001Show seven. >> That's not That's not atomic clock. Now it's seven. >> We're good. >> Yeah, we're good. >> Good evening. We call the meeting to order. Our first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. Mr. Serge 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. Hang on a second. Mia, >> I warned her. >> Thank you, Mr. Alexander and thank you. Okay, our next is the adoption of the agenda. Are there any questions? >> Do I have a motion? >> Mr. President, I move that the agenda for the February 20th 2025. No, I'm sorry. >> 2026. It's not the 26th. It's the 18th. February 18th, 2026 regular board meeting for the board be
002adopted as presented. >> Thank you, Mrs. counts. Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Thank you, Mrs. Duncan Smith. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes 5-0. And tonight we have recognitions. The spotlight is on North Grove Elementary. Good evening. I'm Ron Siner, principal at North Grove Elementary School, and I'm pleased to be here tonight that we have a lot of stars and outstanding people at North Grove Elementary School, but we have three superstars here tonight that I want to take time to recognize and to introduce to each of you. So, first I'm going to invite up here third grade extended learning teacher, Mrs. Lanne Luck. So this is Lan. So we were trying to do the math and she feels like me, we forgot
003it's her 20th year in education, 20 plus years. But the last 16 being at Center Grove and in seven of those years, the past seven being at North Grove. And I know if I were to reach out to Mr. Kelly, he would take you back in a heartbeat, but he doesn't get you at Pleasant Grove. because we are very very very blessed to have her at North Grove um for these past seven years as she's making an unbelievable impact on our school community. Aside from kindergarten teachers, this is that one teacher that welcomes more new students to our school than any other student uh any other teacher, inviting kids from multiple elementary schools to be part of part of our gifted and talented program where she welcomes all these faces and makes them feel acclimated
004and a joy for being a Northro Viking. Lannne helps our students transition to a new class in school, nurturing love for for learning. And while academic rigor is definitely a key focus, her relationships with her students and families can be matched by very very few. Um we are so she's so respected throughout our entire community and we are blessed to have her as a huge part of of our students lives making huge impacts not just now but for many many years to come including in fact she happens to have two students here tonight because um well I'll introduce who they are in a moment but yeah they're here also so and I know that you are definitely one of their favorites so anyways Mrs. is Lan Luck. Next, I would like to invite uh one
005of our English's new language instructional assistants, Junko Wantabi. And this is Junko's fourth year at Northgrove. And she also has her daughter Marbel here tonight. Um which is so awesome her to join her here. And I know she was here to join you, but she also wanted to see one of her favorite teachers, too. Um, so this is like a double dose of awesomeness for Marville tonight. U but before she actually came to the United States 15 years ago, she actually taught English in Japan. Then when she moved here, she taught at a Japanese school. And then we were so blessed when uh when her children joined her school that she actually joined our instructional teams. And really uh she is her biggest gift. I mean, I know that her being bilingual definitely helps with
006a lot of our Japanese students, but ultimately her biggest gift is the connection she has with all of our students and our staff. She shows so much compassion and love for her students while instilling drive and a strong work ethic. She is basically the epitome of a team player. um having exceptional relationships with all of our colleagues. All of her attributes definitely support North Gro's mission of providing students with exceptional educational experiences. Junko Watanabi. Lastly, she was a little fast a moment ago when I was going to introduce her. Um, but I want to bring back Mia Embry. And Mia is a fifth grade student at North Grove Elementary School. Hardworking, fun, resilient, team player, driven, humble. In fact, so humble this probably makes her a little uncomfortable right now. Um, caring. These are all
007descriptive words that describe Mia. How driven is she? her teacher had to reach out to I Ready Math to ask them um what does she do next? Um she's already completed her math pathway through eighth grade. Um so um you're putting that extra work on Mrs. Jackson, too. Um and but why humble? She's also very driven. Um we are really hoping she will lead us to be two-time Math Bowl champs two years in a row. And then she's a two-time runner up in Spellbo, but both years earning perfect scores. She has a love for all things STEM. Um, which I'm sure is really going to help her in her aspirations. She follows that family pathway to Purdue one day. Um, and but you know, I talk about these things academics, how driven she is. I
008also think about her character with her friends that stick out. um her our her music teacher recently was telling me about her that so at the at the Viking voice voices Christmas show that one of the students who had a solo was ill and she took that spot and stepped up. That student returned the next day but she was supposed to continue to do that solo and she went to the teacher and gave a pretty firm no this is my friend's spot and refused to do well I guess if Mrs. Gain would have forced you, you probably would have done it, but but you just really stood up and said, "No, this is my friend spot." And of course then and I was confused at the time. I like Mia did this last night and
009this other friend did it the next day. But but that just shows just one example of the type of character she has. So fantastic student, fantastic friend and an exemplar north Viking Mia Embry. pictures. >> While they're getting pictures, I'd just like to point out that we not only had Lann all this time, her mother also taught for us for many, many, many years. Not to date myself, but I knew Lan when she was that age. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Siner. Okay. Our number 5.1, middle school schedule update. >> Thank you, Mr. Russell. Um, I'm going to call on our principles at Middle School Central and Middle School North, Dr. Davin Harp and Mr. Jason Weisman to present. Um, as they come up, just want to set the stage that this is something that Dr.
010Long charged them with in 2024 is to take a look at teaming, uh, take a look at scheduling and teaming and, um, a little bit of everything for the middle schools as we started to talk about our student day changes, um, what are some options and some opportunities. And so they are going to share with you a presentation they've put together um the work they've done on this really over the last 18 months and looking forward to hearing from gentlemen. >> Thank you Dr. Taylor. Um good evening. My name is Jason Weisman, principal. I proudly serve as principal at Center Grove Middle School central and I have with me Dr. Davenharp. He uh serves as principal at Middle School North. So thanks for taking the time tonight to listen to us and uh kind of
011go over a scheduling update for the middle schools. So uh why consider a change? Um some of the pillars of what we've been charged with is to optimize student achievement, engagement and growth. Um to create uh uniformity and equity across all grade levels and schools, maximize multi-tered systems of support and reduce class sizes. Um another um caveat to this is we will also be able to uh in the future look to highlight our flexibility in UA courses and offerings as we move forward. And then some specific targets for our secondary schedules uh include we want to maximize our our instructional time, our our time between our our students and and our their teachers. Um next, we want to prioritize uh core instruction and electives. Um we provide in Center Grove a variety of electives and
012um courses for our our students uh honors courses, advanced courses, uh many different kinds of courses. In this presentation, you will hear us talk about um recent legislation and accountability uh measures that require us to explore some additional advanced courses and uh electives and some additional opportunities for our students to uh earn high school credits before grade nine. Uh we also want to ensure uh MTSS time and MTSS stands for multi-tered systems of support and there are three tiers. Uh first tier being the lesson that we teach in the classroom and the ways that uh our teachers are um so so greatly planning their lessons um and differentiating them for their students. Um very basic level tier two is when we found uh kids who need help and that help could be behavior, it could
013be social, emotional or it could be academics. Um we uh we identify them and we make sure that we're doing something different for them. And so some of those examples might be um you know flexible grouping during win time and or just pulling them out during uh lunch assignment lunch things like that. So uh and then the third tier is uh when when the first two tiers haven't necessarily helped a student in the way that we want uh them to be helped. uh we bring in another another team and involve uh more intense instruction. So we wanted a schedule that maximizes not only the time to uh do those interventions uh but also the time to collaborate and recognize those kids. Um that's job embedded for our teachers. Um stakeholder involvement is a very important
014thing to us. Um I'm going to talk on the next slide about the process that we've gone through. Um through this process uh we are going to continue to involve uh stakeholders. Uh we will especially bring in our parents. um when we start talking about things such as uh electives, advanced courses, the things that we need to um we need to uh ensure that we're being compliant with the latest legislation. So, looking at that process time, um as Dr. Taylor uh just shared we've really been looking at this, you know, across 24, 25, and 26. Um I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about this process, uh because it has been a lot. Um in February, um there was a board discussion of strategic goals and it included uh middle school class
015size reduction following uh concerns shared from teachers and parents. And so we knew we wanted to address that. Um wasn't the main reason why we are looking at a new schedule. Uh but it was definitely one of them. Uh and then in April there was a board evaluation of the superintendent including uh discussion of team the teeming impact at the middle schools. Um and then July uh there were continued concerns were shared um with administrators uh by UA teachers. UA teachers are our electives, music, art, PE, etc. um and uh regarding the impact of teaming on class sizes as well as inequities in prep time. Um and then August through December of that year, as a corporation, we worked to overhaul the student daily schedule and create more time for teacher collaboration. As you guys
016know, we started this year uh being able to meet uh job embedded time on Tuesday and Thursday morning with our teachers. Um so uh 25 uh in January uh last January, not this year, this January, uh the two middle school principles had um all of the middle school teachers in the um in in the innovation center uh during the January waiver day to explore the targets that we were uh trying to shoot for in a new middle school schedule and to gain uh input from that. And during that time uh we had every teacher um in one of eight different groups. And these groups were uh representative of every subject area, UVA, special education, um all of that. And our teachers gave us eight different schedules that they designed themselves. And so we took those
017eight different schedules um and through January through March of that year, we continued to gather their input and their thoughts on different schedules. Um and then uh we expressed in in March of 25 an interest in moving forward with some of the changes for actually this school year. Um but we decided that we would delay that and get more input from our teachers. And so we continued to get more input um during the summertime uh June through August. Um and and again uh we've continued to work with our leadership teams and guiding coalitions over the fall uh to get more input on um how we can reach some of these specific scheduled targets. Um so in 2026 um December through February um all all middle school teachers provided multiple checkpoints to give additional input and
018uh refined the preferred schedule. Um we had shared uh that new schedule again on this past January waiver day and begin to collect uh input again. So, um we are reporting uh the work to you guys today and sharing the update of of this new schedule and where we are. And um we will continue to take input and work with teachers and all the stakeholders at the appropriate times. Right now, we're working on those logistical things that are in-house logistical schedule things and then we'll continue to branch out to um more of our stakeholders when it comes to things like programming and and things that we'll do for our kids. So, you might ask yourself why now? Um obviously over the last 18 months um we've talked about uh schedule change at the middle school
019level and studied options and gathered input and um you know even talking with Dr. Harp this is a conversation that he had with a previous principal even at times uh from middle school central. So that was um well over three years ago. Um, another good time for this is because of the new schedule uh that we have with teachers and with our new start times this year, we have time that we meet with teachers before school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think without that time um you might be a little bit more hesitant um to move forward with the change. But with that change, I think this is a positive time to consider a change to our schedule. Um the new accountabil account accountability model requires more high school courses taught in the middle schools.
020And uh if you look at the Indiana GPS, it will have the percentage of each school of how many students have high school courses prior to entering high school 9th grade. And so we'll have some data on that here in just a moment. And then um the district as well is going to roll out a new MTSS process for the district. We each have processes currently in our school for the MTSS process, but it'll be further refined um at the district level so that we can hopefully carry those plans when a student goes from elementary to middle and middle to high. We can keep that consistency K through 12 to ensure that continued support of our students that might be struggling. And again, Dr. Dr. Harp mentioned um that could be not only for academic
021reasons but also behavioral reasons or social emotional reasons as well. Um and then we have had ongoing questions and um you know concerns about benefits and implications of teaming. Um one thing that's difficult in the middle school level is you have about half your staff that have a team prep and about half your staff that do not. So um as you can imagine that can at times create some friction as well as um ele or elementary and high school levels they don't have that additional team planning time as well. So at times that can be uh a bit of a sticking point. And then current uh student achievement data highlights the opportunities for improvement. You'll see here in just a little bit we have some data to share that um shows that what we're doing
022right now um we're not sure if we're getting really the growth that we would like to get moving forward. So um another reason for considered change >> over these next uh several slides we want to get a little bit more specific on um the goals and and the reasons why. And so that first one uh that we listed was student achievement. And how you read this data is these are the past five school years um looking at fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade data. Um this data is I learn data. It's the percentage of kids who passed both math and language arts uh each of these years uh at uh both middle schools. And we included fifth grade just to uh show how it related to their elementary schools or scores as well. Um if
023you look I you know the blue always jumps out to me just because it's seems brighter but um this data follows cohorts. So it follows the same kids through their years. And so if you look at the blue shaded uh cells, you can see that u the uh as fifth graders in 2023, this cohort was 51.5%. Um and then as sixth graders in 2024, they were 52.5%. And then in uh seventh graders, 48%. So you can see how that how we read that um diagonally there and color code those u those pieces of data over the years looking at same kids um and we see some small dips, we see some small increases, but overall um Mr. Wiseman and I um are not seeing um the kind of data that we want to see. It's
024it's relatively stagnant. Um and we know that we can perform much better. Um on the next slide, just continuing to talk about student achievement. Um this is going to create a consistent schedule for grades 6 through 8 at both buildings. Um, and that's going to help um provide more flexibility to work with our center of high school schedule um for for students needing those high school credits. Um, and it's also going to line us up better for uh shared staff. We share teachers uh between our secondary buildings and so having a schedule that's lined up uh will help with staffing as well. Um when we look at um the other the next point there is is provides additional period of English language arts instruction for eighth grade. And so um I I've been at North
025for eight years now and uh we have continued to hear from our eighth grade language arts teachers um that they need more instruction time in 8th grade. Um, our current schedule includes u two 45minute classes of language arts at sixth grade, two 45 minute classes of language arts at seventh grade, and one uh 45 minute class of language arts in eighth grade. And we felt like specifically our eighth graders need that additional language arts time, especially focused on writing right before they get into high school. and a lot of their work then uh becomes more of the written work um like we were used to in college. So um the other part of this is that um it provides the flexibility to to schedule additional high school credit um and advanced courses along with additional
026electives. Um you'll see that we're pointing out there Indiana graduates prepared to succeed or GPS. Um this is uh required um and there's the house enrolled act um this is a required Indiana schools performance dashboard and so all Indiana schools have a GPS dashboard on that dashboard um one of of the requirements is advanced coursework prior to ninth grade. Um, and both Center Grove middle schools are below the state average uh on this GPS performance indicator. Um, the state is about 48% um and one of our schools is 40% and the other is 42. And so we have ideas um on how we can add more high school credit as required and measured uh through our accountability A to F grades model um so that we're not standing in front of you uh telling you
027that we got a a grade lower than what we would expect in Center Grove. So, um I think um yeah, I think we go into uniform. >> Yep. >> So, we kind of alluded to some of these already, but um some of the inequities that we have across Center Grove schools and not only that, but some of the inequities we have within even in within our school schedule at both the middle schools. So, um like Dr. Harp said it would increase language arts with language language arts being reading and writing. Um it's important that we have a little bit more time for that content area because it's uh it takes a little bit longer and if you've ever taught writing, it definitely takes a bit of time to teach writing. So we wanted to increase
028the eighth grade language arts for two periods to match sixth and seventh grade. Um, one thing that would be reduced would be sixth grade math from um, and and it's really actually a little bit less than 90 minutes because the sixth graders are currently on an eight period day and seventh and eighth graders are on a seventh period day. Um, but it's just below that and looking to match that to more of what they're going to experience in elementary and seventh and eighth grade of middle school as well into high school. So, sixth grade math right now is a bit of an outlier with having two periods of math when throughout a student's schedule K through 12, uh, they typically only have one period of math instruction. Uh, one thing it would do too, it
029would give us the ability to combine seventh and eighth grade UAS. So, that could open up additional opportunities where a student might be able to take an entrylevel UA course in seventh grade and then repeat a higher level UA course in eighth grade. So it's again giving students a little bit more choice in their electives in seventh and eighth grade. Another change it would uh we would like to move computer applications to sixth grade. Computer science is a standard tested on iLearn science in sixth grade. Currently computer applications is a semester course in eighth grade. So it only is logical that we move that to sixth grade. So a sixth grader coming in would obviously have their core courses. They we would still require a year of music. So, band, orchestra, choir, and then their
030other period, UA, would be a semester of PE and then a semester of computer applications. Um, and then once the students in our building in sixth grade, uh, makes a little bit more convenient for us to talk to them about their UA choice choices moving into seventh and eighth grade. Um, we are actually going to be starting building our middle school schedule here soon. We obviously don't have access to the fifth graders necessarily right at our fingertips, um, like we do the seventh and eighth graders. um that are in the building or sixth graders as well in the building. Um and then finally, same schedule at both schools for collaboration, shared staff and uh high school resources. Our schedules right now are are relatively close to being the same, but it continues with that of
031keeping that uniformity and equity across both middle schools in the district. Um some of the things that to highlight here is our data doesn't show that having more time equals better performance. Um so what we we need to focus on and want to focus on is better tier one instruction um during that time. And then also there's um research that indicates the attention span of a student uh particularly now even more than ever is a little bit less than it than it ever has been. So, we've given I know at the middle school central level some autonomy to some of our teams currently to get you know have some choice on whether they have a block or period schedules and um it'd be interesting to hear the feedback on on what students prefer and what
032teachers prefer in that. >> I think I'd like to add on on this too. Um, you know, I want to point out that, uh, sixth grade science is now, uh, when we look at all of the new models for the state A to F accountability grades, sixth grade science, I learn, is now listed in those models that are currently being um, explored. And currently um, it's it has only been for middle school, it has only been math and language arts. And so this sixth grade um science computer science move um and and also the the schedule um proposes a um specific separate period 45 minute period for science. Um and so uh that will help us again stay aligned to all of those legislative changes. Um so on the next slide uh I want to
033talk a little bit about student support and I very basically described uh what MTSS is multi-tered systems of support um and we we do understand that that uh teaming has traditionally communicated or supported in uh communication and the early identification of our student needs. And we aren't um moving away from that student centered support. Um we are evolving it and uh by transitioning to a robust MTSS framework we will use our consistent data and teacher collaboration in our PLC's uh to identify students who need additional academic, social and emotional assistance. Um this collaboration will continue to include uh bringing additional support such as our dean of students, our counselors, um admin to the table uh to collaborate with our teachers when we uh recognize specific kids who need this support. Um that's very important to
034us. And so you'll see uh listed, you know, this schedule proposes an extended what I need time. And currently uh what I need or kind of a home room, traditionally called a home room, but what I need is focus time for interventions. Um however, we find that time right there at the beginning of the day. it's 30 minutes, but it's also interrupted from uh video announcements in the morning. It's also interrupted from attendance taking um etc. So um this proposed schedule allows better flexibility to flexibly group our kids in some of those tier two strategies uh to help them with their academics. Um we have acted as uh we have conducted ourselves as as subject area PLC's uh in Senator O um for since since we started PLC's and that's a very good approach. It's
035what most schools and corporations do. Um but at the same time um we can expand upon our PLC practice using that job embedded Tuesday and Thursday morning time uh to do our um multi-disciplinary or multi-ubject PLC's during that time um to take care of some of this MTSS work as well. So one of the pillars I talked about at the beginning was the reduction of class sizes. Um, currently, you know, we have some some large middle school class sizes and moving the team time for teachers outside of the school day will allow additional class sections. So, how does that work? So, for example, at middle school central, we have around 36 core teachers, teachers that teach math, language arts, social studies, or science. Right now, on their schedule, they have a prep, which every teacher
036in the district does of um say 45 minute roughly prep. Then those same core teachers have a team planning time each day of an additional 45 minutes where they get together talk about uh you know students um and you'll see here in a little bit some of the other things that they do talk about during that time. Um, also though within the same building, I alluded to this earlier, we have UA teachers, whether it be band, orchestra, choir, PE, art, um, STEM, project, lead the way courses that they have the one prep just as an elementary teacher would or as a secondary high school teacher would. So, by removing the team prep from the day, you're going to take and add another 36 sections to your school day. And that's going to thus bring down
037the class sizes to something that's a little bit closer to what fifth graders um experience now at our elementary schools. Um one other thing uh with with this is to understand and this is where it gets difficult and complicated. So anytime we take a student and they have something specific in their schedule, it puts them in this category. Well, if you add an another category to it, it makes it even more specific. If you add another category to it, it makes it even more specific. And one of those things is teaming. Um, so when a student comes in right now, if we have a movein student, then we usually identify a team for that student to be on. Um, and sometimes the class sizes in those courses are already very large because of whether it
038be band orchestra choir or the student needs to have an honors course because they're an honors student or they need an ENL course because they're an ENL student or a special needs student, they have to have that support in their language arts and math course. So, every time you add a layer, you lose flexibility within your scheduling. So with teaming being removed from the middle school schedule, when a student comes in, we can then look at their schedule, look at our class sizes across the board, and better balance when we have new moveins throughout the year. Where right now it can drive up numbers, especially if a student is on an honors track or, you know, a sped track or an ENL track where they have to have a certain course, it's going to drive
039up some of those numbers, including our UA courses. So, it's important to understand it's a complex situation and a complex thing. And as our schools grow, it becomes even more complex. I know when teaming started uh many years ago in the middle school level, I'm sure that middle school central didn't have 1300 students and I'm sure that middle school north didn't have,00 students and that's where we sit today. Going on to the next slide, here's some of the data associated with the top 30 middle schools in teeming. So, When we compare ourselves, we want to compare ourselves to the top performing schools. Um, not necessarily central Indiana schools, not necessarily Johnson County schools. We want to compare ourselves to the top 30 performing middle schools because that's where we expect ourselves to be. And currently,
040we are right now. Middle school central's at 18 and MSN's at 20. Um, as you can see there at the bottom. But when you take a look at those 30 middle schools, the top 30 middle schools in the state of Indiana, 47% of them use a teaming structure. So 47% of them put a student on a team when they enter middle school. Um if you remove middle school central north, that would obviously drop to 40%. 27% of those um 30 middle schools have an additional team prep in their schedule. If you take middle school central and north out of that, it it then goes to 20. And then the stat we were talking about earlier with h offering high school courses, it's 70% or more high school course uh courses. And right now, like I
041said, we're at 40 and 42% of uh high school courses offered at the middle school level. So again, teaming again is just one piece of the puzzle. Um we know that these schools use many instructional strategies to obtain the success that they have. So, it's it's it's a piece of that puzzle, but it's not a direct correlation to success in middle school uh and teameming. And and it again, it doesn't guarantee academic uh achievement and and it's not necessarily a guaranteed academic strategy. >> So, the next slide is um talking about, you know, is is teaming the right model for Center Grove? Um and you can read the the slide. Um, but I would tell you we recognize and and we've enjoyed the benefits of teaming uh in in Center Grove and we're not taking
042all that away. Um, you know, both schools have taken time with our teachers uh to identify those benefits of teaming that we want to keep in our schools. And um we're now building a schedule that scales up to those expectations and to the way that we want to continue um our schools given the size and also the recent legislation asking for additional course options. Um and and we know that we can do this um through our robust MTSS model. Um and it will further enhance our um academic decisions as well as our behavioral and emotional support for our kids. Um so you could see up there some of those points. Um you know the effectiveness of any model, you know, it's not about the programs, it's about the people. It's the people and we have
043great people who care. We have great people who care about kids. Um you guys have done a nice job of hiring people that do and so we're going to continue to make sure that that's taken care of. But we're going to enhance our practices with researchbased uh modern models that keep up with the legislation and our growing needs. So next is some of the feedback we received and I have this broken into a couple slides. One um for teacher concerns and then another one is concerns from parents. Um you can see here some of the concerns our teachers have is a loss of that teen prep period. So their day would change from two periods without students to one period without students. um time to attend then to discipline case conferences, 504 meetings, um attendance
044meetings, a variety of meetings that occur and then uh team celebrations as well. Um these have been identified as some of the biggest concerns that I've heard from uh the teachers throughout this process and not all not all feedback has been negative. Um, I have I have personally received feedback from core teachers that currently have a team prep that feel like the time would be better utilized um elsewhere within the schedule rather than having that team time as well as uh UA teachers as well. Some of the parent concerns um that I've received and I've received around a dozen emails from parents. We've received about a dozen emails or less from parents during this process and um support of of uh their student middle school particularly in sixth grade as they transition from elementary to
045middle school and then things like student of the month field trips things of that of that nature and concerns about students getting lost at the middle school level. I would say that getting lost at the middle school level would would have been a concern maybe at middle school central in the past when we had um sixth graders not separate, but now that we have the new addition on the north side of our building, the northwest side, sixth graders are now downstairs isolated to a hallway and a loop. Um and I know at middle school north, their school is obviously newer and was designed in such a way that sixth graders are separated a little bit more from the seventh and eighth graders. Not that that is not a valid concern, but um it's something that's
046definitely less than maybe it was even in the past. >> So what what would change uh with this proposed uh schedule? So students would have additional opportunities to explore UA courses. Teachers would meet with social workers and counselors during teacher prep and PLC time, similar to elementary and high school. Uh teachers would meet with special education and ENL teachers during teacher prep and PLC time similar to the elementary and high school. Uh teachers would plan field trips, celebrations, etc. during their teacher prep similar to elementary and high school. What would not change? This is the next slide. What would not change? Sixth through eighth grade classrooms would still be clustered together by grade level as Mr. Weisman just uh talked about. Sixth through 8th grade students would keep the same counselor for all three years.
047That's something we will continue to do for a long long time. All students would have the same home room or win what I need teacher every day. Sixth through eighth grade students would all have lunch with their grade levels. So sixth graders eat lunch with sixth graders, seventh graders eat lunch with seventh graders and so forth. None of that would change. All right. So next here is a sample um schedule of what it might look like. Again, the win time is what I need. And when when we say I, it means the students what the students need. So we have a rotation of uh really lessons and then we have teachers that have um intervention with students for math, language arts. Some students are pulled even for UA courses maybe to make up work or
048to to further extend their learning. But if you look at this schedule, um it consists of seven 45 minute class periods and then the additional period is combined lunch and win time together. So it's backed up after lunch and middle school north this year has kind of piloted a model where students eat lunch and then they have a little bit of free time. If they're obviously caught up on all their work and they don't need an intervention, then they might have the opportunity to whether it be go outside kind of like a a recess time. Obviously, it's shortened. It's not the same as it is in elementary, but that's one thing when we hear from sixth graders coming in or even sixth grade parents. There's sometimes concern there with my sixth grader has a lot
049of energy and we would really like them to have some time to get that out. And so what this does by putting it after lunch gives us opportunity to maximize that and give students opportunity for for some uh free time in there. So you can see there to the right a kind of core example. A student would have a a period of language arts, a period of writing, a period of math, science, they'd have a period of social studies and then two UAS as well as lunch and win time in there. So that kind of is the makeup of their schedule. And so for our next steps, um we're going to continue working with our teachers to identify the value uh valuable components of teaming. Uh we're going to complete our MTSS framework and execute
050it with fidelity. Uh inform and collaborate uh with parents about student reports and or student supports. Um we're going to explore additional high school level courses. Um we're going to explore additional UA courses. um courses like advanced music or um expansion of our project lead the way things like you know biomemed or CTE courses um we're going to implement new structures in PLC and PD time and we'll be providing the board with and our community with a final report and then how would we measure our success so obviously student achievement data Um the number of students earning high school credit before 9th grade, like I said, right now we're at 40 and 42% and those top 30 performing schools in the state of Indiana are uh 70%. Number of students entering and exiting two tier
051uh tier 2 and tier three supports. So we'll obviously really look at our MTSS data, ensure that our core tier one instruction is solid throughout our school and then looking at um how students perform at tier two and tier three. uh PLC artifacts and goal setting documents, observation data tied to instructional strategies, and then obviously the building climate and culture data that uh we often survey our students, families, and staff with. And then uh discipline trends and referral patterns. So currently we at middle school central, we look at the number of referrals that we have every month and then we also look at the number of discipline uh that we assign for that. So, um, we will continue to analyze that and see if we see any trends in that. I know just talking today
052with my dean that, uh, he's spoken with the dean secretary about even using using AI to take, uh, discipline logs and be able to formulate reports that tell us which students are at certain levels and what intervention is needed at that time. So right now a lot of our our teams and our teachers handle a lot of discipline within their team time and uh that would have to shift obviously more to the the dean's office and we are already thinking about ways that we could possibly do that. >> So we just wanted to uh thank you guys this evening. we can tell that um you're very uh intentive and um you know supportive of of all this uh uh thought and and uh we wanted to further clarify uh what we're trying to accomplish. We
053appreciate your care and concern as well as the care and concern of all the teachers and parents that are here tonight as well. Thank you very much. >> Sorry. Thank you, gentlemen. If you'll stay right there. Yeah. Okay. >> Uh I think the board would like to talk to you about a few things. Um >> yeah, I >> Mr. >> I I can start. Yeah. So um I want to thank you guys for the update and you've been working on this for a long time. In fact, it predates my time even being on the board. So it's been quite quite a long time. Um, I hear what we're saying about the change and to be honest for me I I'm at a point where I I it may be a great answer but I don't
054I don't know I guess at this point and it's just partly because I partly probably because I'm newer on the board but also partly just I don't know that I've seen kind of the strategy laid out over time and how you guys have gotten to where you are. Um, I will say though, I did submit a few questions in advance and I can see you guys incorporated that. So, that helped a lot in what you guys presented tonight. Um, so I will also say that by trade I'm a strategist. So, I I put together strategies when I was at Lily. I was in the corporate strategy. I work on marketing strategy. So, whenever I do that, I'm always thinking, okay, what's the problem we're trying to solve? What's the goal? What's the thing that we
055want to do? And generally that's coupled with sort of a a current state assessment so that you know what are those problems and problem areas that you want to do things about. Um you know and then you start to evaluate like what are the different options and you know which one what are the pros and cons what are the because everything's about tradeoffs. >> So you're going to make certain trade-offs and then you need to think about well what are the risks and I could hear some of those risks coming back in in the feedback that you heard and how you were thinking about evaluating that and then you move forward and then you measure it. So with all that said, I guess it was everything was so multiaceted that you showed like what is
056really the problem like the really core problem that we're trying to solve. Is it student achievement or is it something else? >> Well, I think as you can see from the slide presentation, there's multiaceted situations going on. One is the concern for the class sizes at the middle school level. So um that's one problem. the um inequities in time away from students not only within the middle schools but also at the high school and elementary level uh related to the middle school. Um and then the ability to further enhance our multiple multi multi-tered system of support with students to get us over that achievement um gap that we might be seeing at at the middle school level. So there's not really just one answer to that. And then coupled with the fact that we really
057need to increase our course offerings to students prior to ninth grade. That's that's another facet to this. And by moving computers to sixth grade, that gives our seventh and eighth graders the ability to have a little bit more choice in their UA. Another thing we didn't uh allude to or talk about in this is we want to offer more students the ability to take Spanish one at the eighth grade level. And the reason for that is because with the new high school pathways, the direct admit to Indiana colleges is Spanish. So the direct admit through Indiana colleges is not French or German or anything of that nature. And we have a teacher currently in both buildings that teaches Spanish. Right now they teach Spanish one three periods a day and then they teach uh world
058languages and cultures three periods a day. And right now there's criteria that a student has to meet to be in that course. And we would like to open that up to more of a application basis where if students feel they're ready and the parents feel they're ready and of course the teacher recommendation from seventh grade feel like they're ready then we would have more students taking Spanish one and eighth grade. >> Okay. >> I think also um student achievement is definitely part of it. um you know when you look at our federal accountability report card which says whether or not we meet expectations and also um our state report card that gives us a letter grade um the sole deciding factor is one test I learn that's it uh it's I learn that's the factor
059um some attendance measures what I learned and and that is student achievement specifically in math, language arts, and if the new accountability model goes through sixth grade science now. Um, so and we're not satisfied with that achievement. Um, and and we believe something like this can can help us continue to make that progress that we would expect to see. Can I ask a specific question on that before we go on? >> Yeah. >> When we're talking about, you know, I learn is math and language arts. >> And I understand when, you know, we go back if we want to to slide four. We don't have to. I know what's on it, but if you go back to slide four, we talked about where the board started with this. And the board started talking about how
060can we, you know, class sizes are a problem. >> We also started with the idea that reading, language arts is a problem. So, I appreciate you're doing things to try to accommodate some of those things, but then I hear that math is going down. We're we're losing a sixth grade math course. >> So, explain to me, and there's a give and take, and there's never a perfect system, but explain to me why if I learn as math and English, this is a positive thing to take away a math course. >> Yeah, it's a great question. You're asking the right questions. And we would tell you that um you know, when you at math. That is a heavier load on a kid um especially in sixth grade, right? So, um math relies heavily on working memory
061and so the kids are um experiencing a he heavier load in math. Um, and to be able to continue and and hold that attention for 90 minutes, it's really hard, especially for sixth graders. And so, um, what what we also notice is that, you know, in 2001, No Child Left Behind, you know, and the creation of standards and, um, the requirement of teaching specific standards. In the beginning, um, a lot of teachers would, uh, still do their lesson plan and then they'd figure out, well, what are the standards that this lesson plan covers? And what we need to do, uh, and continue to invol evolve in uh, in our classrooms is um, during this 45 minutes that we have this particular group of sixth graders uh, in a subject area that creates a heavy load
062on working memory. um what what is the specific one standard or two or three skills within that standard that we're explicitly going to teach. We're explicitly going to teach and we're explicitly going to have them practice in multiple different um ways. and then we are going to uh have a better opportunity um for them to actually know and be able to do what that standard requires. And so um it's really more of a intensive focus um a little bit more intentionality um and an understanding of the the developmental um moments of our kids as they relate to um the different loads that different subjects put on them. >> Well, we're comfortable we're still going to be able to cover the same ground and the same amount of materials in that lesser time. >> Yeah, >>
063Dr. Hart, can I also add? So, so what I would also share is that while time is important, obviously we want to make sure that we have enough time to cover the content, skills, strategies, standards that we are expecting each of our students to master at each grade level. The research supports that it's not always about the time. is what we do with the time that matters most. So, it's instructional quality, it's curriculum alignment, it's making sure that we're using evidence-based research practices. So, we have had in-depth conversations about how do we continue to support sixth grade students if we don't have that additional block of time. And it is about being very intentional, explicit with what we do with the time that we have them and shoring up our MTSS model to help support
064what was happening in that second block of time in math. Thank you, Jane. I didn't mean to steal. >> No, no, you're fine. And so, um, one of the questions I had asked earlier, and again, I'm glad you added the slide in, was how are we going to know if we're successful in in making these changes? And I guess my concern when I see so many different metrics and we're putting a lot of changes into the system, how are we ever going to know what which things working, which variable, what are the drivers of things going in the right direction or potentially not? And I would say um yeah, with education and you're dealing with people, there's a lot more variables obviously involved than if you're dealing with like a product and an input and
065output like you would for a business. So, you know, a lot of times with a business, it's the bottom line. It's how much money we make, what's our profits, um things of that nature. Where with >> education, you have variables obviously from year to year. even if you look at those cohorts, we would have varying levels of incoming student data um each year. So, it it is very difficult to determine that. And I think that's really why we have multiple levels of measure on there because we'd be remiss if we just said, well, number one, we want to look at our achievement data, but then we also didn't look at the climate and culture of our school building as well. So it impacts very a variety of areas of our building. So that's why we
066had selected a variety of uh metrics to measure. >> Okay. >> And one one more question that I had too. So on your slide that said what is changing and what's not changing. I forget which one but you talked about actually can you go to it because I want to make sure I think of the right thing. >> Yeah. That's towards the end. Slide 16, 15, and 16. >> I think I wanted the changing. >> We'll get there. So, yeah. No. So, exactly. So I think as I was reading through these, as you were going through them, I think the thing that seems like it changes is that we're moving from a system that's very much about the student at the center. I was going to say patient because that's what I work in healthcare.
067Student at the center versus um this this sounds like this is more topical I guess if that makes sense. It's it's not everybody's coming together to talk about the student. It's kind of here there. It's more on the topics and the tears and where are people falling? Like how are you going to replace that or how does this new system keep that? >> And I would say um it's you're pretty close with that summary and analysis of it. I would say a teaming model is more focused on behavioral and the MTSS is more focused on instructional. the um the MTSS model also um if you look at a lot of the pyramids they they typically try to explain the process in pyramids um a lot of them will have be split into two sides on
068one side is academic and the other side is behavior and then when you look at the behavior side it's also split into two additional pieces is this behavior uh due to will or skill, right? So, what it is is is a it's a it's a process. It's an intentional process that guides our teachers through um you know finding those needs, understanding those needs, recognizing through data, through um you know academic um response, grades, etc. Um the you know the kids not completing homework, right? and being able to funnel that through these processes and then bring that through tier one, tier two, tier three and bring in additional people uh to help and support in a very timely fashion. Um and so that is that that is really going to help us. It's going to enhance
069us. Um you know, a lot of the stuff about like you know, are we going to still know our kids and all that. What um we're going to know our kids because we love them and we're going to know our kids because we still have um teachers who um support and care and we're also still going to know our kids because we're going to do intentional things like um you know have them have the same counselor all three years. We're going to have them have um same wind teacher. Um we're going to have the uh multi-disiplinary group of wind teachers uh for the most part also be those kids core teachers can't can't guarantee it um but because of all the additional courses that we have to um offer them and so but for the
070most part I I can't really see a difference in um the teaming aspects that we've we've continued to enjoy and and value. I can't see a difference um a big difference in in this new proposed schedule and system. I think I'm curious when we talk about the top 30 middle schools and I'm sorry because I'm fighting a cold so if I sound bad I'm sorry but when we talk about this for example my nieces when they were not in Franklin schools they were in southern Indiana so their middle school was seventh eighth grade so are we talking are we apples to apples comparing our school especially because the thing that I've heard over and over again is sixth grade needing to be kind of that small community So, do we keep teaming for sixth grade?
071Kind of like what Perry Township does with their sixth grade academy to where they're all together. They're lumped together. We're making them feel safe in the big school and then in seventh and eighth grade we go more to the traditional. So, is it something that we can look at hybrid or is it something to where maybe we look at this and we start with our eighth graders and we do a year of >> you know a pilot program if you will to say here's what we would like it. we can work through the kinks with one grade versus throwing three grades in there, not really knowing. Yeah. In two schools >> to not really knowing >> if we're doing the right thing. I don't just something I've been thinking of as you sit here and
072you talk about this. So >> I I was thinking the same thing too because I mean sixth grader my my son when he was in sixth grade was 10 when he started. Um didn't say he acted like he was much older than that but he was 10. Um, but I wonder about that too and I was really trying to listen as you were talking about um the needs, you know, like the high school courses and things like I we're not going to have any sixth graders taking a high school course, right? I mean, I guess it's maybe >> not not not to the extent. There's a few that do, but not not a great number. >> It just it just seemed like the things that were more and we're for the UA courses, we're going
073to combine seventh and eighth grade, right? But we wouldn't have sixth graders with them. No, they sixth graders would not have UA courses. Sixth graders would be isolated from seventh and eighth graders throughout the day with the exception of passing time and the bus. >> Yeah. >> Otherwise, they would be separate from seventh and eighth graders. One thing that is important to understand too, let's say hypothetically we pulled, let's just say to reduce class sizes, we pulled teen time out of the schedule. Well, unfortunately, when you look at a schedule with even sixth grade, then you end up with two very large teams. Um, Miss Jackson, the assistant principal of Middle School Central, which has done a lot of scheduling. Um, she did scheduling for high schools and middle schools, and with our tracks of
074courses with honors and such, it it becomes near impossible to have anything but two teams in sixth grade if you remove the team time from the schedule. So that's really counterproductive if we're trying to keep teaming and then we have these two very large teams. Um then you're then you're not really you're not really teaming then if you have two very large teams in sixth grade. Also I think it's important to understand that some some people might say well why don't you just add if you want to reduce class sizes won't you just add teachers? Well, with the team, you're going to have to add really an entire team at every grade level in both schools to really bring down the class sizes of all courses throughout the building. If I add a language arts
075teacher, then I'm only going to impact language arts. If I had a math teacher, I'm only going to impact math and reducing those class sizes because in middle school, you know, teachers teach math, language arts. They don't teach a variety of subjects. Um, that's what makes it a little bit more complex than just, well, why don't we just add more teachers to reduce class sizes? You'd have to add such an amount that it wouldn't be financially feasible. And I think it's important to point out too that with the constraints that the state is putting on the funding of education in a couple years, I would not be surprised if a lot of those top 30 schools have even fewer that have teameing and team time because of the constraints that are going to be put
076on um all schools in Indiana. >> I think um Mrs. Couns I think I heard two questions from you. One was about the data >> whether or not seventh and eighth grade is truly middle school. Are there some of those middle schools that are truly just seventh and eth? >> Yeah. And so we can >> but we'll answer that and then also you had asked um is it something where we could just pilot with one grade level, right? And so um I'll start with the data. So the data that we use is the raw data on the spreadsheets um that the state gives us and um and so we were able to look at those schools and and schools like ours and um and look at that data. So it's apples to apples, not apples
077to oranges. >> They had to have sixth, seventh, had eighth grade. It was those three. >> Some may have had more, but they had to have those three. And um I would caution folks, you know, when they start googling for data and things like that, um you know, one one example is, you know, if you if you're going to look at US News data, um their 2026 rankings were based off of 2021 and 2022 data. Um and so it's just it's not an accurate um description. So the other um the other question was about can we pilot in one grade level. Um and honestly um the what what we do in schools is just so multiaceted and so complex and when we start um as as Mr. Wiseman has explained when we start making little
078tweaks to the schedule it creates a big ripple effect right. Um to pilot this in one grade level um would pretty much make it um very very difficult if not impossible uh to uh schedule and and do all the different things that we wanted to do um to to offer these and to continue to to stay uh up to the legislative um experiences. It is uh when you when you're going to schedule 1300 kids and make sure that every kid has the courses that they need and then and then on top of that, we're going to expand to find the different tracks and the different courses that that they need. Um it's there's just there's a lot that goes into it. Um, and we'll we'll run a schedule through Skyward and Skyward will follow all
079the rules that we put in and then we'll still have 300, 400, 500 conflicts where we have to uh go back and then manually schedule this many kids. And a lot of times we're doing that um because the process takes so long. A lot of times we're doing that um three days before scheduled pickup, two days before scheduled pickup. Um there have been years where we were there early in the morning on schedule pickup still trying to get um those conflicts scheduled. So it's a ton of hours um in the summertime and throughout the spring to to go through those complex steps. Um, I don't know that I could describe it or show it standing here tonight. >> I I can say with confidence that my assistant principal spent the majority of her summer, and
080I mean majority of her summer, working on scheduling because it's that time consuming and complex. Um, and that isn't going to necessarily go away. But when you have sixth, seventh, and eighth grade on the same schedule, we have sixth graders, we already know their UAS. Um, it makes it a little bit easier. And when you don't have that silo of putting a student on a team, then you have the autonomy to put the you can balance out class sizes that way. You don't, you know, have to have the kid on that team and with that schedule. And it makes it it gives you a little bit more flexibility within scheduling. is seriously is that like a manual process she goes through? Aren't there tools? >> Well, like Dr. Harp alluded to, you put it in
081Skyward. You give it parameters. You give it parameters and then it'll spit out how many conflicts you have and then you have to manually go through and determine these conflicts and figure it out. I mean, it really >> I got a new business idea over here. I'm going to retire in a couple years if that's >> to get to get to that point. >> I see I see an unmet market need right there. to get to that point, we have to manually um plan out um all the kids that are in all the different honors classes. And you think about it, we have three different honors classes in in our grade levels and and then we have two different in math, right? Three different honors classes in math and two different honors classes in language
082arts, right? And so that in and of itself creates scheduling challenges. And so what what we do is we first um manually come up with our plans for special education for ENL and then we go to the honors and then we go back and and then we run our schedule as much as we can through Skyward and then we'll have 500 or 600 complex. So it takes a long time. >> I've got I've got a couple. >> Yes. I was just asking if Mrs. >> Yeah. I don't want to interrupt Amy though. >> Go ahead. >> Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Daniels. And and I appreciate I think it's the first time I've ever heard somebody say MTSS is more instructional whereas teameming is behavioral. And if you've told that to me in the past and
083I've missed it, I apologize, but that's the first time I've heard that. So, you know, you're telling us from the instructional standpoint, from the scheduling standpoint, from the class size standpoint, but remind me again behavioral. If the kids's not behaving, we can't teach them. >> Where are we going to pick up that gap? Remind me. Well, we're going to know uh number one, we're going to know who they are and we're going to know uh we're going to have relationships with their parents. We're going to understand their interests and all that, but um we're also going to understand what motivates this kid. Um is this a will thing? Is it a skill thing? Um are there different connections we need to make? Do we need to bring in some additional people to help the teacher
084um respond? Is it is it counseling? Is it you know is it a dean of students is it you know this that or the other right >> and I don't want to interrupt you but we do that right >> what we do right what I'm saying is if if truly the MTSS is on instructional >> and the teaming is on behavioral who is the we is it the deans is it the counselors I mean do they have the capacity >> yeah yeah so MTSS is is both instruction and behavior okay >> so um you know you look at a triangle, right? Destruction on one side, behavior on the other. >> And so really what it is is is an intentional um kind of process that you go through to um to really look into those
085behaviors and figure out what's going on >> and we can support it in the new system moving away from teaming. And I would say I think it's important to understand though too obviously I made the statement that teameing is more behavioral and MTSS is more instructional. They both do each there's the teachers meet and they they intervene with students that are failing or struggling to turn in assignments. So they they both models do both. >> I I misunderstood you. >> Yeah. But I would say that the teameing model has a more of a more of the time spent in a teaming model is spent on discipline rather than instructional. And an MTSS is going to really kind of mesh both of those more together. >> And I know you're giving us a report and I
086know you're going to come back with a final report. >> And I thank you know you and others for the efforts they put into this. >> Um but as you sit here today, you think this change is necessary. with all the factors that we have, I mean that that we we presented. >> Yeah. It's not just a >> and I and I know it's it's not a final report yet, but I'm just saying you think this is the direction that is best for >> if we're going to continue to meet the expectations of the size of schools that we have and the um all the variety of options that we want to offer our kids that fit their individualized path. And if we want to continue to be um schools that um are reported well
087on those accountability report cards, we got to do this or something similar. >> No. And that's what we charged you with. We said look at things. We didn't say go one direction or another. We had the high school here last month and they looked at things and they said no change. So I appreciate the update report. I look forward to the final report, >> but just, you know, for clarity, we didn't as a board say go this way or that way. We said look at things and tell us what you think. So, I do appreciate all your efforts. I know this is not something you came up with last night. I know you guys have been working on this for a long time. So, thank you. And and to stand up there for an extra
088half hour, 45 minutes while you get grilled. >> I do have one last question, though, because this is I know. I'm sorry. >> No, real quick. >> If I I'll bring coffee next time. And the question is talking about MTSS. So when we look at those top 30 middle schools, the 53% that don't use teameing. How many of them use MTSS? Is that like >> good question >> a thing that is that like the alternative? Is that where everybody's going? >> No, it's not an alternative. It's really an addition to We have MTSS processes in our school. Um but the district is going shifting to a model that would be replicated throughout all the schools in Center Grove. So that students, like I said, if they were in fifth grade and they were went through
089the MTSS process, we can transfer that information to the middle school and continue that support in through middle school and high school because the language we're going to use, the processors we're going to use are going to be the same. Right now, our MTSS process aren't exact the exactly the same. So, if a student was to move from my school to his school or vice versa or go through the levels of Center Grove schools, um it just creates a little bit more uniform system for tracking students and and that language and um you know, support and we don't know how many other schools. So, it's a great question because every school is required by law to have MTSS >> and and so what we're doing is enhancing our MTSS um to make it even stronger
090while we're making sure that we're following that law. >> Okay. >> Is that what you wanted to add, Dr. >> I just wanted to make sure that we pointed out I think the law I think the legislation was 2014. >> Okay. It's not like you switch from one to the other. >> No. Okay. >> Mr. Alexander has some questions. >> Sorry, guys. >> No, you >> Sorry, guys. Hang in there a couple more minutes. Fine. >> Um, so, and maybe this is more directed to Dr. Taylor from because you mentioned the number of additional teachers we'd have to add if we continued down the teeing route. I know you guys said this wasn't about the finances and we've all seen the budget outlook past 2028. Um, is this is this a the models that we
091have in front of us, are they sustainable? And you know, and I'll do it tonight or my copious amounts of free time. I'll go read Senate Act 1514 because I have nothing better to do. Um, but is is this that unfunded mandate that's coming from the high school and it's trickled its way down to the middle school level? Is that what I'm interpreting in those additional courses for the kids who can handle those advanced courses as part of that workforce development? >> Yes. a lot of those new diplomas and diploma seals and all that. Um the the middle schools are going to have to start offering some courses that support our kids on those tracks to give those additional seals and and addition additional the different new high school diplomas. Um the other thing is
092is you know we hear from our teachers a lot about class sizes of 38 39 40 41 >> and and to explain this like to really make a difference in that class size um we can't we would have to hire four teachers math, science, social studies and language arts to truly make a difference in those class sizes. And that's that's just one team, right? It could be in some grade levels. We'd have to hire eight for a grade level double. Um it's it's a lot. Um so teaming at this point looking at the future and future funding would be the one that might not be sustained. >> Dr. K, you have anything to add? >> I just commend these two gentlemen on the work they put into this. They're not done. This is just a
093presentation to start even the harder work because eventually they do have to as Jane's new business will allow plug these kids into the right schedule. But I do think they are fixing a lot here. U they have a great group of teachers to work with to continue that fix and at the end of the day it is student achievement and trying to be more intentional and get more predictive results from all of our students and that's the goal. >> I'd like to see this in a work session as well. ready to ask that same comment as well. >> I was going to bring that up. >> Yeah. >> That the board would like to probably look at a work session on this. >> Sure. >> Before the final report that happen >> before Yeah, >>
094I'd appreciate that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> We appreciate you gentlemen. >> And and thank all those that have participated too because I know it's not just the two of you. So, >> thank you. >> Okay. Moving on to 6.1 public comments. We do not have anybody signed up. Next is the consent items. Are there any questions for anyone? All >> looked at it. Do I have a motion? >> Mr. President, I move we approve the consent items as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Daniels. And do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Alexander. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Passes 50. Now we go on down to action items. 8.1 is a preliminary review of draft policy revisions. This is just a read
095through tonight. >> Yes, that is correct. We're not asking for any action this evening. Um we work with outside company. Niola is their name, their employee lawyers and policy writers. Um they've provided us with this most recent update for the policies listed. Um many of these are changes um that other school corporations have taken on and we're just now bringing them to the board to get approved. Um we'll do a first reading tonight. The biggest changes as you see on the summary sheet are um language throughout a number of policies that impact different employee groups and students. Um and they relate around some changes that were made um years ago from a dear colleague letter from the federal government and now a change in administration that's kind of switched back. It's important to note there
096won't be a actual procedural change or how we approach any of these topics, just simply the language that's in the policy. Um individuals will still be protected. um we will still provide them that protection and we will still investigate any kind of um harassment cases that may come out of a lack of that protection. And so that's the bulk of the changes in the policy policies listed. There are two at the bottom that are outside of that kind of general overarching theme and that's a public records. We'd like to update that. We've had requests for um Center Grove Police Department body cam footage and that is quite timely to produce um and so we did want to add some cost and fees associated with that within the the rules and that are provided by the
097state. And then the last one is a slight change to uh our withdrawal from school policy. So these are students that are withdrawing but not transferring to another institution. Um and prior we had left in some language that that could be appealed to the board. Um, we really feel like that's more of an operational um, item that should remain at the high school level with the high school principal and the high school principal due to the accountability requirements for that should be the final say and whether or not that student should be able to withdraw from school without any other school that they're transferring to. And so we wanted to make that change too. Um, I believe that's all the summary I need to share. Mr. Russell, I'd entertain any questions the board may have
098on this first reading. >> Only question I have and I don't know why you didn't about asking it when I first read this. Um the body cam footage, is this request from the prosecutor's office or are these um foyer requests? >> Right now, they would just be for law enforcement or other agencies that are asking, but if we did get a foyer request, we'd want to have that in place. We've had it from time to time. Um did I state that right, Miss Conrad? Do we have an actual foyer on this right now? >> Um we have >> we have Yeah. So we have recently. So we've had both. I guess all three. Police body camp. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Typically from concerned parties. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you, Dr. Taylor.
099>> Our next is 8.2 school-based mental health services. Dr. Taylor, >> Miss Burger is going to provide us with a great update on this. >> Good evening, everyone. Thanks for staying so long and asking great questions. Um, moving on to our community mental health update. As I've shared over and over with you all, we too use a MTSS model when we provide our supports for our school counseling and our mental health teams. Kristen, you can go to the next one. Um, here's again a visual that I have shared number of times with you all just of the supports that we provide our students and families. Um, and most recently we have partnered with community health for our school-based services. So that's our outside provider who provides services to our students but in our school space.
100um we worked with them for about six years and they've served 300 to 400 students on and off for those last years. Um however, due to some legislation and some changes, they are no longer going to be providing school-based mental health services um moving forward. So, they let us know that their contract was going to end this school year, which then um had our team scattering on how we're going to support those families and what's next. We put out a request for proposal um to our local community, mental health agencies, other partners to see the best way to support our families to provide that wraparound services. Um we had our counseling team, administrators, some parents all be a part of that process to review the different proposals that we received. Um out of that, adult
101and child was the top winner of what we saw. Um they've previously worked with Center Grove. They work with a lot of Johnson County schools and they really have a wraparound approach to supporting their students with school-based mental health. You'll see on the next slide just their approach um the way that they come around and support. They support similarly to what our schools and families are used to with skills therapist counseling um but provide a lot of professional development and at home supports with our students and families that we think will be really great um to move to that instead of not having anyone to support our students. So, we are excited to move forward. Um, here with me tonight from Adult and Child is Asia Asia Bridgewwater and Caitlyn Schuman. So, I wanted to
102introduce them. Um, give them the opportunity if they wanted to say anything. Um, you guys can come on up or stand there. >> Thanks for having us tonight. This has been very educational. I'm learning a lot. >> Probably more than you care. >> Yeah. So, we're just really excited to to be back with the center group community and students and families um and educators and really excited for this partnership and collaboration. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. So, if you look on the next slide, it just talks about our transition plan. So, in the world of mental health, um I know Jane, you were speaking a little bit to your world. We have to look at credentiing and getting um our clinicians hired and credentialed. And so how they're credentialed under community health is how is
103different than how they would be panled under adult and child. So that takes time and so we have come up with a transition of how we would go about supporting that so our students and families do not go out without services um and that we can be up and running for next school year. So wanted to provide that transition timeline for you all. Um and then ask for you tonight to approve that they are our next school-based partners as we move forward um to serve serving our families. And then I would bring theou and contract back up once um we have all the things signed and dotted. >> So just to be clear, this doesn't displace any of our counselors or anything like that. >> It does not displace any of our school employees. So
104we currently have seven therapists and four skills um people that work for community health who are all given the opportunity to apply and interview to work with adult and child. Um they're not school employees, but we love them dearly and we've appreciated the work and we're hopeful that transition will be smooth for our families and our students. >> Any questions? >> Any other questions? >> Do we do we anticipate any of the other services community is providing? >> We have a meeting. Go ahead. >> Got it. >> We have a meeting coming up in the next few weeks and we'll have more information to share at that time. Okay. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. That's an action item. >> Uh yeah. >> Do I have a motion, please? >> Mr. President, I move
105that we approve the schoolbased mental health service proposal. >> Thank you, Mrs. K. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mrs. Duncan Smith. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. If you look on the back of your agenda is our upcoming uh events. March 19th will be executive session uh 6 pm and March 19th will be the regular next board meeting. >> Any other questions or any other things? >> Anything to add to tonight, Mr. D? >> Nothing else to add, but thank you. Okay. Well, >> ah, come on. You got >> I can't think of anything else. >> Mrs. Counts. >> Nothing. >> Mr. Armstrong. >> Nothing. >> There's a joke behind that. >> Nothing this evening, sir. >> Okay. Thank
106you. With that, we are adjourned. Thank you all. >> I feel better. We need an exterminator.