Live with the Superintendent

001[Music] hello everyone and Welcome to our proed team Rockstar for the first quarter of 2025 today we're at Glennwood Park Elementary School on the north side of town and we're meeting a very big team here but a very important team this is the lunch crew is that right Sarah yes and they prepare the lunches and the breakfasts for all of our students that come in uh to this school Jason uh you were one of the teams that one of the people that nominated this great team tell us a little bit about how they all come together and how it all works we just have that system and I mean and this all stemmed from Sarah's superviser doing her eval and in the evaluation told her you know you have such an awesome group of people

002out there working with you to the point where I don't have to come here that often cuz I know you guys are running well yeah you know and that's why I decided to put out the nomination for the team these guys the phenomenal thing about these guys is they once lunch is done they've got everything up cleaned and up and out of here like in like 10 minutes and it's they do and that's not me that's them like they do it and they work they work their tails off to get everything out because right afterwards we have a class coming in I think my favorite part is if you think about it like kindergarteners especially ones that hav g to pres school like they're having to learn learn how to navigate through a one for

003the first time so you see that progression from August to now and how they're so little but they're able to just do it on their own they drop their food every yeah the independence what they gain from just being able to like do it on their own is exciting Jason was talking but he hit on the point about connecting with students using this time to really connect with them emotionally and things like that can any of you share a time that maybe recently that you really connected with student you you could tell they needed that help there's kids who are sad and deal with grief and I've dealt with grief lately and I think there's been a couple year or a couple kids who have been like hey my grandma passed away yesterday or and

004they need us yeah or positive things in their life of hey I turned six today or I lost a tooth and that makes me want to pass out a little bit we're there for all those moments whether it's the devastating ones or whether it's the beautiful ones and in here when we have 10 15 minutes when we can talk yeah those are the moments where they grab us and they tell us us again the most random thing possible and it can be hey I got a horse for Christmas somebody told me today I was like dude it's like February so it was like during quiet time so I was like girl but then you know during that loud time they have a moment where I'm not working with kids constantly and they might say something

005random but they need us in that moment and they're not doing homework and they have all these adults walking around feeding them food taking care of them I came from another school and I did do the lunches so then I came here and I saw the system that they had like they had yeah and I was amazed by it yeah like that's pretty cool yep and that's why they're team Rockstar you walk in there and just spit right in and then keep you going and I think everyone of us is equal super important like if I see one of us is absent and I'm like oh no yeah it's not like one is more important than the other right it's like no we're missing that really key important but that's the thing is we all

006are important to it but I know that like I have to miss days and when I do miss days he steps up and she steps up and we all step up because again we're a team yeah yeah and it was cool when we first came here Jason's talking about what you guys do to really uh prepare these students and the food everybody's hungry every single day get these kids the nutrition they need help them with those straws to get them in the juice packs I saw that and it's not easy so we're so thankful for each one of you and what you do here each day uh Karen from proed Karen what do you have for the team we have a gift card for you to use for your team okay want to thank you

007guys this is awesome this is great that you guys we love doing the team it's neat how you guys do so much for the kids and that's a lot yeah that's a lot it is you guys had a lot to say for answer question [Music] good evening everyone Welcome to our March edition of live with the superintendent with uh Dr Daniel good evening Dr Daniel how are you tonight good evening good evening doing well thank you good so tonight we will have with us Elementary director John Key and secondary director Cara Froning uh and there they are hi guys hello hi and of course behind the scenes we have our digital content coordinator Steve Armstrong so thank you Steve for keeping us in line so um I guess we will just jump right in um

008it's been an eventful two days already this week um Dr Daniel do you want to start off with uh what our press conference was about yesterday and what we're helping parents and maybe others in the community can do absolutely so before I even get started I want to thank all the people that were part of the press conference I think we had over 40 people there and 40 people meaning we had our community leaders we had our CEO of Champions we had our representatives for our teachers from the Education Association to ISTA we had some government Representatives trustees council member um but we also had PTA and many PTA parents were there and even our representative of our president of PTA from Indianapolis uh visited us with us as well and you know it just

009again I I cannot tell you how important it is for us to come together and show this this Alliance um but I did want to share something that I had sent to numerous of our legislators last week and it is about again our what we're seeing in regards to our state budget and how it'll impact Fort Wayne Community Schools and so I'm just going to I know this letter is available on the website and we're going to get to that a little bit later but I would like to read this to you because it does emphasize again what is being discussed in Indianapolis and the impact it would have on Fort Wayne Community School so let me start here I'll just read it I wrote it dear legislators I'm writing to express my strong concerns

010regarding Senate bill one and Senate Bill 518 both of which are currently assigned to the house committee on Ways and Means which by the way there will be a meeting tomorrow at house Ways and Means uh to discuss moving forward these bills um there will be people representing public education down to have some testifying I'll be following that up on Thursday meeting with some key legislators um specifically about what's been coming out of the house ways and means committee meeting so anyway so while these bills may have well-intended goals they ultimately create a counterproductive situation that further strains essential Community Services while placing additional burden on property taxpayers Senate bill one aims to provide property tax relief yet it does so at the expense of vital funding for public services including schools if enacted Senate

011bill one would result in an ongoing loss in 2026 of $1.8 million then in 2027 an additional $4 million and then in 20 28 $6.6 million that's a total of $ 122.5 million for funding that is essential for meeting the needs and expectations of our families again that is just Fort Wayne Community Schools and this will impact many many districts across the state so it's just not Fort Wayne Community Schools this proposal comes at a time when operational costs for schools have surged with a high circuit breaker fort way Community Schools already allocates 114% of our operations fund to just three non-discretionary costs property and casual insurance transportation and utilities since 2020 Fort Wayne Community Schools has seen Property and Casualty Insurance costs Rise by 23% Transportation by 25% and utilities by 21% so therefore

012we reducing local Revenue through property tax cuts only exasperates these Financial pressures making increasingly difficult to maintain quality education and essential services to make matters even more is uncertain for our students and families fwcs sees only a 1.07% increase in tuition support from the state over the next two years under the house proposed budget so timeout let me just explain this a little bit so you'll hear in the media that there's a 2% increase per year in regards to support of Education in reality for us it's 1.0% increase over the next two years and we all know what the cost of living is we all know that everyone's increasing are having increase in cost so therefore it'll be very difficult for us to cover our current costs matter of fact I'll give you an example

013in our budget we have $23 million budgeted for special services I.E special education needs and services to our students and families last year alone that 23 million was not enough we had to add an additional six million so was up to $29 million where do we find the $6 million additional we take out the education fund and again this fund is not keeping up with the pace and they're actually decreasing the complexity funding formula part of the funding formula that factor they're decreasing that well we don't see our needs decreasing we see our needs increasing and so let me give you some examples for instance early learning language or um English learning language student these are students who are new to our community that may or may not have yet mastered the English language as

014you can imagine those students require special one-on-one interactions certainly small groups but when you have over 4500 of those students which we do that is a very costly service and those are actually being reduced that gives you an example so I'll go on with my letter at the same time Senate Bill 58 directly contradicts the intent of Senate bill one by shifting additional Financial burdens onto taxpayers so and I'm saying property taxpayers under current law Charter Schools receive funding through a dedicated line item in the state budget however Senate Bill 518 proposed is transferring that cost to local property taxpayers at a time when lawmakers are prioritizing property tax relief this would shift or this would shift or add an additional $2 million from Fort Wayne Community Schools to Charter Schools so if Charter Schools

015require additional funding it is our opinion the state should continue to be responsible for funding that that cost rather than increase in the financial strain on local taxpayers so therefore I said I respectfully urge you to propose Senate bill one and Senate Bill 518 in their current forms a more balanced approach is needed one that ensures tax relief efforts do not come at the expense of critical public services and that school F funding remains a shared State responsibility rather than an increased local burden so it is our goal to keep Cuts away from our classroom rooms and remember the education fund which is slated to receive a 1.07% increase will not keep Pace with cost of living this is how we pay for teachers and school building staff and in regards to our operation fund

016this will impact Transportation those Services outside of school buildings including Personnel the impact of the operational fund the impact on the operation fund will result in significant cuts and again we've been very firm in our intent or in a discussion we want these expenses to be the ones that will have to cut to meet these types of budget constraints we're trying to keep those as far away from students as possible I.E we need more El teachers we need more services to our special needs students not less so therefore this is something some thing that as we speak to our legislators and I do urge our parents to contact legislators and we're going to show you how to do that in just a second but you need to personalize it you need to make it a

017statement where it is coming from you as a parent not as a not from a superintendent they they hear this all the time from superintendent but I would like to sit down with them and say hey I totally understand property taxes skyrocketed because of the cost not actually because of our um our value of our homes increased rapidly well okay and I love to give you the example of hey my taxes were say they're at $1100 I'll just use a nice round number $100 now they've increased to 125 that's a significant increase I totally understand that and I'm asking well then let's not raise it to 125 let's raise it to say let's reduce that then back down to a number closer to that original 100 but any any additional funding in a district like

018Fort way Community Schools is highly needed and if I have to start sharing dollars with Charter Schools those same property tax dollars with Charter Schools that may not even reside in our district but yourx tax paying property tax paying dollars are going to them I think that needs to be that needs to be stated do you want that to happen do you think that's something that is good for your daughters your sons your neighbors your school district and I'm overwhelmingly convinced that is not good but we'll work with we'll work with our legislators we'll work with the governor trying to find what is that where's that happy place a medium if you will or median where we can go to yes we need some additional dollars but perhaps the increase in property tax dollars because

019of the value of homes increasing at such a rate we can go back down closer to where we were but surely we can't have Cuts in regards to reductions of where we were I'll tell you this and I didn't say this on the U during the press conference but if I look at all of our dollars that we're expecting to receive through property taxes we are actually anticipating $40 million less you don't make that up I mean you can't make that up in just cuts and my big question to our legislators has been if I can survive for three years and use our balances with which has been the big I just heard this from our governor we'll utilize those balances but what happens once those balances are gone what happens and what happens if

020I have an emergency such as a boiler goes out or a chiller goes out and now you're in a multi-million dollar repair process in that building how how are you going to manage that so what is that happy medium if you will in regards to what is a balance what is a healthy balance what is a essential balance and we're very much interested in having that discussion at this point in time so again Christa you may want to lead them then to maybe where we can get this information again I think is that where it is is that the link to our website okay yes that link will take you to the list of local legislators um it has their email addresses phone number mailing address um they're not their personal email addresses but they

021do get your message to their office and that's also in the chat below so if you um just want to click in the chat you can find it that way as well excellent and is there a ideal timeline that they would send messages to legislators I'm sorry I'm reading a text it was from shenita I'm thinking okay she need him must be on this and something going on so what was the question um so ideal timeline for sending messages to legislators there is a hearing tomorrow but we don't expect them to vote tomorrow is that right I I do not expect to vote tomorrow so we are hearing possibly a vote for next week so again this is what I'm hearing is this is this is something that wants to be moved through the legislators

022in a rather rapid fashion and I think you've read some things I've read some things where they do not want to come back for emergency session they do not want to do that so they're very eager to get this completed so I would say time is of essence I mean we need to we need to make these connections ASAP preferably I mean even if you could do it tonight while it's hot in your mind do it tonight and send them I sent I think probably um I used the same line the same message and I linked all I think I probably had 30 different legislators that I sent this to everyone that was on the house Ways and Means as well as other key Senators so I just sent one and I received answers from

023many thank you very very you know basically a a response to the a general response thank you for your message we were looking but they do keep track of these they do tick these off they do say hey 14 one nay one yay one nay so I think it is important for us to to do that um as quickly as possible if you can't do it tonight then do it in the next couple of days um because they will be discussing this it will be coming to a discussion on the house floor and then again the house and the Senate they'll come together and decide okay how do we create a budget for that will go to the governor and then the governor will have decide does he approve this or does he be and

024again the message has to be that we're on record that this is not good for public schools this is not good for schools this is not good for your local um your local services so that could be including you know you think of all the entities that survive off property taxes and again we're not saying that we have have to have this level but we are saying that the needs do exist and what is the longterm plan that's my big question what is the long-term plan okay thank you Christa so also on that website there with the local information um there is a button if you don't know who your legislator legislators are you can find out there you can send an email email to all of them or to any of them um but

025if you want to specifically send it to your representative and Senator um you can find it on there and then you can let them know that you are a taxpayer in your in their district and sometimes they pay attention to that a little bit more than if they just get a a general message yeah um so there's a a question about what exactly are we supposed to say in the email I would recommend um if you take a look at Dr Daniel's message you can see in there some specific dollar amounts that it that fwcs would be affected to those amounts um always be polite in your messages and as Dr Daniel said you know we are trying to come to a solution together um we do not expect that they won't do anything with

026property taxes they are going to do something um but we are just asking them to be aware of the impact that they're having anything else you would add Dr Daniel I think that's your spot on couldn't say it any clear thank you all right well if anybody else has questions about that throughout the evening and you want to post in the chat um we are monitoring that all right um so next topic we will bring carara in to talk about what is new in our middle and high schools hi good evening um just to share a little bit about what we have going on in our Freshman School sorry my camera is moving on me um sorry it is not and there's a lag on my end so it's like move yeah left and right

027are tricky well and it was lagging um so our Freshman School of success as most people are aware we um began our implementation of our schools of success this year in all of our high schools with our freshman teams so we have been meeting um with our freshman teams throughout the year and with our freshman administrators but if parents aren't totally aware of what is going on behind the scenes we are um our teachers are meeting weekly in teacher teams to plan Implement and also just work really closely in identifying students to celebrate or students who might need extra support in these teacher teams we had some exciting news today at Southside High School um our Southside team a team Blast from our house of Team blast they are in the final four of the

028national competition for our 3de case challenge with arbes yesterday we had two teams um they were announced as winners or in the final 10 I should say qualifiers we had a team from Northrup and then the same team from Southside who were in the final qualifiers yesterday so huge celebrations for our students as they um participate in our schools of success powered by 3de um we've had success in this Arby's competition before and once again we hope to bring home a win this year with Team Blast from Southside um we are also in implementation of or beginning implementation in our middle schools um with some teaming moving down to e8th grade and if you have an incoming sixth grader into one of our middle schools we have some scheduled orientation nights that I think we

029will um display right here um at many of our most all of our middle schools in the month of April where you can visit for an openhouse kind of forum with your students but also there will be um a meeting for parents to understand a little bit more about what middle school is now and it's very different um probably from when all of us um were in school we are at the stage now where by the time our sixth graders get to eighth grade they will all students will earn two high school credits that follow to high school preparing for colleges careers and pe1 those both align with the new diploma requirements also so students will get um a step ahead head as they enter high school so we're going to start those conversations in

030sixth grade so that you're fully aware of what opportunities are available for students in sixth seventh and eighth grade in Middle School that will further them in their path in our Fort Wayne Community Schools schools of success so lots of exciting things happening in high schools and middle schools today we had sat in all of our high schools great um attendants today thank you to Our Community Partners through ja who uh created remote learning opport unities for students who were at home in the n9th 10th and 12th grade so we have appreciated that partnership each year and um our SAT day is complete excellent Dr Daniel you spend some time in our schools from time to time what what are you excited about with our middle schools and high schools right now well again what

031what was just explained you're seeing teing coming to to together and you know we have had examples of that we've had that at new tech and we see what's happening in new tech when they have their teaming um you see it at amp lab but now we're seeing in our middle school and our high schools and we're just at the very beginning of this process but I will say when you start to see a cohort of teachers focusing on how do they make if they're working on say the case challenge or they're working on later as we saw in Hampton in h Norfolk Virginia where you start to see where whole cohorts as we've called them schools of success when those teachers Truly Come Together it is magical when you can start to see them

032okay we're on the same page we're understanding where here here's here's student a here's student B they start troubleshooting but they're truly a team and I think that is a very positive thing for our students and our parents when you have that consistency and yes freshmen have their own schools of success Freshman Academy but now we're ready to move into next year the 10th graders 11th grade and 12th graders the amount of professional learning that's been that's been taking place has been rather phenomenal and as I saw last year when we had a when we had a teacher in service day or where we had students with our teachers leading that inservice and the enthusiasm that current teachers had that had been implementing and the students leading that discussion I mean it was it was

033phenomenal it was it was a wonderful wonderful professional learning day and the enthusiasm as it was starting to spread to the other buildings so that's what I'm feeling right now that's what I'm seeing i' also say things such as you know as we look at our referendum that we've had for safer schools and seeing that implementation over the course of of this of this year um um I was just talking to a teacher this afternoon from Southside high school and how those students are very very in tune to we want positive constructive interactions we do not want students that are negatively interacting and you know for them to have a 100 and plus days of zero incidence they are very very proud of that and when there is a setback now you have students saying

034hey that is not what we do here at ssite this is not what we want this is not reflective of us so that's been pretty I mean that's been amazing to hear and to see so again going back to Senate bill one and Sen Bill 518 part of that Bill is saying we're going to share our referendums in the future okay I mean folks this is something that I don't know if we as a public understand the depth of this uh these proposals and how it's going to impact us as a public school system um we'll continue to fight the fight we'll continue to do what we need to do to raise our level of programming to have best programs for kids to have best experiences and I'll finish with this it is also amazing

035to see all high schools all freshman fully engaged in the Freshman schools of success with these case challenges and seeing our corporations and business people and other organizations coming in and working side by side with our kids and our teachers and how enthusiastic they have become and then seen like Cara was saying hearing that southside's one of the top four in this National Challenge and last year we had Northside who won it prior to that we had both Snider and Northside in the top four top well top 10 and and Snyder being a runner up so I mean it's been it's been very I'll just say invigorating to see what's been happening in this space and I know if I even go back down to the elementary level and I'm seeing what's happening with the

036volunteers coming into our elementary and I'm sure John's going to speak somewhat of this but it is amazing to see what's happening when we start having Volunteers in our buildings and how they're interacting with our students and how our students are very receptive and I think they're very appreciative because they are seeing that yes adults are here not just teachers not just principles but they're also Al Community people their volunteers coming in working side by side with teachers to help improve the academic success of our kids or to connect them to the real world and to connect them with various networks um IE businesses and I see that you know exploding at amplab we we always have had it with new tech and but in you know amp laabs on steroids in regards to this

037phenomenon so again seeing what's happening in this space we're not going to be perfect uh they going to be Implement imp implementation challenges we all know that um we'll need to come back and revise and and state okay we need to do this better fine that's wonderful but we're on a course of action and I think we're GNA continue to see things things symetric such as improved reading and improve literacy improve number of students on track to graduate in other words credits on track with credits and this whole evolution of Pathways that yes we have a new diploma and we as Fort Wayne Community Schools I've been asked will you host a work-based learning for the state and I'm like absolutely we have much we would like to share with other with other districts and

038and other leaders across the state we are we are so uh I'll just say I think we are very Advanced um because of all the work that's been done the prior two to three years to prepare us to be at this point and it's going to continue so again that's why we need more support from the state not less support and reward districts that are doing what you've asked us to do and doing it at a level of exception exceptional level um so there you go Christa sorry get me going but there we go of course that's great um you know to just to add to that I was at Lakeside Middle School um last week and a couple weeks before that and what I'm seeing there is so exciting uh they actually have a

039business class uh sort of marketing business uh class and they are learning how to do things like make stickers and so they've partnered with our technology department and they're going to make the stickers for our summer technology conference which is called ignited and so we're already seeing at the middle school level kids learning these fundamentals and these ideals um that will help them you know someday in a career they're also Lakeside is starting to partner with several nonprofits in the community so that students can understand what a nonprofit is how these entities help people in the community and that there are jobs at these uh types of places too so not just um you know not just corporations or you know the things that they may see in their daily life but there are things

040in the community that they could do to help others so I just I think the the middle schools people are going to see some really great things from our middle schools here in the next few years yeah and I I agree with you um and I think as you see kids more engaged and more intentional on what they're doing it's sort of uh they do mature um and behavior tends to improve because they are understanding they are knowing and yet they're still teenagers so they're still going to be teenagers and that also reminds me of what's been happening in the whole space with the Pearl Arts I mean I think there are probably over 200 of our students that are engaged at the Pearl Arts in regards to um musical lessons and that's all based

041on affordability and um Mr sarak has made that available to our students and I'm just thinking what other school district dist has these opportunities and that are truly moving the kids to these experiences and that's the difference I mean it's one thing to have an opportunity it's one thing to actually make it happen and I'm so pleased to see this this this this expansion um and even Steve Armstrong you talk to his with his team because he has a group of students they're the ones who help with our videos and so forth and you saw that with the uh at the very beginning just think though these kids are actually involved in helping incorporations like ash that wow what kind of experiences are our kids having that quite frankly no other student is having if

042they're not part of Fort Wayne Community Schools and it all starts way back in prek and we've been working on that space and I can't wait to hear John talk a little bit about what he's going to talk about because this is unique folks and we need to be celebrating these things and at least letting others know hey here are the opportunities here's what's happened in four wi Community Schools and by golly there's no place else you're going to get these kind type of experiences so and all starts prek so I'm ready to shift now Kristal over to John all right Steve let's bring John in there he is so John what do we have going on with prek um well first I just want Dr Daniel to look back let let's see it's reverse

043back here that Kurt cetti uh Indiana football uh poster back there because we are now a football school so I just want to put that on record we're now football so they do play tonight though this is it tonight they are playing tonight that that is true that's true uh so yeah so we have uh actually have quite a few things going on I want to start with our we have our um you know if you've been driving around town you should have noticed um some Billboards um we have some new Billboards up for our uh passport to prek um that's coming up on August or April 9th um from 5: to 7 um it's really exciting night um it's hosted at North side it's actually pretty funny um you pull up to it it

044has very much a carnival feel uh minus the bounce house so it's a onstop shop uh for parents to come in get their students signed up for prek um you and and and Kristen I'm not sure if they're getting the flyer through parents Square um how we're getting that flyer out because there are some changes this year that I do want to mention so on the right hand side of that flyer um you know it's high it says highlights and it shares there's probably five things um that's different from the past that we want parents to bring um and come prepared with um because one of the things we want to do this year in addition to getting registered for prek we want to make sure um that parents also sign up for for on

045my way prek um so that could help um get us some additional dollars to help with funding um but they are very uh specific about items they need for example um they need uh copies of all IDs for all adults in the household um they need birth certificates for all students in the household so some very specific items um that parents we want to make parents aware of um for them to bring so we can get them signed up for my we prek why we have them um there at North Side so I me again and that'll address you know we have opportunities for all of our students um in our in our attendance areas um to access our uh our prek our our top-notch prek program so we're really excited about that so that's

046the first thing we have coming here soon yeah so one thing well I'll say a couple things about prek first of all that cute little girl that you see on your screen there the little cartoon character that is prek Katie and she is our friend who teaches us all about what prek is like and if you go to our YouTube channel uh you can see several videos of prek Ky she also might pop up if you are uh if you have a child who watches uh cartoons on YouTube um she might pop up every once in a while because we are uh running some ads with her on YouTube so you can always go to our Channel though and watch all of her videos um and that is thanks to again Steve Armstrong and his

047interns uh they've been working on that and then the other thing um because the on my way prek portion is a little bit newer in terms of us wanting all of our families to apply for that um families who create their on my way account before they come to the event on April 9th we will have a special prize for them so when you come in and you you come through and and check in um if you already have that account set up then we will have something special for you um that application does not open until April 1st so we'll be posting some reminders about that but just if you do plan on coming uh watch out for that and that way you can have one thing done before you even walk in the

048door so John you may be mentioning this as well so we also have before school and after School programming with either the y or with Kinder Care which is um something that we're trying to provide in all of our schools so they've worked hard to come together to manage this uh again they also need this parent information to make it a very to quickly we want to get in the front of the line in regards to on my way prek f folks I'm just going to be very blunt we want to be on the front of the line to get those applications in so they can get down to Indianapolis and we can get approved because as John said that is a huge funding source which right now we're spending quite a bit of our

049dollars from title funding as well as the education fund to support those if we again are having these Cuts we need to find other revenue streams and on my way prek is one of those and we started it this year uh more intentional this year we've had it in the past but very intentional this year to start to see an increase in those applications so again providing funding for our prek programming that's how that's the only way we're going to be able to expand our prek and I think John we have like a th20 of our kids in prek but boy I know we have another thousand that could potentially utilize it because we do have some threee olds we get no funding for threey olds so there's no funding at three-y olds for at

050Bunch but we do get some on my way prek funding if we can get it and if we can't get it for on my way prek then we have to use other sources so it's a huge shot in the arm for us and I just want to I want to emphasize ize that that is a way to help us and we've been very we've been very specific with our with our legislators please do not cut on my way prek and they said they're going to hold that study and which we're very grateful and very appreciative of that but we need to get a major major portion of our eligible parents involved it will make it'll make a huge difference sorry John but I know you in that was my cue for on my way prek

051because you said PR you know you're in the passport to prek So yeah thank you for you're absolutely right no I agree and I appreciate you also bringing up the point uh We've expanded whyare and our Kinder Care so we have before and after uh school care and many of our buildings um we continue to expand that so that's also an opportunity for parents you know our working parents um who who need that additional you know don't have someone at home someone at home for uh to stay with students um so other opportunities so you know we try to create this kind of well-rounded support system if you will uh for our students um additionally we have so we have some changes coming um Arlington Elementary if you've driven down St Joe Center Road um

052in the last month you would have noted noticed on their signo front that they had a open house U uh on the 30th of January for uh stem introduction so um you know we've we've had some conversations about programming in the district um what opportunities do we have where might they be held and so ultimately landed on um looking into Project Lead the Way which we've worked with in the past um in our high schools uh and middle schools uh uh and wanted to explore their stem stem program and so uh Arlington Elementary will be um transitioning to a stem Focus school here for the fall of 2526 um but we did have an open house we wanted to get parents in an introduction to what stem could look like give uh students and parents

053an opportunity to kind of explore some um some activities if you will uh about what students will be able to do in the future um with the stem activities we're really focusing on P um Hands-On problem-based Solutions and and um exploration um that really feeds again um as Dr Daniel mentioned earlier um really feeds into our school's success um and our pathway so um early introduction into that and also um through recent Renovations with Arlington we realized that I don't know we probably utilize about 60% of the classroom space here so there is a um we have a lot of room a lot of seats um to expand um our enrollment here so um and then and then again just in this in this area in their attendance area um you know we have Stu

054we have families that are looking at different opportunities in terms of education for their children but uh we quite but honestly we really want them to take a look at Arlington there's um great teachers here I think what they're going to do with stem is super exciting um and so you know we have opportunities for some open houses uh some um visits if people want to set up a tour um to come in um and walk the Halls meet the administrators so we are we have started to make some administrative and some staff changes already um we'll have new administrators uh new principal and assistant principal um after spring break because we really want to get the ball rolling with programming for stem so Dr Derek linger and Dr Caroline Rosado will come over Caroline's

055already started Dr D uh Dr ler from Glennwood Park will be here after um spring break and then Mr Kirby who was currently here he'll be transitioning over to Glennwood so um and so from there they're just going to work on programming um working with project Le way and then our curriculum Department to start working on those modules us so we can get up and running so that's just really exciting um um giving students an opportunity to think differently and learn differently which again leads into our our schools of success uh and our model that we just really want to make students um College and Career ready um no matter what they do we want to make sure they're prepared so that's super exciting for Arlington and then so we have our summer um summer

056programs so we'll start we have our reading Camp um and that will happen over the first two weeks of Summer um and that will be for our second and third grade students um and this is directly related to our I assessment uh which actually that window just opened yesterday so if you don't know we have our I three literacy assessment so um there's an expectation that all students um by third grade are reading at grade level so that is what this test measures um recent changes in legislation um kind of push that down to second graders so starting last year or last two years we had an opportunity for second graders uh to take it as well um if they pass it at second grade they're done um if not they'll continue to get remediation

057um literacy support and instruction and they'll take it again in third grade and so um so we just started that this week um and so if at the end of this first administration of the assessment which will be over the next two weeks we have students who uh do not pass it um with a score of 446 then they'll have an opportunity for additional uh intervention remediation at school we have schools who've been utilizing after school tutoring um small group instruction you name it um we've been providing it we really it's important it's a it's one of our primary goals is literacy and for students to be reading at grade level and we we know the long-term effects um for students who are not reading at grade level um and the additional challenges that that

058end up um end up happening that they have to endure and experience um as they continue to struggle so that'll be O So then we'll move to that sum program for those students and it will be available at every Elementary School except bunch and young because they don't have their Early Childhood Center so they don't have third second or third grade um and U there could be a couple of adjustments we're still waiting to clarify with maintenance operations to see if they have huge projects um that we might have to shift some students but right now it's looking like we can offer it at every site um so again opportunities to remediate um really focus on literacy uh you know and I know schools have been talking to parents about implications um you know and

059this one does have some pretty big implications if students by the end of the summer assessment unless they're special you know they have an IEP or an ILP because they're English language learner there are some um you know some some possible retention um aspects that could fall into place for a third grader so second grader if you don't pass it you have another opportunity for third but a third grader without exceptions you could potentially be retained in third grade for the following school year for the 25 26 so um so we've been having these conversations with parents schools have been sharing and again we've been doing a lot of work just to make sure students are prepared and reading at grade level um and so again we know that's significant and that's a significant data

060point um so let's see what else we have so okay we also have our Camp invention um I call it camp Camp Discovery it's not Camp Discovery anymore um Camp invention so that's for our students who are tag High ability um and as you can see that runs in June we have three weeks of it um of the program the first two weeks is at St Joe Central um one week at a time different groups of students there and um it's essentially a full day and that's funded through our literacy Grant or I'm sorry through our ear um High ability Grant and so um great opportunity for students to do really creative um projects again projects uh Hands-On challenges their thinking and allows students the opportunity to just kind of think outside the box and

061do some work uh and and some fun learning in a non-traditional way um that'll be hosted at St Joe Central and Weiser Park so again that's for students who are already tagged um High ability and then we have um our extended school year program um esy and that's for our students who um through case conference decision um based on their IEPs um it's determined that um that's a good opportunity for them to um so they may perhaps don't experience the same amount of Summer loss um and allows them to continue to work on their goals that they've been working on for the school year so again that's a case conference decision um between the committee the parents um the teacher teacher of record so um so those are the days that's the location and so

062parents should be getting more information around that as we're heading into our spring our annual case conferences um which I believe have already started actually um so more information for parents um regarding that and then lastly we have our kindergarten kindergarten countdown um and so we have that at several locations and that's in um first week of July through the end of July and that really gives us gives us an opportunity for students who may not have had a prek experience um to just get a jump start um for you know how do you do school essentially you know how do you you know what does a school day look like um because we do have students you know automatically they start school they don't have those experiences and they it takes them some time

063to figure out hey what's what's this whole school thing about what you mean stand in a line you mean we have restroom breaks a certain time we have to have protocols for snacks and restroom and you mean I have to sit for a certain period of time for learning so you know all of these things that are critical and building block skills that we want them uh we want students to experience before we start so again that's at um those identified schools um and uh it's just a really good opportunity a fun opportunity for students to just get that jump start I know one of the things um and if they're in their they're in their current school and they happen to have one of those kindergarten teachers um to start the school year they

064end up being leaders immediately from day one because they understand those expectations for kindergarten how to do school and so they can help their classmates um who may not have had those experiences in the past so um just a great opportunity for us and um yeah yeah we're ready to go so as you can see we've done a lot of work to get ready for the summer already so and it's what is today March what so U so we have some time yeah exactly so to um fine-tune those and I imagine you know there may be a few other things uh as the spring progresses great yeah that's a lot going on stuff um and I do want I do will say as Dr Daniel talked about those School the school Success and the one

065of the things that um you know high school and middle school have been working on this a while Elementary we've tried to we've been trying to figure out like what does this look like for us um you know for our Young Learners who may not fully understand you know some of this some of these Concepts might be above them so we've started to talk about guaranteed experiences is what we've decided to lean into and so essentially we we started with looking at you know what are some historical field trips um that we've done at the elementary level and then how do we tie that uh into schools of success and so you know for example third for example third graders um they go to you know our safety Village survive alive um and learn about

066fire safety and so you know what so what are as we started to talk about that you know students have an opportunity to learn about um firefighters um First Responders um you know so then and from there they can kind of take that learning back to the school what you know it's related to human human health services and can we bring a firefighter into the school what does that look like what's required of them what is you know what kind of schooling what kind of training do they need what is the equipment they use um and so we've started to take a look at that so we've identified guaranteed experiences for each for K through five um and and prek does a lot of Hands-On and learning about our society and our community already um

067but we've identified early on um some of those experiences for all of our K5 students so right away um they have those opportunities to to jump into the guaranteed experiences to bridge um that gap between schools of success and what it looks like at a high school all the way down to the elementary level and at the elementary level I love that we call our the kids um the Explorers so if if anybody's been in our buildings and at the high school level they'll see portrait of a graduate um but at elementary they see portrait of an Explorer and middle school is Portrait of a connector and I just think those names are really fitting for each level all right so um we don't have any questions that I'm seeing in the chat tonight um

068so I'm going to run over just a a few upcoming important dates um we have our third quarter break on March 14th so no school all buildings are closed everyone gets the day off um Sometimes some of our staff thinks that they are working that day but that is actually a day when the entire district is closed and then that following Monday is one of our staff training days or waiver days as some people call them um so students will not be in the buildings on that day but staff will be working so for students they have a a 4-day weekend um that week that weekend and then spring break is just a few weeks later uh March 31st to April 4th and today our staff and families should have received an email with our

069annual survey so uh families if you received that please fill that out you can fill it out um if you want to fill it out more than once you are welcome to fill it out for each school that you have children attending um if you just want to fill it out once we will take that too uh we just we really want to hear your voice we use that data um to make improvements and to make sure that we are on the right track with things so please fill that out Dr Daniel anything else you want to add tonight no I think this has been a great great Facebook live and appreciate both Cara and John being here and you and Steve thank you for all the work you're doing with behind the scenes and

070your kids uh again hey we need your support so if you can write that letter write that letter text sometime tonight uh IU doesn't play till nine o'clock John so so you got time yeah yeah yeah I might need an extra cup of coffee tomorrow yeah and again appreciate all of our parents uh I think it's been a fabulous year and again we're almost three4 the way so um keep engaging with us and keep reading to your kids thank you have a good night thank you everyone good night [Music]