001[Applause] [Music] All right, we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. Rachel here. Katie here. Sarah here. Doug here. Lori here. Carrie here. Jeff here. If everyone will stand for the pledge of allegiance and then we'll 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 our agenda? There is not. We have no correspondence and commendations. We'll move on to recognition and acknowledgement. First up, we'll have our validictorian and saludiatoran and Mr. Byum. Please bring them forward. Okay. won't tell anybody, but I got to bring my glasses today. But um
002so we've got uh Nathan is our saludiatoran and um Noah is our valictorian. Pretty tough race between both of these gentlemen all four years. Um if you want to look at uh how many AP classes to take to be in the running, these boys definitely wrote the book on that. Um he's going to be attending Grand Valley at this time next year. Um he's going into computer and electrical engineering. Not sure which, but somewhere into that realm. And uh Noah here is going to go to U of M, so go blue for him. And then he's uh looking at aerospace engineering, correct? Yeah. All right. Awesome. And his parents are here to both both parents are here. So we've got Nathan's parents, Christy and Jason, if you guys just want to give a wave there.
003And then we also have Pat and Chassity as well here for No. So those are the parents. So these are vows and cells. All right. We didn't make them talk today because they got big speeches at graduation. Good practice. Congratulations, Noah. Good luck. Congratulations, Noah. Congratulations. Blue. Yeah, go blue. Congratulations. Good luck with that. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you, Nathan. Congratulations. Go Lakers. Congratulations. All right, Mr. Byum. And now Mr. Bum has our honor students. Yeah, we decided just because of uh you know we've had a number of weeks off so I wasn't able to to check in with every single student. Um so I wanted to get all their names at least up on that PowerPoint so everybody can see. Um we've got 27 um academic scholars that counts our valictorians as
004well. That's anybody that's holding a cumulative GPA of 4.0 and above. Now, you sit there and you kind of scratch your head, how do they get above a 4.0? Our district a number of years back switched over to all of our advanced placement classes being at a 5.0 scale. So, typically you tend to see your academic scholars taking at least one to multiple AP classes throughout their time. Sophomore year is when they can start taking those. AP government's kind of our first. Um, so all these folks that I'm going to be uh mentioning, they're all above a 4.0 cumulative GPA. Um, when you hear your name, if you could just come on to the front and then we'll let you all shake the hands kind of at the very end. I'm also gonna uh mention
005the parents of of each one of our students as well. So, parents, you want to give away when I when I mention your students name. So, you'll be doing a lot of this at the end of April and May. So, get used to the ride. All right. So, we've got uh Keaton Abraham. Um Sean and Sarah Abraham are his parents. So, if you want to stand, you can as well. I don't I know not everybody likes the limelight, but yeah. I got And Nathan, you can just give a wave. We've already got to meet you. Um Skyl Ames, uh April and James Ames are her parents. Connor Byum is well, that's me and his mom Kim in the back there. All right. Zack Halper, they couldn't be here today, but Constance and Dale Kalper. Uh
006Michael Durus with Katherine and Chris. And not all of these folks were able to make it today because of jobs and and all that good stuff, but we thought that we'd mention everybody. Isabelle Duballeski, Emily and Matt. I think Matt's walking in the door right now. So, and we've got Noah Enders, who we've already met. Uh Kate Gapinsky, which is Christa and Scott. Typically, you see Matt and Scott together, so I'm kind of, you know, maybe here. We've got Claire goal, which is Sarah and Steven Goal. Uh, Kylie Hop, Jill and Kevin Hop are her parents. And let's see here. Finn, Kelly, Mandy, and Chris. We've got Emily Kurts, Christy, and Mike. I think I saw them walk in as well. Addison Mat, which is Elizabeth, and then Elizabeth Hunter, and then uh stepdads here,
007Eric, as well. um Hunter McN which uh Mo'Nique and Christopher are parents and we've got Idris Miraa, Melissa and Fisizel. So Idris, you want to come on up? Um Ashlin Manusco, Marlene and Wayne, Ella Moly, Emily and Dan, I believe they're here as well. Caitlyn Paso, Elaine and Paul are the parents. Carson Pointer, Amanda and Eric, Dominique or just Dominic Dominic. Oh my goodness. Dominic Signarella, Kelly and Michael. I'm not sure if Ameilia Smith is here. She was kind of an early graduate, so I'm not sure if they were. She's not home right now. I can tell you that. And that's what I thought. So, but I wanted to get her name in there just in case. Ellis Spanning, Jill and Andrew. All right. Kennedy Wangler, Alexis is Brett, Ava Wells, Marty is his mom,
008and then Ashlin Wolfile. Laura and Jeff are her parents. And then the last one, Brianna, Zach, Katie, and Jason. I know definitely where he's going and he's going because they were at Michigan Tech um over the weekend. But if you could when you guys were shaking hands with those folks, let them know where you're going and the plans for next year. But as you can see, large group. So, these are going to be our highlights for uh this week at Beard High School. So, Congratulations. Congratulations. Where you going? Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Where you going? Congratulations. Where you going? Don't know yet. Where you going? I'm doing NC. Okay, good. Good. Congratulations. No clue. Okay. Congratulations. Where you going? Not sure yet. You know where you're going? UF. Okay. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. You know where
009you're going? Elma for track. Alma. Okay. Awesome. Congratulations. Congratulations. Where you going? You're going to college. Alma College to Alma. Congratulations. Congratulations. Where are you going? Congratulations. Where you going? Cornerstone or Cedarville. Okay, cool. Congratulations. Congratulations. Not just over the bridge. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Nurses and teachers. I love it. I thought about, you know, like engineering and then I thought it was going to be too easy. Engineering, too. What's that? Engineering. Yeah. Michigan State. No state. She was just touching me as I pulled in here. Okay, I'm taking You got to give me a second. I'm taking this. All right. You got a couple doors open right now. going to tech in the fall. She's getting her basic out of the way. So she Yes, of course. All right, I think we're ready to
010continue. Oh, you're fine. I was just move on to personnel. We have new hires. Educational Assistant Shelby Sinsky, Gillard High School assistant track coach Michael McFalda, and bus driver Linda Walsh. Do we have any of our new hires here? Doesn't appear so. Nope. Resignations: Gaylord High School assistant principal Sean Sergeant, food service helper helpers Laura Scope and Patricia Boviac, and JV volleyball head coach Delaney Bringham. updates uh in the process um transportation is this that's just the leftover from what I normally give you at the committee meeting so okay I wanted you to be aware of those happenings so you're in the process of transportation director um social studies CTE uh which is on hold right now head football coach due to the storm are holding off on that you're in the process of the
011food service director and middle school principal uh in the midst of that too. So any busy week? I was going to say that's a lot to keep you as you come back from the show must go on. Yeah. I don't think she stopped the whole time. Yeah, that's true. All right, building updates. Mr. Byum, you're back on the hot seat. Oh, I'll go first if you want. Yeah. Other than our academic scholars, the big thing is we've had to make some major changes in testing. Um, and so our community has been fantastic at providing us spaces. Um, we had uh looked at the building at the E3 um because it's the largest building in our community that can house and provide the tech. Um, we were really only focusing on attempting to do that with
012just juniors. Um, and then doing our PSAT testing in house, thinking that we could get it all done in kind of like one day or a day and a half to not interrupt the school schedule. In hindsight, we didn't think that snowageddon was coming. Um, but now, um, with working with College Board and MDE, they're like the fact that you have this already pre-planned out is is beneficial. So, yes, we're scrambling like crazy. We're probably going to miss um some makeup opportunities, but for the most part, we're going to be able to provide testing for PSAT and SAT um with very little interruption. So, that's huge. I mean, it's it's a huge testament to to one our um transportation and getting things moving for us and then also going to be offering the shuttles for
013the testing. Um and then obviously our tech department with being able to to change and and find new hotspots and Wi-Fi and all those. Um, Kirtland Community College has been extremely helpful with us. We have a lot of our accommodated testing, which is required to be 100% um, digital. We were able to walk students right next door. Um, and so we've been able to do a lot of putting the plane together as we're flying to to keep us up and running at the school. Um, so that that's that's really the biggest highlight is that everybody's working together and rowing in one direction to get us to our destination. So that's really the highlight we wanted to capture outside of our our academic scholars. So nice. Thank you. Sean, my son's a senior. I asked him
014if he was coming to the board meeting tonight and he said for what? You've been working on that joke for a while. He's a great kid. Um, so we uh I think today besides the first day of school, today was our like second best day of attendance. So the kids were glad to be back obviously. But um next Saturday at the high school, the 26th, we're hosting um a regional national civic speak. So there's seven regionals in the state and then um I think late May, so we're sending 14 kids next from the middle school. It's seven, six, seventh, and eighth grade. And um so they compete um like in a civics B uh questions and uh part one was an essay competition. We submitted 50 essays. 14 got moved around to which is next
015Saturday. The top three from next week's competition at the high school go to the states and then from there potentially nationals. But we got some good kids. So and are supposed to be Mr. Dodline. You guys know him. He's just all of March because we submitted the essays in February. All of March at lunchtime, he's been orchestrating it with the other social studies teachers and they've just been buzzing the kids, you know, during uh lunch periods all of March. So, they're they're pretty prepared. So, they're excited about that. And then, um so I'll give you an update in May. And then, uh we are going to take our kids uh next, we've done it the last two years. Next Friday, we're taking our whole eighth grade to Kirtland Community College for a um career day.
016It's been pretty posit Yeah. Kids love it. So, okay, I'll stand right here. Perfect. Um we our fifth grade or our sixth graders went with fifth grade teacher um Mrs. Liz Reynolds to the future of STEM road show at MSU. Um 77 students from Aigo County went. We had a great turnout from GIS. The kids had a great time and they're fired up about STEM. So, we're excited about that. She also hosted the think energy with DTE today about preserving energy and being um friendly to the environment and the kids really enjoyed that today. We apologize if any stickers show up on things at your house that are safe. Kind of like an inside joke of the school. I think I was part of it. But uh um the chocolate fundraiser netted $36,000 and 13,000
017which was um what GIS will receive. So it's a huge fundraiser that really supports our classrooms, our teachers, offsets field trip costs, a really big um factor to doing some amazing things. So we appreciate the community and everyone around for supporting that. Um Diane Boviac and Alan Dah really took the lead on that and um rolled it out. So we're very thankful for them. Um March's reading month was super fun at GIS. Um Greg Fry organized the read around the classrooms. The kids all pick one student goes to um each student in every class goes to a different adult in the building and they do mystery readers with different um kids and students just love it. Um Pat Enders, we um showcased his book and then Kelly Hines and Julia Newver organized the theme around
018um dedicating it to Stacy Wright. Our theme was reading is the right thing to do. She was a big proponent for um March's reading month and um she founded all those ideas along with the fundraiser too. So some great happenings at GI. Thank you. And we heard you had a a nice costume this morning and uh Mr. Byron was mentioning he might like to borrow that from you. Oh, I'll get you that. No problem. I know people are like, "Was that you?" The traffic was great, though. All righty. Um, so like like Joe indicated, today was a great attendance day. Um, we started with a handful of students missing. um some came in late, some were able to share some stories about that, but at the end of the day, uh we had less than
01910 students absent from the entire building. So, we were grateful for that. Um Rachel reached out to families, um uh students who weren't at school just to see if there were supports that we could help provide um so we could get the kids at school. Staff was excited to see students. They were excited to see each other. Uh, everybody was very glad and extremely grateful for all of the things that um this office has done behind the scenes to get our kids to school to feel things a little bit normal after all that's happened. Um, transportation has moved mountains. If they could have moved poles and trees, I bet they would have done that, too. Um, and so we were grateful for that. uh technology is um an ongoing two steps forward, one step back
020uh the feeling I'm sure sometimes, but everybody has done what they needed to do and then some and then some and then some to get our students back and that includes the staff in the building. Um so just really a huge testament to the the way that everybody's working together really to put kids first um and meet needs there. And then um uh one final thing is that uh we were we were very very pleased um to say that we have some positive things coming in. Our PTO has been a a huge help in bringing things into the building, supporting things in the building, and we had lots and lots of things scheduled and they did some quick scrambling along with some other staff to do some rearranges um and reconnect with companies that were
021coming in to share some things. And so our steam museum that we were so excited to share and I had talked to you about it was our our ending activity, our culminating activity for our March's reading month. Um obviously that didn't happen. uh they were able to reschedu that for uh June, I want to say June 2nd. So again, everybody pulled some strings and did what they needed and we didn't lose things. We were able to rearrange. So things are positive. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Celeste. Hi everybody. I'd like to say I have new information to bring, but when you're the last one to speak, everybody always says the good stuff. Um so like everybody else, student attendance was great. We only had seven absent students this this fine day. Staff morale was high.
022And it was funny because I just forget how cute these little guys are and how much we really miss them. Um we just had March's reading month. We did a readathon fundraiser and our students were able to raise close to $10,000 for South Maple for their readathon. So that was amazing. Um as many of you know, the big trees on South Maple's campus were had to be torn down. And so today the kids were really sad about that and they they were they were trying to organize how they could um raise funds to buy new trees for our campus. So the third graders in coordination with our awesome library tech um Paula Dlover are trying to come up with a way to have some sort of penny war so kids can raise money to buy
023new trees for South Maple. So, I thought that was very cool and awesome and something that needed to be shared. And just like everybody else said, without the help of all these people behind the scenes, we could not have um been as well off as we are. Todd's tech team, I don't even know how he's awake right now for as many late night updates as we got in transportation and all of the things they've done, moving bus stops and um helping kids get to stop safely. Like, just thank you so much everybody really. So, um that's all we've got from South Maple and the city of Gayler. They've done an incredible job making sure the streets are clear for our kids. So, thank you for every everybody's help for our kids. Thank you. Thank you.
024All right, we'll move on to public input. None. Okay, consent agenda. We have board minutes from Shucks hit the wrong button here for March 10th, 2025 and the treasures report. We have general fund and athletic fund bills in the amount of 3.1 million, cafeteria fund bills in the amount of 108,000, sinking fund bills in the amount of $8,000, and prior period adjustments of $0. That is the end of the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll second it. Any questions on the consent agenda? Rachel, yes. Katie, yes. Sarah, yes. Doug, yes. Lori, yes. Carrie, yes. Jeff Weaver, yes. Motion carries 70. Okay. New and unfinished business. We have the K6 I Ready math extension. It is recommended that the board approve the K6 I Ready math extension as presented. Can
025we ask a quick question before we make a motion on this? we have to go through. We have to have a motion before we can Okay. Before we can discuss anything. Okay. So, so we'll need a first and a second on this motion. So, I'll make a motion to approve the math extension. Any second? I'll I'll second. Okay. Okay. Now, we can have questions. Okay. So the there are different price points on this. So are there different is it one year, three year, 5year? The re the recommendation from the um director of finance and the curriculum director is fiveyear. Um we did a one-year extension by going this past year because they're fiveyear increments. So the recommendation is to go up five years and it saves us $100,000. Okay. And Dennis couldn't be here or
026Joe their uh uh assessors at their house. So, so the curriculum, I mean, I would support doing it for one year and then having time to talk to Dennis about what the the you know, is this something that's going to be reviewed because we did the language arts And are we not doing math? I thought we were going to do review the math curriculum. They did and this was their recommendation. This is the that was just a Yes. Yeah. This the recommendation from the teachers and the whole process. So they went through our the same process that they went through for language art for to pick this curriculum. Yes. Okay. I thought it was just Okay. Well, okay. So, I support the teachers. I definitely support Dennis and everything he's doing, but I do not
027support this product. Okay. My concern. Fair enough. Well, and I have a quick question. Um, since this is the first time I've done this, um, if there's any upgrades to the material within that five years, do we get that material or do we have to pay additional fees for that material? They if they change anything because a lot of it's um it's web- based. So, um, we would get that would go along with it. Yeah. We'd have to go out and buy buy more. Did everybody I know Dennis offered for anybody to contact him with to get the curriculum. Did Did everybody look at it or I assume I know he he presented that maybe two months ago and he's had the bag sitting in his office. So, I assume people were picking stuff up
028and looking at it. Okay. So the issue I'm just gonna for public to know the issue for me is that there's a lot of focus in this math curriculum on student identities and um I think that is our our math scores are not great. We how long have we used already actually um we this is our sixth year and our math scores have actually improved. They're not where we would want them, but because we're at I mean we know we're we're third grade I think was 35% proficient, right? So continuous improvement um model um you know definitely the uh um teachers like the curriculum. That was the recommendation. Um we feel like it's it's working for our kids. I don't think 35% is working for kids. But now when they got to eighth grade, they
029they made a huge jump if I remember correctly. Right. Was it above 50%. I don't have the numbers right in front of me. I think it was curriculum for above sixth grade. It's just to sixth grade, right? But it's saying so Jeff just said when we hit eighth grade, we make a huge improvement. Are is the seventh and eighth graders using the same curriculum as this curriculum? Well, they came up with the curriculum as they advanced. Yeah. You have to to get to seventh and eighth grade. You have to go through that curriculum. What curriculum do they have in seventh and eighth grade? Do we know? What's that, Joe? Big ideas. Main ideas. Big ideas. Big ideas. Sorry. Big ideas. Okay. So, the math concepts are great. I mean, don't get me wrong, but um
030in the teacher's um guide, the things that they want to do after you teach them the concepts, I mean, the the language and um the topics are just so far above I think I'm in the second grade book. Um, I just feel like especially with the proficiency in reading that when they're trying to discuss these concepts that are supposed to support the math concepts that we're going to lose a lot of attention from children. Um, they in one of them too it it says to read and discuss and it's it's telling the teacher what to read and discuss and then it says if you have more time use the optional STEM activity. So they're more concerned about the language and the topics that they're discussing which are really not applicable to our students to support
031the math concept. So it it just really worries me about the curriculum and there's like academic vocabulary routine and they'll give academic words that are applicable but then they want to do them in Spanish and Haitian Creole also and teach the kids these words and see how similar they are. So, how much time are we really spending on the math concept? That's my concern. Mr. Gekk, I hate to put you on the hot seat. I got here quick. I apologize at my house and so I apologize. Could you explain to us the process who supported it? Why? What? Whatever you can We're talking math curriculum right now. Math. Yes, sir. You're welcome. So, you need a deep breath. No, I don't know how long you're talking about. We just started. Perfect. Process is um six
032years ago, seven years ago went through a lengthy process to adopt new math curriculum. We did uh we adopted curriculum associates I Ready. uh we saw immediate positive results. We've maintained um over the years where we're at up down I mean typical data but always have been above state average across the board in math. We're doing well in math. Last year the way um the I Ready curriculum works is it's a subscriptionbased curriculum. Um there aren't really any companies anymore like when we went to school that says here's your textbook. It's um some web- based material and then it's reproducibles is what they call them which is student workbooks and we p we buy that in a package. Um last year last year for current board members um well except the new board members that
033expired. We were in the middle of our ELA adoption. The board voted to do a one-year extension on that if you remember. Um this year went through the process again. um the math department, the buildings um and and we looked at some other ones. Um but but this was at the forefront. Um the data that we received back from staff and administrators overwhelmingly wanted to extend I Ready. Um they're used to it. It's working. They're still getting used to our new ELA curriculum. It was it was nearly 100% unanimous moving forward this math curriculum. The reason um that we came with um a little bit more of an approval is because they updated, you know, curriculum companies every five or six years update the versions. This is a new version. Uh we went through it.
034There's very minimal changes from the version that we had before that. Um it's just the 2024 whatever dates on there on the copyright. So, um, again, um, overwhelming support from the department, the staff, administrators, ran it through departments, ran it through school improvement, um, ran it through district improvement, uh, final spot, um, ran it through Jim and Joe Hart for the financial part, and now, um, I presented it two months ago. Two months, gave you a month to review it. Um, and then we're here to to vote for approval. No, Lori had a question about if and kind of you were saying they get a new version then we'll in between if we go with five years what's presented we'll get the new version comes along with it. We can negotiate that with them. We
035could have we could have done it last year. Um we could have we could have and it wouldn't have changed any of the costs or anything. So yes, but they probably won't. This is going to be their newest one. Like I said, it's a it's about a five to sevenyear window typically when they update and put a new new date on that. That's a good question. Okay, it's a good question. So, in the current curriculum with I Ready that or the current version, I should say that we're using um I'm just noticing in here that there's just a lot of um after the math concepts, there's just a lot of language and vocabulary and things. Are they doing that now? I wouldn't say it's a specific, okay, now we're going to work on math vocabulary.
036There are vocabulary lessons within the math so that they know the the correct verbs and stuff while they're working through. Um but I guess I don't know what you're specifically asking. Well, just like um in this unit 4, grade two, um they start out with the math concepts. Um it's about measurement and timelines and stuff and then they go into stories um to support it. Mhm. Um and but then they wanted to um this is um in the one it's read and discuss. So they want to tell students that Eugenie's identity was unique. She was a woman. She was Japanese American. She was a scientist. She was a person who loved sharks. Eugenie liked all those things about herself and they made her who she was. And then they want the teachers to ask, "How
037are you like Eugenie? How are you different from Eugenie? Discuss the idea that we're all similar and we're all different." And then there's another question they want to ask. I can read it if you want, but then at the bottom it says, "If you have more time, use the optional STEM activity." I feel like we should be focused more on the STEM activity than the story that doesn't even have a math story. Sure. It's not, you know, supporting. I I don't feel comfortable answering that question specifically on that because I I don't know. I I honestly don't know if the teachers are using that story part. And are they obligated to to do this page by page? I mean, um or are they encouraged to do it page by page? It's a resource. What does
038that mean? It's a resource. Obviously, it's a resource. So, so there, you know, Michigan, state of Michigan has benchmarks or standards and so that book aligns with them. So, they have to teach the standards and so they're going to use lessons from that book or as a resource in order to meet that objective. That's that's usually with textbooks or whether web- based or or a traditional textbook, it's aligned with uh with the standards. So they teach the we teach the standards because we're required to by law. Um and then we get supporting materials that will help us deliver it. And then are somebody like the um the department head of the math are they like advising teachers on what specifics to teach or is a teacher allowed to eliminate and go find I would say
039so like Mr. Mr. Craigcraft said it's it's a resource and and when we teach we use a couple phrases, fidelity, skillful implementation. We have pacing guides, curriculum maps, common assessments, um formative assessments, and now we're losing uh uh so we know what the kids need to learn. Um we still believe in the professionalism of our staff and what they use to supplement support their students. um as long as they're following the skeleton I guess is what I'm saying of the curriculum that they are are made available to grade level grade level standards. Yeah. And you I don't know if you walked in when I was saying it but I just it's like the vocabulary and the content I don't feel is like age or academic appropriate when we get into this part of the you
040know the math concepts I think are fine. It's just the supporting part to it that I mean some of the names of the people, some of the um words that they're using um I just don't think the kids will understand that. And then we're focusing more on the vocabulary, the language and the topic than the concept of math is my opinion. And then also this question that I had um so part of the academic vocabulary they teach kids words to the assignment but then they want to even in kindergarten um have them get the Spanish cognate and also the Haitian creole cognate. So it says here ask students in any of the academic words look or sound similar to a word in their first language have st students circle those words. So we're going to
041give them Spanish words and Haitian creole words. I think that's probably an ESL. It's an ESL component. Yeah, it's an ESL component for students that that English is their second language. I'm guessing, but this is the teachers guide for all of that. I would correct. It's probably embedded in there for if they if if they do have students that are ESL. So, our teachers wouldn't have to be teaching these kids Spanish and if they have students that are ESL, which we do have ESL students, um they would they would probably use some of that. Yeah, that's a that's an SPSL standard basically is to to line up the two different languages and but they also want to explain to the students the words in two languages that share the same or similar meaning, spelling and
042pronunciation and are called cognates. And somewhere I saw they want to make sure the students know what a cognate is. And we're going to ask a native speaker volunteer to model pronunciation. Have students repeat. I would think that that's an appropriate technique if you have a high number of ESL students in your class, which I've taught in high number ESL classrooms. Um, that's modeling. That's that's how they learn the language. That's how they come accustomed to it. Um, I do understand. Thank you. I'm sorry. Yeah. But I don't know. Like I said, I don't think that'd be a I don't think that's a daily requirement. I think if you have ESL students that speak those languages in your classroom, it would probably be an acceptable standard. Okay. So just getting back to the scores really
043quickly. So in 2018 we were teaching this, correct? I believe that's the year we adopted it. Yes. So are we were 43% proficient and now in 2024 we we were 35%. What what grade level is that? Third grade, sorry. Third grade math. And we've talked about the third grade from last year. It's I mean it's it's not acceptable. We know that. But it's also I'm hoping anomaly that we're continuing to work on. But that's only one grade. But so you had indicated though and it is I so if the scores go up in seventh or eighth, is it your position that it doesn't like the grade the percentages don't matter? No. No. I mean because you were saying you were discounting the scores because they go up. Are you and you're going from the MSTEP
044or M are you quoting MSTEP scores? The information that Dennis has presented to us. So those are MSTEP scores. I mean that's the data we use to assess. So well it's some of the data that we use. We actually use formative and summitive assessments um as well and local assessments to determine um you know that kids are making growth and WAS and other another tests that we we administer. Um, so I I guess um to to answer your question um that's that's all data that we use to help drive instruction and what we need to do better. But so if we how many years have we taught this? I think this is year six or seven. Don't quote me because I don't I'm pretty sure I know it's at least six. I'm just And you're
045you're proposing a fiveyear adoption. In talking with our finance director, Joe, um it's a savings of about $100,000 if we go with the five. Okay. So that's 11 years. So let's say we adopt that. If after 11 years our scores have not approved, do you pivot? Do you change course? Or do we just say this is what the teachers want, this is what we're doing. What do we Yeah. And remember, it's not I I wish it was as easy as I wish it was as easy as if you buy this curriculum, you're going to get these scores because every school in the country would have the same exact It's not that simple. It's teaching practices. It's um you know, culture there. There's so many things that go into this and it's and and again, it's
046how you use it and how prepared your teachers are and how collectively they're working on it. I I truly wish we could just go out and say Traverse City's using this curriculum. This is their scores. Let's buy it. It It just doesn't work that way. I wish it did. It'd make all of our jobs a lot easier. So, I see what you're saying. You're concerned that our math grades have not been as high as we would like them to be with the with the same curriculum and now we're adopting the same the newer version of the same curriculum. So, how do we I don't want to use the word guarantee, but how do we work to continue to improve math grades by using this curriculum? What are some of the things that we're doing? If
047it's not effective, if we approve the five-year and we're not effective, let's say after two or three years, can we adopt a new curriculum? We can we can take a look at it and we're constantly looking at that. We're constantly and and again, I'll go back a couple years ago to ELA when we were starting the process adopting ELA. you there's there's things you have to to determine before you say it's the curriculum that's the problem. For example, sure, fidelity skillful implementation. And what we found was there's people not following the the the board adopted curriculum the way it was supposed to be followed. And until you get that piece, you can't determine that it's a curricular issue, if that makes sense. So again, we're looking at this two different ways in my opinion. We're
048looking at at the scores, which we all want constantly to be doing better, but we're also looking at the financial piece. And and for our district, you know, I think that the actual curriculum that we purchase is important, but it the teaching practices are more important than the actual curriculum that we purchase or how we implement it. Um, if we wanted to look at a three-year, I mean, that's we we could we could have that discussion, but again, now we're we're less into the savings. Um, it's always better financially to go with the five-year curricular. Is there a contract that says we have to stick with our like Katie was saying, can we get out of if in three years like this is not getting any better? It'd be tough because we pay for it
049up front. So when we commit to this, you know, that includes the materials for 5 years, the support and and all the professional development. That's a it's a package. That's why it's so discounted. And most curriculums, if I may, um best practice about seven years. Um so that gives us five years and then you start the process over again and it's usually a year towards an towards an adoption. So that's that's pretty consistent with with uh what other districts have done. So we're at six years. So why don't we approve it for a year and then start the process again. That's seven years and assess if this isn't if this isn't that just wasn't the recommendation from the committee. But I get your point. Well, if we're talking about you're talking about money and we're
050not talking about the kids, what about the loss of opportunity for the kids or the loss of sense of achievement or you know all you know the kids they're not learning. 35% proficient in third grade is abysmal. So, and I'm not saying I know there are other factors. Of course, there are other factors that go into this, but it's just what when do we say, okay, this this isn't working for our district. What what can we do? Let's try let's try something else. Let's look at something else. And, you know, I just think about um this curriculum is so it's math. It's math. We want these kids to understand math. And we've heard people talk about how, you know, you see kids out and they can't make change. We They need to know math. This
051is not the time to talk about their identity. Like, I'm not against anybody's identity. I'm just saying this seems like the focus is not on what it should be on. And I feel like our scores are reflecting that and we're six years into this. Why are we signing on for another five years? I would respectfully disagree that our our scores are very good in math and they have been for a long time. In the past seven, eight years they've been they in my opinion they've been exceptional. Did we have a a bruise this past year? Absolutely we did. We know that. But Dennis going back to 2018 it was 43%. That's that's not we're not trusting that 50%. That's that's a failing rate. What is our expectation as the board? Are we expecting 100%, 75,
05250? Well, this is proficiency. It's not I mean, I understand there's plenty of kids with many um disabilities that in that inhibit them. However, I mean, I Why would we not expect a high number? Well, I think we all expect a high number, but what it what is honestly truly achievable and it's it's a proficiency like you say, but we don't know how many kids are one point away from being proficient. We don't know that information. Correct. I could share they have partially proficient data and I haven't shared it because it's they're not proficient and I we don't want to share it unless they're proficient. We have a high number of kids that are they consider partially proficient that are right there. But again, I go back to data that we've shared. It's it's a
053snapshot. It's one assessment that we give per year. You know, it's percent proficient. But I go back to the data that we shared and I could I could present multiple sources of comparative data of the demographics of our community to other communities that share the same demographics. And it's not even close. We're outperforming those communities. It's not fair to compare us to a Paskki or a Leland. I mean, I can I can name a bunch of them. I trust the data sources that say here's Gaylord, here's 20 other schools that compare in demographics of of all the different factors and we're at the top of every single one. Would it be fair to say that if we were to switch from what you've just said a little bit ago, if we were to switch programs,
054we would most likely see a drop in our scores because now the fidelity is not there. we don't know how to teach. I would predict a dip. Um it takes again two to four years for a staff to get used to and comfortable and proficient with a with a curriculum. For example, our ELA, I'm hoping for good results, but I'm not I'm not sure where that's going to come back at. If we if and this was kind of the thought process, if we if we put a brand new math curriculum that staff's not used to on top of this brand new monumental shift in ELA because remember we're shifting to the science of reading and phonics and FMIC awareness and all those things that staff is still learning. I I would guess that we would
055see a dip in math maybe significant. I would across the board. Is there any programs that we were doing for our reading? We're doing um adult tutoring. No, the the other one all the the class that they had to take letters training. Letters training. Do they have anything similar in math? They they do um uh uh foundations of math. When when we adopted um when we and and I guess Jeeoff, you were here. I think you might have been the only board member here when we did that. It was a process of training and curriculum and we did we did three summers of something called foundations of math and combining with a new curriculum. We saw really really nice gains during that time. Um letters is similar in that it's this shift in in how
056we teach reading and and the focus on that. So it's all part of the it's all part of the deal. um the training, the curriculum. Okay. Dennis, who's part of the math team or the support team that reviews the curriculum? Sure. So, we have uh we have department chairs across the district for those things. I guide them um and they do what we call the the problem solving protocol, problem solving driver, which is a way to analyze data and they come up with causes. What causes the data to be this? Um and again, I'll go back to LA. The cause was what we found out as we started picking it apart is not everybody was on the same page. We had to fix that first. So again, we have monthly department meetings that they look
057at data, they look at um curriculum guides, pacing guides, they look at assessments, they look at all those things, have those discussions and then when we get into this mode of curriculum adoption, we have curriculum rubrics, we have we have a process that they go through to make the recommendation. And again, I go along with that process. Um they make a recommendation uh to the district school improvement team. We share that with Mr. Kracraft. We go to finance, share with you like I said two months ago that that was a recommendation and then then we vote and then the work I mean this is the easy part. Um then the work we got to train we got to implement we have to adapt we have to make you know the the subtle changes and and
058from my understanding and again from the department there's there's subtle changes in this. It's just an updated version. And to re you, the majority of the staff that went through all this, they did. It was they wanted to see. I could I could show you data was overwhelmingly supportive of all the staff and administration and there's a great deal of research on teacher efficacy that if they believe in the product that's going to impact student learning, you know. So, so last question for me. I'm sorry. Jump in with regard to the fidelity piece. So are you is this a little is it a resource or are they teaching the curriculum with fidelity? So this is a resource that what the departments do is they make pacing guides and curriculum guides and and what I mean
059by that is they're aligned. Yep. We start with the alignment. We start with the end goal which is the assessment which ultimately is step but we have our own formative assessments. the curriculum is is geared towards that. But it does not mean we start at chapter 1 and we get to chapter 15. Those departments and those staff members take those things apart, design their assessments, their formative assessments and shift things around that curriculum. Helps them get to know it better. Helps them be comfortable with it. They know what their target is. Um what happens is is sometimes teachers because they're, you know, they're trying to do what's best for the students, they don't they'll pull in in their own resource and they'll only it'll they'll be on an island. They'll only use it in their
060classroom, which we're not against that. They're professionals. They're professionally trained staff. But if it's something that's working, we want everybody to be using it. And we run those things through department so that we can look at it. you can re make sure again it's being sar I I'm go I'm still stuck going back to um our grades are relatively low in the or our proficiency is relatively low in the elementary age and then they hit junior high and eighth grade they jump up. Well after two years of whatever curriculum they're using in junior high all of a sudden they jump up. So that makes me go, wait, what what curriculum are they using? Do they have one for the younger grades? Because like I'll tell you I'll tell you what the seven 8. It's a
061curriculum called Big Ideas that was adopted I'm going to share with you before my time. Um they're good at it. They're used to it. It's also when they get to 8th grade, it's a PSAT. So again, it's another moving target. So remember the MSTEP is where kids are now. Anything SAT, PSAT allowed aligned is college and career readiness. Different set of measurements and it's based on national scores. MSTEP is local, just Michigan. They get the PSAT 8 n 10 and then the SAT and 11. They're being compared to national norms, national groups. So that's why you see that jump because those percentages are how are we comparing to the national group of kids that take those assessments? So you want to talk about good data, we're doing pretty good because that's a national norm test.
062That's a comparison. Well, and I'm also in our board book here and from the motion that was made, all that said all that we said was as presented and there's nothing in our board book that said it was a five-year being presented. It gave us three options. And so I I guess I came to it going we were going to discuss and decide which one we were going with here. So yeah, and I don't think we really had the chance to do that. I know it's been crazy. It has been. And so today I went and met with Joe. Um, obviously this past couple weeks has been how do we eat kids at school? How do we keep them safe? How do we all these things? I went to Joe today said, Joe, what what
063do you think from a finance department and his recommendation from the finance side was a fiveyear because it was $100,000 savings. I'll leave that up to Mr. Krak if he wants to. I I I don't think I'm well I'd fit to have that discussion. Not only is it the savings, but I also think the uh the timeline fits with what's best practice adopting curriculum. If you're going to go year to year, it's just going to there's no consistency. Um and then you're retraining and retraining. Um so I I'm recommending the five-year um as I think that's good for kids. It's also got some some savings in it attached as well. And we need to be cognizant of that. We've been doing it for six years though, so it's not retraining if we adopt it for
064another year. Correct. It's the same curriculum. We continuous improvement. We're always training. So that would be seven years. You said best practice is a sevenyear benchmark. That would be a sevenyear. If we do five, that's 11 years. Understood. But you you've got a you've got a retool for this, Rachel. Um it's uh they t take taken to the process. Um, and usually those adoptions go out five, seven years and they just went through this adoption process and they want to continue this this product. Do you like it? I do. And and again, um, it we've gotten some great results out of historically. I know that this past year was not where we wanted to be. I understand that more than anybody. Um, but again, it's not as simple as let's just get this new curriculum
065and everything's going to be fixed. We've got to think about our teachers well-being, our teachers comfort level with things. Um, and and again, I trust their opinion. Um, absolutely. You know, I facilitate it. They're on the front line. there with in front of those kids, teaching those kids, designing interventions, um going through RTI. Um and it it'd be hard for me to not carry forward a recommendation that comes from the department with almost unanimous support from our staff. I guess I'm comfortable with the three years because it gives us a little bit of the savings and it gives us three more years to try this and that puts us at nine years with this curriculum and you know if we're not improving by then um I think that I I don't know that would be
066what I would be comfortable with but any other questions or comments from anybody? What is the savings between the three-year? I mean, I was just trying to figure it out. 100 grand. So, the no look at the one-year quote. I think it's 90,000 91,000. And what's the threeear? 228. So, divide that by three 76,000 a year. Yeah. And then So, you're saving $20,000 a year. 359 by five. That's 718. Yeah. I I don't care for the curriculum. I I think that but that being I think the focus is not where it should be which is on math. Um but I would support the three-year and just say like we have to have some time frame where we assess and say this is working or not and that would be long enough time to determine that.
067I know what you're I understand that if we pull the rug out for me right now that's not a good thing. So, I would do a three-year. I would be in favor of that. You you are cognizant of the fact that they're probably going to dip here in a couple weeks. Our our MSTEP with being out 25 days, we've missed about an eighth of the school year. So, well, that's this year. Yeah, that's there's two more years. Yeah. So, we have to vote on the motion on the table right now. Well, the motion is just to adopt the curriculum. So, I think we probably need to amend the motion to say if we're doing one, three, or five. So if if we go with five years, it's 71,000 a year. If we go with three
068years, it's 76,000 a year. And it's 91 for one year. Okay. I will I will say this $8,000. I will support Mr. Kra. Um, but I also say, um, myself, administrators and staff are dedicated to looking at and analyzing data every single year and making the best decisions for our students. And and that's that's whether it's three or five. Um, we're going to continue to look at data and analyze data and into and do a weekend. And I don't think I mean I guess I I absolutely believe that and I know that's what you've been doing all along and as long as I've been on the board you've come with data data data data from Dennis. So I appreciate that because I know that's where we get our best information and you missed the part
069where Rachel started out saying that she supports the staff and she supports Dennis and she supports the pro. Absolutely. I appreciate that and so and I feel the same way and um you know with anything in the consumer world. If you continue to support a product that you don't like, you're never going to find better. So, it's more about the product than anything else. But with that said, I don't disagree with but the people that are using it, the teachers do support this product unanimously. And that's the most important ingredient. I think the teach, you know, the most important ingredient should be the score. Well, yeah. And I think the kids do the most. I think we're losing sight of the kids. The kids are important, too. Mhm. Yeah. So, I would amend the motion
070to adopt the curriculum for a three-year term. Do we need a second? We would need a second on that amendment. I would second that. Any questions on the amendment? Okay. So amendment is motion to the K6 I already path extension for three year as presented. So then if it's working we can continue to extend it by yearly increments or renegotiate at that point. Yeah you can always you can always negotiate. We did last year. Yeah, they were they have they have been a wonderful company to work with. They are partners when I don't feel that we're just purchasing a product. They have been partners in this. Um when COVID hit, they gave us a ton of free access to stuff we didn't have to help us keep going. Um the professional development they provide us
071is fantastic. Um they're a very good partner in this. They're not just a product that we buy. So you call, they answer, so to speak. They answer questions. They're um the the people they have to come and train staff are highly qualified. They're relatable. Um like I I truly feel they've been a good partner. So but to that end, the product that we're is the kit. That's the product we're trying to educate. That's our product. 100% agree. So this business has their ducks in a row. Great. But if the product doesn't if it's not performing, I mean, that's what we that's my focus. That is where my that's my only focus. That was just something. So if we do the three-year program in three years, we're going to be back in the same spot and
072then we'll get a price for one, three, and five years. Well, again, it depends. If we do the three-year, so we'll get data back this summer. We'll get right back to work at it. What's working? It's not like Jim said, I don't know how this day is going to be this year. I I don't know. Um there's a lot of stress under families and kids and and and whatnot. Um but we're going to get right back to work on it. We're also going to be looking at other stuff if need be. So, we don't wait till the last minute. So I know if we go five year, let's say we go five years, it won't be the fifth year that we're looking into this and and having conversations and analyzing. Um so so to answer
073your question, we go three year, it won't be that third year that we're okay, we got to talk. Yeah, I understand. But then we'll have the option at that point if it is working to go one year, three years or purchase the five years. Yeah, that's a anything else. Okay, I just want to be clear. I have a motion on the table or amendment from Rachel. Motion to approve the K6 I Ready math extension for a three-year term is presented. Second by Sarah. Further discussion. Good. Okay. Rachel, yes. Katie, yes. Sarah, yes. Doug, yes. Lori, yes. Carrie, yes. Jack, yes. Amended. Okay. Thank you. Um, let me see here. We have a leave of absence. It is recommend the board approve the leave of absence of Heather Phelps as presented. I'll make a motion to
074approve the leave of absence for Heather Phelps. I second it. Any questions? Okay. Rachel, yes. Katie, yes. Sarah, yes. Doug, yes. Lori, yes. Carrie, yes. Jack, yes. Motion carry 70. All right. We have an RFP from the Gaylord High School for Gaylord High School carpet. It is recommended the board approve the bid in the amount of $159,999 from B&J Young Incorporated for the high school carpet installation project as presented. I will make a motion to approve the bid in the amount of $159,999 from D&J Young Incorporated for the high school carpet installation. Second questions on the high school carpet bid. Have we used them before? Just out of here. No, this carpet's probably original. Is it the original carpet? Is it original carpet that's in the building? Yes. It got to be it's 30 years
075old. No, I know. That's a This company's local, right? They're out of Valpina. But it looks like they're buying from hometown, though. No, they're buying a product the same what they would buy. They're all buying this. They're going to buy the same product. Different companies going to be installing. They were not invited from hometown. Oh, that says hometown floor and design center. HS carpet. They have a That's a bid. They put in a bid. Yeah, they bid. They were one of the I gotcha. So, they were all bidding the same carpet. And the one the same carpet, the same items, the same spots, the same everything. Everything was the same. That one bid was quite the outlier. Yeah. Yeah. That was terrifying. Yeah. So, it's just a labor. Any other questions? Okay. Rachel, yes. Katie,
076yes. Sarah, yes. Doug, yes. Lori, yes. Carrie, yes. Jeffrey, yes. Motion passes. 70. All right. We have a long-term suspension. It is recommended the board approve the long-term suspension of student five for 20 242 from Gaylord Community Schools as presented. This one went into close session, so there's not much we can discuss. I'll make a motion to approve the long-term suspension of the high school student five. I will second it. Okay. Rachel, yes. Katie, yes. Sarah, yes. Doug, yes. Lori, yes. Carrie, yes. Jeff Weaver, yes. Motion carries 70. Unfortunately, I have a few more of these. It is recommended the board approve the long-term suspension of student 6 for 2425 from Gaylord Community Schools as presented. I'll make the motion to approve the long-term suspension of student six from Gaylord Community Schools as presented. I'll
077second. Rachel, yes. Katie, yes. Sarah, yes. Doug, yes. Lori, yes. Carrie, yes. Jeff, yes. Carry 70. It is recommended the board approved the long-term suspension of student 7, 2425 from Gaylord Community Schools as presented. I'll make a motion to approve the long-term suspension of student 7. I will second it. Rachel, yes. Katie, yes. Sarah, yes. Doug, yes. Lorie, yes. Carrie, yes. Jeff. Yes. Motion carries. A motion to approve long-term suspension for student 8 2425 from Gaylord Community Schools as presented. I'll make the motion to approve the long-term suspension for student 8 from Gaylord Community Schools. I will second it. Rachel, yes. Katie, yes. Sarah, yes. Doug, yes. Lorie, yes. Carrie, yes. Jeff, yes. Motion carry. 70. All right. We had no public input earlier, so we'll have none now. And real quick, I'm going to
078go a little off schedule. I apologize we didn't discuss this, but I speak for myself and I think for the rest of the board, thank you Dave, Todd, and everybody for all that you've done. We know you guys all deserve a a long rest and vacation. Um, but you can't have one. I said you deserve I didn't say we could grant one, but uh thank you very much. I know has been long. Uh please let all of your staffs know. We appreciate even having the teachers and support staff come in when there was no kids there and and do what they did. Um your community appreciates it. We also received a letter from Pastor Dler thanking Yun Schools for all the staff that was present at Ephree handing out meals and helping people. Many many
079of you went above and beyond what you had to do. So and you were there every day. So, thank you those of you who are there at E3 helping every day. We appreciate it. So, yeah. So, on behalf of us, let's give them a round of applause. Thank you. Now, one last I'll make a motion to adjurnn. I'll second. All in favor? I Thank you all. [Music]