Board of Education Meeting: March 17, 2025

001I call this regular board of education meeting to order on Monday, March 17, 2025 at 6 PM. If we could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Excellent. Thank you for leading that. If we could please take a roll call. Ann Sanuchi. Stacy Salt here. Julie Jetty here. Katherine Potter here. Mindy Hartman here. Jason Jansik here. Darling here. Next up we have the community input portion. First up we have a school highlight. This month we have the Oaknull Early Childhood Center. Mrs. Baker. Can you hear me now? Oh, now I can hear myself. Good evening, everybody. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Um, we have

002some kindergarten friends here tonight from Mrs. Rinto and Miss D. Dominico's classes. Um last week we had three uh kindergarten performances um at night and we packed the house all three nights. It was very exciting. So we are going to sing some songs for you tonight that we sang last week. Um before we do that, I do want to introduce to you Mrs. Matchel. She is our music teacher. Um and I would like to say she has done an excellent job this year. Um Mrs. Matchel is actually a long-term sub for us. we were unable to fill the position in the start of the year and she stepped in and has done an amazing job. She put the performance together. She did all the work. Um and she we're just very happy to have her.

003So without further ado, let's turn it over to our friends. Oh, it's I found I found standing. Are you okay? We'll wait a minute for everybody to leave because that was the high point of the night, everyone. Yeah. No. Yeah. What do you want to go first? Okay, you want to go first? Okay. I just Well, I was going to wait to get hooked up, but I'll go ahead and get Okay. Next up is public participation. There was nobody signed up tonight, but is there anybody that needs to speak? Okay. Hearing no one. Uh, next up we have open forum. Uh, first up will be the board. Um, there were five foyer requests this month. Foyer requests can be found on board docs. Uh, first up tonight for comment, Mrs. Hartman. Anything tonight? I do

004not have anything tonight, but I hope everyone has a happy and fun safe and fun spring break. Thank you, Mr. Janzi. Just a couple Whoa. Sorry about that. Just a couple things. Uh, thanks to Miss Baker and Mr. Sinto, Miss Macho. Um, that was awesome. What a way to start a meeting. It's going to be tough to top that. Um, I want to also extend uh appreciation to Mrs. Sanuchi as she winds down her tenure here on the board. Um, it's been great having you alongside of us for the last four years as a as a educator and somebody who really knows public education inside and out. So, thank you for everything that you've done as a board member. Uh, we certainly appreciate that. And then lastly, the elections coming up. Early voting started today,

005goes through April 1st. U just a reminder to get to know your candidates uh and make sure that uh you understand who you're voting for. So that is all I have. Thank you. Next up, we have Mrs. Jetty. I'd like to tell Mrs. Sanchi, thank you for her service to the board here. I've enjoyed being on the board with her. And I also want to wish everybody a very happy spring break, a safe spring break, and also to the local people driving around. Um, kids are outside playing in this nice but windy weather. Um, just watch out for the basketballs that are dribbling onto the road and bikes that are all over and stuff. And um regarding as an election judge, regarding the early voting, you do um you can during early voting, you can

006go to any early voting location, but on election day, you have to go to your assigned precinct, which you can find out on the county website, and you do not need your voter registration cards. You do not need your driver's license. They will ask you your name and verify you by signature. So, it's a pretty easy process, uh, pretty foolproof and, um, it's been working for many years. So, um, but have a nice spring break to everybody, and we'll see you back here in April. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Potter. Thank you. Uh, I prepared a statement for Miss Sanuchi, but I don't want to humiliate her. So, I just I do want to say that I appreciated working with you and uh I appreciated you being here and when you showed up in the

007thick of um the COVID pandemic and you provided the district with your expertise and um I'll just always look back and I think that you can look back too and be proud of what we were able to achieve during your term and I wish you the best in your next role. Um, other than that, uh, I did attend, uh, the ISB advocacy ambassador, um, webinar and they said, "Watch out because this week a lot is happening in Springfield and they expect a lot of news to come out of Springfield this week." So, just keep an eye on that and have a great spring break. Have fun. Be good. Thank you. All right, Mrs. Salt. Sorry, I'm not prepared. Okay, I have a couple um shout outs. Um I got a great email about how successful

008the eighth grade field trip was and um I think that's awesome that every it seems to have gone over. It was such a hit. I remember that from my million years ago going to this school. So I love that it's still going. Um, and then a shout out to Three Oaks had a bunch of kids compete in Odyssey of the Mind, which apparently was very popular when I was younger also, but I don't remember it. But I did go to the meeting and it took a lot of work from these kids to compete in this uh program. And um, six kids are going to the world finals uh because of the program over at Three Oaks. And um I really really am anxious to see how district 26 can help this program be in every

009school because it's all about STEM and kids creating solutions to big problems. So these kids did amazing. Um when I attended the meeting I was highly impressed but it took so much time my kids couldn't participate. So hopefully we'll be able to offer it at all our schools in the coming year. Um and then a little shout out. Um, I'm super involved in uh the CBA for the past couple years, uh, Carrie Basketball, and I love I think we all owe them like a thank you for how respectful their the coaches and their staff are to our schools. Um, I love getting emails from them that parents or children have acted bad and they hold everybody accountable. The first year was because of the cameras catching people vaping or or going behind screens and doing

010inappropriate things. this year was kids uh playing basketball in the hallways and hitting the walls. Um they really hold everybody accountable and they really protect our school. So um I just think we all owe them a huge thank you for being so respectful of all of our buildings and when the TVs were at the school, all the coaches were very kind. So yeah, thank you. I'll go next and I'll let you go last, Mrs. Zantichi. Um thank you Mrs. Baker for sharing that. That was amazing. Uh what a great way to t to start the meeting off. Thank you. Um I'd also like to extend my thanks to Mrs. Sanuchi. I'm not going to say goodbye because we still have one more partial meeting with you. Um but it has been the perspective that you

011have brought to the board is there. You can't put a value on that. and um just always very easy to get along with, very easily to reason with, to come to a consensus with, and I know that you have kids at home yourself, and this really is a big sacrifice to be a part of a board, and I appreciate all the work that you've put in over the last four years. Thank you. Uh and last but not least, Mrs. Ansuchi. Wow. Okay. So, um I am not good at goodbyes. So, I'm gonna just be upfront and say I don't plan on saying goodbye because I just feel like uh my role will shift. I'm still going to be a parent in the district. Um I'm still going to be a taxpayer in the district and

012so I will be here advocating for the teachers and for the students. Um it is crazy to think that uh my kids were in I have to even think about this eighth grade, sixth grade and um second grade when I started and now I have one going off to college. So time has flown. Um, but I I will say my reasoning running for the board. Um, I think are lend itself to some of the things you're saying. Um, I am pro public education and I believe that the teachers in um, public education deserve a lot more credit than they receive. There are a lot of nuances to being a teacher that a lot of public members, community members don't get to see. Um because there's more than just teaching kids to read and write and

013to do math and to um build it is it's a lot of nurturing and um behind the scenes preparation that teachers don't get the credit for. And so I'm emotional for teachers, I guess. I don't know. Um but I will say that um to my fellow board members, I want to thank you for all your support and understanding. There is um no understanding I think from the public as well when it comes to the dedication and time it takes to be a public school board member. You think that um the community understands, but they really don't. And there's a lot of preparation, understanding, reading. Um there is a lot of researching and and there's a lot of talking to each other and consulting and consensus. And it may be easy for you guys to think

014that when you come to an official board meeting that we've all we just all get along and we have we're always in agreeance, but that is not the case. If you go to a cow meeting, you will see things much differently. It takes us hours to get through some material at times and that's um shows our differences as well as our passion for our viewpoints and our perspectives. But in the end, um I've been proud to serve with a board that is um in favor of public education and teachers, pro- teacher, pro- student. Um because I have three kids that will be products of district 26 and have gone on to be very successful students. Um and they uh are just an example of many, hundreds of thousands. So I I'm an advocate for you

015guys. even without sitting next to you, I will always be. Um, just to reiterate a couple things about the election. I think um, Miss Jetty did a nice job of explaining that the process by which we vote in our state and in our county is very convenient and should be taken advantage of. Today is the first day for early voting, even the day of. It's very easy to find your polling place and to to participate. You don't need a lot to bring with you. And um thank you to precinct workers who are there um and who are helping to run the elections. And make sure you're doing your research into um those who are running this year to make sure that they are serving in the best interests of your students and your community. Um

016there's been a lot that we've accomplished as a board and I would hate to see us take any steps back and we need to continue to move forward. I think that's all. So thank you Thank you. Uh, next up we have the superintendent's update. Dr. White. Thank you. Good evening to the the community and to the board. Um, just a few announcements. Mrs. Salt um kind of gave me um a good um kind of leadup to this, but we had several students participate in the Odyssey of the Mind competition. The primary team was the only kindergarten through second grade team that attended a regional tournament in the entire state of Illinois this year and they were brave enough to present their problem solution in front of a packed auditorium. They received first place certificates and

017medals but um they are not eligible to progress in the competition due to their age level. However, primary team Jaden um and those sorry those members of that team were Jaden Samson, kindergarten, Wyatt Livingston, first grader, Dylan Weaver, first grader, Luke Larson, a first graver, first grader, Everett Livingston, second grader, and Leo BR, second grader. The third through fifth grade division one team placed second in their division with their robotic gecko that performed three tricks and they qualified for the world finals at Michigan State University in May. And then um division one team um was Matilda Weaver third grade, Elijah Williams third grade, Owen Larson Logan in third grade, Logan Felas fourth grade, Joo Williams fifth grade, and Tate Poor in the fifth grade. The coaches were Miss O'Brien, gifted teacher, Miss Cardinz, first grade

018dual teacher, and Christy Larson, a parent volunteer. Continuing with our student recognitions, for the first time in D26 history, we have a state champion wrestler. Leo Zavala was named state champion in the 145 lb weight class um in Decal. So, congratulations to Leo and his coach, Miss Swanson, for this amazing accomplish accomplishment and representing the district so well. So I got to attend a assembly on behalf of Leo and the wrestling team and Dr. Paul's um did proclaim that today at Kerry Junior High was Leo Zavala day. So um I think that was pretty cool. Um on the operations front, the staffing process has kicked off for the 2526 school year. Thank you to Mr. Daroo who is ill this evening and his administrative assistant Mr. to Sue Hostman for their hard work and efforts

019to make the process as smooth as possible. I want to remind parents again um about the five essential survey. That window remains open till March 28th, 2025. And it provides valuable information from various stakeholder groups, including our students, parents, and our teachers around areas um such as effective leaders, collaborative teachers, involved families, supported supportive environments, and ambitious instruction. And last but not least, um spring break is coming up March 24th and 28th. and please take an opportunity to pick up a book. Other than that, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next up, we have the curriculum update. Miss Rivera. Yes, we have a couple things going on in the Well, we have many things going on in the teaching and learning department, but a couple that I want to highlight. Um, I

020want to take a moment to say thank you to our dual language teachers who have been diligently working together um to reign their curriculum maps to our literacy curriculum maps. So last year we spent time doing our curriculum maps for our general education English side of instruction. So now the dual language teams have been looking at their curriculum maps, making sure it aligns with our standards by trimester so that when the teachers come together to discuss their planning, they're on common language, common understanding, common standards, um, regardless of the program that their child is in. So just special shout out to our dual language teachers. Um, I also want to say thank you to all of the teachers who are on our math curriculum committee. Since the beginning of the school year, we have been

021reflecting on math data, reflecting on math practices, and determining what our next steps are going to be. Um, I will be bringing forth the renewal of the SAVIS and visions curriculum to you. That is the decision that the committee has decided upon. They really wanted to focus on professional learning next school year just focused on teacher practice and implementation of mathematics. When Envisions was first adopted here in Kerry 26, it was during COVID of 2020. And so that roll out of Envisions um there was some hindrance there when that curriculum was first adopted. And so they they felt that there was the opportunity to implement it with more integrity given the opportunity for more professional learning and targeted learning in mathematics instruction. So that'll be our focus for next school year. uh bringing our teachers

022specific professional development in mathematics. On top of that, we have another committee that's in meeting and it is our benchmark assessment committee. Um so I want to thank it's thank everybody that's on there. It is currently our district administration um a couple of our building administrators. Thank you Miss Baker. Um and then in addition to our instructional coaches and we have been evaluating um I Ready and MAP NWA as a replacement for Star Renaissance. Uh Star Renaissance we recognize it was good for when we used it but there are aspects to it that um we feel we have outgrown and we need better data to be able to analyze all the work that we're doing and we're putting in place with our curriculum maps. One of those areas specifically I'm looking at Miss Baker. It's

023early literacy instruction. Um we have limited data currently through Star Renaissance. So we're looking at other additional benchmark assessments um to see which ones can better support not only our students uh the monitoring of our students academic growth but then to inform instruction for our teachers to give them the data they need to then pivot on their instruction and grow from there. And so when we come back from spring break, I was going to say winter break. When we come back from spring break, um we will also be sending a survey out to all staff uh with links that give them information on MAP NWA and links on I Ready and providing them the opportunity to voice their choice between the two as well. Um so that way everybody has an opportunity to weigh in

024on the decision and this would be a replacement for next year's Star Renaissance. So we'd be pivoting away pivoting away from Star Renaissance and moving to one of these two benchmarks. And then lastly, I just want to remind parents a notification went out. There is a digital safety parent workshop. Um thank you Miss Potter for signing up. I know you did. Thank you. Um it is on Wednesday, April 2nd at 6:30 p.m. It is an informative session um with the Illinois Attorney General's office and essentially the main topic is how to keep children safe in today's digital world. So if you're available at that time interested in that conversation and that discussion, you're more than welcome to partake um in that information is on our websites. And that is it for me. Thank you. Uh

025next up is the committee of the whole update. Um we had a review of the bills. Uh went over the custodial bid. Uh had D26 policy manual reviews of section one and section two of our uh board policy. Many of those items we'll be discussing tonight. Next up, we have the consent agenda. Included are those items that are routine in nature. Should any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda, the item will be discussed at the end of section 8. 7.1 is the open session minutes from the February 24th, 2025 regular board of education meeting. 7.2 is the closed session minutes from the February 18th, 2025 committee of the whole meeting. 7.3 total bills and payroll for the board approval are in the amount of $1,690,398. 7.4 is the treasur's report.

0267.5 is the resignation dismissal retirement. 7.6 are the approval of employment. 7.7 is the destruction of closed meeting audio recordings. 7.8 is the disposal of surplus assets. There were none. 7.9 is the D26 policy manual section 1 policies 10 and 130. 7.10 10 is the D26 policy manual sections 2 policies 2 two sorry 222 and 21 150. May I have a motion to approve the following 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 and 7.10. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Uh yes. Um, just a second here. The I just wanted to point out that if you are looking at the policy for 110, uh, there are where you're seeing the green, there are two sections there highlighted and when it goes into the manual, it's only going to be one. They're going to that

027you see that last sentence repeated twice. um that's going to appear in the policy manual as only one sentence in case you were wondering. And um I just also wanted to note that the policy title also changed for 222. So how I don't think we have to amend it. I just wanted to let everyone know that if you're seeing that you're not seeing things. It's just it's going to be in there one time. Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none. If we could take a vote, please. Stacy Salt, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Katherine Potter, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Jason Jansen, yes. Darling, yes. Ann Sanucci, yes. Okay, the motion is approved. Next up, we have uh agenda items requiring discussion and board approval. First up is 8.1, the approval of the custodial service contract bid.

028Mr. Shepard. Yes. Good evening. Uh the district, as we discussed in the committee, the whole was required to go out to uh bid for our long-term custodial contract solution. Uh keep in mind the prior contractor was Alpha Building Maintenance, whose contract was supposed to end June 30th uh of this year, but because of poor management decisions on their part, uh uh that was forced up uh a little bit. Uh tonight we are pleased to present to the board the recommendations of the bid process. We had quite a bit of interest in Kerry School District 26 uh with a total I believe 10 contractors attending the the pre-bid meeting uh and tour of the district and seven bids were submitted uh for review. Uh of those seven bids uh Mr. Martin, our operations coordinator, and myself

029uh reviewed the three lowest bids, uh vetting them, contacting references, uh and we're pleased to present that our recommendation of the lowest responsive bid in our opinion would be uh the bid presented by Citywide Building Maintenance in the amount of $722,440 for year 1. Um I'm also pleased to uh say that Mr. Mark Batista, the president of Citywide Building Maintenance, is here with us tonight. And I believe this is the first time we've had uh one of our custodial contractors attend the meeting. So, uh he felt it was important for the board to see him and uh uh he's happy to answer any questions the board may have in regards to um this partnership that we're about to embark on with Citywide Building Maintenance. Uh one of the questions that we had taken last week

030was about the transportation center. Uh in your weekend review, uh you will note that uh uh they did provide a quote for cleaning. Uh that cleaning we'd started off with once a week. I've seen that happen in in other districts where they only clean the transportation center generally on Friday afternoon uh or Friday evening. Uh and the the quote came in at about $2,500 uh per week. Uh of course, we'll revisit that once we have our transportation center uh built and and up and running. Uh but uh we wanted to provide that to the board tonight. So again, our recommendation is going to be to approve the the bid with citywide building maintenance. Uh and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Batista, thank you for joining us tonight. Um could you walk us

031through the hiring process a little bit? We have a lot of long-term custodial staff that have gone through a myriad of of contractors. Uh can you give us to what extent do you plan on keeping some them? Can you walk us through that process? Yep. All right. All right. Thanks for having me tonight on behalf of Citywide. My company, we're a family-owned company, 42 years in business. My father is the CEO, and I'm the president running the day-to-day. He's hopefully playing a little bit more golf than usual. Um, so you win with people, right? And in any school district that you're performing services in, the good ones are of that much more value to you. So, our intention is to come in and not rock the boat. Um, we we are going to bring on

032board as many as we can to keep operations stable, to keep improvements happening within the schools and stay on top of things with Mr. Shepard and Mr. Martin. Thank you. Sure. Any other questions? No one else. All right. Thank you. It looks like you got off on that one. Um uh this would um we've already started with this or we're that's the next item is uh the next item is the emergency contract. Okay, perfect. Thank you for being out here to introduce yourself. It means a lot to put a face with the company. Um and hopefully this is a long, you know, a longterm relationship. So, thank you for being out here. We appreciate it. We appreciate the opportunity and you know this is a partnership. Um we clean about a dozen districts throughout Illinois

033and we want to grow our reputation with districts like Kerry 26 to go other places as well. So this is 100% what our our motive is and and really to keep things growing and improving here at carry 26. Perfect. Yeah. Thank you. I know one of our big concerns of the board was our existing custodial staff have been very dedicated and um they've been through a lot so you know we really want to make sure we can keep them as part of you know D26 family if possible tenure and you know tenure in our business with employees is what keeps the consistency and cleaning within facilities at the top of the game and and and that's so important you know, taking care of people, making sure that they feel that their job is appreciated and

034and really just giving them, you know, making sure obviously that they get paid and uh the right the right amounts in these markets today. It's it's very uh it's it's it's very challenging, but that's that's how we have built our business thus far, and that's how we plan to continue. Thank you. All right. May I have a motion to approve the custodial service bid submitted by citywide building maintenance for one year in the amount of 720 thou sorry $722,44042 as presented. So moved second. Any further discussion? I I I do want to thank you for coming Katherine Potter. Hi. Thank you. I did have hesitation because your bid did come in so low. Um, but your references checked out and they were impressive. You being here tonight to answer any board questions is also impressive.

035So, thank you very much. Um, my hesitation has gone away. Mr. Mr. Shepard, I want to thank you for getting the contract up for us to view and um uh again, I just wanted to thank you and it it does help because your bid was low and I hope that this is long term. So, thank you. Any other discussion items hearing? None. If we can take a vote, please. Julie Jetty, Katherine Potter, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Jason Jansen, yes. Darling, yes. Ann Sanucci, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Hey, that motion is approved. Next up, we have 8.2, the approval of an emergency 3-month custodial services with citywide building maintenance. Mr. Shepard. So, it is it is our hope that this is really the final custodial uh issue that we have to uh discuss in the foreseeable

036future. Um, as the the board is aware, uh, we ended our our service with Alpha Building Maintenance in December after they left the contract due to their poor fiscal mismanagement. Um, we did enter into a uh what we thought was going to be a six-month emergency contract with with RJB, uh, the company that had been priv prior serving uh, Kerry School District 26. Uh the representative that we had worked with had been a long-term employee of RJB. That was our contact. That was the person who represented that particular company. Uh that was the person that we worked with to get the quotes to to if we there was any service concerns. Uh this would be the individual that uh would be uh the person responsible for servicing Kerry School District 26. Uh we were notified

037roughly 2 months into the emergency time period that the quote that uh this uh individual gave us was wrong. and that uh the company had no knowledge of this until almost two months in. Uh at which point in time we received a phone call from one of their vice presidents saying well why didn't you notice we haven't been invoiced? Uh we haven't invoiced you yet and yet we said yes but it is not the customer's responsibility to reach out to the company to make sure that they're billing us. um and nor is it our responsibility to uh cover up their mistakes. Uh it it's just bad business on RJB's part. Uh when this issue is discovered, we were thoroughly prepared to work with RJB. However, they have showed no willing willingness to take any accountability

038financially uh with this situation. Rather uh they have taken a blame the customer uh approach which is just not uh uh good business practice. Uh so we are pleased to tonight uh to enter into an emergency 3-month contract with uh citywide building uh citywide building maintenance. Uh they have agreed to move up their time frame. Uh I I think I I nearly gave Mr. Batista a stroke when I asked if he could start on on April 3rd. Uh but uh uh then there again, he said him and his team are committed to this district and and they've been working hard to make that a reality. Uh you will notice in the board packet that we have provided a uh three-month uh contract that will abide by the previously uh passed bid uh along with uh

039the the monthly pricing that's seen there. And we uh are anticipating uh no issues for the remainder of the three months and looking forward to this partnership with citywide building maintenance. I just wanted to also add that I appreciate um Mr. Shepherd's work through all of this, even from when we started having these issues with our previous custodial service alpha um and the payroll issues we've had and navigating trying to work with our custodians. I want to thank you to our community, our parents, our PTO's um our staff really came together around the holidays when those individuals were really struggling to get regular um pay. Um in no fault of Mr. Shephard or his department. Are we in the situation where we have to um pass an emergency quote? We will continue to see what

040legal action we can do um regarding um RJB and their um lack of wanting to work through their mistake. Um but at the same point, we have to ensure we have clean buildings for our students. And so as we entertain what our options are, we still need to make sure our buildings are are clean. And rather than continuing to do business with RJB, I would much rather um recommend to the board, and that's what we're doing this evening, to move forward with um who's going to be our long-term um custodial contractor. So that's why unfortunately we're bringing another emergency contract, something we would not like to do. Um but we really believe that it's in the best interest of the district. Thank you. Um, may I have a motion to approve the custodial services with

041citywide building maintenance beginning April 3rd, 2025 to June 30th, 2025 in the amount of $199,51.98 as presented. Still moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, if we can take a vote. Katherine Potter, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Jason Jansik, yes. Darling, yes. Ann Sanuchi, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. That motion is approved. Uh it item 8.3 is the approval of policy 2160 checklist for selecting a board attorney. Um I'm going to ask the board if for a motion to table this until next month at our cow meeting. So moved. I would like a motion. A motion. Yes. Yes. Is there a second? Sure. I'll second it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. If we can vote on that, please. Mindy Hartman, yes. Jason Jansik, yes. Darling, yes. Ann Sanucci, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Julie Jetty, yes.

042Katherine Potter, yes. Will be tabled until next month. Next up is item 8.4, Four, the approval of policy 2170, the procurement of architectural auditors, engineering and land surveying services. Dr. White. Sure. So, in the committee of the whole discussion, um the board had um really good conversation regarding policy 2170. In the updated policy manual, it removed the language. The person or representative from firm selected shall meet with the superintendent in the board of education to discuss responsibilities and scope of services as discussed. Through that conversation um the board members present at last week's committee of the whole recommended because there were some differing um views on this one um after the discussion that it would be brought forth to the entire board this evening for board action. And so the recommended um so what's on

043what's in front of the board is if you vote in um as a yes, you are voting to add that language that begins the person or representative from the firm selected shall meet. And if you vote no, you are opting to do um to continue um moving forward with the policy as as without language being approved. I hope that was clear. Y Okay. Okay. May I have a motion to approve 21 170 procurement of architectural auditors, engineering, and land surveying services adding the language. The person or representatives from the firm selected shall meet with the superintendent and board of education to discuss responsibilities and scope of services as discussed. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, if we can take a vote, please. Jason Jansik, yes. Darling, yes. Annne Sanuchi, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Julie

044Jetty, no. Katherine Potter, yes. Mindy Hartman, no. Okay, the motion is approved. Next up, we have item 8. 8.5, the approval of policy 2250 E1, exhibit written request for district public records. I may I have a motion to motion May I have a motion to table this exhibit until next month's cow meeting? So move. Second. Any discussion? We take a vote, please. Ann Sanuchi, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Katherine Potter, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Jason Jansik, yes. Darling, yes. Policy 2251 E1 exhibit will be moved to next month's cow. Uh, next up we have 8.6. The approval of policy 2250 E2 exhibit immediately available. District public records and web posted reports and records. May I have a motion to table this item until next month's cow meeting? I would like to make a

045motion that item 8.6 be tabled until next month's cow meeting. Thank you. We have a second. Second. Second, Jason. Any discussion? Can we take a vote, please? Stacy Salt, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Katherine Potter, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Jason Jansik, yes. Darling, yes. And Sanucci, okay, this will be motion. This motion to table until next month's cow meeting is approved. Next up, we have topics for discussion. 9.1 schoolworks program evaluation presentation. Good evening once again. So this has been um a long time coming but some work that I think is valuable um and also represents the transparency that not only the board but administration wants to provide to our educators and to the community. Um when we when I came um in to become uh or when I first started as the superintendent, we had

046a lot of conversations um across the district from teachers to parents and really wanting us to take a deep look at those services um that we provide outside of the classroom tier one services. So, we've talked a lot about MTSS in the last few months. Um, and now we're here this evening to talk about two additional um services that support our students um improve I mean achievement and that being special education and gifted programming. I am not going to try to bore you all this evening, but I will say this is probably the most wordy presentation I've done. And it's because honestly I wanted to be clear and I did not want anyone to feel that we left portions of the report out or that we were not being fully transparent on what the findings

047were. So we can then also talk about what are those beginning steps so we can begin to make improvements. So this evening I do hope to achieve as well as um Dr. Thomas and Miss um Rivera will be helping me with this presentation because they are leading um forward a lot of this work but we want to give just an overview of what the evaluation process looked like. We want to communicate with those summary evaluation findings, provide some context in relationship to what were those findings and what is the current state of special education services and gifted programming in the district and then begin to illustrate next steps on improving based um on those findings and takeaways. The goal is not to display our entire plan because we wanted to um have this conversation this

048evening and then we will come back at a later date to talk more about what the um work looks like moving forward um after we share these findings publicly. And so the so the district first began um working with um school works using their protocol that identifies three areas that we really want to target in on when we look at program evaluation. You'll notice though when I go and um and talk about the findings, they go deeper than this than these true um three overarching areas. And that is um general education, intervention and enrichment, IEP development, and IEP implementation. So the setup of the next probably eight slides will look like this. So again, I would ask the community board members um this copy of this presentation is public. So please take some time to

049review them. If there's questions, feel free to email us and we will try to get answers. So that first area that we had um school works look at was general education intervention and enrichment. And the underlying um question under that section was does a school identify and target supports for all students including those who are at risk and those who require um enrichment. And so what the initial finding was though is that yes, we do a great job of our identification, but what we need to work on is how we monitor program effectiveness. That is not something new. We have come to the board before and had that conversation. And so a common theme that you will see this evening in terms of of individual student progress is that the district does have those systems

050of monitoring individual growth, but we are lacking not only in special education and gifted programming. But across the board in a lot of our programs, we've done a lot of work, however, in tier one classroom instruction. We've adopted branching mind. So we are building the systems and and the structures and then also um reshaping and retooling teams over the last two years to make sure that we can be able to monitor the um the progress um of the students. And we also know that we continue to have some areas where we've really focused this year on making sure that tier one was consistent across the um across the district. So, it was not a surprise to us that we still have some um inconsistencies when we look at those programs outside of tier one and

051we know that's on our road map to continuously improvement. Yep. What are you say you're going to monitor the progress of students? What specifically do you monitor? Sure. So, actually I have a slide towards the end um that just talks about what our monitoring specific steps are, but great question. Um so again um going into that wanting to kind of hone in on what those um findings were around that program effectiveness. I promise I am not going to sit here and read every single slide to you all this evening. So I have highlighted or or bolded what those key takeaways are. The board um and the community we implemented what I need time in the beginning and that is really taking hold in our schools. the um schoolworks evaluators as well as the feedback they

052received from the teachers um during the feedback sessions really provided evidence that that is a practice that although it is at it at the beginning that it is starting to make traction and making sense. Um one of the things in our staffing plan as you know is that we also are making the shift from non-certified interventionist to certified interventionist. That was another area that came up in the plan. Just quickly, some of the areas that we need to work on in regards to how we're using wind time is making sure that we support our teachers in understanding the um how to implement explicit instruction over reliance on computer-based programs. And then also we need to continue to expand tier 2 interventions and get feedback from our stakeholder groups regarding the current um tier 2 services

053that we have to support our students both on the academic and behavioral services and then even when we get to more intense services as we look at those tier three supports. Um the last finding I believe the last nope second to last um the other finding in this one is that we provide some enrichment opportunities for our accelerated learners. I know I've had board members have conversations with me as well as other um parents is that we right now don't do not have consistency in the way we're providing gifted education. Now I do want to take a time out and say we have amazing gifted education teachers in our building. We as a district have not given them clear expectations. The same conversation we had around classroom poor instruction is the same conversations that Miss

054Rivera has already been having with the gifted teachers about what does gifted programming look like across the district so we can make sure that we have equitable practices when we think about those students in that blue area of the diamond. Um again that collaboration between what's happening in the classroom and making sure that there's a connection to what's happening in that gifted and enrichment processes need to happen. So we really need to focus on strengthening collaboration between our gifted teachers and our classroom teachers. Next um the school inconsistently utilizes a variety of instructional strategies and materials to support students and diverse learning needs. Again, some of these were kind of startling, I think, to community or maybe to board members, but one of the refreshing things is these were things we already knew through classroom

055observations and through conversations with our teachers. So there was nothing that shocked us when we started to look at this. But we know we're in currently working on shifting from a teacher centered teacher directed instructional model to a model that includes direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice. So seeing 43% of our classrooms demonstrating limited use of instructional strategies honestly in year one of implementation I don't think that's a horrible um data point but definitely gives us room um to grow. We've also had a lot of conversations about standardsbased instruction and making sure that the instruction students are being provided whether it be in enrichment or in their classroom is rigorous and challenging to their needs. And so we really need to focus on that area because this is again while they were here doing

056those observations 50% sorry 57% of our classes demonstrated a lack of higher order thinking strategies. Again I made sure I put this this is during the observation period. So that does not mean every single day when you walk in our classrooms that we see 50% of that. It was at this moment. So again, I equate this to if I walked in and took a Polaroid picture and that Polaroid picture could talk, but that's all I got in that moment. That's really what what these do. It gives us multiple data points. And then we also um and this is one of my kind of um pet peeves right now is these I shouldn't say these but our new generations we've taken away those opportunities to have productive struggle um and try at something and try of

057something and feel like and get a understanding for what does it feel like not to be successful at first and continue to work at something. We really need to talk about how we embed that. Our current math curriculum envisions allows for that but the roll out of envisions happened during COVID and so we really need to retune and refine that. That's why Miss Rivera said in in the coming months we will be bringing back um a re-renewal of envisions um to move forward with. Can I just jump in for a second of your 26 slides here? This is my favorite. This phrase is my favorite. I've never seen it before but I think The engage in productive struggle, the ability to try and fail and try again and edit and learn is something that I

058do think we could we certainly need to insert back in and focus on because there's a lot of people just trying to smooth it through. And this I I love this phrase. I'm stealing it. It's great. Right. No problem. And you'll probably hear me say this often, but none of this is on the backs of teachers. Absolutely none of this. We have amazing educators doing amazing work in our classrooms. It is the district's responsibility to set clear expectations around these and give teachers the tools so they can do these things. And that's where we're at. We're working with our teachers, building capacity, giving them space to try new things. And so although it may be challenging and stressful, I think of it as very exciting work um because we're giving them the space to try

059those new things and giving them giving them feedback, not being evaluative about about the work they do. the so the second domain was IEP development and some of these um are were I want to go a little deeper and giving a little more context to some of the findings but the first is all of the IEPs that they reviewed and remember part of the review process was reviewing about 30 of our IEPs from across the district. So that was a good sampling um of our total IEP um of the IEPs with within the district. They found that we do have the required components of IEPs. We knew going into this evaluation process that compliance was not on our radar as an area of concern. The district a few years ago transitioned from the co-op and

060moved into um bringing special education services inhouse. And when that was done, there was a complete compliance audit done of special education services. So this was much more of a focus on what is the instructional implications. Um, one of the one of the things that we have talked about and um, Dr. Thomas will go into further when we talk about next steps are having having protocols developed. So, we're making clear um, what that decision- making process looks like when um, we're talking about student placement, when we're talking about student services. Um so that not only do the educators around the table have a clear understanding but the parents, the related services, all those individuals have a clear understanding of what that decision-making process looks like so we can have more um clear methodology around how

061we calculate those those IEP um services. And then also um it was also found in there that the IEP meeting process is collaborative but again just need some more structure around how do we actually provide and calculate those IEP services. Um again this was um an area that we know is an area that has been brought up um before but I think this is really twofold. So the finding was IEPs inconsistently ensure that students receive instruction in the least restrictive environment. What we found and what we dug deeper when we looked at the action after review with school works is that it's really making sure that all educators from general education teachers to building principles to even our parents have a clear understanding of what the law is surrounding leash restrictive environment. Often we have

062students that may have some very challenging behaviors and it is definitely understood that when those challenging behaviors present as teachers, as caring individuals, we instantly want to give them more. We want to put them in a more um an environment that's providing more supports. Well, article 7 and educ um special education laws don't allow for those immediate moves. We really have to make sure that we're trying strategies at all the tiers of our MTSS structure before we do that. And so we just need to build um again some knowledge and deepen our understanding of that. And then again um developing some protocols or or processes to ensure that the decision is made at the IE IEP table but is also supported with sound and reliable data. So when we're making student placements that everyone that

063is a part of that IEP meeting understands why the placement is what it is and what the data that went into making that decision. U Miss I'm sorry Dr. Thomas will talk more about looking at our current continuum of services and exactly what that means when we talk about current state of these programs. Um, and it was and that's where also we need to have a conversation about how do we make sure that our students who are eligible and who would benefit from being having more inclusion into the general education setting get that and how do we then start to look at less direct services meaning I'm being pulled out of the classroom for my services. Dr. White, can I just a quick question about that last bullet point. So the 28 IEPs reviewed, right?

064No student had full inclusion in the general education setting. Was that specifically for like OT or was that also social work minutes or was that Sure. So I will say out of those 28 some of those were were our our students that are placed in self-contained. So that would make sense. Absolutely. For those again that's why we look at this data not as a kind of summitive final thing. It just gives us information. But what we have noticed in some of our buildings and some of our buildings have been making great strides on how do we make sure kids have the most access possible in a productive way for them and for their peers, right? Where they can have access to inclusion based general with their general education peers. Absolutely. And we reduce less of

065I'm being pulled out from my math services. I'm being pulled out from my reading services. How can we provide some of those supports within the general education? So these are academic pullouts. These are not social emotional pullouts for for right or OT or something like that. Yes, because some of some of those would be hard to work with. That's what I was wondering. Right. But for example, my daughter receives occupational therapy services. some of those. At her last IEP meeting, I had a conversation about can someone come in and work with her on her handwriting while she's in the classroom real time because she can be a knucklehead and not always want to do it outside of the classroom. So, how do we how do we kind of build those in to make the child

066successful, but our goal is to have all children to be able to access as much as possible in general education. I appreciate that clarification. Thank you. No problem. Can you send us um a the reference you're using on least restrictive um settings? You said article 7. Yep. Can you So we're kind of we could read and we're all on the same page. Sure. And what we can do is we can even make sure that some of that information is on our website. Um Dr. Thomas though, who is our guru in special education, is going to talk a lot about our current state and she's going to go deeper into a lot of these terms. Thank you for that because I meant to give that disclaimer at the beginning. I am trying to stay away from

067acronyms. IEP, individual education plan. That's the plan that's there. But I really tried to do this first half, but stop me if I throw in an acronym or a title that is not understood. I'd be happy to explain. And I'm sorry I'm talking fast. I know I have a lot of slides. So I'm trying to make sure I keep our pacing along. Um and then the last area um or the last domain was IEP implementation. And again this looks at is instruction intentional and engaging allowing students to access learning per the students IEP or their identification as gifted. And what we're seeing is again we need to again build capacity, build our teachers up. I believe in setting an expectation and then asking people okay what do you need to meet that and what we

068need to really kind of focus on um across the board classrooms gifted education special education services are are we differentiating and providing specially designed instruction I have a I have a slide that will talk about specially designed instruction differentiation how are they alike and how they're how they're So, because I know those are educational jargon or educational terms, I'm going to go through what specially designed instruction and differentiated instruction looks like. One of the things that we've been working on, and I'm super excited about what next year looks like, is I truly believe in technology as a tool. I don't believe it in it whatsoever as a replacement for good instruction. And so Miss Rivera and the technology committee have been doing great work on looking at our applications alongside a rubric alongside our instructional

069framework to make sure that the tools we have are tools for learning. Again, not a replacement for instruction. And so that's kind of going to that um right now we we're relying a little heavily on technology, but that is not coming out of a surprise because teachers we learned a lot of new things around technology and instructional technology during COVID and a lot of those are still lingering over from that time. We want to again the last bullet point is just get some consistent practices and understanding around differentiated instruction which will lead to better and and more enhanced individ individualization when we talk about those students individual um education plans and then looking at how we can align our current goals around specially designed instruction and researchbased practices. Here are several findings. So this this

070um what see? Yep. The school buildings do not effectively manage the school special education program. As you know, I really advocated and I appreciate the board um believing in um the recommendation of adding assistant principles to all of our buildings to our elementary so that all of our building leaders had support. But because they did not have that support, a lot of the oversight and daily management of special education has really lived at the district level with Dr. Thomas and her team. If we want to start talking about improving and differentiated, specially designed instruction, and we want to make sure that those things are actually happening, that really needs to be monitored and supported at the building level. But we have to work with our building principles to increase their capacity. We've already done the

071move to certified interventionists and then again working with our building teachers to talk about how can we build their capacity so we can better implement accommodations and differentiation at the classroom level. And then that last piece is how are we assessing to make sure or monitoring that individualized education plans, IEPs, are actually aligned to what the student needs and they're being implemented as they were intended to be implemented when it when it was decided upon around the IEP meeting table. This is my last one. Um and so it was also IEP goals are not yet frequently and consistently progress monitored and IEPs are not yet re reviewed and revised um accordingly. This one was misleading and we dove a little deeper in this. So for the public and for the board, if a student has

072an IEP once a trimester they receive a progress report based on their special education goals. We're doing a good job in that. If you remember earlier, I said that the components of the IEPs were there. But because we are not doing a really effective job of monitoring our programs, then it is not giving teachers the information they need to understand, do we need to make adjustments when students aren't making um progress. And so we want to um make sure that we're not only building in that capacity around the review of IEPs, but also we are building in those data systems such as branching mind. Thank you board for that because that would allow us to then be able to look at not only individual students but we will be able to look at students who

073are receiving the same intervention or the same type of instruction. We'll be able to monitor and say is this the right decision or does the district need to move elsewhere. And so now so I can take a drink of water. I'm going to move over to Dr. Thomas who will briefly talk about kind of where are we at right now and we when we talk about where's our current state after we know these findings we know what the report says what is our current state and then the last section of this presentation is where would we like to go next Dr. Thomas. So on this slide you'll see we gave just the very brief briefest of explanations if you can for special education. So special education refers to a range of services to help students

074identified with disabilities to learn. The goal of special education is to close the gap in skill deficits through the implementation of specialized instruction and related services. So, we know that our students who identify with disabilities have a learning gap and we're the the goal is to close it. The the real goal of special education is that no student will be special education eventually. So, if we could do it right every single time, our students would all be um uh out of their IEPs at some point in the future because the the gap is closed. And then finally, each one of the plans is tailored to meet the indivi individual needs of the student. Dr. Dr. Thomas, is it possible that a student can be both special education and gifted? Yes. So, we have several students

075in the district that uh are in that exact category. So, they may have struggles in one area. Um maybe they are struggling mightily in math, but they are extremely gifted in language arts. Or they're struggling with functional skills, but academically they're gifted across the board. So there are a number of uh areas like that that students can be exceptional. Okay. I think it before you go on I think it would help at least for me all the different I would I there's so many different categories of what is special education or what what the a student can get an IEP for and the different ways that we're helping students in addressing their different needs. So it's not just some of it is academic, some of it is behavioral. Um I think it would I don't

076know next time we have this conversation I would love to know what all of these different things are all the different ways. I know that we're limited on resources and we have to be realistic on what we can provide and we want to provide the very very best but it's after reading this and seeing this and thinking of all the different possibilities um I think it would just be helpful for me to understand all the different ways and all the different needs that the district has to address with all of the students. We're we have a slide in here that'll talk a little bit about all the services, programs, and things that are available across the district and some of the specialized programs and things like that. But for students to qualify for an IEP,

077they need to be identified with a disability, there are 13 disability categories. Um they uh need to be having some kind of academic or functional deficit. That could be a behavioral deficit. And they have to have a need for specialized instruction or related services. So, if a student just needs accommodations only, they don't need specialized instruction, they would potentially qualify under section 504, whole different set of laws. But if you need um specialized instruction, direct teaching andor related services, that is how a student will qualify for an IEP. So, in a minute, I'll talk a little bit more about some of the services and some of the programs just very briefly, but I do also have a presentation that I can forward that has I think the information that you're looking for, all the different

078ways students qualify and what that means. Yeah, I'd be happy to share. It's fascinating because it is very specialized for each student and it's just it's a lot. So, thank you. So now pivoting over to gifted education, I am going to preface and say that all the information that I'm about to share um regarding gifted education is found in our gifted enrichment handbook which is posted on the district website under the teaching and learning um portion of the website. In addition, the language that you're going to hear comes directly from Illinois law um which they passed an accelerated placement act which requires Illinois public school districts to adopt and implement policies on acceleration. One thing I noticed here in Kyrie 26 is that when we are talking about gifted, we're talking about a tree, but

079we need to actually step back and look at the forest because the act that was passed talks about accelerated placement, not just gifted. Gifted is one component to that, but there are other pieces that when you look in our gifted enrichment handbook, which actually can be a little bit misleading, um it's not just about gifted placement. Um we have early entrance to kindergarten and first grade that falls under the accelerated placement act. We also have a process for accelerating a child in a in a single subject um which we see that in our grades 68 for uh ELA and for math. We might have a student who is identified as gifted or high achieving and they could be a sixth grader and they have qualified for that advanced ELA. So the text that they are

080getting exposed to in the curriculum they're getting exposed to is actually one grade higher than the sixth grade grade level. Um, accelerated placement also includes a whole skipping of a grade level. There's a process for that. And then accelerated placement also does encompass what we talk about gifted enrichment gifted and then also enrichment which is access to curriculum usually reserved for children who are older or in higher grades than the child. So the text complexity might be more rigorous uh thematic topics might be a little bit more in-depth. There might be different types of project-based learning that the students are exposed to. One of the things I wanted to bring forward um is the identification of gifted. When we look at the accelerated placement act, we cannot limit access to accelerated placement to students who

081are only identified as gifted. It is specifically stated in the law that this has to be available to students who are high performing as well. And so that's something that you'll see in some slides near you. Um, next steps for us and how we can continue to improve upon our current systems and making sure going back to that diamond, right? That we are addressing the needs of all students, not just those who are performing below grade level, but those who are demonstrating high proficiencies. How are how are we meeting their needs? Oh, perfect segue into the diamond. Can I ask you a quick question before you move into this? I think you are kind of stating it with this new um act. Um I would assume that it's more of a a whole child approach,

082right? Because in the past, we know that um entry into a gifted level subject area has often just been based on standardized testing. So, I'm I'm I'm hoping you're going to talk about this, but that it's more of a collective group approach than just this is the test score they got on that one day in April and this is where it determines their placement because that seems to have been the pattern in the past. And I know that um if parents are listening now that that would be um a point of um relief that there's more to it than just a test score. Yeah. So, spoiler alert, everything you just said is going to come up in a slide uh coming up in in stay tuned to a presentation near you. That will be coming

083up because you're absolutely correct. Um it's interesting because I think our practice has been one thing. Um but when you look in the handbook, we have a system in there that goes beyond just a data point. And so it's just really retweaking and making sure that we are upholding what is in our handbook and really ensuring that when we think of right and this is kind of why we shifted no this is why not kind of this is why we shifted to the time in and away from the triangle is often times when we looked at the RTI triangle we looked at it with a lens of the students who need extra support but then there's the other side right which is then we're like okay let's go with the diamond then because The diamond

084talks about not just the students who need extra support uh closing those gaps, but those students who are really demonstrating um higher levels of learning but potentially maybe didn't qualify as quote unquote gifted. Um and so what are we doing to support and meet those students needs? So, we'll go a little bit more into how we're identifying students, um, how it's detailed within the handbook, and just some systems that we need to just tighten up within ourselves here within the district. Um, but truly, when we're talking about whether we're talking about multilingual education, special education, um, students who are high performing or gifted, we're really talking about this diamond, the MTSS framework. All students are going to receive what's in the middle that tier one instruction that is that first dose of that first dose

085of language arts that first dose of math right then from there we have wind time which we switched up that for this school year. It used to be 45 minutes uh once a day and you had to split between math and reading. And so it was how do you determine which one carries more more weight and so we switched up our minute allocation so that all students have an extra 30 minutes of reading and an extra 30 minutes of math. Now where they go during that time is all dependent on what I need as a student. If what I need as a student is to close my gap in um reading comprehension, then I'm going to go into a small group where they're going to focus on reading comprehension. If what I need is speech

086or OT, then that's where I'm going to go. If what I need is English language development because I'm identified as a student, as an English language learner, then that's the support I'm going to need. If I'm a student who is demonstrating that I've got this and what I need is enrichment, then that's what they're going to receive. I believe Dr. Qualls was here last month sharing a little bit about their win time and those enrichment opportunities with like financial literacy and passion projects that now speaks to this extension enrichment side students that are demonstrating that they've got secure uh knowledge and mastery of the learning we then push to enrich them during that block of what I need. Thank you. So this is my second time just quickly showing this but I wanted to talk

087about one of the big takeaways that we've received from classroom teachers and our teachers are it is a challenge or it's not been clear how do I navigate the various systems with a within the district to make sure if I see my student is in need of additional support how do I get there? What is my role in that? What is the MTSS role? How do we really begin to look at these? And so this conundrum of arrows and boxes, which I we're working on clarifying before we roll it out, but it really talks about looking at, if you look up in the top um left corner, it talks about classroom instruction. And if you move one box to the right, it talks about a teacher identifying a student is in need of additional support.

088Then what do I need to do as a classroom teacher? Who's there to support me? And so what we're building out right now that we hope to roll out in begin to roll out in April is each one of these boxes a teacher will be able to click on and then we'll let them know what are the strategies, what are the supports, what are the resources, who is the resource that they can lean on to help them make sure that they're doing everything in the classroom for that that student. Um and then also how do we measure is that student making progress? What to do if they aren't? How do we take them to a problem solving team? And so we're really trying to build this out and then build the structures and supports around

089it in the tools. What also I think is really cool is this will be the same process. If a student needs academic support, they need social emotional support or they need behavioral support. I can come out with a plan that helps my teacher as well as the team of teachers and educators in the building to support me have a clear plan that we're all working from and it's documented. Uh, Miss Jetty, that kind of goes back to your part of and then that plan will be in branching minds and so we'll be able to monitor the success of our interventions and and our supports of individual students but also at a programmatic level. Okay. Thank you. I just so I could I make sure I could understand this right. Um, tier one circle upper leftand

090corner it goes straight down to tier two. That would be a student that would need like a co-eing situation or a push in parah one-on-one is that and then we would go to tier three from there. Is that yeah kind of so if you look at so when um Mr. Janzik is talking about that black circle that says classroom instruction and then that down arrow we have stu so we give benchmark assessments we also have data points a student may not have to go through that whole process to get two t tier 2 intervention if on the academic side currently the star assessment and other classroom assessments show I'm in need of immediate tier 2 support I don't my teacher doesn't have to take me through the process to get those supports or for the

091same thing and then on on the social um emotional side, Desa and Seka, I got it right, are other social emotional screeners that we do and kids can be flagged on that. So, social workers, classroom teachers are having conversations and the student may go into a tier 2 social emotional group or receive other tier 2 supports without having to go through the process. What we've often found is sometimes a student's not picked up on those benchmarks or those screeners. And so we need to take a deeper look at what's happening in the classroom and how do I access supports and other services for those students that typically aren't found in those regular screeners or those universal benchmark assessments. Right? So the circle going straight down that would be like a score and that that would

092go right into wins time for remediation and that may be working specifically with the reading intervention is that in that case. Okay. So the student would have to struggle in reading to go they would just go right there. Got it. Thank you. All righty. I'm going to pivot back to Dr. Thomas who will start off with just kind of talking about how do we right now identify students for these supports. I'll revisit MTSS that we just had a little conversation about um previously um after Miss Rivera goes after Dr. Thomas to talk about gifted. So Dr. Thomas, so special services starts with child find. Child find is part of the IDA law. Um and childf find is looking for students who may um be suspected of having a disability. We do it in a number

093of ways. We do it through our preschool screenings, our kindergarten screenings, our benchmark assessments that we do both on the academic side and on the social emotional side as well as uh working with private school and homeschool proportionate share. So these are all ways that we're seeking in the schools or in the community students who may qualify or be suspected of having a disability. The next piece of that is the MTSS system. So looking at supports that a student uh might need and making sure that we've gone through the different tiers. This is part of making sure that we have uh we're looking at the least restrictive environment. So we're looking at is there something just in the general classroom at tier one. Tier one instruction is for everybody. Are there some adjustments a teacher

094can make in the classroom that would support the student? If that's not working, are there other uh needs under tier 2? Really, we go through that because many kids will be caught with that. um uh instruction in the classroom when teachers are differentiating instruction and things like that that they don't need to be qualified for an IEP to get support. There are many many ways in the schools to get support and our teachers do a fabulous job, interventionists do a fabulous job. So there are a lot of ways that that's done. Um after MTSS, if a student is still struggling, they've gone through multiple tiers, they've gotten multiple interventions, then we look at doing individualized assessment. So individualized assessment is required for every student who is being considered for eligibility for special education. As I

095mentioned, there's 13 disability categories. There has to be some kind of educational deficit uh that creates a need for specialized instruction or related services. So if the student ha meets those criteria, then the student qualifies for an individualized education plan with specially designed instruction and related services. And then each of those plans is calculated um based for the individual students needs. An interesting thing that came up as part of this audit was the um comments about um programming and um least restrictive environment and things like that. And one of the things um that they talked about was looking at the data overall. We know our teachers do an amazing job with our individual students. They do a great job writing progress reports, looking at IEPs, making sure we're updating. Where we have struggled is if

096we want to compare groups of students. So, we're looking at reasonably calculating how much reading time a student needs and whether that should be pullup time or in-class time. We don't have a system or didn't have a system to look at that overall. So, we wanted to compare all the students in the district who were getting 60 minutes of reading support in the classroom versus students getting 60 minutes of reading support outside of the classroom. Before Branching Minds, we had no way to actually look at that data because we have 420 kids in the district with IEPs and we would literally have to pull each one of those 420, take a look at what the services are, group them. It it just would be such an overwhelming task. That's something we're still learning how to

097use branching minds, but that's the kind of thing that we can look at big picture to see is this uh intervention more effective. Is this method more effective pull out or push in? So that's what we're right now this whole year we've been learning to do which I think will be really in important going forward and essential to making sure we're making good decisions based on that data. All right, Mrs. Sanuchi, this is your slide. Um, again, it says gifted enrichment, but I'm going to stress, right, gifted is the tree, but we need to step back and look at the forest. And so, really later on, you'll see me advocate for it to say accelerated placement and enrichment. Um, because it is not just about the identification of a student as gifted. So, the first

098part, again, all of this information is available in our gifted enrichment handbook, which is located on our website under teaching and learning. Um the first opportunity is our youngest learners, um kindergarten and first grade. Families that feel that their child is ready for um entering into kindergarten early or first grade early, they can submit an academic acceleration for advanced learners referral form. Um in addition with that form there is uh the opportunity to get feedback from their current um early childhood teachers who they might be with in preschool. Um from there they do come into the district and one of our amazing gifted teachers does the assessment. The assessment is the Kogat assessment um in addition to currently the Star Renaissance assessment. And then we take the scores and how the students perform and compare

099them to kindergarten level. Because if you're saying that your child is ready for kindergarten and they're a year younger, then we want to compare with kindergarten grade level standards and expectations. If in fact they are ready for that. But it's not just the academic piece that we look at when these little little friends come in. We are also looking at the social emotional development, right? are they ready to be sitting in this classroom um moving about? There are sometimes students that come in and they're like, I don't want to do this. Right? And so then we have to filter between are they social emotionally ready. They might have the academic side of it, but social emotionally they may need more time to just go ahead and mature and and be a four-year-old or be a

1005-year-old. Um so we take both sides into consideration. And it's not just, oh, you met the marks on this assessment you're in. We look at the whole child because we have to also remember, yes, this is kindergarten, but then how are they going to be when they're in third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, and so on and so forth, or when they get to high school and they're one year ahead and everybody else is getting their license, and that student is not, right? include that. Yeah, that's there are many factors that we need to consider when someone comes in and says, "Okay, I feel like my child is ready for early placement into kindergarten and first grade." It is not just based off of a test score. So, that is one portion of

101our accelerated placement and enrichment. When we look at, now let's zone in on on that tree of gifted. When we're looking to identify students as gifted, that assessment takes place in second grade. all second graders because we give the opportunity to all second graders is it is not just okay depending on how you perform in class all second graders across the board even if they are identified with having an IEP even if they are identified as an English language learner it does not matter their label or or whatnot all students get the opportunity to take the Kogat assessment and the Kogat assessment is an assessment that's used across the country um to identify gifted and talent talented abilities. It's a different way of thinking that the assessment is not based on reading or writing. Um,

102it is actually quite an interesting assessment where they might give you like nonsense words. Um, or they might give you shapes and you've probably done these activities where they give you different shapes and you have to figure out what's the next pattern or the next shape. Um, different assessments of of that nature. And so from there students do receive an identification in gifted if they meet a certain scoring criteria. It can be either in reading, it can be either in math or it can be both. Um from there that student then automatically during that win time does get pulled out to work with the gifted enrichment teacher on acceleration activities. Now here's where I'm going to pivot. Um no actually let me pause that I'll come back to that students who are identified as gifted

103and they go through right third fourth fifth because they are identified as gifted when you look at the accelerated um the accelerated act they are now automatically placed into advanced ELA if their criteria that they qualified for is ELA they will automatically get placed into advanced ELA as a sixth grader at the junior high if they qualified as gifted in math math. Then when they get to sixth grade, they are automatically placed into advanced math. So that label of gifted automatically places them into that advanced class and placement. When you get to the high school and even here at the junior high, the notion of being gifted or having a gifted class actually is obsolete. It's advanced placements, right? That's what you're working and that's where you're functioning. It's not about you're in a gifted

104class. It is about advanced placement classes. Um, and so we follow that same model here at the junior high. And the elementary school, what we have always called is gifted. This is where I'm going to pivot now and start calling it enrichment because by law, we have to open that and give access to all students. Even if they are demonstrating high levels of proficiency but not identified as gifted, we cannot deny them the opportunity to partake in those enrichment activities. That's the part where we need to work on. Um, so now let me backtrack. I've shared with you the track for students identified as gifted. Now the area that we're going to be working on as a district is through the MTSS process, right? How are we identifying students who are high achieving from there?

105Yes, we can still use Kogat to see how they did. Um a parent at any point can let's say second grade they didn't like the turnout they can appeal there is an appeal process for that where then we will dig deeper into data we will have a meeting with the parent um we'll get teacher input teacher recommendations a teacher can recommend a student as being high achieving a student can recommend themselves is hey I'm high achieving and I think I did want to be in that class anything can spark this where then what we do is we take them through the MTSS process and that's the part that we need to tighten up a little bit is how are we um in the same way that we are identifying or or working with students to

106identify how to close their gap, how are we providing those students who are demonstrating these high abilities, what is the pathway to get them what they need and so the same can you go back to the that same process also applies ies to our students who are high achieving. So if you have a student who you are like hey I think they might need some enrichment they can go through the MTSS process as well to be identified as they should be in this enrichment category. It's not just a hey they should be enrichment here take them. We do need to have this based on data um in order to make sure we are best supporting their needs. And so we look at benchmark assessment we look at teacher recommendation. We do look at classroom performance.

107We'll also look at classroom observations. If there's parent input as well or like I said, even student input, all of those categories, we're looking at both quantitative and qualitative data to make these informed decisions and ensuring that those students who are high performing also have access to this enrichment during win time in grades 3 through 5. The junior high has already functioned that way. the junior high, you did not have to be identified as gifted to get placed into their advanced ELA or advanced math classes. Um, they looked at benchmark data, which for us is currently STAR. They looked at teacher recommendation. They looked at classroom performance. So, a student was able to get into and is still able to get into an advanced ELA or an advanced math class without being identified as gifted.

108We just had to take that model and now mirror it down in grades three. And so, that's what we are working to do moving forward. Again, all this information is available in our handbook. It has been in there. I just don't think our practices have um been as tightly aligned with what has been scripted in the handbook. And so that's the area for us to continue to improve upon. Thanks. And then we just included MTSS really provides access or streamlines students getting services and supports along the way. And then if it does end up with identification, whether it be through those benchmarks or whether it be through special education evaluation, those may be opportunities. But what we don't want to make, we want to be clear about is MTSS is not a pathway for special

109education identification or gifted education. MTSS is a pathway to get you the supports and services that you may need. We I used the terms um differentiation and specially designed instruction earlier and I just wanted to give a clear understanding that when we talk about specially designed instruction you may also hear it called SDI that is really something that is mandated by IDA. IDA is the individuals with discipline disabilities education act. So that is the federal law that requires and dictates what we do around special education services. That means that the instruction that those students receive is individualized goal driven and it modifies the content or the way in which we provide instruction. Um and it is typically implemented by our special education teachers or very highly trained staff. Differentiation on the other hand is what

110every kid should get. My goal is when you walk into a classroom, whether it be my learning modality, my interest, my strengths, my weaknesses, that we have enough data and we can triangulate it that we're giving teachers the tools that they understand what I need as a student. That means a student with no identification, the student who receives it serves um who he or she may receive special education services or I've been identified as gifted or I'm just really advanced in some areas. We as a public school, that is my goal is that all kids get what they need when they come to school. But when we look at both of those, so we have this thing that is mandated by the federal government. We have differentiated instruction that we know is true and what

111we should believe in as public schools. When you look at that overlap, that's just good teaching. Tailor instruction to meet student needs. Use various strategies to enhance learning. Flexible grouping and scaffolding. and then supporting struggling learners. I think we all can get behind those those four bullets and have that expectation that all our educators are striving to achieve those four areas. So, I'm going to turn it over to um Dr. Thomas before we wrap up just to go a little deeper because I believe I can't remember who was asking, but there are some kind of finite pieces regarding special education that I want her to just touch upon quickly and then we'll go into the final findings of the report. Um Dr. Thomas. So these components that you see uh on the screen are the

112actual components that are directly in the IEP. So every single meeting that we have uh with the parents to review the IEP, these are the areas that we review in detail. So it it always starts with uh parent concerns. Sometimes we know ahead of time parents have told us their concerns. We may uh document concerns as we're going through the entire meeting. And I will say this, shout out to the families in Carrie. It is so unusual for us to not have a parent present at a meeting that if that ever happens, we all look around like, what are we supposed to do? Our parents are committed. They attend their meetings, whether it's in person, on Zoom. It's it is amazing. I think in this district more than any other I've worked in, the parents

113are there every day to uh support their students and to work with the staff. It's fantastic. So the parents concerns the parents really need to be part of this process because we need to make sure that their concerns are being addressed because they know their students the best. Um but we do talk about present levels of performance. We develop goals and objectives based on where the present levels are. We look at special factors like is the student blind or visually impaired? Do they have communication difficulties? Do they have assistive technology needs? Uh linguistic and cultural accommodations if that's appropriate. We talk about all kinds of supplementary aids, accommodations, and modifications. Those need to be uh directly documented into the IEP, which follows the district and state assessments and any modifications or accommodations they might need

114there. Um if they have an accommodation on a state assessment, it's an accommodation that they need to be using regularly in class. Um we calculate the services in the minutes and then we move on to the education environment. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about placement options in just a moment. But I do want to clarify under education environment, which is really what we think of as um the placement. That placement isn't just going to a certain program or going to another school. Placement is the amount of time that the student spends in the general ed environment versus the special ed environment. So if you're in the general education environment for at least 80% of the time, that's a very inclusive type of placement. If you're in there from 60% to 80%

115of the time, it's a little bit more restricted. But when we talk about least restrictive environment, it is calculated. We we generally assume that a full inclusion program in general education is the least restrictive for students. So that's always what we're striving for. But not every single student learns the best in that environment, which is why we may offer pullout services or specialized programs or things like that. Because for one student full inclusion might be the thing and for another student full inclusion is a complete and total nightmare and least restrictive for them might be something that has a little more structure in a smaller group and things like that. We do talk about transportation extended school year and then just have some general sections additional notes for any notes we take at the meeting

116or any other comments we might make about the uh how the services will be delivered. If the student is identified as having autism, there are seven factors we review for each student to look at uh accommodations. I accommodations are attached very specific accommodations and then if a student requires a behavior plan that goes in as well. Um I will say that and special ed program extending the school year. Do you mean by the summer program? The summer program is so beneficial to the children. I mean it keeps the progression of learning going without I it probably reduces the gaps in their knowledge and stuff. So that is really a really beneficial for for children. Yeah, it's definitely the way we uh work on um keeping too much learning loss over the summer for students that

117have limited recruitment or it takes them an extremely long time in the fall to get back to where they left in the spring. Um so that's what we do there. And then the continuum of services. I kind of broke this down by what's available in all the schools on the lefth hand side. So we have inclusion support, resource support, specialized resource support, um which is really a program that was designed for students who had a lot of heavy duty uh academic needs more. Um and we've really peeled that back a lot in the last several years to do more inclusive uh work as opposed to pulling a student out for all of their math instruction or all of their uh language arts. and then related services and there's a whole list of things are available

118in any school depending on the individual needs. Um and then we have a lot of specialized programming probably the bulk of our specialized programming um starts in uh at Oaknull in our early childhood programs. We have self-contained programs, blended programs where we have typical uh uh peers from the community uh that are part of the program as models. Um arise and PFA at risk programs and then we have our transitional kindergarten program as well as a specialized full day K inclusion program which is a teacher who is duly certified general ed and special ed. Um and then we have our programs such as TLC for autism um and developmental disabilities bridge um regional programming. So we share with a number of district uh different districts that have programs similar to we have uh districts that

119tuition students into our specialized programs. We use programs in other districts as well. Publican uh private therapeutic day and then residential placements are the most extreme which we have very few of those and and maybe have had two or three in the 19 years I've been here. It's pretty uncommon. So now moving Mrs. Jetty had asked how are we going to monitor what some of this in the last part of this presentation is the next step. So just like we set up with the strategic plan we're going to identify key performance indicators. Now again since we can look at groups of students receiving same services within grade levels multiple data points we will truly be able to have a clear understanding of what the shifts that we make and what is the impact it has

120on student achievement. That's our ultimate goal. Are we increasing um and having an impact on um ensuring that our students needs are met, but also that they're showing the growth and they're showing improvement. So things like our new benchmark assessment, our foundational reading assessments, classroom work samples, anecdotal notes, branching mind allows us to bring all of that together and then we can look at those students and then to start to also evaluate programs. The last portion that I will get to um is just there was observations done of our classrooms and of our teaching. I know this may be hard to see, but don't worry. I'm going to go over briefly each one of these areas. And so what we did is if you see that red bar when I go to this next slide,

121and that's hard to see, I apologize. But one of the areas that we um were coming up short in most often in the observations were higher order thinking. And so we already began to think about what are some action steps we've already started, but what are some things that we know we need to do? And so we've done that for higher order thinking. Focus instruction came in yellow. Assessment strategies is an area and then also feedback. So when we come to the board with our logic model and explain what and go into specifically what our next steps are, you will be able to see and I'll revisit these areas of focus priority and those will um inform what our action steps are as well as our shortterm, intermediate, and long-term goals. What's the y ais?

122Um, so that is frequency. So the overall frequency of what was evaluated and saw I'm not for sure how they put it on the zero to four point but but they have a rating scale that they put it on to connect frequency. Okay. And so um and then the last one was instructional strategies. We did not include the green bars which were several and to celebrate but for this evening I just wanted to really kind of show those areas of where we will be focusing and priority our work when we come back to you to share our detailed plan of action but to just give a brief overview of our next steps is one we will be developing a logic model for the entire project looking at how do we build the capacity of our

123building leaders in those areas of special education SDI specially designed instruction uction and differentiation. How do we support teachers in the area of understanding special education law in especially around SDI and differentiation and Ore and then identifying what does it look like when we know we've achieved that so what are those knowledge attitudes skills aspirations and beliefs um and then how will we measure our improvement and growth will also be identified in that logic model um Miss Rivera if you want to go over accelerated placement that's next steps yep absolutely so we talked about a logic model for all of it. We're going to create a little baby logic model specifically for accelerated placement and enrichment. Um, notice I have now officially shifted the way that I am describing that. Um, and so our focus

124within that logic model, which is basically an action plan, right, for the goals. Um, we want to look at the programmatic structure to support accelerated placement and enrichment for all, including students identified as gifted, yes, but even students who are not identified as gifted. So just referencing and looking at what we currently have in place and how can we tighten things up. We also want to continue to build capacity and support our educators with identification of children demonstrating those high abilities. U making sure that we are uh paying attention to the other side of the diamond. Um another area of focus for us when it comes to accelerated placement and enrichment is that windtime block during uh grades three and five. How are we utilizing that time to delve deeper into learning on both the

125ELA side and the math side? And then last thing is the continued professional learning for our teachers who are gifted enrichment teachers and or advanced ELA and math teachers at the 6th 8th grade level. Last year they had the opportunity to partake in No, it's that was not last year. That was this year. It just seems so long ago. um this year they had the opportunity to partake in uh preap training to get a sneak peek into what does that entail? What do those classes encompass and how can that be brought into our advanced ELA and advanced math classes? So, we'll continue to provide professional learning with that enrichment learning on the forefront. Can I ask a question? Always. Um thank you. it the the only thing I'm not seeing in here is what happens

126in first and second grade for enrichment. What do we do with our accelerated learners who haven't taken the KGAT yet but their teacher can see that they should be doing something else or could be benefited by doing something else. Yeah. No, that's a great great question. So, we have oftent times I'm going to call her out um Chris Maher uh who's over at Deer Path that she will um help and support as well. Um, they also have Terry Fischer who's our instructional coach over there. And what they do is they look to see how can they provide enrichment within the classroom within that small group setting. It's not something that we want to pull students out necessarily at that time because they're early learners. Um, but yes, if they are demonstrating that, hey, there's a

127momentum moving forward, we want to cultivate that, but we do that within the MTSS framework. So they would get that enrichment um during small groupoup instruction during that tier one and during that win time. Now if they're demonstrating an ELA or math, they can still get enrichment activities during so and that's the beauty of this of of this whole system, right? Is that you don't have to be identified as gifted to receive enrichment learning. And that's what we're trying to shift to and get get the point across, right? is that that can happen because now we have that model set up with that wind time block. So if a student is demonstrating higher capacities in K in one or in two, we now have a set time within their schedule that we can pull them

128out and focus on that deeper learning or deeper enrichment during that win time because that's what they need. So it's built into our schedule now where we can still do those things even without the identification. And I would just add that's where we need to build that capacity around differentiation that you know it is happening in every classroom in gen ed time you know during my classroom tier one time during win time if I am identified or I'm not I may get extra enrichment but yes a kid who needs to be enriched I believe needs to be enriched all day it just doesn't need to happen when I get pulled out. So but we but that takes time like you know it's not going to happen overnight and we want to give teachers space. We

129don't want to add stress or burden to teachers, but we want to build their capacity and then support the implementation of that. Dr. Thomas, special education. Sure. So, next up in special education, we've actually started on these as well. Um, so reviewing the continuum of services and updating programs based on identified student needs. So, we have some nice programs in place, but we also have changing needs and and changing trends with our students. And so, that's something we've been taking a very close look at this year. We may have some of the right programs, but they're not quite addressing the needs that the students have. And we have students who have needs that our programs don't address. So, we're taking a deep dive uh into the different programs, how they're structured, what methodology we use

130to see what adjustments we need to be making to make sure that we're matching our student needs, not matching our students to a program. Um, developing systems for programwide data review. This I mentioned already with branching minds really getting to deep uh deep dive into which programs are effective and how is that methodology effective and comparing those and then finally updating the professional development for special education staff regarding the use of uh data evaluating goals and updating IEPs in response to the student needs. We're working on right now developing a professional development calendar for the year for the entire year for next year. Um and we've been working on several different avenues to do that regular meetings that we um have already in place. Um and then also we have started actually through the empower

13126 we've done a couple things um uh through empower 26 which are great because they're after school short brief and then we record them. So, for example, I did a week or two ago a presentation on section 504 and that's recorded and now can be posted on the website. So, you could see it if you wanted to when you went there or you can go look at it later. So, in special education doing some really specific topic based things that people are asking about what do I do for student behaviors? What do I do for students with autism? What do I So, we can do some brief snippets like that and then post them so people can access them later. Just to clarify what you said post them to the website. It's our intranet website

132for teachers. So it's not posted to the website for sorry public. That's right. So that's those are the things that we're working on now to have in place for next year. Um I have I have just two things. Um first because I think this uh question came up. Um when it comes to wind time in the 3 through 5 uh removing a student who is in um speech would that take place during that time? So we do try to use wind time for the related services so that the students aren't missing uh instruction. However, I will say our related services staff have been some of the staff at the forefront of doing inclusive time. So OT inclusion, speech inclusion, especially if it's a social pragmatic issue or things like that. So we're working they've been

133I would say speech and OT um and PT all have been working on doing more services inclusively social work as well. If the student is having a social issue they are sometimes out on the playground or in the cafeteria working directly with the kids real time. Um so but if they do need pull out that's the time that we usually aim for. It's always a tough balance if you have a student who's got some academic needs and has three related services and has maybe a tier 2 need in math. um trying to balance there's only two blocks a day. Um but our staff do a great job of scheduling that. I I I actually like the fact that speech would be included with the others in a more inclusive way. I've had three children who

134have done speech and they have often felt like they miss out on things when they get pulled out. So that makes me happy. Um the other thing I want to add because my brain was moving my academic teacher brain. Um I have seen teachers and this is maybe um for Mindy's question as well and most recently do creative teams among their teams when it comes to differentiation where it's not just them within their classes differentiating but among their teams which I think is a huge benefit and incentive for kids where they do book clubs and like it's just called book club time but there's strategy behind that and I you know our son comes home and he's in book club but he's excited because he to see his friends in the other class, but we

135know that they're leveled, right? And so that part during win time has kind of been a nice strategy that I've seen used and that kind of you actually brought me to the last point. So, Santui, thank you for that. That was a nice segue. Some of the things I'm excited about is yes there are there is lots we need to bring back and kind of flush out into that logic model but some things we already have going is we have already started revamping our MTSS process to make it clearer more nimble for our teachers to be able to access those tier one tier I mean sorry tier two tier three services. We made the hard choice because we had some amazing people in that intervention role, but we knew the report kind of um validated

136some of the decisions that we knew we needed to make around hiring certified interventionists. And then again, that real that understanding of using wind time to provide differentiated instruction, you know, it the curriculum at work has made it more has made it I was gonna say more easier. I'm getting tired. easier for our teachers to be able to collaborate and offer some of those things across um grade levels. And so I'm excited um with that. Before I say thank you and questions, I know that was a lot, but this was a big investment that the board entrusted me for bringing forward as a recommendation and something that we wanted to do. And again, I didn't want our teachers or the community to feel like we didn't like we shortch changed something or we were not

137as clear as possible and shared all the information that we got publicly out there. We know our weak spots, but we also know our strong spots that we can build upon. So, I thank you. Like I said, I know that was a great deal of time, but I did not there was when I kept looking at it, there wasn't a piece I could leave out to really that I wanted to make sure that we gave the full picture. So, with that, thank you. And u we're um here to you know take any questions that may remain. I have one um speaking of like a big investment. It was um this is a lot of information and a lot of things to be implemented and worked on. Um and obviously things don't happen overnight. So maybe

138it's like a silly question, but like who's going to hold this accountable? Like where's our results? When are we getting them? Like in five years the schoolwork's coming back to make sure you did your job. Like So that's what I love logic models because a part of a logic model we when we present we'll have short-term goals which could be our year one goals. We'll have year two goals. So we should be able to see what we're doing. Is it working? Are we making it right directions in year one? There are things here especially the pieces around building teacher capacity or building building leader capacity. We can set the expectation but we have to give people time and space to be able to raise to those expectations. So when we come back and share the

139logic model one will tell you what are the things we can say we can get done fairly soon are the short-term goals what are the intermediate goals that may take us longer long-term goals and then we'll identify how are we going to measure our success. Now if the board decides later on to bring school works back to see if you know some of those measures that could be a conversation that we have. My hope is that we will be able to identify the are these are the changes, these are the things we're saying we're going to do and that we believe will have an impact on our student achievement and then we'll be able to show that as results. Also, you know, I don't believe this is the last time we'll have focus groups with

140our stakeholder groups to ask, have we seen different changes in perceptions? Have they seen improvements? So those are all data points that we'll be able to collect and we'll build those in the logic model and that logic model will share to the board. I have a couple questions. Um I really like that we've taken a hard look at our programs, you know, so it's not always easy to look in the mirror and stuff and we have this um we have some steps to go forward. I agree with Mrs. thought that we need to, you know, put um a time frame to them and how we're going to be held accountable. And uh and so the board has um bought the branching mines, this data acquisitions, and you're going to be collecting a lot more data.

141Do we I mean do we have the people presently to you know manipulate the data, read the data, interpret it and use it or are we going to have um you know staff additions coming forward? No. So, one of the things when we adopted branching minds, um, if you remember this past year, we really focused on building the capacity of district and building leaders. And now we'll start to begin to have conversations about how teachers can use this to even guide their instruction. Um, but that was one of the big reasons why we needed to switch from Tableau, which the district previously had, but wasn't really being used because you really needed a staff in itself to build all of the reports. Branchy Minds really allows us to input data from all of the sources

142we have and it does that some of that report work because Mr. Fitz Simmons standing over there does a lot of that background work but branching minds makes it more feasible for a much smaller group of people to do it than if we had or we were asking him to build Tableau reports from the ground up. Okay. Um and so that's why we made that shift. Okay. And can I add to that as well? the everybody in the district has access to see that data. So it's not that we need another person then to go through and analyze the data. It becomes part of um our teaming and it becomes part of our educational conversations at the schools in our buildings. When we do our school improvement plans, principles are pulling data from there. When

143teams are meeting, they're pulling data from branching minds. It becomes something that we live and we breathe. All of us together. It's not one single person that'll be looking at the data. all teachers have access to see their classroom data for all of their students as well. And I would like to see us have open communication with Kerry Grove High School. I mean, as you know, if we can get the more of our students in eighth grade that we can get to, you know, we take geometry here, then go into the it's basically a junior level math course and and the same with honors English and stuff. um that preps them to be able to take those AP tests and that that preps them to get out of college a semester early, which is a

144lot of money to their parents. So, thank you for, you know, looking at yourselves and coming up with the next steps. So, my um I don't really have a question. It's more of a this has been a lot of change in a year for our staff, like a lot. So, I just want to make sure that they're getting the the supports that they need to understand because I think there's got to be confusion of what old MTSS thinking was, what new is, and that there's a clear definitive uh guidelines for them to go by so that they're not confused, they have somebody to talk to on the spot. Um, I can tell you that I've heard it firsthand. there's there's a lot of stress. So, I want to make sure that we're um you know,

145you guys are having a two, three, four, five year plan. I just want to make sure that our staff understands. Nobody expects them to learn this overnight. Like, I think that needs to be stressed. Um they have a lot on their plate. So, I think it when there is, we need to make sure that we're following up, that we're giving them the supports that they need, that we're letting them know we don't expect you to get this right away. Um, to take some of that stress off of them. Yeah. And Miss Darling, thank you for saying that publicly. I will say it again. Um, because as educators, we stress ourselves out because we want to do the very best for our kids. And so, but what I want to reiterate is I have my goal

146for this year has been trying to eliminate any external stressor that our teachers may have. Our principles are not breathing down teachers bags to say you have to have all of this done today. Um, I think I have some teachers who are really pushing themselves and I'm really trying to balance to figure out how to handle their internal stressors because this is going to take time. Um, one of the main reasons why we're revamping MTSS is because I got feedback that it was confusing. They didn't know how to maneuver it. They didn't know how to manage it. So, what I hope is that's not something new. But that is us trying to clarify, retool, and say, "Here it is." My hope is that we'll start having those conversations in April with no one expected to

147do anything with it until August of 25 26 because you're absolutely right. That is part of the issue of I don't know how to manage this. Right now, our conversation around is okay, we've developed these tools. Now, how do we teach people how to access the tools and when they need them? That's the conversation we're having right now behind the scenes because I will say again, I do not expect any teacher to have what we're asking them to do even this year around the literacy block, our instructional delivery model. What I am asking is to try and be open to trying new things and learning. get good at one aspect of it and then share your expertise now that you're good at it with somebody next door and then now what can we do next?

148But this is this is a multi-year implementation project. This is not overnight that we expect teachers to do. So please share that with the teachers that you talk to. I continue to share it. I'm gonna get t-shirts made to say take it slow, be easy, we got this or something because I I I want to reiterate that over and over again. And I think you're right. I think a lot of it is that we have some excellent teachers in our district and I think that they put a lot of pressure on themselves to to grasp things very quickly and to get on to, you know, to the next thing because they don't want to disappoint anyone. And um you know, like I say to new board members when they start, there's never a a stupid

149question to ask. There's never if you need clarity on something, that's what you guys are here for. So, I don't want any staff member to feel that they can't come to you if they are having a problem. Don't feel like you can't ask. You would you would say the same thing to your students. So, I I I just want our staff to make sure they're feeling supported and that we're not making them feel they're rushing into something. Thank you. I just want to uh thank Dr. White and Mr. Rivera, but Dr. Thomas, uh this was not happy action funtime data. this was some tough data to look at, right? And I appreciate the honest conversation and the honest reflection that's gone into this. Um, and the fact that you're bringing it to the public saying,

150look, you know, we're we're doing okay, but we've got a ways to go and not a lot of schools or school districts would make that public. And I appreciate you acknowledging that. Uh, and I also, it's great to hear the plan and I think this is going to be great for our kids and great for our teachers and everything. Um, so thank you for that because that's that's a big step forward in being honest with the community. We definitely appreciate that. Um, the the one thing uh that was brought forth, I think it was at the beginning of the year with junior high with the winds program, making sure that we're not encroaching in on like fine arts and just being cognizant of that moving forward. Um, I I I want to make sure this

151is these plans are great, but let's make sure that we're we're taking we're not encroaching on other things that also uh grow our students outside of math and science, too. So, but thank you again. This is I'm I'm excited to really get in here and digest this. This is great and um I appreciate the honesty and I really am excited about the vision. So, thank you. I really I couldn't agree more with you, Jason. really go Jason on that. It's just yes, we needed to hear this. I think some of us felt it. We needed to have a um that third party evaluation and reading through that report. What and I and I appreciate all the teachers too for participating and being so real and honest with what their needs are when and what I

152kept seeing was professional development, professional development training, understanding what what these kids are getting, how I can help them. So that seeing that staff was really asking for communication and professional development and stuff was awesome because we have we know people who can provide that and we've got the expertise. Um just two questions kind of around that the differentiation thing when students are getting they're different levels of help let's say reading I'm not going to use like the right PC words or whatever. Do they know that they're in the bad reading group? Do they know they're in the good reading group? Is there a stigma or are the are the teachers educators doing the best thing that they can do not to have that going on in the classroom? I was like I can give

153them quick and they can fill in. The the hope is that when time is changing so often that I may be one of the you know high achieving students but this standard the um fifth grade teacher teaching theme to fifth graders is so hard to do as a fifth grade teacher try to some of my you know highest performing students could struggle with that and so they may be needing extra support so it's not stagnant groups like when we were in school the red robin and the bluebirds and we all knew to the blue who was in the bluebirds group and we knew that was a lower group. That's not what win time should look like. It really should be moving constantly based on what skills the kids are working on. So it's never this

154group is worse than or you know I'm in this group because I did XYZ. I just need extra support this week or this unit and it should shift and change. Um we're getting better at that. We're not we're not changing groups as fast but that's because our teachers are still learning how to structure all of this. but they are beginning to move their groups. Um, so I'm really excited about that. I will say again to go to um Mrs. Darling's point, I am so proud of the growth I have seen in our district this year. And no, are we there yet and do we have everything in place? No. But when I walk in our classrooms comparison from one year now to this year, our teachers are trying. I see more rigorous instruction, more engaging

155instruction, kids doing the learning, and the teachers not doing all the work. We're in a good spot. That's why I just got to figure out how to get teachers not to stress themselves out because I'm very proud of us right now on the work we're doing. The journey's not done. But yes, to answer your original question, those groups should be moving so there's not that stigma placed on me like I'm going to this room or I'm going with this teacher so everybody knows that I'm in the lower group or I need extra support. I really appreciate that you understood what I was asking and I I love hearing that it's oh it's fluid in that way because I was I was in the bad rating group and I still feel that and it's traumatic. Yeah.

156and you know it and it's just it doesn't do anything for the kids self-esteem and then I fear that they will perform in the way that it they are they think that they're expected to perform. So I love hearing that it is fluid fluid. Um and then I had a question of course for uh Mr. Shepard and I promise this is the um last thing but um the funding are we getting funding for um accelerated I'm trying the new terms accelerated placement or academic enrichment. Are we getting the funding for the special education and all of the PD and everything that is going to go along to help make this successful? So the the funding for all of what you've heard tonight has all been built into the budget. It's it's what really guides our

157work and what we're focusing our budgets around. Okay. Is that coming from the state? Is it coming from So most of most of our funding is coming from the local level. That's what really drives our budget. Uh there is some funding coming from the state. Uh the federal funding, I know there's a lot of of angst surrounding what the federal government is doing. However, we pretty confident that funds for IDEIDA uh and title will be there. They may not be coming out of the Department of Education. Uh they may be coming from another department. Uh but those funds have been around long before the Department of Education and we feel confident that uh those will remain. Okay. I'm going to just take it one step further. Um I know you like like knowledge and information.

158So title, so under title, I oversee title one, two, three, and then four, right? So title one, our buildings that are title one, we do utilize a lot of their funds for um the uh renewal of those subscriptions to whether it's reading eggs, math seeds, Alex, things of that nature. So we use title funds for that in our title schools. Um most of it obviously like uh Dr. Shephard, Mr. Sheepard um said it's from our local funds. Title two is specific to professional learning development. So teachers that are seeking to go to conferences or when we pull someone in like a Lindsey Kemin to early literacy professional development that often times comes through in title 2. And then title 4 is specifically meant for um those enrichment type activities. So if we're looking at novel

159studies, so at the junior high, we just recently purchased novels for grades six, seven, and eight, we asked them, "What do you need?" They were able to give us what they needed, and we purchased novels for them to engage students in novel studies. Our gifted enrichment teachers have a certain allotted amount of money to them, so that way if they need materials or things to replenish within that block of wind time, they can get that as well. Um, and then title three, I skipped that one, is specific to multilingual learning. So topics or or supports that are directly related to multilingual services. That's what title 3 is for. And then just related uh our IDEIDA grant that we get is required to have 5% of the grant set aside specifically for professional development on topics

160related to special education or specialized instruction. And that money can be used, it doesn't have to be used for special ed staff. We actually use it for general ed staff as much as special ed staff who are looking for information or knowledge about specialized topics because the students with special needs are in their classrooms. So it's used both for general ed teacher or special ed teachers, speech pathologists going to their uh local or state conferences, things like that. So um and we usually we have to allocate 5% we usually spend about 10% of our grant on professional development. So there's quite a bit of funding to support uh topics. Thank you for answering that question. Thank you. That was very thorough. Thank you. There's a lot of information to digest. Uh this will be will

161we have this uh posted publicly this just this presentation or so it's in Bordox now? Would we be putting it somewhere like where you have the other teaching and learning maybe in that area or something so that we can put it for the teachers and put we can figure out where to put it publicly. Yeah, wherever. Yeah. Perfect. Or yeah, it's even that even under our strategic planning page, right? Perfect. Thank you. If there's nothing else, I'll go to the next item. uh the appointment employment compensation discipline performance dismissal of specific employees of the public body fives ILCS 120-2C1. May I have a motion to adjourn to close session? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none can take a vote. Julie Jetty, yes. Katherine Potter, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Jason Jansen, yes. Darling, yes. Ann

162Sanuchi. Yes. Stacy Salt. Yes. Okay. The motion's approved. Open session ends at What time is it? 8:18. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. you know, so you