001Good afternoon and welcome to the uh Valuchia County Schools workshop. Today is Tuesday, December 3rd. It is 3 p.m. We will go ahead and get started with the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence following and reflection following the pledge. Please stand. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Welcome to everyone uh listening to and attending our wonderful schoolboard workshop today. I'm going to go ahead and introduce everyone who is here. I'm going to go to the right side this time. We're going to start off with Mrs. Celeste Gilmore, our amazing agency clerk. Next to Miss Gilmore, we have Miss Jesse Thompson, representative for district three. Next
002to Miss uh Thomp, Mrs. Thompson, we have Mrs. Jamie Haynes, representative for district 1. Next to Miss Jamie Haynes, we have Dr. Carmen Balgabin, our esteemed National Superintendent of the Year, uh, who is with us today. Over to our lefthand side, we have Mrs. Donna Brosmer, representative for district 4. Next to Miss Bromer, we have Mrs. Christa Goodrich, vice chair, representative for district 2. Next to Mrs. Goodrich, we have Dr. Gilbert Evans, our school board attorney. And my name is Ruben Cologne, and I have the honor and pleasure of serving as chair this year, representative for district 5. Uh, next item up on the agenda is 2.01 district accreditation overview. Dr. Balgaban. >> Thank you, Chair Colong. Uh, good good afternoon everyone. We're pleased to announce at this time that uh, Valuchia County has begun
003the pro process of reacredititation. As we all know that we are currently accredited at Cogna through Cogna, which is a national certification firm. Now it's time for reacredititation. So we have begun that process where our district is evaluated to ensure that when it comes to high standards of for quality education that it's there it's part of our culture it's who we are. So we have a presentation about this process and what it's going to look like along with the timeline and of course how it'll benefit our students. I would like to ask at this time that Mr. Kyle Shaker, our coordinator for research, evaluation, accountability, joins us along with Miss Jennifer Jackson. And Miss Jennifer Jackson is our data analyst for teaching, leading, and learning. She works in the REA department as well with Mr.
004Shaker. We have also with us here Katie Albin. Katie Albin is a data analyst for assessments and data. And we have a few guests, correct, that are joining us. Yes, we do. We are coupled with Dr. Jessica Swear and Sarah Dotus from Cognia and >> and they are joining us via >> Yes. Yeah, I think they can hear us right now. >> Themes. >> Yes. Hi. Good afternoon, superintendent and board members and community members. This is Dr. Jessica uh with Cogna. Sarah Dotus is um is not on the call. um she was unable to make it. But um I'm happy to be here. Um I have my my video off because my internet connection is not super stable. So I don't want to lose you guys mid meeting because I know you have a tight
005agenda. Um so it's my understanding that um I'll be able to see the slide deck and I will um present the slide deck virtually to you guys. Is that correct? >> So thank you Dr. Swear for joining us. And now Mr. Dr. Shaker, I'll give it up to you, sir, to begin the process. >> Okay. Um, we do have it streamed right now. Um, Dr. Swear on our screens. Are you able to see it with us? >> No, but I could I could pull the presentation. I'll just I could look at it on on my end if I if you could just give me um an indication of when you're >> going to the next slide. That works. We can totally totally do it that way. >> Okay. Well, I I appreciate um you guys
006having us here. Um Chair Cologne, thank you for for having us and allowing us to explain this process of accreditation. And um the importance of it, as Dr. Balgabin said, is constant improvement and growth. Um, and that is what we see this as an opportunity for is not just to have a high score of accreditation, but to be able to take a look at even those items where we score highly to collaborate with our partners in Cognia to understand what other systems are doing at that high level to continue to grow even in the things that we are rated highly on um in this engagement review process that Cognia does. Um, so like Dr. Dr. Bman said, I'm coupled here with um Jennifer Jackson and Katie Alban who will be leading that effort um within
007our accreditation as long as well as our our school partners, our school leaders. Um we have many uh teachers, academic coaches um and we also have department leaders and coordinators um all the way up to the cabinet level that are supporting their efforts. Um so uh Jennifer, if you would like to uh kick off and introduce yourself. >> Good afternoon everyone. and I'm Jennifer Jackson, program evaluation data analyst within REA. What that means is as we acquire new district-wide programs or initiative or as different programs come up for contract renegotiations, I do the data analytics to decide are we getting a positive return on our investment? Are we implementing it with fidelity? And if not, how can we improve the implementation so that it does what's best for students? and her role specifically was added
008because Dr. Balabin saw that need to identify ROI um with anything that we reup annually or or as we're shopping for for new systems and implementing those systems into into Valuchia County schools um that we have that impact on student learning and we see that in in our data. And then I have uh Katie Albin here um who is a newer member to our team um but she has a a long and extensive history in education both Semino County and Orange County Public Schools. Katie, if you'd like to introduce yourself. >> Hello, I'm Katie Albin. I am one of the data analysts with REA. Typically, I'm supporting with the academic data, but right now, I am working with our campus representatives on collecting artifacts to provide evidence for our continuous improvement in Valuchia County Schools
009to support the accreditation efforts. >> So, I'm going to now move forward with Dr. Swear and presenting uh the Cogna process and kind of soup to nuts everything about Cogna and how we go through this partnership with them. Uh and if there are any questions uh towards the Valuchia County side of of how we're operating um with Cognia, um feel free to direct those questions to us and anything for Cognia. Dr. Swear will be here to answer those questions for us. So Dr. Swear, I'm on I'm on slide one and uh we're moving forward. >> All right. Can everybody hear me? Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Wonderful. Well, again, good afternoon and thank you for having me. Um, I had the pleasure of coming out last month to visit with um the superintendent,
010cabinet, the accredititation team. It was it was wonderful. I just I love your district and I I love working with you guys. So, um, prior to my November u visit, there was um the last time I was out there uh was when Valuchia County Schools, if you remember, um was honored with the system of distinction. And um so for that I know that uh we had a big celebration and uh we're very proud of your accomplishments in that area. Okay. Um All right. So I believe we're on slide three. Um so just a little bit about Cogna and who we are for those of you that um were not familiar with us. Um we Cogna is uh notfor-profit organization and we have been around this actually um I'm going to give you our little our
011little uh trajectory of what our path has been but um this year we celebrated 150 years and um we have been serving schools for a very long time and um we partner with educators. You know, our vision really is to enable path successful pathways for all learners and to serve as a trusted partner with uh you and in fact um across the state of Florida we have um just under 5,000 institutions that um are members with us and accredited one of our most uh highly saturated um states. Very proud of that. Uh s the next slide is just a little overview of where we've been as an organization over um the last I'm sorry I said 150 130 years um starting way back in 1895 and over time you'll see uh based on this slide
012that we have moved forward with acquiring other um organizations to provide our members with better service. you'll see that um Measured Progress came on board with us um and we have Centerpoint as well as several other wonderful things to celebrate as far as um partners joining for joining um the cause of moving schools forward and um having more creating more success for all learners. So this is this is a uh our team. So, we have uh Sarah who was unable to be on the call today is uh part of our Florida team and then myself and I've provided contact information for you guys there. And then we couldn't do without our other left and right hands because yes, we have two we have four hands total I feel like um our coordinators Marvet Salazar and
013Becky Hy. So, a little bit about who we serve. I I explained uh told you guys about how large our our uh network is in the state of Florida and um you could see this is organizationwide, how our um membership is, you know, very vast and serving um a diverse uh set of educational institutions um across the globe and also um internationally. We have uh 90 plus um institutions internationally as well. And um this is just a little bit about what we do. This is based on 24 25 data. And um Cognia is our main focus is continuous improvement. So it's not just about coming in and seeing what you have going on and saying, "Oh, these are areas that you should improve." But we have um we have several different tools that we offer
014to our um organizations um with certification um observations assessment and professional learning. So let's get into the nitty-gritty here about cogni accredititation and what that is. So accreditation is um really looking at how all of the parts within the district work together. Um looking um historically back at you know what are things that you've put in place since your last accredititation engagement review. Where are you at now and how are you moving forward? So it's really looking at um are you meeting the the needs of every learner? And we do that um by following these steps of self assessment. So part of the big part of the accredititation process is really hitting the pause button, looking in the mirror, sitting down, having these robust conversations about where are we at here, where do we feel
015like um that we would, you know, that we would put oursel in what category um related to these areas, which I'll talk about in just a second. And then of course you have um the engagement review and um progress monitoring. And you can see that this diagram is is circular. And that's because >> Dr. >> What's what slide number are you on? I'm on number 10. >> Uh yes, I'm on I'm on 10. >> Okay. >> It has the wheel. >> Okay. I think >> it has this a circular diagram. >> I' I've got it now. You see that one? >> Yeah, that's not for us. >> Wonderful. Wonderful. Okay. So, um I may be behind you guys then, I guess. Um okay, but we shall proceed. And the idea is really that this is
016ongoing continuous improvement and um support and progress monitoring as well. So my next one is the six-year accredititation cycle. Is that the slide you guys are looking at? >> Yes. >> Wonderful. Okay. So um you'll see here that we have the six-year accredititation cycle. Um Cognia um used our accredititation cycle used to be five years but um that has been extended to a six-year cycle. And we've also, you'll see in year four, we've added um midcycle progress reporting. So, um again, circular diagram, you know, um representing that engagement um always in that continuous learning mode, which um you guys do a great job. Um so, year one would be your engagement review. So, um so your district is hosting next year. So, that would be year one. And um and as you know the team
017told you, you guys have of course been preparing for quite some time um for the upcoming review. Any questions so far? Or do we wait? You want me to wait till the end? >> I'll wait till the end. >> Okay, sure thing. Okay, so the next slide is about our key characteristics and performance standards. So we have 31 total performance standards and these standards are organized within four key characteristics. So these key characteristics are areas that um through our research and all of our years of experience that these are the four key areas of learning that um really moves the needle in serving students. So um the first one is culture of learning. The second one is leadership for learning. Third one is engagement of learning and the fourth one is growth in learning. So
018I'm going to show you a little bit about each of these key characteristics and um that the main um the main focus of each. So you'll see that key characteristic one is culture of learning and you'll have the the primary performance standards that are organized under this key characteristic are one through six. So um as you can imagine if we're you know culture of learning um you know we're we're looking at the school how is how is the how is I'm sorry you guys are system how is the district demonstrating um that missions and beliefs and expectations are really being lived out throughout the district um you know how do your learners and parents how do how does everybody feel connected to your purpose you know your mission and vision and where you know your
019strategic plan in the direction that you're pointing towards. Um, how do we know that um, your learners uh, academic and non-academic needs are being focused on and and how do we know if they're being met? That comes in a little bit more in the growth and learning key characteristic. So, second key characteristic is leadership for learning. Uh, standards 7 through 15 are organized under that key characteristic. Um, and as you can imagine, that's really looking at the leadership throughout your district and how expectations are being communicated. Um, how stakeholder feedback is being gathered. Um, and also how um how you know what's being modeled and and and what how are how are leaders engaging, you know, teams at each of their schools, you know, teams in district offices um to support leadership. All right, the
020third one is engagement of learning. And so in this key characteristic, you know, we are totally focused on the students. And you'll see um I'm going to show you a diagram of some of these aspects that are now since we updated after our last standards um are really um embedded in these key characteristics. So you'll see that um we're looking at how is the learner engaged in the learning process. um you know what kind of supports and opportunities do learners have? Uh how are they participating and how are they displaying agency over learning? You know what does student voice look like throughout the district? The fourth key characteristic is growth and learning and this is where um a lot of data analysis will come in. Um there's a there's a piece of that embedded in
021this process. So um in for the growth of learning you're looking at um you know what what has your growth been in meeting expectations of learning um you know what what is what is what is state tests look like what is school grade look like what is what does it look like within the district um you know as far as other different programs you guys are offering and um success rates and and the story um that's one of the things we're really we are really conscious about is we come in and um you have an executive summary that's completed and this is a very robust um outline of who you are as a district and what kinds of thing you know what initiatives you have in place your points of pride and so forth. So
022um you know this isn't um an audit you know I uh I was with Hillsburg County Public Schools for 22 years and just as many of you sitting here and and in the audience I'm sure you've been through many audits. um that's we're we're coming in um you know understanding who you are looking at your district individually and its uniqueness. So um with that being said these are some of the concepts I was talking about that are really embedded throughout our key characteristics and performance standards. So um you'll see as I was saying that focus on you know learners and student voice second little techy issue. Okay. So, the last time that Valuchia County um school district hosted accreditation was um during the year the school year 212 2021 to 2022. So, um I wanted
023to take a moment to revisit um what that you know the outcomes of that review and um all of uh the points of pride to uh to to you guys today. So um um so you could see that you know at the when we create the final report we have a section of noteworthy practices as well as well as areas of improvement where the evaluation team suggests you know this direction to continue on that trajectory of improvement which you can see from your noteworthy practices and how many bullet points there are um you know how well um how welloiled this machine is in in noteworthy practices. is your district. So, um you can see that there were several points highlighted here uh about um ethical governance roles and pat yourself on the back. Um ethics
024roles, policy development, um defining defining roles in ethics, operational processes. Can you hear us? All right, take it away, Mr. Shaker. >> Dr. Swir, are you there? All right, if she jumps back in, I I'll I'll keep reading it through though. Um, so we have she was going through our noteworthy practices as you see on the the left side of the screen there based on that last Cognia review and the areas for improvement. Again, these these were not areas where we scored in a one to two range, but a three and a four. and those formalized structures of staff advocacy. Um those are already things that we're going to be able to highlight very easily in this upcoming accredititation review. Um based on you know listen and learn sessions and our ambassador programs. Um we
025also have program evaluation. That's another thing that we have already clearly uh drawn a line on improvement for. Um granted that we have within our department an entire position dedicated to that review process. and >> ask a question. >> Yes. May maybe we can pause here while they're for any Valuchia County questions with where we've gone. >> Weird since you're in the room. >> Um would you go back to that previous slide? >> Yeah. >> And interpret for me what the areas for improvement means in literal terms because I don't know. So when we look at the engagement review when they basically handed us our report card uh our cognia review report card these were our areas that had the lowest performance >> but but what are formalized structures of staff advocacy and program evaluation
026I don't know what that translates into some examples of formalized structures of staff advocacy could be um Dr. Balabins and other um cabinet members listen and learn sessions where staff literally have a time to advocate for something or provide feedback. Um I know within the REA department we have plenty of examples of our teacher um assessment group where they come in and we review the calendar and provide opportunities for that um advocacy able to speak up for what they see in in the programs. Um and then program evaluation um is what Mrs. Jackson uh definitely takes the lead on throughout the county is taking a look at those students. Um I think about I Ready a lot. Um I Ready is a program that you know most of our K5 students are using and so
027what Mrs. Jackson is tasked with is taking that data and identifying if students who are are implementing and engaging with that program whether it is being effective and it's actually yielding student learning. Um so evaluating the effectiveness of a program. Um and it's not necessarily um just academic programs but it could be any anything across the entire gambit of our district on something we've implemented and whether it was effective ROI right our return on investment. Um, and for nearly everything that we focus on, especially for Cogni, is that student learning piece. >> Thank you. That's that's very helpful. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Mr. Shaker, is there's Dr. B if there's a possibility that we can get the report from the last time uh for all of the members of the board. So that that
028would answer that question and more. Uh I know we're taking off from this point on, but I think there would be an advantage to being able to see that last report. uh whether it's digital or on paper, however anyone would rather receive that. I know I personally don't want the paper copy. I'll take the digital one all day long, but that's up to uh personal preference. So, if we can do that, that'd be awesome. Dr. B, thank you. >> We have copies. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yes, we are we already have that and we can make that available [clears throat] to the board as well. >> Dr. Back. >> Nope. All right. We'll keep going. >> Okay. All right. Let's let's move forward. Um, Mrs. Jackson, would you would you like to take over
029from here? >> Sorry. Sorry. Give me one second. Miss Haynes has a question. Thank you. >> So, back on um slide number 10, which is on page five of our document. So, when you're looking at what you're doing new, I had some question. I'm perfectly fine, you know, with some of things being remote and you not being on site with them. So, we're increasing by one year. So, this is once this is done, it's going to be good for six years. But I want to know a little bit more about how they're going to do it remotely because there is a difference from them being on site and sitting down and meeting with people and people, you know, being able to be open and frank and say versus it being electronically. And the whole thing
030now is moved to an electronic piece. And I understand there's some savings in funding on that because you don't have the people here, but I really want to know what it's going to look like for the interviewing piece. >> Why do we get Doc to answer that question when she gets back on? >> Absolutely. Yes. Because this this is 100% Cognia. What's new for Cognia and their process? Um, and with us not having that our regional advisor at this point, um, I would not be able to provide that. >> Dr. B, can we try to get her on the telephone? Even if we have to hold the microphone to the Even if we have to hold the microphone to the, uh, >> cellular data will certainly be better off than Wi-Fi data in some circ.
031>> Dr. Are you are you there? Just call her telephone. We can just call her telephone number. >> All right, we're going to take a five minute. Let's try to get >> Jen can continue through with this presentation. >> Is there more? >> You can continue. >> Yes, we we can continue with the presentation. Yes, if there's questions specifically about cognas practices though, th those would be the things that we need um Dr. way to to really respond to or we can take them and bring them back to the board. >> All right, let's keep going then. >> Okay, hello again Jennifer Jackson. So, we are on a journey to tell Valuchia's story and that's how the process is going to unfold. So, it starts with an orientation meeting. We want everybody to be fully
032aware of what you are getting into. So, they recently had our orientation meeting with myself and Katie and Mr. sugar and they also had a meeting with our cabinet doing the very similar presentation letting everybody know what is Cognney about who do they serve and what is this process going to look like from a high level then we complete a training to make sure we get indepth understanding of the standards of what successfully telling your story looks like so that once we get into the formal review process we already know how we're going to approach it during this process we will get an evaluator who is going to lead the evaluators that ultimately do our review. And once we get that evaluator, we're going to be working hand inand getting a lot of feedback about
033what we're planning to submit. Ultimately, we are telling Valuchia's story as it aligns to what Cognia has identified as the best practices for systems. But we get to provide what we think best represents us. and our evaluator is going to make sure that what we are providing is giving the best impression. That work is done primarily in the self- assessment workbook. Kudos to Cogna. They have done a wonderful job of laying out how you should approach this, where you should look for data sources and how to best represent yourself in a way that covers all the bases of all the things happening within our district. And that work takes about anywhere from six months to a year. And that's the process we're currently in. We are reaching out to schools. We have campus representatives because
034one of the things in the slide Miss Haynes mentioned is >> previously every single school was required to submit their own accreditation portfolio. So that looked like every school having to have a committee having to take away from instructional minutes to meet and generate narratives which are essays that are about 2,000 words a piece for each different component. So, Cognia desiring to protect instructional minutes has now just required one district level portfolio submission, but we're still reaching out to every single campus to make sure that we are getting input from everyone. And that's where we are now. That involves looking at our stakeholder feedback year-over-year, our student growth year-over-year, as well as our learning environment observation year-over-year. The four characteristics that Dr. we mentioned earlier, we will write narratives about that as tied to the
035standards. So we are right now within the self- assessment workbook collecting all those artifacts and building evidences and then finally we will submit a portfolio about four weeks until the official evaluation happens and Dr. can talk about what that actual AC accreditation engagement review day looks like and that's where we will submit all of our evidence is and we will get our rating and our accreditation because we absolutely will because Valuchia is amazing. >> Okay. Um Dr. Swear, I've got you on the the following slide, the accreditation engagement review slide. >> Miss Haynes, do you want to go ahead and ask your question so we can get that out of the way? Oh, the one with the 24. >> Yes, slide 24. Dr. Shu, I think we're we're gonna pause. We have a >> Okay,
036>> just go ahead and let her finish. >> Let her let her finish and then >> Okay. Okay. Um, I just wanted to verify. I have no idea when you guys dropped. I thought you're very quiet. Um, did did you have an opportunity to hear me bragging about your last review? My question. >> We did not hear the brags. We we you can BRING THOSE BACK UP IF YOU'D LIKE. >> AH YES, DEFINITELY. Where did I cut where did I drop after um key characteristics >> after we were reviewing the noteworthy uh from the prior accredititation? >> Oh, okay. Yes. So, that was um so that was what I wanted to make sure that that you guys heard is that you know um and just going back to that slide for a minute. um you
037can see how robust your noteworthy practices side of the slide are. Um and it you just there's so many things that as a district that um you're all doing right and that's a huge point of pride to have that many noteworthy practices for a district. Um so I just applaud you for that. um and this the areas for improvement when I last came out and sat with the team. Um we spoke we talked through those areas of improvement and there was there was so much robust conversation about all of the initiatives and things that that have been put in place um since the suggestion floor team. So um very excited for you guys. So um great job. Um okay so we are now moving on to the accredititation engagement review slide and um this is
038just an overview though of the process you know um everything that goes into each one of these diagnostics. So the asurances piece is that summary I was talking about um where you tell us about your district and we get to know the uniqueness and indiv individuality of of what you guys and the great work you're doing in your district. Then our data analysis piece um we have those those three categories the learning environment is looking at the [screaming] uh engagement of students and then we have of course our stakeholder feedback and student performance. So there's there's quite a process for that data analysis piece um that is part of uh our review. Um then we also have um our self assessment which is the the ratings of those standards. So it's um you know the
039team sitting down and rating standards um having those conversations about where do you think that we are at and I'm going to show you um the rating system in just a second. Um and then in the red box is really everything that um our evaluation team um you know is all the culminating things that that that our evaluation team do to uh go ahead and uh finish up the review. Okay. So on uh slide 26 is what I'm looking at. Um I just provided here just an overview of our data analysis process. So um again our self- assessment workbook is is robust in in walking you through this process as well as our um online training is is supportive of knowing exactly what steps to take. Um so you'll see that it's it's it's a
040it's quite a process. It's a it's a great opportunity for the team to sit down and and you know I I love just saying you know push the pause button and um just reflect and have some really great conversation with colleagues. Um, and I heard you go over the portfolio and then the leadership presentation. Um, it's a 45minute presentation. As you can see here, there's there's certain points that are outlined to be addressed in that presentation. And, um, that is our very final event before the review is closed out and our evaluation team goes to work with finalizing everything. Um these are some of the resources of course that we spoke about our regional accreditation evaluator uh I call them rays of sunshine r a rays of rays of Florida sunshine. Uh they're a wonderful
041group. We all have um background. We've all been in education our whole life pretty much and uh and have experience um in this you know being on the other side of this. So it's it's really nice to be able to um relate and um you know be able to share that complete understanding from both sides of the desk here. Um, of course you have the the support from the evaluators. you um so the evaluators will be assigned um probably um in area around April or June and every every evaluator in their team will reach out to whoever they're assigned to support and set up check-in meetings and be there to provide feedback and input on um you know all of the work that you're submitting for this process. I was just going to go on
042to STEM certification. We uh that's one of our certifications that we offer. Um STEM certification is um is facilitated during the same time that um that our members go through accredititation review. Um and it's a it's a great way to um you know highlight the work that you're doing in STEM. It has 10 quality standards um that that we look at that are specific to STEM. And how well are are your individ is each individual school that applies or the district as a whole um you know moving in this direction and and how well do you have STEM systemically um embedded in your district? Okay. We also have um a board governance certification. This one is uh brand new. So we've always had board school board training but um this is this is something that
043we had a high demand for a lot of feedback from stakeholders um that it is a certification in board governance and it's uh the certification is is initiated by the superintendent and the team and it's really um it's an opportunity to you know look at where you're at as far as team you know as a school board and superintendent and working together and collaborating and working towards continuous improvement. So, um that's a great new thing that we have going on. Um we also have strategic thinking and planning that is one of another um um service that we offer. We've worked with many Florida districts. This is one of our our big areas of interest um where we have somebody from our professional learning team um and you contract to really work on those strategic plans
044for the year after accreditation when you have that additional feedback to integrate into um how you're moving up as a district. I'm going to skip over the conference. Um we have you know I have the QR code here um if there you'd like any other information and um that concludes my overview. So I am thank you for your attention apologize for technical assistance technical issues and open for questions. >> Thank you so much um [clears throat] Miss Miss Haynes. >> Okay so the question I was asking >> speak to the microphone so she can hear you. The question I was asking was on um slide number 10 where you described the differences between >> I just wanted to open the floor for questions. Can you guys still hear me? >> Yes, we we have Mrs.
045Haynes has a question. Um and it's in reference to our uh accreditation what's new the slide slide 10 that has the what's new uh 2021 2022 versus 2627 and um her question is in relation to the remote aspect of it and Mrs. hands. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but your question is uh how will that look? Um and and what was the reason for that switch interview process, remote, um >> remote evaluation, everything? >> Perfect. Yes, great question. Um, so as long as we've been around, everything has always been on site and um, as as I'm sure that you're well aware, we would um, our teams, our lead evaluator was somebody that um, was employed with Cogna um, and our teams that the people that made up the teams were, you know, volunteers that
046were um, representing, you know, their they were practitioners and other educational institutions. So um um COVID hit and uh we literally could not find anybody to volunteer for um our engagement reviews. So we moved to a remote process because of COVID for many years and we weren't sure how that was going to go but it ended up being very successful. So um with the remote process um we have been able to provide quality reviews. We also found that it's a lot it's a lot more focused on the work versus um when you go in person there's I I've been on the other side of it and there's always a lot of scrambling for fixing facilities and and the visual appearance of things. Um so we have found that the remote delivery process has been super
047effective and that was what what our ch our decision to change was. Um we also um were able to you know on the um on the school side and institution side um it a it provides a lot of cost savings for you guys because um in the past you paid for all the travel, all the food um and and you know so forth for the team that came in. So it allowed us also to adjust costs and so forth for you. we found it to be very very effective. So that was our reasoning for moving in that direction. So she briefly touched on this but yes in the past you know there have been volunteers or they've been volunttoled you know to be on a team and they are other educators from other districts that
048come whether it be a principal you know an academic coach a district staff member they've come to be part of the process of looking at all the different parts to see if we should earn our accreditation. So now we've moved it entirely away from any other practitioners who were volunttoled to Cognia employees. So how long have they been away from having other you know so they there could have been someone from Oyola, Miami Dade, you know Fort Walton that came and were on the team to look at us. So, how long have they moved away from that? And what makes employees that they hire better to look at whether or not we're ready to be accredited versus some of our own peers that are out there that have been on these teams? >> Mrs. Mrs.
049Haynes gave a follow-up question to you, Dr. Schwer. Were you able to receive that? >> I I'm so sorry. I can't hear what >> That's okay. The the uh question is on the um resume essentially of the evaluators and um how that we we would receive um you know a team would come in and those would be practitioners um across our area and uh you know for former principal or current principal or even um district level leadership from other districts would be part of that uh volunteering team. uh to come accredit us. And so the question is, you know, the the people who are in Cognia, the Cogni employees um their level of experience or or their um aptitude to assess us in our accreditation. Um can you talk about that? >> Yes, absolutely. That's
050another great question. Thank you. Um, all of our all of our evaluators, as I said, they're lifelong educators, and they've all uh held leadership positions um on the Florida team in particular. We have um um team members that have been they're they've been district leaders. They have um been deputy superintendent. Um so, they all come with robust experience in the education field. and um and we have you know comprehensive training and so forth. So um they are highly skilled the evaluators and um we do I will say it's in pencil right now but we are looking at getting more people on the team to add to the team as volunteers as well. So um that is something that that we're looking at. But um yes they they are highly skilled. They they do a great
051job. They This has been this has been the process uh with our organization since um the year following your last review and um we've had Miami Dade has gone through, Hillsboro has gone through. I mean, we work with all of all of the districts and um I feel very confident about the um skill set and abilities of our evaluation team. >> Thank you, Dr. So I have one I have one more question on that page because that was the page that >> with the comparison that alludes itself to the most questions. >> Okay, we've moved away from that page. >> The comparison of what's new versus what's old. >> Yes. Okay. So in the past we had to complete the review process but I find that under district assurance number eight we're in conflict here
052because the first sentence says the district is required to submit a written quality assurance process but then it says now Cognia does not require the district schools to complete the review process. So which is it? Are are we required to do it but yet Cognney is not requiring us to do it but we're required to do it say for the state level and so will we be submitting a written quality assurance process yes or no >> and this is one of the the largest pieces of what's different and it's the work that our schools are going to have to do which excites us the most is that the schools are not going to have as much of a a backpack to pick up essentially. um the district schools uh in our last pra our last
053um accredititation you know when I was at Pineriidge this was a a task that each school had to take on and they had they had to assure every single thing they had to do the analysis pieces themselves um and moving now into this new process um our district will be required to do that um w with the two incredibly intelligent uh ladies to my right here a lot of that will be taken on uh within within the uh the district office. Um taking a lot of that >> right >> you know minutia of the the schools having to go through every single portfolio that that we had to submit five years ago. >> Right. And so and then you you also also to note is that um the the assurance assurance number eight was revised
054and um you're you know Kyle I know I don't have that on the slide deck but you're happy to share that light. I mean, I'm happy you want to share that language, but for assurance number eight, um it asks for districts to have um some type of policy in place that they're assuring um you know QA across their schools and that you know this work is is the work of your schools is aligned to everything um that you guys you know the whole the whole district is moving in the same direction towards accreditation and the standards and practices. >> Okay. Okay. So, if what I understand is in the past, yes, the schools had to do an entire accreditation process piece at the schools and submit all of that. And so, now the district's going
055to do that and we're not going to require the schools to do it under this new piece. The schools will still be participating in providing us evidence and artifacts um and supporting us in identifying what our strong pieces of evidence are. Um but they will not be required to complete every single piece that they were required to complete five years ago and then every accredititation cycle since then. >> Okay, that's all the questions I have at this point. >> Thank you, Mr. Bros. >> We got one one more person to ask questions. Um, I have a few. Um, I'm still trying to get my arms around the whole notion of accreditation for K12 because I most of my background is higher ed where accredititation is kind of a normal and pretty much required um process.
056So, this is less familiar to me. I understand it from the standpoint of wanting to improve function and operation. Um but I and I appreciate the questions about who does the evaluating and and I am inclined to agree that um doing everything remotely changes the outcome. Um it's in in my mind more data driven and a less personal personally driven um which I'm not sure are necessarily all the same. Um so in going through this can you tell me the difference between oh first of all is this state required or is this something that we do to enhance our own internal function as a district. >> So it's an essential piece for a a school system to be accredited and >> Okay. And so just like you said for higher ed um it is an
057essential piece and um it is almost a non-negotiable for for us to become accredited because our students in order to uhriculate it into those college programs and to receive that um you know bright futures or or other scholarship programs um it has to come from an accredited institution. >> Okay. Thank you. That >> Dr. Did you want to add anything to that about the importance of uh accreditation uh and and why we should become accredited or maintain our accreditation staff? >> Of course. Of course. Yes. Uh well, you know, Kyle, the the the reasons that you mentioned of course are important as as well as that, you know, this is a mark of continuous improvement and this is a mark of um you know, districts and schools that go through accreditation. um that there's quality,
058that it's a quality program, that you strive for quality, that um district accredititation really represents that your focus is on the district and everybody within the district all being on the same page with expectations um and standards and quality and that um it's really, you know, from top down showing that this is something that's important. This is this is something that we prioritize is quality continuously getting better and um moving in the same direction. >> Sure. >> Thank you. I just I just have one more question that that was very helpful. Thank you. And um on the review fee, I have no frame of reference for what for what this has ever cost. I assume there's a cost associated to the district. Um, do we have a general idea of of how that works? >>
059The last time wasn't it like 50? >> I can we can provide the the specific number. It it would most likely have been an action item though or consent. >> I assume so. I just wondered what it might ballpark what it >> you have it. >> Yeah, we currently have a question. >> Can you speak into the microphone so that folks can hear you? Thank you. Uh >> yeah, we currently have a budget. Can you hear me? Yeah, we currently have a budget right now for Cognia right around 100,000. We have a purchase order issued for about 98,000. >> Thank you. That's all I had. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. B. >> Thank you. Any other questions? So, Miss Haynes, I'm right there with you. I There's two things. I think that
060the good news is we're all being measured the same. The bad news is I think, you know, doing a district-wide versus a school, individual school, and I I could totally appreciate the streamlining of that, something that our board has really worked hard to do, streamline a lot of the things that we do. So I I think that that's consistent. I just think we're, you know, just like Miss Hayne says, you know, there's going to be some loss in translation, but at the same time, this is our world. It's where we are. It's it's, you know, I I totally understand, you know, why have folks travel when you could provide those artic facts. I can appreciate what she said. It becomes a runaround show. everybody goes running looking for documents versus uh gathering the information and
061simply submitting it. Uh so um again the good news is we're all being you know graded the same under the same process. So um just like everything else in our world it's changed and change is the only constant. So uh thank you doctor for joining us and and again sorry for the uh technical difficulties which are uh always beyond us but again thank you u Mr. Shiker and team for uh adapting as well as our technical team as well. Any other questions, thoughts, feelings or concerns hearing? None. This meeting is adjourned. We'll meet back here at 4:30 for a regular schoolboard meeting. Thank you.