001Good evening, everybody. So, we'll make a motion to reconvene to open session. Be resolved that the board of education reconvene to open session. The time is >> 7:04 p.m. >> 7:04. I'll make a motion. May I please have a second? >> Second. >> That makes it tough. >> Michael, thank you. Uh, all in favor? I I and will you please stand with me and recite the pledge 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. Don't Chris, don't tell me if this isn't true, but I like to think there's 70 people online and all of them stood for the pledge too right there and recited it with us. But uh thank you for that.
002So let's go to presentations. Our first presentation is a student recognition Lucas Walsh for the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. Commended student. Well, and welld deserved. So, I'm going to have u Miss Cow talk a little bit about this young man and we're going to have him come up talk to you a little bit about what his thoughts and goals are as he moves forward through his senior year. >> Thank you, M. Thank you, Mr. D. Carlo. So students enter the National Merit Scholarship Program, a nationwide competition for recognition and awards conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation by taking the 2024 preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. So in April they identify the 50,000 highest scorers and then 35 34,000 higher scorers are named commended students and we are extremely proud at Pauling
003High School to have one of those students and recognizing them this evening Mr. Lucas Walsh. [Music] Lucas. Lucas is you're at Pauling High School taking the most challenging courses and I should I'm always checking when he takes the regents because I'm not going to say what but he's had a hundred on a couple if not more regent exams and we're always very excited when that happens and I mention that because many bright hardworking students students do quite well on tests. But to really perform at that level, you not only have to be a diligent student, but you really have to do what your teachers say, which is check your work, read through it again, check and maybe if you have plenty of time, redo them. So that lets you know the type of student that
004Lucas is. So this is welld deserved and I'm thrilled to be here with Mr. D. Carlo to present this to himself [Applause] board of education. This is what the certificate reads. This certificate is proudly presented to Lucas Walsh in recognition of being named committed student in the 2526 National Merit Scholarship Program. Your exceptional academic performance places you amongst the nation's top students for dedication to learning and a commitment to excellence that brings great pride to yourself, your family, and the entire Pauling community. Lucas, congratulations. >> You're welcome. [Music] what you may be looking to do upon graduation, some of the schools you're applying to, and what you may be wanting to study um after you leave Poland High School. >> Yeah. Uh I just want to start saying uh thank you. I I really appreciate
005the uh the time and gratitude for this award. Um Mr. Carlo asked about after graduation. So, right now I'm uh I'm in the midst of applying to colleges. I'm uh looking a little bit all over the place. Um, but some schools that are on my list are uh Michigan, UNCC, UVA, um, Bingmpington, Buffalo, um, Williams. So, I'm I'm kind of all over the place. Um, as for what I want to do, I'm not really sure. I uh I have a uh a deep love for learning, and I think that um that's really where my uh my my academic excellence come from, and I think that uh that, you know, is rooted in a lot of the great teachers that I've had at Pauling. So, I would just like to take the time to thank them.
006Um, you know, I think they've done a really good job. um you know from kindergarten all the way up until now and and really fostering that love for learning. So as for what I want to do in college, I'm not sure, but uh yeah, I'm uh I think uh that's all I have to say. [Applause] >> Awesome. Great way to start the meeting. Congratulations, Lucas. Again, um from there, we'll go to our second presentation of the evening, which is Pauling High School's high school profile and US News report award. >> Yes. So, um we're going to have um high school principal again come on up, Miss Ken. And this is something if you recall board of education over the summer, right? We had a conversation about putting together a profile um and showing the great
007things and coursework um that is going on at um Pauling High School as well as how our students are performing, the programs that they're in, the extracurricular activities. So um it was a kind of a partnership. I also mentioned to um to Laura a little bit about a getting together over the summer putting together the profile and hence we are here tonight to share this with you. So I'm going to turn it over to our high school principal. >> Thank you Mr. D. Carlo and I'd like to thank Mr. D. Carlo for conceiving of the idea and you know sometimes we don't want to you know brag about the good things that are happening and uh I think it was it's nice to have that push to say no we need to celebrate what our
008teachers our community and our students are doing. So I want to thank him for pushing it and I also want to thank uh Laura Fisen for taking all the data that we provided to her and putting it in such a nice one pager and I do agree that this again this is something that we're planning to do every year because I think it is a nice snapshot of exactly what we're doing from year to year. So what we've tried to do is give a snapshot of our class of 2025, what they accomplished, what it looked like, and also thanks to our counselors because they also provide a lot of this data. Then in when you'll see on the right hand side under the college and career ready, we looked at the data and looked at
009the college credits that were awarded for our graduates last year. the college courses we offer, the AP courses we offer, and then also the students, the number of students who are at least taking one. And as you can see, currently we have 356 students in the high school. So at least half of them took a college level course. So I think that again 50% that's a pretty good um percentage. In the center, we put down some of our scholar accolades with regards to the AP program. We have a lot of students who take AP courses and so I think those speak for themselves as well. We have a large number of students. See it here better. Again, we had in 2025 104 students. So that's about a third, right? A little less than a third.
010240 AP exams and out of that 240 199 they received a a three or above. Now many colleges a three is really the standard that they're looking for a four or five. So I think again those are good averages and it speaks to the students who are taking these courses, the teachers who are teaching them and the level of work and academic preparedness that they're instilling in our students. Then finally on the right hand side some of the acade you know just some of the different courses again we're offering vocational courses through Boseies. we're offering and trying to expand our courses in robotics and computer design, video game development, trying to really make use of our new tech center. And then finally, if you'll see on the bottom left, the number of students in the
011visual arts, music classes, performing arts, our appalling high school athletics, 46 teams, 22 sports for a school and for a district our size. I think that's something else to applaud. And finally, 79% of our students involved in extracurricular activities. That's almost 80% of our students. Those of us in education know that students who are involved in extracurricular activities generally do better in school. And then there are some we check and we look every year at the students who are not involved. And there's many varying reasons for that. Most of them we found in our research either they're working, some of them are babysitting younger siblings. So there generally is a reason why. And one of the things just so that you know for students who are not, we always make sure there's at least one
012trusted adult in the building that they feel that they can go to and make connections because we know when students are on teams or clubs, they have a variety of um trusted adults. And then finally again Pauling has been named to the 2025 US News and World Report one of the best high schools. >> And so that is also something to end I stand up here as a representative but I'm the representative for the high school. This is the culmination of 13 years. We're a small district. It's the culmination of what starts in now prek through kindergarten through our elementary, our middle school, and then our high school. and really speaks to the hard work done by our students, our teachers, and the partnership that we hold with families in our community who entrust those
013students to us so that we can accomplish all these wonderful things. So, thank you all for giving me the opportunity to present this this evening. >> Thank you, Principal, and to our district clerk. Thank you very much for your your your guidance on this. Um, at the end of the day, this is what it's all about, and you said it very well. It's a K to2 celebration. So, what we're going to do with this, and I'm sure the board will want to comment on it, is that um, we're going to put give these out. First, it was important that we have this presented to the board and of course you the public at home and then we're going to go around giving them all to the realators so they can have it in their offices.
014See the kind of things that are happening with these profiles, local chamber of commerce and the like because it's important for everybody to understand that you know great schools are in great communities and this is a part of what goes on and this is the culmination of uh what it looks like upon leaving and the kind of the things that are available through the Pauling Central School District. So again, thank you both for a great job, a job well done. So back to you, President Raych. >> Um would anybody like to say something on on the snapshot >> soft? >> Yeah, if I if I could. I I I do want to congratulate everybody um on, you know, on a job well done obviously. Um, so I think it's important um to take a look
015at things like this, you know, and reflect on the successes that we have. Often times when we sit up here, you know, we're hearing about, you know, potential, you know, um, improvements that need to be made, things that we need to focus on, um, you know, just improving just a tad, moving the needle forward. Um but it's also good for us to take stock of the accomplishments um that our students and our uh faculty achieve you know on a daily basis. Uh I'm glad that this is balanced because it isn't um strictly academic focused or just about our higher performers like it is um you know um representative of the achievements that we see across the board for all you know for all students um of all walks of life. Um, I do want to
016ask if there will be and I love the, you know, the idea to distribute all of this to all of our community partners and make this available through the website. Um, because these, you know, this tells a story that matters, um, about Pauling and our schools. Um but will we have sort of visuals um around the campuses around the schools where you know when students drive in that they can see that this place is one of the better schools in >> Yes. And so we are actually in the process of looking at part of the conversation that we had about it and you know um Miss Fashion is working with me to do exactly that. Exactly that. I' I've gotten some photographs that I've taken um to take a look at what we're what we
017can do, but we are definitely going to do that because she should be proud of it and it should be prominently displayed. Yeah. For example, this is not the first year that polling high school has gotten the the US News and World Report. So, if you see what this looks like here, what we're going to look to do is just that, Mr. Ori is have a big sign and then list all the years that we've gotten it. Right. So to your point, yeah, we're looking at doing that. So thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> I just want to say that the uh the volunteer position on the board like things like this. And I I wanted to comment too about our last meeting with all the signs and the things that
018were said about the board members. It's just an honor to be here and and uh we know it's all about groundwork and the people that are with the kids every day. And regardless of what your position is, you're you're supporting kids, right? Whether you're driving a bus or a school teacher, an administrator, everybody's here to support the kids. And when you see things like this, it just it's it's it's amazing. It's just it makes us really proud to be a part of it. And uh I'm just so pleased with this and just happy to see it. And again, it's just an honor to serve this district. then we're just I think I speak for all of us. We're just happy to be here and want to continue to support the great things that our district's
019doing. So, thank you for the presentation. It really was great. Anybody else? >> So, just to finish that off, thank you to everybody and and as Mrs. Ken said, so great. It's it's a prek through 12. It's everybody that lends a hand in this. And Laura, I think this is such a beautiful graphic. I can't stop looking at it. Both the data on it and how it just looks. I think it's great that we're going to be disseminating it to realtors and everything you described the chamber. Um I I just Keith, I'm going to echo your point exactly. This is why we sit up here and volunteer our time, right? And uh it's so great to uh to be able to look at this and and see all the good that's happening like Mr. Rory
020said for all the students and the different focuses not just on academics but on the arts, on the sports, on who's participating in extracurriculars with what their passion is and pursuing that. Um it's just this is great. So, thank you to everybody that um played a part in in creating this and and all of our teachers and staff and and bus drivers and food service and everybody that made this possible. So, uh thank you. That's a great way to start another board meeting uh tonight, right? This has been great. Okay, with that said, if there's no more comments on the snapshot, let's move to our third uh presentation this evening, which is a presentation on MTSS. So, I'll invite Dr. Kirkus to the microphone. Good evening everyone. Um, tonight you'll hear from Mrs. Rivas and
021Mrs. Kalen regarding um, our MTSS journey so far and updates from the elementary school and the high school. U, Mrs. Gleason will join us on a different night to share updates from the middle school. As a district, we've invested a tremendous amount of time and resources towards continued professional development that focuses on building a more effective MTSS system. Last year, both of our conference days had sessions for our entire instructional staff that reviewed the components of an effective system. Tier one and tier two were the main focus areas of this PD along with the importance of accountability of all stakeholders, fidelity in approach and in the use of tier one resources and the importance of using data to guide instruction in the classroom. We will continue staff learning at our upcoming uh superintendent conference day
022in November where staff will engage in sessions that focus on data deep dives and data analysis analysis seal and behavior supports through workshops focused on deescalation techniques and crisis prevention techniques as well as sessions devoted to supports for uh English language learners. This year, our administrative team will be attending year two of the MTSS workshop titled effective MTSS teams at DC Boseies. We are joined by other districts at this two-year uh training uh by other districts in our county and have the opportunity to share best practices, resources, and ideas and much of what we learn turnkey in each building. MTSS continues to be an area a focus area in PD offerings for all districts at both DC Boseies and PNW Boseies because all districts are doing the same work right now and we encourage and
023approve staff to attend these workshops that are available there. At our administrators meetings throughout the year, we've engaged in discussions about the transition between elementary and middle school for our students and middle school to high school to really strengthen and making make those transition meetings and activities more robust. And finally, tonight after this presentation, you'll hear a great deal about the tremendous amount of work and efforts taking place at the elementary school that have involved all staff members in selecting new literacy resources that better align with the science of reading and the needs of our students. The backbone as you've heard numerous times of an effective MTSS system is a solid consistent tier one instruction and researchbased practices and curricular resources. Um so like I said at at the end of this uh presentation you'll
024hear from our literacy coach and team about the efforts um about this this year-long journey with literacy resources at the elementary school. I'd like to now turn this over to Mrs. Rivas who will provide an update um on the elementary school. Good evening. I'd like to start by walking you through the initial steps of our MTSS planning from last year, which will highlight all the great work accomplished so far. We began by assessing the resources and instru instructional resources used by our AIS team which includes our reading and math academic interventionists. In the assessment of our resources, we found that the level literacy intervention system which is part of the Fontis and Panel system along with foundation cards were the primary resources used for reading fluency, comprehension and phonics instruction. Additionally, our reading in teachers
025and interventions had to create supplemental lessons to address other literacy needs such as encoding. In math, we utilized In math, we utilize resources that focus on foundational skills such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication. We also conducted walkthroughs to evaluate the classroom's printrich environment and the literacy resources teachers employed, including classroom libraries and word walls. The NICED literacy briefs and instructional best practices were used as a point of reference for the review of these resources and the learning walks. As a result, some shifts in our tier 2 and tier three resources have become evident in the programs that we now use. We have adopted just words, bridge the gap, and fun and focus, all of which are scientifically proven research-based programs. In math, we have now transitioned to using the EXL program, which addresses math fluency
026and numeracy. This program is aligned with math standards and connects with NWA to provide instructional starting points for students based on their scores. IXL also offers diagnostic assessments to help identify students areas of need. Another significant shift has been our focus on tier 2 data including curriculum based measures, NWA results, excel diagnostics, FNP running records which are used to identify specific areas for improvement before providing services to a student. By closely analyzing students gaps and strengths, we can create targeted goals that become monitored for progress every 6 to 8 weeks. This process is essential as it prevents students from being in academic intervention services for a prolonged period of time and provides clear intervention data to the committee on special education if a child is eventually referred. Over the summer, Mrs. Fisiano and Miss Mrs.
027Salvaji worked on the MTSS handbook to outline the step-by-step procedures and processes for services for students, explicitly outlining each tier, the timeline, and the referral process. The handbook also includes in an appendix of various resources such as forms, letters, and instructional resources for teachers. So our goals for the 2526 school year include selecting a comprehensive literacy program tier one which as was mentioned before Miss Salvadi will present shortly. Um the introduction of the MTSS handbook to ensure that teachers understand the process and can use the resources effectively. Our AIS and data teams continue to analyze schoolwide data for trends and patterns while collaborating with grade level teams to review student work and assessments. We will continue to provide ongoing professional development to strengthen tier 1 and tier 2 instructional strategies. Additionally, we are currently implement
028implementing foundations in third grade and preK, which means that all students in our school preK through third grade will have access to a comprehensive and robust phonics foundation. By integrating this program across multiple grade levels, we aim to create a seamless progression of learning that builds essential literacy skills in our students. So MTSS for this year, what does it look like? Well, we are currently in phase one of implementing MTSS. Um, since our initial building team meeting in September, we have actively provided teachers with essential MTSS information, sharing draft, pacing, and assessment calendars that facilitate collaboration and review. These calendars are vital components of the framework, ensuring a guaranteed and consistent curriculum for tier 1, which represents the core curriculum servicing a pro approximately 75 to 90% of our student population. This initiative is an
029ongoing effort that integrates seamlessly into our professional learning communities, our team meetings, and department meetings. To foster transparency in a deeper understanding of the implementation process, Mrs. Feliciano sends weekly updates. These updates ser to keep all staff informed about progress, celebrate successes, and address any challenges that may arise. Teachers have received the criteria for eligibility for services and ISS AIS processes. This process will also be shared via parent square and posted on our school website. At the start of the academic year, we administered universal screeners in both reading and math using NWA and assist 360 literacy screener. NWA parent reports have since gone home and many teachers, Mrs. Feliciano and I have met with families to answer questions and address their concerns around the scores. Additionally, the teachers and the academic intervention service team work
030collaboratively to analyze and review key data from various sources, including the spring 25 FMP reading assessments, the state assessment results for third and fourth grades, and the fall NWA assessments. This thorough review process is integral to identifying student needs and tailoring our interventions effectively to enhance accessibility and streamline the management of student information concerning AIS notes and next steps. We are also transitioning from storing this information from a shared Google Drive to utilizing Frontline's RTI program management tool. This transition will not only simplify the tracking, documenting, and managing of student data, but also improve our ability to monitor progress systematically. By centralizing this information, we aim to empower all teachers with the insights that they need to support student success. As we continue to implement the MTSS framework, we are committed to fostering a collaborative
031environment where datadriven decisions enhance our instructional practices and ultimately benefit our students. The MTSS model is a comprehensive and tiered framework designed to meet the diverse academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students. This model emphasizes a whole child approach recognizing that effective education extends beyond just academics to include the emotional and social well-being of each student. At our school, dedicated teams collaborate to analyze data focused on the holistic development of our students. Our instructional support teams work closely and are part of the math and reading interventionists who analyze assessment data and student progress. They meet with students to provide targeted smallroup instruction tailored to individual learning needs, ensuring that every child receives the support necessary to thrive academically. In addition to academic support, our social emotional learning team convenes once in an every once
032in in every six day cycle to identify and address the social and emotional needs of our students. This proactive team devises various strategies and interventions, including individual check-ins, checkouts, and innovative behavioral incentives that foster a positive school climate. When necessary, they also coordinate school-based counseling services to provide additional supports for students facing personal challenges. Moreover, our attendance team plays a crucial role in promoting positive attendance habits. Meeting quarterly, this team reviews attendance data to identify patterns such as chronic absences, late arrivals, or early dismissals. They actively communicate with families to emphasize the importance of consistent attendance and to address any barriers that may affect students ability to come to school regularly. Building strong partnerships with families during the primary years is vital by laying a foundation of good attendance that will carry through middle and
033high school, ultimately contributing to students academic success and overall well-being. Professional development. Supporting teachers through professional development, collaborative opportunities, and reflection on instructional practices is central to our mission each day. These efforts are aimed at promoting student growth and success. This year we have dedicated time and resources to the following learning opportunities. Assess 360 and NWA specifically the scoring and analyzing student performance. Tier 2 classroom supports for targeted small groupoup instruction. Ongoing professional development through BOSEIS and PNW Boseies and activities as mentioned by Dr. Kirkus in the past previous and upcoming superintendent conference days. Additionally, at the tier one level, our kindergarten and first grade teachers are implementing a new science curriculum called science 21 which is provided through Boseies. They are also attending workshops to help them understand and understand the curriculum and plan
034effective lessons. As previously as previously mentioned, our preK and third grade teachers are implementing the foundations program and participating in training sessions throughout the year. Through our commitment to the MTSS model and these collaborative efforts, we aim to create an inclusive and supportive educational environment that nurtures every child's growth and helps them reach their full potential. Thank you. And now I I hand it over to Helen, Miss Ken right now. And okay, I figured it out. Okay, wonderful. I was afraid I might not. Okay. Okay. We're moving from elementary to high school. High school MTSS looks different. We're dealing with teenagers. Dealing with teenagers. And that can't I so again we have to look every year and we analyze and see what's been happening and think of new and creative ways to address the needs
035that we're seeing on a yearly basis. So for example currently some of the MTSS supports at the high school are on this chart but some of them are for example if you look at number seven academic management 9th and 10th grade that's something that's come into being the last couple of years because we saw a need 9th grade study hall that's also something that is again we're doing this year meaning that trying to give ninth graders the idea that how they can use their study hall constructively rather than be so there's a little bit more structure. They're supposed to be doing their work. It's supposed to be quiet. And our hope is that they will see for themselves the benefit so that then when they move into 10th grade they have gotten some of those
036skills. We I can tell you that our ninth graders are seeing the benefit and recognizing, wow, I'm getting some of my homework done. I'm getting I'm able to work with a partner and we can work on one of our projects. So that's been a benefit. We also think again having clear and consistent expectations that's also important. So all of these things on here are some of the supports we have from the minute that students enter the high school. They are under the watchful eye of our counselors because really we're looking four years ahead. Our counselors want students to graduate within four years because we know they're very excited when they get to the high school, but by the time four years come, they're ready to go. We understand that and we don't take that personally.
037So the counselors are always the first line of defense to look and make sure that students have the courses that they need, that they understand what students post high school are, what if if they say they want to go to a particular college or they want a particular occupation, our counselors are advising them the types of courses they should take. the levels they should take, how they should challenge themselves. So, all of these things on this slide are some of the college and career readiness supports that we put into place. Even things like administering the PSAT in 9th grade, the preac in 10th grade, those are college and career readiness supports. Our counselors use that when they have their individual meetings with students to let them know what maybe they need to be focused on
038where what is an area of weakness that they have. Again, these are some of our college and career readiness. We're always looking at our classes. We're always looking at what we can add so that we support our students. types of data reviewed at the high school. Just this past faculty meeting, we had Joan Roberts, a member of the technology department, come to the high school faculty meeting to give teachers uh to give them again to remind them because when you don't use it all the time and over the summer how to access bars on the web, NWA data, how to drill down to the regions results, the standards that they cover to look at perhaps if there is a particular standard or question that our students did not do as well on so that that's
039a way that teachers can reflect on what they did last year and maybe that they have to cover something a little different. So she came and did that. We also look at our AP scores. We have grade level teams that look at that NWEA data to look at how students are performing from year to year. We also in our classroom observations, that's part of the data that we do as well. In the last couple of years, Mr. Titus, our assistant principal at the high school, has really taken on a leadership role on MTSS. So, every year, we're trying to tweak our system. We're trying to tweak how we do it to best support our students. Going, as Dr. Kirk has said, to professional developments. when our teachers go to professional developments coming back to our
040faculty meetings and department meetings sharing their learning last year when I did my observations I focused on our AIS classes I focused on our region's prep classes so that I could have a more robust idea and present that data back to the faculty of what we're seeing because we recognize that there are some students again who need some extra special help in some areas. So, we wanted to make sure that we were actually doing that. This year, Mr. Titus and I are going to focus on tier one strategies when we're doing our observations. Last year, we had our entire faculty work together to come up with tier one strategies that they are doing right now. We created a document of all tier one strategies that we see at the high school and tier 2 strategies
041that we see at the high school. then our teachers shared that with each other because for example I may be using something that Dr. Kirkus is not and we might be able to share some ideas and use it. This year Mr. Titus and I made a pledge to ourselves that when we go in as part of the observation process, we are going to specifically name those tier one strategies that we observe and in our post conferences talk about them and talk with the teachers about what they're using and what seems to be working for them and what they might need some help with. These are the support teams very similar to what you see at the elementary school. We have grades 9 and 10 IST team, grades 11 and 12 IST team. Those look at
042students at the 10 and fiveweek report cards to take a look and see what's going on to meet with the teachers and see how we can best support our students. We also have a student support team, our SST team. Really focusing more again just like elementary school on social emotional learning on students that may be having some difficulty and how we can support them because we know that when there are problems that are bothering students, they can't really focus on their learning and we have to try and do what we can. And finally, our attendance team. One of the things that we did, we know that if the best thing for students and learning is to be in front of a qualified teacher, well, the teachers are there, so we need to have the students
043there. And so every 10 weeks or you know, every 10 weeks, we send out to our entire um families where they are in terms of attendance. We decided to do something a little different on top of that. This year, our attendance team is focusing on unexcused absences. So, we know that New York State and actually the federal government defines a chronically absent student as 10%. That includes excused and unexcused. But we also recognize that students can be sick, that there can be reasons why they're not in school that's excused. We decided as a team to focus on those unexcused. Why are students not coming to school without a valid reason? Because we know when they don't come to school, that moves right into the social emotional. Now I come back to school, I'm lost. I
044don't know where I am. Now I start to see that there's a mountain of work. And so we're trying to work on we're meeting once a week. We're actually going to have parent meetings. We're actually sending letters that talk about percentages and then trying to see if we can maybe affect a more positive change. And we're also committed to if we see a positive change, sending something out about that as well. Hey, we sent you this letter, but now we see that since that time there's been none unexcused. So, we want to give the positive reinforcement as well. Again, this is something new this year that we're trying and we hope that we're going to have some success with that. Again, the purpose and goal of the student support team, we've had that at the
045high school for many, many years, just as in the elementary and middle school. We identify students who are experiencing social, emotional, behavioral challenges, and we try and find ways that we can support them. The purpose and goal of the instructional the IST team as I said before is to identify students who are failing two or more core courses. We bring the teachers together. We discuss tier one strategies and we hope from other teachers to come up with other strategies and then there's progress monitoring. And this is the team that Mr. Titus is taking the leadership role on and he's meeting with the teachers and has really spearheaded this over the last couple of years. What you sometimes find with high school students is at the fiveweek mark there might be some issues and then they
046have a oh no moment and then by the 10 week they kind of get it together. So we're hoping that we can our goal is to decrease the number of students who are failing those subjects. We began a pilot in 2324 and I have I think we've spoken about this before. We did it for grades 9 and 10. We were trying to see on a high school level how we could effectively do this with fidelity. In 2425 we continued it. We moved up to 11 and 12. We compiled the data. We identify students. Our teachers complete a form. It's shared and we hold meetings every 10 weeks. And now this year 2526, we are having all teachers considered members of the IST team. We're following and focusing really on the core areas ELA, social studies,
047math, science, and world language. And we're again having meetings held every 10 weeks. Last year we had teams of teachers, but then we don't want the same teachers missing instruction in classroom. That's always the push or pull because when you're taking teachers out of the classroom for these meetings, they're not having instruction in there. So now we're having all teachers considered members so that if I teach mathematics and I'll use Dr. Kirkus as an example. She's a student that's not doing well. I'm going to be seated right in the room that I can speak to what she's doing. Now, as we all know, Dr. Kirkus is a math teacher. It wouldn't be her. And this is again our goals because we're always looking at what our goal is. We're what we again we're implementing the
048toolkit of strategies. We developed it last year and Mr. Titus and I are actually incorporating that into our observation process. And then what is new is that we are going to be sending a letter home to parents and guardians. We had not done that before. Generally when a student is getting AIS or any service at the high school, our counselors reach out and usually are either by email or phone call or talking with them. But we thought that we should have an official letter that went home so that the parents could know that we're having these meetings. we're discussing it and then also some of the strategies that we're hoping will be incorporated so that they know as well. So that really is the that's really one of the biggest things that has changed for
049us this coming year that we'll be doing and that's that's where we are right now with the high school. Thank you. >> Thank you, Principal Count. I appreciate it very very much so. And before we we move on and there I'm sure may be questions from the board a couple of things that are really important and and this transcends K to2 and it really really is important. Um so it's a part of the job that school districts have to do and that's where there's been this big push over the last two three years with regards to MTSS and all school districts are involved with it is what we call child find. And what that means is the following. School districts have to have a solid MTSS program because we know that some students will struggle.
050Right? Remember if you we go back and we look at that triangle, okay? Um should be no more than 10 12%. when we start seeing 20 25% of our students that are struggling, then we need to take a look at some of what we're doing and what's happening. And I think it's a part of what you're going to see here tonight is the commitment from the elementary school at looking at a literacy program that the staff feels is a direction along with the administration to go in and then do it with fidelity. Part of what has to happen is that parents have to be involved from the beginning of the conversation. Right? So when we are doing these assessments, there needs to be a purpose behind it. Now let me just clarify some things. Each
051year we're looking at these assessments and we're saying, okay, what is most meaningful? Because one of the things we don't want to do is overassess students. We don't want teachers to be taking so much time away at the beginning of the year because they're doing all these assessments. So, what what's the bang for the buck? And how does that intertwine with what we're doing from a literacy point of view as we're moving forward? Once we identify a student, and this is the other thing, and to parents out there um at home, there has to be criteria, right? Every school district deals with what is that criteria for a child. based on what's happening in the classroom performance, looking at student work, what's happening with the data, and what is that criteria for your child to
052qualify for sometimes those AIS services. Remember, AIS should not or never be a lifetime program that your child is in. The goal of AIS is to go in, get that kind of further enforcement that you need, working with whoever that provider may be along with the classroom teacher. See, this is really important. It's a partnership. And I I it's nice to hear that at all levels we're really working with teachers to understand what does tier one look like in your classroom that goes along with the work that the reading teacher may be doing the as provider and then how we're progress monitoring the parent needs to be involved from the beginning of that process because if we're following child find and the child is not making that kind of progress after that six to eight
053weeks and there may be an additional dose and then after that they're not then the flow to the committee of special ed makes complete sense that's an important piece for everybody to understand and and the work that's being done and I compliment the elementary school because last year they sat down they talked about looking at programs they looked at a variety of programs they narrowed it down to two I want to let the community and the board know that I have been actively involved with Miss Salvage and having a conversation about the process because you'll see in her leadership in a couple of minutes of what she's doing. I was a part of a meeting last week um with a number of teachers as they were looking at a specific program. Um I was happy
054to see the interaction, the kind of questions about the purpose and where we're headed. I even asked for some clarifying questions. So, as I mentioned a number of meetings ago, this board is going to have to make a recommendation. Uh we're going to make a recommendation to you from Dr. Girkus and of course the elementary school based on the elementary school teachers thoughts and preference on where they want to go. But this is going to be a 3 to 5 year commitment and a substantial amount of money that has to go with professional development materials and the like. Right? And what I've mentioned before is we have to evaluate a program over three to five years. We can't look at it as a quick fix. We can't think it's going to happen overnight, but we
055have to make sure all of these things that we talked about, Il other things that are being done, those things have to be done with fidelity. I've had a conversation with the elementary administration. I've had a conversation with teachers. We have to look at scheduling next year, what that looks like as we schedule the building because all of these things work together. Because as was discussed by the high school principal, the ultimate goal is that yes, we understand that kids are not going to be at grade level, but it is so vitally important that we work when they're here in the elementary school because the time they get up to the middle and high when those gaps are larger and larger, that's when it becomes really problematic. So I know I spent some time kind
056of giving you an overview of it both to the board and to the public but that's the kind of work that is being done and it is being done thoughtfully not in a rushed manner. Uh questions are being asked uh protocols have to be established. Um dialogue needs to take place and then ultimately we'll get where we have to go. So I turn it back over to you uh Mr. President. Well, thank you very much for that. And uh with that said, I'll open up to the board if anybody has any comments or questions for um Mrs. Cow and Mrs. Rivas who just presented. And thank you, Mrs. C. Thank you, Mrs. Rivas, and to your team for putting that all together. Anybody would like to start us off with a comment or a question.
057>> Thank you both for your presentations. Um I think my question is probably more directed at elementary, but does impact at the high school, too. I know you spoke about parents. You talked about sort of the meetings you've been having in parent communication. I'm wondering um as we're moving through the year how we're thinking about commun communicating with parents on what they can be doing at home to support their children. We had talked even in the summer about you know sort of a long-term project of maybe working with families before kids are even in our prek and K classrooms. But just thinking about what we can do you know to help parents know what they can be doing at home to support the process. >> Thank you. That's a great question. Yeah, as I'm thinking
058about a few things. So, I know that um through my newsletter, I have I have subscribed to Parents First. Our parents are are first I can't remember the name of the subscription now. It's escaping me, of course, but that resource is for parents that has really great hands-on daily activities that parents can interact with their children and really make learning fun at home through activities at home through trips or car trips. And it really um that's one resource that I'm hoping that families are listening to this right now and that we'll make sure that they you know when they see that in the newsletter that in our uh parent square that they click on it. It really is a great resource. So I definitely ask parents to go there. Um at Miss Salvaji sends out
059monthly um literacy corner from her literacy corner. She has parent tips on reading. Um, so that's another area where parents can help in terms of just having a resource of, you know, I'm a parent. I'm not an educator, but I know I need to help and how can I support my child? So, those are two really good resources that I recommend. Um, in addition, I know our PTA does some really good stuff around literacy. We have a literacy night. So, that's an area where it's like fun activities where parents engage together with children. Um, and they do handinhand activities. Um, so that's another area. Um I'm happy to work with with our team to come up with more um you know perhaps a curriculum night or something that's more um in depth that I know
060a lot of the work that we do is around literacy because it isn't so important that by third grade all our students are on or above reading level um but again we have we do have math carnival that's something else that we do that's just engaging math games that that parents are involved and come and do with kids. Um, so those are the things that are come to mind right now, but again, I'm open to suggestions and I'm open to working with the team to see what else can we do as a community to help bring parents and kids together for these activities. >> So, Vice President Walsh, just to um cuz you're right, you're 100% correct. Um, we will be because I did mention this about um the importance of 0 to five and
061and moving forward. So myself, Miss Svaji, uh, Miss Feliciano, Miss Rivas, um, will be in the process of putting together a workshop night because one of the things, and I know, you know, my my administrators are are probably sick of hearing this, but it's the truth. Um, I have some real concerns, and it's K to 12 about stamina, okay, and how important that is in education and we've kind of, I think, need to get a better understanding of what that looks like K to 12. So I I think there's a night that will incorporate to your point um a lot of different areas and aspects that we need we need parents to clearly understand this is a partnership and it's important that we look at what some of these things are and what we can
062be able to do from a a stamina point of view from a reading and literacy point of view from a math point of view what are some of the things that parents can do a and then also have conversations with parents about what's developmentally appropriate for kids I I think we've lost sight this again is from a instructional point of view and a social emotional point of view. In some ways we lost sight of what is really developmentally appropriate and sometimes we're forcing kids to grow up sooner than they should be growing up because developmentally this is what kids sometimes do. And I think it's got to be a a whole package and I I think we have to do it in a very thoughtful manner. Um but it is something that we will definitely
063be doing uh probably during the month where things are not as hectic in January. Um, we're going to look to do something and and kind of, you know, wrap our heads around what that may look like. But you're right. I think it is something that would be helpful. And then we're going to work with Chris and his team because I always hear this. Well, Mr. D. Carlo, you're going to get the same parents that come to everything and the parents that you need to get are not going to be there. So, we're going to video it so that people can see it and and and be a part of it. So, a great comment. I don't want to lose sight of it. Back to you. You know, it's interesting. I think by the time students
064get to high school, many parents are think, "Okay, good. I don't have to worry about it." And nothing could be further than the truth. Particularly if students do not have well-developed executive function and academic good academic skills. And again, those are things in a perfect world that would be developed because they're really not curricular, right? It's not math, science. They would be developed by the time they get to high school. If and many of our students have them when we do our incoming ninth grade information night, we have every subject area talk about what is important for students in their particular subject area. what's what are the important skills for them to have and strategies. So we do do that. We can take a look at that and see if we can do a better
065job with that. But then the other piece is when students are really struggling that will generally be either a teacher, a counselor, social worker who will work with the student and the family to suggest use Michelle for an example. You know Michelle isn't doing her work. I know by high school you didn't think that you'd have to check Mrs. Rivas, but here's her agenda. Here's you should be checking. And if you cross off each thing until she develops those skills herself. So that's where when you think about the MTSS process, we do have some students who really need some more. Again, most of our students do come and have those, but you do see that. And I do think that parents even myself you get to the point where you don't remember chemistry. So you
066really need you might have taken it. You really that's the most important thing students need those executive function so that they're able to have that stamina when they're working on chemistry or physics because their parents may not be able to help them at that point. And um I just want to add something that we've talked about in terms of stamina and homework because we have had these conversations about what does that look like going transitioning from elementary to um middle and those are conversations that we are going to have and continue to have so that we're setting students up for success in terms of you know elementary it may just be 30 minutes of homework that students are used to but we want to make sure that when they come to a transition grade that
067it's not a shock that they're prepared, that they have that ability to focus and to stay, you know, to have that stamina to complete tasks and that they are age appropriate and developmentally appropriate. So, that's something that goes along with what you said, Dr. Carlo. >> Anyone else have a comment or a question? Mr. Tucci. >> Um, yeah. So, so thank you. I did um want to actually ask a little bit more about your comment Helen. Um I had um and maybe you know you don't have to like dive deep into it here but you know I appreciate um in the presentation that you highlighted that you're making time and space for students to you know be able to sit in a study hall and focus on additional work and and do these um you
068know and do these things right. um the academic management in nine and 10th. So, I was hoping that you could um share with us a little bit of what type of um I guess supports or aid uh is being offered to students that have, you know, executive functioning um deficits, maybe students that um that could have, you know, um a degree of ADHD where um you know, focusing is difficult. You know, you'd have if this is a study hall, maybe half of us, 60% of us would be able to self start and jump into it. And some of us have a difficult time getting started, figuring out what is the first thing that I tackle and how do I get, you know, my work done? How do I make this time productive? So, you started
069to talk about it with the executive functioning, but I wonder if there's more that you can share with us. >> Well, if you, for example, we have study skills at each grade level. Study skills is one of those courses that is specifically designed for students who really need help managing their assignments and their schoolwork. There's some reteing. There might be some studying before a test how to study because as we like as again one thing we talk about is studying for math is very different than studying for social studies than studying for science and studying or studying for a world language where really it is memorizing the vocabulary. So study skills is one of those classes. One of the reasons why we implemented an academic management again because we saw that there were some students
070who were not self-starters at all. They needed they needed somebody else to be their executive function. And so that's why it's only 9th and 10th right now. We're really hoping our goal is that we get students in 9th and 10th so by the time they're in 11th and 12th they do better. One year for example we did an afterchool homework that's what I spoke about earlier that we really analyze every year cohorts change societies change after COVID things changed we and so for a couple of years we had an afterchool homework and we had stu and again it was what they really needed was somebody to be their executive function somebody to sit with them and map out what they needed to do. Did they need to do the easy thing first so that they
071could feel successful and then move on to something else? Or did they need to do the harder thing when they had somebody there who could assist them and then remind them, okay, you've done this, now you have to finish that. And we had I'll remember we had a student who was in there for three years. And I will tell you, they don't always want to be in there when they first go. But if they stick with it, most students will give us that feedback afterwards that said they said this student said to a teacher his senior year, "You are the reason I graduated." Those are small successes, but we're a small school. So every one small success like that. when we do when we have AIS, we're lucky some of our AIS classes as well.
072Our AIS classes, again, teachers can be helping with a variety of subjects. You could be in AIS because we're we're very lucky because a parent says has reached out to a counselor to say, I think Helen needs more help. the student themselves can reach out to a counselor to say I'm lost and I don't I want to stay in this class and I need something additional or the teacher can. So it happens all those three ways there and when they're in AIS with a teacher the teacher is able to and that's again I can again that's why last year I specifically went in there Mimi is working on questions for the region. She didn't do well last year, but she's going to pass in January. And so, I'm working with her. Okay, Mimi, you know
073this. All right. Now, work on these two and I'll come back to you. Nala and Laura are in the same geometry class and having difficulty with transformations. So, I'm going to sit with them for a minute and work on it. So it really is individualized. We try and again that's where the study hall came from that. So we do try and put some of those things in there every year. We try and figure out again with the resources that we have how to do it >> right. No. So thank you. So I appreciate the difference between you know understanding content or processing information subject matter information but what you talked about which I think is you know super important. I was trying to get at is the skills acquisition, right? If a student is paralyzed,
074you know, when they look at a book, right? That skill that you you said they need somebody else to be their executive functioning. >> Correct. >> Right. There's a process, you know, inherent to you teach or sitting with that student where there is a skills transfer, right? where then eventually that student the goal I would imagine is that that student would learn that skill so that they can then be able to jump start themselves get that process going for themselves understand the best way that they can learn so that they can move forward and you know build the stamina and the resilience to be able to tackle this or any other task ultimately that's what I'm trying to understand how much of a focus there is in the supports or in the time and space
075that you're making at the high school to do that or deliberately across the board for all the students who may need it. Some may have the ability to do those things on their own. They've learned that throughout, but some don't. And for those students, right, to be able to um to be able to show them or quantify that they've made success in these areas. >> Correct. because our goal from 9th grade to 12th grade is we recognize that they're leaving. They need to be independent in whatever they are. So that's our goal for everybody because when 9th graders come in, they're a wide range, but there are some nth graders who need I mean who need some help. And then you're right, there are some students ADHD comes to mind. We're very lucky. Our school
076psychologist is really an expert in that. She's taught me a lot and so she's given different hints and works with teachers. A lot of that happens behind the scenes as well. So if a teacher will teacher will use the our resources as well, our counselors, our school psychologist, our social worker and ask for helpful hints for particular students. So that does happen because you're absolutely right. I'm not going with you to college. I can't be your executive function. Our goal is that you're going to be able or learn how to use the resources that you may need in college because you may need to utilize the writing center. You may need to utilize the tutoring center in high school in college rather. So, not being afraid to recognize I may still need some supports and
077that's okay. >> Thank you. Yeah. So ultimately the reason why I asked all these questions is that you know of those tests we have about 11 upwards of 11% of students across America that have ADHD that have been diagnosed with ADHD. Those are the ones that have been diagnosed right it could be higher. So those students um and the workshop that you talk about and teaching resilience and um you know and and helping with stamina and also the component in the home, right? Because we tend to think about sort of the life of the student in very compartmentalized ways, right? We're here at the school and here are the things that we're doing at school in that study hall period to help your son or daughter, right? your student, but then that student leaves here
078and they go home to in some instances a more structured environment, in some instances a not so structured environment. And that student will still have these challenges to face in that environment when they're tackling their homework, when they're studying for the exam, where they're looking to accomplish other things in their life. And so the workshop that you talk about Anthony I think um you know resonated with me because I think partnering with the families you know and giving them the tools helping the families themselves acquire the tools to be able to help their students in the home environment with the similar you know strategies that we're implementing in school is you know of the utmost importance at least from where I sit you know I hope maybe other board members agree I agree with you.
079>> Um, anyone else before I go to Mr. Tushi, I just want to say I love listening to you talk about that stuff, your knowledge and and all that with that. So, thank you for that whole question and back and forth. It's uh we're lucky to have you up here with that. So, uh, Keith, you want to say something as well? >> Sure. Um, I just want to say that I'm going to ask a lot of questions. You don't need to elaborate much as you normally do because just to save time. I appreciate the elaboration, but I want to try to get through them and I'm asking questions because honestly, I just want to understand more exactly what's happening. And there were some things that both of you said that was really interesting to me.
080So, who would like to start? You have more questions. I'm just letting you know up front. Is that okay? >> Go ahead. >> Okay. So, here we go. First thing when you say and I think you both said it when you say teams you said our team is working together can you just briefly tell me who that entails and I know the teams are different on your slide but is that including I'm assuming it's including administrators teachers AIS teachers everybody correct >> it depending on the team so attendance team has the nurse the guidance aid myself um sometimes a counselor who has more information about a student who you know why they may or may not be absent if there's family things that are happening um so the other team's seal teams is a school
081psychologist myself administrators um and our >> say that the team so the team five or six people five okay so okay yeah >> perfect um when you guys when you guys talked about we we started began looking at reading programs. I'm assuming that's the same as the team, right? It wasn't it was just it wasn't just one person. It was four or five people looking at I believe I think you're going to present the nine >> programs. There were more there were a bunch of people involved with that. Correct. >> Representatives from each grade level and Miss Svaji will definitely get into that. Yep. >> Awesome. Um the handbook, the MTSS handbook, that sounds amazing. Is that something that you you've developed this year? Correct. No, I have to just give accolades to our team
082here. Um, Miss, Miss Feliciano, Miss Alvaji, the AIS team. That's something that's um that was worked on mainly last summer, but it was a compilation of the work that led up to it. Looking at our resources, as I mentioned in the first slide, looking what what tier 2 and tier three resources are we actually using, are they effective? Looking at our tier one. So um all those resources um it just I kind of lost grasp. What was your question? >> That's okay. Is the handbook >> the handbook right? So the handbook is it specifically for teachers? Is it going to teachers? >> It's yes it's for for the entire school and through um pieces of the handbook because it is something that we are implementing this year. So pieces of the handbook have been shared
083such as the AIS um criteria eligibility such as the process for tier 2 interventions through EXL. Those things have been shared by Miss Filiciano through her weekly updates and also meeting with teachers. Teachers have questions. It's new. It's this year. We're only you know we're only in midocctober. So it's something that's part of the work for this year. >> So the the handbook is something you're you're still adding to it as the year goes on. Is it completed or is that >> it's a draft? >> It's definitely a draft just like the assessment and placement cal pacing calendars that we mentioned. >> We want teacher feedback and comments and all these documents have areas where the teachers can comment to provide their feedback because of course um they're the ones doing the work with children
084in the classroom. And sometimes it's very important to um to have all the accurate information of you know for example scheduling what does that look like and you know this schedule represents something but the reality is with other makerpace project lead the way do we really have 80 minutes of instructional time in literacy or 120 minutes if we're adding writing. So what does that look like? So, you know, sometimes things look good on paper and we have this, but we h we need feedback from teachers so that they can really say, you know, this is not working and this is why. Oh, that's great. Put that comment in there so that when we analyze and sit down and look at it as a team, we can make adjustments as needed or maybe we need to
085adjust our curriculum or maybe we need to adjust our pacing calendars or maybe we need to look at the time where step we're instructional time in the classroom. maybe transitions are taking too long or you know so so what what is the why behind these things so it's it doesn't it takes it's a collaborative effort and I have to say I'm very proud of the the great work that our teachers have done um going to PLC's and department meetings and listening to them and just you know just being part of that to just hear what their concerns are what what they're actually doing how they're looking and using the pacing calendar and um adjusting to students needs needs. I mean, it's it's it is a lot of work and um it's a lot of good
086work, but we know that it's going to um reap the the results that we want and it's work in progress >> in year one. >> Yeah. Trustee Tucci, I think what'll be great is for the board once Miss Feliciano and Miss Rivas have really gone through it with the staff and looked at that draft, we'll provide the board because it really is pretty comprehensive and you can get a better understanding of roles, responsibilities, and then who's doing what and it spells itself out. I think that would be helpful. Yeah, I appreciate I appreciate the fact that you guys are doing that because I think that's really important that >> I think especially with the elementary level is the AIS process >> that I know you've put so much work this summer into this, right? So,
087I'm just thinking of as a teacher that they have time for you to actually sit with them like real time, not a half hour, but maybe when the when the book is done and everything's that they have real understanding of how does a student in my class get identified and then receive the services for AIS, right? I know it's an ongoing process based on the summer work that you guys put in and you presented to us, but I think that's really important that teachers understand, okay, Johnny's receiving AIS services and I feel like Goan should be too. And I don't understand why one is receiving it and one isn't. And I know that this is a big change and you're putting a lot of effort into it. So, I would just like to encourage you
088as a board member to find time if it maybe it's a half day where you get some subs in and you sit with maybe all the first grade teachers when it's done and say we're going to explain to you exactly how the AIS process works, why certain kids are being placed into it, what progress monitoring we're using, why we're using. I know you're doing the Friday, you know, you mentioned the Friday. I think that's amazing because you're letting staff know look these are updates as we're working on things things are changing. Second piece and I'll stop talking and ask more questions. I think the parents need to also un when you after you've presented it to the teachers now we have to let the parents know because I think there there might be some obviously
089there's a lot of change going on. So a parent really should understand okay this is why your child is receiving AIS or was mentioned earlier this is why your child's coming out of AIS because these are the criteria they've met and this is the reason why and it's not oh they're being placed in AIS but there's no understanding there. >> Absolutely. >> So >> can we support that? Can we encourage that to give you guys time when you're ready to say, "Hey, we really need time." You're shaking your head. I know. I can see that. We really need time to sit with the staff to make sure they understand the process, understand why this has changed and all the work you've put into it because you guys have put so much work into this and
090I really appreciate it. You don't need to comment on that. Can I ask more questions unless you want to? You're welcome to. >> Go ahead. Keep going. are do you have or do you need do you feel like the time would be worth >> the time is not enough? It never is. And we're always searching for time. I mean, so I agree with you. I mean, absolutely. >> Awesome. Um, talked about meeting with the families to go over the NW NWEAS. When does that occur? individual it that comes out parents once a report went out um which was also during open house I I showed a video to families for both you know during uh both sessions for the K2 and um I'm sorry the the the primary and the upper elementary um conference days
091we I showed a video I gave a parent handout and told them you know that you're you will be receiving an NWA report and please reach chat with any questions. So those conversations are happening as we get emails or phone calls. Um and that is something that is we're in the process, right? So some we've had many conversations but um they haven't been I I would say maybe if I had to put a number just to say maybe 10, you know, >> that's more of an individual >> individualized. Yes. and they feel like they need >> parents might see a report and they look at it, they understand, they say, "Okay, they're doing fine." They see the the progress is every year it's it's, you know, they're progressing and there there are no questions and
092other families have questions. So, it's very individualized and it's one-on-one and we've, you know, as as parents need and we're always available for parents whenever they have any questions. >> That one um the PD talked about the professional development Um, I know you we have professional development days, but where are you are you finding the time to because like you said, I feel like there's never enough time, right, to go over what's been done, what's what's going on behind the scenes, giving staff, okay, this is what we're working on now. Is that done in faculty meetings and on top of the PD days or the pro the uh superintendent conference days >> in addition to so we have we use our monthly we have two monthly meetings a month our department meetings so that's when
093it occurs and also during I I I prefer to call them building team meetings because I I consider my building a team so I don't call them faculty meetings but I call them building team meetings and I really I language is important I think that really it's something cohesive that we do work together as a team and we do that monthly um we do that during department meetings and then PLC's um it's never enough PLC's are about 35 minutes um but we try to make the most of it we start so during our PLC's we'll start there's a lot of unpacking that's going on here right unpacking MTSC's processes unpacking assessment calendars unpacking placement calendars unpacking NWA reports looking at the literacy screeners looking at all the the two universal screeners that we're using. So
094there's a lot of time that that takes to analyze um notice wonder patterns and data. What does this mean now? How do I group these students? So all these so it's it is happening but it's happening in these pockets. I wish you know we have our superintendent conference. It was a full day and we're going to be doing some of that work really looking at our tier one literacy. Um, and so there are days in the past I have done half days, like you said, I've had half days and even full day PDS where I get a sub for grade levels. Obviously, I can't, you know, we have three resident subs and and so I can plan for throughout the um throughout the year. I can plan for half and full day professional development or
095time to actually to continue this work to go over the handbook. All that stuff is all all these things are essential to to go over and it's all like you like the MTSS is a framework. It's not just one thing. It's all those things and it it is a lot. Um but it's something that we are doing the work and we will continue to do the work and find the time. >> So you're devoting most of your these meeting times for MTSS. >> Yes. If I can just add really quickly, we are so fortunate to have a literacy coach, which you'll hear from um in a little bit, but um that's our professional development at Elbow for teachers to go, you know, our literacy coach goes in, does coaching cycles. She's run, and I don't
096mean to speak for Jen. She's probably gonna I'm sorry, probably talk about this, but um has run data meetings with teachers on how to unpack data. She recently um arranged for a professional development session for one of the programs we are piloting where we arranged subs to come in and the teachers came together. So I mean we are we're so fortunate and thank you to the board for the your continued support for our literacy coach. uh the work is tremendous and so valuable because we have that person on staff you know basically being pulled in many different directions but uh more importantly uh to provide atelbow support to teachers in the classroom that's the purpose of literatur you have I mean she can I I'll ask her when she gets up here but I feel
097like I know what's happening there and all the work you're doing with the with the programs the progress monitoring all the new programs the pilot program. There's a lot going on. Is she does she honestly have time to go coach teachers? And if she doesn't, that's okay. But I think it's important for us to know that if she's use because I know she's pulled in a lot of directions. She's not having the time. I think it's important for people to know this is why she's because she's doing so much of this work to get things going to get things in place so that then she will have time to then >> um this is a very unique year because of all of the the work we're trying to get done you know this year with
098MTSS and with you know selecting a literacy program. So yes I would say when I say stretched thin that's probably an a major understatement. Um, this is not typical how it typically is. It's just we have a lot going on right now. Um, I'm going to toot her horn. We have a fabulous um, literacy coach with a fabulous AIS team. They kind of work together in doing a lot of this work. So, um, yes, I agree. She is stretched thin. I think this is a very unique year that we're in. >> I appreciate you saying that because I think people people should know that, right? that because of everything and all the new programs you're putting in place, the progress monitoring, it's all great stuff, but it is a a unique year in that sense.
099So, thank you for sharing that. Uh, I think that I think that might be it. Oh, one other thing. Um, how are you assessing I understand the academic piece. How are you assessing the social emotional piece? cuz I know that's really difficult, right? To to really get a sense of when a kid is struggling. Sometimes they're not verbal about it or they're just quiet. Is there is there something we could do to support that or is there is there I know that you have social workers and people working with it, but is there a way of do you have a certain way of checking in? Is there other than the teachers just kind of assessing their their students, is there a particular >> Well, we one way that we can mostly it's teachers and you
100know reporting um sometimes it's parents that report to us if there's a student, but many times if it's um a social emotional behavioral need, we're already aware um for whatever reason. We do have we do have attendance data which speaks to it. Sometimes there is alignment between attendance data and discipline referral. So looking at our dis discipline data is very important as well because we can see patterns and trends in our discipline data. It's still early on but Miss Visiano and I already we kind of have a sense of when and who and and how things happen and occur. So we have a good pulse of the building. We have a very good pulse of the building and we know our students well. Um so you know knowing the teachers, knowing the families, having conversations
101and just addressing individual student needs with our SEAL team during these you know when we meet um during our six you know once in our six day cycle and and again it's not just once like we we meet in the hallway Miss Damu, Miss Linerella, Miss Feliciano and I were like yep we got this check in with this kid let's go down here let's just make sure they're doing okay. Like so we're we really are hands-on all the time with our students. Um, and I can't say that there's any one thing because each student's needs are so unique. So there's I thank you for for asking if there's anything that you can do to support. Um, I think our team is doing a great job and if there's anything in terms of resources. I know
102we have our our um second step our curriculum, our tier one curriculum which is a great program and Mrs. Dami does an amazing job of um implementing those lessons in the classroom and we try to make sure that we extend that learning outside of the classroom into the playground um during announcements to make sure that it's not just a oneandone. You're only hearing about kindness when Miss Damu comes in. You know, we're all speaking the same language. We all we give students tiger triumphs to recognize students and try to build that you know positive that PBIS that positive behavior intervention supports and system which you know tier our second step is part of we don't have a PBIS per se uh but that's something you know that maybe down the line we can uh but
103right now we do have and I don't if you want to come up and speak to that >> it's because the public needs to hear you at home. Okay, perfect. So, to answer your question, we have seal on a weekly basis and we also have Dr. Sweeney who meets with our psychologists districtwide and she meets with them as well very frequently. I believe it's on a once in a six day cycle, if not bi-weekly, to really discuss all those needs as well. We also will be sending out a survey to our entire district. All of our families that receive special education services or various services through counseling, they're going to receive a survey and that survey will support us and also it's a a survey that will be um submitted to the state so that
104we can also see what services and what um needs our community has. So to answer your question, this year alone, there are three mechanisms. Our meeting at the building level, which happens in each of the buildings, our psychologists are meeting with Dr. Sweeney, that happens districtwide, and then we have a survey this year. Okay. >> Thanks. How is the transition? I know Mrs. Gleason's not here. How is the transition? You said you're working a lot with transitioning from data to the different schools. Are you I you guys are doing a thousand things. I'm just curious how is that going? Is that progress >> data is transferred two ways. So this year we have RTIM that's through frontline. So this year any student that's receiving AIS their notes from our meetings their progress notes are now
105going to be able to be shared with the teachers. That's something new. So our in-house school teachers will be able to look at their students and see how they're growing through AIS. also when they go to middle school. So our fourth graders going to fifth grade, the middle school teachers will have access to everything that's happened in the elementary building that's happening this year. However, historically and last year, um Dr. Sweeney met with teachers. So, fourth graders going into fifth, eighth graders going into 9th. We have meetings and she facilitates those discussions to ensure that the incoming school receives pertinent data so they can support the student when they get there the following year. >> Great. >> And in addition, there are um transitional events that we have near the end of the year where
106uh Mrs. Ahern and Mrs. Dam you meet to discuss and plan for events to transition students from fourth to fifth and that's for all not just you know that's for all students. So that's in addition to what Miss Feliciano just mentioned. May I ask some high school questions? >> I'm just curious about a few things that were on your list. The DC Boseis Resilience Academy. Can you explain what that is? Of course, that is a program at Boseies at DC Boseies and it would have been called 10 years ago the alternative high school. >> Okay. >> But again, language matters and so there are some students who a traditional high school setting does not work for them. I will tell you that we had a student graduate last year who attended the resilience academy and
107graduated with the class last year from Pauling High School on the baseball field. if a student and sometimes you know students mature at different rates. So sometimes you may have a ninth or tth grader who you know is lolly gagging who didn't do what they should have. Then all of a sudden they recognize and there are numerous meetings by the way with parents with student with counselor social worker that they're not going to be graduating on time with their class. By offering the resilience academy, they are able to make up their work. If they're interested in also doing a trade or something, they can do that. And so we've had success. And again, we're a small school. not a lot of students, but if we have one student who may have dropped out or may
108have needed because if they find out they need a fifth year, it's not exciting to them, but they're able to graduate on time, that's a success. So, we always have to look at all of our resources. And by the way, what works for individual students, what works for one student doesn't work for another. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. the individual review meetings said, um, what do they look like? >> Our counselors have individual review meetings. They have meetings with they're just finishing up right now with freshmen. So, they will meet with they they have to by their standards meet with every student individually every year. That's a guidance >> and that's that's really our counselors who then meet to get to know each other to find out what they want to create a four-year
109plan. And during those meetings, they may be looking at preat results. They may be looking at preac. They may be asking what do you want to do? They might be asking as they get to be juniors and seniors. Okay. What colleges are you interested in? That type of thing. So that's that's a counseling. Yes, sir. >> What about strengths? Explorer for freshmen. >> That is something through the counselors as well. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. And probably through Naviance. >> Thank you. >> I don't >> Thank you both for and everyone for sharing. I appreciate it. >> Not apologize at all. I have one more question after you. Now I look like a bad guy cuz I'm going to bring them back up here. So you should apologize to me a little bit. I have one
110question. I promise. uh one general statement and then a and then a question I got off a couple I scratched off thanks to Mr. Tucci. So um I hope everybody's just really proud of the work that's being done sitting here. I'm incredibly proud in in just the role that I sit and occupy and um how much has been done the last calendar year plus is just tremendous. Um so to everybody that's sitting here tonight and and is part of this work beyond and at the schools um just a genuine thank you cuz I think we've come such a long way and it seems like you know as as superintendent said this takes time and uh I just see that we have such a positive path moving forward. So thank you all for that. I have
111one question uh Mrs. Rivas um you mentioned that connects to NWA and I was wondering in kind of Dr. Walsh's comment about how parents can help at home. Are students given a report with NWA and will automatically like populate with the recommended lesson or does the teacher do that or is can you just maybe talk about the connection between NWA and how kind of us parents can go in there and utilize that as a resource with data that says hey your son or daughter needs help in this area. I was really intrigued by your by your comment there. So it does, but the teacher does have to assign the lesson. So it's not a direct connection. Um I and I just, you know, thank you for recognizing our team. Before Miss Feliciano responds to that
112question, I do want to say that I have to recognize and we have here because our there are interventionists are here. Um, Miss Garrison, Miss Hickeyi, uh, Miss Hickeyi is our math interventionist, Miss Garrison is our reading interventionist, and Miss Alvaji and Miss Tercelli is also not here. They have been self many of them, not only have they taken and all this professional development, they're also self-taught. They It takes hours to like really understand these programs. And I know that's why our teachers, you know, like they're working with our teachers because their knowledge, they they're learning it themselves and then sharing and sitting with teachers to teach them. And I think that's, you know, that just goes, that's why I say we're such a great team and why we collaborate and do so well. And
113um so I just I just want to say thank you for all the work that you do. It does not go unnoticed. and um in you know and I know through Miss Vicino's update she's constantly celebrating and re really explicitly stating what's happening because I think like you said to your point Mr. Tucci if we don't say it then people don't know and there's assumptions that may be incorrect or not. So I think the the communication and clarity and transparency is so important so that everyone is aware oh wow you know they really are doing X and this one's doing this and this is how they're helping. So, um, I'll let Miss Feliciana answer the LL question. >> Okay. So, is a program that the district has as a whole for all of our students
114and it's something that we were really um looking into last year at the elementary school as a tool that we could use that one provides a diagnostic, two provides lessons, merges with various programs um like our math investigations program. It merges with that. It has a ton of different curriculum that you can um connect it with. Some of our teachers are using that platform as well to offer a supplement for their math program. Um and then we were looking at it because it also provides an enormous amount of data for us to see when children are on it, how long they're on it, and where they're growing and what proficiency we want them to be at to say you are an independent student that could work on this skill. So I asked that this is
115just a draft form of how we're going to begin to utilize. So we're using it this year by merging the NWA scores or results into the LL. So Miss Salvage worked really closely with NWA and our tech department to make sure that that could happen. So it has. So what happens is that when it merges it offers you all the areas of skills that students need to continue to work on either introduce it to them, develop that skill or reinforce the skill. So it's quite complicated in terms of being able to start looking at all of that if you're not trained in how to use. So IST our team this year is going to take on that barrier for teachers and what we're going to do is we're going to utilize NWA with the diagnostic
116and we are going to provide tier 2 supports for the students where typically you know many of you are teachers you provide the tier 2 you create the lessons you create that small group you create the center you figure out where that explicit instruction is going to happen that's something aside and apart from your typical conferencing with students and your typical skill and drill, right? So, we're taking that barrier away from teachers and we're going to create those lessons and then we're going to email teachers and say these are your students that have been identified as your tier 2 students based off of NWA and rather than you having to do all of this process because they're not trained yet and it's going to take time and this plan is going to be like a
117three-year plan and just last night in fairness to all the teachers they just received the roll out of what this will look like for the next three years for them as we gradually release that support from IST back into the classroom. Right? So many of them are still reading that roll out probably as I'm speaking right now or going into the email and saying let me look at that right now because they just literally received it. So what happens is they'll get an email from an IST provider and we will say this is your student. These are the lessons that we have put in their plan for them. They can continue to work on anything they want. Kids can take their login at home and work on games, work on enrichment. They could do whatever
118they want in ELA and math. We are going to utilize specifically for NWA to work on those targeted skills. And we're just going to ask for the teachers just to ensure that they have their their sensors during learning lab maybe two times six day cycle or three times in a six day cycle. Make sure they get on that to work on those specific skills from NWA. And then once in a cycle, our team, we're going to look at those students reports. We're going to see, are they on it? Are they going to be on there two times, three times, whatever we prescribed, and how are they doing? And as they get to proficiency, then we're going to share that data with the teachers. We're going to say here, here's how the students are doing. Now,
119if for whatever reason we're realizing the students not on or they're struggling, that's when we can deploy one of our IST interventionists or our literacy coach, depending on what we see. Is it a whole grade? Are several different teachers? Do we need to pull them together to kind of see how we could do something differently in the classroom because this isn't working? But again, this is a pilot and a draft that we're doing because we believe that this would be the next course of action for our students. So, this is going to take us about three years before we tell you if it worked or not. But I think it's something that families also wanted. I've had many conversations with many families asking about EXL. Even last year over the summer, many families have asked
120and sat in meetings with me, "What can we do to support our kids?" And we've said, "Here's your login. Here are some lessons." And they've done it over the summer. So, we're hearing from families that they like it. They want it. It's something they could do for 10, 15 minutes. Some families have their iPads with Wi-Fi on it and while on the sports field with their older siblings, the younger siblings are using it. So, this is something that we decided would be a really nice transition since parents are asking for it. And at the middle school level, there's um various test prep, so kids could study and practice. At the high school level, there's algebra regions prep on this on this platform, which is a huge opportunity for many kids that, you know, like to
121use a computer versus paper and pencil. Um, and it's an investment the district has made and we really want to take full advantage of it. >> Thank you so much. And for parents watching at home, uh, you that answer is incredible. I mean that's so great to hear all of that and the plan moving forward with that and um so thank you so much for all that. That was beyond informative and uh I think students are going to greatly benefit from everything you just said. So that is great and and thank you that note >> talking about stamina. >> Yeah, there we go. So Jen, Miss Salvage, would you come up please? Thank you so much and thank you for your patience and a lot of it leads into some of the work that you're
122doing. So thank you. >> Problem my pleasure. Good evening board and nice to meet you all. Um thank you to the B Pauling board of education, Mr. D. Carlo, Dr. Kirkus for having me here tonight to share um our journey at the elementary school in selecting a new ELA curriculum. Getting it ready. All right, so just a little bit about me for those of you I may not have formally met yet. My name is Jenny Salvage. I am the literacy coach at Pauling Elementary School if you haven't figured that out yet. Um, this is my 18th year of teaching and coaching experience. Uh, prior to this, I taught first grade, fourth grade, third grade. Um, and in my prior school, I was a data specialist, testing coordinator, 504 coordinator, and instructional coach all in one
123ball. Um, so I taught originally uh starting in the Yankee Stadium area of the Bronx and then moved to the Riverdale uh area of the Bronx and then I started at Pauling last year and I'm happy to be part of the Pauling family. So just a little bit about me. All right. So as many of you know last year Pauling Elementary School began implementation of foundations from kindergarten to 2 grade. So, foundations is a structured literacy program grounded in the science of reading that uses a multi-ensory approach to build those early literacy skills. We also began the use of Hegerty in first grade, expanding from kindergarten's previous use in order to build the essential skills like blending, manipulating sounds, segmenting in words. So these initiatives began these lines of communications amongst colleagues about the science
124of reading and how this shift is happening and how can we bring that into our school throughout the school year that those conversations began the shift to discuss our reading and writing programs that we currently had and how we can go ahead and essentially end our work with teachers college reading and writing and find a program that was more science of reading based for our students In January of 2025, the New York State Department of Education released a preK through third grade literacy best practices guide. And this tool is supposed to be used when reviewing literacy instruction. It provided a framework for looking at your instruction that you currently had in the building to ensure that it was scientifically based and evidence-based. During our March Superintendence Conference, here we go. During our uh March superintendent
125conference day, the staff at Pauling Elementary participated in both a self-reflective and collaborative session to review these best practices. Teachers sat with their grade teams to review New York State's overarching best practices and instructional instructional considerations for six reading skills and competencies. FMImic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, comprehension, and oral language. Using this tool, we as a school reflected on our current practices. Initially, we looked at it individually. What are we doing in our classrooms? As a team, what are we doing on our grades? And then as a school and we looked at the foundations, Heggerty and TC reading and writing. This began our groundwork for considering the ELA program pilot for this school year. And by the end of March, we decided that we were going to begin that search for a new
126literacy program. To begin this search, our next schoolwide meeting, the staff utilized the New York State's Department of Education curriculum review guide. So, this guide was provided to New York schools and districts to optionally evaluate evidence-based practices and their literacy programs using the New York State standards, science of reading principles, and review your current materials. So, we reviewed our materials with TC reading and writing to see if we were meeting the needs of all of our students based on this criteria by New York State, including supports for English language learners and students with disabilities. As a staff, we identified what we already had in our programs, but also what we still needed. So, the most important items that were on our wish list as a school became part of our wish list for our upcoming
127program, which included explicit writing instruction and more vocabulary opportunities. In April, Dr. Kirkus gathered information from Westchester and Duchess County districts on who was using what for phonics, for reading, and writing instruction while I researched all of the available programs out there. From there, I requested samples from programs that offered that explicit writing instruction because teachers across the grades felt like TC writing really lacked that true work with writing process, programs that offered more vocabulary work, and programs that were compatible with in order to align with our MTSS process. And we also considered programs that were us that were utilized widely in neighboring districts. In April, the pilot team was assembled consisting of teachers from kindergarten to fourth grade. We have Erica Silbert in kindergarten, Suzanne Melany in first grade, Jessica Hathorn and Marge Schweiser
128in second grade, Karina Mena and Riley Arnold in third grade, and Dyla Malone in fourth grade. Having a pilot team that spans from the lower elementary to the upper elementary allows us to better communicate to staff across the grades the successes and challenges of the piloting programs as well as giving us a a true vertical view and alignment from learning to read in K through two to reading tolearn in three and four. The sample list started with six programs. EL education, into reading, benchmark advance, CKLA, wit and wisdom, and bookworms. I sent a survey to pilot team members to gauge familiarity and interest in these initial six programs, but also to have an opportunity to suggest any other programs they may have been exposed to, that they knew about, or were interested in. As a
129result, we expanded to nine programs that I requested samples from adding open court my view literacy and wonders. Unfortunately, Wonders and L Education, EL Education never responded to multiple inquiries. So, instead, we requested samples from the seven and we were able to review those seven programs. The samples came in in two waves. So, we reviewed the first set of curriculums that came in, specifically focusing on the scope and sequence of each, the writing instruction, vocabulary, accessibility, and usability for teachers and students, and with a particular lens on their phonics components. How embedded was phonics in the program, and how explicitly was it taught? We utilized a brief warm and cool feedback protocol as we look through each program. So warm feedback meaning the pros of the program, general positive noticings, specific features or components that
130caught their interest, and cool feedback being concerns or cons around the program. Initially, teachers spent time engaging in individual exploration, just taking a look at the programs at their grade level and keeping in mind their current program at their grade level and instruction, but also looking at the print materials and the digital platforms. In June, we reviewed the second set of curriculum that came in following the same process as that initial set. So the so scope and sequence, writing instruction, so on. And we continued to use that warm and cool feedback protocol and began to eliminate programs that did not fit our needs. So we eliminated Savis My View because it felt very o cumbersome to navigate. There was a lot of jumping from one book to the next for a single lesson. CKLA was
131eliminated for two reasons. Not only was it unappealing and unengaging looking, but its phonics component was so interwoven into its reading and writing, it caused the conflict with our current implementation with foundations. Bookworms bookworms was eliminated as it lacked rigor and needed a lot of supplementing in order to give the lessons more depth. and Witten Wisdom was actually not sent to us as the company pushed us to their new curriculum, Arts and Letters, which was so new that they shared only one school was slated to implement it this school year and we were honestly looking for a program that was more researchbacked. Now that we had narrowed our programs to three, we wanted to share what we were looking at with all of our teachers. So, we set up the multi-purpose room and we gave
132teachers an opportunity to browse through the print materials over the course of a couple of weeks. We left chart papers hanging for teachers so that they could leave comments, questions, or any insight and information they may have known about the programs. For example, if they knew someone who was using it in another district, our pilot team met a third time, this time to focus on vertical alignment. As a team, we shared highlights and noticings, discussing how it flowed from one grade to the next, how did structure change, if at all, and we shared our experiences on the digital platforms. During this session, we eliminated open court. Those lessons felt overwhelming and did not flow as well as we hoped for both teachers and students when we reviewed a lesson vertically from kindergarten through fourth grade.
133And so, we were officially left with our two programs to pilot, Benchmark Advance and into reading. Benchmark Advance offered explicit writing instruction as well as vocabulary and it was available in EXL for additional student practice and it offered consistent various ENL support for each lesson. Into reading offered similar features but was also compelling for us to choose as it used it was used in a number of districts in Westchester and Duchess County and one of our piloting teachers had loosely taught a year of it as a push and support in her middle school. At the nope, okay, there we go. At the end of the school year, the pilot part team participated in demo presentations from both programs from both companies. These were very informative and they gave us a glimpse into our journey into
134the future. I reached out to both HM and Benchmark for client referrals and began to create a plan for summer work to prepare for this school year. That summer work included three hours of PD, both asynchronous and synchronous, as well as planning and preparation. Unfortunately, I will tell you that our planning was put on pause over the summer because due to unforeseen circumstances, our materials didn't arrive until the first week of September. With the school year behind us, Dr. Kirus, Mrs. Rivas, and I reached out to schools using into reading and benchmark. The team reviewed sample manuals navigating and locating resources and we made some key decisions about our implementation of our pilot programs in conjunction with our current phonics program foundations. So we decided foundations would absolutely be taught with fidelity and additionally the
135phonics components in both into reading and benchmark would not be removed and they would serve as additional exposure for our students. both both pilots their uh phonics components were not as in-depth and explicit instruction as foundations. We also decided that all assessment decisions would be discussed as a team and would match across the grades in structure and administration. I shared an optional graphic organizer to support teachers in wrapping their heads around the programs, its lessons, and its materials. Just a place to jot what instructional focuses would be for a lesson, key anchor charts that could be created, resources to pull like work maths or spelling cards, read alouds and text that were utilized, outlining student tasks to be completed, and just a place for teacher notes. In August, Dr. Kirkus, Mrs. Rivas, Mrs. Feliciano, and
136I met virtually with an elementary school in Spackenkill who is in their second year of into reading. Dr. Dr. Kirkus also met with an elementary school principal in Catskill using Benchmark. Both schools have agreed to host our team for a school visit this month. More on that in a little bit. Last month in September, the curriculum arrived just as we started the school year. We had our pilot team have planning meetings to prepare, ask questions, and and get ready to begin. And by September 12th, all of our teachers had begun their programs. This month we are still going strong and we have a lot of exciting opportunities ahead in this last week or so of October. So last week Benchmark provided our piloting team who are doing benchmark with a PD to reflect on their
137instruction so far as well as discuss opportunities for small groups. Tomorrow the entire piloting team will be visiting Hagen Elementary School in Spackenkill to meet with a team of teachers and discuss their successes and challenges with into reading. Next week, we will be visiting Catskill Elementary to observe benchmark in action in a lower elementary and upper elementary class. And over the next few weeks, the pilot team will be meeting after school from 3:45 to 4:45. And we'd love to extend the invitation to all of the board members to join us on any of these upcoming sessions. The first one is this week on Thursday, October 23rd. We'll gather key takeaways from both of our school visits to share with the rest of the PES staff. We'll collect new questions and plans for how we'll bring
138this new learning into our classrooms. And we'll also discuss assessment administration and content. On Monday, October 27th, we'll take time to check in and reflect on our units or unit thus far. How are they going? How is the pacing? What are some highlights? And what are some challenges? And we'll also work as a team to brainstorm how we can work through those challenges. Enrolling into November, we'll meet on Wednesday, November 5th, to use the literacy curriculum review guide, but in a simplified checklist to review our current piloting programs. And on Thursday, November 13th, we'll review data from our first unit assessment. To wrap up this presentation on our ELA pilot journey thus far, I'd like to share some of our future plans. During upcoming PLC's, grade teams will be looking at our pacing calendars, updating
139them with notes around what changes may need to be made, and we will spend some time on curriculum alignment and reflection. So, we'll review those unit one topics and skills across the pilot programs, any pros or cons, but we'll also align it to our current programs, whether that's into reading in another piloting classroom, benchmark foundations, and teachers college reading and writing. As I mentioned, we'll be briefly we'll be revisiting the literacy curriculum review guide in a simplified checklist to vet these programs that we're piloting and its alignment to New York State's recommendations while we're live and in action teaching it. And on November 10th for Superintendent's Conference Day, we will involve the full staff in a medley of opportunities to become more familiar with two the two piloting programs, including a full staff program overview
140presentation from both companies with our fifth grade team joining from the middle school. another opportunity to explore the print materials for all teachers and all staff will be given digital platform access. We'll also be looking at student work and having the pilot teacher share feedback and their thoughts so far. As you can see, we've had a busy eight months and there's much more to come. But I would like to take this moment to thank the piloting team who have truly put forth so much dedication and hard work into the process thus far. Each person has been open and forthcoming with questions, ideas, suggestions, and enthusiasm, which makes this work possible, intentional, and fruitful as we select our next ELA curriculum. Thank you for your time. Where are those 300 questions? I'm ready. >> She's looking
141in a general direction. >> In fairness, he said it on the way in. >> Um, thank you so much. And uh with that said, if anyone has any comments or or questions, >> I just have a comment. First, thank you all the presenters and as a non-educator, this was really really informative. Like I just really appreciate sort of the the >> the linear way that you just like sort of laid everything out as someone that is like really new to this. Um >> yeah, it was I thought it was really great. So what do the the piloting teachers in each grade? >> Yes. >> So they're doing all of this and they're regular, you know, >> and all their other subjects. Yes. >> And and so do you get other teachers comments too or is
142it just the piloting teachers? Is that >> comments about the program? Yes. So and right now a lot of the insights and feedback are from the piloting teachers because they're living it day by day. Um, but we have had these small opportunities where teachers can review the program materials be when we were in the process of selecting and then our superintendence conference day is truly meant to kind of get them all on the same playing field in terms of what these programs offer and how they're going in these classrooms. >> Thank you. And when do you make a determination like that? >> So, yes. So, we are piloting for a full school year. Um, and so as we're going through the school year, we'll start to dwindle down which one we're going to work towards.
143Um, both have some great pros, both have cons, as any program or curriculum, uh, does. Uh, but I'll be back in December, I believe, to give you more of a an idea of where we're at with that. So, yes. >> Hi. Thank you so much. This is all all like sounds so amazing. I was just curious, these two schools that you're visiting, um, how long have they been using these programs? >> Absolutely. So interreading is in their second year and benchmark I believe is in their second year but they are using the new version which is what we're piloting currently. So they just came out with a 2026 version and so they just kind of switched over to that. So it's their second year but kind of first year for that version. Um and then
144I was just curious as to um I guess you're getting a lot of feedback back from the teachers who are piloting. Um, is there anyone who's observing like these lessons in action for both like in our school currently? Yeah. So, not yet. So, the teachers are still kind of wrapping their heads around it. The lessons are taking longer to teach than what the program recommends just because they're getting familiar with all of the different materials. Um, even the way that the lessons are structured are very different. So, they are very much structured in those components of science of reading. So, there is a vocabulary section and a phonics section. And so right now it feels very kind of disjointed or choppy. And so part of what Benchmark came in for that team was to model
145a lesson to see what that looked like from a content specialist at Benchmark. And then we sat down and we reflected what does that look like right now when we're teaching it and see like where can we kind of smoothen it out or where are we making it kind of hard for ourselves where we don't have to. Um so right now no one is going into those rooms and kind of watching. Um, but they all know that I am available to co-e or model or step in and help out. Um, so I'm just kind of respecting their space until till they need me. >> Like if both if they all both love the programs that they're teaching, like how do we >> Yes. It becomes a little bit harder. Yes. One of the things that
146we do want to bring to our piloting team um that Mrs. Rivas and I were discussing um were inschool intervisitation. So having an opportunity at some point in the school year where other teachers could just pop in during um a period and see a lesson going on in the classrooms to kind of see what it might look like next year for them. So yeah. >> And do you know any other districts that are using these programs or just kind of these two that you know? >> Yes. So that we do have a full list and I'm happy to share if that's okay. I'm happy to share that with everyone. Um but we do have a list of all the schools that are using all of the different programs but specifically into reading and benchmark. Um
147I will be very candid. Benchmark is not one that you hear very often around here, even though their uh headquarters are in New Rashelle. Um, into reading is pretty much the one that you hear most about. Uh, but Benchmark had some really wonderful features and research behind it and so that's why it became one of our candidates to pilot. >> Yeah. You're welcome. >> You you said that there was there was one grade that's doing both programs, correct? >> There are two grades that are doing both programs. Yes. Yes. the second grade and the third grade. >> So, they're I'm just trying to wrap my head around trying to like your question if both of them I don't know how are they feeling. Are they both liking the programs that they're they're piloting right now
148or how is that going? >> You want me to give you a sneak peek to December? Um so, they so they do they enjoy it. Um it's different. It's a different structure than what we have done with our you know reading and writing workshop. Um we do enjoy the text and the materials from benchmark. Um into reading has some of its pros but it's it's proving to be a little bit more difficult um to kind of navigate and teach in one period in one day um one lesson. So when the two grades are teaching the two piloting programs, there's one teacher teaching interreading and one teaching benchmark. And so what we're going to do at these pilot piloting meetings after school is talk about how is it going on that grade. And the reason why
149second and third grade have both programs is because we wanted to be able to see um that transition from second to third grade, that learning to read to reading to learn. And so that's why they have both programs so that we could really kind of see how that transition happens. >> Are you finding the programs the the pacing calendar and the lessons themselves like the daily lessons are they pretty accurate if they say it's going to take 45 minutes to an hour? Is is it pretty consistent or is it >> So right now no they're taking longer than what the program recommends. So the both programs, yes, both programs. Um, but you know, learning curve, you're learning in a new program. It's kind of like feeling like a new teacher again, right? You're going home,
150you're reading through it, you're preparing. Um, but over time, it the expectation is that it will shorten. And based on what we've talked to with other teachers or other schools, initially it is a longer process and a longer teaching kind of getting used to before it starts to kind of really trim down and start to follow more of what the program recommends. >> Have they have the district Well, you're going to speak to them. I guess you haven't you haven't gone yet. >> No. >> Curious if they if they've seen progress with, you know, their their scores and their literacy in general. Right. So, I I'll be curious to know >> absolutely >> how they Yeah, >> thank you. That was great. >> No problem. My pleasure. >> And trustee Tucci, that's why I talked
151to you about scheduling for next year. >> We had an honest conversation about what the schedule will look like next year and and and time dedicated to reading, writing, and math, especially you know what that looks like K to2. So you know and how we can infuse science and social studies within the literacy. So we really are being very very honest trying conversations with the staff with myself with the team and I think that's important to also understand is that you know Dr. Girkus myself are being in, not that I can be in every single one of them, but being very thoughtful and being in these conversations and seeing it because you know what you heard tonight is a lot of time and dedication of the staff down at the elementary school to wanting to
152do something and do it in a right manner and so that whatever decision is made in December that everybody understands this is the direction that we're going in, right? Because the worst thing you could do is is is to go ahead and choose something and then everybody be splintered. Well, I didn't want this. I wanted that. They came together last year to say that we as a team are going to do the kind of work that we need to do behind the scenes, but whatever we decide to do, we're going to do it and we're going to do it with fidelity for the next 3 to 5 years and then take a look at what those results look like. So, to your you you know to you miss and the team, I've been down there,
153I've seen it, I've talked about it, and you know, it is a lot of work. is a time, but it's an investment in the future because as was said before, we get our kids to be able to, you know, read at the end of third grade, they can really start to take off. So, that's important. So, thank you to the team, Miss Rivas, uh, Miss Feliciana, for all your guidance behind the scenes. We appreciate it. Thank you. >> I ask you one more question. Are you feeling like, honestly, I'm talking about the coaching piece because I know you're you're doing a lot of other things. Are you feeling like you have enough time for that or is that, >> you know, honestly, how do you feel? Is it >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Are you shortened
154on that time because of everything else that's going on and >> getting into there and looking at the pilot program, talking to teachers? >> Absolutely. Yes. So, as Dr. Kirk has mentioned, this is a very unique year. Um, but yes, right now, especially, we're also didn't mention in the presentation because it didn't really apply, but we're also in the process of using Assess 360. Um and we're part of a validity validity study with that. So that was a new screener that focuses on the foundations of literacy. So phonics and phmic awareness for our K through four uh classes. And so that has taken quite a chunk of time. Um and a lot of meetings and data meetings and looking through data. Um so right now I haven't been able to go into classes as regularly
155as I would. Um, but now that things are, you know, they're es and flows in the school year and so as things start to kind of slow down with that can start the inside coaching. >> Is the process you going or are you kind of right now because you're so are you waiting for teachers to say, "Hey, would you like to come in or is it more is it kind of it works both ways?" >> It does. It work it works both ways. Yes. So there'll be some like for example new teachers I go in and I support I'll model lessons. um but also teachers who may have an interest in working on a particular instructional area or trying a new strategy, they reach out also and and can request and then we kind of
156do a coaching cycle together. >> No problem. >> Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> I just make a comment because I'm assuming that you're all probably getting ready to leave. So um so you know this was u a very thoughtful um vigorous you know discussion um I think everybody here is impressed with all of the work and commitment that you're all showing your energy your enthusiasm is you know comes through even this late in the evening so thank you all um I heard a couple of times from team members um say that words matter right? Like the words that we use around this stuff matter and and and I've been thinking about that and trying to figure out how to say this. I was going to wait until my comments, but
157I would like to say this when you're still here. So support is thrown around, you know, in every page in all of these documents. Support is a function, right? Support is something that we're providing. It is base level. Um I look at this and I think because everything that we're talking about is making kids successful right SST IST these are instructional support teams that is what we're doing that is the function that we're providing but what what we want is to achieve success right so student success teams or student support and success teams uh instructional success teams it helps reframe the way that we tackle setting objectives and strategies. I looked at the purpose page like on you know in the documents purpose to identify students who are failing to identify students who are considered
158chronically absent to identify students who are ex experiencing some level of challenge etc. Those are the things that are happening, right? And so the teams, the way that we talk about this stuff is focused often on remediating a a negative or something that is not right. And I understand that that is sort of the trigger what we're what we're looking at. But if we start to think about, you know, we're doing those things to help our students achieve success, you know, all of your energy, your focus, your enthusiasm is is powerful. It is in, you know, enlightening and it is um something that we all want to be able to, you know, champion, you know, moving forward. And so I just wanted to throw that out there for everybody to, you know, to think about,
159you know, what we're doing here, right? Like what we're doing is empowering success for every single one of our students. And every page in here talks about the things that we're doing to get there. And so the language that we use, you know, to sort of piggyback on on your insights is to maybe introduce some of that language, whether it's in these presentations or in the work that we're doing day in and day out. You know, you haven't been identified to receive a support because something is wrong with you. You've been, you know, selected, chosen to champion this idea forward that you can be a success, you know. Um anyway that you know I I that's all that I wanted to share around that. So, but trust or I want to piggyback on that because
160this goes sometime not said and it's really important with MTSS. It's not just for the student who needs support. It's also students who need to be challenged, right? So, that same can be put for students who need that challenge. there are things that we could be doing in that classroom during the course of the day to have those certain groups of kids to be challenged within the classroom because sometimes to your point we use the word support but it's support at all right and that's important for parents to also understand this is not just for those kids who may not be at grade level it's also for the kids who are at or above grade level and how we're supporting them that's very important because a lot of times that gets lost in translation and
161it's important for you as a board to understand and also the community because it that is that piece and also in the ranks it says it under MTSS it's not just for students it's also for those students who need that ex that additional challenge and that rigor as they go through the grade levels just want to clarify that so thank you all right so that does it for our presentations and now we go um next up is item number eight, the agenda order. So, I'm going to turn over to our district clerk, Laura, for any additions, deletion, changes. >> Sure. >> We actually uh don't have any, so we're we have no addendum. We're um good to good to move on. >> Perfect. So, it says the items with an asterric are items that the
162superintendent re recommends for the consent agenda. If any board member wishes to remove an item from the consent agenda, please do so at this time. A consent agenda is one vote, which approves all asterct items which have not previously been removed. Seeing nobody, I move uh resolve to approve the filing additions, deletions, changes, and order the agenda as presented. I'll make a motion. May I please have a second? Then all in favor of the agenda order. I that's unanimous. From there, we have our first visitor comments on agenda items only. Three minutes per person. >> Okay. So, on to item number 10, which is board remarks. Would any board member like to make any uh remarks this evening? Okay. And uh student board me member remarks. Um both are not here. Maybe just as a
163quick note while we're in public, maybe if we have an evening where we can see presentations maybe might be a little longer. Maybe we can move that part to the front, change the agenda. I I know that was uh I felt bad when she left, but um so maybe something we can do in the future if we foresee that uh presentations might take a little bit of a time uh time. So I turn it over to Dr. Dr. Walsh with board vice president comments. >> Good evening everyone. Uh there has been lots of excitement in our athletic department as um many of our sports teams have wrapped up their regular season. Despite the rain last night, our varsity boys soccer team had a great game for their pinkout. They had a nice crowd and they
164pulled off a four nothing win to wrap up their regular season. I believe the sectional schedule uh was probably coming out today, but not soon. Oh, okay. >> So, we are just I don't want to take your thunder away only because I have the update. So, the boys varsity um was the number six seed will be playing home. We have a home game Saturday at 11:00 a.m. versus Valhalla. So, just a footnote, if you look at the schedule, we have a football game that was originally scheduled for 1. That game is going to be moved back to two. So, on Saturday, there'll be the varsity sectional game at 11:00 at the stadium field. And then after that will be the last varsity game. that's their senior game and that'll be around 2 o'clock. >> Great.
165Thank you for that update. Um I also believe that is the first sectional soccer game we've had at home in a really long time. So congratulations to them. Uh at the same time that the soccer game was happening last night, our girls varsity volleyball team celebrated their senior night and they had a victory over Pikipsy. Girls field hockey is wrapping up with a scrimmage tomorrow and they also, I'm guessing, got their sectional seating today. Um as Mr. D. Carlos said the football game is now Saturday at 2. They're also having their senior game and their salute to service game. Um, and they will also move on to sectional play. Our boys and girls cross country teams had a great day at the coaches invitational this past Saturday at Bowden and they will be moving on
166to the state qualifier meet in two weeks. We this year had um several JV teams. Some years we don't have enough students to field JV teams and this year we had them in boys and girls soccer and girls volleyball. Um, we also had modified teams in all of our sports. So, there's a lot of athletic excitement to come. Make sure you're checking the athletic calendar. Winter sports are going to be here very soon. Lots has been going on in our schools. Head start with hello week uh that kicked off yesterday at the elementary school. They had an assembly. The students are looking forward to the pep rally. Thank you to the PTA for all their support of those efforts. The PTA is also sponsoring the very popular trunk or treat event this coming Friday um
167in the Pauling Elementary School parking lot. It's always really well organized, a really fun night. I would recommend all the elementary families check that out. The middle school student council is hosting their Halloween dance at the same time this Friday. The high school had a very successful career fair um the week of our last meeting. The feedback that I received from many students was very positive. Like Miss Callen mentioned, they administered the PSAT last week. The uh PAC will be ACT will be next week. And I know several of us here are looking forward to attending the National Honor Society induction which is next Thursday. And I'm told uh we are inducting a record number of members. So that's something to look forward to. Have a great week. >> Thank you, Dr. Walsh. Now we
168turn it over to Mr. Dala for a superintendent's comments. >> Yeah, I think I said enough tonight, but anyway, quickly, u I want to echo the sentiments of uh Vice President Walsh. The career day was absolutely amazing. I was able to to um see the last of the uh presentations, but then I got to sit and have lunch with some of the um presenters uh most of whom were actual graduates of Pauling High School. They were just absolutely enthralled. And then I got to sit and speak with students for about a good hour and they talked to me about their experience and some of the things that they'd like to see moving forward. It was a great event and I I think every year it's going to get bigger and bigger and it really fits
169into, you know, career readiness. So, it was a job well done by all. And then last but not least, I want to thank the parents at the elementary school. As you know, at the last board meeting, we talked about some adjustments for the morning arrival and uh they seem to be working out pretty well. A lot of positive comments about it. people have adjusted um along the way, but minimally um and it just goes to show you that when you kind of work together as a team with, you know, school administrators and parents for the safety and well-being of our our students, that's what it's all about. So, I would just want to thank everybody. So, back to you um Mr. President. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. And now we're on to our
170consent agenda. So be resolved that the board of education approves all asterct items as the consent agenda. I'll make a motion for that. May I please have a second? >> Second. >> And Michael seconds. And all in favor? >> I. That's unanimous. And on to the minutes. So be resolved that the board of education approve the minutes of the following meeting, the October 7th, 2025 meeting. I'll make a motion for that. May I please have a second? Shall. And all in favor of the minutes I. And that is unanimous as well. So now we go turning to what should be 19 board of education. Um not seeing anything at the end of that. So we can go to number 20 unfinished business which is our kind of bi-weekly superintendent search updates. So I wrote something
171up. I'll read it really quick for the public and uh some news to share in terms of our superintendent search. So uh thrilled to share an exciting update on our superintendent search. As of Friday, October 17th, this past Friday, the application uh is officially open for the next superintendent of our school district. In the coming days, advertisements will appear through school leadership jobs, which is a website with the national reach, and the New York State Council of School Superintendent, ensuring a robust local, regional, and national reach as we seek highly qualified candidates. Um, our district is also developing a comprehensive brochure that highlights Pauling's vision of academic excellence, community engagement, and student wellness and belonging to advertise ourselves to candidates and prospective candidates that are out there. Uh, as I said, this brochure will showcase
172our exceptional programs, our extensive offerings, and our beautiful facilities. again illustrating to candidates how Pauling provides the opportunities and choices of a larger district while preserving the close-knit personal connections that make our community and smaller school district so special. The application window, as I stated, opened up on Friday. It will remain open through the new year, allowing candidates ample time to prepare thoughtful responses, gather required materials, and present their strongest application. While the application period is active, our search consultants are working to schedule meetings with key stakeholder groups. These conversations will help guide the board of education in understanding what qualities our community values most in our next district leader. As details and dates are finalized regarding community surveys and community forums, we will actively share them through multiple channels to ensure broad participation. Actually
173just found out or we actually found out today that our community forum will be scheduled for December 1st. So obviously we're over a month out of that. We will most certainly uh advertise and speak to that again in our November board meetings. But something to think about on the calendar uh December 1st as a community forum date. Uh importantly and I think this is important to highlight when consultants are conducting these sessions. So these community forums um board members will not be in attendance. We want to create an environment where this feedback from our community members is as honest, transparent, open and just simply real as possible. And uh when we review results, we are only going to see data in group form, not from individual name. so we can make the best decisions for
174the community we serve. Uh this approach obviously helps keep feedback safe, confidential and truly open. So we welcome everyone's honest feedback and understand that you are not going to be in any way identified by name. It will simply be a group that you belong to. So a parent of a student, a community member, a uh educator, teacher, a staff member, etc. Okay. Uh we look forward to this collaborative process and to finding the next exceptional leader who will carry Pauling forward into the bright future ahead. So that's superintendent update and as per always uh if anyone like to add or or anything please feel free to do so. >> Zach I have a question about the forums. Um I know we got a what district wise had sent a message about that December 1st. Is
175that a one time is that a one-time forum? Is that is okay? >> Yep. So it's great clarification. So that forum is going to be a hybrid um most likely in probably this room based on the connectivity um where people can attend in person and if you cannot attend in person attend in person then you can also attend via a virtual link and one member from district-wise will be in this room conducting the forum um for everyone in person and another member of district-wise will be on the virtual uh zoom or whatever the platform is admittedly I don't know I think it is zoom but um and they will be able to host those breakout rooms and they'll be able to do some pretty interactive things with people who can only make the virtual component.
176So that community uh forum is tenatively scheduled right now I think pretty set in December 1st. >> Okay, great. And uh and obviously we'll advertise that that more so. >> Do we have translation planned for that? >> There should be translation for that. Yes. Good. And uh then other stakeholder meetings with say uh unions and with other groups will be scheduled over uh the next few weeks and and yeah um so great question. Thank you for the clarification. Um anybody else like to add anything say anything? All right. So I'll put that to the side and next we have uh new business and I'll turn it over to uh Trustee Kazak to lead a discussion about our uh community survey. Thank you. Um I just wanted to um just get a little conversation going about
177what district-wise sent us a survey. Jen made a couple of of copies. I'm sorry both of our printers were not behaving, but I was happy to um um take any suggestions about what maybe we want to see on the survey. And I'm happy to be a point person or you know can get those ideas to district-wise. I mean I thought they had good questions. there was about eight of them. Um I think there were some formatting things that we would want you um some of the um some things that I had written down um was that you know making sure that the survey was going to be offered in Spanish. Um being a little more consistent with sort of the scale of things. I thought maybe we needed a few more questions really focused on
178our students and the community. Um, just for an example, again, this is just a discussion, just some thoughts I had was like something about, you know, um, how can the district better serve all of our students academically, socially, emotionally? What should the new superintendent focus on to best support student success? What should a new superintendent know about our students and families in our community to serve them effectively? Just a couple of ideas. I'm I'm not married to anything. So, I just wanted to have a little dialogue. If there was anything um that we wanted to expand on or include, I'd be happy to be a point person and send that along to district-wise if that's helpful to to folks. >> Um, thank you. I think I I would like a little bit of time to
179review. Um, is there u like a dropped deadline for for comments from us? >> That's the survey they sent us. >> So, we're supposed to review this and then give >> It's not new. That's what they sent us last week. Yeah, >> but we're being asked to review and then give comments on the questions, add, enhance, delete, that type of stuff. >> Let's do that. So, that's a good clarifying question, too. So, as Liz said, if if you're okay with that, I think you being the point person would be great. And if anybody had additions, deletions, modifications in addition to the formatting and stuff she just shared, I think that um running it to Liz and Liz will kind of compile um that and send it to um you know the firm within the next
180>> maybe I mean just can we say by the end of the week? Um is that ample time do you think or >> Yeah. I I just wanted to kind of understand like did that we have a little bit of time to be able to review it and maybe get back to you and then I I would just only suggest that maybe before it goes that we all review it together so that we kind of like align hey you know what we like this we I'm not sure about that so you know so that this way everybody has some input even on the recommendations or suggestions that are being made. >> That sounds that sounds great. So before a final product, just to clarify, it's going to come back and then >> Yeah, I think
181that's sort of what I was thinking. >> Perfect. I think that's a good idea. >> Is there a time frame for them wanting the final product? >> So um yes and no. So um it's not as timesensitive, meaning this thing um usually how they run the survey um as was explained is that the survey will be open for as long as the application is open. Um, so the application runs through the new year and to give people enough opportunity to answer the survey and for us to advertise and to get a broad participation. Um, what I remember them saying was if we can open it by the first beginning of November, that would give two two months, two months plus in order to collect uh surveys. Now, with that said, it's also a busy time
182of year with Thanksgiving in in November and and the holiday break in December. So, I think the sooner we can get it out, the better, but there's definitely no we're not up against anything in in specific. >> If Sandro, if we want to Are you Are we thinking we have to have this probably done before the next board meeting? Correct. Would want to have it >> before. I'm not making a decision, but I would I think that would be a really good idea. I think if we can get Liz our feedback and she can compile that feedback and and create something and then just again make sure this works and people send their individual feedback to to Liz um just to make sure check it over and it it looks good before that final send
183I think you know by said the end of this week but early next week middle I mean you know we're not not time sensitive to anything but I think the sooner the better could be just >> thanks I know one thing you had said was that there's some questions that have scales but the scales were not consistent. So maybe either making them consistent or at least asking them why they're not consistent because I think you know one was like a scale of 1 to seven one was 1 to 10 >> and one was 1 to five. >> Yeah. So just for convenience for people that it's always the same. Also on the same sort of idea, if you take a look at questions one and two, like particularly one, it just select multiple, it might
184be a better idea to format that question as in like a prioritize, you know, rather than just checking ones. And then for a few of the questions where we're using scales to just answer simple questions, you know, there's opportunity to comment, but it might be a good idea. I don't know if kind of it a required part of the question or something like that just to provide some additional contra context because some of the questions are are >> share that. >> Does does the district have anybody who is um a researcher? somebody who has insight into how to construct surveys so that they could be implemented because we can all have you know a bunch of ideas for how to be able to ask the question to get certain responses but they may it may
185be difficult to then um collate answers. Um there's some open-ended questions right so if a thousand people answer an open-ended question um that is going to be very difficult to you know to tally right like there could be things that are left to the reader interpretation for you know what I what I perceive Mr. Tui to mean with this answer it falls in this bucket and maybe Dr. Walsh says something that to the reader sounds kind of and so they clumps or they clump that those two answers together, but really like they mean really different things or different qualities. And so I was asking to see if there was a resource that we could maybe talk to that could look at this and go, okay, ranking these or having a scale or these open questions
186maybe, you know, approach them differently. Um >> us the open question. So they're not as open maybe is what you're saying. >> Well, possibly. >> You know, it's it's a thought that that crossed my mind. I don't know what if the answer is yes or no to that. It would be helpful to hear from somebody that knows how to conduct research to tell us like no open-ended questions are okay but maybe ask them in this way or break this one question down into three different questions to assess you know or get clarity on the three different things that you're asking in that one question type thing. There's a few questions in there that kind of if you went to go answer them, you would kind of want to check every box like well of course
187we need that. That would you know an example would be for the folks listening like what are the you know desired characteristics of an incoming you know permanent superintendent you know and there's 10 options like I think most people would read that question and literally want to check every box. So probably you the formatting of some of the stuff is just like the data that we could glean from it would be very difficult to kind of >> I'm supervised with the the way the format the >> at a first glance and I apologize because I did not look at the survey previous but at a first glance tonight it's just some of the things that cross my mind. Um >> I mean my sense is that this is a survey that they have used know
188similarly in other districts multiple times. So, we could also ask what the I don't know that we've seen the we saw a snapshot, right, of what the bile data look like. I feel like they showed us a slide or something, but I don't know that we've seen it all in full, but >> well, you know, then that's that's a great point, right? So, we can ask, hey, like how do you report on these open-ended questions, right? Like how does that information get gathered and sorted and presented back to us so that it's useful, >> right? >> Yes. And I would say somebody from district-wise would have that information, right? I mean, this is what >> I mean, they could be the people that we go to just ask some of these clarifying questions to see
189if we're comfortable with those answers. And if we are, then we can just, you know, go through this and provide direct feedback, you know, to you. >> Do we want to then set a date to get back to Liz so that she has time to compile? And in the meantime, we can ask them a couple of those questions. I mean, this ought to work also with your schedule, right? But when would you like for us to be able to get back to you? I guess >> I think that we want we're going to ask districtwide some of these questions or did you I don't know a point person. I don't mind doing that or you want whatever. But but let's get some of those answers and I I don't know by when we get those
190answers a week. You don't like just just to see what >> Let's see when district Let's see when district wise gets back to us. I mean, they're responsive, but why don't we see what answers they could give us and then we'll you can let us know and then it'll be a week from then. >> That sounds good. >> Yeah. And then we still have a little bit of time. Today's 21st. Again, the original goal, I think, was beginning of November. I think that leaves us a little over a week and and not that we're set by that goal either way. So, um we just Yeah, I think that works. Uh I think that works great. So, we'll ask those clarifying questions um get a little bit of that feedback and all that and then from
191there get their get our feedback to Liz and then uh before anything is set out sent out, excuse me, we'll uh you know, we'll just double check and triple check everything and make sure everybody's feedback's taken into consideration. It looks good and yeah, >> because I'm not a survey developer. Like I just wanted to compile people's ideas like I'm not develop it. That's right. That's you're just going to send them a list and they're going to compile it. Yes. >> Yes. And and to Chen's point, they they most certainly have used what they've sent us, I'm sure, successfully. And and they've even spoken uh about, you know, the number of people you think you're going to get to to fill this out and stuff. And I hope we shatter that record by I hope we
192surprise the heck out of them with how many people are going to fill this out and the data that we collect. Um um so that's why I think we're taking our time and really making sure we have something that uh you know, really get some good data and is not just going through, oh, we did a survey, but actual meaningful data collection that we can really utilize. So, um, so let's do that. So, I think everybody's on the same page as far as asking the questions. Once we have that information, we'll set a time a week or so to get feedback back and before anything is sent out, we'll couple and triple check it. Cool. So, with that said, uh, we're on to our second visitor's comments, which unless Chris has anything to say, I
193think we're good. Um, and 23 board president comments. And what would you do if I just pulled out this like Santa Claus list of something to say right now? Like what would you do? How upset would you be? >> So long as Mr. Tucci can ask you questions about uh I uh I think I've said enough tonight as well. Um yeah, that's that's good. This this time's not about me. So we'll move on to adjourn the meeting if that's okay with everybody. Uh so be resolved that the board of education adjourn this meeting. The time is >> 41 p.m. >> 9:41. I'll make a motion. May I have a second? >> Second. >> And Michael second. And all in favor? >> I. Great. Have a great evening everybody. Thank you very much.