2/19/26 Board of Education Meeting

001Um, calling the meeting to order officially, adequate notice has been given and I'd like to invite everyone to stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. And Chris, could you please read the motion to adopt the agenda? >> I move that we approve the agenda as posted. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Um, recognizing our own is uh Okay, I'd like to call upon Dr. Garganigo to recognize Daniel Henderson. Good evening. Uh, I have the pleasure. I have the pleasure of congratulating Daniel Henderson, our fine arts coordinator

002and orchestra director. Recently, he received the National Federation of State High School Association's Outstanding Music Educator for Missouri Award. Daniel has been with us for 11 years and is not only an amazing educator and musician, but he's a great leader in the district. His calm approach to his work, his thoughtful questions and devotion to his work, his students and his craft is admirable. I feel privileged to work alongside Daniel each and every day. Congratulations, Daniel. >> Thank you. Um well, I was honored to win this award. I feel that um and I told my students I accepted it on their behalf because uh I don't know that it would have happened if I wasn't in a community that has such um support for the arts that I in a place where I get to work

003with administrators who make it a joy to work in their buildings and of course with the best students around. So it's really an honor uh to be recognized and I think uh it speaks to our whole community here. So thank you Okay. And I'd like to call up um Steve Hudson for a second recognizing our own tonight >> or coach >> with with the coach too. Whatever >> who whoever whoever's joining you. Whoever's joining >> whoever would like to >> Yeah. I'll take care of you. Well, thank you all for having us. As you can see, I have the 20 2526 boys basketball team behind me. Not only did they have a successful season last year, but they're continuing that success as we go into this year. And I do want to introduce you if

004you've not met him to uh met him, our 2010 Clayton High School graduate and head basketball coach, Sumar Ahern. And he's going to say a few more words about his team and specifically a couple of players. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Steve. And uh thank you all for having us. Um as most of my guys are laughing at me up here now talking. Um, first of all, I want to thank you all. I know, um, you guys played a big role in the renovations of our gym, which I get nothing but compliments from from coaches across as we, you know, travel to their places and they let us know how much they like our gym. We've been fortunate enough to host a couple events. We're hosting districts for the second year in a row

005this year coming up in a couple weeks. So, I know all of that was stems from you all as well. So, I want to thank you for that. Um, next up, our guys here. We are having a good year. Um, last year we made it to the quarterfinals of state, which was the first time we had been there since 1980. It just so happened in 1980 my dad was on the team. The last time the last time we made it to state was 1975. So that was we were one game away from that and it just so happened my uncle was on the team for that one. Um, so my uncle was sure to uh smack talk me a little bit that they made it further than we did, but I'm hoping this year we

006get to uh get back in that same uh game. Uh, like Mr. Hudson said, I'm a 2010 graduate. I went to Clayton schools from preschool at the family center all the way until I graduated with my masters from Fontine University. So, it was like 18 years of 63105. Uh, somehow I was not voted most likely to stay in the Clayton bubble in my high school yearbook. Uh, my friend that currently lives in LA was that. So, I think they we should revote and I I should be on there. Um, but uh I want to quickly mention two of our guys and they're going to come join me up here. Uh, Sebastian Balden and Matthew Hurst. If you guys want to come up here, look, we even got your pictures up there. Now you got to

007come. Um, both of these two have been very big parts of our team. This is my third year as a head coach. Both of these guys have been on the team all three years. Uh, I'm going to start with this one here because he's the younger one. Uh but Sebastian Balden January 12th uh became the sixth Clayton High School basketball player to score a thousand points in his career. Um he did it in the fastest amount of games anybody else has done. He's still only a junior, so he got another year to go for a little bit higher of a number. Um, but he has also in the time since then become the all-time career leader in steals at Clayton High School and all-time career leader in three-point field goals made at Clayton High School.

008All as a junior with more games this year and a whole another season to go. Um, he is a very talented basketball player, but I tell people all the time, he's even a better kid. Um, and young adult as he's growing up to be. Um, so I hope he continues to put forth the passion he has in basketball and uh being a leader and a friend to all these guys here. And then the uh second guy, Matthew Hurst. I believe someone up here knows him pretty well. Uh, so I'm told. Um, Matthew is a four-year varsity starter for basketball. He started with me on the JV team. I was the JV coach before varsity as a freshman and he quickly was stolen by the varsity head coach uh up to varsity and became a starter.

009He became the all-time leader in career assists at Clayton High School with 279 the game after Sebastian scored his thousandth point. Um, little known fact, Sebastian's thousandth point was an assist from Matthew and then Matthew's leading assist to take the record was an assist to Sebastian Balden as well. So, uh, they're connected forever in that in that sense. But, uh, he's the only player in Clayton history to have over 300 assists in his career. Um, and he recently, as of two games ago, became the all-time single season assist leader as well. Um, one quick more stat. I know I've been talking a while, but Matthew is the first player since pre-199, that's when we have the most recent uh, school records, the first player to have four straight seasons of an over 500 record in

010the basketball program. So, we've never done it four years in a row. Um, and he's the first guy to do it. So, wanted to celebrate these two, all these guys we have here. and uh continue the year and what we're growing. So, thank you all. Unless you want to stay for the whole meeting. Yeah, I was just about to say that. >> Okay. >> Congratulations to Mr. Henderson and the boys. >> Thank you all for being here. Okay. Um, I don't believe we have any public comment tonight. No. Okay. So, we are moving on to superintendent communications from Dr. Patel. >> Okay. Thank you everyone for being here tonight. We appreciate it. A few highlights that I just wanted to touch base on. The first one is we would like to invite everyone to our

011third installment of the Clayton Cares Community Speaker Series. It will be held on Monday where we are going to have a celebration of Black Achievement Night. It will be at the high school starting at 6:30. We're going to have students performing. Um, we're going to be highlighting several students across the district and we will be recognizing and honoring two Clayton alum and they will be sharing their personal journey and how the school district of Clayton has impacted their path. So, I hope everyone can join us for this um celebration and I want to thank Dr. P for organizing this because this is our fourth annual one that we have in our district. So, thank you. Hope to see everyone there. Second one, this was just a little bit of fun. It has been a hundred

012days of school so far. And these are just a few pictures of some of the events and um how our kids were dressing up during this time. They they dress up as hundred year olds. And it's just I just wanted to share this because it's a good reminder of why we do what we do. And I also heard this morning we were in a conversation and that some of these students even for the day changed their names to olden names. I don't know what that means. I'm not going to offend anyone by giving names out, but they you we had to call them that name that day. So that's pretty impressive. But again, um little bit of fun, but even though the 100 days have flown by, our work continues the next few weeks and

013months. Important work. So speaking of moving forward, we are continued focusing on making sure we have open lines of communication with our community regarding Prop O. We want to be transparent. We want to offer opportunities for people to come and learn more about it, ask questions so they can make informed decisions on April 7th. So, we're hosting two coffees as of now. Um, the first one will be next Thursday at the Center of Clayton. Any community member can come in. We will be there to answer any questions, share information, and again, a chance to connect with our community. Also, we are going to be hosting three more community tours at Glenidge Elementary all throughout March. And Dr. Murdoch has nicely, graciously offered to host these tours and she will be able to share the challenges

014that are we face at this facility that's nearly a century old. So, we have one on March 4th, March 11th, March 25th. And again, a chance for people to really understand the challenges that we face every single day. So, I hope community members take advantage of this and come in and see firsthand what um the facilities are like. And then we also understand that there are questions from staff and families as well. So, we will be hosting these events that are listed above, one at each building for staff members to come and learn more about Prop O for um families to come in and also these are open to community members as well. So, I wanted to make that clear. So, any community member in addition to the coffees can attend any one of these

015and we will be there with like ready to share any information that we have and answer questions. Again, we just want to make sure that we are providing ample opportunity for our op um community to come in come and ask us questions so they can make informed decisions on April 7th. And then finally, today we have two presentations. The first one, even though we may share the same information we did last time, but it will be from BSI and our design team. And really we're giving an updated report in terms of costs for each of the projects and also sharing with the community what the design process looks like because that impacts the costs. So we'll talk about that for a bit. And then the second presentation is really the teaching and learning department along

016with our building principles who wait all year for this meeting and are so excited to be here on how our students are performing. Um, and each year I want to I do want to make this clear because each year we have this assessment report, but starting this year we changed it a little. So we've had to the first semester we focused on our local data and this tonight we'll be focusing on our state data. So that way we separated the two. And with that I'm going to hand it off to Nina because Nina has been talking to our fifth graders and has some great things to share with us. So over the past two weeks, I've had the opportunity to meet with fifth graders from all three elementary schools. Their excitement and enthusiasm were evident,

017and it was truly a pleasure getting to know each and every student. I asked each group a similar set of questions, which I'll share shortly. But first, I'd like to highlight one question I posed specifically to Glenidge students. So, the question I asked just them was, "Which areas of your school facilities do you believe are most in need of improvement?" Their responses included, "The current classroom layout creates too much separation between classes and offers very limited opportunities for collaboration between classes, let alone between different grade levels." They talked about that there was some mold in the bathrooms in certain corners of the basement. They talked about how classrooms feel a little bit isolated, especially fifth grade, which is located in the lower left, I think, corner of the basement. And um they said a few

018of their classrooms lack a lot of natural light. Um, and then they talked about how the floors and ceilings feel a little bit outdated and need and in need of renovation. Um, this one was a big one and in fact, every student felt the need to share with me approximately how many times they had slipped on these floors, which was a little bit of a concerning but funny touch. Um, and they were super excited about um, some possible renovations. And so now I'll talk about some of the key points I heard from the other questions I asked all three groups. Something I asked them was, "What does your school do to make everyone feel included? And is there anything that they don't do that you wish they did?" Most students share that they genuinely felt

019like their school does everything it can to ensure that every student feels comfortable and at home with their classroom family, which is a term I learned and thought was super duper fun. And um but they did share, however, several students expressed a desire for more opportunities to connect with peers in other classes as well as more time with their younger buddy grade. I think it kind of varied for all three elementary schools. I know that Marramac met with like second graders. I think Glen Ridge it was kindergarteners. Um, but the overall consensus was that increased cross-class interactions could help new students adjust more easily and feel more welcomed quickly. And on the topic of warming new students, I heard a story that truly warmed my heart and illustrated the many meaningful things happening beyond the

020view of teachers. Students in my captain group explained that whenever a new student joins the school, the entire grade comes together at recess to play one large group game so the new student feels included. They shared that it doesn't matter whether someone usually plays basketball or prefers tag, everyone joins in. So, this was a super nice thing to hear and I thought really demonstrated just how many wonderful things our students are doing. And um another important question I asked all three groups was, "How well do you feel like your school is preparing you for the elementary school to middle school transition?" Because they were all fifth graders. The overall tone of our conversations about middle school were overwhelmingly positive, and it's clear that WO down can expect a highly energetic and enthusiastic incoming group. Many

021students share that they appreciate when their teachers begin preparing them for what might feel different next year. For example, students at Marramac mentioned that their teachers sometimes time how quickly they can transition between specials to help them build efficiency for next year. Students at Captain shared that their teachers have incorporated more group work to prepare them for the increased collaboration they'll experience next year. When discussing ways to further ease the transition, students suggested inviting elective teachers from the middle school to the elementary schools to introduce their courses and allow students to explore potential options and providing more guidance around homework expectations and study strategies to help prepare for the increase of out of school work. Once again, I was blown away by how well spoken and intelligent even our youngest learners are, and I absolutely

022loved spending my afternoons with them. >> Thank you, Nina. Great information and glad to hear from the Glenidge kids that what they think needs help in the building is what we all have realized needs help in the building. So, thank you. Um, okay, it's time for our first um of two presentations of the evening from U John and the design teams. Thank you. Good evening. Our design teams are represented here tonight as well as our construction management team. Uh we're going to update you on the progress A big discussion tonight will be the estimated costs of the projects. We go. Okay, I think I'm going to kick us off. Um, this is a schedule that should look familiar to you. Uh, it's been on the screen quite a few times. The red line just keeps

023moving to the right. Um, so here we are February 19th and we are I think roughly seven weeks away from u April 7th if I counted the weeks right on my calendar. So it's it's approaching quickly. Um, and so tonight we have so there's a lot of work that's been done uh over you know the past months starting back in June with building tours and going through workshops and so forth. all of which we've continually updated the board with and the community as well. Tonight, we're going to do a little bit of a look ahead at what might happen after the bond issue, but we're also going to share mostly uh just quick snippets of the projects this evening and spend some time focus time talking about where the numbers have landed for those. Uh

024what's coming after what's what's been done so far? uh to the left side of the screen. Uh we've completed schematic design on all the projects. And schematic design is really figuring out where do the rooms go? If there's portions of the buildings that are going to be demolished, which portions are those and why uh sort of re replplanning the buildings, uh looking at building elevations and massing and materials and so forth. The last bullet that you see down there uh is cost review which is uh those documents were turned over to BSI the construction manager and they've prepared cost estimates and again we'll be talking about those this evening or they will after the bond election um if things go uh as as everybody wants them to go we will be launching into the last

025two design phases that we call design development and construction documents. The design development phase is mostly about layering on detail. We have the basic scheme of what is going forward. Design development is layering on more design details. So we're selecting specific finishes, u exterior materials, which what exactly what brick are we looking at? Window systems and the colors of those systems. All that information is important in terms of completing the design. Okay. Again, that phase will end just like schematic design did with a cost review. So, there'll be a deliverable that will be handed off to BSI. They'll take that information. They'll probably do a little bit of comparison sake of, you know, what we see at SD and what we're seeing now and they'll be updating all of their numbers. And so, another estimate

026will be produced at that time. We'll make any adjustments we need to based on that uh in the construction document phase. But the construction doc one of the other important things I should mention in the design development is we will have some rather intensive meetings with all of the building users. So we'll sit and talk with grade level teachers, we'll talk with art teachers, we'll talk with PE teachers specific, you know, and really across the board administrative uh uh folks to understand the nitty-gritty details for every single space in the building. So where's the technology going? Where is storage? How much storage? and so forth. So all of that gets detailed uh ultimately in the construction documents phase which is a little bit frankly more of us working on our own. We've got all the

027design input that we need from you as as a school district and we are you know doing the proverbial dotting the eyes and crossing the tees. You know we're a roof intersects a wall. What's that detail look like? How are we flashing it? What's the roof? You know how do we keep the building uh warm, safe, and dry? So, it's layering all the specific detailed information that's necessary and and then creating what we call a specifications or a project manual. That's a written document that accompanies all the drawings that goes out then to BSI. Again, they will work with the bidding market, their subcontractors. They'll parse that out to all their subcontractors and then bids will be received. So, construction construction document phase is the last design phase. It's certainly not the end of the

028project because it's really just launching into bidding the documents and u getting the projects into construction. Uh the projects that are uh proposed in the as you know in the proposed bond uh funded projects are those that are on the screen. So, uh, the renovation in addition to Glen Ridge, the construction of the learning lab at the high school, uh, really to geared toward those hands-on experiences around engineering, math, and entrepreneurship, and then all the improvements at Gayfield that, uh, John will be talking about the what's that schedule look like after the bond issue. This is a is a snapshot of it. I suspect you're going to see this more than more than just this evening. you know, after the after the 7th. But you'll see over there in orange to the left are the

029design phases. U that's both the design development and the construction documents phases for the the all the projects, the bond uh funded projects are at the top of the screen. Those that are budget funded are in the center section of the screen and those that are anticipated as future phases, Mary and Captain are at the at the bottom of the screen. So you you can get a sense of uh you know obviously it's necessary for the design phases to happen first. The the gap in between those is when bidding will be happening and then launching into construction. So the the longest construction phase that you see up there in the in the in the phase one bonded funded projects is Glenidge. It's the most intensive project from a just a sheer size standpoint. So it's

030got the longest duration. Um and then those the others are gauged towards the scopes uh of those projects. Uh the the future bond funded projects as you see with the note on the bottom those are um as has been talked about in prior meetings uh dependent on the debt reduction and the assessed valuation of the district. Terms of when the board elects to this board or future board elects to say we're going to go back out to the voters for those projects. So, we're going to launch then into a quick description of the projects and then get to the cost. >> Okay, we have Glen Ridge Elementary School here. So, why Glenidge? Uh, this is established as a priority of the the first phase of the uh unfunded projects. So, looking back at the facilities,

031Long Range facilities master plan, we did a lot of assessments and uh also did a Hawkins Lily school appraisal. So up on the screen we have those results. And what that included was a couple members of our team and the building administrator walking around the facility and ranking many different uh areas and categories according to the appraisal process. Uh that includes uh just educational environment, the uh systems of the building, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, uh safety, security, the site, uh parking, uh playgrounds, those those type of things. So uh then they score those accordingly. So then those results are up there. uh you've got that middle table there on the right that have the overall scores of all the schools and then on the left side the pie charts have more of the breakdown of uh

032all the uh different categories. So blue uh is a score of excellent uh green satisfactory, yellow is borine and red is poor. And if you see Glen Ridge at the bottom left, it does have more red uh poor items than any other facility. So it is a older uh one of your oldest buildings in the district and a lot of its systems are uh kind of coming to the end of its life. So we have some uh examples on the next slide of some more context of those red poor items. So on the top left of a window AC unit hanging out of a classroom. So is the HBAC systems meeting with the demand requirements of the space at certain times of the year? Uh another thing with the HBAC systems is the air flow

033in the basement addressing that. Uh we've got a couple photos there. the basement as well where there's signs of water infiltr water water infiltration. Uh also looking at the other photos there, uh we have some ceiling tiles with some water damage, another sign of water infiltration. Also warping ceiling tiles, so some humid humidity issues as well. So looking at those finishes, uh the HBA systems, foundations, those type of things. So uh we're looking at getting those kids out of the basement. I think uh Perkins will can talk through those designs a little bit more. So this is uh what the possibility of design is for the interior of of Glenidge. So along with what Nah said in her survey of the fifth graders, it's collaborative. It's open. The classrooms are all connected. Grade levels can

034be connected. It's purposefully um and intentionally designed. So we shared this with you last time. This is um a current rendering. And the um this is the uh what would be the back side of Glenidge. and just showing it's very much in keeping with the same style architecturally as it is today. So, it's really just meant to be a natural extension. Um, it's a renovation and addition to Glen Ridge. Okay. Clayton High School. Uh, here we have the career technical education edition. This is an interior rendering of the STEM learning lab. So, a large open space with high ceiling. Uh, gives you a flexible use for many different programs. Uh we're currently showing the robotics field on the the left there with workstations on the right and then just exposed structural and give it a

035nice uh industrial tech look. Then here's the exterior rendering of the uh CTE edition 10,000 foot single edition. We're looking at the corner of the STEM learning lab and the entrance to the addition and just uh tying in with the the existing architecture matching the brick and then using some aluminum composite metal panels. The project at Gay Field will um rectify a lot of the challenges you are having at that facility uh to date. Um it will now um house locker rooms for female sports at the at Gay Field. It will accommodate um the athletic equipment storage that you see being a problem. Um adding additional parking um locker room larger locker room and concessions and toilets. Um, basically creating basically creating a place for your community to gather and celebrate. All right. Um, so

036I'll talk a little bit about the schematic design update. Um so about a month ago when we last met we shared some early budget ranges for planning purposes which were based on other projects um in the area with similarities to the proposed Clayton projects. Since then as uh Steve mentioned the designs have or the design team has completed their next step of the design process which was schematic design. Um they produced a set of documents which consisted of some drawings and some narratives that described the scope of work. Um based on those documents, we put together the first comprehensive cost model for the projects. Um these cost models are based on actual quantities where possible um and unit price estimates that are specific to the Clayton projects. Um there's been many conversations and collaboration between

037BSI and the design team over the last uh few weeks. Um we've asked a lot of questions um discussed the anticipated design challenges with the projects. Um, so we have a lot more design information now than what we had previously. Um, but there's still a lot of unknowns, still months of design work um, to be completed and figuring out solutions to all of those design challenges. Um, so that work will continue in design development and construction documents. Um, and just want to mention the the schematic design estimates. These are still just estimates. there's snapshots in time of the projected cost. At this point, the subcontractor bids have not been solicited yet um for any of the projects um for any of the scopes. Um and the numbers will continue to be updated over um the

038coming months during during design. Um and then ultimately the construction cost won't be locked in until the projects are bid and their GMPS for the project. Um which is anticipated to be towards the end of this year in early early 27. Um so this this slide um just kind of cap captures what we uh presented last month um which is the expected range was in the 110 to 135 million range total program costs for all of the phase one bondf funed projects. Um, and then if you go to the next slide. Um, so right now the the the good news is that the current SC estimates are tracking within that range. Um, and currently toward the lower end of that range. Uh, there's still variability in the numbers and they'll continue to evolve over over

039the coming months as the design process evolves. Um, the numbers could go up higher than the 114. They could go down, they could they could stay the same. Um but this is just a snapshot of where of where they are right now. Um and then this pie chart is just to illustrate that the $114 million estimate um is not just construction costs. It consists of soft costs uh project contingencies and escalation. So it's to total program and then this is the breakdown by project. So, Glenidge um total program budget is around 74 million currently, the Clayton High School CTE edition 17 million, and the Gayfield Athletic Complex around 23 million. >> Okay. So for the uh district capital improvement, more of the the budget funded projects uh just starting with the Clayton High School, we

040have the performing arts center. So uh looking at those HBAC noise improvements at the band, choir and orchestra. Uh doing some light renovations to the auditorium, just a seating replacement, carpet, lighting, and uh light refresh the restrooms, and then incorporating a new school store at the main entrance of the high school. The work at Shaw Park uh the district is currently working with the city to provide improvements to this field that will benefit both your girls softball team and the community as well. The work at ADIC would be completing um that previous project by providing permanent masonry structures for the dugouts and press box. And the work at Y Down um will be replacing that bleaguered natural turf with a synthetic turf u provide and also a walking running track providing you lots of flexibility

041and usability that you don't have right now. >> The fifth item is a Ridge campus that we're working on. Uh currently we've looked at a couple locations. The one that's getting the most focus currently is on the Font Mountain campus. This is the font bond campus location within the district as shown there with the red circle. Uh we would not only have the modular campus, we'd also make use of the Denim student center which is the for the gym and the cafeteria space. Those pictures on the right side like that space. This is how it would potentially lay out on the space. Um, we're having some conversations this week about exactly where that would land. Uh, but you can see in the middle photo how a modular campus would lay out. Those are drawings from

042a modular company. Uh, and they've got some pictures on the right to show what they look like. On the inside on the left side picture, uh, the highlighted area in red is that center for the P cafeteria. The modular campus would be towards below that. south of there in those parking areas. Bon's actually talking about demolishing a couple of those buildings in the south and that would expand the available space. Current estimates for the budget funded projects are 17 to 20 million and this would not be these would be financed through multiple years before we were able to all these projects. So, we're just going to briefly show you some renderings that you've already seen for Marramck. Um, the front entry again, um, accessibility to the front entry is shown here, bringing that entry so

043that it's just flat ground and the front door can be where the front door should be at the front. Um, and then the back um, is again very much keeping in that same architectural style. That's the addition um that has very similar classroom um uh components as Glenro does. And Captain, this is a newer uh view of Captain since we were we've been doing more work on this since we last saw you. Um so this is an axonometric view. It's a 3D view from above. Um and this just shows you uh what that looks like moving um captain to the left on the site. Um, and the current building is where you see that turf field and that brown uh rectangle in the parking. So, that's just going to shift the building over where there

044is no building now. Um, and that's what it could look like. Thank you. Any questions from the board here? appreciate that um presentation and especially appreciate the um the estimate coming down. So, thank you for that. Um okay, I'll open up the floor to anybody with any other comments or questions. Go ahead. >> I just have a comment piggybacking on that. The reason it's great to see that cost code come down is because it makes it realistically plausible to get to the next parts of this project sooner, Marramac and and the other parts. And so I would love to see that cost come down because it brings those things more into near focus. So appreciate that. >> I had a question about the construction timeline. Did it look like Glenn Ridge was two full years

045or is that >> We have blocked two full years out on that schedule there. Okay. >> We would still hope that construction would take 18 months or so, but the two years provides us margin not only for construction to get completed but for us to move in smoothly. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Any other questions or comments for anyone? Okay. Thanks as always for being here, coming to town. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> that's a good one, Leo. >> Yeah, we're afraid to ask for anything more at this point. >> Keep bringing those numbers down. We're good. >> Yes. >> They're like, >> Thank you everyone. I appreciate you being here. Thanks so much. >> People flying down from Chicago. >> Yeah. Appreciate you all. Yes. Coming in from out of town. >> Thank you.

046And now we will have a presentation of the assessment report from Dr. Garganigo and our school principles. Good evening. Um, first I'd like to introduce the team. Um, and I am amazed each and every day um for what these people do with the children that are in their care. Um, and I think you're going to be really touched by the stories they're going to tell tonight. I'm touched by it. Um, and I'm really impressed with the work that they do each and every day. So, I'll start. Dr. Fischer, principal at Marramac. Dr. Knight, principal at Captain, Dr. Murdoch, principal at the Glenidge Elementary School. Dr. Jordan, principal at Wound, Dr. Hog, director of assessment and PD. Um, you know me. And then Dr. Kajki, principal at the high school. Um, and I'm proud to be

047a part of this team each and every day. So, I'm going to start with um our work continuing to be grounded in our profile of the graduate um and our CSIP and the competencies of the profile of the graduate are what we work for um each and every day with the children that are in our care. Um, tonight we're going to focus on goal two of our CSIP. Um, and we've intentionally highlighted educational growth, um, because that has been our focus, um, this entire year. Um, and Robin and I came to talk at the table in the fall. We talked about the need for a focus on growth. Um, and we continue to focus on that with all of the work um, that we're doing. So, to keep us all grounded at the table, Nisha

048alluded to this um, at the beginning. We Robin and I came in the fall to focus on um achievement and growth data in reading and math with local assessments. At that time we shared with you um the fact that our children are growing um each and every day, but they're not growing at the rate that we would want them to be growing at. Um and so that's continued to be our focus um as we've been working this year. So tonight we're going to focus specifically on state data which feels to us like really old data. Um but it is something that's important to um to our work and and a way for us to calibrate some of our work. Um I think it's always important when we talk about these data to remind you and

049ourselves that these are one data point on one day. Um so it's one day that the children take the test. Um but they are used they're pretty high stakes. They're used for accreditation purposes. It's used um to judge us. um were in the paper about these data. So we think it's important to to share with you. So tonight we're going to highlight achievement and growth data um on those state assessments and try to explain some of the complexities behind those data um which is hard even for all of us to interpret um as educators who have been working with this for a long time. So I'm going to start with our overall performance um over the past four years. So, we have um been in the sixth cycle of the M Missouri school improvement program

050um since 2022. You'll notice that our our overall district score has remained relatively flat um a little bit above 94% except for the year 2023. And if you remember at that time, we made a significant change to math. um the state made a decision about up until that point EOCC's had been districts making decisions about best time um to assess students. We at that point had our algebra 1 standard spread across three courses. And so we gave the assessment first of all we saw it as a high school assessment and not a middle school assessment and we gave it at the end of the first semester of algebra 2. Um, since then we have realigned our curriculum, moved all the algebra 1 standards back into algebra 1. Um, and the state has made a requirement

051that we give that assessment um, at the end of the course holding the same name as the test. So therefore, we now give um, the algebra 1 EOC, which we still consider a high school assessment, but we give it to um, a population of eighth graders. Um, and those students who take it in eighth grade then have to take a different math EOC at the high school. Um, so either geometry or algebra 2. The bulk of them take algebra 2. Um, and then we have a group of freshmen um who also take that. So we we predicted we told you that we knew that that was going to happen. It happened and we predicted our theory of practice was that we would rebound and we have rebounded. Um, so we feel pretty secure with uh

052those data pieces. Um so to ground you in our annual performance report um it's really broken into two parts. Performance is 70% of um the score continuous improvement is 30%. I'm actually going to treat these backwards um because the 30% is just quick and easy kinds of things to talk about and then we'll dig into the performance part. Um so the 30% of continuous improvement the response to standards is a report that I write to the state um every couple of years um which tells our story. Um so it's really the the part of Mip 6 that they allowed us to do was to to um give backup to the data to say what are we working on what are we focusing on and to really expand on our CIP. Um within that also are

053some compliance things uh related to kindergarten entry assessment. So we have to assess at least 95% of our students. We assess 100%. Um individual career and academic planning we have to give that to 95% of our students. We do 100%. Attendance is the percentage of students attending school at least 85% of the time. So that is a difference from um previous years. It used to be 90% of your students being in attendance 90% of the time. The state has changed that threshold. Um, and then the other compliance pieces are that we do an annual audit that's submitted to DESIE, that we have timely submission of core data files, and that our secretary of the board report about district finances be submitted. Um, so those are all compliance pieces. There is one um the the con

054the response to standards that I write includes information from Panorama data. Um, those data are not included in this report because we're focused on goal two of the CSIP. their focus. Um we talk about those in goal one and goal three when we give those updates to the to the board. So then the 70% left of MSIP 6 um is determined by performance. So performance includes graduation rate. So in order to get full um credit for that we have to graduate at least 90% of our stu 92% of our students. Ours is a much higher um rate. It's also about successful completion of ACT, SAT, AP, Project, Lead the Way, um, kinds of assessments, dual credit, dual enrollment kinds of things. So, the percentage of our graduating class, um, that meets those standards. So, we've

055consistently received all of our points in those areas. So, then that brings us to the MAP, grade level assessment, and the end of course exams. Um again I remind us that these are one data point on um one day but as we unpack these data um I think there's things for us to celebrate and there's places for us to grow. So um districts earn 100 our district has earned 100% of points possible for the total population and the student group um in all content areas um for achievement um both for our total population and our student group. A reminder that our student group um includes black and Hispanic students, students who qualify for federal for the federal lunch program, students who speak English as another language or students who receive special education services. Um so

056that's the the population that falls into that. On average, our student achievement scores are strong. Um for a perspective, an MPI score, so that next to last column um of 400 is equivalent to proficient and 500 is equivalent to advanced. This has been consistent over the years with our greatest increases in math and most recently social studies. Um, we aim for no difference between the scores of our total population and our student group. And we've worked hard to make strides in this area over the years and we're proud of our progress. While our student group average scores are strong, when we disagregate these data by identity groups or by participation in programs, we see asynchronous results. Um, a particular area of focus for us will continue to be our black students. While their average scores

057this year are within the target range delineated by the state in ELA, math, and social studies, there continues to be a discrepancy between their those scores and our total population. So, we know that it continues to be a place for us to work. Okay. So, growth, this is where it gets complex. Um, so growth is the other area where a district receives a large percentage of their APR points. It's determined using the Missouri growth model which is established by statistitians at Missou. Um, and it really has two parts. So part one for grade level assessments, so grades three through eight, um, a comparison between the current year's score or like little Melina's current year score um, and a predicted score determined by a previous year's assessment. Um this assumes that there is a previous year's

058score if not the student is not counted in the estimation. And so then the residual so the difference between those scores um in the tested year and the predicted score if it's positive the student performed better than expected. If it's zero it's what was expected. Um and if it's a negative residual it indicates that the student didn't perform as well as expected. These residuals are then averaged for the site. So the school and the district. Um for the EOC, the previous year's score is not actually the previous year. Um so the previous year score is the eighth grade assessment. And so when you think about like algebra 1 we generally give in nth grade. Biology we give in 11th grade. Government we give generally in 11th grade. The the previous year scores from several years

059prior. Um and so and it does not have to necessarily be in the same content area. So obviously social studies when you're thinking about growth there isn't a previous year. Um and so they take all of their previous year's scores to to determine a predicted score. Um so then part two of the growth model um is that growth points are assigned to a district or a school in a continuous manner. Meaning that all the average growth scores are compared across the state and those are divided into quartiles and points are assigned. So where will you see 50% of points earned um here for ELA for all of our students, that does not mean that 50% of our students made growth, it's actually a much larger number. It means that our district's average growth falls within

060that quartile, the third quartile among all state schools among all schools in um in the state or districts in the state, sorry. Okay. So for the purpose of this report, instead of replicating tables in the actual written report, we thought it might be interesting um to give you a perspective on how achievement and growth match up at the different levels for the total population and the student group especially as growth has been our system systemwide focus this year um after receiving these data. So just a reminder, so when I go into these charts, so to sort of orient you to these charts, when we consider achievement, we're using a MAP performance index. The range that we're aiming for is above 400, which is the equivalent of proficient. And for growth, we're aiming for at least

061zero, that they met the predicted growth. Um so this is the elementary cohort altogether. Um, we see that the average achievement score, so the x-axis, is squarely within the proficient range for all three subject areas. And we see that the growth, the y- ais, is at or above the predicted line um for all three content areas. For the middle school, um the average achievement score for our total population is squarely within the proficient range for all three subjects, but the growth is below the line um in all three areas. And then at the high school, both the average achievement and the average growth are in the quadrant that we're hoping for. Um, and I see this as a direct consequence of the work that the teams did last year to understand better these data and

062to make some instructional decisions to better teach the standards, which Dan really referenced in his presentation last year. So then when we look at our student groups, for the student group, we see a different story. While average achievement in science and ELA are within the range that we're aiming for, math is below. Additionally, math and ELA, average growth for the student group was below the expected growth. For the middle school, um we see a similar picture with content areas um trans transposed. Science and ELA are the lowest average achievement and growth and math is right on the cusp of both achievement and growth. And then finally, CHS math is a celebration. while we still see areas of growth for our student groups in the achievement um and growth in science, ELA, and government. And it's

063important to note that as a district, we're aiming for the average achievement for our student group to mirror that of our total population. But from an APR perspective, the threshold of 100% of the allocated points is lower than 400. It's generally in the 365 to 380 range. So from the state's perspective, um our achievement for our student group um is falling within that range of 100% of the points. So now I'm going to hand it over to Robin um to talk about what our theory of practice is to continue to grow and make improvements. >> Good evening. Thanks for having us. So last year at this time I sat at this table. I waxed philosophical about hexagons. And we talked about how they show up everywhere in nature, right? They're in honeycombs. They're in DNA.

064They're in hydrogen molecules. They're in snowflakes. You knew I could get to read on that one. So, we love hexagons, right? But there was a reason. There was a reason for that. It's because they represent that balance and that harmony and because they are the thing that shows our alignment. And so, we are going to start there again this year. So we brought to you again our hexagons because for the last two years we have consistently gone back to this hexagonal graphic in everything we do. So we brought it into our new teacher training. We brought it into our career review training. We bring it into our coordinators council meetings. We bring it into our PDC conversations. We have taken everything and looked at these four areas and thought about how do we continue to

065move our work forward based on these areas. So, we're going to ground ourselves again in that and think again about these four areas, number one, as a whole system, but then also we're going to take each one apart and talk about how each one of those areas, what are we doing as a system to respond to some of the data that you just saw. So, we start with our strong collaborative teams. The first component of the framework is those strong collaborative teams because it is the teams in our building that's where the magic happens, right? Those are the places where they're talking about teaching and learning. That's the place where the results are kind of coming from. Um, and so those teams are using edge climbers as we've been talking about for a couple of

066years as a data visualization tool. And the reason they do that is so that we can tell an entire story about our students. And this year, as Melena just talked about, we have been on a crusade. So we have really been trying to help people to see how they can use educ to really look at student growth because that has been our focus since we sat at this table with you in October really thinking about growth and so one of the tools that we have been using is a tool called students 3D where you can actually this is in the mode where you can't actually see the students faces but whenever you can you can see the actual children's faces alongside the scores because that's the focus right we're here to talk about our learners

067ers and we're here to think about the data that goes along with our learners. So, we've really been leaning into that tool and then also showing teams how to pull data walls in educ growth data to those data walls so that they can look at the performance of their students and then also look right alongside at the growth of their students. So, we have been actively working to move that growth forward by bringing an awareness to the tools that we can use in education specifically in our PLC's. And then sitting side by side with our strong collaborative teams is our foundational framework for instruction. So it's that tier one assured experience. That's where our teaching and learning work is really really grounded. So before we can really start to talk about interventions or what we're

068doing for those students who maybe aren't making some of that growth, we really have to think about what are the things that all of our students are getting right. And so when we look up there, the guaranteed and viable curriculum, the equitable practices, the effective pedigogy, the responsive assessment in a positive learning environment. And so we've made a lot of moves in this area this year as well. One of those is that we have really started to focus on clarity and dig deeper into our proficiency scales. So we started this year with all of our elementary teachers getting some training in August on the use of their proficiency scales. And the reason for a proficiency scale is that it brings clarity around what all of our students should know and what all of our students

069should be able to do. So now K5, we have proficiency scales for all of our report card indicators. And as a result, now our families, our students, our teachers have a lot more clarity around what our students should know and be able to do. And again, you mix that with the teams really having clarity around which students are growing and which students aren't. And we're really able to move that work forward. Also, our coordinators council has been a huge part of this work. So they have done site visits to um other districts that are using proficiency scales and really looking at um competency based learning and clarity. They've done book studies. We have some coordinators who have really dug in. They're looking at rubrics together. They're looking at scoring practices together. Really doing the work

070to think about how are we assessing our students and how do we know where our students are in their learning. So that's been a big part of our foundational framework for instruction. And then the third component of our framework is the continuum of tiered support. So, here's where we really start to dig into what students need to receive help and at what time and at what level of intensity. And we've had a lot of conversations about this that this year. How do you increase the intensity and decrease the intensity based on what our students might specifically need? And so, our focus primarily this year has been on tier 2 interventions. That's the support that occurs within the classroom before students require more intensive instruction from a specialist. And we sometimes talk about what needs to

071be done in order to support our students, but we don't always put the professional learning behind it. And so, one of the things that I am very excited about is that this year we were really doing that. We were putting the professional learning behind what skills do we need to provide for our staff in order to be able to do the interventions that are necessary. So, we tried a new PD structure called an innovation cycle. and we had a tier 2 innovation cycle where teachers were receiving specific learning and specific coaching directly in the classroom about how to do tier 2 interventions. Um we also were piloting our K5 tier 2 literacy interventions in educ. So again looking back at that data those sit alongside our K8 tier three interventions and we have also been

072doing some intervention professional learning with our new teachers and our career review teachers. This is messy work though. Like at a systemic level, we are having really hard conversations about what intervention even means. That's not an easy conversation for anyone to have, but we're doing it. Like we are bringing that conversation together. Um, and people sometimes disagree on those things, but we're bringing some awareness to what intervention looks like and really providing the tools to be able to have those conversations. And then finally, I don't have favorite hexagons, but honestly, I think this one might be my favorite if I were to choose. So, the final component of our framework is the systems and structures. This is what ensures that our work is consistent and sustainable so that it's going to stay no matter who

073or what document or whatever is happening, right? It's what systems and structures can we put into place to make sure that our work is moving forward. And one of the things that I'm really excited about is our creative use of another system, our kickup professional learning system. So we use that currently whenever we think about our professional learning data and whenever we have a PD day. We've started to really dig in and use it as um in MTSS support. So we have two tools in kickup that some of our buildings have been using that we're really trying to start using on a systemic and district level. One is an individual reflection tool for our PLC's. So we have a strategy implementation guide for our MTSS work. It helps teams to see where are we where

074are our PLC's or intervention and where do we need to go. They actually self-reflect and score themselves. So you can kind of see it as a building and then also see it as a district. And then our second tool uh we have combined with student services with the professional development committee and we have created one districtwide walkthrough tool. So it's going to be a unified tool where we won't be looking separately at equity data and academic data and social emotional data. when we walk into classrooms, we're seeing all of that data together, right? It's no longer siloed. And so, we have been working all year to bring that all together so that no matter who is walking into a classroom and putting data about a classroom into our system, it's all going into the same

075system so that we can have a systemic response. And so, that's another tool that we're really excited to roll out next year that we've been working on this year. And all of those things that I just talked about, all of our our structures and our systems and the ways we're working with our teams and the ways that we're doing professional learning are all the ways that we're trying to bring some balance and alignment to the MTSS work that we're doing. >> All right. So, thank you, Robin, for getting that started because I think um I want to kind of pick up off some of what Robin mentioned. Um, so I know some of my teammates here are going to be talking about some additional tiers, but I wanted to start with that tier one. Um,

076and before I kind of go into some of our work, I at the very bottom of my slide there says, "Know our learners well and respond to their needs." I'll say Dr. Garigo says a lot of great things, but I will say this is probably my favorite thing that she says and repeats and I steal it and repeat it often as well. Um, so I think this is and it's actually you go back to Robin's hexagons, it's right there at the top in the center. that idea of do we know our kids and are we responding to their needs. So when we think about that and you think about that first initial place and we think about this the f the um the foundational framework for our instruction and that hexagon and then also our

077the strong collaborative teams that's kind of that essential part of our tier one. So the first thing is what do we know about our students? What do we know about who they are where they're coming in and that's that database decision-making. So the first thing we have to do is get to know them both as academic and but um students but also as little people. Um so that in our building what that looks like is universal screenings. This is fairly consistent across the district. You're looking at things where we're doing NWA at the beginning of the year. We might be doing some A-Ring all the way down to kindergarters. We're assessing them when they come in. Um we also are having teachers reading individually with kids. We're getting to know them. They're doing lots of

078pre-esting, lots of things like that at the very beginning of the year to understand those things. And then I'll say one thing that we started doing a few years ago um was having conversations around okay so we know who they are when we listen to them read but are we actually taking the time to stop and listen to our kids. Um so for the last couple years our librarian um has taken on this initiative where what she does is she offers a time to every class across the building at the beginning of the year where she will take their kids and they can say and she gives them her office where the teachers set up and meet one-on-one individually with their kids just to get to know their kids. uh for anything other than just

079knowing who their child is as a human being and getting to know a little bit more information and does a student interview with them and like I said and and the conversation really was about okay so we take the time to know who they are as readers and mathematicians but do we know who they are as humans and when they walk in and what are the things they're bringing in with them and how are we starting to make those connections right off the bat. So the first thing we have to know is what what do our students bring with them so then we can talk about how are we going to respond to their needs. Now, some of those needs are based on what is in our guaranteed and viable curriculum. The things that we

080have to make sure every kid gets. That sandbox is designed for us and we have to make sure we know what that is. And that's that first CLT in our buildings, you might call them PLC questions of what do we want all students to know, understand, and be able to do. And then we start to have conversations around that. The next thing that is driving that instruction, those common formative assessments as we're building through that, how are we actually looking at knowing are we getting the data? are they making the learning in small increments that we need them to make? And if not, what does our lesson the next day need to look like? Um, a recent example of that is we had some recent phonics datas where our reading team um our reading um

081team of the reading specialists, our reading um our reading coach came in and met with each of the teams and went through some decent some recent data and said, is this a tier one initial instruction issue? Do we have a lot of students that didn't get this when we need it, or is this something that we can use an intervention, a tier two or something else to address? And as we looked at it, we realized there might be some things we need to redo tier one-wise, which means we go back and teach it more whole group and thinking about what does that look like? And so that's driven by the data that we're given from our students. And so that is what do we know about our kids? What are they telling us? And then

082how do we make those adjustments? How that's done is through those CLTs. So that's that collaborative part where everybody is working together. Um I will the other thing I mentioned in this is over the last few years is that we've had a good deal of new staff. Um, we've had staff members that have retired. We've been we've been bringing them in and then part of what we have to do is when we're doing this is like making sure that there's a common understanding of what are we trying to teach and then having conversations around how we can actually teach it. So, as we incorporate them, we're meeting in grade level teams. Um, I will say we meet at least once a week. Most of our teams meet almost every day. um they're meeting and collaborating

083and talking and that's whether they're with a coach, whether they're with myself, our our counselor meets with them, our instructional coordinator meets with them and they're having conversations about kids in in a variety of ways. Um but they are really driving that through that data, but then part of that conversation is not just what do we know, but how are we actually going to instruct this um and that's where some of those structured autonomy comes in. Um like I said mentioned earlier, we we do have a defined sandbox that guaranteed and viable curriculum. we have to teach these things, but every teacher is also an individual and we have to appreciate that what they bring is unique to them. And if we're asking them to, we don't want to ask them to leave that at

084the door either, just in the way we wouldn't want our students. So, they're going to approach that a little bit differently. So, they do have some autonomy in how they're going to do it. But then we use that data to decide, is it working or is it not working? And then if it's not working for a student, we want to think about what we can do to address that. What kind of interventions can we put in place? A lot of work around tier 2. Like I said, I know some of these other are going to talk about some of those things a little bit more in depth, but at the end of the day, it's really it all is about how well do we know our learners and what are we doing to respond to

085their needs. >> Okay, >> good evening. Uh I'm going to talk a little bit about our tier one work at at the high school. But if you'll remember, if you think back to two years ago, I think we were talking about concerns about science scores and uh what one of and and and what we talked about there was we were really going to we were really dedicating time to going back and looking at um our curriculum and looking at those power standard, those priority standards within uh the the state curriculum framework and and seeing how they line up. And and what we found was our theory of practice at the time was that that by just making some small adjustments, we could we could get some real gains. And last year we we made some

086significant gains in that uh regard. And then one of the so what we did is we replicated that in in all disciplines that this past year. And one of the things that we spend a lot of time doing in our PLC groups is really unpacking the the state standards and looking at how that aligns with our curriculum and looking at what those priority standards are and how that those align and fit into the the work that we're already doing in our in our uh building. And and we we feel like that had a a a large impact on some of the growth and the improvement that we saw this year as well. And and what I think is really great about the the work that we're doing this year is that we really kind of

087had this uh mental model of, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats. And we wanted to go back to make sure that we were having assured assured experiences in all of our classes that were aligned with the curriculum frameworks that were aligned with the state curriculum frameworks and that we have uh that we're implementing universal practices that are good for all kids across all all courses. And so we really spent a lot of time on tier one practices. So best practices uh for kids universally uh and uh really spent a lot of time in our professional development on that. And then one of the things that we we did is Robin mentioned is the the district developed walkthrough tool and and we have we've have found it super useful and and we were an

088early adopter in that regard and have been using it actually since since late first semester and we've dedicated time in our weekly admin team meeting. So we we the entire admin team gets together once a week and we've we've taken uh a portion or sometimes all of that time to do walkthroughs using that tool and we use that tool to um identify um you know the practices that we're seeing in the classroom and we are we're also using it to identify the practices that we're not seeing on a regular basis in in the classroom. And as part of those walkthroughs, we we go in pairs and we we use the the walkthrough instrument. And what we'll do is we'll leave a note for the teacher that usually is is affirming in some way of something

089that we saw that that we we thought is great in a practice that they should continue. We log all of our observations at the end of the observation period in uh in the kick or using the the kickup tool so that we can house all of that data in the same place. And so then as we've done this, you know, week over week, uh, you know, we start to see trends and and so one of the things that we we're doing is using that data to then determine our professional development uh direction uh and and where we need to focus uh our professional development efforts moving forward. Um the the other thing that that uh as Robin said is that but that that with that walkthrough instrument being uh pretty comprehensive, it also gives us

090a pretty good gauge on how we're doing with our SEC seal practices, also how we're doing with our equity practices and and those culturally responsive practices that that that are are going on or or not actually in in our classroom. And I will say like one specific connection. So so that one one of the things that we have noticed actually in already in in using the the tool is that we we um do do a good job with some formative assessment but we we don't necessarily maximize uh using the assessment to drive instruction in the moment. Now some of it could be part of the the tool because we're it's just a snapshot for for the period of time that we're there. But but that's one of the areas that we've really we've are really

091focusing on moving forward. Uh in our november PD day, uh we we Tony Ryel from Adeli Stevenson High School who's kind of the resident expert there and a lot of work around um uh their assessment work and and and working on the idea of making sure that kids have maximum opportunities for practice before they're expected to perform. Kind of the the practice before the game uh model. uh we're having a lot of conversations around that in in our work and that came directly out of some of these observations that we we've made u during our our walkthroughs and our tier one practice of tier one practices. >> Hi. So, I'm going to talk you through um our tier 2 system that we're using at Captain this year. So, obviously this is my first year, but

092I know that they have been working over the past three years to really build up their tier 2 interventions. So our goal with this is just that system that ensures every learner receives that timely targeted support. So we are using screeners to identify our students that need more um from that tier one instruction. So during that um we are trying to identify those students and then launch those interventions right away within that same screening window so that our students get what they need um in a timely manner. We're structuring them in eightweek cycles. um within it it is we can progress monitor the students um so that each week we have a pulse on kind of where they're at and when we need to pivot. Um one thing that we worked really hard on and

093our teachers are absolute rock stars with this because it is one more thing on their plate when they have a lot of students already and those needs that they're trying to meet but that the classroom teacher who is the expert is delivering those tiered 2 interventions instead of um you know other individuals like our TAs and things like that. So that this the teachers who are really um you know resourceful and trained in those areas are delivering those interventions for our students. Um and then another thing that is part of it is that if our students are in tier three when they are released from that tier three instead of just putting them back into tier one and you know really getting rid of those supports we're transitioning them to a tier two so that

094we aren't just you know releasing them and hoping for the best. We it's it's a process. It's a gradual process where we're continuing to monitor monitor and make sure they're still in a good place. And then within that, um, you know, we're having weekly conversations like Patrick mentioned during PLC meetings. And so we're talking our teachers through our tier 2 interventions that they're doing and we're doing, you know, on the site in the moment PD for our teachers. One thing we're also doing this year is walkthroughs in math and ELA. So our teachers are getting to observe their colleagues in the same grade level. They're getting to do some vertical alignment by seeing the grade level before, the grade level after, so they really know where our students are coming from and where they're headed

095to make sure that they're prepared and know where they're going. Um, some celebrations. Uh, we're really excited that most of our students are meeting their goals within one to two cycles of those tier 2 interventions. Um, we're using grade like collaboration. So, for example, um instead of just, you know, me as the classroom teacher being in charge of my interventions, my teammate might be delivering those interventions during their science block. So, we're really using um all hands on deck for this as well. Um the teachers are really taking ownership of these interventions like I mentioned. Um they know their students best and they're able to speak on them. Um and so we're really trying to equip the teachers to have all the resources they need to be able to deliver the interventions. um they are

096flexible, student centered and then we are because of the interventions we're putting in place early, we are noticing that our tier three case loads are decreasing and so they're getting more one-on-one support from the teachers and then the result of that is that we just get faster response to student needs. Um obviously there's always still more work to do and room to grow. Um, so the main thing that we're really working on is making sure that we have tier 2 interventions for any area that is a need is if it's a priority standard that we're providing our teachers with the resources that they need and the support and relying on all of the um experts that we have in our buildings to help us and deliver those and just continue to see the growth from

097all of our students. Thank you. All right, I think I prepared too much for today. All right, so I'm talking about tier three. So tier three, um, so my teammates talked about tier one and tier two. So if you think about tier one, that's our universal what all students receive. And usually after tier one instruction, you have about 80% is what research says that actually is able to master that concept the first time. And then you might have 15% of that 100% that need a little bit more help. So they go move into that tier 2 intervention. And then you have ideally maybe 5% zero to 5% students who need that more intensive targeted support which we call tier three. Um and so new at Glenrich this year is our site intervention team which we

098call the SIT team SIT. So the sit team um this sit team is um a combination of experts from the building. So for the my first two years as principal we would meet uh weekly sometimes bi-weekly and we would just talk about the students that they were servicing for tier three. And it just felt like we were meeting to meeting just talking and with no action and no purpose. And so um that summer before the third year I'm like we need a purpose and we need somewhere to go. we need to talk about tier three. Uh we did RTI training. Uh we went out and did the training and taking action. Chapter 8 talks about developing a site intervention team. And so last year instead of developing the site interventure team and just going full

099throttle, we took the entire year to learn. So we slow down to go fast. So we read the book. Um we looked at um we brought in different resources, taught each other. Um so and then what we found out quickly is that we didn't have enough people on experts on our team. Initially it was myself, my instructional coach, um counselor, ML specialist, and gifted specialist. We then added um all of our reading specialists, math specialist, social worker, gifted specialist, and SSD representative. So now we have representative from all areas in the school. After that, we decided like what is our purpose when we're presenting this to the school? What is our purpose? And so, um, our purpose is to provide equitable targeted support for students facing significant challenges to collaborate as a team to remove

100those barriers to success and to ensure that all students have an opportunity um to thrive academically, social, emotionally, and behaviorally. Um, so this is our first year doing it. Of course, we hit some rocks in the road and we had to refine it. And so now, um, after refining our process, uh, this is how we build our strong foundation. So, um, we had a retreat, backed up a little bit, talked about how it went first semester, and then what we learned, um, is that we needed to make sure that each grade level had a representative that they would be able to talk to from our sit team. So, anytime they're having struggles with students, they have a rep from the SIT team that they can go and consult with. SIT members monitor their PLC agendas

101um for student data trends. So, that so we're catching students early. Um and then if we have students who are not responding to the tier 2 or tier one interventions, then that sit team member is sitting alongside the teacher to fill out the referral form. And when they fill out the referral referral form as a sit team, we all get it. We review it. We meet um we identify this a desired outcome. So the teacher might identify a lot of different outcomes and we try to narrow it down for the teacher. We review everything that's already tried. Um we go to edge climber, look at all the student data. Uh we conduct observations if needed. We gather additional academic um data from specialists, previous teachers um that um had the student and then we have

102like a list of supports that potentially the teacher can initiate in uh for interventions. Um based on that we then set up a meeting. So within two weeks we have a meeting with the teacher and it has all 12 experts around the table as you see in the top right hand corner. All experts are around the table and um the return um referring teacher. All of this is kept in educ. Um so we clarify the concern with the teacher to make sure we understand. We share strategies and then we create a plan with the teacher and then in that plan we don't put it all on the teacher because we have all these experts around the room. So the teacher might have a role, the reading specialist might have a role, the counselor might have

103a role. We decide the frequency and duration and then we set a meeting for to check in right away. Um the outcome of every SIT support meeting is clear action steps, a data collection plan, and then we schedule the meeting. If the student is responding positively to it, we continue the interventions. We just don't throw them back. So if they from tier three, they might go to tier two. Uh we do ongoing monitoring and then the sit representative for their grade level will email the teacher to see how it's going to do check-ins if the student is not responding to the interventions. And then that's when our care team kicks in. Care team is experts again around the table in addition to the parents because they know their students well. Sometimes with the care team,

104we get to the fact where we might have to do a 504, an IEP, we talk about therapy, all those different things um come into play. Um as a result of us having the sit intervention team, we have small groupoup instruction that happens from different grade level teachers during their science times. Um we have peer buddies. So we have fifth graders that are assigned maybe a younger learner to do some SEAL work with our and then um we also have teachers feeling more supported and then we have um increased teacher collaboration because of this um we use evidence-based strategies. We do collaborative problem solving. We have stronger connections between our PLC's and our specialists. And then students are starting to meet their growth targets because of this. Here we go. All right. So, what I

105have up here and what I've put together for this evening is my hope is that illustrates the heart of the work that we're the work that we're doing at Wound around MTSS. As you see like a unified system of where we're going and what we're doing as students go between the different tiers and what we're doing as a building. Um, this is a cycle for continuous improvement with growth for all learners. I will tell you that this work started this summer with tier one when we're really talking about growth um even before the 2025 data came in. This was a conversation that we knew we needed to have. And so we started this summer by meeting with our department chairs, the coordinators, Robin and others who came together to say what is the data and

106where do we need to go? Um so I'll start with science um for tier one. If you ever want to dig into data, sit with two scientists um and they will really get to the heart of things. And what was great about that meeting was and I I attribute this hard work to them is before we got there they had really dug into the questions and over the years that they looked at the data they indicated that we have kind of hit and missed on different standards but had done pretty well but what we were really missing out was the constructed response questions and we call them claim evidence and reasoning questions. Um and if you looked at that consistently across the board our students were not scoring high there. um they were doing fine

107on the selected response and effectively they were doing pretty well um but we weren't really hitting those mark. So the science group took that lead and they said okay we're going to really address this. So they came together as a team they developed checklists to use for kids they develop scaffolds they're using it as their educator plans for growth across the board really diving into that work of what we need to do. So that's a really good example of a tier one. every student is looking for that because every student we want to grow. Not just different groups of students but every student across the board needs to grow when it comes to that. Um we also took that CER and that common language out and tried to look and see what is it doing

108in social studies? How does that look in a social studies class? How does that look in across in other different classes? Because as we know as we use common language across the building, it's easier for kids to know and understand how to do it. And they've even started on their own like using checklists across the curriculum and different things as they work together in their teams, which is great. The other area that we knew that we needed to address was literacy. Um, our ELA scores have not been where they needed to be over the last couple years. And so we knew we had to come together with that. And actually in I guess February of the previous year, we started a literacy redesign um where we really looked at what was happening in fifth grade,

109what was happening in ninth grade, and our our reading and writing at the same rigor and that hitting those guide points across the board. So the teachers all worked independently. We looked to see how many about how many books kids should be reading about how many written essays should be happening and really trying to increase that as we went across the those pieces. But we also know that reading does not just need to happen in literacy. There's no way we can get done what we need to get done if it's just in literacy. So we took on reading as a full buildingwide goal. And as Dr. Patel can tell you, I wanted just to have reading as my goal for my school improvement plan. And I was about there until about September and she called

110me and said, "No, you need to have a math goal, too." So, um, so I went back to my math department. We got a math goal kicking and we were rolling with that, too. But it just shows that we really wanted to focus on reading across the across the building. How are we dealing with non-fiction and social studies? How are we looking at vocabulary and science? How are we doing all these different pieces? Because when you come to take the tests and the different tests, they're not just looking at literature. They're looking at all these different pieces. And so we were leaving a whole bunch of information and learning on the table. We also just looked at reading during pack time. You know, we started off with how many kids were just reading during pack

111time and dedicating reading for individual reading and all those different pieces that we went through. Um and also just a specific framework on non-fiction reading. You know, those are kind of some things that got a little bit left off in literacy. So we tried to bulk it up in literacy and spread it across the board for our elective classes for everything. Part of the work we did on tier one this year with our department chairs is that we all met to talk about what does MTSS mean across the building. What does it look like in health class? What are the reading strategies that you can do in all the different classes? When you're reading an article in speech and debate, what are the ways that we can approach this reading curriculum? Because we know that

112it goes across the piece. Um and then we also looked at just generally um edge a climber on those proficiency scales. So in January we stopped and said, okay, now we have two benchmarks. Who's growing? who's not growing, what do we need to do? And looking at those kids' faces with their their teachers, looking at them to say, "Okay, we're in we're in January. We still have half of a year. Where do we need to go?" So, really taking what was going on um at the district and trying to coordinate it for where we needed to go. Um then you move on to tier 2, and tier 2 at the secondary level is incredibly hard. I think Dan would probably agree um that it's just not something that most secondary teachers are trained in. That's

113not something that they're used to. Um and so to say, okay, go do a tier 2 intervention. There has to be a lot of professional learning around that. So we partnered with the innovation cycles. I asked each of my departments to send a representative to be a lead teacher and they went through that innovation cycles. I also tried to go through the innovation cycles very unsuccessfully. um you did great, >> but um where we actually like went in and tried some tier 2 options with the specific um the coordinators that helped us and then the partnership was just really great to and it was good for me to experience how hard that is. The difference between differentiation and actually tier 2 and it comes down to what Molina has said over and over again is

114do you know your students well and what they can do and if you don't you're never going to get there through tier tier. So we started that capacity building around all of the tier 2 interventions. We're also very lucky that we have what we call a learning center and we have that space for our teachers to teach learning center. So that allowed the space within the day to not only have it happen within the classrooms um but also in this learning center space. So we restructured literacy this year where our literacy teachers worked with our reading specialists to provide I think what Erin or some was talking about like sort of that step down. So, you're done with reading uh in the reading specialist classroom, but before we completely release you, we're going to spend

115some time doing application work with those same reading skills in a tier 2 specializ specialized classroom. Um, and so really again looking at what we're doing and again working with our teachers to know how to teach decoding fluency and some pieces of that which a lot of secondary teachers may not be as familiar with. Um, and then we put into that the specific data driven follow-up. So we meet the literacy and reading specialists meet quarterly together to talk about the specific kids in tier 2. How's it going? Where are we going? How can we press push together um to support these students? We've even had um some former reading specialist uh teachers come back and help work with tier 2 interventions with those literacy teachers and some professional learning because sometimes we assume teachers know

116what they need to do and sometimes they don't know. And so it's like especially when it comes to teaching of reading and the complexity of that, it's so important that we provide the support that we need to because we have amazing teachers. It's just getting to be make sure that they know and feel confident in their own skills. Um lastly, sorry I was talking very fast. Um tier three that intensive intervention. So we and you saw from the scores our math did we did great with our math work last we talked about that. It came to develop on the on the MAP scores as well. So we modeled our literacy intervention in the same way using not only a specialist to teach and work with those high intensity students but also working with our literacy

117teachers to work with those tier 2 and replicate that model of how we're going to how do it. Um, we also are expanding Wilson and SIPS and looking creatively at our schedule so that if Wilson needs to be given every day for 40 minutes, how do we actually give that to a child every day for 40 minutes in a secondary schedule, which can be quite difficult and there's um some differences and balances with it, but we've tried to make it work this year and hopefully we'll see some good returns from that. Um, and then accountability. I know that we've been asked this before by different people, but why aren't we using educ? Well, we're really using edgy climber right now. Um, and so right now we're really trying to track that and as we go

118into transition >> just TO BE I'M PROUD KIM. I'M PROUD THIS YEAR. Um but so this year we have tracked 198 interventions in Educ Climber up to this point which is wonderful and that we're able to actually like click and see which students are making progress which students are on on track which students we need some different kinds of intervention on um and like I said we're about to transition the fifth graders in. So now we're able and even like moving the eighth graders on to Dan. We were having conversations today about what is the needs for reading at the high school and we're able to specifically look at here's the programs, here's where they're scoring. It's all at our fingertips. So we're getting better and better and better at using that data to do

119what we need to do. And then the last thing that we're just starting but I'm really excite excited about is our tier three specialists at the secondary level. So like reading specialist, math specialists, social worker, um are all going to come together around a PLC around the students that they're working with because oftentimes those are the same students that are dealing with a lot of different things besides their academics. So they're going to and we don't have a structured way for them to meet. So we're trying to build that in as we move forward this semester because that that group will be able to share sort of what's working, what's not working, and where we need to go. So all of this to say like the reason why the other part up there that was

120really been a focus for us this year is that this is not siloed work. It's all together but really um it's based around that honest and vulnerable conversations. Um at Woundown we've talked about this a lot this year that we have to really start confronting those brutal facts of where we are and where we need to grow. Um and we have to be able to do that by really like addressing the reality in front of us while also saying that if we have faith if we do this right we will see improvement. And I know that's the the Jim Collins good to great quote, but I really do believe it. And and so we've invited Tabari Coleman in to work with us on several different um professional learning days to really teach us how to

121have those vulnerable conversations around discipline, around eth um race and ethnicity and all different things we do around academics. Um when you're working with the PLC with people, like what are some things we can learn and what are the elephants in the room that we need to address? Um, so we're hoping that through all of these pieces that when we sit here again next year, we'll see some of those movements and growth for all of our learners, not just our students, but our teachers as well. >> So, I know this is a long presentation that we that that we give every year. Um, but I think it replicates what I was talking about with the continuous improvement part of the MP6. It's the story behind the work. Um and and I think you can see

122the passion that these educational leaders have um in working with the children that are in their care uh each and every day. So what questions do you have for us? >> Thank you. I just want to respond to yes, it's a long meeting every year, but I think we all appreciate hearing from each of you because just hearing about the data isn't really helpful without understanding the context like what you're doing with the data. So, thank you all for being here and making a long day and a late night to do that with us. Um, but I will open it up to the board for questions on any of that. >> I think everybody probably has some questions. Who would like to start? >> Huh? >> Are you sure? >> I'll start with Ben. >>

123Um, good evening. Um, thank you all. That was a lot of great information and uh um I guess one of the things that came to mind was something that Dr. Knight said around uh teacher kind of their load um which I you know uh is is significant. Um so how maybe I could ask a question anyone could respond. How do we ensure that that we kind of have that right balance of of instructional time all these other things that we're asking of them? I know one thing that we just we're working on as our admin team is and I kind of alluded to this, but like it shouldn't just be on the certified teachers and staff. Like we have a lot of highly qualified individuals in the building and making sure we're sharing that load.

124Um whether that means um you know I'm working with fifth grade and so during a certain period of time when they're working with small groups I'm pushing in and helping with tier one at that point. um we're relying on, you know, even our edte specialist because he was a certified teacher, we're having him push in and do different things. So, um I think obviously time is always something that we can't create more of, but just getting creative with it and using all of our resources in the building so that our teachers know that we are all in for all kids and that doesn't just mean that it's not just defined by, you know, your role, but that we're all there for all the kids. I think it it's also those places where we maybe were

125redundant with staff and and thinking differently about ways to maximize that. So like the science block is a good example at the elementary school where we were the classroom teacher was pushing into science. Um and you have a certified teacher teaching science. So we had a lot of hard conversations about where when does that make sense and when does it make sense to have that teacher the classroom teacher go somewhere else um and support in that way and that's not a uniform decision across every grade level but it's conversation to have to say sometimes redundancy is important and sometimes it's not. Also, real quick, I think with this one, your question would remind me of is actually where you're in the process of doing some interviews. Um, and today one of the candidates was we

126were talking and one of the candidates mentioned something and it's kind of coming from another district. I'm not going to go into in depth on much of that, but one of the things they said was they were reaching out to Clayton partly because they've heard from other people who were here how some of those things are taken care of. And I think and one of the things Molina brought up in this conversation was it's not just are building. But there's also like basically was saying you're gonna have to get used to seeing central office people in there. Um because it is a it's it's a whole system approach and whether that's a a central office administrator coming in and working directly with the teacher, whether that's coming over and doing recess duty, uh you know,

127so like it's all those kinds of things that as you know it takes that it is a full village. And do I think it's a constant balance? Yeah. Do I think we're always 100%? No. Um it's a hard job and we know it and our teachers are tired and I'll tell you right now there's times throughout the year. >> This is one of those times right now through conferences. I'll just tell you in the classrooms this uh October, late October, early November and then late February, early March are the times where you feel it. Um and especially as you're getting ready for parent teacher conferences. And so some of those things as they're coming up, it's it's there are certain times of the year. But I think it's important for us as the leaders in

128the building to know that part of our job is to take care of the the adults as well. >> Yeah. >> And I and I would add one one thing. I think it's partially about building the the culture and and and letting people know that it's okay to be vulnerable that that we don't expect you to always have all the answers all the time. And and your your bag of tricks may not work with every kid. and and so we have resources and we have other adults in the building that that are there to support kids and support you. Um and and that it's it's okay to ask for help. Um and and and just because I think a lot of times people um maybe embarrassment is the wrong term, but but uh feel like,

129you know, it's their job and they really want to own it and and and they're sometimes um at least at secondary level like afraid to ask for assistance. That's excellent. Thank you. Um I was kind of thinking of another thing. Uh it sounds like we have we do have a lot of platforms. Um but it also sounds like we are moving towards more of a unified system for the MTSS. Do we have a name for that? Do we like >> Edgimber is our educ? >> So it sounds like there's there integrations that are kind of evolving and pulling data into there that work. >> Yeah. So the the data in edge of climber comes from sort of multiple places. It comes from the assessment places. It comes from from powers school from our from our

130SIS and then it comes from what we enter manually. >> Okay. um in there. And then the the piece that Robin talked about with Kickup is the so that's a professional development platform that we use, but we've expanded our use to be able to integrate this idea of this walkthrough tool and to be able to have longitudinal data to respond to um across the system as well as like within a site. >> Um so those I would say are our two big systems that are operating our MTSS process right now. >> Okay. Okay. Um and then You mentioned longitudinal uh assessment. I was curious how do we look at like different kind of I don't know maybe like tranches of students and their performance. So you know I I I get that we look at

131um cohorts year-over-year how they compare to each other but how do we ensure that we're looking at u that same cohort and how they're progressing and then how do you slice that a little bit in in in different different ways to see that the growth is is is happening at all levels. >> Yeah. So the um the the data visualization piece within edge of climber is the piece that really helps us to do that. Um and so when we committed to moving into that platform, we also committed to moving five years of longitudinal data into the system. So old data and then we continue to add new data um within. And so there are a couple different ways for us to be able to look at that. Um there's one report that probably is is

132maybe our one of our favorite reports and some people call it the swooshy report, but it it's um it's basically a longitudinal piece to to be able to look at points in time and what the progress of that group has looked like so that we know and when it's it's a dynamic tool in the sense that you can see visually what's happening with a cohort group of students, but then you can also when you hover over it, it gives you specific like drill down more information and then you can continue to click into it to get further and further until you're at the student level. Um, and then the data walls that we build within there, they look essentially like spreadsheets. Um, and then we have made determinations on how to color code them so

133that people don't have to remember what like a 175 means on a particular test. The color coding is very specific um, for us. And so red meaning essentially below basic, yellow basic, green proficient, and blue advanced. you can see really quickly across a student, so a line or down a column across a class to be able to make instructional decisions. So those two pieces within and then the piece that Robin talked about with the 3D >> is the piece that like really kind of brings it home because like I've always loved the 3D, but I've had to help my team like start to love it. um because it's not it's a little clunky but when you do it like you see the faces of the children um and that's like what reminds us of of

134like this is the purpose of our work like we exist as a system only because of these kids. >> Um and so for us to know like who they are and who we're talking about it it that creates a very different kind of conversation um than when you're just looking at numbers. Um, it's it's sort of easy to forget who you're talking about when you're looking at numbers. When the faces are there, it's much more like I'm talking about this child and and what what's the influence that I'm going to have on that child as well. >> Um, I think that's it for me for now. Um, I'll start off with a comment that kind of mirrors back some of what Melinda said at the beginning, but I think it's worthwhile to mirror it back

135from the other side of the table, which is there are a lot of I I just want you to understand, know that I understand that there are a lot of weaknesses and challenges with this data. I get it. I understand that these are imperfect measures. They're just the measures we have and they're important because they they're what we have. Um the most interesting part of these presentations to me was a couple comments I heard and I want to see if I understand them right. Difficult conversations about what an intervention means and the challenges of identifying tier 2 uh what two tier 2 intervention is at the secondary level. And I wondered if you could, you know, expand on that a little bit because it's I think you're barking up the right tree. I think you're

136talking about the right thing. And I'd just like to hear a little more about that that challenge. So when we think about intervention at the tier 2 level, I think the reason that it's so messy is because tier one is like everybody gets it, right? And tier three, I think people understand it at a level of you go to a specialist in a lot of ways, right? So tier two has always been super messy because sometimes a specialist is involved and sometimes a coach is involved and sometimes the classroom teacher is involved and PLC's are really involved and so it it's hard to define. It's especially hard to define at the secondary level because no one trains a secondary teacher how to do a a how to pull a small group, let's say, right? So,

137in general, when you go to school to become an elementary teacher, you learn how to to pull a small group or how to do a writing conference or something like that or do some like do some leveled reading, something like that. But as as secondary teachers, those aren't generally parts of the pedigogy that you're trained on. And so, that was a big conversation that we had this year. And that's why those conversations are really difficult because we said, "What sort of training do we need to do?" And that's what Jamie was alluding to, which is so great and how she's so vulnerable, right? Is she did the training with us, right? And then she went in and she tried a tier 2 intervention um you know with students and we all did. I went in

138and tried a tier two intervention with students. Mine also didn't go great. So so it was it's just really hard to intervene while the rest of the classes there at a secondary level because there are so many more students and also because um it just isn't something that feels natural. And so one of the conversations that we had with a secondary teacher um at WY Down was I don't know what will the other kids think? And so we said let's just try it. and we we talked about ways to word it and he did it and all the other kids didn't care, right? So like they just they really didn't. So he pulled kids, he gave them what they needed, everybody moved on with their life. And so it's just helping to understand those sorts

139of things too. And Jamie, I don't know what you want to add to that. >> It's similar what you said. Whoops. What you said is exactly the background of what we're trying to do and where we're trying to really figure it out is like um basically like you have to really know those kids on a specific standard. So, like when people say, "Oh, I I use this exit ticket and the kids don't understand dividing fractions, so I'm going to do a do now for everybody about dividing fractions." Well, that's not a tier 2 intervention. That's a retach, right? So, and the problem with retaching is that it takes time away from moving forward for the kids who already have it. You know what I mean? But at the same time, so we're we're trying to

140move away from that. The other thing we do is like offer a whole bunch of different scaffolds, right? That's what I did wrong when I did it. um is that like I I was doing a CER lesson and I had a whole bunch of scaffolds. Well, I didn't know the kids well enough and they guess who what scaffolds they picked, you know, in terms of like what level they wanted. Kids were picking the wrong ones and didn't know what they were doing. So, or we've been taught a lot about differentiation, but that's also not tier 2. So, at the middle school level specifically, there's a lot of concern around will the kids know which groups are being pulled and the impact onCAL and how does that work? So, it's really trying to figure out all

141those different parts and people feeling confident in how to do it, but we're just not as trained in small group, you know what I mean? And then there's the there's also the cost and I think Dan at the high school probably is more as like moving through the curriculum versus going through and reteing. So, um there's just a lot of it's it's just really hard. Um so, I think that it's just going to be more and more training as we learn how to how to get better at that because what the elementary were saying, which I think is right, is like teaching in the minute, right? Like so one of the things we're also working on at white on is the common formative assessments and so we we've constructed these data team meetings and we

142learned from first semester as we entered into second semester that like those inter when we get done with the data team meetings it's not a meeting about the test. It's not a meeting about the validity of this question or we need to put more answers. It's actually like based on this standard these specific students need this these specific students need that and what is that intervention plan. Um but then you have to actually do it right. So there's multiple years and steps in learning all of this. Um, and I think the teachers are doing amazing and like trying to figure it out and work on it in real time through real PLC work. Um, but it is it is probably one of the most complex things that I've known coming through education in my years.

143>> I think also we we've been trying to pilot some so Robin and I coach all new to the district teachers and so one of the pieces that we've been trying to work with is like that's a captive audience. So, we're going to take you to an elementary classroom and we're going to spend like a couple hours in an elementary classroom seeing what that looks like. So, like how do they pull the groups? What are they doing with groups? Um because it is such a natural part of the elementary process. Um, and so the we've done it with some literacy teachers and it's been really like they've come back with like, "Oh, now I have an idea of what this looks like." Because we can talk about it in theory all day long, but when

144they see it in practice with children and they hear what the teacher is saying and how it sounds different with different groups and everything like that, then they they seem to have a different kind of confidence to try it on um and and see what it looks like. And then we bring the coordinators in to do a coaching cycle to say, "Okay, now you've seen it. Now we're trying it. Now let's really make those those like strong instructional decisions to decide what are the data and the information that we're using to inform what is the next step with a smaller group of of students. And so we've seen some success with that also. Um and it's it's just sort of a small component of of the bigger work that we're trying to do. I >>

145I also want to jump in. One of the things that I'm learning around it too is that one of the one of the goals that we need to work on at Wound Down is when I say growth for all students, it's growth for all students, right? Like so oftentimes we talk about the kids who just knew tier two or tier three, but it really is growth for all students. So every minute in the classroom is valuable. So the more you're doing consistent reteing of standards and things that the students already know that's wasting that time as well. So in a small group, you may be able to work on a targeted instruction with these kids and then extend when you meet with the next group or do something different with the next group. So every

146child's getting what they need. It's just if you think about it, you're planning multiple lessons within one lesson. So you really have to come together as a PLC to like help design that. And you just are going to over time be able to do more and more of it because as you guys think started like one priority standard at a time and then you just build on it and build on it and build on it as you move forward. Thank you for all of that. That was No, it's great. And um I'll just reiterate I think, you know, I really appreciate this kind of thinking and I think you're thinking in the right direction with this stuff. Um my next question was going to be about English or literacy, but I think you gave a

147really good explanation of that. um you mentioned focusing on the student group and particularly the black students within the student group. I just want to ask, you know, what is what does that focus look like for you guys over the next year? >> I think a big piece sense of belonging. It's a focus. Um and then at Glen Ridge is reinstating our equity committee. Um, we had an equity walkthrough. Um, and we had glowing grows from last year to this year for um, district officials who walked through our building last year in comparison to this year. But continuing on with equity walkthroughs, not just doing it once a year, but maybe doing it once a semester and building on that and using that data to make informed decisions, but then also u reinstating our equity

148committee so we can um, be more intentional when we talk about culturally responsive teaching and then the sense of belonging. Um, and then in interviews for the for Robin's position. Um, you know, you always learn too from the candidates and one thing that they talked about is taking the academic data and comparing it to our sense of belonging data. So, that's exactly what we're going to do. I brought it back to Glen Ridge. So, we're going to I'm going to sit down with my instructional coach and we're going to look at our academic data from NWA and STAR and compare it to our sense of belonging and see if there's a correlation. >> Okay. Thank you. And thank you guys. Oh, go. Oh, no. I I I just want to add we're doing a lot

149a lot of the same things, but I one of the things that that we've been working on for a couple years at one of our school goals is this idea of of removing barriers particularly to honors and AP classes actually for African-American students because we know that uh we we've actually made a significant amount of progress, but the the demographics of our our school building don't necessarily aren't necessarily reflected in our honors and AP classes. So what and we've learned a lot actually in in that work because one of the things that we uh our theory of practice was okay we're going to remove the barriers we're going to identify those barriers and then that'll solve our problem. And so what happened was we went to open enrollment in some places and the problem got

150worse actually. And and and and and part of the reason was because when we remove when we removed the the gatekeeping mechanisms uh that in some cases uh non-affrican-american kids went into those courses that that wouldn't have typically gone into those courses that the African-American students didn't just naturally decide to go to those courses. And so what we we what we were doing and and are doing now is just being very intentional when we look at data profiles of kids and actually doing personal invitations and having like adults say, "Hey, I think you can do this." And talking to parents and saying, "I I think that you're a great candidate for this." And we've had a lot more success doing that than we have just like going going open enrollment and kind of throwing open

151the the gates. Um so that that's one thing that we're is a work in progress that we're working on right now. But we've also really worked on the the sense of belonging idea and and one of the things that we've done to kind of address that and are continuing to do is that we have the Academy of School Success with Shandra Brown and and an outside facilitator where we're engaging uh African-American students and parents around academic college readiness skills, executive functioning uh skills, and they and they meet uh weekly and and have a an affinity group where they they get together. We also have affinity spaces for our African-American boys and and and girls uh that are facilitated by outside facilitators and some uh internal African-American staff. Um one other thing I I just want

152to give her a shout out. We've been talking about the the the whole idea the sense of belonging. We we give the Panorama survey and we know what kids are are reporting low sense of belonging and and the question is is why or what what what do we do about it? And I I got to give her credit. Dr. divorce said, "Well, I'm just going to ask the kids." Actually, I'm like, "Actually," and and so um she kind of took the initiative of like actually sounds crazy, you know, like like actually and and and so she invited a group of kids, literally got African-American staff members together and and and it was just come have lunch with us, let let's talk. And she literally started with the panorama data and said, "Okay, that this is

153the panorama data for the building. this is African-American kids actually like the the sense of belonging is lower. Why is that? And they had this really amazing robust conversation. And she said, "What what do we do about it?" And like the kids had all kinds of ideas. Um like and and and uh so now we've got they're going to have weekly meetings and they're they they're they like after one meeting they've got all these action steps that they're they're they're going to do, but it's all about building the connection to the the school environment and and the individual students sense of belonging. Now, we can also then because of Edge of Climber, we we know who those kids are with the panorama data and we can cross reference the the the academic data with it

154as well. So, um, I just wanted to give her a shout out because she was very excited when she came back. And I'll be honest, I didn't even know she was doing it actually. And and, uh, we we have got a lot of traction and and a lot of folks like very excited about this and kids very excited about it in in a short time. And this literally has come about in the past few weeks and uh, um, so I'm excited. I'm really excited to see where it goes. >> Thank you. And thank you all for the presentation. Um, I wanted to ask Nina if you had any questions. >> I actually did have one question. So, everything you guys shared was amazing, but I was wondering, especially for like the fifth and eighth grade

155students who are kind of about to go through a transition, how do you make sure the students, especially in those like tier two and three groups, get kind of like consistent support like through the transition so they're not kind of like shocked when they enter, you know, like a whole new school? We just well for from fifth grade to sixth grade uh we have a lot of meetings a lot of meetings. Um >> we have a lot of meetings. So therefore >> so we have IEP meetings and we invite the white out team to the IEP meetings for students from fifth grade to sixth grade. We do the same thing for our 504 meetings and then the district math coordinator and literacy coordinator meet with the teachers as well to get a a picture of

156where students are. Um and then the counselor also meets with the counselor. The we also take a certain group of kids over to white down to have um like special time with the counselor and lunch and things like that for transition. And then the principles we meet again in June. we meet and go over again students and we talk about um just the needs that they have and where they ended up at the end of the year. So we do a lot of talking and a lot of meetings with different people um throughout the school and I will say over the years both meetings on either side over the years both meetings on either side have really uh developed based around data. So like when we talk about the intervention classes specifically like I can

157pull up the the I will start the meetings with a spreadsheet that says these are the kids that we think are should come and then then you use the teachers information and input to determine exactly what the need are. So and then we do the same thing up at the high school. >> I think the other piece is what what educ has done for us is you know we piloted the first year tracking tier three interventions. This year it's consistent K8. Um, so at those transition points, sometimes a teacher, a receiving teacher doesn't know what information they need until, you know, three weeks into the school year or whatever and those meetings have already happened. So the system allows you to go back to be able to say, so what are the things that that

158were put in place for this student and what has worked and what hasn't worked. So all of those things are in there to say like if we had an intervention that didn't work, we abandoned it and why did we abandon it? So don't try it again. um a and the the systems the interventions that did work. Let's let's replicate those pieces where it makes sense. Um so I think that piece is consistent. So the high school is now going to inherit a class that has um that data for the first time. So now across the system um there's that information so you don't have to restart with a student. >> Great question. >> That's a great question. Um, okay, Chris. >> Um, okay. I'll start out by saying I always look forward to this meeting

159every year. I'm sure it's very difficult for you guys, but the work that you put into it is really helpful to us and what I want to say about that is that we maybe don't do as a board good enough job of celebrating the fact that, you know, 90% of the stuff in this report is beyond amazing. Um, you know, it's just fantastic. what we do here and we've continued to get better every single year in my opinion in terms of how we address our learners on so many different levels both academic social etc. So I just continue to be more more impressed with all of you. So thank you for all of that. I just want to start out by saying fantastic work. Um my spe some of my specific questions have been um

160asked by one of them by a student. Um but let me just sort of maybe a big picture question first. Um, I'm sure Melena, you got the questions that I sent in today. Sorry about that. Um, but when we look at charts on page seven, that chart is the comparison of 2025 district data to state data as NPI and we look at total population versus student group. It you had a slide on it. One of your first slides had this. So just talk about what you think as educators because you've been doing this so long and you've thought about this for so long as you mentioned in your presentation. What are the factors that play into that? And um I'll say that one of the things that I'm wondering um that may play into that

161and what your response would be is how learners are coming to us, what point they're at when they come to us if they start in kindergarten grade, but even if they don't. Um are our student group populations coming to us without the background that other our other, you know, our total population tends to have? And what can we do about that? Because we're just the district, right? I'm not the city. I'm not the mom. You know what I'm saying? We all have to address this problem, right, Terita? But as a school level, what can we do? Um, and I'll go on further to say, you know, especially with reading. Um, you know, what are we going to do with those K through three kids who need more time learning to read? Can we prioritize it

162over not math maybe, but social studies and science? um doing the 40 minutes on the Wilson, etc. Those kinds of things seem to be addressing that reading right away. Is that going to end up helping us on page whatever was our last one about where they end up in 12th grade? >> Um just speak to that. And I know it's messy because some kids come in fifth grade, right? Some kids come in eighth grade, right? So, it's complicated, but um I want us to really think about and tell tell me if you've thought about and what what would be the challenges or the you know about having kids that really need it in those pre-st key stage one really getting more instruction in reading because then it's the basis for all their learning in all

163the pre, you know, upcoming grades. >> Yeah. So, I I think you're saying what we're doing. >> Okay. Yeah. So, so it it it is that piece and I I I I think all of us recognize that that >> children come to us as they come to us and it's our job to to address their needs. And so that's why my big mantra is knowing our learners well and responding to their needs because what little Melina needs and what little Robin needs are completely different. >> Even what Big Molina needs and Big Robin needs. Um but but so so it it is that piece of like we have over the past like year and a half two years dedicated our energy to like talking about individual students and and what needs to happen and sometimes

164that means that we're having hard comments. Terita and I just had a conversation the other day about a child who's who's struggling as a reader and made a very difficult decision about what instructionally was going to happen for that child. And it's exactly what you're talking about. we have to look outside sometimes of of what we traditionally um have sort of seen as acceptable to be able to say we cannot continue to send this child on um without you know triple dipping sometimes and and and everything like that. So I I do really truly believe that that these leaders are having the hard conversations and they're coming to us to check like like help me calibrate this like am I thinking about this correctly? Um I I I can look at every single one of

165these people around the table and say we have had at least one oftentimes many hard conversations about individual children and the fact that like I know these children's names and and I know the children as as a human um I think speaks to to what Patrick talked about about sort of our system approach um of like when I'm in a classroom and I see like I don't have to say who is that child. I I know because we've talked about the child. I've been in the class. We we've worked through it and and I mean some of these conversations have been really painful and we don't know because we have a theory of practice that we operate from and we think it's going to make a difference and the like Patrick and I have celebrated

166a couple recently because it's like we made a really hard decision that we agonized over and to see this child then flourish in a classroom is like that's why we do our work. Um, so when when I think about different identity groups and everything like that, um, yes, we talk about identity groups as a whole, but I've really been pushing our team to to not even talk like that, but to talk about individual children. >> Um, and and to think about it in in those ways. Um, because I I think what we've realized is that like we we can't make systemic change um in this way. When you look at our systemic data, it looks good. >> Yeah. >> Right. And and then when you unpack it, there's like still things that we need to

167work on. And I think we've figured out that that has to happen at the individual level and not at a because they're a part of this identity group. This is what we should do. >> I love it. >> So, and the the the reading programs and those kinds of things, you and I have had conversation meant for many years about those kinds of things. I think we have changed significantly our philosophy of like what is in our teachers toolkits >> to be able to address that. I think all of us would agree that getting a child to be able to read um and still love reading um at the same time. So like that's a that's an important balance for us of like it's not just about decoding words. Yeah. It's about we still have

168to build a love of reading >> um so that they're going to continue to to do that. But I think we would all agree on that. And the the amount of training and sort of diversifying of training that we've done over the past like three to five years I think has been pretty significant. week. We even had a conversation about like what the what the training looks like there because Dan's about to inherit kids who have supports that haven't necessarily traditionally been supports that we've used at the high school. And so, how do we make sure that that can still happen in that structure? >> That's huge. I just want to add two real quick things specifically and actually one of them I know Molina is thinking of the same kid I am because we

169just saw this recently and they're one and this is a little girl who will I she's going to be in that subgroup and will probably be in there next year because the growth that she's making isn't necessarily going to show up in there. um but it was so far behind. But just recently we watched her get called on by somebody who didn't know any different and she went up to the board and was able to teach the class about her mathematics assess assignment. >> Awesome. >> We were >> and so you've got adults and is is it going to show up in this? No. But as it the amount of growth >> there >> is something that it's you it's hard to actually put a measurement on because like it we all like kind of

170st we were all nervous but she went up there and it was and it was great but she did it and you and I will say or the other side of this is students who have these reading things but they also may be for one reason or another unable to get things like medication and we then work with families to figure out how do we get that? How do we make sure we get whatever that takes? Yeah. >> It might be that that's what's actually missing in their ability to take in the reading that's being delivered to them. >> So, we can say, is it a reading program? Yes. But if we stop right there and think, well, it's just like it's they're not formulas. It's not if you just do x plus y equals

171z, we have to think, well, what is it that we're missing? >> Um, you know, that that this kid may need that we have to think outside the box. And honestly, when we think about a difference between say an RTI framework or an MTSS framework or when Trees talk about care teams, that's the piece that sometimes is missing is it's not it's not just a science. These are complex things and it's there's a part to it where you have to get to know them on a human level. >> That's fantastic. Couldn't have answered it any better. Um, my next question is, um, IAP. We almost never hear about that. Am I right? Am I crazy? >> Um, >> you as parents or you as the board? >> Both. >> Okay. >> Both. So, I just

172want to sort of, um, and it's barely talked about in here, right? And it's fine because it's not really it's just mentioned because it's something that is has to happen by you know but I again we're everything we do is to make sure that those students go on to um you know be successful at whatever they choose to do in life and um I just wonder what you think of I mean it's mandatory so what you think of the system how it's used like do you think there's um things that we can do as a district to uh make it even better and Um, are you am I missing it as a parent that I don't hear about it? >> No. So, um, so Jason Thompson, the the counseling coordinator and I literally had this

173conversation yesterday. >> Yes. >> So, um, so the the piece and and I'm the one who hounds the counselors at the middle school. So, the eighth grade the the official place for the IAAP to start is is in eighth grade. Um, and so he so because we report it through core data, I startounding at the beginning of the year and then I come back and I'm like, well, how are we doing with the IAPS? Because I know what percentage we need to to have done. So, um, he and Jenny Todd and I met recently to talk about reboot rebooting the IAP process for the entire district. The state is looking at starting them earlier, um, so thinking about starting in sixth grade um, to really start to have those conversations. The other conversation that Jason

174and I had was um how are the parents aware of IAPS and came to the realization that parents are not aware of IAPS partially because parents have told me that they're not aware of the IAP. Um and and so um so we actually met with Luke yesterday to talk about what's the best way to get the IAP to the family once it's developed um in 8th grade. So we're working on that now um to be able to start that and then what does that look like moving through the high school. Um, so there is a system through the state of Missouri that we have not historically used which actually may make the lift a lot easier um for us to do. And so we're exploring that piece. But in the interim um we're working with

175Luke to figure out once the IAP is written in 8th grade, how do we get it to the families um so that they're aware of of the conversation that has initially taken place with the counselor and then what's the longitudinal piece um through the high school. we've toyed with the idea of putting it into edge climber. >> Um the challenge with that is that the there's not a studentf facing side of of edge climber. And so while that would be good as far as like for us to maintain like a longitudinal record of it, the IAAP the purpose of the IAAP really is for the child. >> Um and so we so we've abandoned that idea and so are moving to sort of thinking through what does this Missouri platform look like um to to

176sort of help with that functioning. That's fantastic. Great. Um, last but not least, I just want to reiterate, you guys did a really good job of um, honing in on something that I have been seeing as a as a board member and like as I've watched these presentations, something has really um, clicked in in me that you said tonight and I'm very excited about it, which is that that sense of belonging should be um, looked at at the same time as our academic achievement scores. Um, you know, I just, you know, no kids are is going to feel great about where they are if they're not really feeling successful in their classes. And so combining these different data sets and doing this supports and systems. I really like that one because it it's it only

177makes sense because then we can individualize based not on all of the pieces of the puzzle. So um I'm really excited to see where what what happens once we really start looking at those two pieces together. I think we could make some huge progress on sense of belonging. I think that's amazing. So great work. Thank you for everything. >> All right, the back half. Uh um well, first of all, I just want to congratulate the team on on overall a good report. So congratulations on another strong year and and all the good things. So um I'll pick up quickly on where Chris left off and and commenting on including the equity data and everything into educ. I think that's a great step. You know, every year Melena, you remind us we're not talking about numbers.

178We're not talking about statistics. We're talking about individuals. That's true. And my push back is, it's not really push back as I guess at this point. My concern has been that we miss trends that might inform choices that we make as a system by focusing too much on the micro and not looking at the macro. So, I appreciate that we're doing this. Um, this will be my version of the ELA question that go around the table here. So, um, I really appreciate the sense of urgency around this. I think there's not anyone sitting at this table or in this room that doesn't care deeply about this. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't be in this room to begin with. Uh, my my impression listening to you guys was that we're trying a bunch of stuff, all really

179good stuff, uh, but we're trying a bunch of stuff because of that sense of urgency. how how close do we feel like we really have it whatever it is in order to move the needle from a growth perspective right so like if you look at page I don't know what I emailed about page 16 I think it was of the 15 and 16 thank you Dr. Pam uh um you know like how close are we to moving the needle on those those red squares particularly in the ELA column with what we're doing now? >> So um I'll I'll start and then let you go. So from a from a system lens um I think this goes back to something that Robin was talking about about the deliberate infusion of professional learning with um with what

180we see within the data. Um and so our at the elementary level our theory of practice is helping all teachers to be trained in letters. Um and so we all of our elementary classroom teachers at this point have done volume one of letters which we are seeing an impact than on um instruction within reading from at a decoding level. Um so children being able to decode um differently than they have been able to decode before that doesn't necessarily address the comprehension part. Um and so so the deliberate focus on comprehension, but we have prioritized the decoding sort of a as a as a place to start um and really get some systemic movement there. And I think we're seeing evidence of that within our local data um right now um and a and with our

181youngest learners. And so we're not going to see that within state data um for a little while um because you know they're not assessed we don't assess until the till the beginning of third grade. So I I I think that's a that's a piece. Um the other piece is the the big sort of vulnerable conversations at the middle school um related specifically to the volume of reading and writing that we're doing. And so I've I've brought this up a couple times that that like that is really important to us. Um and infusing with that an understanding that the teachers have of the data to feel that same sense of urgency that we as leaders are are feeling. Yeah, I I think Melina said it perfectly, but really looking at like how the time reading and

182the time writing, like real authentic writing, essay writing, uh argumentative writing, narrative writing, like looking at forms of writing and how are we scoring them as they go up and then also just the amount of time reading. Most of you have had middle schoolers go through. So like how much time are they actually reading and what are they doing with the texts and how many texts are we getting through? Um, and then like I said, as I said earlier, like really expanding that outside of just the literacy classrooms. Um, we have also seen some good growth um, from the STAR test from fall to winter for our tier 2 students. Um, so hopefully we'll see that transcribed onto the MAP test. Um, but I do believe that like we really looked and said, okay, and

183we actually have a meeting in two weeks with some fifth grade teachers at Captain where you know what how many books are they reading as fifth graders? How what types of books? We know that complexity moves up, right? So it's not one for one, but at the same sense, we want to make sure that we are holding those same standards. And what we sometimes find, it was Nina, >> you know, when they talk about going to middle school, everyone's like, "Oh, it's so hard." But sometimes what we find is they can do a lot more in fifth grade than we're expecting them in sixth grade. And then, you know what I mean? Like, so really making sure that we're real curricularly tied together um between fifth, 6th, 7th, 8th, and then into ninth. um where

184I know that they have the writing program and different things, but to make sure that those are really clear so that the kids are prepared as they move forward. So that's sort of what I do believe that work will be our biggest bang for our buck as we move forward. >> And then this is it's sort of a technical question as to how I should read this entire report. H how I should have asked this just in advance but like on page 25 there's the star um projected students projected growth from fall 25 to winter 25 like h how should I as a board member think about the numbers on this table? >> So that's similar to what we presented in the fall that we don't feel good about those numbers. Um, so like when

185when you look at, you know, sort of in the 50% is meeting projected growth, that that doesn't feel good to us. The the one caveat that I would say with that is like the way that I make this data clean for you Yeah. is to say it's literally if there's a delta or not a delta. >> Understood. >> And and as students age up in the system, those those like how the discrepancy between growth is is many fewer points. But I think to like we talked about it in the fall. This is part of what we said is like the urgency across the system around growth is like this doesn't feel good. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> So I think you would read it the same way we would. >> Okay. All right. I just

186want to and I'm sorry I probably asked those questions a little bit out of order what I should have but I just want to make sure because I was reading I just want to make sure I understood that right. Okay. Thank you. I guess the last thing I just want to say is you know you guys said a few times like we're you know we're here for the kids. Um and I appreciate all that. I think it's also worth mentioning like the kids are here because of you guys, right? Like parents choose to move into this district because of all the good things that we just heard about for the past like almost two hours at this point, right? And so, you know, I just want to say, you know, finish off by just saying

187thank you for another good year, another strong report, and and we all appreciate the work that you do. >> It's my last meeting. >> No, so I want to echo first what Molina said. So I, you know, Melina said I'm proud to be a part of this team. I am also proud to be on the outside watching this team as I have. This is my sixth time hearing your presentation on the board and I heard it a couple years sitting in the audience before I came on the board and then crazily decided to come on the board anyway. Um, so what I what I think I'll say just from a macro perspective, having seen this evolve through the years, and it's evolved a little bit through both the makeup of the board, the makeup of

188the leaders at the schools, right? We've had a change in leadership across almost every elementary school except Wound, the high school, and Marramac. Um, and we've had changes except for Melena. We've had I mean, and and they've all been positive. Change is good, right? I mean, so I mean, so, so change is good. Me going off the board, change is going to be good. Um, you know, and I think what I what I've heard tonight, which is great, is that you try some things, they don't work. You don't keep trying the same things over and over again. Um, and then you try some new things. And, and then I think everybody's already said it that you teach individual students. you don't teach uh necessarily to a you know a specific demographic or a co cohort

189but we also know what gets measured gets done um and what gets measured gets funded and all of those other things right so we are a public school we are hold held to certain standards and whether we like those standards or not we we we're accountable to those standards so yeah some of the data in the in the document which you guys rightfully acknowledge isn't the greatest. Um, so but it sounds like you are working to try to move that needle in the right direction, which I acknowledge. Um, one of the questions that I had and I think we've kind of gotten a sense of what the answer may be, but I'm just going to ask it more directly because you guys know that's who I am. Um so the question that I have is

190do you feel like as you guys are implementing these tier one, tier two, tier three interventions, trying to come up with common definitions, common language of what is tier 2, how do you implement tier 2 and tier three at the um secondary level when it's not traditionally been a strength of teachers classically trained? Do you feel like practices are consistent across all of the elementary schools today? um so that they're all arriving to you at the at the middle school. So, it's probably a two two-part question. Are practices consistent across how you've implemented this across all three elementary schools? Yes or no? Or were there differences? And are you guys learning about who's doing things better or worse? And then the second is um you know if if I would think that you guys you

191see that the most when those students come to you, right? So the same time you've got edge of climber and it shows both the individual student across the top and then the cohorts that they're in vertically horizontally. I would think that also points out potential hotspots as far as opportunities to educate whoever's in front of the class of a per certain cohort of students, right? Um, so that's my other question is is it also identifying where you've got staffing that needs additional training specifically at the elementary school, secondary, maybe less so at the secondary and um high school, middle school and high school level where you know we've got beyond just the um professional development that everybody gets or the new teachers that are onboarding, you're doing interventions for specific teachers like there's a difference

192in the I'm making this up. There may be difference in one school between this third grade teacher and another third grade teacher and you're seeing more students in this class having issues in this particular area than another. Is this data also helping you guys from a management perspective as far as your staffing? >> Um so in terms of kids that we gather, I've never noticed an academic difference in terms of where the kids come from schools schoolwise um across the 11 years I've been there. I will be honest that there are different groups of children and like we joke about a couple I wouldn't I won't mention specifics but like this group from Glenidge or that group from Mirram you know like as they come you can tell a difference within their dynamic of their

193grade right so like there are definitely those things that come across um but when it comes to academics um we don't we don't see that as much the question you're having about prof specific professional learning I think is a really valid one however it's really complicated to out and I've done a lot of data digging around different teachers because we can, right? Like in terms of like this teacher, that teacher, whatever. It it the data doesn't show up that way. The instructional walkthroughs might um but the data itself doesn't show up that way partially because the kids are different, the the the test change or the students are different like and also I think we're really good at um being administrators. If we see someone who is ineffective, they're not with us very long. Um,

194so I I do think that that's actually a piece of our job that pertains to the student data that's not always talked about, but as far as like the elementaryaries and you guys can talk a little bit more towards that, but um that's how I personally feel about it. But I do think um the specific learning is going to be important in terms of like not just choice, but also helping people get to what they need based on observation data, based on other kinds of things. I think that's also the the the piece that you talked about with like the talent of the teachers and and what they're able to do. When when we're able to identify that, we we pretty quickly triage something. Um so that's where the coordinators really do a heavy lift

195for us because they're content experts, they're pedagogy experts. Robin and I coach pedagogy. We can't coach content in in every area, but we know what good teaching is and and we know how to we know how to coach that piece. the principles are the same thing. Like everyone at this table is a generalist and that's why we have the the orc structure that we have with specialists in content areas to say we really need to get in there and coach content. Um we we have some instances right now where Julie Power, our literacy um coordinator, is coaching how to confer with students. Um because what we're finding is that it's a it's a gap in our professional learning with our teachers. like we're expecting them to confer with students, but we clearly have not provided

196all the tools for for people to be to be able to do that. So, some people are well trained in that or or they have um an interest in focusing on that and then other people we've got to provide that support. And so, when we're able to identify that through walkthroughs and that kind of stuff, then we can partner. Um so, the principles will call me, we'll work with the coordinator and we'll get people in to do coaching cycles. So, I would add that we were just over here pow-wowing. We We all have a tier three, some type of team to attack tier three interventions. Um, tier two, we all do our tier two. We all have PLC's and we're small and we talk all the time. We text all the time. Another piece of

197it too is that Melena and Robin are in our buildings. And so Melena comes to like my guiding coalition academic. And so she sees my agenda. She's like, "Hey, I was just that captain. This is what we did. You want to think about this?" And so we get resources that way from Elena and Robin. We had equity walkthroughs and now captain's about to have equity walkthroughs. So that's informing their walkthroughs and things like that. So we share a lot of resources. Um we do pretty much the same thing but we get the autonomy on the how. >> For example asked me do we use our science teachers in the same way? And the answer is no. Uh we are looking at it. I think the difference is the other thing we have to consider is

198some of our class sizes are bigger. Um and so what does that look like in a science lab? what does that look like in other places? Because we do have a few more students and like even as we move forward to next year when we have four third grades, it's the science schedule is even going to be very different. Um then and so we've had to figure out like what does that look like? Um but it also the other side of that is we do have additional like we have additional TAs to help with some of the enrollment. So we've been able to assign TAs to grade levels which also allows for another adult. So whether that's a TA that's able to help with a T tier 2 or whether that's a the teacher doing

199it and the TA is able to help in a classroom like there's different systems because of what we have in terms of human resources and in terms of what we're facing. So it is slightly different but what I say like we all like ours is called PST we don't call it a sit team. Um and so are there different experts that sit on it? Yes, it's so there's slight differences but that the idea is the same. >> Okay. So, I ask this question every year, so I sure I'm sure it won't be as a surprise, but what is the lowest hanging fruit? So, when you come back to the board next year, and I won't be on it. What um you know, what do you hope to be able to report that has improved? >>

200I'm not sure I would say it's lowest hanging fruit, but I think and we keep talking about belonging data with some of the groups, but one of the things I will tell you is a lot of times it's not our belonging data that I'm noticing as the gap. it is self-efficacy. Um it's the efficacy data um that is actually the more difficult and I think that's where and it's and it's really really hard to address. I we can tell we can make a kid feel loved but if they if they pick up on the fact that they don't feel like I mean I've had kindergarters who will say how do that how does that kid already know how to do X? And so then if and and I get that what what we want to

201do is we want to say well they need more of X. But the problem is when you give them more of X and X is what they struggle with. We're also reiterating the fact that they're not good at X which it's a self-perpetuating loop if we're not careful in how we do that. So then there's a lot of nuance and how do you how do you make sure that when a kid goes to a reading intervention with a reading interventionist that that they feel safe, they feel secure, they understand they're building their skills. So we could build confidence and that may look like our reading teacher does these this thing where she has the kids that are older teach the kids that are younger reading skills so they can express some some success and that's

202so it's addressing both the self-efficacy but also some of the reading skills. So I'm not sure it's a low hanging. I think it's difficult, but I also think that if we don't if we can't some point in time get to some sort of strength-based initiative and not just seeing kids for what they're not good at, we're going to continue to see some of this because if I'm not good at something and you keep making me do it over and over and I feel like it's not a strength all that in some ways that's if we're not careful, you're hurting that that side of me. And I and I would actually just like I to expound on that. I think at the the high school level you see it and one of the things I almost

203said this earlier actually when you look at the panorama data the one of the things I've always been surprised by over the years is because I I know a lot of the kids and I see them in the classroom but then when they self-report their self-efficacy because the way the question is asked actually in the panorama is uh like how confident am I that I can do the toughest work in this class? Um, and you'll have kids that are all honors, all AP that do really, really well in school with incredibly low self-efficacy because they have imposttor syndrome. Um, like and and uh that and there's very much the the the pure pressure of keeping up with the kind of keeping up with the Joneses and and and that and that's that's I think really

204tough to get get at especially because I truly believe that it it's not a deficiency. It's all in self-perception. Uh and and so how you change that self-perception is is is a challenge. >> Yeah, I I would say we're killing it on sense of belonging over at White Out. I think we are the highest that we've ever been um when we took it in the fall, but um but where my where we're focused and where we have to see change is on student growth. Um but student growth for us is where it's about. So next year when I'm sitting here, hopefully we'll be able to really talk more specifically about student growth across the board. um we should not be in the lower 50% of schools in the state. Um we need to be higher

205than that. And so we're working as hard as we can and and I really do mean like we're having these really hard conversations that don't feel great all the time, but unless we really have them, we're not going to be able to move forward. So um I'm really hoping, you know, science is going to be a little trickier because it's only 8th grade. So you know, these things we're implementing in sixth and seventh, it may take a minute. Um but just in general, I'm really hoping that we see movement in student growth. I want to echo all of the positive things that they have said. I mean, I like almost came to tears multiple times. I'm taking after you, Terina. um like you you really each of you has you do so much for our

206community and I really love what Jason said that you say you've got these great students but these families move here because of what you do. So thank you. I want to start with that. um you speak and you spoke your first time about um we have to know our students and I know you all speak to this and then you spoke about how much harder it is to do these interventions these tier two tier three or maybe you even really spoke to the tier 2 interventions at the secondary level and it just kind of this light bulb for me of it's much harder for a teacher in the secondary level to know their students the way that our elementary teachers know their students. And so I just wanted to highlight that like I see how

207that's really hard and so I can see why these conversations are difficult, why they are vulnerable because that's hard. So I just want to thank you for that. Um one if two main questions one is how do you with these Tier 2 and tier three interventions communicate back to parents and guardians. Um, a few times families have been mentioned. They're incredibly important piece of these children's lives. And so, how do we communicate with them and say, "These are the interventions. This is what we're seeing." >> So, at the elementary level, it's a phone call um from the classroom teacher. Sometimes it's a phone call from the instructional coach or a specialist and just saying um this is what we're working on with your child to give them a heads up. And so it's a personable

208phone call and then we'll follow up with the email. But first is always a phone call from someone in the building whether it's their classroom teacher or a specialist. >> And I would say ju just referencing the the tier two and tier three interventions at the secondary level. And I don't want to speak for wide on like we're we're we're solid on tier three interventions because we we we have an interventionist actually like in a particular discipline. So by the time you get to tier three, you know, you're with the reading specialist, you're with learning support. So that that part's not the issue. It's more of that that tier two actually that but but to to your point, no, when when a student is is receiving intensive intensive one-on-one, particularly like tier three, um that

209would be a phone call that that we we definitely rope the families in uh pretty early in that process. >> I would agree. Um I do think it gets a little more complex um as you get through the middle school and the high school in regards to actually having honest conversations about where these children are and where they need to go. And um that's something that we're working on because there's a lot of complications of who they think they are, who they are as learners. And sometimes we tend to sugarcoat the picture a little bit. Um so we're really trying to figure out what is the right medium for that. And it does happen best when it's coming from a specialist that can not just say here's a score on paper, but like here's all

210of the things and all of the growth and here's what specifically they're able to do. Like the Fontes and Benell tests really are able to like drill down like comprehension is a piece or decoding as a piece, but to give some tangible things so that parents can attach that to know where they need to go. Um but really making sure that we are including the parents is something we probably continue to do work upon because like there's a phone call made home and there's parent teacher conferences but we need to make sure that they fully feel engaged to come to those as also think of like non-traditional ways to engage the parents beyond parent teacher conferences um to make sure that they really know where their students are and that the kids know you know

211like that's a huge component of it as well. I think the model also with reading success plans. So students who are receiving tier three intervention on reading success plans, it it's a pretty delineated process from the district um that all exists within educ and is initially a phone call home and then a push of a document home and then continual progress monitoring. So so that that model I think is a model that we could probably replicate in in in other ways um to help families feel more a part of. um the educational experience for their child. >> Thank you. Okay. And next one is ELA particularly paying attention to what was happening or what is happening at the secondary level particularly at the high school and um Dr. Jordan, it was great to hear you

212say like these are the things we have just noticed or we are noticing and these are the interventions that we know we need to do and that can actually explain a lot about what we see at the high school because those are the kids who didn't maybe get that. Um, and so I do look forward to being here at this table in the next many years and seeing how this changes. And I want to press that this is really important especially at not especially at the secondary level but that's where I want to say this is important coming from this side of the table. So keep up that good work. >> That's it. Thank you. And I the questions I had written down I keep crossing out because you all have answered them. Um but

213a a couple things I wanted to say is and this is also my last assessment meeting just one more year than than Kim has been here have I sat through this but many years ago at the board table I didn't mean that in an um I just realized how that came out. Um have I had the pleasure of sitting through this. Um, but many years ago at the board table, I remember saying, "I wish every student could have an IEP." I was coming on the board as a member with a student, one of my own children with an IEP, thinking, you know, that here is a plan, an individualized plan based in data >> that has all these goals of how to ensure that student is successful. And I feel like through everything we've talked

214about, that is what we're doing. We are looking at individual students using data figuring out how they can be the most successful. So just to see like Kim said where we've come in all this work that you know that was before Edgu Climber before we had hexagons on MTSS. Um so I actually love um seeing this at my last assessment meeting that we have come to a place where we are looking at individual students and their needs and not in silos like a couple of you mentioned that as a whole child how do their social emotional sense of belonging self-efficacy play into their academic success. So, all of that makes me feel really happy and proud. And I um love Jamie that you said next year you hope to be here. Um I wrote down

215what you said that you hope that we can see growth of all learners including our teachers. And I love that you said that. Um because this is as you've all said a learning experience and a growth experience for our teachers as well. And I feel so thankful and proud to be in a district that is investing so much um in our teachers to be and all of you administrators to be able to do this work. Not just the time but um you know the financial resources to be trained in this and to have speakers come in. And so I appreciate that so much about our district that we are prioritizing this work and investing in it with time, money, and partnerships. So, um I just want to thank the board and everybody um for doing

216all that as well. So, thank you again. It was a great presentation. Congratulations on all the success and look forward to hearing more. >> And before you go, I don't have any questions, so you could just take a breath. But I want to echo what everyone said, and I want the board to know this very important fact, which I I just found out about it a few weeks ago. So, typically I'm going to publicly thank you in front of the board because usually when you leave these meetings, I text you. So, I have a text group that says a team and I send them texts. Well, most recently, I found out they have a text group without me. You did tell me this. >> I did. Exactly. And so I'm like, huh, interesting. So, I

217want to publicly, all jokes aside, publicly thank you for all the work that you do. Truly, I have been in your seats and I know what it's like to run a school building. And this is the majority of your work as instructional leaders, but you also have the rest of the work that you do that falls in the managerial job >> where the parents are coming. You have student discipline coming at you. You have so many things coming. So truly when you look back from a macro level as we have said in the five years that I've been sitting here I want you to really think about all the work that you have done. Five years ago I remember my first year here I said there's no reason why we don't know the resources we

218have in this district. There's no reason why we don't know our kids and know them well and how do we work with them? Right? And then the second year I know you were so excited when I said all of you are going to a PLC RTI conference. And you were I know in your A+ text group. I know. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Uhhuh. Uhhuh. I know. They sat I know they sat there. I And they were like, why is she making us go to this? We have been doing this for 20 years in this district. I I know it, but I truly believe the work is here. And then you brought a system in, you implemented the system and now we are talking about data like truly looking at the data and seeing where

219the kids need to go. So think of your own journeys in this process and pat yourself on the back. So thank you. No text for me tonight. Thank you. Keep up the great work. >> Thank you. Good night. >> Okay. And I also found that the co team has the same thing. >> Just saying they have a text group without me on it, too. >> Yes, there is. >> Yeah. Um, >> I don't, but does anyone else? >> I mean, feel free to just take one. Let's just keep going. Um, okay. Policy. We have some first readings to review tonight. First one is policy KH, public gifts to the school. Um, John is here. >> I noticed that uh Kim and Stacy both mentioned the number of meetings they have left and >> mine are

220limited as well. So, >> yeah. Oh, yeah. >> I'm not going to say the number. Uh, policies before you tonight, minor, KH, and FFA. Uh if these look familiar to you, they were on the agenda several months ago. >> Yes. >> As first readings and um I think there were some questions around crowdfunding at the time and uh we didn't bring it back for a second reading. We played around with it for a long time just looking at it, having conversations. It's coming back to you in its identical form. There's no modifications to it. Um, and I'm happy to discuss any of your concerns that existed then and hopefully resolve them. Uh, FFA is easy. It's a rescended policy because the provisions of it are just moving into KH. So, um, if you have concerns

221about KH and crowdfunding, be happy to discuss them. My recollection at the time was um concerns about how it might impact uh the Clayton Education Foundation >> or >> PTO's maybe >> PTO etc. >> Um >> sports boosters. Yeah. So this is a policy for just our district and for the entities that are legally separate like the education foundation like uh PTO's and potentially like a booster club that's independent. Uh this is really them. They're they can do their own thing. This is really guided towards anybody that's under our umbrella. So there are booster club groups that operate under our umbrella. Uh we manage their funds and trust. Um so they would I would put them subject to this. Um but anybody that's completely independent of us, I would say they're there cannot be subject

222to our policies at this level. >> Yeah. >> Okay, >> that makes sense. >> I'm sorry. I am I'm going to ask really like a a detailed, you know, like what about, you know, question just because I think it's worth airing this out in case there's an issue some years down the road. What about donorsechw.org? >> I was going to ask the exact same question. >> Donorsew.org where a teacher can go can go and set it up and then you're you know you can go and you can pick like I want to fund >> this project you know >> or Amazon wish list. >> Yeah. Well, we've had a number of conversations over the past few months uh at the CO team level about that exact issue. Um you know, we're a wellunded district and

223it's really inappropriate for one of our staff to go out and start a GoFundMe if they haven't approached internally for funding. You know, we're here to supply all the needs of the district and it's really kind of out of bounds for somebody to try to bring some other funding mechanism in sort that doesn't run through our systems and doesn't maintain equity across classrooms uh and isn't necessarily approved as part of our overall curriculum. >> I I have I have no issue with that answer. I I would just suggest that there might be a conversation that might need to be had with teachers that do do this currently, right? so they have ample time to, you know, wind that down, you know, wind that practice down before it becomes an issue. That's all. >> Yeah, we've

224uh there have been some of those conversations. Um whether they're comprehensive at this point or not, I don't I can't speak to that. >> I had the exact same question. So, anybody else have any comments on this one? Go ahead. Um, the only thing I went back and looked at this because I was just trying to remember what had happened with it, but the only comment from the previous meeting that I thought I would pull forward is this or district or a district foundation that language in here. Um, and I understand it's it's undefined in here. And so maybe just clarifying that CEF is not a district foundation within the meaning of this policy. >> There are districts that create captive foundations for themselves. U and they're actually under our the district's umbrella and the

225board is controlled or appointed by the school board. >> Ours exist completely outside our umbrella. And so I I just wonder if an additional word or two making it clear that CF is not a district foundation. >> Yeah, that's a good idea. >> That's all I got. >> Okay, >> good. >> Okay. All right. Well, then let's move on to we have some second readings of policies. The first one is policy GBA, drugfree workplace. You read that motion, please. Can I move that we adopt policy GB EBA drug-free workplace with the recommended changes? >> Second. >> Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments about the updated version? >> Nope. Okay. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? No. That one passes. Now, the second reading of policy GBB, employee alcohol and drug

226testing. I move that we adopt policy GBB, employee alcohol and drug testing with the recommended changes. >> Second. >> Okay, that's been moved and seconded. Any further questions or comments with the recommended changes? No. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? No. That one passes. GCBA professional staff compensation. >> I move that we adopt policy GCBA professional staff compensation with the recommended changes. >> Second. Okay, moved and seconded. Any comments about this one with the changes? All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay, that one passes as well. Okay. Uh, moving on to action items. Um, classified staff pay salary structure. Um, 8.1. >> I move that we approve the classified pay salary structure as presented. >> Second. Okay, that's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions or comments from anyone or Kelly on

227this one? No. Okay. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes. And the next one, which is classified staff tuition reimbursement structure. >> I move that we approve the classified staff tuition reimbursement structure as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. Now that that's been seconded, any questions or comments for Kelly on this one? >> I just want to comment that this is an important it's really important uh it has come up in the past of you know should we continue to provide this benefit to our staff and I I feel like it's a very critical component um to attract and retain staff that we have here. Um, and there's also no reason why we shouldn't offer an education um to my personal opinion, you know, to um to the children of staff that are

228employed in the district. So, I hope that future boards consider that when they if this ever comes up for debate >> and I also appreciate removing the wait period that it's available immediately because we should be treating all our staff the same and they should all be able to take advantage of this. Okay. Anything else? Okay. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? No. Okay. That motion passes. >> Thanks. Um and moving to the consent agenda. >> I move that we approve consent agenda items 9.2 through 9.5. >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay. Consent agenda passes. Moving to board communications. I think maybe just Pam had an equity meeting. >> Thank you. Um I did we talked um about the MTSS walkthroughs that they were just talking to

229us about um which was something that the Cameron and the equity committee it seems spearheaded and so it's great that it is now universal for all of the buildings and and the equity part of it is being rolled into all of the other pieces that are being looked at. Um and so then we spent the rest of the meeting um in small groups talking about um a survey for faculty and staff about having affinity spaces for them and so kind of writing and editing questions for a survey for them. That's it. >> Great. Did anyone else have any other committee meetings that I'm not aware of? Um Leo, Pam, and I just did a walkthrough with Dr. Patel at the family center. Um which was great. And um it always is such a happy place

230to be. And I was just so impressed by even witnessing our youngest learners work on some of the same skills that our older learners work on. Um, in particular, I'm remembering that three of you might remember also that in one classroom they had like collaborated on >> like a city or a town or some kind of scene. >> It was a zoo, right? >> Oh, was it a zoo? Okay. >> Right. Because Taylor Swift >> was the zookeeper. >> Because Taylor Swift was the zookeeper, >> which I found hilarious. But but each student was coming up to explain what piece they contributed >> to the whole class project and I just like you know they were three and so they were able to stand up there and say I added the drone so he could

231o look over the whole city and I added this. So anyway I just think just that sense of collaboration and and but also the individualized learning that was taking place was great. The three-year-old has >> Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He showed us how it works. >> Ta Taylor Swift and drones. It was a very 2026. >> Um, >> yeah. Yeah. Um, and I also, which Dr. Patel mentioned earlier, was going to encourage everyone on the board and in the community watching to um, attend the Celebration of Black Achievement on Monday. If you have not been before, I highly recommend it. It is one of the more impressive events. I'm going to give kudos to Dr. P that I attend annually in this district truly. And I think it's obviously a great way to celebrate and

232honor Black History Month, especially um honoring the achievements of our own graduates, which I think is so cool because there are many other events around the city that we can go to to listen to and learn about achievements of famous black Americans or even Missurans or St. Louisans, but to hear from our own graduates, I think is really special. So hopefully um everyone can mark their calendars to to plan to attend that. And just wanted to also recognize that this week also brought Chinese New Year, the first night of Ramadan, Ash Wednesday. So, I just wanted to acknowledge everyone in the community that is celebrating all of these holidays um and honoring all of these days with their families. And with that, we can adjourn. >> I move that the meeting be adjourned. >> Second.

233>> Okay. All those in favor? All those in favor? I Okay, meeting is adjourned. in stereo.