001I would like to call this meeting to order this is the regular school board meeting for Creek 201u on Tuesday November the 14th 2023 time being 6:30 pm. have a roll call please Madam Secretary sure Mr Al here Mr gagos here Mr wallish here miss Z stumbris here Dr Hall here president Brown here thank you let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by board member Mr gyos and followed by the mission statement read by Dr Hall I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all stat thank you both Mr G gagos and Dr Hall and we have a few public comments and I will come up to the podium and we
002have two others that are electronically sent to us one each will be read by board member uh Jamie and our board secretary so the first person we have up is Mrs Kenne gagos in regarding respond to a board member comments hi um I'm not a public speaker there's nothing that I would like less to do than this but I felt it it very important it's something that touches me very personally um I'm I've been disturbed by things that I've heard at the last three board meetings um I'm embarrassed by some of the things that I've heard some of our board members say um referring to a portion of our population I've heard things like how long are they staying we are being forced to accept them they are taking resources from our children I don't
003think we should do things to make us more attractive if you said anything like this you should be ashamed let me remind you if children live in our district those are our children it doesn't matter whether you want them here or not whether they rent or they own if they are here they are children of the district and it is our responsibility to serve them if you have a problem with them being here please save that conversation for some other time and some other place your job is to find solutions to how we can best serve everyone and to look for resources and manage those resources we have no business asking why students are here or when they will leave do you know any of our new families I do some have come and moved
004already some of them are working themselves to the point of exhaustion to pay rent they also shop at local stores they are taxpayers all of the children in this District have value students of every background religion and political belief our students with and without special needs our students whose first language was English and those who are English language Learners all of them have value they bring diversity and perspective to our schools our students help each other to understand community and culture they motivate each other this year my students are more excited than ever to learn about language they're more interested in current events and geography our students are excited yes teachers are exhausted but our kids are growing please continue to look for resources to help us to do what we we do best provide
005us with what we need to the best of your ability and leave it at that you are representing this district and you set a tone as a parent and a teacher I expect you to look for ways to turn this challenge into an opportunity for growth I expect you to make this District look more attractive to everyone so that people from all backgrounds backgrounds want to move here my family moved here because of the diversity because of the opportunities our children would have to develop their bilingual skills a gift that will help them to have more opportunities in life I expect you to choose your words in ways which make every child feel important respected and welcomed on behalf of the district I would like to apologize to any families who have been offended by
006the recent board members statements I would like to thank the board members for being reflective and taking responsibility for their words poorly chosen thank you thank you thank you thank you for the public comment appreciate uh the comment that you made so next up I have Jamie would you read public comment did you have Katrina Jones submitted a uh public a public comment my apologies I couldn't be in attendance to the school board meeting I have another meeting scheduled at the same time as a parent whose child was detained in the same classroom as the student that was said to have a gun I am highly upset on how things were handled if that child was a Potential Threat why would you not remove said child from the classroom aren't there security officers and resource
007officers present in the school to assist in moving kids to safety what my child told me in regards to the situation does not add up to what the news reported or what the school reported what was told to me by my child who witnessed the whole incident was that the child entered the classroom reached in his coat pocket when another student asked him what did he have in his pocket before the child could answer another student shouted out he have a gun that's when the rest of the student students started repeating that the child had a gun before you all called a code red Alice did anyone ask the child did he have a weapon what was the child's parent or legal representative present when that child was questioned I should not have gotten a
008text from my child informing me that everything was okay when I know that he was not supposed to be on his phone during school hours every Sunday I get a robo call in regards to Sunday Night Live when something happens at the school we get emails an hour after the situation then a few minutes and later an email stating all clear why you why you all stop the robo calls when something happens not everyone has time to check their emails all day I would not have known anything was going on if it wasn't for my child texting me and alert on my phone watch stating it was an active shoot Tut at the high school from my ring app I'm highly upset my child and other students were left in potential danger with someone said
009to have had a weapon and turned out to be a brush either way the situation was not handled properly with all the tax money that's going to the school district better training needs to be done for situations like this as a nurse who have worked in in situations where we are all trained to have to remove people out of dangerous situations or defuse a situation throughout my career we have to do refresher courses as well you need to do better with communication when the schools go on lockdown you need to handle situations better than what you all did on Wednesday as a parent and a taxpayer I hope you all do better thank you thank you Jamie for that and thank you for the person Jones Miss Jones Miss Jones for submitting that public comment
010next public comment is going to be read by our board secretary okay this public comment is entitled improving Communication in emergencies uh from Melissa jazak and I apologize if I mispronounce your name uh thank you for your time this evening I am a parent of a Junior and senior at creep mon High School my children have grown up as cougars comets and warriors they have had great experience in our schools and we appreciate all the adults who have made that possible for them tonight I would like to address the incident that occurred last Wednesday my first text from one of my children came at 1240 p.m. they just called a code red I'm in lunch and no one is moving everyone is so scared the kids have texted me before while in lockdown because they
011say I'll know what's going on before they will I checked my email nothing I looked on on social media finding other parents doing the same I waited for news while rumors swirled active shooter four students shot gun found on and on and on still Fielding texts from my kids one of whom left the building after hearing what was thought to be a gunshot the police have their guns out checked my email again still no news at 1:23 p.m. I received a notification of the Lockdown from Principal hfield 43 minutes later notification 5 minutes after that creep police chief posted in an explanation on Facebook letting the community know that the threat was unfounded and all students are safe at 1:46 p.m. principal hfield emailed a similar message and air returned to my lungs as I'm
012sure it did for every parent awaiting that news I'm asking you to put yourself in our shoes we have to figure out a better and more timely way to share emergency information this this was unacceptable 43 minutes of panic scrolling hoping for another Proof of Life text parents and Guardians need to be notified as soon as possible regarding what is happening in these situations and with the level of Technology available I'm sure it can be done give us details when things settle down but notification needs to happen sooner than later our kids are in your care we should hear it from you further the following up was lacking this incident was traumatic for many of the kids in that building and probably the staff as well in a perfect world a phone call home would
013have come that night urging the kids to come in the next day letting them know that counselors would be available if needed I know we received messages about partnering with Schoolhouse Counseling Center it would have been wonderful to bring people in to provide services we get a call every Sunday evening all sunshine and Roses to not have mentioned this yesterday that was toned deaf these kids are more than learning machines they are human beings that have been through something terrifying to support them and enable them to return to learning we have to acknowledge that especially since not everyone may receive the support at home thank you for all you do Melissa Joe's weak okay that will conclude the public comments and definitely was some you know experience that was you know kind of touching and
014a lot of questions and all of that as being asked regarding the event last week and with all things being considered I thought our school district and our law enforcements did a tremendous job and our superintendent will speak a little bit more on that matter all right uh board updates I would like I know this probably may not be the optimal time but I don't think we kind of acknowledged our veteran an the last time we was here and we was in between B days so I just want to acknowledge our veterans um those that are still living those are in in the armed forces at this time and those who have went on to be to be with God so if I can just have everyone take a moment of silence for that particular
015topic all right thank you thank you veterans so we are at board updates any board updates yeah I'll you want me to Sure Nel and I are teammates in this one so uh Jamie and I attended this morning the First Responders meeting the monthly First Responders meeting in and uh led by Robin Tobias uh representation from First Responders from all the communities were there um we spent the full hour debriefing what happened last Wednesday at the high school uh I won't go into kind of the hold back and forth in the conversation but I think um you know one of the themes is communication and you know there's going to be a lot of lessons learned from that incident and thankfully nobody was injured in that so um in that incident and we can take
016the you know have the opportunity for the Lessons Learned um um you know one of the things that I think do have to look at Skyward and some of the things about how that how that communication gets out um but I just want the public to understand that when we have that when we think it's an active shooter situation or red lockdown that it's you know the principal or Administration they have to want one take they're responsible for making sure the K children students are secure but themselves secure as well so they can't stop and go hey I'm going to send out an email right now you know so I think just some understanding by the public about that when these things occur sometimes the communication is not be perfect that said we're going to
017they're looking at it and going to work on that so um and I think uh again to your point Mr Brown um the police uh got their very quickly uh and handle the situation extremely professionally along with our staff uh so I couldn't be prouder of all of them I think one of the takeaways is kind of how do we have better communication and maybe a command center outside of the building to help navigate everything because there was an issue with really Exchange Street becoming a parking you know becoming a parking lot with parents trying to get there and you know if something you know if ambulances had to get had more ambulances had to get there at that time they couldn't have gotten there so how do we how do we nav you know
018inside the building went as planned outside the building there's still some work to be to improve on so and I know all of the First Responders stayed after we left and you know kind of had a round table to start to to address those things because a lot of that's not in control of the school district we need the cooperation and the leadership of the First Responders the police fire Etc to make sure that all happens um so anyway but it was a a good meeting this morning and just to reiterate as going there both as a board member and as a parent I made sure that I had discussed the disconnect in time between um information between administrators and the disconnect in the 45 minutes from parents receiving that same notification because as a
019parent parents I also did not receive the notification till 45 minutes later and so it was discussed and how they are going to be looking at ways to mitigate the disconnect in time from all of the notifications excellent thank you both I have a question so you said that they had that they're going to discuss um that piece of communication with how to when to get it out and how to get it out and and that will be worked with the law enforcement or did they say that'll be worked within the district because at this point um how can I'm trying to put it um as equal as possible um from doing that that that should who sends the email out shouldn't have been in question at all no having an email sent out in
02045 minutes shouldn't have been a question everybody has a job and and it wasn't that the email wasn't sent at that time someone hit send the disconnect happened in the communications platform of Skyward so it went out to all district Google email addresses but didn't go to the addresses that parents had registered on their account for a 45 minute delay so they're going to work on trying to figure out the district knows it's their responsibility they acknowledge that it is their responsibility to figure out and and we as school board members acknowledge that it is up to us to figure out where that disconnect happened from pressing send to it actually being received by parents and it may have been a communication Delay from internal workings so they're going to be looking at all aspects
021of communication and communication the internal like technology of it and also looking at additional platforms to maybe better enhance our communication with parents in an immediate setting so I will Echo onto that just to reiterate that so the original email I think was set out the the alert was set out at 12:38 the time the alert went out was 12:47 so it's 10 minutes but what happened like uh Miss Z was saying is that the way the Skyward is set up there's a layering effect it's actually faster to do that the emails than a robo call because what happens with Robo calls is it will it will dial a number and it won't go to the next one until someone picks up so there is delay so that's why we tend to do the email
022and the email the way it's been set up in Skyward we think we can do it faster by reconfiguring it so that's with the team we're going to be working with the IT department to do that but it was sent exactly at 1247 7 um shortly after it was sent out at 12:38 but not uh but Skyward didn't release it the alert the alert was called at 12:38 and at 12:47 sent so that was 10 minutes but it didn't get to our parents for 30 and we did not know that at the time so it was through all this debriefing that we figured out that there was indeed a delayed out there that caused some confusion rightfully so certainly to our families and we completely understand that so our protocols were set we've got to
023go back and look at a tech issue within our Skyward system and we will get that resolved and that's never happened before right like we we we didn't know that that would be that would happen until we we actually went into this situation right when you need something that timely yes you don't notice it like when you get the Sunday night lives he hits send and it just rolls through it and no one really appreciates whether they get it at 8:00 or 9:00 right but when you are under um when there's some concern out there yeah minutes matter when you're that parent so we would have never fig known that until this happened correct and that is why I think it is so important Mr debias has done an excellent job going through and we
024we timestamp everything when we do the debriefing so that we find out where the errors were where we were um um where we were fast where we need to work and so forth and and uh so we've got a whole report that's been generated that we are working on internally but overall you know we were actually pleased with the staff our students and everybody did follow the protocols uh fairly well and our First Responders I can't say enough about them and I did want to say that I I know there's always room for improvement and of course we want to improve but being in this district for several years I see the Improvement I mean it was never the standard ized you know um this practi as it has been lately then I don't remember
025that at all when my kids were younger so I mean we've really come up and we just have to go that a little bit more to make it to the top but I I mean we really have made great strides so um room to improve yes we have and uh like I said and we will continue to practice to we can get as perfect as possible and we did have some conversations with some students and you know um you know conversations were certainly varied but a couple of the students that we did talk with or hear from um some of them said they actually felt very safe in the room uh some other students um felt that they knew what to do um in directing substitute teachers and so forth so the students have been
026practiced and they knew what to do that's what we've been hearing from many of the students and that's the thing is I I I know that you guys were on the first responder that's not like our first meeting we've been doing that for a while right so and and the trainings have been going on if you talk to the local law enforcement and the fire departments they've been doing this type of training so I think we just had a drill didn't we not a couple days a couple days ago so was so fresh in their minds so it's good that the students are aware of what's going on this is just today was a regular scheduled First Responders meeting it happens monthly and so they regularly scheduled so means that we're like you said Miss
027R 10 years ago there was nothing at all one of two safety teams that were B on so there's there's a you know there are two separate are you on one too no there's then there's a school the district safety team which meets with teachers administrators Etc and then a building one and building so they're they they're doing truly they're working on all layers yeah and I think it began when we hired uh Patrick seamonson that was the first time this District actually had a security person in there and we we are trying to make the district better and safer adapting to what's happening in society right I mean with what's going on in the world we have to make we want to make sure that our staff and our students feel safe by hiring
028him and starting that process look at where we're at now you guys are going to monthly meetings and we're learning and evolving and I think that was a start but I with um Robin Tobias as the head of our security no yeah taking it to a totally new level which is great I mean that that's I mean think about we were 3 four years ago Ser seriously it it's it's a night and day yeah but we always have room for improvement when you have these events you definitely have these events and you come up with lessons to learn what went well what we need to improve on so but at the end of the day everyone everyone was safe that's really what matters but we definitely going to improve on the process where we find
029some in ad inadequacies and any way and the district will get back to the board on those improvements you know well thank you again parents for pointing out some weaknesses and as well as some strengths so I got quite a few calls myself quite a few things that was on social media where parents actually you know mention good things that happen as well as bad things but so and one thing I can definitely say that the word is not going to get out any faster than a student could get it out prior to administrator putting it out because they are right there being wrong or right what they put out they're going to be right there with their cell phones and put in and out so I don't know where we can improve on that
030but we're going to try to do something with that as well all right any other further board updates oh I got a few we have our conference coming up all right y yes indeed I expect everybody probably be there okay and I do challenge each board member if they can bring back one good thing that they believe is good back to the board you're going to go to a tremendous amount of good sessions I I definitely can tell you that if you haven't looked over the schedule you're going to see some good things that you would like to go to so if you can bring back one thing that you said a little book report please yeah something like that if you want to do that that's why but at least one thing you know
031and we kind of put all of those good ideas together and maybe give it to the superintendent which one you want and really work on let's try to do that at a December meeting so it's the past president wasn't very good about schedule oh that's all right okay so I'm definitely looking forward to going down there and new board members I saw a couple classes for you guys too finance and all the other things security okay so and there's quite a few other things happening in the district I think I know a couple weeks ago the superintendent put something out about everybody coming together and and being united on one cause giving whatever is a whole list of things that would be considered just a a Unity unified person that really does something well for
032the district I believe that's a November 28th I I don't know if that's a Tuesday you said something out I'll send it to you if you don't have it November the 28th and all of board members it was it was something I get it I'll send it to you I'll send it to you before the board there been a lot going on November the 28th where just board members they wear colors or they go do a good deed for the district that day in there classrooms or whatever you pick and choose on that date the 28th that all board members can do something good for the district got it okay and mentioning colors did we ever get some a tire for our new board members any did we have you got a tire yet I
033went I went to the holiday booster and specifically to buy myself a polo just to make you happy sir a okay I have now oh wow okay that needs to be higher not less some after that one District came to I think we've ordered it I think it's getting embroidered right now that's where it's at okay so if we can get something to our new board members yeah I got great stuff for the sherff we want to be unified that's great and I forgot to give accolay to uh Dr Hall on his presentation at our last event that's the isba right in School Board Association that we held it was among about what five six other districts was here oh lots of districts all of County and Dr kogan and chery and magnificent secretary amazing
034job with yeah yeah I have one of her moms at home right but an excellent job the rooc the ban the catered food security just just knocked it out the park again excellent job and again Dr Hall you did a excellent job representing the school district and your presentation it was it was it was great thank you so good job again and there's another event that's happening being sponsored by the running club of cre I think that's the club on Turkey Day on Thanksgiving so if you feel energetic on Thanksgiving day and not cooking and not cooking 7:00 in the morning Heritage Park there's a 5K and it's going from 700 to 9 please join us she got me to join and my wife actually there's another one that day too though is it really
035yeah okay University Park scholarships I think and that one's at nine so I'm doing that one oh so you can do the 7 o' and the 9 only you can do that and you can eat all the turkey you want okay wow great and I think that is enough and that should be enough for me and enjoy your holidays all board members welld deserved and complete staff in public okay that being said turning it back over to you Dr kogan E for administrative update yeah I've just got a couple uh in recognition of some celebrations that are going around this week uh number one uh it is American Education week this week um this is a week we recognize and honor and thank all of our staff staff who touch children's lives um regardless of
036roles here everybody does interact with our our students in one form or another and uh they are huge support for our students um they're dedicated to helping our students Thrive and grow into young adults and ones who will grow up to make a difference the U has some of the hardest working professionals that I've had the privilege to working with and I truly do believe that and so this is our week that we publicly say thank you to all of them for their work today we sent out for staff uh a special Gourmet Apple for them as a token of appreciation uh this is I think our second year of doing the apples and um it was upon request they wanted them again so we sent them out again wow so uh anyway so we
037want to thank our staff this week for all their hard work and let them know how much we do appreciate all of them um we also acknowledge that on they're week on the our website social media and our building Marquees so uh shout out to all of our staff also this week is national board day so board members tomorrow is national board's day this is a time we take a moment to let each of you know how much we appreciate you not a moment of silence no moment of silence you know each of you is stepping up not with this board that's right we li we Lively each one of you has stepped up um to invest your time and sharing your backgrounds your talents for the common goal of our students and um and
038helping our staff grow while enjoying their educational experiences here our board is diverse which I believe is the strength of our district truly and though there are different perspectives and experiences collectively you believe in doing what is Equitable and right for our students families and staff you spend hours reading through endless board packets reviewing policy in school code reading Weekly Newsletter attending school and community events attending countless hours of professional development as far as a volunteer job I say you're very committed so on behalf of the students families and staff we sincerely thank you and appreciate your work thank you thank you also uh I wanted to go back and think about Veterans Day I'm glad you mentioned something uh November 11th Saturday was Veterans Day our schools were closed on Friday Fray but each
039of our schools on that Thursday celebrated Veterans Day with assemblies and special events our schools were able to post pictures on their social media Pages um to share with our families um I did send out to all of you a special veteran in our district and that was William Perry he was on our alumni page um Mr Perry is uh an alumni he's currently works as an IT Help Desk Manager and Mr Perry gradu graduated from the U in 1980 so after high school he spent uh time in the armed forces where he was stationed in Germany soon after he met his wife and they now soon after that he met his wife and they now share four children and all of them have graduated through the district he's been a dedicated employee for the
040last 10 years so if you see him you know certainly make sure that you uh acknowledge that if any of you know uh an alumni that you would like us to recognize please give a shout out have them contact Calla Erikson uh because we're always looking for some uh alumni to uh highlight and put in our uh our little magazine so that is all I have for today okay and I will give you B Bravo teaching and learning Miss Perkins this well awaited PowerPoint oh how did I I skip over that what's that dress code sorry I just jump right over there I just so I know she's so excited she's our one presentation tonight okay dress code is important to the kids it it is what's what what is the alphabet before a that's
041the way she R it so dress code as you know uh our students had had come to us and you know our high school students were saying they really wanted us to reconsider and update to be a more Progressive dress code for you know the new Millennials so we did go back and we worked with the students we brought that to you you asked if uh for us to also go back and talk with the other stakeholders the administrations it's mostly the middle school and uh the high school administration to get their input um and I also talked with uh the teachers in um cmea as well shared that information got their feedback as well so this is it took a little bit more time so this is more of a compilation of it with
042some some compromise in the middle of it um I was not able to meet with the students today because I was in a lot of meetings but Mr holfield did meet with the uh student government uh students to share this is the rendition that we came up with so I'll go over some of the highlights you'll see lots of pretty colors in here so I'll kind of talk about what they were um the one in green is the one that we've done the most recent so the one change is that we were going to eliminate hats and hoodies and things like that um but what it came back to us is our concerned about the hoodies with the ear earbuds in the classroom they uh felt very strongly about that so was they uh cmea
043and administration okay um so we went back to saying no hats or headgears may be worn inside the building these items must be removed upon entering so we kind of went back to the original language um but we are allowing uh um hats or headgear for religious hygienic or medical reasons so we kind of uh got the middle ground on that um number five the only thing that we added here was this outdoor apparel we had outdoor apparel sunglasses outer vest glov scares are to be worn uh it be stored in the students Locker during the day and may not be worned or carried to class other outdoor items such as coats jackets and sweaters may be worn indoors throughout the day and this is the caveat here however only with express permission from the
044building Administration can you clarify that to figure out who's going to make that decision so this is what I as I talk with Middle School in particular um the Middle School basically had said sometimes the building classrooms are cold students will kind of complain that they're cold in the morning and so she uh least administration at the middle school said and there are times that they they will say yes you're allowed to go get your coats because it is cold in that that classroom for the day so that's how this is being directed in that capacity it's not so much individual so it's not so much giving the the kids the right to do that is what I think they're asking for but it's still allowing Administration to dictate that right correct with some flexibility
045so if students are cold um you know they can you know allow them to do that so that's kind of where the middle was on that one can you help me out with sweaters oh let me see what that is I mean like I like wearing a good sweater I even like wearing a cardigan Mo's wearing a gorgeous sweater Well w well I bet how are we defin like what do you mean by sweater yeah I think uh we talked about just the heavier like a sweater you would wear outside it's outdoor wear not so much sweaters that are other outdoor items such as coats jackets and sweaters and I I I can't even give you an example of what an outdoor sweater would look like that's what I'm wondering like Cardigans would not be
046considered an outdoor I mean it's an outer layer of clothing okay this seems to Outlaw Cardigans just like or like I'm not how are we defining what an outdoor does anybody what an outdoor item is yeah I mean like just just the sweater is confusing is anybody no am I I agree with I agree so what suggestions you want me to strike sweaters yeah okay so are you going to go back to the students and review review the changes well it depends how drastic we have for reviews but I meant the green areas that you added we already did okay and they're okay with all this from I talked to Mr holfield I said how do the students do with this he said they were happy okay as long as they're I mean that's the
047premise of them ask asking them to come giving them enough voice and like I said they they were happy just to have had a voice at the table they were glad that we were not met with them they felt happy and heard so do you want me to eliminate sweaters X that one out yeah I'm I'm fine with that else thing sweater would be yeah okay and then the rest of it oh excuse me if it becomes if there is a sweater that later becomes an issue can we go back and readdress that okay cool yeah I bet you could take a survey of our middle school and there AR a lot of Cardigans being for they got the Walmart Walmart specials they get the 995 specials occasional Taylor Swift fan who wants to see
048a cardigan so you never know Jamie you are so funny um I think that was really the only one that was um and then the green on the back Middle School uh Administration I think also as well as cmea in the green wanted to make sure that adequately covered their private parts they were worried about you know we took we uh were a little leaning on the the mid drift shirts but we wanted to make sure that things were covered in the back so that's why we put that on there that was the only changes and like I said Mr hollyfield indicated to me that the students felt heard and they they felt this was good so you I just have one question to myself you you struck the first paragraph in green and you
049had beanies or hair covering for Hair Care are acceptable as long as it is does not cover the face and the ears are open that's the lines that's struck there yeah and you kind of let me see where you put it back we use we kind of put it back with kind of hygienic because we're looking at students that are doing their hair in the day and their hair is not right they'll put the cap on sometimes at the end of the school day okay you show pass by an administrator for religious hygiene so you're using that Hy hygienist more of appearance though yes so that's okay that's okay for is that more applicable for a female it could be it could be for either could be for males too okay okay yeah okay so
050they would have they would have to go to their Dean or an administrator to get a pass in order to get permission to wear this that's what they've done now that's what I know the middle school I believe is doing that now to get permission for okay mhm if like I said um Middle School said that they the students for the most part abide by most of these um and they haven't had significant issues so in in one CA we heard from the high school students but not the middle school students only the Middle School adults correct okay correct and and like I had said you know a lot of this this was brought from the high school students as a student government and um so that was their voice so so then they said
051no hats or head gear including hoodies um I can I can kind of understand the hoodies but um I'm wondering why no hats or hair gears that just because a tradition because I I could tell you right now there's never been a time where I had a kid with hat or head gear and I looked on the camera and couldn't uh describe or recognize a kid even with a hoodie personally but I mean for the most part I can I can almost guarantee you you can go to Kady and say hey do you know this kid oh yeah that's Joe he uh with the same H so that's never I mean I'm not if they this what they want this is what they want but I'm saying unless it's just for tradition then that's one
052thing but to say you can't recog you can recognize it's because you get the same kids over yeah I I think generally the overall statement was about safety when kids are coming in with the hoods they can't hear and they're putting their earbuds in put and the earbuds constantly they're they're talking to the students they can't hear them even in the hallway sometimes if they're being directed they they can't hear I I can go I can see that yeah okay teachers stakeholders in this process the teachers c c c yes they're good they they yes she's nodding her head look at we all turn to look at her Mary yeah thumbs up yeah cmea was specifically concerned about the earbuds and the hoodies in the classroom so we we backed off on that one okay
053okay so we will um yeah that was just our update today and that is that is a course a session to attend having students having a seat at the table will we be voting on this next time yes okay cool yeah so okay um now teaching and learning the student achievement presentation must say before you even start it's a good presentation might not really like what all I see in it but it's a good presentation here's what I'm going to tell you there's glad you're giving me a hard copy to yeah it depends our our opportunities yes thank you always no such no such thing as a problem right just an opportunity to excel right I got three of them to make a couple of changes no cuz I don't have any Pockets so I'll
054use this mic or like my dad reminded me I haven't needed a microphone since I was about five so let's see all right uh good evening uh to our Board of Education Dr koganes students parents staff and our communities I do want to start off by saying happy education week and acknowledge our staff and our board of education for their dedication to this work I also want to personally thank um my OTL team as they do um amazing work to help us so tonight here's what you can expect you'll see a overview of the district data we'll talk about the importance of understanding where we were uh where we are now and where we are headed um our data conveys a story of recovery and opportunity for growth we'll look at some data from 2019
0552022 2023 um we'll talk about those results some of those results we can celebrate and again like I said uh we have some opportunity for improvement and growth we can build on the success stories that we've heard come from our teachers and administration and then we can address those remaining challenges that we have uh will focus on sustainability our continuous Improvement efforts and our engagement in professional development and our learning communities you'll see some collective approaches from everyone in the district kind of rolling up their sleeves as we talk about the work we've done with prioritizing K12 standards reimagining our adult learning adopting new curriculum creating common assess ments for k12 and in conclusion what we hope that you walk away with is that 201u gets to tell our narrative about recovery and progress we'll
056talk about our commitment as we collaborate and more importantly we'll get to show you how we're working to empower each student to positively impact the world for a greater uh for a bright new future so feel like I got too much paper up here the first thing I wanted to show you is the Illinois report card so if you go to illino report card.com one of the things that we realiz is uh I was talking with Dr kogin is that people don't know how to navigate um this ISB website so we wanted to show you what it looks like in live time and so this is our district report card pulled up and I know you have the PowerPoint I'll go through that in a moment but the district snapshot shows us where we are
057basic general information eight schools graduation rate our student Mobility our Summit of designations you'll get more details about that momentarily our growth on I our school finances our ebf funding that Ken talks about all the time our chronic absenteeism and then our teacher retention and in this is the public domain so everyone um can access this site um administrators have a little deeper level as we can log in and get additional information the tabs here to the left again take you into the site and talk to you about um the academic progress and so it lists all of the assessments that we take in again anyone in the public domain so when your constituents are asking you how do you get to it this is how you navigate it and it talks about all the
058assessments that we give from the Illinois assessment of Readiness to the SAT our dlm um Science assessment it looks at our proficiency rate again you can see the graphics that the state has provided um our participation rate there are some Scatter Plots that delve really deep into the data our ninth graders on track this year um we are not uh the state is not doing our Career and Technical education but next year we will be reporting that data our graduation rate postsecondary information and enrollment again there is a plethora of tabs that anyone can um click on our Equity continuum Journey our district environment students accountability teachers administrators schools in the district and retired test so this is where anyone in the public can go and take a look and delve into those reports and
059if you show so choose you can build yourself a customer report card Builder and it's about 260 Pages if you want some reading so you can take that information as well all right so let's look at our data let me pull this up all right there we go all right so in this presentation we're going to talk about Summit of designation the types of data that you'll see our key findings our framework work that we use in ela and math we'll look at our ninth grade on track High School graduation our Equity Continuum how we've spent our Co funds our school Improvement efforts and monitoring and then I've included a glossery in case um someone wants to go back and look at our terms so each year based on Essa Esa uh the state is
060required to give out a sumita of designation that looks at various measurements um from the state and overall performance some academic and some on um student environment there are five categories going from exemplary uh down to intensive support exemplary there are 830 is school districts over 3,000 schools um in the state and so what that looks at is that the top uh 10% of schools performing at that level and the high school cannot have um they must have a graduation rate higher than 67% if a school is commendable commendable excuse me uh that means that they are not in the top 10% but they also don't have a targeted group of students in a group um that are measured at um 5% of the lowest schools again the high school graduation rate must be above
06167% a targeted School means that there is a subpopulation of students that need a little additional support um and comprehensive also means that we have uh students that are part of Title One schools um and students who have um a subgroup of students who have scored at 5% um or below and and it could also mean that a school was at targeted um before we went into the prepandemic um and I know that we were classified as commendable last year for all of our schools but if they received um a targeted support this year then it put them at the comprehensive level of support and then we uh and what that means is that these schools will go through a 4-year cycle of support with the state and funding from the state for school Improvement
062status and funding to help the work with those targeted um students that need that additional layer of support we also have the Intensive support and again that would be a school that was comprehensive before um and then their same subgroup um was in the bottom 5% and those schools went to intensive support so our designated schools are as follows uh Boral summative designation is comprehensive CSK commendable C Elementary commendable mon Elementary targeted tala commendable the Middle School comprehensive and the high school commendable and so we'll talk about what the work at the schools look like and we'll talk about the data the weight of how the state determines this it's a very complex um calculation that they do but the biggest piece for elementary and middle school is that 50% does this have like a
063little circle or um this is on growth so Elementary and Middle School the state recognizes that students that tend to be um with their schools and within their District the schools can get them to grow and so they put 50% of that weight on growth um then there's also the climate survey that students take that's worth 5% chronic absenteeism is 20% of the weight our uh elll students that test out of the program they look at um their uh score 5% of Science and then uh 15% between math proficient and Ela proficiency at the high school level it says the state says again 50% this big portion here is about graduation and so schools that have less than 67% of their students graduating um that can be um uh that can put a stu uh
064school on that summative designation for school Improvement and again they have proficiency science chronic absenteeism and then for the high school level they have ninth grade on track is worth 8% and then that climate survey that comes in from the students so those are all weighted and the state gives us a report of how each of our students did in those categories so the types of data that are on the Illinois report card that are part of that graph are the I for CLA the SAT proficiency exam I mean for uh the high school our percentage of students who are proficient in math on the I and sat and then that growth percentile for EA Ela and math um with the elementary and middle school and then uh back this year again is the science
065proficiency exam uh last year they did um a percentage of for participation this now is back to proficiency these are the grade levels that students test in and our assess I runs 3 4 5 6 7 and 8 sat is grade 11 the science exam is 5 8 and 11 and then we put in our local assessment this is not part of the state assessment but we wanted you to see kind of where our students are fearing on our local assessment that we give which is the nwaa map what does that acronym stand for oh thank you Mr Brown I knew I had that in my back I I gotta look no worries no worries you can move on just no worries it's the Northwest on Association evaluation hold on no don't worries we can
066get back to that I I will I will get I will have that for you I I guarantee you it's in the in the glossery there okay all right so let's look at where our um students currently are for ELA this is all of our students for uh Ela are at 24% and the state is at 29% preco we were at 35% and the state was at 38% so we've had a drop preco um going postco for 11% and the state is at 9% that's pretty consistent though yes that's the Delta is pretty much equalized there so roughly it's not too bad now this chart which is also on that report card tells you um by grade level where our students fail with Ela and proficiency third grade now what the state has said is
067that this is like Baseline like we we start over like I know I I've said that before like every year the test is changing something different happens but the state is saying this is where you set your Baseline um and then let's see where your scores go from this year and moving forward um and so again our third fourth and fifth graders um these are their respective percentages um at 16 19 and 21 um and if we can remember our um our fifth graders preco would have been first graders all right if we look at our performance for our middle school students again the graph to the far left there really um is what's on the state report card the green level shows uh students that meet and exceed and then um other groups are
068approach partially met or did not meet and parents get a really um nice detailed report and they'll get that at parent teacher conferences coming up next week this shows exactly where their students are and again the respective numbers for 6th 7th and eth grade at 22 24 and 28 all right so you know I saw I heard you Mr Brown when you said you weren't always so pleased with all of the scores but I'm going to tell you this is one that we can celebrate right because there there are opportunities for growth but there there's opportunities for us to also celebrate so our all C category in ela for growth we want to be at at least 50% and we are above the state at that growth category for all on that left-and side and
069again in most of our subgroups um we are above the state percentage with growth and we get 50% of that weighted indicator um gives us um that summative designation so again there's opportunity ities for us to grow with this data but it shows that we're on Trend and doing better um than uh the state all right so I'm going to switch just for a minute so we can talk about our local um assessment and it's the Northwest evaluation Association measurement of academic performance there you go can you say that again yes and and it's it's it's it's in our glossery also so map is a computer adaptive test meaning that when um students need more challenging questions it gives them the rigor of their challenge when students need more support it gives the struggling students
070um more support but in the end the best part about a math assessment is that it has local Norms that it it looks at us it can look at us in two ways it can look at us um with our students from their peers in District and then it can look at nationally what students are doing Across the Nation um and for our map Ela data you can see that this blue here means that we're on Trend with the national Norms again this is a entry level assessment for us this fall this is the um assessment that we talk about students growing blue and students growing green and what we use for our evaluation for our teachers and our staff and so what you can see is that the orange um signifies where students are
071nationally low the RIT score is the number that you see here which talks about like we're on track right in the middle with the national Norm again an entry-level exam when we report in January we could talk about how students Grew From This entry level exam um and then the National High we haven't reached that status but it shows you across um the national performance norms and that's our K through five here is our Middle School respectfully again that blue area shows that we're right on Trend with the national Norms in ela for six s and8 uh here we are again for high school again with just a little bit of a dip and we've got some standard deviation um for TW 12th grade um we're we're on track and what we discovered about 12th
072grade is that a lot of our students um 25% of our students did not participate in the test because they were at Prairie State or out of school and so um we're working with the high school and we'll we'll come up with the plan to capture more students so if I read the numbers right on on the 12th grade 12 we would be Bel in the National Low yeah we we be we would be Falling Towards the low okay so here's our key findings from um Ela growth accounts for 50% at Elementary and high school creep m 201u is not any different than a lot of districts surrounding us I've kind of taken a look at some of there data that um and in TR with the state that we have not reached our preco
073levels yet um we are above the state for our all category um we know that we have some growth to do with our children with disabilities um we do know that we're closing the Gap with um our marginalized um student groups and that again on that local assessment 12 of our 133 grade levels are within that National performance of norms on that map assessment all right sat here is where our students are performing against the state these are 11th graders in 2023 and so what I will say is there's some work for us to do there's some digging and some diving and some work um that we're working with the high school um some data uh searches that we're doing and trying to see um where we can and how we can improve uh these
074scores strategically in a very strategic way here we are key findings um which is not included here that you didn't see last year's scores but we did increase by 3% where the state increased by 2% our Hispanic um students are achieving 4% higher than in 2019 um our female students are equal to the state average and again the achievement Gap with our SAT scores with our children with disability that Gap is 10% where the state average is 29% so again we've got some wins but we also have some opportunities um to grow as we analyze that data and work towards continuous Improvement and look at um what barriers are keeping um our students from achieving there talk a little bit you you mentioned like achievement gaps and I hear anything about African-American students or African-American
075male students I me I can look on here and tell you what I see but I didn't hear you mention that in the um I can go in and see particularly how our African-American male students are doing but even with our SAT um if you take a look at our African-American students I mean we're 1% above the state um but I can dig in deeper and and tell you exactly what that number is if you'd like me to include that in the FYI I can do that yeah um can you please not just the uh I want to see African-American overall and African-American males and the reason being is because of the such such a big gap traditionally yes and I want to see are we closing that Gap are we working our way up
076in that Gap um yeah we're 1% over the state but that's like well I can't say that but um it that's not like real exciting to to see the word that could just be a mistake here or there on the couple you know or not so yeah I can I will pull um and myself and my team will pull an extensive report and show you exactly what that looks like thank you um let's see oh our our framework so that you know what's going on in the classroom and the work that the teachers are doing um the work that our coaches are doing like the work that our leadership teams and building leaders are doing um this year um I'm I'm sorry uh over the last couple years I'll show you a timeline of how
077all of this work fits in there we expanded our K1 to K2 um for our step assessment and that gives um foundational skills at those early levels and looks at strengths and challenges again this gives teachers an opportunity to take a look at that assessment and see exactly what that student needs um we took a look at our inter reading K5 we implemented that I believe in 2021 um and it takes a look at a very comprehensive reading program that we had not had in quite some time we adopted a foundations program which has um evidencebased for foundational skills in getting um students to read again these are all of the platforms and curriculum pieces that are being used and are fairly new to us within the last um four years we prioritize our standards
078again a beauty of being in a uh unit district is that we do get to see our kids grow from 3K to 12 and so we were able to take a look at standards prioritize and say there are hundreds of Standards but this is what our kids need to know in this grade and the the grade level before them knows and the grade level after them knows and these are teachers that came to the table to do this work we developed common um formative assessments so that everyone is getting the same test and teachers can analyze and see and use evidence-based analysis to see um how students are scoring and what we can do to improve our instruction we reimagine our instructional coaching um we had coaches and we put our coaches in front of
079adults to help change change um those practices and help develop uh those practices um especially with our first year teachers uh we had 48 uh teachers that completed cycles and are currently completing Cycles in um Ela we reinstituted our curriculum committees uh the high school is currently revising their units of instruction um and also they are up and running with their cfas meaning their common formative Assessments in science and technology in reading and history and social um Sciences this year we also um for the first time probably in about 10 years implemented a kindergarten screening program so that we can identify um students that are at risk and we can support them better um as kindergarteners all right math all right so here we are with our math scores 2023 in the spring our students
080tested for I at 11% and then um preo we were at 27% so that again is a drop of 16% um but it also matches what the state did so state is at 16 % and preco they were at um 32% again our opportunity for recovery growth and to study um what has occurred so that we can better support our students in math um and we have some exciting things and new initiatives going on to help support that work state report card on the left is what it looks like and these are our scores respectively for um third fourth and fifth grade at their performance levels grades six seven and eight at their math for I now here's our growth data on I the one of the slides that I have is not correct sometimes
081when you're running your reports like right before um November the dat data changes so this data is a little skewed so I will make sure that I I update these numbers um the bottom line here is that we are not performing at the 50 percentile where we want to see ourselves um neither is the state but this is our opportunity for growth um and it has been for a while and we are taking this Challenge on with a lot of the work that we're doing um in our classrooms I'm going to skip this because I believe um the data may be a little skewed here so I don't want to report this I will make sure that this is updated when it goes on the website right let's take a look at our map data
082for map again this is our local assessment so it shows again in the blue area that National Norms this is where we're trending for our entry level assessment and so when we report again in um January we'll report on what our growth looks like of where our students landed now and where our students will be ahead of this and part of that is students set goals and teachers work with them um and talk about their their growth patterns here and so this is K5 this is our uh Middle School 67 and eight and then we're within range um for all levels here at the high school level soel on those slides those bar charts are there ranges for the National High and National Low and the kind of where the middle is or are those
083just data points that you kind of array in this bar chart they're the ranges the scores can go anywhere from from 100 to 300 so um you know and you could be a ninth grader that scores of 140 and so that tells us again we get personalized learning continuums for each student that tells us what skills they need how um they're we're going to be better able to support that student okay sat man again opport opportunity for recovery progress and growth um we knew um that math was going to be one of the things that we were going to have to really um spend some time and um do some needs assessment to to support our students um we had a decrease in our math proficiency the State lost 9% um we do have some
084achievement gaps Dr Hall as you were talking about um we do have some closing of some gaps with our black and white students um our Hispanic and white students our Black and Hispanic students versus the state and our students with IEPs versus non so I can give you the breakdown of exactly what that uh achievement Gap looks like I got a question uh what is the sample of population you are using comparing africanamerican to Caucasian because the numbers of African American students outweigh Caucasians by I don't know if it's 2 to one 3 to one so how do you compare those to and come up with a number a finite number there so this comes from our um state that does the the the and college board that does the complex you see what I'm
085saying you could have 100 black students and one white student if if I say it like that and the Gap can be he can this person could be a a student and all of the other 100 students on this side could be a c student and how could you compare those 100 kids to to one kid so the demographics in the school is again it's maybe two to one 3:1 2 to one it's a big number it's a big big gap so how do they come up with that percentage so it is based on their scoring and not their grades so it's gra it's based on even given that given that the score so that's I guess that's irrelevant it's a number yes yeah but the sample of population is is not in it's not
086equalized so to speak that they compare them with their like peers um I don't think I'm understanding are you kind of comparing average from one cohort to the average the other cohort yeah it's got to be almost the same amount of students you know you're comparing it to to come up with with a percentage there you almost got to you know where are you looking for or are they looking in assessing individual students and the percentage of their one individual where the individual scores lie on a percentage Yeah I mean that's a loaded question but I was just right now try and pull up the I don't want any student information pop up with my login information so sorry that was a loaded question I just thought I meant that to stay inside here okay
087and it came out it's okay I will get you an answer in the FYI all right all right again let's talk about the work that is happening um down to the classrooms that um we purchased a platform that allows all K5 teachers to do math screeners again to give them the diagnostic exam of where a student is and exactly what that student needs um we adopted a new math series um we had had two separate math Series in um K5 previously and so it was two different platforms now all of our K5 students are in one um curriculum piece and again we expect to see uh those Trends Rise um we have a platform again success maker that looks at individual students and gives them the individual support that they need um that common formative
088assessment um and I know that that's those are a lot of like assessment words that are being used but it's best practices um when we're looking at the same students taking the same same test answering the same type of questions um and then we can delve down into what skills they have and what those students individually need so it's that kind of personalized learning that we're looking at when we look at our instructional coaches um I believe we have about I might be off by a little bit like 18 across the district they're supporting 49 teachers K12 in math in a math coaching cycle and I'm supporting their their instructional practices um our Middle School um is prioritizing their standards again looking at their assessment practices they have something Innovative tomorrow uh going on like
089math day half day where all of the staff is teaching math no matter what their content area is again um with an urgency that we need to um have some better performance from our students in math and support them with those instructional strategies uh we are realigning our units at the high school again prioritizing those math standards and once again that kindergarten screener uh that we um use this summer uh to support uh our incoming kindergarten students Illinois Science assessment a lot of data all right so again science is now part of the accountability it used to be um postco uh just participation rate this is what you'll see when you go to the report card on the left and then this number is um trending up we're in the blue uh for 2023 we're
090at 35% and the state is at 52% and once again we are um putting some resources uh into science ninth grade on track uh an area where we can uh celebrate this looks at are our ninth graders on track to graduate from high school and as you can see um we are above the state again a reason to celebrate in all of our categories um with the exception we have a very small population of some of our sub subgroups um but we are above the state in in making sure that our ninth grade is on track to graduate uh which goes into our next slide which is our graduation rate um in four years again another reason to celebrate is that 92% of our students graduate um in our all category um as opposed to
09187% at the state and again each of those levels um our students are outperforming the state meaning that our students graduate and graduate on time and just just to add to that and and Ken did K oh he's trying to hide behind Dr Hall uh I know evidence base has a lot to do with uh Finance for us and I think you alluded to it the last time you talked about Finance uh presentation you had up there and I I believe it's the same saying for every 1% of students that graduate we end up with $250,000 I think that's how it used to be I don't know if sure okay for every 1% that's dealing with the attendance you know they count that as attendance so every 1% so we go from 92 to 93
092that's equates to $250,000 going to the district for revenues and used to be that like that for a long time so you say 92% and for a long time we was trending around 93 close to 94 so yeah I even like to see that number go up yeah especially from that Financial component and you can validate that Ken okay see if that Mr shmer will put that in his you didn't think you had anything to do with this present huh um all right so that's where our graduation R rates are and again we've always you're right Mr Brown we have always trended up um in this and we know that there are some factors that have yeah led into this and we're just this is about our recovery sure yeah even though we way above
093I think you indicated earlier 67% yes below that you know but we in a 90% now which is excellent but again there's a lot of districts out there that's hovering around 99% graduation rate but this is good I mean this is good this is really 92 93% is really good and again those um School Improvement plans that you guys approved like there is a team at every building of 10 yes teachers and staff members and the building principles and leaders working on um our figures and data like this and pulling that data apart and seeing like what actionable plans that team is going to work on and focus on very very commendable and principles are not carrying that weight by themselves they're using their team to help support that work excellent our Equity Journey a
094few years ago um I want to say 21 20 no 2019 is when the state we had already started our Equity Continuum and journey in the district um and then the state came up with the metrics um which they um ask schools to to look at uh those data elements and as you can see we haven't moved to this fourth category that says we have minimal gra gaps so again there's work to do and this is part of what goes into school Improvement plan what goes into the equity plan um and then again looking at that data it looks at student learning learning conditions and elev ating our Educators and we will try to again move that needle to we have the most minimal gaps that we can possibly have with our Equity Journey MH
095so one of the things that we know about effective school districts is that it is about building um Collective capacity and so we looked at this from the lens uh five Essentials that we have a focus and a clear Direction um prior to 2019 I don't know I've been in the District 20 years I know we've seen strategic plans come and go but this um for me was the first time in a long time that we had a living breathing strategic plan document that principles talked about it that it was always brought up that we were always looking at those measurements and um measures and so that's kind of the start of this work and I know we're going to be closing that out in December um and rebuilding a new one but again again
096having Focus using our data creating cultures developing our capacity with leaders involving our community and using our resources appropriately are everything that a district should be doing and we have that in place excellent as fonds we have to include this they run out in September of 24th don't know um what the government is going to do but we have to talk about how we have spent those funds in supporting students so we had our GSU teacher um intern program where uh GSU students partnered with us we have to date I believe we've hired seven of those individuals and we have four or five going into their student teaching this December and we look to again continue to build our capacity and hire those um teachers we've looked at how we we can sustain staff um
097that we hired with those erer funds we spent a lot of money in our summer programs our high impact after school tutoring where t uh students were seen by teachers um anywhere from a ratio from one to three we did some facility improvements to help the environment for our staff and our students technology access and upgrades from hotspots to new line panels in um all class classrooms and we're finishing out that last phase uh we purchased some digital learning platforms that got us through the pandemic um and then we're assessing which ones of those that we need to keep um and then we were able to give um staff teachers a little um money with streaming and then some summer incentives um because we realized it takes a lot to um teach after having um
098such um the the barriers that they were facing coming out of the pandemic and so we we did spend some money on um trying to provide summer incentives for staff next steps so we're completing um adopting program aligning our curriculum making a progression that everybody knows what to expect no matter what grade level they teach we've put a lot of resources and money in professional development from differenti instruction from looking at our multi uh multiple tiers of support looking at Equity supporting our elll students empowering our school leaders and giving coaching and then that school Improvement plan and coaching um to support our building leaders um with that work as they work with their teams um we do realize that our children with disabilities that we've got some work to do and um based on
099an audit of some curriculum and some instructional uh pieces that we need to tackle how will we monitor it we've got professional development happening all the times we have two times a month one day a month belongs to the district where we bring in individuals and then one day belongs to the building where the building can have the support and put um what they need in place we'll monitor the program um the progression and the goals that adult learning piece I cannot tell you um how excited we are to put adults in front of in front of other adults to help them with their practice and to have a critical friend um that they can trust and collaborate with we've got walkthroughs happening we've got external partners coming in to help support us we've got
100our District staff out in buildings we've got buildings going to buildings we got peers going to each other's classroom to learn from one another we have uh consistently have data meetings and data training um as well as our surveys that we get from student staff and the community I will not read all of this to you on slide number 50 but I will save it um in case you want to look and see like what the timeline has been this is a lot of work that's gone in since 2019 2020 and so um why we don't get to celebrate all parts of this work know that it's in progression and it's a lot of work that is taking place um with your teams again that glossery of terms all right questions that was a lot
101of information very good presentation thank you very comprehensive very good um going back to the summative designations we have the two comprehensive um as I recall I think it was the groups that were under performing were IEP is that yes for those two so then targeted is new right so what's the group that's underperforming there children with disabilities oh okay so it it's our students with um IEPs and again um working with special education department and um with those building leaders to see again doing deep dives into data now we're going to support all students um we're going to come up with some innovative ways and look at some curriculum and things that we had not looked at previously so as long as I've been on the board it seems like the way we test
102students changes every year and and so we're comparing apples to oranges all the time now with this now with this map data and it seemed like in your slides 2023 3 being kind of a baseline year is is that for the 2223 school year or the 23 24 23 24 okay so we would there's nothing more than I can tell you your staff wants than for them to give us some consistency on so that we can measure students from and compare apples to apples um and so we hope with what the reports and the uh webinars and meetings that we sit in um that we can have some constant something constant and consistent okay so I mean what I'd like to see is us use the 23 24 as our Baseline yes that kind of
103fits into going into our strategic plan starting next year and and really start start to see the ramp up from there mean you know we've got to see progress yes so um you know we see some growth in some of those numbers but for the most part they're disappointing I think you know so um anyway in what I'm trying I mean we talked about this last year but with Co is that something that's just is to use a bad analogy is the Python swallow and the Pig I mean is that just going to be with us each year I mean is it going to follow through for those children all the way through or is where you know what's our prospects that catch up you know I can tell you that I I've read had
104um lots of research reports and we know that it's it's not just us right um we know that this was a national worldwide Global crisis and it has impacted everyone and no one is looking for an excuse but like you said we're looking to move forward so if we can stop changing the target um and then again being able to put those resources where we needed to that we'll begin to see that progress but if we think about kind of what I said earlier those fifth graders now that missed those math foundational skills they went out in March when they were first graders then it looked very different and depending on your District you know we were in hybrid for a long time and and we had different um our parents had different our families
105had different feelings about sending their their kids to school because of the risk factor factors that were there so I think that yes we will begin to see it um I I would really have to look at the latest reports that I've read um to say you know Nationwide when they expect for us to see that go away but I can tell you you know the dedication of the staff that has not given up the resiliency of the kids like all of that plays a huge factor in this work no I understand and and I think that's by using the 23 24 data as your Baseline we've got Co well behind us you've got all the standards across the district now instructional standards you know so there shouldn't be any excuses going forward correct that's
106all I have other questions it is a lot so if there is you know something else that you would like me to include in the FYI let Dr Cara know she'll let me know and I'll I'll whip you up um a report from that 260 page document no we don't want that that many okay I I do have a few questions any other board members like to chime in before I okay well the ACT is not part of our assessment anymore right correct okay so we do the SAT and we can expect we can expect our kids that's not doing well in the classrooms on certain subject math I'll just say math we don't we don't expect them to do well on on the SAT if they're not doing well in the classroom right we
107can that's almost a given it's almost a given it's not always true though I said some people don't I know I know you got you know I know that's more that I I can almost you know you got bad uh gas is doing well in the classrooms and cannot do well on the test and vice versa MH okay but for the most part for the most part I is that a true statement though for the most part if they're not doing well I mean we have we have such at least p uh historical data we have had kids are algebra one class uh those who's passing that class or doing above average in that class is lower than those that's doing good I it's just the percentage of low Achievers in algebra is pretty low
108coming out of eighth grade or coming out of freshman is that a fair statement well I would have to that's that's what that's what has been shown to us in the past when we had the grade levels when we had the grades of the students when we had I don't know if you brought it to us but your predecessor brought us and get and gave us a update of how the kids were doing in the algebra one and all all the subjects I just to clar because I don't think I'm understanding your question so just so I understand it correctly are you asking if there's a correlation in poor classroom achievement and test scores is that what you're asking yeah okay all right I just wanted to make sure I understood the question sure thank
109you and I can say it is a coralation and to a certain to to a certain extent okay I'm not say it's given cuz I think my son he did terrible in the classroom but he did really well on assessments well and I would say to be the Dipper like you probably have some students that score very well on the test and may not be engaged in the classroom so without doing like a study of that I I would not make that blanket statement without having some numbers and some data behind Okay let let me narrow the scope here just for one statement here let me scope is geometry given on the SAT are there geometry questions yes yes do do all students that take the SAT take geometry get to that point to take
110geometry so one of the things that we've done so this year at the middle school I think previous years we had had one grade of Algebra 1 and um one grade level of geometry of giving students those credits going into the high school this year we now have two algebra and Mary you can help me if I'm wrong two algebra uh courses that are I think fairly full with um algebra students and then we have them take in Geometry we also change the order in which we give geometry at the high schools so that students again realizing that there was a problem that we needed to fix and now that that course is offered earlier so that they can have um geometry to help them with the SAT because there was that Gap that um
111the high school team said these kids are not getting the geometry before the SAT okay so I'll just make a general statement on that let's do all we could to prepare our kids to to take the next necessary subjects and be as proficient as possible prior to taking the assessment test okay I'll leave it at that so the next the next uh statement I would like to make I know Dr kogan is looking to come up with some high some key performance indicators okay and relative to education Finance or whatever some some big some big guns I say I would like to say as far as how the district is doing overall in this area this area this area and easy to the ey so I think a lot of the information and you said
112how hard it was to navigate through the state assessment and the report card and all of that a lot of the assess the information that you shared the informative data that you shared could be used in my opinion in some way kind of shrink the scope to be a performance performance indicator in the education for yes that's you know that's something as she align it with the uh strategies and strategic plan that you guys are working on over the next month or so so I really give you kudos for that but look at that to take an opportunity so if you know get these performance indicators solidify easy for the public to look at and say this is kind of where we are this is our goal this is where we trying to get to
113and Bam we got information so with that said and last the last thing which I really commend you on really putting a lot of emphasis on the prek the prek ELC how uh is the third year the third grade the three year olds uh classes is that full to capacity um I have to check our our last entity count I will tell you that we've had more students um enrolled in ELC than we had have in the last I believe eight years um I don't I believe our C capacity might be 240 and we might be around 220 but I can tell you that um Miss Chester and her team either recently or pretty soon are doing another round of screening to get students in so yes we're building that capacity we also received um
114Grant funds to open up another classroom and so I believe and Dr M can help me if we hired a teacher for that classroom already I believe we Kelly was in the last stages of of opening up that last classroom so we will be pretty full at that capacity we're going to get a tremendous bank for our buck yes putting a lot of energy in the preate and and Kate so we get we take a you do you did say we take an assessment in K right yes okay we take an assessment that and Mr Brown that's the assessment committee that you're going to help us can wait I just cannot wait that's the one oh when I saw that you was looking for volunteers I hopped on that fast so yeah looking forward to
115that and the U the opportunity still exists that we do kind of partnership and get the word out with those are who are younger than 3 years old with Governor State yes so I don't know if we still having some dialogue we said we had a partnership with them in some manner because you know and and I I feel for the teachers too you know the teachers can only do so much the parent engagements engagement is paramont it's it's that simple but it's it's tough so I don't know what we can do but I saw the community surveys that you got in here so we can only do so much and we need to you know support the teachers best we could because you know it's it's tough when they getting these kids and they
116already com in with with challenges and now it's just going up the ladder and up the ladder so I just saw the bar charts and how things were very cyclic you know and I thought the kids which how how many kids do we have coming out of the six grade or fifth grade of CSK maybe 50 kids 50 60 kids we would have two classrooms there so the most would be 50 okay about 50 kids now they go into our middle school but I saw the middle school goes down I would think that would kind of come in there you know that's a high performing school right there but it seemed like our Middle School is having some challenges so but it nonetheless thank you appreciate it good job good uh I'm not happy like
117say I'm not happy with all the data but you know what we can only hope for Progress okay and and I do want to mention that uh Dr uh koganes did uh come to the team and said that you want the success criteria and the the profile of a graduate what that looks like coming out of our district and to grow that from um a prek student what that profile looks like all the way through high school so that is something um that the team is working on yeah we need to have a gauge and monitor and see how progress is made so thank you appreciate it thank you all righty all righty next up is consent yeah it's going that's going to take a chunk out of this uh consent agenda approve approval first
118of all do we have anyone that would like to take out and vote on something separately for the consent agenda if not I would like a motion to approve the consent agenda as is so moved second second by Alex any conversation or you going to read first all right your reading here we go uh under superintendent item one approve regular meeting minutes of October 17 2023 item two approv Committee of the whole meeting minutes of October 10 2023 item three approve Committee of the whole meeting close session minutes of October 10th 2023 and then under Personnel approve changes to job descriptions under business item one approve Board of Education financial report item two approve a payment of 41,7 1250 to RL Soho for work completed at Creed Elementary item three is to approve a payment
119of 74100 , 7932 to CCC holding Inc for work completed at cre money High School item four appr approve a payment of $17,995 26 to RL Soho for work at CSK item five approve a payment of 40,200 uh 25679 to ARL soill for uh work completed at tala item six approve a payment of 195,00 57 um50 to ourl soul for were completed at B moral and that concludes consent okay thank you any further discussion comments the the only question I have can the high school edition where is the Target completion date the same since we have the power there now right substantial completion is set for December 1st uh uh we they are right now now uh they're beginning to lay all the flooring so we're in good shape uh we've already started the process
120of scheduling out the move over there um we're meeting actually at the facility on Monday with the Mec staff for a couple hours to give them a tour we've got everything laid out and everything so our plan is to have the move completed by the 21st of December and we will open up for January 8th so the condition good for the flooring it was they brought it up well the only the only the flooring that's being done now is in the offices and hallways and that the only flooring that will not be done is the gymnasium um so the gymnasium gymnasium is the only piece that will not be ready uh for the opening of school but we can get substantial completion without that um that floor will probably not be installed it'll be completed
121probably Fe mid-February February 15th is what we're targeting right now is that because of the conditions that's because of the condition have to condition the wood before they put it down it has to be conditioned I think four to six weeks before they can start installing it so so the other four payoffs for the 2023 is there are we getting close to we are we' already we're doing all the punchless stuff right now and so I would say by by next month we should be we should be pretty much wrapped up with that I I don't know Jason you might help me out this I think there are a couple chillers that still need testing and balancing though am I am I right on that yeah in the spring right they came in after September
122I think right so they still got to be so they'll still have to be tested so we'll probably hold back a little bit of money until those are tested in the spring till we turn on the system and that but everything else is pretty well set okay so in the future if you come up in here for the final payment that includes the retention can you let us know that that's I let when we do a final payment it'll say final payment so you know that yes thanks okay any other questions comments if not Madam Secretary roll call please okay Mr swes I MERS I Mr gagos I Mr Al I I Dr Hall I president I motion carries and pass all right Action Report Alpha number one 8 Alpha number one on approve a
123resolution authorizing submission of an application for the property tax relief pool fund have a motion to approve alpha 1 item 8 moved okay second okay any dialogue on that Ken or anybody else do we need to explain that further everybody know what that so we're going to submit the application although we think it's unlikely that we're going to get exactly yes kind of going through we'll submit the application anyway okay don't hurt okay any other further comments if not roll call please madam secretary when you ready Mr alook I Mr gagos i m rson i Mr swales I miss s dumur i Dr Hall I president Brown I motion pass next item up for approval is number eight Alpha number two approve a contract with the Apex 3 system for $778,000 60 I think I'm
124pronouncing this right for the Evolve Express systems for cre mon High School have a motion to approve that some moved second by Alex second by Dr Hall any comments on concerns or can did you want it to elaborate more on that item uh again we we talked about this um the committee of the whole meeting so this is a it's actually a four-year contract that it would be the initial payment the annual payment is is approximately 195 to $997,000 a year we would pay with that for that um with the additional property tax money would have come in under new construction uh that's about $600,000 a year that we haven't had budgeted so that would be the goal our uh goal on this to have the system operational um by right after spring break if
125we can do it earlier we will try and do that um I just can't guarantee that and but uh that's our Target right now just for clarification in case folks don't know that the Evolve Express system what it is it's the metal detector system that we've been discussing for an extended period of time okay cool I just wanted because you know that's a fancy name and if you don't know it's the metal detector system let's and it's a it's a different system than a basic metal detector like you have corre like airports yeah you know and that so it's it's a much more efficient system that and tech technology advanced system also yeah we don't expect long lines or anything like that that would hinder learning and no okay so it could not come to
126the board at a greater time all right any other questions or comments on this from the board hearing n Madam Secretary roll call please right Miss site stumber I Mr swales I Mr RS and I Mr gagos I Mr alre I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion pass thank you have any old business out there the only question I had to to jump on what Miss rup had brought up at the last meeting is that all the new students that are coming in are they um going through so if you come in I think to kindergarten you come in to sixth grade fifth or sixth grade and then High School you got to have shots immunizations if you do a sport you got to have a do a sports physical is that happening if
127they're participating in anything um I'm not sure that they are participating in anything but if they're if they come to school I think before when you're a certain grade level don't you have to have uh certain things done oration for um Mr Ser has been doing some research so us to prepare for the next board meeting but just to kind of give you some preliminary um uh they are required to have vaccinations but there is no due date so now so so that's no yeah so M SW so here what occurs is that the the immigrants as they come in are classified as mckin vento students as mckin vento students um you have to enroll them immediately without barrier and what that means is that they do not have to have immunizations what it does
128state in the research that we found states that uh they ask the students to get those as soon as possible but there is no deadline to that all right so so if they if they elect and they want to participate in something are they required to get a sports physical like any any other student has to participate I would I don't know the answer to that but I'm assuming yes that they would have to do because that's extracurricular okay so they would they would have to get a physical for that now in the same light and I don't want to take a lot of time we're going to talk about this next meeting because do a whole bunch of research on this but when they come to us and they don't have immunizations then we're
129finding resources for them to send them to get the immunizations and so if they don't they don't have their shots or or they need assistance we're partnering up uh with Hector ruio who is our family on and Karina pada who's our registar and they' be able to refer them to someone to get those things so there there's a partnership that is taking place there uh but the research that we have found there is no deadline to that okay okay we have more to follow okay okay any other old business business can you sure you don't have anything for us anything else am I supposed to no oh would you like him to okay so Mr serman maybe we just uh give an update okay there something happen we asking there something happened that I didn't
130know about what just just an update on the stadium and and that is that what you're asking me for where we're at with everything yeah could follow okay yeah all right please if it's just you know keep it simple I will I will try and do that um so so where we're at I I guess if I could say we're kind of in a holding pattern right now all right and what that means is the fact that we cannot do anything from a financial standpoint for the stadium until um we get the res resources to build a stadium to get the resources we have to sell um alternate revenue bonds in order to sell alternate revenue bonds you need another source of Revenue that source of Revenue is the Tiff money that is rolling off
131from up so we've talked to the Village over there they have paused that they're not going to terminate the Tiff for a variety of reasons uh that we we actually agree with we understand that there are financial reasons from their part but we are going to begin having conversations with them to pass a resolution hopefully in May to say that the U Tiff will be dissolved at the end of next calendar year which would then put it on the rules once that resolutions is passed we can then Begin work on planning out uh the selling of alternate revenue bonds in the fall and we can begin construction then after the football season for opening in August of 29 or 25 29 Lord 25 of a new stadium which is still the plan that we had
132okay we do have a minary design we've already have a preliminary design on that I have not taken that any farther and going into specific programming now Mr Ki has seen that um you know and that and has looked at that but we haven't gone into detail of that because I don't want to get other parties and and begin putting expenses out for that until such a time that we get a commitment that right okay so real quick so to clarify they are closing the Tiff on time we're just they're just not doing it early correct Dr Hall was working with the mayor to do it early because when you had said that you had mentioned that they're not uh you know going to close they are they're just going to stay on schedule at
133the same time the Tiff five from up rolls off Mo has Tiff three yes which will bring another million in eav to the district yes so those two tiffs will be 5 million I think it's five it's 48 or 4.9 about 4.7 and then a million so and a million from mon on the eav for that can I just take a step back yes that number you mentioned 4.5 or whatever was that predicated on that one business not being not being evaded any money no that that has nothing to do with it that's a separate entity seate entity and that only from Moy only happened if that business decided to come into not University Park oh think about that think of that right so that that abatement is is not going to take place that's
134my case in point if it's not taken place at all now that's part of the amount of money that we will get that should increase no it's still at 4.7 million I that has not taken into account the abatement at all it's still 4.7 million if we did a okay so what I'm saying is that business was carved out of TI five basically right because we were abating money back to potentially looking to Abate money back but now if the Tiff is going to go as for length 23 years to expire in November now this business is not part of the conversation for batement right well that we were not we were not going to Abate any of the 4.7 million what we were going to Abate was a portion about 60% of the eav
135on the new construction that they were doing okay so that has not already been no but we we haven't agreed to anything the board has pass anything or anything like that so okay we're not touching that 4.7 so we still right it yes we're still right there and the number you're using for the eav is 73 74 75 million 79 million and the township is using 90 so there's a big big disconnect yeah I I don't know CU it's been 75 for the longest though so maybe that number again if if I were to balloon the levy you know with that we would probably go 990 to 100 million okay if I were to balloon The Levy right now you know so okay that would be make sure make sure and one last thing on
136that you put two numbers up last was that last week about the new construction a new new eav came in last year 7 million this year 7 million you weren't sure about the other this year is 11 million 11 million do you know where that last year we said carvana was for one year look at just bring that I'll look find out yeah cuz that's a big that's a big number like where did that come from okay thanks Ken for your short version sure appreciate it and that was under new business any other new business and I I just would like to add that you know I believe in again the stance that we take as a district with that you I'm all about the you now you know I had my issues in the
137past but I am really strong on unifying the district best I could and I reached out to our CMA president Mary brags and just to meet with her on some form of paracity frequency meeting with her and Dr kogan just to you know very informal just to talk you know how things going shake hands have a cup of coffee so on and so forth and I was just thinking that not only her I was wanted to reach out to AC me president as well and in doing so because I've heard some things you know from this group and that group coming to me wanted to share some challenges they had I said let's you know let's keep the ball rolling with conversations so I'm looking to do that and I would like a board member
138any one of you in any given time to sit down with me with them when I do have these meetings okay so I'm just thring it out and the last thing is I'm reaching out to my colleagues here I'm taking days off just to meet with you on a personal level the week after Thanksgiving so if anyone any one of you want me to buy you breakfast lunch or dinner dinner what's what's the what's the limit is he hey Country Buffet and just spill your beans let me know you know how you feel things is going talk about the Cubs the socks but not the Bears and anything okay just reach out send me a send me an email that's with every one of you here on the board reaching out just hey Mo you
139you're doing a terrible job or Mo you know we can do this better and all of that I'm I'm open for just to have a a a crucial conversation with each and every one of you okay and if it doesn't work down for breast okay you got it you got it you got it okay I don't mind you know I can talk to you forever nelsie so but uh if it doesn't work for you that week the week after the holiday uh any any day say free it's free it's free okay okay so I'm reaching out now don't say more than reach out okay that's it we have no reason going to close session and can I have a motion to adjourn all in one vot vote so moved second second and all in one
140vote by saying I any Nays we are adjourned thank you public for joining us have a great holiday with you and your family and I thank everyone for participating