001Thank you everyone for uh coming to our uh potentially lengthy board meeting tonight. Um any of the speakers that are very brief, I might have a candy bar next time for you. I forgot them this time. My bad. So keep it in mind and remind me. So, uh, and and Dave, I see you in here twice. I'm worried right now. So, just kidding. [laughter] Okay. So, we've got no one for the open forum, so I will, uh, look for an approval of tonight's agenda. >> So, moved. >> Hey, is there a second? >> Second by Mary Joe. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign. Agenda approved and uh first thing is a request for approval for donations. Dr. Hy get going here. Um well,
002thank you for the opportunity to talk about the donations tonight. Uh we had $2,000 from the education foundation for the rendevous, $28 from uh black bulb giving fund for the BK learning uh for sped, $5,000 from the education fund for fifth grade kindness route, $774 from Freeborn County for the mental health fund, $300 from Daybreakers Kowanas for the ALHS robotics, two $250 uh donations from the Daybreakers Kowanas for tiger funds. $50 from Ascension Lutheran Church for donation to purchase books. $500 from Faster Chapter Grant National FFA for the FFA chapter. $4,000 from Union Center for fall sports. $1,000 from a Centra Credit Union for middle school robotics. Uh $1,500 from Union Center for the Clay Target Trap Team. and $100 from Cargill for the football team. >> Thank you. Uh is there approval of these
003donations? >> Is there second? Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign. All right. Donations accepted. Thank you. Uh consent items. I would look for approval of those. So move. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second >> and second by Kim. Any discussion on the consent items? Seeing none, all those in favor of accepting those signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same consent approved. All right. 7.1 reports. Dr. Hy. >> Well, again, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. um following up from the last few weeks um uh with the the threat and um some of the safety issues we've had that affected the district. Um we uh I spoke with um different people in the district to find
004out like what what what their comfort level is with our response and our protocols. Um, and what I was able to determine pretty quick, um, because I noticed some of our response at the schools, some schools are stronger, some schools are weaker, some parts of the district knew what to do, other parts of the district kind of had some questions. And what I was able to determine was for about the past three years, we really haven't reviewed the safety protocols with staff. Um, so I made the commitment um, couple weeks ago, I said today's a training day. So, um, we scheduled 45 minutes to an hour at each site and I went and gave the training because I wanted to make sure they heard it directly from me. Um, the unfortunate thing is I've been
005through threats like this. This has been my fifth one. Um, so I kind of just go into the mode of I know what I need to do and [clears throat] I need to get communication out there. But I wanted to make sure our staff was up to date on the protocols, up to date on communication, and I also wanted to acknowledge some of our as we went through the last couple of them, some of the areas that we needed to strengthen um with our internal communications and and our process on how we do things. So, literally all day today, starting at 7:30 and ending a little after 3:00, I was at each school, talked with the staff, went over the um the I love you guys safety protocol that we use. Um what everything meant
006and then how that works and answered any questions. Um so, no surprise got the most questions at Sibly in the high school. Those were the two most affected buildings. Um but I think more importantly um we were able to talk about building leaders at all levels and that during that [clears throat] emergency training my voice is already going and that during emergency training um that we're really talking about leadership training and that in an emergency yes there's protocols that we follow and there's things that need to be done but those protocols also gets specific to the school and the situation and that gets specific to the classroom. And so we talked about how even if they're young kids, kindergarten, first, second grade, they still need to hear some of the words, some of the words
007of hold, secure mode, um lockdown, evacuation, um shelter in place, things like that. But um but we also need to talk about it so they don't get scared about it and so that they know to follow the instruction of the teacher, follow the instruction of the leaders and how we get through an emergency. So So of all the things I've been doing, I've been kind of working and planning through that and very successful day I thought. Um heard from a fair number of staff that said thank you. Thank you for coming and talking about it. Thank you for talking about the fact that you know we have leadership. we're going to have to make decisions um that you know in some of those negative situations sometimes it's the decision of the teacher that helps the
008class get out of the situation. Um we talked about some of um um and I use the example I said when I was in the right county the Wright County sheriff would tell if you if you evacuate so you run away from the school because that's the best thing you could do with your class. You're in a neighborhood and you find an open garage door and you get all your class in there and you shut the door and you're hiding. You can call the you can call 911, tell them where you're at. You call the school and tell them where they're at. The bottom line is you and your kids are safe and that's what needs to happen. Um, as a superintendent, I'll deal with a mad homeowner, right? I'm sure our police chief and
009our sheriff would be right with me if something like that negative ever happened. But that's the kind of line of thinking that we have to work with our staff about making sure that all of our staff and all of our students are always safe at all times and no matter what the emergency is that they have the ability to make the decisions and have the reactions to again keep everybody safe at all times. So, so spent a whole day talking about that. My voice is a little shot, so I'm going to kind of keep it um to a minimum here, but um good to connect with the staff on what could be a negative um set of training, but I think it was positive and we were able to answer a lot of questions. So,
010it was good. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, school board reports. Let's start Gary's side today. Okay. Thank you. All right, Gary reminded me that I also attended some football games, which has been a lot of fun. Um, I don't have a lot to report. I went to a facilities committee meeting uh with Mary Joe and Davey, and uh we just went over kind of the general plans and years ahead. Paul Durban normally handles the facilities committee meeting and he's going to hand the reigns over to Kevin Peak. So, we talked about that a little bit. Um, and I sat in on a negotiations session with the custodial unit. Uh, Dave dropped in also. That was interesting. And we'll talk more about that in close session. >> I did a sibly walkthrough with uh,
011Principal Kenneth and Dr. Ohio and fun to see all the students engaged in the great leadership and um just great to see sibly. It was a great day. Uh also attended the Freeborn County Family Service Collaborative. Um of note there that pertains to the school district is, you know, the backpack program we've done uh for many years now, but it will be coming to the preschool level. And so the collaborative uh voted to pay for half of it. It's cost about 14,000 a year for the preschoolers to receive the weekend backpacks. So, uh, the family service collaborative, uh, we voted to approve $7,500. So, the preschoolers will now be getting the backpacks to take home, the food backpacks, and then the facilities meeting, which Angie reported on, and that's all. >> All right. As Gary
012pointed out, I'm the ex checker of the education foundation. I am the secretary treasurer. So, we have had some pretty significant events uh just recently. I can relax now for about six months because the Hall of Fame reception is done. The Pathways to Success uh event is done. Hall of Fame was on the uh 4th of this month and Pathways was on the 9th. Uh both well attended and um they're they're fun events. It's it's kind of hair raising getting ready for them and worrying about it, but it's over now and and everything went very well. Um the uh Pathways program involves an appearance on the following day uh which would be Friday and uh October 10th when uh distinguished alumni meet in the auditorium at the high school with uh sometimes junior and senior
013class. both. This year it was the senior class and u uh they did a Phil uh Swanson and Bev uh Jackson Carter did a very good job of relating to the uh students in the auditorium. some of those uh some of those qualities that has that have contributed to their success and indicated uh how they should pursue their various pathways and the students uh was impressed. I always am. They're a good audience. They're well-mannered, interested, ask a lot of questions. So, um that event went very well. um been at a a a couple of negotiation sessions. We've got one coming up on the 23rd of this month uh shortly. Um district curriculum committee meeting is coming up on the 21st uh of this month. And I would like to congratulate all of the people involved,
014both students, coaches, parents, for the fall act fall activities. They really went well. At least it would seem that they went well. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I just have a few things to report out on. I attended some football games as well with other folks. Actually, Gary's sending me messages in the stand. I see you. [laughter] Um, soccer game. I was able to go to the soccer game. Um, I am uh I am a um retired mother of a soccer player and of soccer players and it was fun to see um that section final game in Austin. just super proud of our students and our fans, the coaching staff, well represented at that game and uh and we're going to state so that's even better. Um I was uh just going to give
015a plug for the career fair that's happening on Friday um at the high school. I'm planning on attending um and I believe any board members that can hop in. It's always fun to see that. It's a great way for students to get connected to industry partners and possible careers. So, and then um I just wanted to comment briefly on um I know this is a different I'll put my Riverland hat on for a minute because I think it's worth noting,7 I think students from the high school evacuated. They practiced their evacuation drill to Riverland and uh not a trace left behind. Very impressive and well supervised. the students, we we were they were playful but serious about what what they were doing there, but also lighthearted and, you know, great job students. Really, that's not
016an easy task. And and I know you didn't get to have your phones for a while and um but I think uh everybody did great and I was really happy to be part of that and really proud of our district that day. So, thank you. >> Uh nothing uh we I did some different events. um did have a chance to slide into a negotiations. I'm planning on doing a few more of those and uh not that I need the candy bar, but I'm working for it. So, I'm done. So, we'll have our teacher just introduce yourself from people that don't know you and what your duties are. Thanks. >> Um hi, thank you so much for leaving time in the agenda for the teacher representatives. I'm Star Clauskin. I'm sixth grade Minnesota history teacher at
017Southwest. um [clears throat] some several celebrations all over the district in different schools, different um Hawthorne, Lake View, they all had very successful walk-athons that wrapped up this month. Southwest. We finished our fun fund raise. Thank you. Well, now we've come to our students and we've got one new one and we've got Carly, you're a senior already. So, why don't you gals just introduce yourself and give us some of the activities you're in and then report on what you're going to report on. Go ahead, Carly. >> All right. Hello. I'm Carly Ladley. Um, I am the editor of our school newspaper, The Alahas. I'm quite um [laughter] um involved in our publications program. Um I played varsity this year on our school's girls tennis team. That's very exciting. Go tennis. Um, [laughter] you know, um,
018yeah. [laughter] Um, so as you have heard, there have been some great things and some not so great things at the high school. Um, I'm here to tell you all the great things that have been happening, you know. Um, so our school's football team is second in our section. They're the second seed, which is pretty great. Um, our school's girls soccer team are is going to state. That's very exciting. Um, also our publications program got the opportunity to go to the U of M for um the state convention this year and we I don't want, you know, we we won a bunch of awards. That's pretty great. It's always it's always great to um see your hard work paid off, you know, and yeah, that's that's all I have. >> Okay, Alandro. >> Okay, first
019time using this, so Okay, I'm Alandre Drosa Lazaro. I'm a junior this year. I am the swim captain. I'm also in mock trial and I manage baseball. I'm also the vice president of student council and I'm a HOA staff writer. Um things going on in the high school right now. The swim season's turning to like its end point. We're going to big nine and then sections. Um in student council, I think we're doing pretty well. I think homecoming had a great turnout for students. We had so many students um come and like play powderpuff. I don't know if I'm talking to this too loud. um we had so many just students participation especially after the incident that happened the week before homecoming. I think it was just like for what happened and then after that
020what happened we had so many students wanting to come and just celebrate our school together. Um the music department which I'm in orchestra and band has been doing really well. Jazz band has started and we had two concerts well all three concerts for choir orchestra and band and they were all really successful. Great outcomes. Good amount of people showed up. And I think that's it. My part. >> Thank you. Alandre was our wonderful manager for baseball last year. She makes great cookies. Thank you. Nice to have you both back. Good luck enjoying your senior year. >> Okay, we'll move on to uh number nine, which is our uh curriculum and instruction. 91 is the state of the school years and we have Tanya Franks and the principles. >> All right. Good evening school board chair
021clot superintendent hyle. Um we're here tonight to present the state of the schools for fall of 2025. This will be looking at a data review, academic data review for school year 20 2425. Okay, there we go. All right. So, in thinking about our strategic directions tonight, um definitely focusing on that student learning component, you're going to hear from your the principles tonight regarding classroom and career as they're looking at identifying next steps for the school year 2526. Uh those are definitely pieces you'll hear highlighted tonight in our learning environments. Um, another key component that you'll hear this evening as part of our Minnesota MTSS work is in building purposeful partnerships with families to support student engagement and learning. Um, we have five of our sites that are participating in family and community engagement training sessions.
022Uh, so they are identifying some of those purposeful partnership pieces. Um, and then you'll also hear uh part of our focus being around HRS. Uh, so all of those tying directly into our strategic directions. You hear me talk data a lot. Tonight is going to be that site level focus. Um but as we think back to the presentation in September with the Northstar indicators tonight will be focused on academic achievement and then the high school and the ALC will also reiterate those graduation rates even though we reviewed them at the September 2nd meeting. So those two indicators tonight that they'll focus on is academic achievement and graduation rates. As you know, with the state of the schools report, you're going to see a lot of data. You're going to see a lot of graphs. Um,
023so what does that what do those color variations mean? You're going to see stacked reports tonight both for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment, which is the state report, and then we're sharing data tonight on the formative assessment system for teachers. You often hear that acronym FAST. um those stacked reports I put the color variations there at the bottom. So your meets and exceeds on the MCAs are going to be the green and the dark blue, the top chunk of the chart. And when looking at the fast assessments, again, there's that bold line in the center. Um students um in the purple variation are those that are in the low-risk or advanced categories. And each of the principles will share their individual site level data. Darcy, can you refresh? There's one more slide in there, please. Hm.
024One thing that I want to point out when each of the principles gets to the science slide this evening, science had new standards that were assessed this past school year. So, you will notice this chart look a little bit different. I put a bold line in between 24 and 25. though the results from 21 through 24 are not necessarily comparative to the results in 2025 because they are based on new standards. So when you do see the science slides tonight from the principles just know that 21 through 24 were the same assessment 25 is the new assessment. So that's why those are separated like that. That is just bizarre. Um why they didn't update at bottom right corner at the end of each of the slides I put a question mark opportunities for questions for
025each principal. So after each principal is done, you'll see that icon at the bottom of their slides and then that'll be an opportunity for you to connect with each of the individual principles tonight rather than waiting until the end. And now I'll go back to the beginning. All right, I'll invite principal guest up. Good evening everyone. We'll get started right away. So looking at graduation rate um you know much of our data you're going to see pretty much has stayed near our historical um trend line if you will. I know that throughout the throughout the education world there's been that concern postco where we've been but um we've mostly like I said stayed right where we are in that upper 80s um percent range. One of the areas I know that we are pretty excited
026about that's that's growing is the proficiency and the graduation progress of our English language learners. That's been an area that we've seen a lot of growth in. uh attribute a lot of that to our EL department. The work they're doing along with our counseling department has done taken a big step forward in understanding what transcripts look around the world. That's what they're really learning. Um as many of our students come from uh various places with lots of different options there. Um our next one was going to be we're going to talk some MCA data. Um, one of the areas that we saw some growth in on MCAs was in our reading. We had a increase the number of students who met or exceeded the U standards for that different level. One of the things that
027we also really want to champion out of our MCA progress is we saw an uptick in the number of kids taking it, which was a huge part of our of our outreach last year. uh the last two years truthfully in that one of the things that's been very very concerning to us is we have a very significant cohort of students who do not take MCAs. Uh and specifically those cohort tends to overlap with our students who also take the ACT. Uh so going back roughly three years ago we found an overlap of about twothirds of our kids taking the ACT never took an MCA in high school. So, you're talking about significantly impacting our data, but also significantly impacting those students and the fact that the longest test they've ever taken before they walk into
028a 4-hour ACT is whatever fits in a 42-minute period. So, we've been trying to get that information out to families that while there might not be anyone who jumps for joy to take a standardized test, you should probably um it's being worth the time to invest to get your student that MCA opportunity just to prepare for the next round. So, um, math-wise, we did not see the same, uh, growth that we saw in reading. In fact, we had a little bit of a down tick. Um, and the number of students who met or exceeded um, and then as already mentioned by Tanya, science um, our numbers look fantastic and I'd love to take those credit, but also the standards dramatically changed and as did the test. So, as much as I would love to tell
029you our science group just dominated, um, we'll have to see this year when we make our changes. So, um, we can go ahead and go to our next steps. Last year, some of the next steps that Chris, um, Dibble had put up there. Oh, I'll go to ACT first. Uh, one of the areas you see up there is at the high school, we've sort of shifted away from that main composite score that you see on the left, more towards the college readiness. Basically, the ACT describes a minimum score that each student needs to get in math, science, STEM, English, and reading to be ready for college. That's been our benchmark going on now four or five years. Um, last year was a disappointment. We had been steadily climbing for the last couple years. Um and
030we were hoping to move from that just under 35% to the 40% of our students were meeting that college readiness benchmark. We had a dramatic drop. Um only 20.8% of our students were there. Um so for example our goal this year sounds like it's a huge goal to staff to jump up 14 points but in reality we're just trying to remove the regression that we had last year. previous steps. A lot of the focus has been on whether we can improve our tier one base instruction. Uh we also last year invested and started up a very substantial intervention program. The focus was on eighth grade. The results were very good. Um our eighth graders who participated in the intervention classes saw a eightoint climb or six point climb, excuse me, in their reading versus the
031peers who were not in the intervention process. So a very great first step there. Um the now the name of the game is how do you expand that out across the whole building because there was a substantial amount of resources directed just towards eighth graders. Um but how do we expand it is going to be the real challenge. The other thing that you already saw we were hoping to get to 40%. We didn't make it. So if you really wanted to boil down our next steps at our level it really came down to to borrow a a coaching phrase. we went back to basics and so we broke it down into three main goals. Our first one and Carly already brought this up in her presentation is starting last spring we tried to address our
032level one areas of HRS that safe and collaborative by really trying to boost positive feedback. So one of the things we noticed in our walkthroughs as administrators and this is probably true of all humans we are very good at acknowledging when a student has not met our expectations. We are not the strongest at acknowledging when they adhere or meet them. And so the research shows that just as if we were coaching a skill, a sport, an art, humans respond better to positive feedback. And so we've been really working hard to build that up in our classrooms. Um, basically what we do is we go in, we do a quick 8 to 10 minute walkthrough and we just count positive comments. Um, those comments have to be specific, they have to be timely, they have to
033be real, they can't just be the good job. They need to be right. Exactly. This is why I'm I'm acknowledging what you did. Um so we have been able to basically operate through 88 walkthroughs already this year. Um as a result 72% have hit our goals in terms of uh you know meeting those positive feedback areas. This was an important and you'll see it on our next slide too. We felt like this was also an area where we had been not meeting the requirements or our expectations as an administrative team and that we weren't getting into classrooms enough. And this was one of our goals when we when our team met in the summer was we wanted to get one walkthrough per staff per month. We haven't quite got there but um we're getting pretty
034close to that. I do know last year we had roughly between 45 and 55 total walkthroughs for the year and as I said we're already at 88. So we're making progress there. Our second level is working on that tier one instruction. We're working really hard to again very basic foundational teaching skills. Are we clear with our lesson target to our students? And then somewhere along the way, are we getting meaningful checks for understanding? So our whole focus here again is we know the best time to intervene is right after you taught something initially. The quicker you can get in there and correct any misunderstandings, the better off we are. So, we're really working with our teachers, especially our younger new teachers, of when you teach a lesson, take some time in that lesson to stop
035and see if the students are getting it. It's easier then than it is two weeks later when you take the test and you find out they didn't. So, we're working really hard on that side. And again, that's part of our walkthrough process. Level three is something that is truly going to go back about six to eight years of work. Uh we're working really hard to get our proficiency scales built out. Um, right now I would say about half of our staff, half of our courses have accurate and aligned proficiency scales of our standards. Um, staff uh agreed to take on a December 1st deadline. We're going to have them done by December 1st because one of the big feedback from staff was we've spent all this time, you know, six to eight years of professional
036development building scales. What do we do with them? They're just pieces of paper if we don't know how to use them. And so December 1st on our academy day, we're going to get the Marzano people in to give us some training on how to actually put them to use. The other area that's going to be uh of interest to us is over the summer we started a process and today staff actually took the first major step in that in that um staff basically did an audit of their courses today and the simple questions were how often do you read a book and by we I mean students actually reading not listening to an audio book not listening to a teacher read but opening that book and reading on their own. How many articles do you
037read in a course? how many chapters of a textbook um right on to how many multi paragraph papers how many multi-page papers uh doesn't matter what skill you find on earth if you want to get better at you have to do it and so that's been one of our things that we've just started discussing at the ILT level and with our teachers are our students deserve to read and write better than their current level many of them are good at it we want to be even better we're not happy with just some we want everyone to and the only way to do that is to read and write more and I'm sure Carly and Alandre both appreciate that. Love the idea of more papers, right? But we also have pubs people so they know the
038power of writing and sending those messages. So we want to make sure every student is ready and able to meet the challenges of their career which is our last main focus. Um you know academics has been a major major part of of what we do. It's obviously the core mission, but the feedback that we have routinely got from community members, parents, and most importantly students is give us something we could use in real life. And when they mean that, they always come back to help me with what I want to do when I leave here. Um, and a lot of the feedback was, I don't I don't necessarily know what I want to do, or if I do know what I want to do, I don't know how to get there. And so we've been
039really investing a lot of resources and energy into creating some career readiness programs. We're super excited about CEO program. Uh Gary already brought it up. So this has been a four-year process for us. We've been trying to get this started. Uh Mau County successfully been running one for just a little over a decade. The CEO program is a partnership with the business community of Albert Lee and Freeborn County. It is a class that doesn't take place in the school. It is not taught by a teacher. It is taught by our business community and the people who have lived the real challenges of running a business. They've lived the real trials of managing others and our students get the opportunity to go there. They learn from those business leaders what it's like. Um it's a whole
040year course. The first half is all about creating a class business. From there, they end up rolling into creating their own business, whether it's a service industry or they actually produce a product with the sort of final tying it all together as a trade show at the end of the year. We are super excited, like I said, that we met our financial goals to actually move forward with this project. Um, the CEO board, which is built made up of uh business leaders in the community, a representative from Glennvilles, who's going to be partnering with us as well, and then Dr. Hy and myself. um are moving that process along of getting the final fundraising so that we can make sure it launches in fall of 2026 is our is when it uh hopefully will appear
041in our catalog ready to go. The other thing that that ties to is our academyy's program. Um, many of you got to hear about that a little bit last spring, but one of our hopes was to go ahead and start providing pathways to our students who are interested in in a career path and what courses in our building would help prepare them for that. And with themy's program, we did that. We currently have threemies operating. They are business and communication. They are, and this one's got the funny acronym, engineering, manufacturing, technology, and natural resources. And then we have a last one that's human and health services or as our counselors like to see it, it's the people world. Um, so we put those together. 10th graders are currently enrolled. We have between 60 and 70%
042of our 10th graders picked an academy last year. So we're really excited about how quickly that got off the ground. It's right now tied very heavily in our elective community. So our elective teachers are the backbone of that. The real question that our building has, and it was sparked by Dr. Hiles conversation with us just two weeks ago is how does this reshape our academic programming is sort of the next step for us for we know that many of the our students have some great ideas about what they want to do. The beauty of themy's program is we can give you those skills but on a flip side too we might be able to give you that exposure that shows that thing I've wanted to do my whole life that might not be what I
043want to do but I found this and that is what I want to do. So that's our hope with themy's program is to really solidify those partnerships with the business community so our kids are ready for what's comes beyond our building questions. >> Um how uh just a couple the CEO program how are students vetted for that or how do they uh qualify? So, I think that's probably one of my favorite things about it is no prerequisites. >> You don't have to be in a business class. You don't have to have taken a certain math. You put in it's a blind application process. The CEO board looks at them. There's a generally an essay involved in it a little bit to describe why they want to be involved in an entrepreneurship program. And then those
044community business members pick our cohort. And there's is there a capped number? >> Uh generally the first year they look around a dozen to 15. I think Mau County has gotten up to 20 and that's about the max that they're willing to do just because it's an intensive program and so they want to make sure that it's the right 20 and that we can give them everything they need. >> Sure. Just one more question. You talked about the EL department and their work at the high school. Do they still do students still get um a badge if they tell tell us about that? the bilingual seals. >> Yeah. >> Yes. And we've had tremendous success with that. The students in our EL department have done an amazing job. Um >> the bandwidth it takes to
045be learning like a traditional academic student while also picking up a second language is just amazing. And they do it many of them, you know, it's it's just I don't want to say with ease because I know how hard they're working, but it it does it comes across so quickly that they're able to do that. Um and again part of that is also through the work of our our two EL teachers and our success coaches. Uh those students have really stepped up and been able to take advantage of opportunities. Uh you know on a side note there we're super proud. We have the largest number that that I can find on record of EL students taking our CIS courses this year. They're moving into that realm. And so that's another really huge step for our
046students who have had the academic background and academic ability to now feel comfortable enough in our school with the language supports to take that challenge on. >> Sean the you mentioned increased participation in MCAs. How did how did you achieve that increase uh with the student body? So, one of the things that we started with was trying to focus on why they're important. Um, you know, we understand that, like I said, not not everyone enjoys them. We understand that there's obviously some debate inside the educational community about the validity of the data and all that, but at the same time, we know that's a story about our building. And so, we really tried hard with teachers of when when students ask, this is a thing about showing our building off to the world. and you're
047you're a bigger part of something than just yourself. And so that score that you put up there, that's what someone who wants to move to our community looks at. That's a a marker for us. And so we've been trying really hard to sort of flip the narrative from just it's a snapshot to yes, it is a snapshot, but it's a powerful one in our narrative. >> I'm just curious, and maybe Tanya can help with this, too. Multiple measures are a far better indication of student performance. I'm glad we're looking at ACT scores, but is there any kind of effort being made not by the school district because we need to have multip multiple schools participate, but any effort at the state level in the assessment of student learning to consider multiple measures. >> You want
048to I'll answer that. >> I I'll tell you from the state level from our MSBA board, that's been one of our focuses. Everyone there across the state understands the lack of participation and the lack of participation is growing and the lack of participation from probably the the the group of students that that would do better on the test. And uh we that's again we we part of our conference a couple weeks ago we spent a whole afternoon talking about how can we change this either make it mandatory again for graduation which means everyone's going to take it that might go over like a lead balloon but what we're seeing right now is like probably a bigger lead balloon where kids just don't take it so we are working at it it's a long process >>
049and it's got to be >> and I would even throw in classroom performance I That's that's valid, isn't it? I mean, I get frustrated with this business of MCAs because I mean, it's maybe not been said here at the table, but the word invalid based on high school student participation comes up. It's been coming up until now this year if the numbers are better. But I don't want to monkey around with invalid data. I want to see our measure our our student performance based on again multiple measures to give us a true sense of where they're going you know and what their readiness is for work and post postsecary education >> correct and and wholeheartedly agree that it's a definitely a flawed method um but I know just just recently in IoT the discussion about
050the MCAs and ACT s and all the different assessment data we have and the very frustration you express of it's it's one day it's four hours or it's one hour a student may elect to use that hour to click through and see how fast they can answer 63 questions which is four minutes or or less is one of our records so I mean it's it's obviously not for everyone but at the same time I know the message we're trying to deliver as an administrative team is whether we like it or not it's what gets projected out to our community about our performance and we know our kids are doing way better than what our test scores throw. And so it's a frustration point to us of saying that's the story the state wants to tell
051about our building. >> And you're exactly right. It's a it's a state issue. And I think when they the MCAs were taken away as a requirement for graduation in 2013, we saw the downfall of that. And was it perfect? No. Because you you did have some students who were taking the MCA. I worked with one student for reading for, you know, took the test 12 times. That's ridiculous. So, there were issues with it, but we shouldn't have just abandoned it because now we're the flip side. It [clears throat] It's not an accountability measurement. >> I want just one more. Do we do our juniors take the PAT test? >> So, we had two take the PAT this year. Um, last year though we did start offering the preACT and part of that was again we
052know that not the full reason why our ACT scores are where they are but we also know that there is a skill to taking large tests and that if we don't have a segment taking the MCA, which is definitely not the best way to prepare for an ACT, it still is a skill set that while we have courses that offer those up, they're not taken by every student. Not every student can fit it in. And so, especially when you look at our our top students who are trying to fit in five CIS courses, two musics, um, whatever you want to say, there's not enough hours in the day to get them those skills. And so, that was actually one of our discussions today during our staff development time was what can we do to get
053those skills out to every student? Because it doesn't matter. It's not just ACT prep. Yes, that's a good number for us. But you name the licensing test they're going to take in the future and it's the same type of test, multiplechoice, long multiple hours, time management. They need those skills to be successful. >> Thank you, Sean. Tanya, who is next? Yeah. Okay. Um again, here's the same slide you saw at um Sean's presentation, and that's our graduation rates. um those are four-year graduation rates. [cough] And if you look at the middle um um bars, you'll see the area learning center. So you can see that the four-year graduation rate is 27% and the seven-year is 63%. So, that is one of those indicators that is [clears throat] um pretty common around area learning centers is
054that seven-year graduation rate is um more significant and more meaningful as a lot of students are very credit deficit when they come to us and it takes some students longer. So, continue to work on um four-year rates and all of that, but a lot of times you'll see those numbers go up in the five and sixyear rate, too. This is our um schoolwide goal. Um we utilize um the ACUPPLACER for ours. um we don't have enough students that grade levels that that take the MCA to we don't get um data on that. Our cell size is too small to report. And a lot of our students are invested in taking the ACUPPLACER and seeing how that applies to some post-secary um programs for them. And it's it's really fun to see a student get a
055solid score on the ACUPPLACER and then see what programs that would qualify them for at Riverland. So that's our focus area for accountability for um different things. And then also um to assist with that, we know that um increasing our uh reading language arts um skills with students again reading and writing is um a lot of our students are credit deficit in English courses. And so, um, writing a goal that, um, 80% of our students will have, uh, two language arts credits during the school year. So, we'll be measuring that. Any questions about the ALC? I'll go on to the online academy. [clears throat] Okay. So, um with the online academy, this is the second year of implementation with the online academy in our district where it is over it is uh implemented with our
056district staff and our curriculum. Prior to that, we were partnering with uh other districts um for students that were enrolled in our with us with an online academy. So currently uh we have 42 students. Um you can see the breakdown of the grade levels. Three eighth graders, five 9th graders. Our biggest group is 11th grade. We've got 20 11th graders enrolled in the online academy and four 12th graders. Uh last year uh eight out of the 10 students graduated. and some of the things that need um some work for the online academy to continue to be successful and um improve um being so young and and new with just two years just going into our second year um is dedicating some PLC time uh to focus on online instructional practices with our staff. It is
057a different way of teaching it. It utilizes our online curriculum of egeneuity. However, it's not um it's different than the ALC because it is a traditional uh semester and things like that. Um that's different than ALC. So, instruction is different. And so, our ALC teachers are also our online academy teachers and working through some of those instructional practices and strengthening that. Um, also continuing to review, um, because we have several students that have been with us with the online academy and are graduating and receiving their entire high school um, course offerings with the online academy, [clears throat] excuse me. um continuing to look at the the program and the electives that we offer and how can we um ensure that we've got a comprehensive program for students that want to utilize the online academy for
058their high school. >> Any questions? >> So the juniors for example >> um they're considered part of the junior class. [clears throat and cough] >> Yes. Okay. So, is it fair to say that 10% of our juniors are in the online academy or is that overstating? >> Um, there's 20 of them. >> Okay. >> And there's what's our 11th grade? >> Yeah. >> Wow. >> That's pretty significant. >> And um last year there were well there were 10 12th graders last year. This year only four. So um you know I'm I'm not sure Why those numbers change like that? >> Do you know what they were the sophomores were then? Last year was around >> I don't remember. I wasn't I wasn't part of the online academy last year. I I that's a good question.
059I I don't know what the 10th grade number was last year. I can find that out for you. I think it increased a little bit. It wasn't wasn't 20. So more 11th graders chose to >> Do you have many of the online academy students come in during the day then? I mean that's their opportunity then at ALC to set with teachers then. Is that >> they do not they they'll um do a Google meet or they'll communicate by email for that instructional time when they need assistance. >> Okay. I think I earned a candy bar. [laughter] >> Sorry. >> Got a little timer going. >> Water bottle just instead. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Uh good evening. Thank you for having me. Uh just gonna have Tyler Johnson, principal at Southwest Middle School, uh go
060over some data here as well. uh go over our building goals for the year and then um address any questions that you guys might have then as well. Um so first thing looking at our MCA reading scores uh over the last five years and then our MCA math scores from the last five years as well. uh and our fast data from last year. Uh so the left one on both sides is our fall, the middle winter, right side is spring. And so I know Tanya talked to you guys a little bit about this as well. Um but really if your if your school stays at the same percentage, so like reading, we tested at 49% we're at that low risk or advanced in the fall. So theoretically, if we were to have 49% in the
061spring, fast is an adaptive test, meaning that it anticipates growth. Uh and so to stay at 49% doesn't mean that there was no learning. It means that you kept up with what Fast said as well. So, um, to go up 2% is pretty awesome for our building. On the flip side there, you can see math. We actually went down 3% from the fall screener to the spring screener as well. All right. So, uh, last year, uh, we talked about the percentage of all students in grades six through seven, um, at Southwest in the lowrisk to advanced, um, it used to be called college pathway would go from 42% measured from the spring before to 50%. And so, that previous uh, slide showed that we were at 51%. So, we didn't meet that goal last spring.
062Uh, the next one was Southwest has scheduled different 8week reading interventions called Reading Academy. So, we still do that. Um unfortunately we um don't do it during that same time with our schedule changed this year. Uh and then our classes stayed the same. So at about 52 minutes on average and then our team taught classes for special education and EL as well. This year uh we have five building goals um that are listed right here. So uh our belonging goal uh so our belonging and then that social emotional or seal piece are from student surveys that we gave in the springtime. Um, so for the belonging one, for example, last spring, we said that or our goal this year is that Southwest students will go from 83% who said they had a positive relationship with
063at least one teacher or staff member as measured in last year's spring survey to 90% this spring. Um, and in that same survey for the SEAL piece, um, again, our goal, we want, um, students go from I feel Southwest supported my emotional well-being from 59.6% last spring to 65% this spring. Uh and then our attendance piece there as well. So again, just trying to um we want students in school. So again, reducing that number of chronic absenteeism. Um we had a huge reduction last year. Um and that's large in part to our attendance team that meets weekly as well. Uh and then uh we do also have literacy and numeracy goals based off of the fast screeners as well. So that's all I have for you. What questions do you have for me? >> Quick
064question. one you mentioned on there that your instructional time has increased this year. >> That was the last year. >> That was how how did that all equate out? Did you >> have any kind of statistics on that or just a general feeling >> as far as like the increase in minutes? >> So what? >> Yeah. Yeah. So uh the reason for that was just the reduction as well. So we went from um an eight period day down to a seven period day. Uh and so unfortunately with that, you know, students do lo lose an elective hour, but then at the same time they do get extra minutes in those core classes as well. Um and so I think that went over well, especially um around that lunch time too because due to um contracts
065and things like that, that lunch period is a 53 minute long chunk of time. So when teachers have 43 minute class periods and then if they have that lunch period class is an extra 10 minutes which again isn't a bad thing but it does kind of throw off um the other class as well. So now they all are very similar. So anywhere between 50 and 53 minutes is kind of where they're at right now. I got the record.