001[Applause] [Music] All right, we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. >> Rachel >> here. >> Katie >> here. >> Sarah >> here. >> Doug. >> Lorie >> here. >> Jack >> here. >> All right. All right, if everyone will stand for the pledge of allegiance and then remain standing for a moment of silence for armed services personnel. I pledge allegiance 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. Are there any items to be added or changed to the agenda? >> We have no correspondence or commendations or recognitions and um actually I'm sorry. We do have a recognition acknowledgement. Uh this month is administration appreciation month and Mr. Pearson. >> Yeah.
002more than I've always appreciate our admin administrators as all our staff and especially coming back because it's you know you folks have have things in place and carry a lot of weight the district and certainly have been very supportive in making sure things the ship continues to head in the right direction. So um district relies heavy on them. We have a we have a highly skilled group of administrators that I'm proud and pleased to work with and thankful to be back and work with these folks. So, um, I'm thankful for you every day, but I know the board wants to recognize you tonight. So, it it How do we want to call them up here? Cindy, >> if all of our administrators could come up and uh we have a a small gift for you
003and uh to say thank you and uh uh to know the let you guys know the board appreciates you all very much, >> new and old and direct. >> So, as directors, principles, >> well done. Thanks for having me. You're welcome. Thank you for >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dave. >> Yeah, I will. I will. Don't worry. It'll be so much. >> We heard we're getting a treat next month that you're going to feed us. [Music] Thank you for keeping my kid up. >> Thank you. >> Hello. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Todd, for everything you do. [Music] >> Thank you. And thank you to all of our administrators. I think probably you get more uh mad mad people coming to
004you than you do getting the appreciation. So uh it's well earned. So thank you very much. So now we'll move on to building updates. Mr. Kek, it's all you. >> Hi everybody. All right, give me a second. Remember how to do this? So, good evening. Tonight I'm going to present um district assessment data from last school year. So, the 2425 school year. Um we're doing it earlier. Last year, I think we did it around February. Um this year we're doing October, which I prefer. Um this year's report is going to be a little bit different than last year if you remember because um one of the data companies that we've used um I get them a little bit confused. Idex Metrics one bought the other out and I talked to that group couple weeks ago
005to see if I can get the same comparison data that we've had in the past where um compares us to similar schools uh demographically. I was not able to get that report for tonight. Um they have new people in place and they're still figuring out their systems. Uh my plan is to get that so that we do have that comparison data with light districts. So when I get that I will I will certainly share that out. So um I'm proud to present our data tonight. Um there are areas that will look really good um on a graph because when we look at numbers and we see high numbers on graphs, they look really well. There's other areas that um don't look as well and we know that we have areas that we can improve on.
006But I' I've been saying this a long time and I truly believe it that educating a student in in the power of educating a student cannot be measured in one day. Um it is a process that we take pride in of educating our students from kindergarten well preschool um all the way till they graduate. And and and I want us to keep that in mind. We get we get kids in from our community that um may or may not be as prepared as other kids and it takes time to figure out where they're at, what makes them click, how to differentiate, and and the goal is by the time they leave Gayler Community Schools, um they're contributing to society, whether that's college, trade school, or or staying local. So, I think this data is reflective
007of that. And again, um we certainly have areas to be proud of, and we have other areas that we will continue to work on. So if you have questions as we move through, please stop me and ask. So this is um I did this for the first time this year and then I break it down as we go through. But this is our MSTEP, our PSAT, which is um tested in 8th, 9th, and 10th grade. And then our SAT advanced and proficient levels. Um I'll kind of explain the graph as we go through that you can you can take a look at it. So, we'll start all the way on the left with third grade. Um, Gaylord Community Schools is in the yellow. The gray color is the state average and the the light blue
008color is the ISD average. This is the best comparative data I could pull right now. Um, as you can see in third grade, um, 34% of our of our third graders were proficient or advanced in ELA uh, last year as compared to 39% at the state level and 35% at the ISD level. I'm not going to go through um each grade level. We can see as we're looking at the graphs um we see about sixth grade we see a a change and this is not um new to us. We typically see around sixth grade after students have had four or five years of our intervention and RTI process um we we tend to see some acceleration in that sixth grade level. um sixth grade. So third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade is MSTEP, which is
009the state uh assessment. When we hit 8th grade, we turn into PSAT. Uh 8th, 9th, 10th grade is PSAT and 11th grade is that SAT. Um so as you could see around sixth grade, we start making that increase. And and that's not new data to us. I will say um us being below state average in third, fourth, and fifth is is fairly new to us and we're trying to figure what's going on uh figure out what's going on there and we are working uh hard to to get to get those to to be improved. Any questions from our board on this? So again, a highlight our eighth grade PSAT, which is the first time they're taking a national level test, 77% of our students are proficient in reading. math again the scales of the graph
010um you know that's a 50 a 50 point scale between a 25 and 50 um you'll see a trend again on our third and fourth and fifth grade we are uh below state average um in those grade levels but above the ISD average in the others and then again we see that change in sixth grade where we are um accelerating through um again it takes time for for us when we get our students in kindergarten to figure out where they're at um what makes them click and how we can differentiate their instruction. Same thing here that eighth grade is when they reach that PSAT. So, it's a different test. It's it's not the state test. That is a national test. Questions there from our board. >> Dennis, how long does it take for them to
011take the test? Is it like a two-day thing? Is it a one-day thing? Is it a week long? >> Yeah, there's a calendar that we spread it out. Um, it typically takes by the time we start to to the time we get to to retakes, it could take up to three weeks for these students to complete the testing. And and we're talking multiple hours per day of testing. It's it's very rigorous and, you know, we try to build up kids stamina and things like that to take these tests because it is it's a lot of work. >> Does the state give us leeway for absences or is there a deadline to be completed by? There is a deadline and I'm going to talk about it here in a little bit. If if you remember um
012last year after the ice storm, the superintendents in Northern Michigan got together to try to excuse the test alto together because it happened the testing was scheduled to begin right after the ice storm and our students have been out for 10 consecutive days. And so the superintendents got together and tried to just excuse the test for last year. Um the state would not do that. So we asked for an extension. The first response was, "No, we're not going to give an extension." And then about a week later, they sent I think there was four or five representatives from the from the legis legislature plus the department of ed. We sat in this room. Um we took them on a tour. We took them on a drive and they said, "Oh my gosh, you're right." And
013they did end up giving us I think they gave us a twoe extension. >> Okay. >> Can I ask a quick question? Yeah. I might be jumping ahead or off track a little bit, but how is this like NWA is a better like snapshot of what's going on? >> Sure. >> Do you is there a way to track like the NWA like compare it to this? >> Yep. So end up so so there two different measurements. This is a summit of assessment students learn and at the end they take a test and it gives a final proficiency level level I'm sorry. NWA is a growth measurement. So it takes a baseline. For example, we're we're just wrapping up testing across the district this past week. We have a baseline of where they're at. And then
014NWA measures how much did they grow between now and then in the spring when we retest them. >> So essentially how fast they learned, >> right? >> Or how much fast, but it'll give a it's called a RIT score. It'll say the national norm of a let's say third grader is this score at this time. And then it measures how much they grew by the end of the year. So how much did they learn towards the end of the year? So it's it's kind of two different ways to measure um student achievement. >> So if you take like third grade for example, ELA, those kids taking MWA, there's no way to compare like the proficiency between that and MSTEP. >> So there is what's called a linking study. Um that will it's a predictor. Um
015I not 100% accurate or confident how accurate it is. I think it's within typically 3 to 5%. Um it will say if a student is at this RIT score or this level on NWA at this time they have data analytics will say they'll probably be at this part on the MSTEP um or PSAT and that's one of the data points that we look at as a district. um we take that NWA data and we say okay linking study says kids are going to be here let's identify those students and what they need support in before they take the summit of assessment >> okay >> and interestingly enough this was seven or eight years ago um state superintendent was here for for a couple days I think and and he was talking about just going NWA
016overall because we've talked about the assessments there's a lot of assessments with kids right now Okay. So, this is math. I'll move on. Um, science. Um, I do not have a a reference comparison for the ISD, but I do have um the state. So, again, we are the yellow and science is tested um only in fifth and eighth grade. So, in fifth grade this year, uh we were 37% uh proficient in advance and the state was 40. And then in eighth grade, we were 54 compared to 41. social studies. Um, this data doesn't surprise me because the the social studies test is essentially a reading test and it's a challenge. And again, this is only tested in fifth and eighth grade. So, our fifth graders um they're testing heavy math, ELA, science, and social studies.
017And it takes about a month to get through all those tests for all those students. And again, I do not have um ISTD reference to compare on this. So, let's dig a little bit more into PSAT and SAT. So, the the key words for me here is meets college board grade level benchmark. Um this is what PSAT and SAT does is it measures students readiness to to attend university or college. Um I've already shown you this data. I just wanted to separate it a little bit. Um but as you can see um eight nine and 10 is PSAT. Majority of our students according to SAT and the college board are ready for college level um work. And again I I focus on this because when we talk about the progression of learning when our students
018are in high school and are ready to leave if 61% of them are are college ready according to the college board in 11th grade I'd say that's pretty good. It's pretty good data. Again, do not have ISD comparative data for this. And then this is math. Any questions about those numbers? >> Do you like I'm looking at this graph and I'm remembering last year's >> Do do you have one coming up where it's like like the eighth graders, this is where they were last year and this is our ninth graders this year. And like >> I didn't put that together yet because typically I get that to give me metrics. Um, that's a great question. Soon as I get that stuff, I can put that together and and I think what you're referencing to is
019the we call it cohort data. >> Yeah. >> Where was our third graders at this time and where are they now as fourth graders? Um, >> looking in and diving that data, I can tell you that we have growth across the board. >> Okay. >> Yep. That those cohorts are growing and I I can I can provide that to you. >> Okay. >> Yeah, it's a good question. Um, this is overall uh SAT data. So again the yellow is Gaylord uh the gray is um the state of Michigan and the light blue is the ISD and remember the ISD is three county shabbo going for skill all the students there um so again we continue to out outperform you can see a downward trend um not only in Gaylord but also across the state and
020the ISD so this is the overall combined ELA and math scores of the SAT that is taken in 11th grade composite Any questions on that? >> Okay. So, now we get to the awards and and I talked about them this year. Um, US News and World Reports does their rankings for high schools, middle schools, elementaryaries. Uh, we I'll I'll tell you right now, all five of our buildings are identified again, and I have the um the percentages in the rankings of where we're at. Um for high schools it's uh college readiness index um assessment proficiency, state assessment performance, graduation rate. They also take into account how many um AP courses do we offer, early college, dual enrollment, those types of things. So uh we got news of this a couple weeks ago. Keep in mind
021um there's 25,000 uh public high schools um in the 50 states including uh the District of Columbia across the country. So, Gaylord High School on a national ranking was ranked 5,488, which puts us in the top 22% across the country based on all of those factors. And again, that includes that national test, the SAT and PSAT that every every high school in the United States provides. Um, and then in the state, we're ranked number 182 out of 1,163 public high schools, which puts us in the top 15% there. So, we are uh Gaylord High School is an award school again. So, congratulations to the high school. Um, middle school and elementary rankings are a little bit different because they don't offer AP and they don't offer dual enrollment in early college. Uh, they base their
022rankings on um socioeconomic factors and demographics. So, they they do a data analysis of um the demographics of our students, our community, and compare that to the the the rest of the country and the state and where our students perform there. Um so, uh Gaylord Middle School and Gaylord Intermediate School is considered a middle school because it has sixth grade included. Um but Gaylord Middle School is in the top 6% um was ranked, uh 125 out of 1,998 middle schools in the state of Michigan. Um they do not provide a national ranking for middle schools and Gaylord Intermediate School was ranked 148 out of that same group, which is top 7%. So, uh, middle school and intermediate are both award schools again this year. >> Any questions on that? >> So, actually those two schools
023in that they're competing against each other. >> Yep. They're in the same data. They're in the same data um bucket, I guess you could say. >> Elementary, again, it's the same thing. They don't have AP or any of that. So, it's it's comparing the demographics of of the students and the families in those schools. Um there's a lot of elementary schools in the state of public elementary schools in the state of Michigan. There's 2,633 of them. Uh South Maple is ranked number 311 and North Iowa is ranked number 391 which um top 11% and top 14%. So both of those buildings are also award schools this year according to US News World Ranking. So congratulations to all the buildings. Um they're working very hard. Um so in summary, you know, in ELA, Gayla Community School
024is above state average in six of nine grade levels. Obviously, we want to see that um in nine of nine and is above the ISD average in seven of nine. In the mathematics, again, we're above in six of nine grade levels and eight of nine gra grade levels in and ISD and all five of our buildings again are uh award schools. So that's a summary. Um action steps. What do we do? So the data looks great, but there's data, you know, there's things that we have to work on. Um so this is happening at all our buildings. We're utilizing the district problem solver solving driver to analyze data at building department levels and create plans for improvement. Um we're continuing to develop skills new ELA and math curriculum at the elementary levels. We're utilizing art
025and seminar time to support struggling and advanced students. And we're implementing um John Hattie's engagement strategies daily. Uh this is I got more. Don't don't leave. I don't know why that one's there. Ah, this is what I want. Let me go down and show you just some other data that we're talking about. um kind of let you know what we're what we're kind of zeroing in on here. So, I don't know if you could see this or not, but I wanted to point this out because one of our um PL, you know, strategies in our strategic plan, and we talked about this last month is attendance and our partnerships there. So, to put this in perspective, and again, I'm not making excuses. None of us in this room would make excuses. We're trying to target
026specific areas that we can help to improve um student achievement in in our overall community. Um last school year we had 15 snow days and 10 ice days. So 100% of our students missed 25 days of school last year, which is over a month of school instructional time. Um on top of that, here's what this graph will show. And it's and it's I know it's a little difficult to see, but we did a data, you know, we we looked at some data in grades 3 through 8, 50% of our kids missed an additional 10 days of instruction. >> You said 50 >> 50%. >> It's a lot. Um, and to drill down even farther, we looked at their performance on some of these assessments. Um, you can see in this yellow, I'll just kind of
027show it to you. This 50 shows 50% of in students third through 8th miss additional 10 days. of those 50% um this number right here in this column this first column and the the yellow against the point here this column here um of those 50 50% of those students which I can tell you was 640 kids in a in grades three through eight missed 50 or missed more than 10 days of school about 62% of them were not proficient on the MSTEP or PSAT and ELA And this is math and it's the same thing about 62%. So again, not making excuses. This is just data when you're trying to figure out how to target things. Um those are concerning numbers. Let me go to the next slide. 29% of our students miss more than 15
028days of school. >> 15 additional days. in addition to the 25. >> Mhm. So that's 40 days of school. So we're at 29% of our students in in grades 3 through 8 missed 40 days of school last year. 363 that's the total. That's actual number. And out of those students 65% of them were not proficient. So the importance of kids coming to school, 40 days is two months of of lost instructional time. That's a lot. So we're targeting that. How do we communicate with families? And I know that we put some things out this fall about attendance and some new expectations for parents and families and we got some kickback on social media, but that's why we we have to get these kids in school as much as possible. It's hard to educate kids when
029they miss two months of instruction. So, any questions about that? >> Do we have students that don't complete the MSTEPs? >> No, we do everything we can um to make sure that they get it completed. You know, we call and call and get them in and say, "Hey, we got to get this done." And then we sit with them and make sure they get it done so that we have that data moving forward. >> Does that impact us negatively if we were to have one? Does that like count as a zero against us or >> so we go back to the like that US world news and report that's a data piece and we get it on our um our school report card as number of kids that complete the assessments. Um so if we
030have a high percentage of kids that are not completing it we get dinged on that at the state level. >> Okay. >> This is 95 anything under 95% gives you a negative mark on your report card. I believe >> I I think it's higher than that. I think it's like 98%. >> Okay. >> Yeah. we get dinged. So, we, you know, we don't try to hide hype kids. We try to make sure every single kid gives us some data. Again, >> I have a hard time with all the work that we do as educators >> putting everything on one day or two days of testing in the spring. Um, you know, we want that data because we want to help that that student be successful. So, >> so we're getting close to eight weeks in.
031Where are we at? How are we doing on attendance this year so far? Do we know? >> Um, I have not ran that report yet. That's a great question. No, that's a great question. I know we did count day stuff last week and that was kind of the focus there. So, >> okay. >> Are we still getting I know I got a couple questions grief about >> the attendance and our crackdown on it and some parents were are is everybody kind of >> I think so. Um, >> it's pretty smooth. People are understanding. >> Yeah, I think so. But that's but Sarah, back to your question, is it working? That's the you know, we still see >> it's getting better attendance. I know last year one of the elementary teachers, I think maybe it was
032the first day back after the ice firm, they had 100% attendance or something. It was like huge deal. >> Yeah. >> Enough of these kids. Get back >> like first day after summer break. any other >> I know you can't ask families why their kids aren't coming but is there any like why is it they're sick or they're >> so we're doing that we've always been able to ask like what's the reason you know sick or vacation but that's part of what we did this fall is say well they're sick we need to have some some documentation of that um okay so back school improvement. This is what we're focusing on at the district level and then each building is kind of trickling down. Um we're we're basing a lot of our work on John
033Hattie now who um I don't know if you you well know this or not but he John Hattie is kind of the he's the guy in education. He's world famous. He's actually coming to Gaylord um November 3rd to do a PD for our district. So we're pretty excited about that. We're pretty darn lucky because he's coming all the way from Australia. But we're we're really diving into his work on student engagement things and one of his school improvement models asked these questions. Where are we going? And we're getting back into, you know, are we aware of what the state standards are, curriculum, is it aligned? Do we have assessments? Um where are we now? We're looking at our formative and summitive data and analyzing that and making decisions on how do we move uh how
034do we move learning forward? Um we're developing a Gaylord schools ecosystem map managing solving and dissolving problems and then leading those problems and attendance is one of them. Um we are addressing the tenants new policy committees and schools. Um we have some new RTI which is response to intervention around the district. Um specifically at the high school of ARC which I'm getting a ton of good feedback on that from kids saying this is really helpful. I've got a place where I can go and get some extra help. Um we have seminar time at the middle school. And then we have our title and at risk interventions K6 um highdose tutoring and mentoring. Um the state budget did come out last week. We know that I was able to take a look in there. There's not
035a line item for for tutoring and mentoring. So it's a program that I I do believe in. I think we all do to to give kids extra support. So, um uh when when when Joe and I have the time in the next week or so, we're going to sit down and see if we can't find funds to continue those programs um to help those kids because I do know with the mentoring specifically, we were able to increase our graduation rate significantly over the past few years. We've really helped a lot of kids through that. We want to continue to do that. And then professional development, what are we doing? Uh we're working with John Hattie invisible learning. We're researching effect size with emphasis in student engagement. Um, again, engaging students will help them want to
036be here in school and not sit, you know, be at home and tell, "Mom, I don't feel good. I don't want to go." If they're engaged at school and part of that process, they'll want to be here. So, we're diving into that. Um, we're still working with curriculum associates on our Ready Math and Magnetic Reading with training and support. They actually had some training on that today. Um, we are partnered with the University of Delaware to support our bookworms reading curriculum in K3. And then um as always, we still keep a an emphasis on school safety and we had a meeting about that today and we have a professional development January 19th to to talk about improve our school safety systems. So >> So now Mr. Hadtie's coming in. How long is he be just
037one day he'll be here? >> Yeah. And will he or is he going to give you an assessment on all of our I don't know data programs and tell you >> you need to approve here or that >> he won't specifically. Um so he's kind of a bonus. Um we've been working with his group for the past two years um year and a half I'd say and he has consultants that have come in and started the conversation on on effect sizes and visible learning. He is the he's kind of like, "Oh my gosh, we got John Heddy coming to Gaylord to kind of solidify what he what his research is, what he's doing, and and motivate us through all that." But >> but his his organization is evaluating us, >> his consultant. Yeah. >> Okay.
038>> Y and then we are we're implementing in our school improvement. Um I can tell you uh Mr. Bum, it was it was a great idea this fall. We had a professional development on engaging students. Mr. Byron was able to go and develop a crosswalk that attaches directly to teacher and administrative evaluations where that compares. So then when we do go into classrooms, we can say, "Hey, our focus this year is on student engagement. Here's where it's at in your evaluation, our evaluation, how we doing on that." So that's a way that we're checking um to make sure that we're we're following those processes and systems. So that's all. Any other questions? No, there's a lot. >> It's a lot of information to digest. So, >> I might I'm sure I will have some questions,
039but a few days. >> Fair enough. You know, you know, you know the process. Just call us and we can set up a meeting. >> Okay. Sounds good. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do we have those slides in our board books? I didn't see them in there. >> No, I can add them. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I'll give them I can add them to afterwards. >> Thanks. No problem. Okay, >> thanks Dennis. Keep this up. >> All right, next up is preschool and Carla. Of >> course, lots of learning and playing, learning through playing going on in preschool with lots of busy bodies there having a lot of fun and as they learn. Um, last week we were excited to have Todd Troxell and one of our preschool dads, Brandon
040Watsky, come and do a fire safety presentation to all the preschoolers. Of course, they loved it. They brought one of the big fire trucks and one of the smaller ones and the kids got to go through that and that was a lot of fun. So, that was great. This coming week, we have our fall family fun night where we invite all of our preschool parents to come and we have a parent advisory meeting and we go through some information that they need to know. And then afterwards, the children get to paint pumpkins and have some snacks and everything. That's always a highlight for us in preschool in the fall. So, those are some of the things going on right now in preschool. >> Thank you, >> Diane. Come on. I like this over here. This
041is nice. >> Which one do you want up first? >> Um, can you wait one hot second? Okay. So, kind of to piggyback on what Dennis was saying, you know, recognizing the things that we need to work more diligently with seeing improvement and, you know, how do we keep learning moving forward and at the K3 level, one of the biggest things is finding where the students truly are at academically. Um, so this year and last year, we really got focused on screening every student with a a specific phonics screener to find out where their deficit skills are. Um, finding out where where specific skills are, like is it a consonant vowel consonant problem? Do they understand where their short vowels what their short vowels are? Um, is it an R controlled vowel issue? And then
042taking that knowledge and then specifically placing in that student in a targeted skills group that will meet their individualized needs. So that student would get put in that targeted skill group. They would work with a a qualified professional um specifically on those skills to grow those skills. Then every two weeks those students progress would be monitored to see if they're making progress and can that student then advance to the next skill level to continue to build skills to fill those gaps so that we can see more growth in our achievement. Um that that is for every student in our building. Um, it will target students who are at the lowest level of phmic awareness and phonics skills all the way up to students who need more enrichment skills where they're they're targeting more um vocabulary
043rich content or they're doing more hands-on exploring with um um maybe more um project based learning. So that's across every grade level um and for every student. And it's it's monitored and tracked religiously bi-weekly to make sure that we're meeting their needs. if we're not meeting their needs, then we need to change what we're doing and change the intervention with the students so that they can progress. Um, and that's true for both reading and math. So, at the K3 level, that's how we're trying to target focus our our skills and our um staff to to help students continue the learning. Um, any questions about that? >> Okay. Okay. Cue it, Dennis. So, one of the things that we all have been talking about pretty heavily is how can we Can you make that anybody? I'm
044working on it. >> She's excited. >> I know this is this is good stuff. And so one of the things that we of course are continuing to talk about at school improvement is attendance. So one of our school improvement strategies was how can we get kindergarteners through third graders to get excited about coming to school because for a lot of them attendance is more of a parent problem than a student problem. Parents don't get them to school. Um so how can we get kids to want to come to school? Part of that is engaging students, but the other part is celebrating that they're here. So, one of the things the school improvement team came up with is every day your classroom has perfect attendance, you put a gold star on the outside of your door.
045So, if you look at these classrooms, each day that every student in their classroom was present, they dated the star and put it on the outside of the door. So, this is this is visible buildingwide. um these happen to be um grade level um pods. So they they do get a little sassy about why do they have more stars than we do? So it's creating some camaraderie within the classrooms. And then after if you have complete attendance for the day, the teacher in the class finds a way to quickly celebrate that everyone is here. It can be um students don't have to wear shoes today, sit by a friend for class and cue cue the next one. this class decided that um Thanks. Thanks, guys. Um that their their reward for perfect attendance was to
046make their teacher wear a clown nose all day. >> So, Miss McCloud graciously wore a clown nose all day today because her students all showed up at school today. So, that's just one way we're trying at the K3 level to help build positive relationships with attendance for our kids. Um thanks, Mr. Peek. You nailed it. Um, another thing that we have at South Mabel are our Blue Devil dollars. This is something that our um, school improvement team also felt like it needed revamping. This is a schoolwide currency that students can earn. Um, every student can earn the cash. They can earn as many dollars as as they can get their hands on and it's all tied to positive behavior supports. So, a student will get paid and then at the end of the week, most
047usually at the end of the week, the teacher will have some sort of classroom store where they can buy um lunch with a buddy coupons, they can buy bring a stuffy to school, um some way for them to to buy into the school community. So, these are brand new this year and our students actually voted on the name. Um there was Big Blue Buckaroos or um Blue Bucks, but they all decided that um Blue Devil dollars was the right choice for the currency. and then it just has our um self label expectations on it. So this is new and they're loving it. So that's what's going on at South Label. >> Thank you, >> Celeste. >> All righty. Um so you may hear some similar threads, right? When we talk about data, we talk about
048attendance, we talk about achievement. Um, one of the things that we're doing at North Ohio to help address some of the positives as well as those challenges obviously that you saw in that data. Um, we have our communities and schools uh person at North Ohio. It's a new program this year. I think we probably mentioned it last year um but we're doing a partnership. It's a person who was an employee uh previously so she knows the students has really positive relationships. what we've been doing to um tackle some attendance challenges. Uh attendance being full day attendance as well as tardies. We see lots and lots and lots students coming in 45 minutes late, so they've missed that whole launch, right? Like you know how it feels when you're running late. And so imagine being five
049and that's happening too frequently. One of the things that we've done is we're doing courtesy calls for families. Not to call and uh lay out a punitive uh consequence, but rather to call remind them of the times that we start, the time students can get dropped off. The fact that we have breakfast, everybody can enjoy breakfast. Um teachers are making regular contacts with families as well. Uh and so we're doing a lot of things to try and prevent those tardies and those those absence days. Um, and I think that the the change in mindset from a negative to a more positive um, having a personal conversation with somebody um, is helping. We're finding if a family might need some support. You had asked about medical. Uh, so if we're finding that we have a lot
050of students and maybe it's a a family that is having a hard time and they're calling their students in for a coughing or you know the three kids had a cough, let's say, but really in that conversation we might find out that it's a transportation challenge or we might find out that it's somebody's on a different shift. And so then we're working through those problems before they become significant attendance challenges. So we're trying to head them off. That's one of the things that we've uh seen become a positive part of the year. Um we're also tracking behavior data. Um and as we continue to track that behavior data because obviously we want the students there, we want them engaged, but we also want them learning along with their peers. One of the trends that we're
051noticing is the two kinds of behavior that we're seeing on a regular basis would be behavior that would be defined as disruption and defiance. And so we're doing a lot of brainstorming. Um what does that look like for a 5-year-old versus what does that look like for a seven-year-old? Uh teachers are working really hard. We're pro providing some in-classroom supports for those students. We're having regular uh communications with families. And then leading into that uh we have and Maple is part of this as well. Um, we are doing, and this goes back to that original professional development that we had with, uh, the John Hattie, um, I guess company or however we we referred to those folks, but we talked about student engagement and then really being explicit with the kids about what it looks
052like to be engaged. Just sitting there doesn't mean that you're engaged. And so teachers did this with their students last year. Um, and we we have different levels of it. So in kindergarten we're the teachers are are very specific. They're talking to the kids every day about what it looks like and we use the language about driving your your learning, right? And so disruption and the kids talk about what does that look like? What does that sound like? What happens when there is a disruption in the classroom? And then we talk about participating. What does that look like when you're at the carpet? What does that look like when you have a seat work task? Um and so we start with the two levels for our kindergarten students. we move by adding one into third
053grade because now we have uh avoidance in the middle there. Um and so sometimes we have students that might not be disrupting but they're avoiding. So they might be avoiding their own learning and then what does it look like for participating and again very explicit conversations happening in the classroom. Second grade, we move to a fourth one where we talk about disruptive, avoiding, participating, and then driving, right? So, what am I really doing? Um, and they talk about start your engines and and all sorts of um things like that that that relate with the the students. And then in third grade, we really add to it with uh participating or disrupting, avoiding, withdrawing. And we and we see that participating, investing, and then driving. And we talk every day, like I said, about that. And
054so those are some of the things that staff's being very explicit with kids on a regular basis uh to help them become engaged, more engaged in their education. Um and then you had mentioned cohorts. We look at that data uh with NWA in particular. So, um, if we were looking at first grade fall last year at this time, we would compare it to those second grade students and where they are landing. Um, and we've seen some pretty positive things. So, for instance, um, so we're talking same cohort, our incoming second graders, so they would be our last year's first graders. We had a 12% decrease in those that would have been considered at that 20th percentile and below. So those students that were having the the the greatest difficulty uh showing the things that they
055were learning and so or or not learning um and so with that 12% decrease in that 20% right so we're shrinking that population those kids are growing and moving up so that hopefully by the time they are in third grade right we're seeing some dividends um on those MSTEP scores um reading on WA for our incoming second graders so first grade was that population I pulled showed a 6% decrease in that 20th percentile which means then they're growing uh closer to proficiency. Um and one thing I wanted to share with you I I had read it prior to the board meeting and I was just I was I was very proud we Mr. mentioned that we had um the I Ready uh PD training today. So we had a person from that company come into
056the building. Um she had sent me an email. She also mentioned what a lovely day she had and how engaged staff was. But part of her email to me was um the energy and engagement were truly inspiring. Everyone and she met with classroom teachers on grade level planning periods. Everyone brought positivity and a strong commitment to learning. It's clear that teachers recognize the importance. So I want to share that with you. I was proud of them and I I think that I don't think there's a person in this room that would argue that teachers are really invested in all of these things too. >> Good. >> Thank you. >> I feel like I can use those signs for my kids at home. >> That's drawing. >> I feel like I could use those for my
057kids at home. >> Drawing. >> So, uh all of us are collaborating together, so you'll hear some of the same trends. We've been really celebrating students at Gaylord Intermediate School. We have our big celebration assembly today. Um we have a student of the month who's sixth grader Aaron Hughes. She is the daughter of Alex and Kristen Hughes. Um unanimous unanimously selected by the staff. We have have our glazing blue devils which is a grade level representative. Um we have Edis Jutin, Elwoodah and Belle Roush sorry. um who are the grade level level representatives. We do have a crushing it award. So there's a um which is 27 represented by 27 different students. Every student from a class who just is crushing it every day. So we're really trying to focus on the positives and like
058we're talking about um Dennis was talking about getting kids to beat down the doors to get in. What we are also doing an attend dance. fourth and fourth, fifth, and sixth graders love the dance party, which is a dance party, not like a slow dance, but we have over 300 and um 15 students right now with perfect attendance in week seven. So, um we pulled that on Friday. So, that's that's great. And I think part of that is explaining expectations, work through some rumbling through some different difficult times with families, but once they understand the importance, um and we don't want kids to come to school sick. we just want them to come be a little more cautious when they're taking days off. So, I do think that's going to make a huge difference. Um
059we're also um doing lots of positive um rocking it at GIS. We have the Golden Pitchfork Award um the grade level that's really doing amazing. In the cafeteria, which is fourth grade, the right way, which is in honor of Stacy Wright, Mr. Noak won the staff award this month. We celebrated him at the assembly. the litter legend. We had um a sixth grader who um is picking up the school and making the school look beautiful, right? Like really taking pride in that school pride, focusing on those positives. We talked about the crushing it, the student of the month. Um always here, always awesome is our student um our attendance award. The Blazing Blue Devil is the month um the monthly award. The rocking recess award went to sixth grade. And then we also have the
060P2 points. It's part of part of our positivity project. Like we did random drawings for kids making amazing choices. And then our hallway hero um is a class that makes great choices in the hallway. Really just celebrating those positive pieces. Um and to go back to the data u our big goal like we our first step that GIS is working on is looking at the structure of the schedule like do we have 90 minutes of uninterrupted instruction where our teachers can teach and that kids aren't getting pulled out. So, we restructured the schedule, which um has been I don't want to say it's been a challenge, but it's something new. So, it's been a change, but people are our staff are really appreciating that we're taking that um that making sure that time is protected
061so that our teachers can teach. And I think when we start at that basic level and as we start mastering those, we'll keep going up and um drilling down to make sure that we continue to improve through um instructional leadership. So, um Sarah and I are really focusing on instructional practices, having lots of um one-on- ons with staff to talk about like what do you need, like what do your students need? And so, we we really feel like we have a positive momentum going and we're really excited to see what the data will show in the spring and our correlation data. Um Rachel, you asked about so like in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, it's um the NWA data needs to be somewhere between the 59th percentile and the 64th percentile. if you're there, you
062are you projected to to um pass the MSTEP. And so really, we're saying like, okay, where are those bubble kids and who and who are they? Because you can really move the needle on five or six kids. And if that's per grade level when you do the percentages. So if we're really intentional like what strategies they need through that NWA, we're confident that we're going to see some big gains that correlate to that MSTEP data, too. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. >> Hey, Carol. Oh, sorry. I was just showing you my my bleachers. >> All right. Um, so we got some awesome things going on at the middle school. Um, I've been really trying to focus on continuing and building upon our positive culture that we have at the middle school. So, we've been bringing
063some things in. Um, we did a little bit of restructuring of our student council. We had a schoolwide election and our student council is now 18 members, eight seventh graders, 10 eighth uh graders, and they're going to be working together on some big schoolwide projects to help build that culture around our school. Uh we are beginning our planning on our Veterans Day assembly, which is a huge, you guys know, it's a huge event for us and it really brings uh the community and our building together. Um doing a middle school dance on October 24th. Um and then something I'm uh I brought in this year um is uh student of the month. Uh so very similar to GIS. Um we have teachers nominate students um for a theme. So every month has a theme that
064correlates with positivity project. Uh September's theme was teamwork. So, it's students that can demonstrate they work well with others or groups and a team, but they're loyal, they're consistent. Um, and they will do anything to help others succeed as well. Um, and then the staff votes amongst those that were nominated and those students are Kennedy Smith, Weston Bolter, Lydia Bellow, and Nolan Kek for this month. Um, we got t-shirts made. So, they get t-shirts. You guys probably saw the post on the Facebook page. It was pretty cool. Um, but also I wanted to build some of that culture within our staff, too. So, we do September teacher of the month um where uh Dave, my assistant principal, and I, we select a teacher just to honor them. Um and then we get students to say
065uh some things about them to, you know, um so our teacher of the month was uh Mrs. Leanne Falconer. And here's what some kids had to say about Mrs. Falconer. So, Bronson Taylor said she's very calming and understanding. Uh Kinley Abraham said, "I like that Mrs. Falner's room is calming and chill. I also like that we have fun, but we also stay on task and get work done. Another thing is that she will help you and show you an example of what to do, how to do it, and what you can do better. Um, Zoe Smith said, "Mrs. Falner's room is very calming to me, and she makes me feel very comfortable. I love her soft voice and the way she explains things. I've yet to not understand something that she teaches, and she makes
066all kids listen somehow in the kindest way ever. I'm not sure how she does it. Um, as far as the data, uh, we're really proud of our middle school data. Um, as you guys saw in the graphs, we tend to do very well in comparison to the state. Um, but I think that there's still room for some growth. Um, in those areas, we seem to be just above 50% proficiency in a lot of our areas like ELA and math um, and science and social studies. But one area that I want to highlight this year is an area where I think we can show uh, significant growth is in our math. um especially seventh grade math where we found that 58% of our students did not meet proficiency. So we are bringing in some things that
067I think will help with that. Um previously what we would do is um during our seminar time we would spend a couple days a week during seminar doing uh Khan Academy for math um which is it's a great program and they would start at like a lower level and just work their way through the curriculum and build those fundamental skills as they go on. Um, but there's really not like a designated start and end point for kids. So, for some students, it'd be really easy at the beginning and then they finally get to the challenging stuff. Um, and it doesn't really have a system of meeting kids where they're at. Um, so what we decided to do is transition to using a program called. Um, and so what we can do with is we can
068use it links to their NWA scores. So now that enrichment that they're getting from math is linked to their NWBA. So, it meets those students where they're at and gives them the skills that are specific to where their deficiencies are and helps them build from there, which is huge. Um, another thing that I was working with our math department on is focusing on mathematical reasoning, which was kind of a weak point in our data. Um, so we're emphasizing students ability to justify and explain their thinking in addition to just solving the problems and working that into our daily math curriculum. um doing daily work problems is something we're going to start implementing because you know it's one thing to solve an equation but then we it changes sort of the dynamic of how we think
069about those problems when they become word problems. Um and then doing more error analysis mini lessons. So taking a problem that is incorrectly solved and breaking that apart and saying well why is this incorrectly solved and what's the reason for that? Um, so we're really kind of honing in on that piece because I think that's an area where we can see the most exponential growth. Um, some other things I just want to highlight to really quick. Uh, we are doing our high- five program which, um, when a student does extremely, uh, something extremely positive or goes above and beyond, they get a little slip, it goes in a box and we raffle those off on Fridays and they get a prize. Um, another thing that is kind of in correlation to attendance. I was really
070interested this year also in not just how many kids are coming to school, but how many uh minutes students are spending outside of class while they're at school. Um, so what I developed for our students is a hall pass Google form. So whenever a student takes a hall pass, they have to fill out the Google form and it tracks what class they're in, what time they're leaving that class, and then timestamps when they return to class. So I can track how long they're out of class for because we know especially towards the end of the day kids get mental fatigue and they're like I'm gonna go to the bathroom um and then they take maybe a little break. Well here's what I think is the positive byproduct of that. If I track our averages of
071time students spent out of class it's under five minutes and a median it's under four minutes. Um, and so I think what has happened is kids are now more conscious knowing, oh, something's actually keeping track of where I'm going and how long I'm spending. I better get back to class and focus on what I'm doing. So, I feel that we've actually been able to cut down on how much time kids are spending out of class while they're in school as well. Um, and I can speak from experience like it is a bit of a ghost town when we walk through the hallways between classes, which I think has been a huge positive. So, not only trying to get kids to school, but in class while they're in school and staying in class so they can
072get as much out of those lessons, uninterrupted instruction as possible. So, yeah, that's all I got. >> Thank you. >> We want to thank the middle school for exploring that hall pass because we're going to be soon implementing that at the high school. we've been sitting there thinking of different ways that high schoolers could take advantage of it. So, we've kind of sorted all that out and it's working well for him. So, we hope to to be bringing that to the high school in the the near future. When that it's going to happen, we're not sure yet because we've got a couple other issues that we want to address first. But, um so I just got a few things. Um the first one is just kind of recapping homecoming. Homecoming is a pretty good culminating
073activity for for our high school. It brings in our alumni. Um we have a very successful band and um football program right now. Um and if you were at the homecoming game uh two weeks ago when you are undefeated and have a good halftime show and it's 82 degrees outside, we have a lot of people that show up. Um and so Mr. Kalper estimated there's probably roughly 5,000 people at the event. So little boulder right here, but we're good. Um and it went it went very well. And I think it's a testament to our students and and to our staff. Um so our student council adviser kind of stepped down right at the the beginning of the school year which put us in a little bit of a jam. So our administrative team specifically uh
074Brooke and Rachel really stepped up and became student council adviserss for the first time. They like it so much they're thinking about doing snow coming, right? So that's good because you know if you would have asked them the day of the game, probably not. But they're already eager for another dance. So that's huge. Um, but uh, everything that we did for homecoming was we where can we tie it into attendance? Where can we tie it into a number of those things? So, I'm going to kind of hit two things with you. At our homecoming assembly, we focused mainly on uh, sportsmanship. Mr. Calper gave a very quality end of the pep assembly speech to remind how we conduct ourselves as Blue Devils on and off the field. Um, and I think that that paid dividends
075at the game. Um, we did have an incident where we did have a few Alpena kids that would wanted to visit our section. Um, you can imagine teenagers could uh provide some very good insight as to why they didn't want them there. That didn't happen. Um, they were upset, but um, we didn't hear any swearing. We didn't hear any booing. We just, uh, I was there and uh, the kids left and there was no taunting when they left. So, it worked out really really well. And um you know when you have a game that was as lopsided as was, it's very easy for for folks to to speak um negatively about a big win and that didn't happen. And I'd say even after the game when our students congregate and and support um our players
076and uh you know cheerleaders and the band, all of them are extremely respectful. More importantly, they they listen to all of our expectations. And so um with 5,000 people there, it was amazing. Um, also we were able to celebrate attendance at the homecoming assembly, which was even better. Um, on count day, which was Wednesday of homecoming, any student that showed up on time for the seven hours that we offered were given a a raffle ticket. We then were able to uh and we had a huge old bucket um of the raffle tickets. And so we raffled off um seven different uh pieces of Blueevil swag and a and a gift card to to eat somewhere for students that showed up to class on time. So, it's just a small celebration there, but more importantly, we
077were able to um acknowledge two students that had perfect attendance for the year so far, and each one of them received a $100 gift card. Um, more importantly, and this is kind of a side story, one of the parents called, they're like, "Why does everybody know my kid's name at the football game? What's going on here?" Right? And it was because of the attendance. It was nothing other than the fact that we honored this kid who shown up every single day for school and had perfect attendance. And there was more applause. and um chanting of of of names for the good attendance just as much as in a game or at a band performance. So, right there, some of the things that we're doing are huge. So, >> can you share that student's name with
078us? >> Oh, god. Norah Fox, thank goodness. And then Slow was the other young man that um was drawn in the name, but Nora Fox was the one that um you know, she's always had really good attendance and a smile on her face. So, it was awesome that we were able to, you know, draw her of one of our you know, really good attendance folks because just honoring something that she's doing behind the scenes and just doing it right every day. So that was huge. Um so that's our big attendance piece. And then the last piece just tying with um you know the SAT and everything else. Um ARC is something that we introduced this year that's new um and with new creates a lot of concerns. Um but when we're looking at the financial
079impacts of just um lower student enrollment and um the challenges of some of our grant funding to support students is drying up, we have to get more creative in the in the day-to-day school operations. And so ARC was something where if we took three or four minutes of of of class instruction from each hour, it then creates 30 minutes of where we can intervene and support. And so we're kind of building this as it goes because of student need. So we have a nice shell and structure now and we're just building on that every single day. So some of the things that we've been able to do since our inception um is we've now identified basically three types of ARC students. So, ARC student one would be what we would call a a tier three
080intervention in the fact that they are credit deficient. And not only are they credit deficient, they failed classes at 49% or less, right? So, they probably worked harder to fail than they did to pass and succeed. Some of that is attendance driven, some of that's a number of things, but um by ARC, we can now assign them kind of a credit recovery program and an online program where they take the entire course. Again, the best part is now instead of sending them home on their own to do the E2020, um, we have them tied to teachers of that particular subject area. So, if I'm retaking math, our attempt is to put them in an art class with a math teacher. Doesn't matter the the math subject that in which they teach, we know that they
081can help them with math questions. We're doing the same thing for ELA, science, and all those. So that's addressing roughly 61 kids in our entire school that fall into that category. So that's 7% of our population are receiving that support. Okay. In the second part of our our second tiered students are what we would call they almost made it, right? For whatever reason they missed passing by like 8%. Okay. That's a small number to have someone retake an entire class. We're not getting a whole lot of, you know, response to the intervention. So, can we identify some content standards that each of our subject matters feel is the most important? The foundational piece. So, like if I've failed algebra, what would be the three content standards that it doesn't matter on what profession or what
082they end up doing leaving school, what are these three foundational math skills that would be the most bene beneficial for them down the road? Okay? And that could be as simple as, you know, negative and positive integers and and working with them or fractions, all these different things. So our math department is identifying those pieces. That's going to represent about 25 of our students across all subjects. So that's 3% are receiving that intervention. And our hopes are is those students that miss by only 8% of of passing that class, we're able to get them that support, able to get them those foundational skills, but more importantly, we get them back to passing that class or they're now, you know, back on track to be able to graduate. So, that's huge. And then our third group,
083which is a majority of our student population, is just the standard intervention. I was gone for a day. I need to make up a test. I've got a ski meet. I'm gone all day. I can come in following week and I can take that test because what we're finding is a majority of our students um we offer supports and test recovery but they don't have the ability to sometimes do that outside of the school day. So to come in early or to stay after because of sports, work, family dynamics, however it is. So we we now have a spot inside school during their school day that they can control and get those supports. So that that's kind of um where we're doing it from the recovery side, but also with the SAT coming. Um our
084plan is to create our art classes as almost um little SAT boot camps, if you will. So we're looking at targeting 3 to six weeks of of helping all students get ready for either the PSAT or SAT. And so what that looks like is the beginning parts is going to be just looking at test dynamics, looking at vocabulary, what are the specific words the SAT uses regularly so students become common with that vocabulary so they can kind of start to eliminate and be able to answer questions better. Okay. The other component of that is that that second phase in our ARC SAT boot camp that we're going to do later on in the year is is also going to be what we call item analysis and test breakdown. We know that there's about four or
085five different types of thinking strategies that go on a high stakes test. And we know that certain questions are designed to be a knowledge based question followed by a very applicationbased question. So it's two different types of of thinking. So helping students be able to navigate that type of thinking would be the second phase of our boot camp. And then the third phase of our boot camp is just utilizing um sample questions that are already out there and having kids practice them um and then tying it to the particular subject in which arc that they're in. So if I'm a math teacher, I'm doing some math practice. But the more important thing is these art teachers are gaining resources with samples. They can then give that to their colleagues. So we can use that in
086the regular classroom for anticipatory sets as well. So it's going to it's just morphing and and evolving as we go. And I think that that will help um boost our test scores even more. Get those kids that are just on the edge just over the edge. So that's what I got. Sorry that was long. But hey, everybody was doing it so I thought it was lot going on. >> Thank you. >> Try not to quite >> And the first one is not going to talk about the curriculum or >> um like every I we have had a uh great start to the year. Everything's been pretty smooth. Um I'm very very happy with that. I've got a pretty amazing team of people that I'm working with right now. Um the culture and all of our
087operations and all the kitchens and everywhere has just been pretty phenomenal so far this year. So that's that's pretty encouraging. um just about fully staffed down maybe one person. I've had some amazing subs. Some of our retired people have come back and been working with us pretty much non-stop for the entire year uh so far. Um but yeah, everything's been going really well. I'm sure you saw in the budget, too. Michigan School Meals did pass. Um we were going to stay and remain free for all kids regardless of this, but it's it's very great news that it did go through this year. I advocated quite a bit for that overtime. Brought it down to Lancing a couple times and doing some stuff there. So, um, things that have gone on, uh, in our kitchens, we've
088done I've refreshed a couple of spaces. I found, uh, when I first got started that we have our in both our elementaryaries and at GIS, our our salad bars where kids are going and getting their fresh fruits, veggies, and things like that, um, were beyond our registers where they really shouldn't be. Everything kind of has to be before our point of sale. Um, so I took the opportunity to restructure at least the GIS quite a bit. um moved a whole bunch of stuff around, moved those things back before our registers. So now because what was happening um and not a bad thing, but what we were doing in the past was we were serving, you know, our a fruit and or a vegetable in the line as the kids were coming through. Um I've now
089removed a lot of that unless it's something needed, you know, for the meal specifically. I've moved a lot of that beyond. So now the kids have choice and we're seeing quite a bit a huge uptick in um not just acceptance but participation of kids taking fruits, vegetables, things like that, fresh stuff that they really do need instead of just getting a couple things. Now their plates are really you know nice and full. So um pretty exciting there. Um what do we have? And uh you know and throughout too I've also made quite a few changes um and those will be ongoing as we go through. I'm just kind of trying to start slow and move things. But um some menu changes, you know, throughout in each building, just new new and uh different items that
090uh are very well uh the acceptability has been has been pretty great for the kids. I've gotten a lot of good feedback um from students, staff, even some parents. Things have called in. So that's uh pretty encouraging there. Um our participation is is up uh about right now, well, breakfast is about even um that where we've been last year, but lunch is up about 6%. I'm looking at currently year to date over last year. Um so that's uh that's a good sign and I anticipate that uh kind of climbing as we go out through the year. Um so a couple of upcoming things that um will be going into place. I had applied earlier uh in the year for the fresh fruit and vegetable program. Uh it's a federal grant and I applied for about
091$105,000 originally uh within the grant that was going to target all of our schools K through six. um we were only awarded um funds for GIS and it's not anything to do it's the criteria is the same across the board for everything that we applied for. It's just a numbers game with this with the state and where they can apply those federal dollars. So um that program is is we're working out the details right now and that's going to be going into effect uh at GIS hopefully in November is my goal. The goal the the grant runs through uh September 30th of next year. So, we'll have a lot of time to do. And what that is essentially that will allow us to outside of the breakfast and lunch hours. Um serve uh a fresh
092fruit or vegetable very minimally processed mostly just nothing cooked or anything like that. Um to the students to try to expose them to, you know, various new products, things they have had, things are accustomed to and other things that they haven't had. You know, watermelon radishes, other kind of fun fun crazy things that are out there just to get them to try it. it'll be, you know, along with the samples they'll all get, there's going to be a lot of information uh that will be given to them so they can learn a little bit about it. Yeah. Kind of exciting. Um, one thing that we also applied for and has not gone through because it did not fall into the budget uh was the 10 cents a meal grant for Michigan Kids and Farms. It's
093a it's a matching grant. Um, and I know right now they're looking to see if there's ways they could fund that. Um, but I'll talk to, you know, my friends at MD and see kind of where we're at here in the near future. But I like to that's just allows it basically of all the the fresh stuff that we're buying, as long as it's Michigan grown, um, the state will pick up half the tab on that. So, but we'll see, you know, where that ends up because that did not land in the budget. Um, other things that are going to be coming up, uh, just planning on doing some, uh, tastings, you know, throughout all the different schools, whether it's me just setting up, you know, tables in the, uh, cafes at lunchtime or having,
094you know, setting something up during the day and maybe having groups come to me throughout the day. Um, any questions you guys have? >> No. Sounds like a lot of good things. >> Yeah, lots of good stuff happening. Lots of good stuff to come. So, I'll >> keep you posted as we go. >> All right. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Mr. Weaver, do you want this here or do you want this back? >> Uh over there, if you would, please. >> Just as a reminder, uh at this meeting, we have two uh public inputs. So, if you want to speak at this one, you're welcome to. If you'd like to wait till the second one, you're also welcome to do that. you have three minutes and we will not respond back uh immediately in this meeting,
095but um somebody will get back with you if you have a question or concern. So, first up will be Stephanie Jacobson. >> Hi everybody. I took a little summer break too, but I'm glad to be back. Um just a couple of things. Uh it's very interesting to me. I actually don't let my kids take the M MSTEP or the NWA. I didn't like either. I have some massive concerns with the data collection by these huge consorcas and where it goes. And I also have concerns with the socio emotional aspect of that testing, specifically the NWA. And so, um, unfortunately, when the state adopted this, I was actually there at those hearings along with the common core standards. And unfortunately um the teachers unions and the teachers present said this is what we want and this
096is what we need and um so you know the politicians were all too happy to do that for the dollars and that's why we ended up where we are. If it were up to me I'd go back about 100 years and I'd look at what kids needed to learn after every grade. U maybe Laura Ings Wilder she talks about her end of the year assessments. I do something like that. Um the one thing I am a little curious about is data indicates that if you can't do your basics by end of third grade, it does not help you academically moving forward, you tend to be a struggler. And so I I kind of have to wonder if you have to follow a certain group. So I feel like comparing the eighth graders now to the
097third graders now, it would be more appropriate to see where those eighth graders were in third grade. they might have been a higher performing grade. So, I think that's definitely a concern. Um, college professors are also saying students aren't prepared to do basic reading, writing, and math, college level math. And that was always a criticism when we adopted the Common Core. Um, I just like to draw your attention to Mississippi. Um, they've made huge strides. They're now, I think, cracked the top 10 in the nation as far as academic performance, while Michigan is circling the bottom. um despite spending and I do think to Dennis's point that the tutoring program was seemed to be producing some gains. I'm actually pref glad that it's not a line item. I actually prefer when they give schools money
098and allow them to spend it on the things they think is important rather than what Lancing and the consultants and the special interests think is important. So I would encourage you with your increase this year to maybe look at possibly funding that. And then finally, there's a growing body of research that writing greatly improves student learning. And I am a little concerned with the amount of technology we have in front of the children all day long. Um actually there was just a fascinating thing on um in NPR. So not a biased source everybody um about the physical act of writing and how it's one of the most challenging things a brain can do. Um, and there's a growing body of research that tech does not improve student achievement. So, if I could say one thing,
099and it will cost you no money, I'd get those young kids off the computers and back writing math in English. >> Thank you. >> I think that would really help. Thank you. >> All right. Next up is Susan Lubert. >> Okay. >> Can I do it from here? Okay. >> Uh, if we'd prefer up here, please. >> Yeah. Try not to trip over everybody. >> Take your time. >> Hate to go in front of the camera, but >> yeah. What I want to speak on is the state board of education has got a new health uh framework that they want to propose and it is very drastic and what it is is I'm encouraging you to not pass it to do what you can to vote against it to not pass it. I'll give you
100background on it. In the fall of 2024, the radical 6E overhaul bill, which is known as HB6068, was introduced and defeated. Now, the Michigan State Board of Education is trying to incorporate many of the same radical ideas about sex and identity into health care health curriculum for the K through 12 grade public schools. This proposal bypasses the legislative process and usurps the role of parents by hiding radical immoral teachings about sex and identity in a curriculum that parents can't opt out or approve. Through these new health standards, children will be compulsor be forced to be indoctrinated with values that directly contradict the severe the sincere held religious beliefs of their families. Instead of continuing with the positive proven success of our current health education standards, the sexed law which is MCL 38.1507 that protects the
101role of parents. These standards proposed are that the parents the government knows more than the parents do and they will be far beyond the statutory role of the public schools in cooperating with the pupil's parents and legal guardians to develop the princ pupil's intellectual cap capabilities in vocational skills which is MC 38.10. It will also violate according to the uh US Supreme Court ruling and it says that that a government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to subject their children to instruction that poses a very real threat of undermining the religious beliefs and practices that the parents should wish to instill. And that goes against the religious values for the Christian, the Jewish, Muslim and other religious families. And it also goes against article in our constitution article 8 section one
102religion of morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind. Schools of of the means of education shall forever be encouraged. These standards ought to be reddrafted so that they focus only on academics and public physical health, not sexual and reproductive health. Alternately, we could keep our current standards and allow parents of local of the local sex ed advisory committees to continue operating instead of having the sex ed class be incorporated in the health education which means they have no rights to it. >> Thank you. >> All right, that is all the public input that I have. >> All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. We have board minutes um from October 7th, 2025. And then we have treasures report uh general fund and athletic fund bills in the
103amount of 3.1 million. Cafeteria fund bills in the amount of 106,000, sinking fund bills in the amount of 171,000 and zero prior period adjustment amounts. That is all of the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second it. >> Any questions? >> Okay. >> Rachel, >> yes. >> Katie, >> yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. >> Lori, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. Motion carried five. Sarah. >> All right. New and unfinished business. Therapy animal policy. It is recommended the board approve the uh therapy animal policy as presented. We'll need a first and a second on this. >> Um, I will approve I'll make a motion to approve the policy for the therapy dog as presented. >> I'll second. >> Any questions on therapy animal policy? >> I kind of
104some thoughts. I talked to Jeff today about this. Um, Katie, you missed the committee of the whole, but we talked about it. And one of the things I did not totally understand when we were talking about it was the difference between the therapy dog and the emotional support dog. >> So, now that I understand that, I have a better idea of how this would be implemented. My only question was the guidelines don't and I don't know if you have more information about this but it doesn't um limit to just the staff requesting it. >> So is that is that what you envision? The guideline right now I believe does an employee in the in the guidelines and so I think what was discussed is you know did you want to go employee indoor me I
105kept it in employee >> so the employee is the only one requesting this not students requesting >> correct >> okay >> and then when you um in implementation of this is the idea that it would just be like oneonone or would it be a classroom that >> you know it would it could be either I you know it would depend upon the situation. So you're right it could be either you know my recommendation I guess I guess my practice in this is if you were to approve that policy would be real cautious in the initial implementation and take a look at I can tell you I did call one school that has therapy dogs um and they've had it since 2016 and that's how they launched. I mean real small at the beginning and now
106they're part of their everyday school has had pretty positive experiences with it. So that would be my approach to be cautious at the beginning and see how it works. >> Okay. Any Rachel you questions all answered >> um >> as best as you can. >> Yeah. I guess I'm just I'm like I can't I see the benefit of it. The one thing that, you know, if they're coming into the classroom, one of the things that it says in here is that the, you know, the school nurse is involved in identifying kids with allergies. And then in that setting, are kids with allergies potentially being removed from the classroom to accommodate the therapy dog so those kids aren't missing out on the lesson? >> Yeah, I I wouldn't want it to supplant any teaching like that.
107So yeah, I mean if that was a situation where you're moving a student, yeah, I I would not be in favor of that particular situation. So we we wanted to enhance it. >> Um you know, and keep in mind what you're voting on is specifically the policy. >> So guidelines are things that you know we can change, we can look at, we can evolve. um you know as a board as you look at the implementation of this and you know if you were to assign to it we could report back and you know like how it's being implemented you can pull the policy or you can take a look at the guidelines I mean I have a even though guidelines are not approved by the board they certainly are ran by the board so anytime
108there's a change in guidelines I have an obligation to present that to the board and and let you go to that and if you didn't like that change uh you could pull policy Okay, anybody else? >> I just I I know that therapy dogs or therapy animals, there's definitely so many benefits to them. But yeah, from the 30,000 foot view, there's all those questions. And I guess my con my concerns more than the allergy kids, the kids who are scared of dogs. >> So, you know, like, but I know that's not >> I'm supposed to be up here. I'm not supposed to be in that. But that's what like I'm looking at all from up here. I'm looking at all these little things, but I know the benefits and I can I can envision the
109kids, you know, that will benefit from this. Um, but yeah, so it's all those little things like the kid who's scared of the dog. I don't want a kid going into a panic because there's golden retriever over there because that's what I assume it's going to be as a dog like a golden retriever, you know. So, um, but yeah, I guess that's my only >> Yeah, I'd say I guess my thought is if we don't ever try it, we'll never know. >> And if if we have one bad, like Brian said, one bad thing, we we can easily take that out. And we also have to trust the people that we've put in place, whether it's a principal or the superintendent, that if they he says yes, we get to the school and all of
110a sudden that principal in that school notices that there's a problem, then then that can be put that principal is going to pull that that animal out of there right away. We're we're by no means would we ever put a student in danger of of anything. So So That's my thought. >> I have reservations, but like you said, I mean, I I guess we have to try it. >> I know. Um, we just started having them at the hospital in the I'll say early spring, March, and I definitely had my reservations, especially in the emergency department. It's loud. There's lots of different smells. There's lots of different sounds. I was very hesitant. I was kind of a naysayer. and we developed a process so that when there's an animal there, you know, a dog, it's
111we're doing dogs, um, that they call and ask if they can come through and that. And I would say that the staff have benefited from it more than the patients have because the patients aren't typically there very long, but it is a huge staff um, satisfier. They love seeing the dogs. It's um we haven't I we haven't had any issues with anybody being allergic or not liking dogs or being afraid. Obviously, this is adults, but um if patients see the dog, they ask to see them and so we allow that. But um so far, it's been a good experience at the hospital. One of the guidelines I actually wanted to ask you about was it says if if it will never happen, but if someone gets bit, they're supposed to call the health department. But
112in the ER, don't you guys call the animal control first? Isn't that the first call is animal? >> We notify them. >> Okay. >> So, we make notification and contact with them that we've had a dog bite and then they follow up on it. It may or may not be done immediately. It might be done for two days depending on what they have going on. If it's a holiday, if it's a weekend, >> um if it's at midnight. So should we put that in our guidelines that we notify the health or the animal control also just >> I don't know I just thought that was always part of it but >> that makes sense. >> Yeah. >> so if we if we do approve it we'll make this we'll add in the animal control. >>
113Anybody else? >> Okay. >> Rachel. >> Yes. >> Katie. >> Yes. >> Sarah. Yes. >> Lori, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Motion carries. 5 Z. >> All right. Payroll and benefits specialist. >> It is recommended the board approve the individual contract for payroll and benefits specialist as presented. >> I will make a motion to approve the payroll and benefit specialist as presented. >> I'll second. >> Any questions on Okay. Rachel, yes. >> Katie, >> yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. >> Lori, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Motion carried by Sarah. >> Is Donna here? I >> She is not. >> She Okay. All right. Gaylord Community School Superintendent selection criteria. It is recommended the board approve the Gaylord Community School Superintendent Selection Criteria as presented. I'll make a motion to approve the
114Gaylord Community School Superintendent selection criteria as presented. >> I'll second. >> Any questions on those? >> Okay. >> Rachel, >> yes. >> Katie, >> yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. >> Lori, >> yes. >> Jeff, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Sarah. >> All right. And we are moving forward with our selection. some of the staff and community may have gotten or may get um information from our selection personnel. Uh we'd hope that you'd fill us out fill that out so we know what the community is looking for. Do we have any new staff to introduce? >> We do not. All right. >> Anybody wants to work in food service on the spot? >> Are you right here? approved tonight. >> Uh we have completed all of our public input. So we need one more motion. >>
115Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. All >> in favor? >> I motion carries. >> All right. Thank you all for coming tonight. Thank you for all the information and thank you for the administrator's hard work. >> Yes. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] [Music]