SD308 Board of Education (9/9/2024)

001president pres please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pled alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all good evening board I'm uh excited to be here this evening we've got some important updates and information coming this evening and uh we are going to go first into I think some really important strategic work that the board committed to this past winter um and thinking about how we reflect on our continuous improvement process um in this in June of this year the board approved the equity and rightful presence policy and this policy call for us to really rethink and envision a place in our district where all students are thriving and we move from some are

002thriving to all students thriving and in that policy it called for continuous Improvement well how do we know if we we need to improve there are lots of different ways um if you have have a you know often our our our wives may tell us or our partners may tell us or our children may tell us that we have to improve but in districts there are lots of ways we do that and one of the best ways has been known is really getting a third party that's really benchmarked to give us honest and feedback and really to give us both our strengths to think about what are the strengths of our system what are the highlights what are the other things we're doing really well and boy in 308 we are doing a lot of

003things really really well um and also those opportunities or exceptions you'll hear about where we have to we have to arise and how we do that and so tonight I'm thrilled to welcome K Coleman who will be leading us through a presentation and also Dr Kade and we alsoo have with us and com Bogan who is here who is a consultant a strategic partner in how we are approaching the results and thinking about the results to this work so K Coleman welcome to the mic thank you so much madam president is it on almost can you hear me yeah okay Madame President members of the board Dr katti and all of the senior staff and other staff in the district thanks for being here it's thank you for inviting me to be here it's my

004pleasure to come back to this district and do a bit of a presentation we've worked all all dayto day with various groups with principles and District leadership and Union leadership and uh a variety of different populations and our purpose my purpose today and tonight is to spend a little time with you uh really looking inside the audit we're not this is going to be a very brief presentation I think you all have an executive summary I see them around the room um and so we'll the executive summary is the piece that is really um a summary of all the information that's in the full audit the full audit is a huge report it's about 420 pages so we talk a bit about process and how this uh how this how this has worked for you

005the important thing I think to remember is what the audit's central question is and that is what you see on the screen to what EX extent does sd308 have they EST have you established a coordinated valid and comprehensive curriculum and the organization to support and guide teaching and learning in the classroom so bottom line this is about kids learning and I suspect that's why everybody that's in this room right now is in this room it's about how do we support kids learning the foundation of this model is the alignment of the written taught and tested so when you see this triangle curriculum at the top is the work plan it's the definition of student learning what it is we want our kids to know and be able to do and being very thoughtful about that

006this isn't purchase materials this is that what is that curriculum you have state standards and then at a at a district level making the decisions about how do we lay that out for folks teaching is the work it's the delivery of student learning and assessment is the work measure determining if learning has occurred and what extent that's kind of the core of the curriculum audit and what we look for quality control is alignment the bottom line is alignment is the key to being sure that we have improved performance and approved achievement alignment has to be supported and facilitated at the district level alignment has to be realized by teachers and principles at the school level everything taught in classrooms prepares kids for anything they may encounter on any assessments or in real life we believe

007in no surprises so that alignment piece is going to determine whether how kids are doing and what the overall effect is the relationship between curriculum the district part in that alignment is the relationship between curriculum and what's assessed curriculum and the test that work is defined at a district level it's the I hit the wrong thing here alignment and Delivery at the school level is what is taught the curriculum that is taught and what is assessed so that's that piece that critical piece to being sure that what what is being taught is what is assessed and also those things that are Beyond assessment beyond the regular assessment assignment and alignment and delivery is as much about what to is taught the curriculum and how it's taught combined with cognition so we talk about three things

008content context and cognition the cogn cognitive demand those of you that are Educators or have been in education know full well about Bloom's taxonomy which is a really came out of University of Chicago I believe uh years and years ago um really looking at the levels of cognition for kids if what we do primarily is Stand and Deliver and we just expect factual Knowledge from kids the learning level is way less than if if we expect serious application so thinking through that is an important part the audit examines how well different departments within the system and different levels of the system are working to manage and support the curriculum design and delivery to achieve and maintain alignment in those three dimensions content context and cognitive there are things that in our world we say should

009be held tightly at the district level that's the ends that's the vision that's the mission and philosophy the goals the standards the priorities and and student objectives that's the curriculum piece what students are walking away with to Mastery the learning that is happening and student assessments so student objectives and student assessments go hand inand as well as program goals vision and Mission the flexible part we used to call this tightly held in your audit report you'll find tightly or loosely held um now is called flexible so where we get more flexible but at a school level that's that addresses the means not the ends the ends are defined at a district level the means are defined at a school level that means instruction that means strategies and approaches and groupings so if I'm a teacher

010te in this classroom and that same and the teacher next door to me is teaching the same content it may look different but the learning outcomes are the same in both classrooms so strategies and approaches are in the in the hands of teachers to say what do I need to do different because this little group is not getting it what am I going to do do i group them differently do I teach them differently what is it I need to do Staffing can be needs to be flexible processes need to be flexible resources and materials although within I want to caveat this within written curriculum there is an expectation that resources are defined but there are also there's not any one set of resources any place in the world people frequently will call that curriculum

011it's resources curriculum is what we want kids to know and be able to do the resources are the materials we use used to teach kids there's not anyone set any place in the world that will answer will be appropriate for every learning outcome for a student's coursework so there has to be some flexibility there and program implementation audit looks at five big areas the first one being vision and accountability we call these Focus areas and vision and accountability is in that in that area we look at policy we look at ad admin procedures we look at planning we look at the organization of the school system how does that all support teaching and learning and when there's mismatches we will talk about them in our findings the second area is direction or curriculum what is

012it that the what are those clear and valid objectives we have for all students what's the the um say kids are going to walk out of here knowing boom boom boom and being able to do that the third Focus area is internal consistency and equity in programs it's a big one and it's a big finding for you all we'll talk in about that in a second the fourth one the fourth area of focus is feedback so as a system do we use the results of our student assessments do we do program evaluation to improve adjust or sometimes terminate programs do we use it that way and the fifth one is productivity how do we continually improve in organizational productivity and in that area we look at budget we look at technology we look at facilities

013so pretty much touches audit pretty much touches every area of a School District with the understanding that what we're about is teaching and learning and kids being successful here's what we saw or this is what we did while we were here I had a team of 10 of us that visited the district between March 4th and 7th last spring we did 310 individual interviews analyzed over a thousand not during that week but during the weeks before and after of your documents collected for review we did 574 classroom observations across the district 2,639 surveys were responded to by parents teachers and administrators and 1,031 student work samples we call them um artifacts that were collected and sent off to an offside auditor briefly well let's start with strengths here's the strengths we saw very clear in

014this District there's an emerging Vision to service all kids there's resilient and committed teachers do you have a darn good developmentally appropriate child Early Childhood Center um strong working relationship with your unions and the district leadership and a variety of engaging programs for kiddos I want to say that what we do in the audit is we re we do an exception report it's not an attaboy report it's a report that says here's the standards and we measure you all as a district against those standards we only preent triangulated data so if we think we're on the path to finding something and we can't triangulated it will not go in your report so given that we're going to look just at the area of findings and I'm going to do it really fast because you've got

015it all in there but and then we'll talk a little more on the other Grand on recommendations that Focus area One Vision and accountability we talk we looked at board policies and we looked at admin procedures and there board policies have recently been redone I think within the last two years maybe maybe it's two and a half now um but there is in the area of comprehensive guidance for Effective curriculum management and quality control there's some needs there the the organizational St chart organizational um structure that we we saw when we arrived was in motion moving changing and we would say that I'm sure it's changed significantly I today from where it was and it needed to um it didn't support efficient and effective deployment of your of your human resources and job descriptions didn't

016provide adequate Direction and the other thing in that finding in those that Focus area is planning and plans are not fully coordinated and need greater Clarity and focus focus area 2 curriculum the key takeaways there are number one you don't have a curriculum management plan a curriculum management plan is a plan that says this is how we do curriculum work the scope number two the scope and quality of the written curriculum is not sufficient at some levels it's sufficient in some areas you'll have to go into the full report to see what that is there are some pockets of adequacy but when you don't have a full scope and a full um and good qual high quality so there's two things we look on we say is it there that's a scope issue is it

017any good and that's a quality issue there's four questions we had to ask but those the first two so you've got some curriculum that's been developed the qu the qu the issues are around quality and scope so you don't either of those areas are not sufficient when that's the case it leaves teachers on their own to decide what to teach we don't necessarily want that to happen we want to and teachers don't want that to happen teachers want tell me what I what I need to teach and I'm going to teach it you know the audit team a was asked a third question in this area in Focus area 2 and it was around analyzing the recently adopted Elementary and Junior High Ela resources I think they were adopted last spring maybe while we were

018here or right after right in that time frame and so we don't normally do that but we were asked to do that and so we did that analysis in relation to the Common Core State Standards and we found some inconsistent alignment so it's something that I think people are already working on I think that's the important thing to say here transposition period we came in midye with a new superintendent new administrative team things were popping they were already happening but it wasn't all finished and so when we did this report we were able to say okay so this is an issue and I know that Dr cancade and her staff are working right now on that that third piece there um and I know that um Bri do Doctor Brian let's call you Brian that's

019what I've been calling you so I like I don't know how to say that name Brian how do you say your name and I know they've been working on the organizational structure and job descriptions are in motion I mean that's exciting really thinking about the work that's already being done and uh that makes my heart go bitter better just cuz I know you've already you know you're taken off it didn't you didn't wait for our report area three there's quite a lot of stuff there there's five findings in area three it's about building a system of equity uh and by establishing this department of of equity and engagement it's a fabulous beginning um that was happening about the time we were here so that was that was a needed thing some student populations across this

020district and within schools are missing learning opportunities due to the lack of access to high quality curriculum and instruction District expectations are inconsistently reflected in instructional practices and you have you'll go into the report in areas of differentiation cognitive rigor engaging instructional practices strategies and US of high quality instructional sheltered instruction practice I'm going to skip right over those key and in addition in this Focus area you can see it gets long professional development plan is missing and not coordinated are delivered in a systemic way systematic way and in the examination at student work samples is that piece that we I think we collected 1,031 work samples that were sent off to our out of another uh an auditor off site and there was evidence of alignment issues in those and the this is a

021Yahoo for the district most of the artifacts demonstrated and expand for higher order thinking most demonstrated that that's a big statement to say most of that those student artifacts demonstrated that or higher order thinking and engaging context with the exception of mathematics so there you go you got a you got one of your goals right up front difference is were noted in how teachers interpreted Mastery we found literary selections that did not represent that diversity of the district so a lot of stuff in a lot of important stuff in Focus area three Focus area four key takeaways there are relative to not having sufficient planning for district assessment and program evaluation the overall scope of assessment being not adequate so when you do curriculum work you also do assessment work and this the third one

022that's got that little piece underlined students in 308 perform above State and National averages on sum of Assessments that's a good statement right but not all groups of students are performing at equally high levels something that has to be really explored and you use something called Fast Bridge results from that formative assessment called fastbridge do not predict performance on state assessments if we believe in no surprises for kids that's important productivity you all know I don't have to tell you that the district has gone through some tough Financial stuff uh but the financial health of the district is improving but you need that program evaluation piece that we talked about in number four to help in budget decision making you need to be able to have program evaluation so that budget Department CFO is able

023to say okay why do you need more money help me understand let's see what the effectiveness of what we're doing right now is you don't have program evaluation you're a big old system I think you went from pretty small system to pretty big pretty pretty fast and um so that's a that's an issue there's no longer change technology plan and we spend bazillions of dollars there and the facilities plan needs to needs to have a long range look at it you've got bits and pieces of things but you don't have the whole thing okay I could stop right now and say that's just the F but I'm going to tell you there's a bunch of recommendations and and we're going to fly through them really fast but you have a summary in your executive summary

024but we're going to here's how we make decisions about recommendations based on the findings what needs to change systemically to get better what changes the overall organizational structure need to improve to be more effective what changes to the written curriculum what changes to the taught curriculum what processes could be improved what goals and expectations could be more clearly defined that main focus of all of this is do we how do we improve student learning and engagement as major by assessments folks you had undertaken in this District what I call a really gutsy thing to do doing a curriculum audit the curriculum management audit takes guts it takes for all of you where you are at any point in time in this process is an okay place to be but you can stay there you have

025to move on and our goal is to provide you with the data that can link to the work that you're doing in strategic planning which I find very exciting because often new superintendant will come in and say well we need a strategic plan let's get a strategic plan and a strategic plan gets written without all the data and then they'll come and ask us to do curriculum audit like it's almost a little backwards you know this is great because you've got a ton of data now that can help guide in that strategic planning work okay let's talk about recommendations continue with the Strategic plan make clear linkages with the findings and recommendations of the audit address plan planning in all areas of the district we never put the plan I I have done about 40

026audits in this country and about 20 of them I've LED and I've never put this recommendation as recommendation one recommendation one is usually around policy and admin RS or admin procedures but in your your District it was important to put it here because of the lack of plans so as you move forward that's why it's in one that's why it's in that position because that says to you this is a priority we need plans in curriculum management and professional development and assessment and program evaluation in facilities and and and learning environment and Technology that's a lot of planning but it's is going to be come under that umbrella of the Strategic plan and then those pieces but it's all doable and it it can be done in an orderly Mash manner our second recommendation is

027around revising simple board policy work and doing adding administrative procedures to provide Clarity to board policy that work that was done a couple years ago it needs Clarity and your current Administration knows that well and they'll move forward with that continue the reorganization of the admin structures and revise the job descriptions complete the scope of the written curriculum I'm sorry I have I know I some people are feeling very affirmed he told me today when I walked in do you know that it says job descriptions 124 times in that report like oh I guess that was a point we wanted to make and D gum he's already doing it along with his staff complete the scope of the written curriculum and revise the existing curriculum uh for curriculum quality and specificity it's recommendation three and

028we say our recommendation is to start with a core and then move to non-core the core courses design and Implement a coordinated system of professional development that's differenti iated supports the written curriculum and is focused on producing effective research based High uh instructional practices and high levels of student engagement establish and in institutionalize a system this is critically important number five for ensuring equal access for every student to every student group to eliminate barriers to and to access for kids critically important develop and implement a comprehensive high quality plan for the design and delivery of services for English language Learners you call them English Learners just adding my own lingo English language Learners develop and Implement common align formative Diagnostic and summative assessments for all courses starting with the core k12 and working on the

029newly aligned curriculum with that area and begin to organize and create program evaluation because program evaluation is going to help not all all of you as you consider what is it we keep doing and tweak and adjust what is it that we say why if we're spin if we're doing all these things and not evaluating and how do we know if it's working how do we know if it's working we don't if we don't if we don't have program evaluation going in a system and it really helps the budget dep Department think about return on investment for the district budgeting process I have just thrown a ton at you really fast um and I want to ask this next questions so before we jump into the questions we just want to make sure that as

030K has mentioned you know we have the audit kicked off in really January with collection of documents um then we had a series of interviews and observations in March um so there has been a lot of work done across uh the district since then I mean we're uh approaching nine months since the beginning of the audit um also connected to what Kay said we've had the establishments of departments um Dr Waller was a department of one until the start of this year Dr Paul's Department did not exist so we have definitely prioritized a lot of what um K has presented through the findings from prioritizing the reorganization um collaboration with our Union Partners um we have a new board policy with our equity and rightful presence as as well as our call to action so

031there has been some specific work done in some of these targeted areas um through the work of Dr Waller's Department we have a new aligned School improvement process around the eight foundations so as we look at the work of our strategic road map and we ready the system for a new strategic plan this spring we have had enhanced mentoring we've had extended new teacher um orientation we've had our nextg um in teacher residency so you have seen mtss we have an mtss handbook for uh the first time again not that everything has been fully implemented we're moving into that next phase of program eval connection to budget which I'm sure is music to U Mr oba's ears so while there's a lot of work still to be done there has been a lot of work

032aligned to the curriculum audit aligned to our strategic road map um really through the work um also in partnership with an cumins Bogan with our strategic plan our DLT our district leadership team um with our OA members is kicking off next week um so we're really excited about the work that has been done um we're seeing um a lot of alignment between our strategic road map and the curriculum audit um so we're really using both both of those as Foundation as we move forward in our planning and preparation an is there anything that you would like to add above and beyond that absolutely uh good evening everybody I'm just uh here uh in support um I'm just going to sit down now if okay um yeah I just would Echo um what's already been said

033actually and just uh want to be a resource if I can um add any Clarity to the current process but this is a system in motion um and I think that um I think that you know it's it's just exciting to be a part of it so I'm just just here as a resource if I can answer any specific questions so oh you want to go go ahead well just quick um so I'm thinking about Kay what you said about this audit not being a part it's not a pat on the back it's an exception report report yes and I just want to say thank you to the board for the direction and the guidance that we were given because a lot of what Dr katti for the first 90 days we asked him um

034to go out into our world and explore it and find out what is this happening um what needs to be done and we gave him that time to do that we didn't ask him to come in and give us a strategic plan right away like you said that is a that is the that the tail wagging the dog right right and so I'm I'm Dr katti I think if you think about six deges of Separation I think he's touched everybody in this community everybody in our community has either heard from him directly sat with someone who who has spoken with him all of the different town halls and the meetings that he's had with so many people that gave him what is essentially what was in this report so we knew from you know a

035year ago what what the situation was and what the diagnosis was so I'm very pleased that the data is just backs up what we what we already knew but then now to have um you know our our the policies that the board has created around equity and rightful presence which was a huge lift but took a lot of Courage on our part to say to our community that it's not acceptable that some of some students um succeed but not others and that we want all of our students to benefit from the way we're educating them and so we we're we're courageous enough to know that this is the direction we want to go we've hired a superintendent now we have a a CFO who who brings us the data that we need in order to

036be successful because we knew we needed to handle that right away getting a CFO who could help us understand our numbers which is you know so vital and so important and we've just done a lot of things our our our board said to Dr Kel you know we want we want staff development and we want um student learning to be addressed and so this here is just a a um a product of where we need to go and a lot of it we're working on and um I'm just excited and I thank you Bor for like-mindedness and being able to just um hang in there with us as we know there's a lot of work to be done but that we're going in the right direction well I think I'm going to take one step

037back and I hate really like beating a dead of hor on the past but I think that especially between the transitions of boards with the current board and the past board we were constantly yelling into this like black hole of we need this everybody will tell you that I am the job description Queen it frustrates me to no end because that's my HR background but we had former administrators who said we don't need to do job descriptions so everybody yelling into this hole because we had no systems and so everything was just falling down and one of the things that has happened in I personally would say record time is that we have put at least a scaffolding of systems together so that when these recommendations came in there was a place for them to

038go there was no place for them ever to go and one of the things that really um I've seen such a just metamorphosis in the district is the committee work that we're doing now it it was it is when you talk about the tech we had already talked about that in our finance and Facilities meeting and knew that was something that we had identified before we wouldn't have even known where to even you know funnel those questions or those suggestions and those ideas the board comes with you know their own set of expertise and we know these things are missing whether it's Finance processes or administrative processes or HR processes or curriculum teaching so now just even having these basic systems in place and really building those systems has been truly like transformational just within

039the year so while it's hard to digest that audit it's very long it's 400 and some pages took a lot of sit downs but it's not for weenies it was also very you know and I told Dr K Kade and Dr katti we've been working so so hard because it you don't it takes a long time to get this stuff done and so just the amount of work that's been done in the last year is truly I mean they say a lot of times about education it's a tugboat not a speedboat and I'm like no we go to we got to move forward a lot quicker so I'm really excited about that and a lot of this TR too was validation that the board wasn't asking for for things that were ridiculous or out of

040the question it was truly and we identified this I think the the thing that the board identified at our 30,000 foot view was strong people and strong systems and when we put those in place things really started to roll so um it's been um exciting to see good any other questions so I initially had a question but I'm going to turn it into a comment um and and I will go off your point of a tugboat not a speedboat um I I think it took I I mean not to toot our our own horns or whatever I mean I think it took a lot for the district probably one of one of the best things that we did was to hire outside people to take a look at our organization and how it works to

041get kind of a to get a to get a clear eye on what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong and and I think this is this has proved it um my my question was going to be why should the community think that things are different this time and and maybe someone would like to comment on that but but before that you can before that you can already see that some of as you said some of these things are already in process and there are already green shoots that we're hoping are are starting to appear so I guess rather than asking the question that the comment that I would make would be to the community to um understand that these things take time um I think that uh trust is a big issue because

042there have been many starts and stops over the years um just kind of just kind of hang with us and know that we are we are slowly making progress and we all have the same uh we all have the same goal in the end so thank you for all the for the work that you and your team have done absolutely I think the time issue is is an important consideration you will find in the written recommendations some estimates about how long different things will take by people that have done that work doesn't mean it's totally accurate means that somebody that's done that work is saying on this audit team that the various levels of exper this is about how long it takes we know that anything in we know curriculum is always ongoing in a

043school system we know assessment work is always ongoing we know that professional development is is just ongoing we're doing it all the time but when you have it within the structure that says here's how we're going going to do things we don't just randomly do professional development we do it with thoughtfulness around we have a new curriculum for whatever the level is and we're going to do work on some professional development for that Etc all the way through in the various content areas so yeah and you were saying creating a process for curriculum development that's right that's that whole which isn't necessarily something that we're yeah it's called a curriculum management plan and they've already begun that work and I'm sure that'll be clean you know worked on this in these coming months and really

044tightened up because that's that and you basically that will go ultimately in the uh administrative procedures so that's the way we do things here that's the way we do things so you want that normalization to that's how we do things when we write curriculum and if we need to change things along the way we change them but we do it in a document that stays because people change positions and often in education that means we throw everything the baby and the bath water all go together as opposed to saying wait there's some good things that are happening here let's hold on to the good things that are making a difference for kiddos and let's add to what we need to add to to make this work more efficiently and effectively so that's we're defining detailing

045our policies um with the administrative procedure and that's where so it doesn't get lost and it's doing going to be an important step also through admin admin procedures because you've got basic board policy that meets the legal requirements that's I was saying yeah so there you're certainly going to want to be involved in some of it and and the administration will come to you on on the development of curriculum but I think the uh on development of policy but admin admin procedures need to be clear because it clarifies for everybody it says here's what this board policy means and how it impacts you as a School person I'm I'm I'm excited about the um this will help in prioritization yes um it'll help developing rois um to make sure they're getting best bank for the

046buck and not necessarily that it costs money it could be a reorganization like you were saying it could be um an adjustment um but it's uh this will help um oh that's and um it's what you know I've been i' I've calmed down about it but I definitely was very uh adamant that we need to start prioritizing appropriately so appreciate it Jared Amy I just have a couple comments um just a couple comments like I I know that this was something that we needed to do um so um there wasn't a ton of surprises for me in the audit although it's very thorough and I appreciate the kind of you know map to get to where where we where we want to be and I know that a lot of work has been done since

047we initiated the audit and so I'm glad that that's being recognized um I think this is just just another in so many cases with curriculum this is still this is all systems work it it's putting together the systems and the structures to make the work happen uh in in an equitable way and I'm glad people today are mentioning our policy on equity and right ful presence because curriculum access to curriculum how kids get T like all of that is connected to those um pieces of our policy uh so um I just wanted to uh highlight that uh and say um I think we're moving in the right direction so thank you sure and I'll have a different a little bit of a different take only because I'll you know I always have to remember the

048historical context and I you know quite frankly no I wasn't surprised by any of this but maybe from a different lens it's not like any of these things haven't been goals or Desires in the past but um I I want to remind us that it's it's virtually impossible to put these things in place without proper resources so it might differ from your comment a little bit where um having the experience I've had uh on the board in the past you're not going to be able to do these things while you're making cuts you're not going to be able to do these things when your finances are in limbo we don't have some of those plans in place because um it was you know triage it was triage for years uh and it was uh reactive

049that doesn't mean we should accept that uh it doesn't mean we shouldn't move past that but I do think it's something that we honestly need to make sure that we appreciate and really Hammer home to our community which is if you return us to the big bright lights and give us a list of things we cannot do um then we need to understand that there are ramifications and they last for a very very long time and having instability doesn't help either uh and so investment's important stability is important I'm pretty sure that's pretty much a private sector sentiment um out there so um I I I'm not saying like we should dwell on the past we should absolutely not dwell on the past I don't want to go back to the past but that's kind

050of the point and none of these things uh we're not making progress without being in that better financial situation and so um I I just want to make sure that we reiterate that piece because all of this is an investment in the end and it doesn't you can't invest if you are you're sending thousands of dollars tens of thousands of dollars to another school district next to you because you're taking out loans just to make ends meet so um I I'm not surprised I'm I'm I'm very content with where we're at right now and we need to continue because nobody wants to go back yeah and thank you Administration for all the hard work that you've done um we it doesn't go unnoticed we so appreciate it um one thing about this uh District was

051even when we were struggling um and having all sorts of challenges we had good people we had good people people and so um we want to keep those good people and so making investments in our in our Administration and in our district leadership in our all of our unions and the the um the ratifications that we did over the past year or so I mean we I think we and I hope that we're sending the message that we want um we want this District to to thrive and we can do that if we um just show our people how much they're valued um and I hope that that message is coming through loud and clear can I make a comment about what you don't know what you don't know until you know it I'm going

052to I don't know where everybody else stood on this because maybe you've been through it before I thought a curriculum modit was about curriculum just about curriculum and when I sat down for my personal interview I was like I'm sorry what are we talking about so I was very hesitant as a single board member to approve this cost because I had no idea what it entailed so I just want to kind of set the scene that in in a very positive way your te team came in and took over the district it was quite impressive um but you literally took over like a lot of space and a lot of time and your people really like came in and dug in and so it's very hard sometimes when you don't know what you're paying for

053or what you're getting but and I'm not one to want to spend money but I don't know how why we don't do this every year because this truly is the the this is what the board really needs to understand and I remember um one of the first things that I would always like say is why are we not tying our goals to our budget like I just don't understand because we didn't have any way to do that there was no mechanism in place and I Dr conade will remember where we're like why aren't we doing this why aren't we doing this and it's really hard because Administration is like a duck they're like we're swimming but below the water they're like trying to you know make up for the fact that none of this existed

054none of these structures and mechanisms exist existed and now the board truly has a way in which to be able to do this and so this is just this is I nobody could you know the administration can't sit here and say well we don't have the systems or the people or the this or the that you know and so we couldn't figure out why are you not doing this why do we not have job job descriptions why do we why are we tting tying our budget to our goals why can't you give us an Roi and it was just like on the hamster wheel all the time so this definitely paided itself off in Spades and then I have a specific question when you and and and I'm sure it's just I need more context

055around it but the audit team was asked to analyze the recently adopted Ela and Junior High Ela resources in relation to the Common Core State Standards and found in consistent alignment we were very proud and excited of that and you should be so can you just give me or give us context about the alignment so we so I understand that from a like a lay person not an educator the auditor actually did that analysis taking the state standards and and it's all laid out in finding 2.3 so go write that down and go there and you can read about it and see what was done and and the deal is you should be proud of the work that was done but take that work and Notch it up yep so if we take a look

056at that finding in actuality the alignment is fairly high in terms of the percentage but no resource will ever 100% be in line with the curriculum because the curriculum that is written is based on our needs align to State Standards so because we knew of a pending curriculum adoption we wanted to make sure that we had that information as a proactive approach typically what happen happens is our teachers spend a year utilizing a new resource and as they go along receive that information about it's not as aligned or we have some gaps so we had asked Kay and her team to look into this proactively so then Dr Paul and her Department can use that information as they are working on scope and sequins some Summit of Assessments and resource alignment so not only can

057Dr Paul but Dr Waller and Dr dubiel um because we're looking at our Ela curriculum which is what finding 2.3 looks at for K5 and 68 from the lens of both special ed and El and um jenet so Dr Paul is there anything else that I miss and I just want to make sure we said said that out loud because I'll read it and the board members will read it and the admin will read it but when you read it and if somebody's listening and they're like oh great you know just adopted that I just wanted to make sure we said this out loud for context for everybody thank you go ahead um we're currently working on a District 308 curriculum map and scope and sequence that we're implementing within our system that's aligned to

058not only content standards but addressing culturally responsive standards as well as social emotional learning standards so just as you heard today the resource supports the learning and we're looking at unpacking that with our teachers and doing that work alongside them this year a can you speak to how that's align for our strategic work plan that we've been um our road map that we've been working on Dr Conor and terms of a response yep so the ELA work and the umal work with the inclusion of our Universal screener is one of our top priorities within our strategic road map so the work that um these three departments are doing um almost on a daily basis is very much aligned and looking at this uh curriculum um adoption and implementation through multiple lenses so um these are

059success indicators and uh High priorities within our current strategic road map I it's important to understand that anything we can do you can do any it's just an analysis it's using tools and helping you really look hard anything that we can do you can do better probably I just think that's important to understand and I want to go back to your point upfront where you said we should do this every year now you shouldn't do it every year it's too intense no and honestly more a reflective practice than you guys coming in and like taking over I don't mean that District No districts will uh districts that really are working it and really TR making the effort to follow the recommendations and move forward we'll look at this in maybe seven years six years 5

060years I don't know what that year is going to be to say we have done this ton of work can you come in and do an abbreviated form of the audit to help us see through that lens but it's very intensive for a system I realize that I I know we're a lot to deal with when we come in because it's a lot of few people that have run districts and um and have done this work for many years and um districts and schools so I know we're a lot I always want to apologize when we leave I'm so sorry I'm sure you're glad we're leaving no no no I didn't mean that at all just that you don't know I didn't when you say a curriculum audit I think you're going to come in

061and do exactly what you did with the ELA not that we were going to do a full systems top to bottom Inside Out ex the whole you know I just had no idea what it's called the curriculum management audit and so really it is it's a systems audit relative to teaching and learning does does everything in the system support y what's going on in inesss so and I just want to close by saying um that when we talked about it taking some time right yeah um and then Mary Mary Joe talked about um you know building the trust and how do our staff and teachers see this as you know okay is this going to be here or is this going to be around and the one thing that I think our board did and

062we sent a message to our community that we put Dr katti in place for five years and that should speak volumes in terms of how much we trust him to lead us to lead this district and that they can be assured that someone's going to be here to see all this stuff through so I just want to say that I want to just say a few final thoughts if you don't mind recognize people's effort people are going to work really really hard and I've heard you kindly doing that tonight but keep that up at all levels of the organization because this is going to take take a ton of work communicate and be transparent there's nothing to hide here there's nothing to be ashamed of this is a point in time analysis factual analysis of

063where the system was and is was and in some cases is still remember process is sometimes as important as the product taking care of the people in the process note that progress celebrate that progress celebrate those milestones and benchmarks because it's being a team that is going to make this thing happen over time and time it does take time a lot of time it's not this isn't a flash in the p this is we're committed to doing this work over a period of time and this is being reinforced by the strategic planning process as well so it's not like we're just doing this to do this to be an activity it's is serious stuff and I wish you well in the whole process thanks so much thank you K thank you Dr K Kate can

064I just any additional thoughts from either you or an before we go forward or no okay first do we have any public comment okay we are passing um public comment 5.81 there is no public comment and so then I would move to 6.1 and invite Dr katti to give his superintendent report good evening board and I want to thank the board for this opportunity to highlight a couple important things and also um it has become our tradition where there are so many things in a district this large that I invite both board members to join in opportunities to reflect and share news and up news as well as um Reflections together so I want to thank the board for that for joining me in those comments um so before tonight's meeting we welcome four interested

065community members to learn more about what it means to be to serve as a board member um of the Board of Education this was an informational meeting and as you know the uh four board terms will expire in the spring of 25 and require elections in April we will host additional information sessions uh to provide resources from the Illinois Association of school boards and the Illinois State Board of Elections to interested individuals and offer them the opportunity to speak with congr board members as well as District leaders we hope that through this open and accessible accessible learning opportunity opportunity we can be a resource of information to anyone considering um running for this important uh service opportunity um and we want to thank our current board members for all of their leadership um today September

0669th is fetal alcohol Sy awareness day this day was chosen that on the ninth day of the ninth month of the year the world will remember the nine months of pregnancy and the importance of abstaining from alcohol this day serves as a reminder of the critical importance of understanding the risk associated with alcohol consumption during pregnancy and lifelong impact on the child fasd is a complex and preventable condition including a range of physical behavioral and cognitive disabilities this is a widespread problem and the CDC does estimate that one in 20 children are impacted um we want to join the nation and bring an awareness to this issue and we want to thank all of our partners and our resources in the community who help bring awareness to this um Tomorrow is National Suicide awareness day

067um it's really important for us to reflect on the resources that are available um I don't take a lightly in bringing this information but unfortunately it is a significant issue in our world where we have over 700,000 suicides per year worldwide we know that we have to work to break down the barriers and raise awareness and create a better culture of understanding support and resources for mental health in our district we have a variety of information regarding mental health available on the homepage of our district website as well as printed on the back of student ID card s we engage students in conversations regarding mental health activities such as the Coalition and Ascend and amplify our ways in which we want to promote awareness and inclusion and a sense of community one particular non-for-profit that

068I do want to highlight is Alisa's Miss Mission and their signs of suicide program it's important that we understand what those look like and really be vigilant in our community vigilance can really save a life in this instance um in our district we do also have on our website again and we also have some key factors around that Mr Bell would you want to highlight a couple of those resources around action uh one of the things it's important to note is every student ID um for grades 6 through 12 has information um for suicide awareness and and mental health on the back of that ID card if anyone is feeling um that they need that extra support Alyssa's mission in particular is assigns a suicide program um that is available at every level hope squad

069for the elementary um and then signs of suicide for our 6 through 12 students um and so they have the ability to kind of early intervention and prevention um for students who may just need that extra support um and so it's been a really good resource for us to use um and surrounding districts um engage in that same uh non for-profit organization and it's been really impactful I would say not just for our district but for all of our young people in the area and my final thoughts this evening I want to um thank you Jeremy um in my final thoughts this evening I want to acknowledge the ongoing improvements that are being made by our transportation staff to alter roots for greater efficiency uh we know that there continue be to there continue to

070be significant um opportunities but also that there have been significant improvements I want to thank everybody for r in around to increase the problem solving required I also want to express our appreciation to our Transportation uh director lesan mosy who's here this evening and uh we want to thank her and her team uh for all the work that's being taken to diagnose this issue um for example we know that we have quite a few we have a high level of writer ship that um aren't even slated for spots on the bus and so we are working with a system that hasn't really been examined fully um which presents a challenges and costs given we are still in a position where that department is definitely um struggling in terms of financial um the way in which

071it's run requires a lot and M has actually only been here less than 30 do we hit 30 days Miss Mosley we hit 30 days great and you're here it's smiling thank you so and it's not fixed yet it's not fixed yet no we appreciate everything you and your team and all the district is really taking a team effort so we recognize that so want to invite board shout outs now really quick though can I just add yeah you can call or text it's 988 at any time if you are an adult or a student and you need help it is the easiest and quickest way to get on the phone with a mental health crisis um to speak with someone 988 988 thank you thank you for that okay starting off National arts and

072education week is underway research suggests that the integration ation of Arts into educational curriculums naturally lead students to interact with academic content who wrote the sentence in ways that promote long-term retention particularly those who struggle with achieving success in conventional or non-arts integrated teaching approaches our district celebrates our Arts this week and is always thorough and we are always thoroughly impressed by our students and staff talent and commitment to engage in Music Theater creative writing and visual arts across all School levels y yay for shff your choice of color to fund teacher wish lists care closets scholarships classroom enhancements and more order online by September 13th for delivery on September 28th orders can be placed online visit the oehs web today this Saturday September 14th you can stop by pray Point Park between 10:00 a.m.

073and 12:00 p.m. to have brunch with the bilingual parent advisory committee BAC if you can make it bring a dish to share and be ready for some great conversations who doesn't love custard ButterBurgers or cheese curds head on over to our local Culver here in asigo tonight even though it's getting late so uh if you want to go you better get there quick I don't know if they're going to be open by the time we get out of here but there they're there still now don't forget to mention when you purchase that you are there supporting East View Academy Pathways and goal programs so they can receive a donation of 10% of your order subtotal We Are One Community supporting the great work of these special programs and schools thank you Culver and all those

074please join as we go High please join okay ASO High School invites the community to join in the fun at their homecoming parade on Sunday September 15th the parade will start at 300 pm. from asgo high school and go through downtown asgo the parade route will include Garfield Jefferson Maine Tyler Ashlin Washington and Franklin streets do asigo East Senior Cooper Carlile has been cast in the Illinois High School All State musical the prom oh he will perform during the yearly Illinois High School theater Festival at the University of Illinois on January 9th through through the 11th as a key event of the festival Cooper auditioned with hundreds of students from across the state and was cast he rehearsed over several weekends up until January's performances Cooper is only the fifth student in high school in

075in asigo East history to achieve this honor [Applause] hey and with that that concludes superintendent comments thank you okay we'll move on to 6.3 I'm sorry 6.2 board committee reports we'll start off with the equity and teaching and learning who has comments about that I can go um equity and teaching and learning we met this week uh we talked about a couple things um including some updates from teaching and learning we're going to talk about today the e-learning learning plan um and um those were kind of uh the highlights from our um teaching and learning committee there's one other thing though updates to the board yes updates to the board and then um the screening oh yeah Universal uh Universal screening uh was also part of our agenda at that time so um that's all

076I just learning yep and they highlighted um that there will be some monthly board updates coming from their Department uh on our board agendas so and we looked at some of the possible topics for that aligned with some of the work that we'll be doing in the committee so and I just want to add that I know we'll probably get to this but I don't care I want to re or I want to emphasize it before we get there that the uh e earning review that was in the works before like that's something we were we were already going to do before before it got hot outside yeah yeah we talked about that a little bit Yeah okay next the finance and Facilities who would like to report out on that oh um the document

077is well done so on September 23rd basically uh we're going to be coming uh to the board with an opportunity um to call back bonds potential um to set parameters around when we would do it and how we would do it and what the advantages would be um four new bus leases that's coming tonight right yes yeah and that's um to handle to help handle um any breakdowns um as well as to increase capacity um something we've already touched on today so that'll help uh with the overall operations and on time and helping kids learn um aark so far has gone well um with the um quality of the product and the reporting um more to come I think they're I don't know help me you know they're they're going to be doing yes yeah

078so the participation rate has gone up a lot this year compared to last which I think it's a boat of confidence by their customer our students on the choice of food that they are we student participation yes student participation yes and we've also asked aramac to come quarterly and present to the board provide update to the board provide the board an opportun to ask questions about food service so then uh the first uh presentation for this school year is September 23rd okay that was the part that I couldn't quite recall a big day September 2 um and then uh looking at opportunities to save in custodial Services radio and repeaters um repeaters was I forgot I forgot what it is it's uh we have radios now that are outdated that we need to update and

079we're doing RP so it's a way to be able when you communicate to to be able to go around that District which is big and be able to have radio access that's just and and standardized paper standardized um ways that we're ordering things instead of oneoff type of uh um um processes so um kind of uh standardized and convenient instead of just convenient right you know so that all right finance committee then policy legislative I can't pull up my notes so I will do this from memory um and and Dr Mario you can help me um we did go over several policies that I think are up for um up for review again today um we will be continually reviewing uh more and more policies as we go on um on the legislative side uh

080we we're kind of at the point where I think monitoring is where we're is where we're at um monitoring looking for updates we had originally talked about actively pursuing um elected officials I don't know that we're going to continue to pursue that at this time I think we'd like to keep more a breast of uh current legislation how it affects or doesn't affect us and uh what our position would be on those policies yeah the only other thing that we talked about was um there is possibility um that um we can work I'm going to say this the wrong way so I'm going to read it from the notes the committee discussed that ISB is now again offering to work with districts to update their administrative procedures the same way we did with our policies

081so if that is something that we pursue it would come likely through that same committee um yes so that is on the horizon very good okay we're moving on to 6.3 board member comments who would like to start uh so we have coming up a very celebratory month so Pur Viva Mexico right uh GTO de Dolores is coming up Hispanic Heritage Month nine Nations I believe celebrate their independence uh during this month so um super excited about that there's uh it'll be fun you'll see people with um Flags out and all kinds of stuff so um only other off comment I'll make is awesome uh um for OS and their their parade they do a great job and all of us over on the east side look forward to someday seeing an OE parade so

082let leave that out there just putting it out there just saying anyone else so I was at a uh collaborative PE course today um the school had invited the you United States adaptive golf Alliance in um there were four gentlemen from that organization um who are actually retired teachers and coaches and apparently pretty good golfers too uh to come in and um go over golf with the Stars and life skills students so it was pretty uh the the instructors were great and and by the way I would like to thank um Robin Smith and John Harrison for the invite um teachers were great I would encourage you to go and check it out if you get the opportunity um it's really amazing what they can get some of those kids to do when they kind

083of let them do things at at their own pace oh yeah um and the only other thing and I had asked if this was the only um outdoor type or or bringing in from the outside activity um and I'm just throwing this out there they did say they used to take them they used to go bowling as well but that Wasim ated because of budget cuts so just saying um they really had a good time so but but overall um you know kids were great like I said instructors were great it was uh good it was at oh oh okay okay um anyone else um so several of uh Jared ploger our board member our superintendent Dr Kel Gotti um Dr dubiel and Dr swimy attended the um Midwestern Plains Equity Assistance Center um conference

084this year um the the map Center we've been in relationship with them and in in Partnership for like the last maybe eight years taking off a year or so because of covid and some other things but um they're they're funded by the US Department of education the Civil Rights Division and um all of their services to us and I we' probably had over $100,000 worth of technical assistance provided to us um at no cost to us because of the grant that has been provided and so they um they showcased our district this time when we were there uh we were able to um they wanted us to share with the participants the work um how we've mobilized our community and the work that you've heard a lot about today and so that was um it

085was something that they came up with um during the conference because people wanted more uh more handson um understanding of of the work and so because we've had such a longstanding relationship with them and the work that we've been been able to do around uh rightful presence and Equity has has has been very substantial and last year when we went to the conference and um Dr Waller was in attendance that's where even though we knew we wanted an equity policy it was literally born in that room because of our understanding of rightful presence and rightful presence is um a concept by which you know this is taken taken up at the highest levels of education and so we are at the Forefront um of what is happening in education around um equity and rightful presence

086and so you can we can thank the map Center for their knowledge and for us bringing that back um so um the money you know just you know the travel down in the car is that gas is well that gas money is well spent because of what we're getting uh from that organization so just wanted to mention that okay we're moving on to 7.1 the consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please yes uh make a motion to approve all items under consent including 7.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on August 19th 2024 7.2 to acknowledge a foyer request received by the district 7.3 to approve the field trips for overnight and or more than 200 miles and 7.4 to approve the following policies section two School District

087organization 2 col 70 2 160 section 4 operational Services 45 section five general Personnel 580 5 colon 290 5 colon 310 section 6 instruction 6 col 110 6 col 150 section 7 uh students uh 7 colon 170 second are there any questions on the consent agenda okay Dr Maria I Miss Johnson i mrone i m s i Mr i m i motion passes 60 action item 8.1 approval of District administrator contract can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the district administrator contract as discussed and presented second Mr hi Miss Johnson hi Mr hi oh I Dr Maria I miss I motion passes 60 Dr duel Dr dubiel all right so tonight we welcome the candidate recommended for program administrator is Michael Shapiro with over 20 years experience as an educational administrator

088Mr Shapiro has served as an assistant principal and principal in several school districts including Anchorage Alaska in his leadership roles he led professional development elevated inclusive practices collaborated with various stakeholders and advocated for high quality instruction Mr sharo brings a wealth of diverse leadership and collaborative experiences needed for this position welcome Mr sherel thank you action item 8.2 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as discussed second Miss hi Miss Johnson I mron hi hi Dr Mar hi Mr hi motion passes 60 action item 8.3 approval of resolution authorizing notice of dismissal can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing notice of dismissal to educational support staff employee Eric freeze second Mr pler hi Miss hi mron I

089miss s i Dr Mario I Miss Johnson I motion passes 60 action item 8.4 approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 7,287 716 and 29 cents as presented second Dr Maria hi Miss Johnson I Mr hi hi Mr hi M hi motion passes 60 okay board AGS all right good evening board this evening is an opportunity for the board to review um the board agreements um this is an opportunity to discuss uh as we know board Agreements are were decided were voted upon last June let say June 14th I going to say of 23 uh these agreements serve as an important um resource for the board um so I wanted to uh provide the board with an opportunity

090to see if there's any further discussion or Reflections relating to the board agreements and um it it serves as a great um resource and I would just say it's been very helpful I just have um a comment about this you know um and you know for for for those out in the community we really do hold each other accountable when it comes to um you know making sure that we're staying in our lane we're staying in the governance role this doesn't happen um I don't want to say it a at a lot of school districts but there are a lot of school districts that these kind of things don't happen tragically um and if I'm being honest and completely transparent here um there's a there's there's quite a few taxing bodies out there that operate

091um not wanting the general public to see uh the business done in in the light if you will and so this is definitely an example of us um showing the community how we're holding ourselves accountable which doesn't always happen um this this reminds us but it also gives a lens to the community to realize what standards they should be holding us to right we we really have no power as individual board members they're not supposed to um except for when we call these meetings uh and this is the place where we are supposed to really um conduct business that that isn't sensitive right there are things out there that we have to certainly go close session for um you know and those can certainly be reviewed anytime in om but there are a lot of

092Boards out there that have people who they'll get on a taxing body or they'll get on a taxing board and the first thing tragically they're looking for is how the position can can work for them uh and I applaud this board and really um my time here on us weo I I would say the the vast majority of board members the vast majority of time um have certainly um held each other accountable which is great um it I have seen some things though that definitely um I haven't been uh very comfortable with um but I I would say again this board has gone above and beyond when it comes to reducing those things um we are here to serve nothing is here to serve us and so um I applaud the board and I thank

093you because this doesn't happen in all districts and please take a look at this community because you can see how we're holding each other accountable and we do right we do so um our board agreements we have a review annually um and we are scheduled to have a review coming up um as soon as we get our calendars um synced up and um a couple of ways in which we hold ourselves accountable is um our board meeting monitoring form so after every meeting whether electronic or or in this hard copy form our board members are asked to evaluate the success or lack thereof of the meeting based upon our board agreements um and then that information is compiled and we get to see it um pretty regularly as to what is the feedback from each

094of our board members um and where we may need to make some adjustments in our own behavior or um you know maybe someone is making a suggestion as to how we can do things better so we we do hold ourselves accountable in um in both of those ways and we are you know continually looking at our board agreements to see whether there are things in our board agreements that may be too prescriptive and we we no longer need them in our in our agreements and as we and and as as a board we may say you know we no longer need that we're doing really good in this area um and then we may see there's some areas in which we want to add um additional bard agreement so this is how we keep each

095other accountable this is how we have successful um meetings and um this is how our building our relationship with Dr Kel goti continues to um it can be a successful one if we are all adhering to the board agreements so just wanted to share that anybody else yeah you know um I don't I don't see any need to I don't have too many concerns um the one thing that i' I've learned um I don't know whatever the past year and a half or two years whatever it's been um is yeah we don't we're we're not experts um so we lean on the administration to give answers to a lot of the you know questions that are coming our way so kind of number six here engaging the community and staff I don't know how to

096to um put this in here but I would like to know um if we are if that administrator assigned to that isn't following through so that would be one of my concerns because that I think is something that the board should know um to keep our administrators accountable so it's not necessarily um how we're handling internally but that's something that I want to figure out how to address yeah I'm wondering if you you believe that that's our role or is that Dr katti's role to hold them accountable like we're holding him accountable because he's our only employee I just wonder how you think about that point help me are you referring to follow through on Communications that come in follow follow through yeah follow through on communication that come in um because it's um yeah

097it's it I I expect you know um that community members are acknowledged and our he so when they got a question so a couple great great point and so a couple ways that we can if I'm hearing you you'd like more information so this is helpful one of the things I can do that if they're specific I have a weekly meeting with ltin and Eugene so if there are specific things that come through we can ensure that that's noted in our record so you can have access to that right so I think that's that's number one right so if there are specific messages or whatever we can make sure that that gets flat I don't I don't I don't know if I need more information I just want to make sure that concerns are addressed

098yeah yeah yeah so absolutely absolutely and that is my responsibility and I take it and I'm happy to as things come up make sure that we are ensuring that every board member is getting that information um and if there's places where we can do better to make sure you get that information I'm not even suggesting um I just you know over the years it's uh um yeah just basically I feel that it's a that's something that I want to make sure that we're doing is following through okay thank you I just want to say this reminds me of the first time one one of the first times we sat together as a board and reviewed it it felt like we were in a um very different spot like we were just getting to know each

099other um and some cases um some of us had just been you know U brought on you know elected to the board and we're going to have that same instance likely before the end of you know uh the school year and so these board agreements are going to live on past um past this board um and they'll be reviewed again but I think they they have been a good starting point um for me as when I was a new board member um they were a good starting point starting point for me to understand how to comport myself as a board member in certain situations so um I think they're they're really helpful they might change and be tweaked uh and things like that just to um make the board you know the best working board

100uh possible and based on the board m MERS at the table but I think they give us a really strong starting point yeah we we developed this with uh the help of IB so I mean this is using best practice as well I mean it's so true yeah okay that's it um nine your turn Okay so next thank you for the feedback and I would just say that on on the in terms of the District administration we really appre appreciate the support of we are led by the board and your governance has really shown through and our ability to do and your trust and your faith in our work has really come through and uh um we we know that this is continuous Improvement so we know there will be mistakes and we appreciate the

101feedback or I specifically appreciate the feedback along it's not about perfection it's not about perfection but we sure as heck want to try striving towards striving towards um next 9.2 I want to invite Mr oemi to speak to the budg report thank you Dr katti I know uh board member Mary Joe asked uh this question just to get an idea of how we did at the end of the fiscal year now I want to point out that uh we have um um we're not cash bases we don't have cash bases accounting we have a cruel so all our financials are actually in the process are being audited right now so what I'm providing you is a snapshot of what expens were at the end of June uh 2024 and what the revenues are there will

102be adjustment made and so if you look at it what you see there is we actually got more Revenue than what we estimated I will be honest in saying that when it comes to revenue I'm very conservative in uh in estimating revenue and I'm more aggressive in estimating uh expenditures so they are no surprising so as you saw we got uh more Revenue than we projected and some of the areas on the expenditure side we actually spend more than what we budgeted and that was there's nothing uh unusual about this as far because as you know as I noted here part of this uh increase was the uh OA uh agreement that we signed as well as the agreement that we signed with our oosp uh partners we signed a comparative agreement with them and

103we know we have to pay for it now the one area that I want to point out though that continues to be a stress on the district's finances is transportation and I did a a flash uh projection that I will probably share with the board uh once the uh CPI that will be used for uh for the upcoming Levy comes out and from what I'm saying transport ation is dangerously bad on the district's uh finances and we have to restructure our transportation and make sure that we only transport kids who are eligible to be transported and the state is very clear about the requirement for district to provide transportation there three different categories of kids who are eligible for transportation students who live 1.5 miles from their school student in designated hazardous route so we're

104in the process cess of getting proposal from three firms to actually do a hazardous route analysis we haven't done that in a few years and what we we're using right now is data because some of those hazardous rout designations were done when subdivisions were just built and some of those subdivisions are different from the way they are and then the third category of kids who are eligible for transportation our students with special need with the i specifically call for them to be transported somehow folks believe incorrectly that if a child that uh an IEP that child is eligible for transportation and that child is not okay and uh so we need to yeah aut not automatic yeah yeah yeah that's and so what we do over the years what we're finding out is we bust

105just about every child who wants to be bused whether they eligible or not and that cost is is putting a dent on our finances and I cannot be I try not to be an alarmist but I can't say it any clearly if we continue through the path of you get Transportation you get transportation we will go broke as a district we cannot afford it so the three categories of kids the eligible for transportation all the other kids of One Transportation they have to pay how much it cost us to provide transportation so I'm talking about the cost of uh Leasing busers driver's salary fi depreciation I mean all the actual cost so we can no longer subsidize them if you remember last fiscal year we transfer $8 million that we borrow from working cash and

106we also Levy differently $5 million that we should Levy in the Ed fund we Levy in the transportation fund so $13 million extra even with that we still at uh a deficit and and the projection that I've done going back to 2030 we're looking at a deficit that by 30 uh 2030 we'll be looking at close to $26 million in deficit if we don't do anything differently about trans wait wait let me in the fund not not as a district but is related although I know yeah it's an offset of every yeah yeah yeah I get it I just wanted to make sure that I want to understand the scale yes it's it's a big scale and the interesting thing you cannot have a fund end the year and a negative so what it has

107to mean the money has to come from somewhere else so Transportation has been subsidized in this district for years with funds uh with money from other funds we can no longer Contin to doday we can't afford now if we're a wealthy District where we have a huge fund balance we can afford to subsidize Transportation we're not in that position and I can't say clearly enough if we continue on this path we without shifting we will be in big trouble so when was no I appreciate this flavor um I don't think I've appreciate the flavor yeah but uh flavor um when was the last time we did this hazardous when was the last time a hazardous Ro I want to say five 2015 so years ago now if you imagine some of the D subdivision that

108were built almost 10 years ago some of we know how they develop sub Vision some of them have no sidewalks of them now all those subdivisions now those kids have sidewalk now and those areas are probably no longer as us but we continue to provide transportation so part of what um thank you for this and I think it's completely re it is completely relevant to our budget fund update particularly when what the board we we're bringing to the board's attention is that we will bring bringing you some more detailed information about what those exact numbers are because as you can see if we haven't evaluated those numbers since 2015 consequently that means that all the ridership that has essentially come into the district since and whenever has essentially been grandfathered in to that and so

109there are individuals who are on the buses now part of this is that we are we have to address this um because as Mr obia shared has a significant impact on the overall run and you know I was at um one of the village zoning meeting meetings and I tried to actually kind of stress this point that impacts on us are going to look different than they have in the past because if and I know Dr katti you and I had talked about potentially maybe a maybe a a um an addition or a an amendment or whatever to what the demographer might tell us next time but based off of what was said last time right um and based off of the national fertility rate the the budget or I'm sorry the the school bus

110driver um shortage I said this is going to look very different because all the open areas are primarily south of our schools and all of our schools are up here and so if everybody up here doesn't go anywhere and doesn't have kids these schools are going to sit up here and in some places it's already happening some areas that really don't support um you know a large enough Ed uh a large enough pool of students but we sure are going to get them from away from here now one person wanted to take issue or whatever with that committee what I said but um and I understand their point about what impact fees are supposed to go for but at the same time like it's going to look different in this District I mean you're talking

111like I think 25 mil south of here is from this point I think is where we extend to it's a very large district and it's not like the the busing short or the shortage of bus drivers hasn't magically gone away since last year or the year before that these things still continue to be things that we face and I appreciate that you bring this but I I really encourage like the community because there's going to be elected officials out there will'll say hey we saved you money we didn't we didn't Levy but if they don't have sidewalks in those in some of those places guess what okay they didn't but now we're busting and this is costing taxpayer money anyways so it's it's a scary picture we will we we made the decision that we

112need to focus specifically on transportation to make sure that it's solving what it should be is the revenue that we bring in from Transportation should even out the expenses and that's the way every fund should be minimally and I don't think it's ever been like that in this district from the records that I've seen other funds have always we subsidize transportation and we cannot continue to do that we bleeding money we have to stop the bleed okay so the next page includes uh of the end of the fiscal year what we have in the we of fund balance and the conclusion is that when we the budget was developed we were looking at uh Revenue over expenses of $5.1 million so we actually before adjustments we did better than that 10.6 million but there will

113be adjustment some of those Revenue will be booked prior year some of there Revenue so there will be adjustment so the updated uh Financial as relates to this I'll present to the board once the audit is complete our Auditors are doing the uh they've been with us doing side visits this would be the earliest we've done an audit in a very long time let's just say that but we we going to do it on they're doing it on time we should have the draft completed by next month and it's supposed to be done by December we' never completed in December by Statue we're supposed to have a completed file by December we've never done that so we had doing that for the first time this any questions no but thank you for these numbers it

114helps thank you and then if you look at the other Pages what I then did is I went into the uh the financial analysis uh software and I I presented it a different way you can see what the uh the budgeted amount is and the current expenditure which ties in to the uh to the summary page that you saw and then I did it another way we looked at expenditure and we looked at fund balance this is uh be it and uh how it shapes out and then we looked to revenue by picture to you know some people do better with pictures and graphs and that's what we try to do here and so if you look at the I did all funds and I also did uh revenue on expenditure so I know I

115want to point this out if you look at the L funds you see a negative transfer of 6.8 million what that is is when we did the re when we did the refunding remember we did a bond refunding back in August of 23 the uh we have to transfer that money out the refunding out to an esro agent to pay the bond holders debt that's what that's 6.8 million transfers any questions what I've also included as part of our financial so we plan to include information like this on a monthly basis once a month as part of a budget report and something else that I've also included is the CPI report the CPI rep is important to us because it's the basis for the largest source of our Revenue property taxes if you remember the

116CPI for December which comes out in January of the following year is what determines how high we can Levy for so I think it's important for us to keep a breast of the CPI this data is released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics every 3 weeks after three uh yeah three weeks after the pr mon uh uh CP so what we see here in July was the last data that was uh that was released this week we should be able to get uh August which we will put in for next month's uh Financial what you was saying is as you've been hearing inflation is actually softening uh for example in June we actually had a negative CPI increase of uh Nega .1 basis point now uh in July was 2 and in May it was

117flat so of to date from July to July the cumulative CPI is actually 2.9 which is one of the reasons why the feds are saying they will start cutting rates right now because CPI is cing so we monitor this for our benefit because as I mentioned before it's the largest source of our Revenue property tax any questions Mr can you talk about when you talk about the food index rows how does that influence does that influence our overall expenditures is this is different than inflationary cost when the law was passed when tax cop law was passed back in 1991 and it impacted the cola County I believe in ' 94 or 96 what then happened it used to be before the tax cap law was passed when a school district needed to to increase property

118taxes they can increase it to how much money they need but what the tax cap did is it restricted the amount to CPI or 5% whichever low so so the CPI really is a measurement of the key basket of expenses that in urban area people spend money on for example we spend money one big factor on food we spend money on utilties that would be gas we spend money on eating out so that's what you see here so for example uh there was uh there was uh if you look at what I laid out here here the uh the index for for food went up by a certain percentage prepared food as well as eating out so all this does is necessary for us to know this information because that is what is going to

119determine how high a largest source of Revenue which is property tax levy is going to be for the next Levy that we're going to do that comes out in January thank you does that make sense I'm trying to oh no yeah um to break this the only thing the only I know I've I ask this all the time never remember the exact numbers but do we use in the projections did you use three and then 222 or I can't remember exactly what you Ed so what we know we know the next uh the December CPI for this December we know it what that is that's 3% right for the levy that we're going to do in December for the next for for the ones for the unknowns for the projections right for the unknowns what

120I've done is actually backed it down to 2% 2% okay so because I see three and then two and then going yeah million initially it was 2.5 but then I reduced it down to 2% because in real time we see that interest rate is coming down okay and the other part I want to point out in this too is one of the reasons why we did so well last year as far as Revenue was concerned interest rate was high and for the first time in a while we actually have money in the bank so we actually got bigger yield uh because uh the Investments that we put our money into we getting 5.3 5.6 which is pretty damn good if you have millions in the bank but what we know is with interest rate going

121down though it's going to hit us we wouldn't get the same level of uh investment income that we got oh yeah so what we looking at it we're not going to do anything crazy we going to within the municipal investment policy as well as the board policy but we're going to look at opportunities for us to try to get as close to that as possibly without doing anything crazy that's the plan as yields start coming down so we've been in conversation with a municipal advisor PMA to try to come up with a strategy for us to use for investing the funds we get the second biggest a second installment of our property tax in September and we are have to make that money last till June of next year so it's important that in addition

122to being prudent with expenditure we also have to invest it in such a way where we can get as much yeld as possible without taking any on Deal risk so to explain this to myself to make sure I understand this so basically anything better than two would be would be an increase a net increase um for that particular factor to our absolutely F absolutely okay now as we stand today is 2.9 so do I think it's going to come in at uh 2% probably not uh between now and December right it's not going to get to 2% no it's not going but I like being it might go 27 26 I like been conservative with Revenue yeah which is yeah okay very good okay any other questions okay I'm the only one thank you Mr

123oemi thank you uh four new bus leases and I know you have a that's on the agenda this evening do you want to speak to that I think uh Mr board member Sone mentioned this a little earlier what we have right now because of the fact that we bust everybody I mean we bus everybody whether they eligible or not all the buses that we actually have uh in our Fleet we're using it so we have no redundancy so if we have a breakdown if we have warranty work that needs to be done we have no bus that we can use so in order to create some redund redundancy because we know breakdowns will happen that's why we wanted to uh to lease for buses to provide us with that redundancy that we need in case

124of a breakdown do you want to invite Miss Mosley up do you want to come you want to come up come on up no you did say that every year they were just leasing 10 buses just because without any evaluation of what we really needed so now we have an idea that four buses is what we're looking at right yes to the tiles over for the rest of the year and do those buses have air conditioning those four will have air conditioning okay mhm and how many buses in our Fleet don't have air a conditioning there's about 40 in our Fleet that do not have air conditioning okay I I I think I think that's a really important question because as we have this discussion I I it seems like we're probably going to have

125one or two of these days every year as long as we're starting school in August and and I hear this all the time in the old days we would start on Labor Day and then right and and I always say the same thing I know this a little bit of a tangent but I always say the same thing it's people want to get finals done at the high school level before they go into second semester and that's how we got here but I do think it's important for us to have this conversation with the community that we're probably going to get one or two of these days in August moving forward and that's another expense I'm I'm going to assume that the school buses with air conditioning probably run us a little bit more than

126the ones without yes go out on a limb and say that and so we also use more gas MH I yes yes what five miles a gallon so I like at some point like no pun intended but rubber meets the road and you got to figure out what's your what you're going to do so thanks for how many buses in our Fleet total we have 56 156 156 okay that include hours or how many how many that is District owned that's not an outsourced buses yeah wow I know that's a lot of so we we're looking at all kinds of things that we can do to make sure Transportation has to be efficient and uh I just have to be clear that some of the things that we'll do will not be public because folks

127who are getting transported will not eligible for we can't can't continue to do that I can't say that enough we cannot we cannot afford it and oh and and there are sorry kind of the back topic but sort of there are districts that do this already right where they're saying hey we we're we're Char if if you're interested in paid Transportation because you're because you're within this uh area here's how much it costs I know of one that I know does that uh every District I've work for does that so we actually we do a cost analysis of how much it cost us to run a bus and we pass that on to parents who opt to use Transportation if they're not eligible for it so we not losing money subsidizing that because most people

128believe that uh uh they uh their property tax pays for transportation actually in a given year we ly $2 million in transportation and uh transportation if you look at the data that I just shared last year we spend about 16 million so it doesn't even come close and the state when it comes to reimbursement up up until the last two years this state Pro rates based on appropriation which means we never get dollar for dollar even though we supposed to be to be entitled to it but we never get there were time before Co it was 30% it's of the amount that we eligible for the state only paid us 30% out of that they do better with uh special a they pay us an average of about 80% but now with regular transportation in

129the last couple of years because of covid they've actually paid us about 60% which is still not 100% so we start up from behind the air is it just sped or is it sped in e as well uh it's mostly sped okay we we will come back to this so This has come tonight for information and then it'll come to the board at the next board meeting for Action so if there are any followup questions in between or any wonderings definitely please reach out um we want to thank you Miss mosy for being here and as you just ask did we did we try did we get multiple bids or did we only get this one bid so we didn't get multiple bids and I'll tell you why at this time of the year there's

130a shortage of buses and I'll tell you something that happened we were actually talking to to a a vendor about uh doing a bus lease to bring to the board 60 of their buses a company as uh School District came in from Canada and put all 60 buses all at once so they had no bus to uh to actually lease to us so we have to beg and and and borrow and cheat for them to be able to commit this for buses to us and another company that we contacted they said they wouldn't have a bus deal to us till December January so there's a shortage just like shortages of cars there's actually a shortage of buses that's worse than cars can we when we're working on when we're putting together the proposal though can

131you include that why it doesn't show multiple bids and include that there is a bus shortage just for posterity so it's captured in that sure we'll be happy to do that be happy to do it yeah thanks John thank you I I agree you um policies for first read Dr concade yep so in addition to the policies that we reviewed as part of the consent agenda we also looked at six policies um the first policy 2 125 um was based on new per DM rates um as part of when we uh realigned our board policies we had committed to um this policy aligning across our systems so any travel prium reimbursement um would be aligned if a teacher administrator or a board member went to a professional learning opportunity um so we discussed uh potential

132new rates um in 470 um which is resource conservation the change that is being recommended by isab is instead of a specific um percentage goal related to uh resource resource conservation is that the district be able to establish their own goal um for 480 um in terms of accounting and audits iasb is recommending um the revolving fund accounts go from 500 to 1,000 the remaining three policies are legal reference updates but placed in this section because it's the additional um either reference to school code or uh public X so it's not just changes to the actual legal references there are additional legal references within that okay questions okay thank you Dr k um next I want to invite Dr Waller and Dr Paul and I'm sure Dr Kate as well uh welcome you all to

133speak to these updates regarding uh the board's requests to really think about our our profile in the direction and so we want to bring some monthly information did you have a yeah I just had a really quick question about that last policy oh policy I apologize um when it comes to periodic review of procedures on reduction of solid waste generated by academic blah blah blah blah it says establish the goal by the district where have we ever done done that and to even create a baseline yep so my understanding is that we have not so that would be have to be part of that procedure and working with operation and the schools in terms of what is even a potential right Baseline and goal so that was the discussion within uh the committee was where

134would we start and would it look different at different levels because the feasibility might be different in K5 versus 68 versus 912 so um the alignment to establishment of the goal within the district was actually more well-received than an arbitrary number existing in the ball right and and every huge need 50% looks very different in a district depending on where you physically are as well um the reason that I ask is because I obviously as J will always say is this one of our priorities you know we have a lot of priorities you know and where does this fall but can we make sure that this somehow lands intentionally in our strategic plan because I think it has a lot of um I think energy resources when it comes to conservation when it comes to

135saving our saving you know come to savings with the district if we don't if we're not intentionally setting goals and figuring it out then we're just using our resources and stuff so um if we could make sure that's part of our you know establishing a Baseline and then you know year two is setting a goal year three is setting a goal you know so we just have somewhere to start because I we've looked at this policy before and I'm like but we never talk about it so sorry Dr kotti you didn't see that I had a question but go ahead in addition right now you have an additional question or no no no I no this was very helpful I'm glad you raised it so thank you um Dr Waller and Dr Paul all right

136um so actually this is including myself uh Dr Paul and Dr dubiel um so we're going to provide our first update for equity and engagement so as an equity and engagement Department we will consistent ently provide updates to the Board of Education demonstrating how we are creating a foundation throughout our system that is rooted in equity and rightful presence as the equity and engagement Department continues to have interde departmental collaboration to embed Equity resources lessons culturally responsive strategies and professional learning opportunities we will provide updates here so that there is Clarity to the board on our Department's alignment and commitment to lifting the three foundational practices additionally we will provide updates on how we are building opportunities to connect communicate and collaborate with our community Through parent University superintendent advisory groups School parent organizations and

137additional opportunities as we are developing for this school year so I'm providing an update from learning and Innovation as a learning and Innovation Department we will provide the board with monthly updates highlighting our commitment to foundational practices of equity and rightful presence as well as high quality instruction grounded in culturally relevant teaching practices these updates will serve as a means to inform the board about the ongoing interdepartmental professional development efforts aimed at the building leaders and staff ensuring that our educators are equipped with the tools and knowledge necessary to Foster inclusive and effective learning environments in addition we will provide insights into curriculum and instruction strategies aligned with these principles supporting our mission to deliver Equitable and culturally responsive education to all students do we have what you're reading no Okay can as a diverse

138Learners Department we are committed to effective systems and teams high quality instruction and equity and rightful presence we aim to provide updates that Encompass how these foundational practice practices are embedded in our decision-making processes for the purpose of coherence timeliness feasibility and fiscal responsibility while upholding quality pedagogy and practices that are suit and Centered for our diverse Learners that include Early Childhood multilingual Learners and students in special education further these updates will build upon improvements and new highlights that demonstrate collaboration communication and strategic approaches for the VAR needs of diverse Learners can you guys send those to um Ursula so she can put them in the board board docks y so essentially we're committed to what we started to discuss this past summer so monthly updates related to a variety of data across our system

139both academic uh behavior and attendance to provide updates and information related to our school Improvement plans our three foundational practices our professional learning and under that umbrella as Dr juel mentioned not only for all students but also looking more indepthly at our um different subgroups and student representations thank you are there questions or feedback um regarding more generally we've heard this evening kind of in terms of the board's governance role around student achievement um as you listened a little bit to what you heard um these are just some general thought points around the direction we will go regarding the updates um anything specific that emerg as you listen um this was really more to initiate the conversations you will next month you will get a formal more formal presentation um we wanted to just start

140with just kind of some general updates or ideas and then move into any more specific things things that would want to hear more about you heard the presentation around the curriculum audit this evening you've heard you know you you drafted the board policy there's Direction you've given me um as you listen are there anything that came up specifically and uh and of course whether it's tonight or following the meeting you don't have to get right now but I think that's really the intent so I I'm just not an audio learner I'm a visual learner I just don't understand where this fits into I'm just feel like go ahead I no please I'm going to I I think what the I think they commitment statements right like these are their commitments to report back to us

141uh I agree it would be good to have them in writing just so we can see you know what they what they look like but they're like committing to bringing us monthly updates and the work that's going on in in their different departments at um our committee meeting we did see a little bit of like a draft of what those updates would look like or or topics I guess um and my first initial impression I think of the updates or of that that visual was well that seems right that seems right like those are the things that we should be thinking about but um or that the board should kind of be aware of like there was one month where was like update like on curriculum stuff I'm like okay cool we're going to see

142that then and we kind of know what to expect uh but one of the things I think we talked about at the committee meeting was that that's a living document right like we don't want to set out 12 months like it's good to think ahead but there might be times where we need to bring uh other stuff forward within those updates but I I hear what you all said as commitments to time and space for for you all to come to the board and update us on those student achievement items that are obviously so so important some of the stuff on the original calendar that was shared at the committee meeting made sense like when we're looking at like the state data because it comes out at a certain time we're going to look at

143a certain time right but there's other stuff that's a little bit more influx you know it could happen here it could happen here and so um I'm hearing this is a start to their commitment to bring U monthly reports back to us thank you we will we will have all this in the weekly update from the my meeting with uh Lan and Eugene um that calendar and those overviews and those commitments will be laid out in there so you'll get those then so this is like um Jen you know how we took the um Finance report or not really the finance report but the finances and we wanted our community to hear more about the evidence-based funding and all that and we found how successful that was by continuing to bring that to the board

144um and thus to the community and so this is kind of like the same concept around student achievement okay yeah yeah yeah yes that helped okay and then how it ties the student inch yes yes okay can you um tell me the acronym I lead innovate Learners Equity diversity I know that it's somewhere in that R yes you're so close it's Innovation learning Equity adversity or advocacy and diversity okay so all those part all departs under this umbrella yes it's all of our departments together so is that our little acronym it is our little acronym I love it love that I'd like a t-shirt i' like it oh good we need another t-shirt I think it needs to be we I saw pictures barrier Busters we already did it back there I love that Equity

145advocacy ADV vacy and diversity all right yeah you guys got to come up with a t-shirt thank you all for for the update um next I want to invite um Dr K to give us update on the updated e-learning plan that will be brought forward absolutely one second so um what we had done is we in response to discussions last spring uh we wanted to revise and relook at our current e-learning plan so we currently use the e-learning plan um in lie of emergency days so kind of postco the state did allow that in place of emergency days that we would be able to um if we had an adopt e-learning plan sorry um we would be able to utilize um an emergency day through the e-learning plan for inclement weather or unforeseen uh circumstances

146so the timeline that we have been following um with consultation with oea it's moving by itself I can see it moving and we have is it my is it correct we have to every three years resubmit this to is correct okay so are we doing this early or is this we need to do this so um kind of both so we did submit in 2021 so we are trying to submit it earlier than when we were approved but um in light of the discussions that started in the spring of last year we wanted to be kind of on the Forefront of resubmitting um so the timeline that we have been following is consultation with both oea and oesa because we are bringing recommendations for some change to our current e-learning plan um we did discuss

147this um at the last Equity learning and Innovation meeting we are coming here today for information um in order to potentially change our e-learning plan we do have to hold a public hearing so we would then hold our public hearing um on September 23rd the start of our next meeting and then potentially uh go to action for approval of the updated plan at that point we would submit to the regional Office of Education for approval and then distribute the plan to students staffs parents and the public um we cannot implement any changes to the plan until it has been um approved by both our board and the regional Office of Education and then distributed to our families and uh School community so the two main principles is that we have to ensure access for all

148students and that we have to have a minimum of five clock hours of instruction or school work so at this point we are not recommending any changes to our early childhood uh plan because of the um access to devices um we are not Ono one with take-home at Early Childhood so we are looking to focus on the student work um our teachers and related services will be available for office hours at the designated time and then those Choice boards um will be sent home and also available um online similarly our elementary is not um one: one take-home K5 um so we will be following a recommended schedule but focus on student work um we will have a variety of office hour opportunities for students to um join and ask questions through Google meets and then

149our teachers are also available uh by phone or email um our choice boards with um lesson materials will be sent home um and have actually already started to be sent home and then are available also online so the changes that we are recommending um is at our secondary level So currently our secondary level meets um across a what you would consider a typical school day and what we've seen over the last year of implementing this is a 41 or 48 minute period remotely is um longer than what we need in order to provide instruction and have students have the opportunity to complete schoolwork so with the guiding principle of a 5-hour instructional day the committee came together and talked about three different options one being um a shortened day followed by um a break and

150then um time for student support time another option was no student support time and extended um the class periods a month of five hours but what the committee settled on is they wanted to do a mixture of both instructional time through a Google uh meet and have opportunities for students to seek help so the Junior High um will start at 8:00 um they currently have a student support time at the start of their day so we would continue that the class periods then periods 1 through n would be 20 minutes in length and then at the end of the day there would be a 55 minute students support time to give the students opportunities to either asynchronously complete work that they have um experienced or participated in throughout the day or rejoin um any of

151their classes to see clarification support or help from their teachers the high school schedule will also start at 8:00 um the class periods there will be 25 minutes followed by a 55 minute student support time at the end of the day question how does that oh never mind I was thinking about the buses but we don't need buses no so um our e-learning day would be when we are implementing remote instruction across the entire District um and essentially closing school for that day um in case of ongoing inclement weather we would use our five um e-learning days then if needed we would then have to go to the five emergency days um in which those are currently blocked off at the end of our calendar um after the last day of school if we would

152go through our five e-learning days which still count as a student instructional and attendance day then we would have to do our five makeup emergency days if we've exhausted all 10 of those then we would potentially um apply for Act of God than I think that's an important piece for people to realize because I've heard a lot about um like using these days or or abusing these days or whatever the state already says you got five that's it so um you know there's not going to be unless somebody changes a law or whatever there's not going to be a situation where we're taking more than five in a year which obviously we're not trying to even do that is the start time currently the same so the start time is currently the start of the

153school day so for junior high it is 805 805 I believe thank you um and the high school is 720 so what this does is it standardizes is it across um 6 through 12 um it gives our teachers the opportunity to start their day and be ready for students um remotely and then um finish their day um so it gives them time also on either end of the school day now I'm just concerned about the communication aspect that's all but as long as uh we do well with that then I have can you clarify what you mean by well as long as students know that they're supposed to start at 8:00 instead of 7:25 or instead of 805 or okay got it thank you because it's how long do they get like how much notice

154in advance they get if they got if they're going to do a e-learning day well and and and also just establish that an e-learning Day means you start at 8 o' you know no I'm just saying like when would we make that determination and how how much time do parents have to get in line and order whatever they need well that's one of the Privileges I have as a superintendent I was uh Beed when I took this role I tried to ask if any of the members of the team would want it but they all said no it's you're not it everybody said not it but but it is really um I I will just say briefly that it's not a light decision and there is a delicate balance between um notice that's too early

155or too late and so our team works very hard to the extent possible to give the earliest notice possible um in the event and we are working on our communication systems we work very hard um we don't always get it perfectly but I do know that we work very hard to ensure that we get notice as early as possible without putting us in a position where it was the wrong decision and I would say last year based on repeated evidence every decision was actually the right decision and I can say that with all du cty so some people did not like that but I would say that it was it every every one of the decisions was done with the interest of students um Safety First and staff safety and ensuring that we were able

156to be safe in our um in all of our buildings and I would say that we did a good job of that and I want to thank the team for that in advance because it's going to be another year of hopefully not too many 4:00 a.m. 3:00 a.m. 2 am calls MH e-learning days are not ice cream they don't make everybody happy no I have a few questions do do does this new plan align with our new cbas are we all yes cop patic that was the discussions from last spring so um we will be in line once this is approved both at the board and Roe level one of the things that you know parents and we all know this we're all parents that it is very hard to on a dime figure out

157the next day and you know what you're going to do and so forth so when the e-learning plan is approved and it goes up on the website I think it could be helpful if inclement weather included heat and we prepped for that because I don't think this is going to be the last time that we have an e-learning day because of heat and um everything that I hear in climate news says that we will continue to have these and um I'm sure my fellow board members received many of the emails that I received about our heat e-learning day um so I think it's to just about managing expectations that we should expect it and and it should be something that um we should understand that we have to look at the whole of the system

158and do what's best for the whole of the system so two questions that have come up over and over and over and I personally have received earful about if we could just address them how are we holding our Educators accountable for showing up on e-learning days there have been and this I only heard from high school parents um I haven't heard it from other parents but I heard it from high school parents that teachers just literally didn't show up for e-learning days and I'm not necessarily looking for an answer tonight and the second question is why can't we just have a good old fashion snow day and so those two questions are something that I've heard a lot and got ear fulls about um because I think we're still all dealing with covid PTSD I

159I think it's really important to put in perspective that it's one day here and one day there it's not you learning like we were going through back then but you know those are questions that I think that we should answer and realize that the community is asking can I can I add two pieces on to that just like as far as things that we heard and kind of I guess kind of a response to not to yours but just add on and I I want to remind people that not all districts are the same um and if you look at some of the districts that made decisions that day they are districts that have some similar characteristics to ours I mean canland has some serious ground to bus uh so does Burlington Central um planfield

160left early could we have gone that route I don't know you know um but but suddenly though right right and so um you know these are districts that I don't want to say look like our us because they're definitely there's ways that they don't but from a standpoint of how large and where they're located and the amount of busing and everything they really do so I I take exception when somebody says something like I don't know um you know Newark went to school okay um I mean I you know I so I I I I I think that's a piece that we always have to remember is that look at some of the districts and and why and and what's going on and the other piece like is no one no person has said that

161e-learning is superior to in-person learning no one said that no one will say that um by the way I mean it's just as disruptive if we just took a snow day I would argue um you're still going to be disrupted you're going to have people you're going to have kids around anyways and on top of that um it's still going to disrupt a student's uh regular schedule so you know I don't know well I think though for the heat day because it was new it is vital for us to be over communicative into why we made that decision and as a mom that is on the mom social media links on you know social media it is there's so there were so there was so much misinformation out there and I'm sure everybody has heard

162it so I think in those cases and I now we'll have memory we'll be like oh we did this last year you know maybe we'll have an e learning day but I think we need to give and I think it needs to come from Dr katti not I'm not saying us but um why we made that decision and understate give people the scope of the issue the scope of the issue is over 2,000 employees over 17,000 kids you know 150 bus D I don't know what the numbers are but that we have to look at things as a whole and then putting kids in that in that environment I I know I'm not happy when I'm in a building or a room that's 85 or 90 degrees I know as an adult and then I

163have to help regulate 25 students come on like you know there's there it's it's a lot to think about it's not a decision that is made hastily so just overc communicating what when into that decision um and so the misinformation doesn't get so out of control I I was just in shock at some of the things that I read I was like that's just not true at all yeah I I'll say a couple things and I think this is the commitment from the teaching and learning team is really that we know e-learning could be better and that it's not perfect and so to in the spirit of continuous Improvement we will continue to evaluate the resources es and I know that Dr Paul and her team will be looking at that and finding ways I

164just had meetings with members of our CT Career Technical Education team who do you know if you're if you're you know you're in a class and you're doing shop you're not going to take a saw Home on an e-learning day right let's hope but when I was talking to some members of our Union they were saying what if we front-loaded some really engaging lessons that planned for it and so so I would say that as we understand this we will continue to improve it and so I'll just say that we accept and we welcome the feedback actually I think it's good I think that that feedback is healthy and it helps us understand how to strengthen our work and so I I would say that um anybody who's reached out directly regard regarding some of

165this we actually had very few we had a number of people reach out to say thank you um for this decision um because it did put students if you drive around this neighborhood and I'm not going go in my soap box cuz I know everybody's getting late but I will say if you drive around this community on a hot day turn off your air conditioner and and see how long it takes you just to go to the grocery store when you hit a place where there isn't uh intersection with two stop signs and you have to wait for the bus in front of you and three other cars to try to cross flying traffic and you're sitting there for 20 minutes now imagine you're 5 years old sitting in that heat and then suddenly that

166ride goes from being a 5-minute ride to suddenly a 30-minute ride I am I I I will say this Bor and I will never put children in a position where I can't 100% guarantee that those children will get home safely without uh a situation where that heat May potentially hurt a 5-year-old and I cannot guarantee that on a day where the temperatures on those buses got to5 120° and I could not guarantee that because the last thing I would want the last thing I would want is to get a phone call that a 5-year-old was on the back of the bus and because we had a substitute bus driver who got stuck at multiple intersections and a in an accident in an area of town where we do not have appropriate infrastructure for the child

167to suddenly be hurt because I made a decision because I didn't want people to have to miss out on something I'm not going to do that folks and so I would say anybody who has any questions about it please send me a call I have a 5-year-old so maybe I can get emotional so well and right now get from my house to OE it's entirely under construction right and on minkler it is oneway traffic right now oneway traffic I don't even to even think about the possibilities of what could happen so I fully supported the decision and just so we're clear too not every student does not do well on e-learning a lot of students do well on e-learning I don't want I I just sometimes we do a disservice so my old District we

168had e-learning it was we had an entire alternative program so some students Excel during it so just want to give a little shout out to that but um there I it's a tough decision to make but I fully supported it it's more about the communication of what went into the decision that I think um will help and then muscle memory for next year if it happens again we will have gotten this out of the way yep thank you all right can I have a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn all in favor I I any opposed no we are now adjourned