has gone up um 13% when we look at MOI the last 2 years. This one I want to point out the difference between and I know it doesn't have numbers on the colored bar graph underneath, but we were able to we've got 16% minimally proficient, 14% partially proficient, 32% proficient, and 38% highly proficient. And I've got to give credit to our teachers and what we've moved on in this district impact the district improvement plan. This I would say is uh has to do with our walk to reading. All of our schools K6 we expect there's at least 30

060minutes in our day where our students go up um and they might go see a different teacher for different learning. So say you've got the concept of main idea detail um you may go to a teacher that enriches along with main idea detail. If you're struggling with main idea detail, okay, you instead of teaching at ABC, we may attack at CBA with a different teacher and when it clicks, you get to move to the enrichment group. So, it's not like what we did as kids where once you were a bluebird, you were always a bluebird. Um, this is very it it's very fluid in our groupings and 38% highly proficient goes to we're really capturing um and pushing the kids that need that extra push. Ninth grade is a average percent correct on our district

061final exam. So 11% over the last two years is a phenomenal increase. The key actions that we're tracking through this ELA was the first content to write and administer our common unit assessments. Uh these are a common data point for our PLC's. We get off early release on Wednesdays, K12, and this is a great opportunity to discuss what they're seeing in relation to the data. 7 through 12 courses uh have really taken it and run with it. They take a pre-EST and a post- test and it's easy to mark their instructional impact and still see where they need to improve or where they need to extend certain lessons. It's been so successful that now 7 through 12 social studies is in their first year of implementing common unit assessments. And that's going to tie right

062into our third one, the middle years initiative that I'll talk about shortly with being using our district adopted curriculum with fidelity. It really goes to in a lot of new studies, background knowledge about a theme is almost as important as a student's reading ability. So, it's been imperative the teacher build on themes that we've established the previous years, right? All the learning is foundational and that each year builds on each other. It's also allowed us to provide a comprehensive training on the curriculum. Department chairs meet quarterly, right? Quarterly at the secondary level. Uh we also pull before the school year starts for training on the curriculum as well as our lit summit initiative that we did this year. We have to have that common ground of the common curriculum to be able uh to have

063those conversations. Additionally, our last step was the middle years uh literacy initiative. So, our middle year's literacy had seen a downward trend in previous years. The focus has been on building literacy instruction skills throughout all of our content areas. Social studies and science teachers at the junior high level don't necessarily need to know how to get students to learn how to read, but they need to know how to bring in literacy concepts within reading and writing complex text, right? Is this a a primary source or secondary source where we've taught all of them. We've brought them in for its four trainings, right, at the secondary level of how we can improve literacy instruction and bring that into our social studies and science curriculum. Okay, >> so that wraps up goal two. >> Can I ask

064a couple questions just on these graphs? >> Yep. >> Um and and sorry if I missed it. >> Can you just tell me again kind of what the cohorts are? So like the fifth grade ELA going from so 57% in 2024. >> Correct. So that's a middle of the year ASA mimic assessment. So we partner with our assessment uh company and what it is is they create a an assessment that looks like ASA. It uses the same blueprint and it's about 85% accurate in predicting what a student's endofear ASA result will be. So what you're comparing here is the middle of the year in 2024 of the fifth grade cohort to the middle of the year 2026 cohort >> of so so different different classes >> different kids. Yes. And do we look at like

065fifth grade, middle of the year compared to those same students seventh grade, middle of the year? And do you just happen to know offhand are the increases similar or we absolutely track all of that? And a lot of our schools actually make their goals in accordance with cohort of students, right? Is a third grade teacher passes the baton of the cohort off to fourth grade and how far can you get them? Um, I don't have that number off the top of my head, but I can absolutely send it. I am super proud as we're talking about fifth grade. Sixth grade the last two years has had the highest proficiency percentage of our students in ELA of our East Valley cohorts. So sixth grade I kind of assume is like our elementary graduation, right? And so

066for ELA, we're kind of taking it to some of our surrounding districts. >> Yeah. And this we we talked about this a little last time. I mean this is probably the best way to present it. Um, but it's actually a 23% surge just for the record. Right. >> So, it's so it's 13 percentage points, but it's but it's actually 23% increase. So, I mean, all these numbers are actually >> better. Larger. Yeah. >> And so, which is which is awesome. And then if I can ask real quick, we had talked about during the previous presentation um a couple weeks ago about maybe putting together some things to send out. >> Yes. We can I you um we uh probably that next day uh members from our PR team uh set up meetings with us cuz

067they watched the board meetings and we're very excited by that suggestion. So we now um are going to be having standing monthly meetings from an academic data standpoint uh to create some uh better visualizations and graphics from the data perspective that tell our academic story. So, our team's done a really nice job in the different newsletters and on social media with telling the story part behind it. Um, and there's sometimes when it's letter grades, maybe AP data where we do include data. Um, but the suggestion was to maybe when we hit the different points, um, to also just be transparent and share where we're at with the data. Then um one of the suggestions that just came out of our meeting this past week um included we have our district improvement plan that we're sharing

068with you, but we meet three times a year to do a district impact check to hold ourselves accountable. So we're going to include somebody from the PR team within those um as kind of a follow through to like kind of um do a report out after each of those impact checks moving forward. >> So yeah, we were really excited for that feedback. Additionally, I know we we both were had the opportunity to proofread. Was that article already gone out or is it going out? >> It did. >> Okay, perfect. So, it was in the school newsletter, too. So, or the district newsletter? >> Yes. >> That's great because I think it's really important to share with our community and we report back to them the great things that we're accomplishment accomplishing with students that they

069are doing. That's that's why we're here. >> Absolutely. All right, we're going to go ahead and transition into goal three, which is our math and science. And the focus here is on mathematical understanding and science sensemaking. So when we started with our original um goal, it was truly more around math. And what we found through the last two years of work is that it is equally as important to have that science um critical thinking. Uh those standards that we found that students maybe were struggling in math. When we dove in deeper to the skills, they're the same skills that our students are needing support with in science. So rather than have an additional goal down the road, we realized that we wanted to pivot and make it a combination of both our mathematics and our

070scientific thinking um and really focus on more of a cross-curricular approach. So with that, our goals are the exact same as in our ELA and social studies. Ultimately, we want to increase our proficiency and we want to minimize the um percent of students that are in the minimally proficient category. So, we want to build skills for our tier 2 and three, our struggling students, and we want all of our students to be proficient. Um, the data points here again, uh, we wanted to just provide a few snapshots. So, you can see that with fourth grade, uh, really, um, excited to see the turnaround there. It's the same as what Mr. Burchcher shared with the middle of the year in 2024. What we found historically was that our middle of the year data was pretty consistent

071within maybe a point or two. Whereas since we've taken a district approach to school improvement, you can see that within a 2-year span, we do have that um bump going from 43 to 52%. And we believe with our intentional work and taking action uh more regularly throughout the year that we're going to continue to see this upward trend. You'll see the same thing in seventh grade math. uh really excited about our seventh grade because historically um our elementary does a really great job and we I think we joked in our previous presentation that when students get to junior high there's a lot of things that are just changing and the the student um uh experience um they're in junior high and so there's a lot of dealing with um the behaviors and um mindsets of

072a junior high student that when they're in elementary school they're very eager and excited to learn and in junior high all of a sudden they want to maybe um ask why a little bit more. So historically in our seventh and eighth grade um we haven't seen um this type of a bump and so to see that at our seventh grade level is huge and we're also finding that our sixth graders are coming into seventh grade even more prepared than they were before. So that just shows that our seventh grade team is working exceptionally hard, but we also know our elementary team is working incredibly hard as well to send the students as prepared as possible. And then uh wanted to include a little piece of uh science on here. So we pulled um the high

073school biology final exam. uh historically our science data because it wasn't a part of the goal but when we were like wanting to add it we're like well what is going to be our measurable piece everything that we include in here we always challenge ourselves to question like how are we measuring it how do we hold ourselves accountable so with science we have our ai which is at only three grade levels and then when you get to the high school there is an a in the ACT there is a science component so those are the data points that we use but we don't have that at every grade level. So, um having final exams and different science metrics, even though it looks different than in the other content areas we've talked about, um that's what

074we're using to kind of evaluate how we're doing instructionally. So, with the goals that I've discussed and the data points, we have identified three clear action steps that we have been focusing on in these areas for the last two years. The first one is I'm going to continue on from what Mr. Burchcher shared with Seaways. So, our common unit assessments, this year was our first year rolling out in uh most campuses with mathematics. All of our elementaryaries because of the waves with the curriculum and different types of curriculum are um in a different spot depending on the school. All of our secondary schools because they have the consistent curriculum were all able to implement the CUAS at the start of this year and it's been going um exceptionally well. And then for science, they are

075in the creation. And so we've been working with teachers uh we call them our task force teams. They get to have a voice at the table. They get to help to revise, edit, um and we use expert questions as well from our assessment platform. So science is in the creation and those will be implemented at the start of next year which will be the first time that we have CUAS in all four of our core areas across the board in Gilbert public schools. So again, when we first created that action step, CUAS didn't exist. We didn't even have a shared belief around common unit assessments. Now, not only do we have a shared vision um and belief around them, but we're implementing them. And for English, and they led the way, you're seeing it drive

076PLC conversations, which is changing instruction. It's changing how they're designing lessons and how they're intervening when students need extra supports or enriching. And that's true. Even with math, we're finding now that one content area went, it's almost like you're seeing um other teachers feel more confident and comfortable jumping in. Even though they at the elementary, we know teachers teach everything. At the secondary, um sometimes it's well, this is my content, but to see that they see across the board, this is what we're doing as a district. There's a different level of buyin now that we're getting to the other content areas, that's gone exceptionally well. The second action step deals with um making sure there's fidelity with our curriculum usage. So I'm going to focus a little bit more on math because we are two

077years into our curriculum adoption. And right now uh we have as a part of our curriculum adoption, we do have training that was purchased. Um we have a lot of gratitude to the board supporting that decision because we've it's made all the difference having that PD be a part of that package. We also have a district leadership math team that internally are creating trainings and making sure that that is sustainable even when the PD part of the training from the company comes to an end in three years. We're going to continue to foster that. So, a lot of training um a lot of learning walks um a lot of inspecting what's going on. I know our I Ready reps for K8 are out and about at our campuses. Um they're they're really really great and

078they sit in rooms um to observe. they um give teacher feedback, then they work in the break rooms with the teachers to answer questions uh and they're experts in the curriculum. So, they have access to the curriculum. The same is true for H.M.H. with high school um and so on. I mean, uh there's just been a lot of training that's happened there. And then with learning walks, we have a district leadership team. Um elementary did math learning walks last year. This year, the secondary team has put together uh assistant superintendents, district leadership, and every math evaluator in the district to go out and do learning walks. And the way that those went is we first focused on standards and kind of big picture, making sure because sometimes when you get into administration, you're evaluating an

079area that you maybe never taught. And so, we want to make sure they have an understanding of the standards and um are able to conceptualize that. Then we do a mini training with our administrators on what instructional strategies look like in math classrooms. And then we go and spend an entire day at a junior high and a high school looking at every level from seventh grade all the way up to your highest level of AP at the high school resource co-taught it everything. Um and then we do a debrief at the end of the day that's run by admin services. those learning walks have been um very wellreceived and the model of that is actually driving um the way that we're choosing to do PD in the future so that it includes some look fors

080then we actually go out and look for it and then we're kind of recapping and collaborating and reflecting on the end of that. So a lot going on with just making sure that the fidelity is there um and that the focus is on supporting the curriculum usage and not just expecting teachers to kind of feel alone in that. Our third action step is the intervention piece. I'm gonna be brief on this one. Mr. Burchcher mentioned what is called win time at the elementary. They have a carved out time where they focus on meeting the needs of students for tier 2 and three, which are students that maybe are struggling. And that is what it looks like at the elementary. At the high school, we have advisory um on Wednesdays. And at the junior high, they

081do have advisory four times. different acronyms and titles, but the purpose of the work behind what they do um is consistent. And so this year, what we did was for secondary was we went and we're doing an um a review of all the advisories at the junior high and high schools to make sure that there is consistency um and that all the schools equally feel supported and knowing how to continue to facilitate that with results. So, similar to a PLC on a campus, we want to make sure that if we're doing something as a district like advisory or windtime, that if there's three schools that are doing it um incredibly well, what are they doing? Let's learn from that. Let's replicate that. And if there's some schools that are struggling, instead of just talking about

082them struggling, how do we show up and support them so that all of our schools are successful in that uh so that every student across Gilbert public schools is equally receiving the interventions that they need before it's too late. So has advisory period changed over time because I know previous reiterations were a little bit different. So what what does it look like now if we're giving those inter that intervention time? >> Yeah. So there was advisory historically um and then it had kind of gone away and then we did bring it back um after COVID when we knew that there was some learning loss that needed to be addressed. Um currently right now the focus is on our the goals that we're talking about. Um that's what we ask our schools to focus on and

083it aligns with their site impact check and goals. So um you're going to see a lot of focus on ELA and math and it's less about the content and more about the skills. So how do you get to the skills to build those skills to help the students so that then when they step into those English and math classes they're better set up for success. >> Okay. Some of it does include um making sure that they're staying on top of like study skills as well. So, organizational skills, um missing assignments and and things like that, but we don't want it to become only that. So, making sure that there's a combination of supports in there. It's a little bit of everything. >> Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I just know I'd heard advisory. I'd heard

084it gone gone away, but now you're saying it again. So, I think we we change all the time. I mean, >> or call something something else now, right? >> Yes. Yes, that's true. I mean, it's I I will say when I got elected to the board, I kind of thought I was going to be here to keep things the same. I didn't want things to change and then I realized that if you're not changing, you're falling behind. So, we have to we have to continually change. >> Perfect. >> Any other questions or >> questions before the next line change? >> Switch to the next goal. All right. >> Well, I'm very impressed with the graphics on this presentation. They look very sharp, but also the numbers. I mean, you know, the the jump, >> the

085surges are just amazing. >> It really is a compliment to the work of the teachers in the classroom, parents at home, and the students are getting it's working. And so, that's what's really validating is to look at some of these numbers. It's validating in the work that we're putting in and seeing across the partnerships. And thank you all for the support. That math with a new curriculum, too, is unreal. >> It's great. I mean it's just awesome. All right. So goal number four future ready graduates. Uh in this one we are trying to ensure that our students are prepared and successful for life pass GPS. So mainly focused on college and career. And I think sometimes when you uh hear that you think this is mainly a secondary goal. However, we've worked really hard to

086try to incorporate this goal K12. Um one of the key components that we that helped us do that was thanks to our data and research department. Again, they created a U K8 early warning system and an at risk dashboard for both elementary and junior high so that our counselors, administrators um in at the elementary level, they can use those Tableau dashboards in their BHT teams in through their MTSS pro process. Um Julie mentioned the transitions between sixth grade and seventh grade and from 8th grade to 9th grade. So again identifying students sooner who might be at risk of falling behind and not graduating on time. So, if we're able to do that by putting in action steps to help particularly with those transition processes at adding uh re we've added reading the reading classes back

087at the seventh grade level and some at the nth grade level as well as math labs. Um utilizing the uh attendance and behavior uh data to try to make decreases in those as well. um using the grad tracker. When you look at the on track, the 90% with complete four-year plans, training our counseling departments to look at the grad tracker and utilize that and make sure kids have a 4-year plan in there um starting their freshman year already and making sure that then as we continue through kids continue through those four years, we're identifying them right away and that there are options for them to get caught back up. So, we've added inter sessions. As you all know, there's always been summer school, but we've really tried to streamline some of our alternative pathways such

088as Canyon Valley, um, Global Academy, um, to give those students the support that they really they really need. Uh we incorporated counseling impact checks so that counselors were aware of how to take a look at those dashboards and really identify their students who are struggling and provide options for them to get them back on track. Um so really that action step that's listed on this slide is the early warning system and that was the the first action step with this goal. Our second action step had to do with grading beliefs and practices. And again, we've done a lot of things in those areas to streamline uh their grade books, their PLC processes, um their syllabi, um district curriculum being utilized and making sure that administrators are checking on those things and making sure that teachers

089are uh Kristen Robert talked a lot about the CUAS and using those within our PLC processes to identify kids that are struggling and trying to identify ways even at the secondary level to get kids back on track to retach and make sure we're just not moving forward um when they haven't when they haven't achieved that standard. So I think that's it for this slide forward. >> I I had one question on kind of relate to this. How do you um you know some schools might have a larger issue with attendance or even graduation rates um if like the district goal is 95% graduation rate. How do those schools you know create their you know their own goals from where they're at too? Um you know like if a school is maybe a lower percentage than

090the average in the district. >> I think each school would identify that's part of their continuous improvement plan. So they're identifying their areas of need. So there's so many pieces to this that graduation rate that is entered in. So they've done a really Christrista has done a great job with the CCIs, the college college ready career ready readiness index. Um I don't like to use the acronyms because then I don't know if everybody knows what they are. Um but that has that isn't even an action step anymore because our our schools are getting full points on that every year now. But before you probably what 5 years ago >> they weren't. So there's all these indicators that add to that graduation rate. So one while one school may be you know increasing their um you

091know just in test scores or in their their ACT performances or in their um all I you have other examples of that that might be better. Yeah, I like what you said about how it becomes the sites. >> They they dive into it from their school p data. So we provide like this is our district-wide goal, >> but your to your point like there are some schools that maybe their attendance is worse or maybe they're they have more students who are off track. So then the schools look at that and then that becomes their action step. If I'm the school that it everything looks okay but my attendance is low, my action step is going to be around attendance. If I am a school who maybe my at risk factor is that I have a

092lot of students that are in credit recovery and have failed classes, I'm going to put my emphasis and my energy around creating an action step to support that. And that's where I think this process um has been really beneficial because we're not just assuming that one action step, one goal is going to work for everybody, but they are under the umbrella of what we have outlined that we're sharing with you tonight. >> Thank you. Can I ask a question about chronic absenteeism because I've heard presentations that um coming out of CO Arizona was really struggling with that issue. Um is that something we struggled with as we came out of the pandemic? Is it something that we're doing better on now? Where where are we with chronic absenteeism? I think that's an area that everyone

093always feels like is a huge problem, but we're very very fortunate in Gilbert public schools that our absenteeism rates are are very they're strong are low. Absenteeism rates are low. >> Attendance is strong. >> Attendance rates are high. >> Crushing it in. >> Yes. >> So, while teachers and administrators focus on a very small percentage, we still don't want to leave those kids behind. So, um, we are this particular upcoming quarter after spring break at the secondary level, we are going to create a a committee to try to look at our practices to make sure that as a district we're supporting schools um in the I guess consequences for absenteeism and what we can do to identify those kids and help get them to school. Um, sometimes it's really hard to come up with different

094ideas and and our schools have tried all sorts of things to increase that small percentage to get it get them to school, but it's challenging, but we're always working on that. Always looking at different ideas that are out there that we can use to try to increase those rates even though they are actually very good. >> Okay, good. Yeah, >> I mean I just I've heard a lot even on um different maybe news sources about you know a lot of this is just tailoring it to that individual student whatever challenges that they're facing >> personally or with their family or with maybe with their health or whatever whatever reason is keeping them out of school to work with them to and it it's very very um detailed oriented work and and really needs uh follow

095through find someone at the school to just help and encourage I think >> yeah it's challenging very challenging um let's see >> this one it goes a little bit out of order our third um action step for this goal um was actually the alternative pathways and expanding options at Canyon Valley uh at global and some even some of our schools specifically have created alternative pathways. One example is the CAT foundations at Mosquite High School. Uh but to this particular slides point, this was our fourth action step and it primarily focuses on our CTE programs at our at our schools and industries alignment and workforce readiness. So the key metrics on there that we're using are retention rates in those programs. So from their first to second year. Um and then the certification goal of making

096sure that our kids who complete those programs we would love at least 50% of them to be completers and earn that industry certificate. Um so workforce some of the actions workforce alignment. Um this is one that our new uh CTE director will be working closely on making sure that our programs are evaluated against a 10-year job growth projection. um jobs are changing and so we need to change our programs in order to accommodate uh the need that's out there and make sure that our our students are best prepared for those changing uh the changing needs. The um our CTE advisory board this year created an updated work-based handbook uh workbased learning handbook brought an example of that if you want to take a look. Um, it turned out really nicely and gives our counseling departments

097at the high school level and even down to the junior high level some of the pathways that they can uh participate in while they're there in order to be better prepared post uh post high school even if their choice is not to go to a 4-year university or college. Um, we added student success advisors this year. um changed, I should say. They weren't added. We adjusted the FTE allocation and utilized our some of the full-time teachers from Global Academy. They went back to the campuses and we used some of that FTE in order to create student success advisors that were track that are at our five comprehensive high schools and are tracking students who are taking global academy classes or taking um on track to move or transfer over to Canyon Valley temporarily to credit

098recover and get caught back up so they can get back to the comprehensive campus. sooner. Um, this this position, our high schools cannot believe they survived without this position. Um, it's really challenging for our counselors to we have a lot of students, thousands of courses that are taken online through our global academy and to keep kids on track and kind of keep pushing them to keep making progress in those classes uh is hard because nobody was taking full responsibility for that. So, this is a position where they're keeping track of every kid that is taking an online class and any kid that is um coming up on some of these indicators is being behind or off track, working towards the that credit recovery in whatever capacity it is, whether it's finishing an online class, getting

099them into inter session, getting them to summer school, getting them to Canyon Valley, making sure that they're doing everything possible. So um really really uh valuable position and um I think is appreciated by the schools as well as Canyon and Global. So I do I do have a question. So how is the student success advisories there one at each campus that are focusing just on these students that are getting these credits made up? >> Yes. because I mean I would think they'd be working handinhand with the counselors but maybe they don't need that same counseling background to do this >> they they are certified um and they are working with our counseling departments uh but they have a very separate task. They don't have a a typical alpha split or grade level split of students.

100They're identifying these a at risk students that are off track and working really hard to do whatever it takes to bring get them back on track. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. >> No problem. All right. And then the last one for this goal is the result of some of this work and the graduation rate. Um we're very excited that our projected graduate graduation rate for this May is 95%. um and all indicators are showing that right now. So again, looking at all those things, we've already discussed the ontrack uh students with their grad trackers, the four-year plans done, um and all of those things that add up to the graduation rate, um are pointing that we've continually over the last 5 years improved on that districtwide. All right. Thank you. Goal five. >>

101Well, I have to say, sorry I got distracted because this is really amazing this um workbook that you put together. I mean, I it really does give give kids a vision for what CTE can do for them. But um I think that's amazing that we've really improved our graduation rate. That's that's a lot of improvement in just a a couple of years. So, thank you very much. >> Awesome. Thank you. spent a half hour just >> All right. Well, hello again. I'm back and I have Courtney and Medina, our assistant director of special education that is going to co-present goal number five with you. Courtney, will you >> Awesome. Thank you. >> The clicker. We got to click through. All right. So, goal number five um is one of my favorite goals because it really

102encompasses everything that we've just talked about in goals one through four. So, we're looking at literacy, we're looking at math, we're looking at uh future college or future ready graduates, but we're looking at them by subgroups of students and that really is what you'll see. So, in goal five here, we're going to talk about special education or I should say Courtney's going to do that. We'll talk a little bit about our EL learners, our advanced learning opportunities for students, as well as our federal title one program. Um, in special education, she's going to go over this, but really it's our focus and our metric is to reduce minimally proficient scores in all of our special education programs. She's going to cover that. In English learner um program area, we have the Azela, which is the

103assessment that our EL students take each spring. And in that you'll see that we're in trying to increase our proficiency um in those levels. So that K8 we want our um Azela proficiency to increase to 25%. It was 19% 3 years ago and we want our 9 through 12 uh proficiency on the AELA to increase to 35% from a baseline starting point of 30%. So, a couple of things that we have changed um over the span of a few years and being part of this um district continuous improvement plan is really looking at how we um intentionally master schedule when it comes to our subgroups. And so there's been a lot of collaboration that has happened between campus administrators, the different departments, between special education, e um and all of the other groups on the

104campus um to make sure that when we look at master scheduling that we're keeping the subgroups at the forefront. Um so that work has happened uh across the board uh prek 12. Additionally, alongside of master scheduling efforts, we've looked at co-eing as well. So, really looking at aligning those co-teers together. I know that we've had lots of conversations about the co-e model and just how important it is for those students who are out in gened and that so that aligns with master scheduling efforts as well as um building out some training opportunities through our co-e scope and sequence um this year. And then on a program evaluation for our title one program is we really are in the midst of looking at are we utilizing our title one program and our dollars efficiently. Much of

105that program is towards FTE of various positions. But one thing that we found is that every school is doing something a little differently. And so we're currently building a framework for the upcoming years that are schools that do receive title one ser title one allocations so that we can make sure that we're being purposeful with that. The other thing that we're doing this year is doing an elementary resource program study, knowing that at our elementary um schools, the elementary resource program is one of our largest subgroups of students in special education. So, how we can be more intentional and we've been a little different this year in that in that we're not only um doing the study or the audit utilizing our research team, but we're also actually implementing some of those changes along the

106way. So, we're not waiting for that. We're already doing some changes. And then gifted education really we can call that advanced learning opportunities. We're looking at all levels prek through 12 of how we can increase those advanced learning opportunities for our students. When we looked at it a few years ago, we saw that our gifted students, which is um primarily the program that we've done at the elementary level, that only serves a very small population of our students. And we have many students that can do other advanced learning opportunities. And so advanced learning opportunities is gifted accelerated programs, the traditional programs at the secondary level. That would be your international balorate IB programs, your dual enrollment programs at the high school level, and then your honors courses in secondary as well. But we also noticed

107that if we don't grow them prek through six, then we're not handing off or giving our secondary counterparts um student as many students that can have those advanced learning opportunities. And so we're doing uh growing that. And we're also moving away from traditionally in Gilbert it was the gifted program was heavily focused on just acceleration of curriculum particularly in the math area and now we're also looking at that depth and complexity as well as getting studentbased learning experiences in integrated into in a into a number of different environments. So, I'm really excited to share this information with you because through the um district continuous improvement um opportunities that I've had just really exciting because from every single person that is on that committee and across Gilbert public schools, there is a fundamental belief that all

108students can. And so in looking at the various goals that we have um written as part of our um differentiated learner opportunities, we're looking at decreasing those students that are scoring in minimally minimally proficient, but we're also looking at growth and in special education that is especially important. So wanting to see those students make growth and potentially moving into those other proficiency bands. Um, another exciting step as part of our process um, in special education is really looking at those students that are also um, taking the alternative state assessment, the MSAA. Um, reducing the students that are scoring in a level one which is not meeting um, expectations for that assessment. So, moving those students into proficiency bands beyond that level one. And we do that through various action steps. We look at all of

109the opportunities for training and building capacity within the various groups that we have in Gilbert public schools. We um provide paraprofessional training which I know we've talked a lot about um but it's one of those critical components that helps um building up those peer professionals and their skill sets and working with their students. Um, additionally, uh, we've had access to, um, providing, uh, coaching supports for our instructional coaches on a monthly basis. And this has been a huge, um, celebration for us in that now our instructional coaches feel more equipped to go into various special education programs um, and support those teachers and students. So that has been um a really great um opportunity for us and continuing through with looking at our new teacher supports, our pathway teachers. How do we train and provide

110those folks with what they need in order to be the most equipped they can to support their students in their classrooms? Um we're also looking, like Dr. Martin said, um our resource program study. So, finishing that out. Really exciting too that through our special education um parent advisory, they wanted us to solicit um parent feedback. So, we are actually sending out a survey to those families as well um to gather their input as part of what we collect and review. Um so, really excited about that um community feedback in that regard. co-eing. I talked a little bit about that already, but building out that scope and sequence, seeking um feedback and um as far as how we do that, we do that through looking at the data and our data and research team, which has

111been um given kudos several times tonight, but they have helped us build out um dashboards for our teachers in our specialized programs that utilize ULS, which is our U modified curriculum, which we presented about I think earlier in December. Um Abby and Sarah came to to speak with you all about that. So building dashboards for that and um looking at how we better master schedule to ensure that again all students um are provided the best opportunities possible um from co-e gened all the way um into some of our specialized programs. So, it's been really exciting to see that work kind of happen over the course of several years. These are just some of the highlights and again we we talk a lot about um growth and that has been a critical piece of the work

112that we have done. So, it's really just a celebration to the things that we have added alongside um action steps that it it feels really good to see the stuff um pay off. So, um as you can see there uh we've just got a few highlights from Aspire from 9.56% 21.48%. So, making great gains, right? Um, same goes for Aspire um, math and our ACT ELA. Um, I'm not going to go into too much detail there, but um, again, it goes back to that fundamental belief that all students can and the things that we have done alongside curriculum, instruction, and assessment have really supported us in this endeavor um, to support our kids and their growth. We also think it's important to acknowledge the decrease um of students that are scoring and minimally proficient. And

113again, these are just some of the highlights. Um when you look across the board and the goals that we've set forth for ourselves, we we're meeting those. Our students are rising to the occasion and the the belief that all students can is trickling down to all students and staff. um across the board. So, we're really really proud of of this. >> One thing too before we uh turn it over to towards the end or have if you have any questions is in the advanced learning opportunities too. You remember a few sessions ago um we talked about increasing the amount of teachers too, the number of teachers that have the gifted endorsement. So that's been a huge initiative that's going on so that it's not just the one teacher at our elementary campuses that's providing the

114gifted or advanced learning opportunities, but it's happening interwoven throughout the day by grade level teachers too and that students moving from class to class based on their need and making that win time for uh our high highly gifted and advanced students meaningful as well too. So using that opportunity of wind time to not just give the interventions which we tend to focus on but also for the other learners that need to be pushed and enriched. >> Well, thank you for um I'm impressed by this chart that shows the improvements. That's amazing and I'm I really appreciate the hard work that's gone into that um by teachers and students and and the district in >> absolutely >> making these these things happen. So that's amazing. Thank you. >> Thank you. We're going to turn it over

115to Dr. Ryan to end up. >> Okay. So, the next 45 days um after >> the next 45 slides, right? the next 45 days um are crucial for us. So um as was referred to earlier, we recently had our um our our district impact check and we do that three times a year. We have the summit coming up in a couple months. Um we'll get back together in June, but the next 45 days for us to make the adjustments needed based on what our current reality is. We keep talking about the current reality. that current reality is different every time we get together. And so what you heard from everyone tonight is just simply what steps have been taken, what we've learned, what we continue to notice, what pieces are being put in place, what

116the work coming up looks like, and next time we come to report to you, I'm sure it'll look a little different than it does today. Um that's kind of the fun in the process. So um with that being said, um that concludes our presentation. I just had one question because we didn't quite have our full stack. So, we went from goal two, which was the um literacy. What was goal three? >> So, goals two and three are kind of interwoven. One is more focused on ELA literacy and the other on math and science. Okay. >> So, um Robert and Christa, >> okay, got it. >> Put those together and uh and presented on those kind of at the same time. >> Okay. Thank you. I just want to say I think these goals are exciting.

117You know, special education and um kind of readiness for students. Um and I I just think, you know, go to public schools, we're always looking for the next thing. And I'm excited to see how those um goals look at the end of this uh school year. And um I just appreciate all the work from all of you. And I'm excited to see where Ross were go. >> Well, and it's been a great work study. So getting into these kind of details is pretty exciting. So thank you. >> So I've got I've got a question about culture because it seems like that's a big focus tonight and and the the biggest addition the latest addition to our continuous improvement plan. Um and maybe some of those that have been principles in the room before can chime

118in. But we talked about culture and I know Julie Missster talked about um what campuses can do to be inviting and welcoming and making people feel at home. I want to know what are some things that you've done when you were in that role to make it that warm and inviting environment and what are we going to be recommending to our current principles to do to accomplish that? some some specific things I would like to hear. >> Well, I think that sorry um first we need to define what that feels like, what that looks like and then um once we do that, we just communicate, you know, with everybody. And it's we've been working closely with our building principles already um throughout this entire process. In fact, our committee has a few building principles on

119it and so they're able to provide that feedback. Um, and so it's it's a continual process. And so once we define what that looks like and we can come up with some steps on, you know, how to train our staff and um in the different roles, then we then we move forward that way. I know that as a building principal, if that's what you're asking, um I think that just having that good relationship with your with your parents and your staff and your students and really um being open to feedback and constantly being open to refine what you're doing is a critical piece. And I think that you can learn a lot, you know, just in your um site council meetings, in your PTSO meetings, and um the schools I've worked at have been very

120vocal in in how they're feeling. And so I've been very fortunate in that sense. And um we've, you know, collaborated with our our staff to to make it a place everybody wants to be. But it's a continual process. It's never perfect. And it's just being open to change. I don't know if you guys want to add some >> I'll I'll just share that um I former principal of Camp Overy High School and um I I like what was said earlier that sometimes culture is a feeling and you can you can kind of articulate it when you walk on a campus. So 10 years ago when I started at Campo um I felt it immediately when I walked there that it came before me and um there was the um the challenge sometimes when there's a

121strong culture and um to live up to that and I will also say that I had the experience of coming in new to like Gilbert is um has a strong rich history and foundation here and so sometimes coming in as the newbie uh when at the time that I came in there was a our district was in a different uh place and there were a lot of people that had spent their whole career here and a lot of new people. So there was like this 5050 split and I just remember looking at the people Marcy was one of them as my mentor that I felt like man I know I couldn't I can't fix where I came from. I can't change where I started my career but I like envied the fact that she got

122to kind of be a part of the the old-timers and and spend her whole career here. And I feel like, >> you know, I in the best ways. >> I'm so glad this is on video. >> Oh, I'm never going to live this down. You know what I mean? But honestly, I think that people strive for that in Gilbert. They look up to that and they want that. Um, and and it starts with the the people that laid that foundation probably long before Marcy. And I'm sure she has a similar story to that. Yeah, call him out like I just did too. Maybe not the only one. Um, but what I will say is that um that experience that we feel coming in when you're not from Gilbert, I think it's really important to be

123aware of what that is because sometimes we make assumptions that it is how it used to be and a lot has changed. And so to be open-minded to the people that have different stories and and um come into Gilbert in different ways, I think that is a little bit of what I brought to Campo as a principal because prior to me um the the initial uh principal, Dr. Ryan opened up the school and had a great staff and um there really wasn't a lot of turnover and uh when he stepped away he did take a lot of the staff with him and then that turnover continued for a little bit. Um and I feel like coming in that that was the difference is that we went through some of these es and flows and all

124of a sudden it wasn't just people that were always in Gilbert. So you have to be mindful to listen to people and how they're feeling and what they're looking for um when they come as outsiders. And I I'll even extend that to share that um my son when I stepped foot on Campo's campus, I fell so in love that I uprooted my entire family and now all three of my children will be Campo graduates. My son at the time was in 8th grade. He had been at a K8 in my husband's district and I let him know that he had a year to say goodbye to his friends cuz he was going to go to Campo. So he also had the experience of being a brand new student into Campo where he didn't know a

125single person. And so I through being his parent and seeing what happened there got to kind of observe and wanted to make sure that any student who came in as an open enrollment student um a new student from out of state our our community is changing and we have to evolve with it. And so I think as a principal those were the things that I brought was being more open-minded to the people who maybe weren't always a part of the system. And you know I love you. >> That's great. Thank you. >> You want to jump? I would say that um a couple specific examples as a principle would be making sure we are making people feel valued. So finding ways to recognize kids, recognize employees, staff, uh making sure that um those that people

126feel like they have a culture on their campus where they can speak to an adult, find an adult that they trust. Um that you're constantly reminding your employees, your staff of that and then recognizing them and thanking them too. Um, I know as a high at a as a high school administrator, I think parents don't always feel they they get on an elementary campus very easily. They volunteer in classrooms. They participate in PTRO. So, I think it's really important at at our secondary levels to make sure that parents feel welcome on our campuses. Um, one specific example that I did as an administrator at uh the high school level was to create a volunteer committee just like they have in more in elementary school. So, what ways could we utilize parents who still want to

127be a volunteer in our schools? What can they do? What what can they help with in the office? And >> yo, it's a little testy here. um being in classrooms, being on campus, and it's a little it's a little trickier. So, making sure that teachers understand how they can utilize parent volunteers, not just for field trips. um making sure office staff realize, you know, we don't do the old stuffing mailers as much anymore because everything's online, but there were ways at that time where we could utilize uh parents in the office and they really really appreciated that getting to know assistant principles and office staff and and so forth. So, I would say there are some very specific I love your question because I think that's why and Julie pointed out we have current principles

128and we have a lot of people who are former principles and what ways did did we make sure that people felt valued on our campus whether that be from the students all the way to the employees to parents in our community. So, >> that's essentially what I was going to say is we've got to formalize celebrations, right? What do we celebrate at each campus? What do we recognize? Because that's what you'll get more of, right? Um I know my daughter just came home with a positive and persevere award, you know, and so we got to have a cool conversation at home of why you got this, right? You got this because you were positive in spite of, you know what I mean, tough circumstances or whatnot. Um and I think it's formalizing that for teachers

129or for staff members and for students and that creates that experience. Uh, additionally, I think sometimes you can get burnout with unclear expectations. So, I think it's super important to define lanes, so to speak in different things, right? If you're going to be an amazing fourth grade teacher, this is what that means. Or just having three people in the front office. You know, sometimes there is some cross trainining, but it's like, hey, this is your specialty. This is where I really want you to hone um your expertise sort of thing. So I think some of that and cross trainining and giving clear lanes um and job tasks helps a ton. >> Can I add one more thing? >> Yep. And then I'm out. >> So something that we immediately started doing is a we set

130up a a shared folder that allows our principles to start sharing how they're celebrating their staff and their students because our principles are already having so many amazing ideas. And sometimes just looking to see what other campuses are doing is spurring on additional celebrations. And like Marcy said, I was actually at the the high school level and then I moved to the elementary. I was a principal at an elementary, but then when I went back to the high school, I'm like, where is the PTSO? Like we have to have a PTSO at the high school level. And so just learning about other systems that other campuses have embraced makes all the difference in the world and they can enhance all the different campuses within the district. So we feel really good at the elementary level

131about the culture. Uh it's been uh in the schools continuous improvement plan under uh goal number three. But just some things that are simple but are very intentional is we've seen some teachers, they have a special handshake or greeting that each student has unique each morning. And so you're taking the time as the students are coming in to those 25 students into your second or third grade classroom. Um we're seeing more and more uh teachers and principles reach out once a week and make three phone calls home to parents about something great that their child has done um in that classroom or in that school. So those are some intentional things that we can do that are tangible. Um the other things is too those quarterly assemblies that a lot of times are tied to

132PBIS um the positive behavior intervention system. So you see those where students are be uh being recognized for behavior attendance academic growth and performance and not always your you know top tier students but students that are making that growth like we talked about. Maybe there's some students that were in the bottom cortile, but they're making growth on their um either CUAS or their middle of the year assessments and honoring those kids for their growth and opportunities as well. And then celebrating parents as well too because we know it takes everybody working together. And so I think particularly in that area from my perspective, we can see um at least at the elementary level how we can get more parents to be acknowledged for all the work and efforts they do in our district. I just

133want to say I love hearing all of that because I'll never forget when I started my first internship for admin admin and we had a I' I've watched my school go through a number of es and flows when it comes to culture and um my principal looked at me and he goes, "Oh no, Mike's my mic's doing it." Um, hey, here's a stack of happy grams. We're going out. I'm like, "What are we doing?" He goes, "We're going to just start writing happy grams to teachers." and he made sure to hit the teachers who we knew were struggling first and always. And it was just it helped build that culture and I just love that you guys are on track with that and making people genuinely feel important because it's such a big deal. So,

134thank you. >> So, thank you for all of that. That was fantastic. And and I think it I think for me it it demonstrated that this is our culture that I didn't we didn't have to call out anybody specifically. I said, "Can I have some volunteers?" And you all stood up and came and offered your your wisdom and your insight. And that's our culture. That's our GPS culture is that when anybody asks for help or some direction that anybody from the superintendent to your department lead to a firstear teacher can jump in and say this is what I'm doing. This is the the progress that I'm seeing. This is what helps. This is what doesn't help. And so as we're trying to cultivate this culture, I want to submit to you that this meeting right

135here is a fantastic example of what that culture can be like. It's a readiness. It's a willingness. It's a knowledge and experience. And it's letting all of that wisdom and experience trickle down to every part of our district from our principles to our assistant principles all the way down to our support staff. And so I just want to say thank you for that. Thank you for this this I know a lot of work went into this. Um we appreciate it. We appreciate the continued effort and we know that it's going to uh that it's going to yield the results that we're looking for and so thank you very much. All right. Uh before we adjourn, I'm going to turn some time over to Dr. McCord for an announcement >> real quick. So, breaking news, just

136so you guys know, all you sports fans out there, girls basketball, we have two teams that are in the championship. Uh coming up on Thursday, this Thursday, March 5th, um I think at 6:00 p.m. is Mosquite High School, who won in overtime tonight versus Paradise Honors and Highland High School uh versus Valley Vista, which is Saturday uh March 7th at 11 a.m. And both of those games are at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. We'll make sure we get your information out to So, congratulations those teams. While we were having their meeting, then we got some uh text messages. So, good. >> Fantastic. >> That's the end of our sports center for the evening. >> All right. Thank you. >> Back to back to me for weather. All right. Uh no, that's very exciting. Thanks for sharing that.

137Uh all right, we are uh I will call for a motion to adjurnn. >> Well, actually, it's the work study, so we've already >> just leave. See you. Oh, what are you still doing here? >> We had to adjourn the official board meeting and now this is just the work stud so we just leave. >> Well, I first second and uh vote for it. >> Thank you everybody. >> Thank you guys. >> Well done all of you. I appreciate the fact that we all get a little slap happy. It's like