001oh see ready good evening I would like to call the brief board business meeting for Tuesday March 7th 2023 to order right now and we'll start off with 2.02 roll call Mrs Wilson Mr Chad Thompson here Miss Sheila eugetti here Miss Jill Humphries here Miss Rhonda page here Miss Laurie wood is not present Madam clerk you have a quorum thank you Mrs Wilson we will move on to action items 3.01 do I hear an emotion for the appointment of Wendy Norberg as the principal of Mesquite Elementary for the 23-24 school year Madam president I move that we appoint Wendy Norberg as principal of Mesquite Elementary for the 2023-2024 school year thank you Mrs Humphries do I hear a second second thank you Mr Thompson Dr McCord any discussion no discussion just it's our pleasure to
002bring Wendy before you tonight for the approval she has some fans out in the audience that are excited about tonight and we are very excited for her so so I will call for the vote all of those in favor of the appointment of Wendy Norberg is the principal of Mesquite Elementary for the sorry 23-24 school year please signify by saying aye aye finally so on a 4-0 vote we welcome Wendy and if we can give her a round of applause we will move on to our second action item and then have a brief or we'll have a have them be able to speak for a minute and then have a brief break so 3.02 appointment of Cheryl Pollock Newser as the Director of federal and state programs for the 2324 school year do I hear
003a motion I move that we approve the appointment of Cheryl Pollock news as stated do I hear a second second thank you Mr Thompson it's been moved in second in Dr McCord thank you madam president government board members uh tonight we bring before you Cheryl Pollock Newser as a candidate for the director of federal and state programs had the pleasure of knowing Cheryl for a little while and we're very excited to bring someone of her Caliber Caliber and knowledge to our school district and looking forward to working with her thank you any further discussion if not I'll call for the vote all those in favor of the appointment of Cheryl Pollock Newser as the Director of federal and state programs for the 23-24 school year please signify by saying aye so on a 4-0 vote
004we welcome Cheryl Pollock Newser as a new director of federal and state programs so without Wendy come on come on down you have a seat right in the middle right and turn on your microphone and if you would like to say a few words all right governing board Dr McCord cabinet thank you so much it's an honor to be here tonight 25 years ago this past January I walked in the doors at Mesquite Elementary as a student teacher so to be named as the principal tonight to give back and serve a community that's given me so much is an honor that I can't explain I'm very grateful for the people that are here tonight I think that speaks volumes of Gilbert and it's why I'm so honored to be a part of Gilbert people from
005multiple campuses people that aren't with Gilbert anymore and I think my husband and kids for being here as well husband and kids please stand out thank you Wendy Cheryl [Music] all right thank you I started my career in education 18 years ago here in the Gilbert District at South Valley Junior High I want to thank the board selection committee and Dr McCord for this opportunity which I'm thrilled to have and for bringing me home I want to thank my kids and my family my kids have grown up here in Gilbert schools and my family for all of their love and support throughout this journey lastly I want to thank Angela Connor for building a wonderful wonderful federal and state program it's my absolute privilege and honor to take the reins from her I know all
006the work she's done here and she should be very proud of what she's built I'm thrilled to come back and thank you all congratulations congratulations Cheryl it's now 605 so we will get back together at 6 10 give everybody a chance to congratulate our two new administrators and Mingle for just a minute thank you very much challenge [Music] here we go thank you very much we will go back now to our work study um after the brief board business meeting and then we will reconvene our brief board business meeting after the work study so I'm calling the work study to order and we will move to 5.01 presentation of our GPS traditional math curriculum adoption Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members if I could have the members of our teaching and learning
007and CIA team whoever's coming up tonight Dr Newman I'll let you introduce the team and then you guys it's all yours thank you governing board members Dr McCord um with us with who's sitting up here is actually two people that have been very integral in this entire process Mr Robert butcher as you know is our elementary curriculum instruction and assessment director and Crystal Udall who is our math Elementary coordinator perfect good evening governing board members and Dr McCord on November 1st Dr Newman and Crystal Udall are elementary math coordinator came and reviewed how we selected math InFocus to move forward with pilot implementation tonight I'd like to review what we learned from the pilot implementation as well as the Cur the public review of the curriculum foreign as a reminder this whole process started in
008the summer of 2022 when we learned from the manufacturer that the Beloved Saxon curriculum was going to be discontinued as they move towards a homeschool model or sorry going towards homeschool rather than selling to just Public Schools eyelid implementation went of math and focus was from December 1st to January 27th we learned real quick that that might not have been the most ideal time to do a pilot Implement implementation during December on an elementary campus we really have to give props to our teachers who stayed steadfast in their dedication to teaching with Fidelity during that time during this time we also accepted public review feedback from Community traditional teachers and the pilot teachers additionally CIA tried to place pilot teachers in an appropriate chapter rather than starting at the beginning because we do know that
009these students are held accountable at State Testing so we tried not to review stuff that they've already learned that proved difficult in trying to match where they were in Saxon with a different curriculum despite both of those challenges the adoption committee on February 17th voted unanimously to move forward with the math and focus curriculum curriculum sorry I've got the clicker too okay I'd like to give a big shout out to the 16 pilot teachers that went forward with the pilot of math and focus as well as our traditional accelerated and gifted coach Sarah Earhart it takes a lot to get a pilot off of the ground and these teachers were phenomenal in their dedication to ensure that this pilot was being taught with Fidelity during the implementation time um sorry at the end of the
010pilot session we asked our resident Experts of math and focus our pilot teachers for their feedback on the curriculum and the implementation we specifically asked for feedback in the following areas content pedagogy and activities the quality of materials for both students and teachers whether or not the assessments were quality and what their overall feelings were about the curriculum one of the most important aspects of implementing a curriculum is ensuring that it adheres to the mathematical standards and practices set forth by the state of Arizona so Criterion one holds a lot of weight for us in this the curriculum instruction assessment Department for alignments mathematical practices and habits all of our pilot teachers agreed for uses the language of mathematical standards and mathematical practices all of our pilot teachers agreed with that statement his engaging activities
011for all for students all of our pilot teachers agreed has students practice with key Concepts all of our pilot teachers agreed as a balance of collaborative student work and independent student work 93 percent of our pilot teachers agreed and for alignment to mathematics standards 87 percent agreed overall a perfect score would have been a 4.0 and for criteria in one our pilot teachers um gave this a 3.7 [Applause] the following are quotes from the feedback that we received from Pilot teachers and I'll give you a second to review those okay as you can see the teachers felt that the curriculum would benefit our traditional students it's aligned to the grade level standards and it builds the rigor relevance and routines that have been a Hallmark for our traditional programs for Criterion two we wanted to
012make sure that math and focus had quality materials for both our teachers and our students so I'd like to point out that I know the the Criterion looks very similar but one and two are focused on students three and four are teacher so I know the verbiage can look confusing a little bit so has quality teacher materials both in print and online all of our pilot teachers agreed has quality technology tools for teachers and students all of our pilot teachers agreed has quality differentiated instruction resources all of our pilot teachers agreed for the other two has quality student materials both in print and online and allows for ease of access for students to use materials 93 percent agreed with both of those statements overall our pilot teachers with a perfect score of 4.0 gave Criterion
013to a 3.5 again here are some of the feedback that we received from our pilot teachers and I'll give you a second to review those you can see in the quotes from our pilot teachers that the students enjoyed the activities in the workbook and there were reteaching and enrichment activities available for teachers to utilize that workbook is going to come up several times and we believe it's something that our traditional communities have become accustomed to and will lead to an easy jump from Saxon to the math InFocus curriculum okay the pilot teachers felt in the area of assessment that there was room for a Improvement in the assessments provided in map and focus and further analyzing the feedback that we got from our pilot teachers there were some Scantron like elements in the assessments that
014they felt were less than ideal I need to give a shout out to Heather Cooper she was our representative from hmh and she was very responsive and said if we were to move forward with this program that she would ensure that those are eliminated so that they're willing to meet our expectations and again we were impressed with her responsiveness and even despite all of that the pilot teacher still gave math and focus a 3.1 out of four and that's also something that your Crystal that your department can work on too isn't it if if it doesn't meet all the needs you can create your own our own absolutely assessments absolutely and we've also math and focused actually we found out directly links to our illuminate platform that it's our testing platform where we do District
015benchmark assessments oh that's good yeah exactly thank you yep all right here is some of the assessment feedback we got from Pilot teachers okay I promised our pilot teachers that I would stand from the rooftops and Shout the Praises for waggle they were borderline begging for waggle waggle is a differentiated instruction resource that they all were pretty unanimous and liking what that is is it allows students needs to be met regardless let's say they're a fifth grader and they need third grade support it will enrich or it will provide intervention opportunities online for that if it's a fifth grade that needs 8th grade support enrichment opportunities it provides that but if you were to walk behind the student you wouldn't be able to tell a difference with how it looks on their end so again
016this was they were like this is a must-have if we move forward and it's in the quote that we've provided overall all said and done as we wrap up the pilot teacher feedback 88.5 the math InFocus received 88.5 percent of the points and the feedback that we received in the aforementioned criteria foreign okay we're gonna shift gears from the pilot teacher feedback to the public review it's important for us at Gilbert Public Schools to allow the community to review the materials we did it for an extended period of time we house the curriculum on each of the three traditional campuses as well as the district front office we had members of our team that stayed after hours to ensure that parents could come after work and review any of the materials of the program we
017encourage Prince of we put it in districts newsletters we encourage principals to put it in their school newsletters to come have parents check out the resources additionally we told principals that they should be talking about it in their site councils Robert was there a pretty good turnout of parents that that were involved with this there was a decent turnout when we compared it to other adoptions that we've done yes um we took into a fact that traditional students make up about about 8.5 percent of our elementary students um when you compare that to our readygen which impacts almost all of our students we actually had a bigger turnout I would think that that would be that would happen because the parents that that want the traditional are going to make sure that their children are
018getting you know what they what they're asking for so I I'm not surprised to hear that you didn't have that you had a better turnout than normal okay all right so when we asked the content within the materials is interesting clear and appropriate for the traditional students at this grade level parents and community members 82 percent of them agreed with that statement Robert yes do you have any of the 18 that did not agree with that statement did you did you follow up with why they don't agree with that statement we didn't some of them are unnamed names were optional as well as email address um so we left it as Anonymous as they wanted it to be okay okay did you get any kind of feedback about what it might be just you know
019like informally I don't think we had that did we most of the time there was not comments left there was a section for comments and so if they scored a certain particular piece there was not a comment left to notate why they put a grade versus disagreed and Dr Newman just based on other previous adoptions we've had the 82 percent are pretty high yes I mean we were confident we all of these results that you're hearing right now actually went to the committee and then the committee reviews all of this and listens to this feedback and then they make that final recommendation and it was a unanimous I don't want to steal your lender it was a unanimous decision in that regard so yes we were very confident based on the numbers that we have
020thanks for the question okay on the following slide we ask community and teach traditional teachers at the campuses not involved in the pilot the tests texts and tasks provide students with multiple opportunities to practice mathematical content and practice skills this one is crucial to highlight because of the amount of practice that our traditional community community is accustomed to with the Saxon curriculum 82 percent of our parents and community members agreed with that statement and 89 percent of our teachers agreed with that statement this one is always important materials are of high interest and will prepare students for College and Career 82 percent of the teachers surveyed agreed with that statement and 84 of our community members and parents agreed with that statement again we wanted to highlight a couple of the comments that we received
021in the public review I'll give you a second to look those over again as you can see the workbook was pointed out as a strength of the curriculum as it allows multiple practice opportunities for students to show their learning and skills Robert yes so there was a a parent that commented the online access which is easy for students to access anywhere is that when they access this program or platform at home do they do they log in does the program or the does the curriculum know who logs in so they're they're still getting if they're if they're a fifth grader but needs more support right the pro the at home they're going to get the same level of support as they would at school absolutely they would still log in Via our rapid identity tile
022which automatically pulls their information in okay thank you also too our teachers are the ones that are managing that platform so they're the ones that are assigning whether it be intervention or enrichment for the students so whenever they log in they're getting what their teachers are pushing out to them and how are teachers how are teachers currently doing that I guess I get well let me let me follow up with a second question how are teachers currently doing that and with this new platform is this going to put a greater Demand on teachers time to categorize all the all the different students of their class I mean in theory it seems easy to just they'll be able to see a student's work and know okay this one needs more help the student is doing fine
023and maybe needs to be challenged a little more um how does how does that process compare to what the teachers are doing now and how does it compare to the demand on their time so I'd like to point out that the technology portion of the curriculum is a tool we can go is is into the technology as the teachers are comfortable with so it might be that we start very paper heavy and that as this teachers are learning how to use the entire platform also generally and I it may be Crystal you can respond a little bit more about what that looks like when kids are in there right now but generally our teachers are searching everywhere for resources for kids whether it be intervention or enrichment so this will be available to them so
024they're not having to search from everywhere they can just use within the adopted curriculum resource which is a good thing for them as I've seen the pilot teachers work within this program the teachers go in and select this lessons and uh Concepts that they want students to learn whether on level or whether they're scaffolding for their intervention or enrichment needs and the scores are automated there's no hand doing of any type of problems it is absolutely automated from the student input to the teacher outcome to see what the data says they can then reassign students according to what that outcome is with their data it's instantaneously and the reports are right there for the teachers as soon as the students have entered information okay so one thing that that I feel like we're all very
025sensitive to is Teacher's time and making sure that teachers are getting the the prep time they need getting you know breaks throughout the day they're not taking their work home with them and this is I know it's taking the place of the Saxon platform I keep calling it a platform is that the right curriculum okay thanks so this is the taking the place of the Saxon curriculum how how easy of a transition will it be for teachers to switch to this curriculum in regards to um helping either input the information or or identify the kids that are struggling and the kids that are excelling and and how and does it is it is it cohesive with the other subjects that they're having to do that for because I think one thing I know one thing
026I hate is that I have you know I have bank accounts I have electric you know an account with APS I have an account with you know the City of Gilbert and I have all these logins and all these different platforms that I have to go to to do different things and I just want to I'm just I'm just sensitive to the fact that are we adding is this adding something else to the teacher's routine that they're like they're just going to think oh great one more thing I have to input one more data point I have to you know make sure that I'm I'm checking and marking and submitting and one more password that I have to remember totally agree so how does it just so you know on the back end this will
027be a rapid identity title for tile for our teachers as well so it's not another password when we log in every morning uh to our computers uh we log into rapid identity and it goes automatically to kind of we have a whole Bank of this is what's used across the GPS District anything from our testing platforms to our email we all use one password username so it kind of logs Us in automatically I think it's critical that as we go through this implementation the first year will take some more time and I'll go into our implementation plan but I feel like math and focus offers way more than what they're currently receiving with the Saxon curriculum sorry um the the manufacturer um sorry sorry teachers teachers right the teachers I'm sorry yeah and so I
028think once they get it going because I've alluded to as a principal that particularly with math that instantaneous feedback is critical because practice doesn't make perfect practice makes permanent you know so we want to make sure that when they're at home they're getting feedback uh to ensure they're not practicing wrong the entire night and then the next day we have to unlearn and then teach the right way so just a side comment yeah I was I wrestled in seventh grade at Mesquite High School and it was the wrestling coach that told me practice doesn't make perfect perfect practice makes perfect okay and so I I like that that it it's gonna help our teachers and our students in that regard okay thank you okay so implementation plan so using the pilot teacher feedback and the
029feedback we got from the public review should we move forward with this adoption we'd like to begin initial training in May so that teachers have time to explore all of the elements and potentially try teaching a lesson or two at the end of this school year our CIA team is ready to facilitate these trainings through the lens of focusing on our math priority standards some of the feedback from our pilot teachers were that the math and focus pacing guides were much too quick with that being said we'd like to bring pilot teachers in to provide the feedback necessary to build a more intentional pacing guide for year one that provides scaffolded opportunities for student learning and I think that's going to be critical as a year one pacing guide that realizes that teachers are Learners
030of this new curriculum as well additionally our traditional students and parents have grown accustomed to the consistent Math Fact Practice as well as the constant Spiral Review spiral nature of review that comes with Saxon both of these will be featured in the aforementioned pacing guides so when they say the um currently in the sorry the the trial period I say the pilot thank you I can think of the word um the pilot period they feel like it's moving too fast the kids aren't getting enough practice in the things that they're learning is that what they mean by the pacing is going too fast or what no I just think that they're from I just think more than anything there are some scaffolded supports we have to build on the back end to go from Saxon
031to the problem-solving nature that goes in math and focus okay all right so the more it's more changing the way that they're doing math to to this type because I noticed it does have problem solving it does have um different types of math so getting more used to this group right okay thank you remember with the pilots they were popped in in December right we dropped it had we began at the beginning of the year which we can never do and right in a pilot but had we then there may not have been that angst that they had so that's why we want to build the scaffolds but if teachers recognize that that's not necessary they can continue on with that pacing guide we don't want them searching it's up to our department to build
032that for teachers so basically I mean even though it's a new curriculum and that will take more time because they have so many resources right there they won't have to go find a worksheet or something that teaches this concept they should be able to have that right there at their fingertips and be able to figure out how to teach that to the kids and how to help them get that concept under their um in in their heads and that will be part of the curriculum resource but it will be also part of what the CI team develops in collaboration with the teachers so it'll be a combination of both I think it's important just to know because I think a couple of you have talked about time and and and and I think it's been
033said but it will take more time at the beginning something's new and they're going to have to get used to it and some will get used to it quicker than others will and but that's what's nice is that you have it on a campus you have it in grade levels at a couple other campuses and they'll be able to help each other out with that but yeah it will initially take a little more time a new Adoption and okay I see that it says the initial training will take place in May and will will the there were 16 teachers in the pilot how many teachers are we talking about total that are going to be teaching this curriculum I believe it's about 65 to 70. I'm completing like in our instructional coaches and our administrators
034so that numbers including everyone okay ties and everyone and and maybe you said this um will they have access to the program in May well maybe is it something they'll be able to look at and start if they want to start preparing for over the summer an adoption vote you know from the governing board today we're hoping to have materials in teachers hands in May so that when we do that training they're able to see touch experience all of it and you you said you're the representative has been very helpful so she'll be around to answer questions and so on absolutely she's local oh that's good thank you is this more of a new curriculum so they're still working to improve it or she's just willing to make those adjustments based on our feedback she's
035willing to make those adjustments based on our feedback okay um the curriculum first came out in 2009 the most recent Edition came out 2020. okay all right thank you So based on the data and with your approval the plan to move forward with full implementation of math and the plan is to move forward with full implementation of map and focus for our traditional programs in GPS any further questions for our folks so I I met with uh Barbara and Robert late last week to talk about this program because there were some things about the provider's website that made me a little uncomfortable and I think it would probably do the same for uh for other parents in the district hmm and I was made aware that this curriculum is provided by the same distributor that
036we got the Saxon curriculum from is that correct that's correct it's also the same vendor that we use for our K-5 math in our other conventional schools as well so all of our elementary schools utilize the curriculum resource from the same vendor okay yes so I I won't go into detail about uh what the concerns are that I had I think if anybody goes to the website they'll you know they might they might see they'll see the same things that I did um and one question I have is if we if we see something if we're notified about something either by a teacher or a student or a parent how quickly can hmh respond or add stuff take stuff out based on what we're requesting of them so a couple things first when they when
037we receive any kind of update to any of the curriculum we're automatically notified that a change has been made so for example if they put an intervention worksheet into the platform as soon as somebody opens up the their dashboard it's listed right there that that's been added so that's an alert for us to be able to keep track so the CIA CIA team will be working regularly to monitor that to see it also notifies our teachers as well with that too we have governing board policies that are in place that if someone wants to access or look at the curriculum they have the option they can do that through their students view or they can also we did our public review already but there's also always a time that if a parent has questions they
038can reach out to the teacher first the principal or they could reach out to this teaching and learning department hmh has been always consistently responsive when we have said that we don't want something in or not that we've had concerns before but they've been very responsive whenever they understand that we are in a community that it is really important for us to make sure that our students are getting the best curriculum instruction and they're also receiving um the support that they need and so we have not had any issue with them delaying that or being saying that we shouldn't they are able to remove things or not make that visible for our teachers or our students our teachers are the ones again that are pushing things through and we can monitor that but at any
039time we have that process in place if there's any kind of concern about anything that comes through to a student okay and kind of a similar question but in regards to to the teachers so according to Arizona statute there are some things that teachers are not allowed to teach and in an effort to try to keep the focus on academics if there if a teacher sees something in there that they might find or they may think this this might get me in hot water I maybe I want to avoid this um who who would they who would they notify and is the program designed in a way that if it's perhaps an update that came out the night before and it's same day is the program designed in a way that they can that they
040can adjust until they've talked to somebody until they've confirmed that yeah it's okay for me to talk about this or to you know give this give this word problem to the student or not um yes our teachers will always have the opportunity and the choices to provide a worksheet for example or practice what they believe is important or what is necessary for them to do with that they also have that opportunity they often talk to their principals first they're the first ones it's not uncommon for them to reach out to Crystal um and Sarah Earhart is our traditional coach they would reach out perhaps to Sarah and let them know where they're at and so it just becomes part of what our process is not and we we communicate a lot to the campuses and
041it's a it's a two-way street so um it would not be unusual for them to yeah if I'm if I'm a teacher and I see a word problem I'm reviewing it which they all should before they go out to kids and I look at this and that it makes my head turn sideways I always have the ability as a teacher not to utilize that substitute something else for that just don't use that and then take it to the principle saying hey this is what was in this specific lesson and I'm not sure this is supposed to be here or can you explain this to me what's the basis for this and then we go from there well then I I just want to remind us that we adopt this curriculum as a community and so
042if a teacher has a concern they are concern I mean sorry if a parent has a concern they can certainly talk to the teacher and bring that to the teacher's attention and they can decide that for their own student but everyone needs to be allowed to have access to materials and parents can make their own decisions for their own students about concerns so maybe you're concerned about that problem but maybe I don't see a problem with that so my students should still have access so we just have to be careful there so I back to the presentation back to the subject of pacing I understand the the web platform accommodates for students that are that are learning things quicker and students that are taking maybe needing a little more time to learn stuff but what
043about the the classroom instruction how does a teacher um are there ways that a teacher can accommodate for that without having to have either group either either going too fast or too slow because we all want to make sure that everybody gets it but we also want to make sure that those students that do get it quickly don't aren't aren't held back and so during the classroom instruction what kind of accommodations are there for that and I'm actually working on two with my work groups in order to scaffold for teachers something called transition guides as we transition from Saxon and into math and focus pending board adoption that there will be scaffolds built within a document supporting what the needs of the teaching level is for what it builds to go for it you saw
044the Intrigue and waggle and all our pilot teachers very much enjoying that program that program is also designed to help enrich and help students so there's a pacing guide which is an approximation of amount of days for each concept to be taught it's in a belt it's not 180 days but it's built close to that and then teachers can also scaffold if they need a little bit more time a day or two they can build that in if they are ready to move on and they're welcome to move on so it's an approximation of 10 days for this subject 15 days for the subject nine days for the subject and so there it's built within our pacing guide of 180 days and the transition guide will support the teachers to support the students with those
045needs that scaffold the math to have them be on grade level and they use the differentiated instruction resource in order to help also enrich as well as the teacher can go in and put in other lessons for enriching as well can I just give you a little story here for the my daughter teaches it Global and she's been staying with us because she had a surgery so for the last 10 days I've been attending fourth and fifth grade math instead of being able to watch the television shows that I normally like to watch and I I have to say that I have learned a lot and I everything that you're saying right now is like totally what I've been listening to listening as she's been teaching every day um she teaches she has a group
046of fourth graders and then a group of fifth graders and every single thing that you've been saying and I know it's the trade it's not the traditional model but I think I'm an expert on math now all of a sudden but but everything that you've said you know going back and I mean they've been having some unbelievably Rich conversations the children with her about because it's volume I think that they've been talking about which is incredibly I think a hard concept and some of the conversations that they've had have amazed me that these kids are thinking at this high level and I mean she's admitted a couple of times I don't know the answer but let me find out and so you know this is just something that's happened for the last 10 days I
047don't I'd like it to stop it's not you know I want to go back to Colin coward and the you know his talking about sports which is what I normally watch during the time of math but at any rate you know I just think this is you know just I have a new appreciation for teaching math and everything that you're saying right now fits into everything that I've heard for the last 10 days in a really good way a great story how much are we paying for this program 814.35 okay for four years for four years can you round that to them yeah I think I can we're also um the plan is for us to use Esser funds to pay for this as part of our learning loss contingency that we have we always
048have the unrestricted Capital that's what we originally budgeted for so those are the two funding sources that we'll be utilizing and if after a year we decide we maybe don't want to continue with certain aspects of the curriculum are we able to scale back if maybe the teachers are finding we're just not using a certain part of it or for any reason if it if a teacher or as a district we decide we just don't want to use uh a certain portion of this program can it be removed from the curriculum I mean as I know we've talked about how adaptable and how quickly and quickly adaptable they are um I think curriculum is a three to five year implementation it's a first year is just a beginning to learn it's going to be three
049years before it's really established where teachers really know what they've taught it a couple times they're more comfortable with it and then that's when we're gonna really start seeing the outcomes the achievements that come from that new curriculum and then it's going to be you know I would say a 10-year project so even if after one year we don't we're not sure that this is I my daughter was in the ELA adoption springboard in I can't remember whether she was in seventh grade or eighth grade that first year was pretty hard it was one of the hardest years we've had but there were a lot of good things about springboard that needed to be implemented but just hadn't yet been implemented I did call and talk to the principal at the end of the year
050and she said I just want you to know that most of our kids have really grown from this curriculum so I think we have to give time for that decision and for that implementation to happen one year is not sufficient to know whether we've implemented it's going to take time to know whether we've made the right decision I would say three years at a minimum and then five to seven years later we can say okay this was really good for us I would say for me I don't know how often we need to adopt new curriculum but 10 years is probably where you get in that sweet spot of where maybe things have changed enough that we need a new Adoption but I honestly think it takes two or three years to really get that
051under our belt and it's where it's there's no Silver Bullet there's no answer that's going to be perfect it's learning to work with what we have and going through that process and making it our own by the teachers getting to know the curriculum and then being able to use it to support the students so I I appreciate that and I understand that but I'm also thinking as a student a student only goes through first grade once yes hopefully right that's the goal I was like they only go through second grade once they only go through third grade once right and so if because this is a totally new method of teaching math than what than what we're used to and so if after a year it's not working I don't think it makes a lot
052of sense to say oh well let's just stick it out until the end of the four years and and and it doesn't get any better and now first grade second grade third grade and fourth grade a student going through there has you know really been disadvantaged um and so I guess what what are what are our options if after a year we really are not seeing the results that we wanted to I I don't think we will necessarily see all those results after one year kind of to piggyback on what she says it takes a little time for this to be implemented now within that year if we find that there are some things we need to tweak at the end of the year in order to improve it for next year we can do
053that we have the ability to do that if there's components that we didn't add on this first round and now we can continue to add on afterwards then we will do that but it does take a little more time because if you keep changing curriculums each year then you're throwing a lot of money out the door right so that's why we have this process that we go through to vet this the way we do in order to get it as right as we can before we start putting it out in the public with our students okay so when we were when we were talking last week um you explained to me the process that the district goes through to vet these programs to find the best program and decide that that's the one we want
054to Pilot for those that may be watching online and any parent that may come back later and watch can you explain that a little bit just in not I mean don't take too much time but kind of like you did to me because I found that very helpful very beneficial absolutely thank you um so when we know that we're going to be engaging in any kind of pilot what we do first is we do a call for resources and so we identify all of the components that are necessary for us to have within a curriculum whether it be math or otherwise with that then we send that out to vendors and the vendors can respond and then they provide what what it is that their product demonstrates to them or to us so during that
055time while we're collecting requests for proposals we also are forming a committee so in this case because it was a traditional we formed a committee of teachers administrators district office um curriculum instruction and assessment admin services and then we also utilize individuals from special education ell as well as parents so we asked our principals to make sure please that we had representatives of parents on the committee as well so during that time that's a committee of a whole essentially in that it's a it's a larger committee during that time is once we get the request for proposals back we have a curriculum committee that's a subcommittee of that group that really starts filtering out some of the products that perhaps were not ones that we would think that would be acceptable for example it doesn't
056meet the academic standards that we know that it's supposed to if it was a K-8 we're looking for materials for K-8 because we know some of our students are in advanced coursework but it's only a K5 so that would be one that we would weed out but during that time the ones then that they look at that say these are the ones that meet all of our requests for proposal I indicators the committee reviews that generally we always come up with about the top two that's just how it's worked historically during that time then what the subcommittee does is they present all of the information to the whole committee and they share with them what those top two products are during that time then we engage in what we call Vendor presentations and the vendors
057come out and to the whole committee they present and they share information about their product they talk about how it connects to the standards they generally try their very best to hit all of our indicators because that committee is also doing a rubric and they're evaluating the vendor presentations and what they're learning from there from that time too after the vendor presentations each Committee Member that Committee of a whole each Committee Member reviews both of those products and they're reviewing them to make sure that the products have what it is that they were hoping and there's a rubric not as detailed because these are not necessarily our curriculum experts but they're one there are teachers and our parents and they're looking what they're looking for for their children essentially at that time then once we
058look at both of those that data is collected that is brought back again to that committee we really need to do a call out and a shout out to the committee because it's a lot of work for them all after hours when they're doing that but they come back again they review what the results are and then generally they have a consensus as to what product they want to move forward with product that they move forward within we do the pilot and we also do the 60-day plus always here we do more than that but a 60-day public review and during that time that's that that's where we're sitting here with those results so the public review and the pilot thank you that was great and I I said that that was for anybody that's
059watching online it's also for people that are here tonight thank you for coming sorry that did bring up one more question um there there are some differences with this math curriculum and I'm sorry I don't have my notes that I took when I was looking at it um could we just talk a little bit about the process especially at the elementary level that they go through but there's a lot of things that we are already doing with the manipulative I'm sorry my my lips I can't even say it tonight so thank you um just to I thought the the process that it showed for math was um to me a beneficial process for students so if one of you could address that a little bit I'd appreciate it absolutely would be happy to so our
060standards are built where we have students learning to get to the abstract learning of all numbers which is how do we do equational type works right so the process within this curriculum builds from concrete which is our manipulative to pictorial representations to our abstract which is everybody understanding that is our standard algorithm and how we do problems so it shows a conceptual way to develop that algorithm of thinking all right does that help yes that helps thank you foreign further questions of these wonderful people for a minute yes Rhonda thank you good evening um thank you so much for that presentation that you guys did a fabulous job explaining the new mouse curriculum I did have a couple questions um what additional academic tools are you going to use in addition to this new curriculum
061such as mouth facts and what does the homework look like with the Math in Focus sure I actually brought examples we have a student consumable which all students have K through all of our grades in addition to that there's an extra practice and homework so there's an additional piece to that so the teachers are able to assign from one or both at any given time um whether it be in book or online they have the option as well as our students are used to having power-ups and grades I believe it's second through the upper grades and there's a fact fluency practice the power-ups are likened to the fact fluency piece of it so we have similarities the only difference is there are no hardbound books which Saxon hat hardbound these are all in consumable perform
062and they are part of the quote write up in reproducing those each year for our students and having those available in their hands does that answer your question Rhonda it does so just a quick follow-up do these does this curriculum have any type of time math facts or like on Fridays do they have to do their Pine math facts it does not have what's quote a timed math fact but it does have daily math fact fluency practice that are available to teachers in the lesson planning and it tells the teachers exactly what that fluency would go with the planning of it so it's up to teachers for their implementation of utilizing these along with this didn't work okay thank you thank you Rhonda anything else I just want to make one comments thank you one
063of the things I like about the consumables is that we no longer have to copy off the board if somebody has difficulty copying correctly that could be a real Challenge and this is it's right there for them so they just have to do the math so I think that's that's really important something that Hands-On that they can have right there in front of them and they can be able to see that's very helpful for a lot of students that might lose focus between whatever is on the the Whiteboard and their piece of paper I mean I think that's really important the BenQ board yes yes you it Dr McCord anything else anything further no I would just like to thank these folks right here and all the committee members and and the parents and the
064teachers that participate in this it's it's always a lengthy process and and it can never be easy and I know how tied uh you know the traditional academies are to the Saxon Math and so I know this was difficult for everybody involved and so I just appreciate all the work you guys did same here thank you thank you I I do have one more question and it's I think it might be more for Dr McCord if there are any parents that would like to participate in these committees that are put together who would they who would they contact in the district generally what we do is we put a call out to principals to be able to because they have the direct contact with the students and the kids and they're the ones that help
065furnish us with those individuals that are interested or sometimes people will call up teaching and learning and say hey I'm really interested in sitting in a committee like this can you keep my name and look me up whenever you guys get to that point is there is there anything on our website that says if we're putting together committees and and what it's for I don't believe we have anything published on the website usually we put in some information out when it happens is that correct yes um we may put perhaps put something in our newsletter stating that we're going to be getting begin an adoption and that might be where we're getting some feedback from individuals that are interested also but nothing specific on it yeah okay thank you very much thank you and with
066that we'll adjourn the work study and reconvene to a brief business brief board business meeting and I need a motion to reconvene to the brief board business meeting I make a motion to reconvene to the board business meeting thank you Mr Thompson second thank you Mrs Humphrey it's been moving second and seconded that week reconvene to the brief board business meeting all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye right and so on a 4-0 vote we'll move back to the brief board business meeting we'll move to number eight which is approval of the consent agenda do I hear a motion I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented thank you Mrs Humphries is there a second second thank you Mr Thompson it's been moved and seconded that we approve the
067consent agenda as presented all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye so on a 4-0 vote the consent agenda has been approved as presented we'll now move to 9.01 the action item the approval of the K-8 traditional math adoption do I hear a motion I move that we adopt the focus on math as presented tonight thank you Mrs Humphries enjoy your second I will second it so now for discussion if there is any further discussion well I I do want to say I appreciate all the work that's gone into this and I certainly feel like the people who have taken time to give feedback that's really important but I also think it's important that the people who are actually who have piloted and who are going to be teaching this were represented
068on the committee as they know what the kids need to learn so I think it's important to take that into consideration and just I really look forward to updating our math curriculum it's been I think I did that when I very first became a board member so it's been about 10 years since we've done that for um actually for sex and methods sorry that was for our regular math for Saxon Math it's probably been a good 20 years since we had an update in curriculum thank you any further discussion I have a question and it's it pertains to the this math curriculum but also more in general um if as a board we decide not to adopt a curriculum what's the next step then it goes back to the committee to try and find an
069alternative so at this point we just want to start over so it so with Saxon not providing curriculum anymore and if just use this as an example just use this curriculum as an example if we decide not to adopt it is there time to get a committee to do all the vetting of get a request information from all that request everything from the vendors get it scour it and then get the public to come in and review it is there even time or at this point if we don't adopt this are we leaving teachers and students without a math curriculum for next year you know I don't I had to have not done the math on the time per se based on the 60-day review I'm sure we'd be very close to it but we'd
070also not have the opportunity really to Pilot anything at that point and so I think you'd be going on a little more blind than than anything else and so um yeah you'd have a difficult time and um we'd be stuck quite a bit and in this particular situation there is nothing that we would be able to do with Saxon for next year we would be doing a lot of running and punting so so the the the approval or the endorsements from the teachers from the parents everybody involved all along the way for this math program that's fantastic hypothetical if that all came if after that that all came back um negative maybe the percentages were flipped and it was 18 in favor of an 82 percent you know opposed to we're pretty late in the
071year well we wouldn't be sitting here having this discussion that's how it came back so they would have to and they would probably know that early on as opposed to going all the way through a review they can stop that at any time if if they feel that this is never going to go in the right direction nobody on the committee felt that this is the right thing to do they would have to stop it there probably Midway and regroup and rethink on how we're going to do this yeah it would be difficult especially since there's nothing necessarily to replace it so yeah that's a unique situation to this in particular so I think that's kind of where you're honing in on a little bit that there's nothing there yeah um and so what we
072would have we would have the state standards that we would have to go by and we'd have to make it all as we go so is it is it and then you go back to the time that teachers take yeah yeah that would be a ton of time so this one may have been unique because of the time that we found out that Saxon wasn't correct gonna be is it typical or I guess it it is it typical to to start this process earlier in the school year so that if if something is a flop that we've got more time than we have on this one well we look at the first thing what money do we have and when can we start it and generally if there isn't something there we may have more
073time to go through the process and roll it out and do different types of training before we implement it we might be able to implement it a little bit differently and so being that there isn't something there to replace it right now this is one of our only options well remember we've we've they've spent an entire year working through this process working through it but then I think as as Mr Thompson was trying to point out is that here we've gotten to the end but what if at the end it wasn't what we wanted I think well and I have seen a curriculum adoption that was more heated there were people who disagreed and um it was it was challenging but that was before I was on the board so well I think as always
074when you get into those situations I think you learn every time you you go through that process and our goal is to not fall into that and make sure that there's it just helps out with more and more conversations about how people are feeling about certain things thank you any other discussion before I call for the vote Mrs page do you have anything um I just wanted to thank all everybody that um but in the divine an effort to look into a math curriculum that is comparable to Brockton having three children that went through Neely traditional and did the Sox and math program I was heartbroken to find out that they had no longer offered their curriculum to Public Schools so I'm just very grateful that all of the administrators the teachers the parents and
075the community that came together to try to find something that could fill this void and I'm looking forward to seeing how it's going to be implemented how it's going to be received not only with the teachers but with the parents and the students so thank you thank you well also I I just want to to thank the fact that the staff is going to work hard to provide some of those things that Saxon has the spiraling and um the other things that this curriculum doesn't necessarily do but they're going to make sure that they provide that so I know that so a lot of extra work and I really appreciate that and I I know it is it is a big deal it's a lot of time and money to go into a curriculum adoption
076but I I think this is a really good product and I think we should go ahead with it because we've already you know we've had a lot of people weigh in as far as the committee the public and I think this one shows that people really agree with this and and that we're in a good place with this adoption thank you okay I will take a call for the vote all those in favor of adopting the K-8 traditional math adoption as presented this evening please signify by saying aye opposed so on a 4-0 vote the adoption has been approved we will now move to number 10.01 adjournment all those are excuse me I need a motion before I ask for a vote I'm getting excited here I move that we adjourned thank you Mrs Humphries
077do I hear a second second thank you Mr Thompson it's been moved and seconded that we uh during the brief board business meeting for tonight all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye so on a 4-0 vote thank you very much for everybody for being in attendance and participating thank you