001all right check that feed again Christa yeah there we go all right [Music] good evening everyone Welcome to our live with the superintendent and we are now broadcasting not just on Facebook but we are live super feedback going on here and we are now broadcasting not just oh this is just isn't it okay sorry about that so we have a new platform and we're all learning how to adjust to this so anyway so we are uh not only on Facebook we are now on Twitter as well and we are excited to be here so Dr Daniel good evening how are you I'm well thank you all right so to start off with uh we have couple of guests who will be joining us um we have John Key who is an elementary director and car
002Froning who is a secondary director which means she oversees middle and high schools so to start us off uh Dr Daniel do you just want to give us an update on how the school year is going so far well I can say that what are we into now almost one and a half months um so surprisingly how fast it's already flying by um I think an excellent start I think uh you know we're surprised with some of our enrollment specifically our elll students so we're in the process of hiring an additional nine teachers to support those students which which means uh again a growing population for our students of uh again uh students who may not have a native language of uh English but still coming to our schools and again that's the power of
003fortway community schools we serve all students and hopefully meet all their needs um as you know we've been working hard in filling teacher positions we still have some available um but we've been uh at a good pace of filling those positions however because of the nine additional that ring with elll um we're still you know we're down around 46 teachers of need which is about 20 less than what we've had in the past but we're still working on that second of all uh bus drivers were ever in need of bus drivers and I'm grateful that we have approximately L 11 that are in the pipeline um some who have started this very week because again Transportation hinges on on drivers and the more drivers we have the more we can expand also our afternoon programming
004and our co-curricular so again we're wanting to do those things and we're needing staff to do that but uh so I will say as you look at overall I think the adjustment to the new time has been rather seamless um yes it's it's early now again for the high school students but Middle School is where they were and I believe Elementary jumped up about a half an hour so um overall though looking and seeing what the students are doing and you know some of the the great things that are happening in our classrooms it's truly been amazing you've seen if you haven't read the paper you know we had our one of our first robotics competitions we have Esports going of course we have all the traditional Sports and marching band and things like that
005that are happening again I can't stress enough if students get involved into some type of activity and it could be any type of activity it greatly enhances their their uh their K through 12 experience so we do encourage that and we've had some record numbers in regards to Elementary and the cross country participation um so really excited about what actually what's happening um and as I've had conversations with superintendents around the country you know I feel as if we're very fortunate for the programming that we have for the building bus that we have and the fact that we are after you know our goal is to even make our school safer and so therefore the referendum that's coming up on November 7th again it's all about having safer schools so you know as we add
006more Specialists be the student advocates in our buildings and as they walk the hallways and and develop relationships with students but also increasing student resource officers um it's all about relationships but even adding again mental health therapists license therapists in our buildings which we're very fortunate knock on would we received a grant the grant is paying for the repen ship and then we hoped that the referendum would then pay for their actual employment so um as we looked at the buildings and there are still some vestibules that are under construction um in particular particular last night with our teachers we had Lakeside you know what's going on with that intercom system and we're um happily able to report that uh that project's near completion so that should be done very soon so very pleased with
007that um we have some other construction projects that are still in full blow Phil full go and those will happen throughout the year so those you have student out Wayne High School you know what's happening in that space But again we're doing it as quickly as possible so very glad even with what we had temperature- wise today that in all buildings now we're air conditioned uh first time in the history of fortway Community Schools so I want to thank uh again that came because of planning from the 20120 referendum and the the implementation of the those funds so again Kathy friends thank you and Darren Hess who's our director of Maintenance um and operations job well done so overall um it's nice to have a number one team in the state I know we uh
008had one loss but we're still number two so looking forward for other teams and their prosperity it's going to happen during the playoffs so uh exciting times in four-way commit schools thanks for asking Kristen so one of the things that we've been working on for over a year and a half uh and you mentioned it a little bit um we have been working on a master plan uh we started with our portrait of a graduate which um people have probably seen in the schools and we're working towards next year opening up our freshman schools of success so the class of believe it's the class of 2028 will'll be the first ones to experience what we've been working on and maybe you want to bring Cara in for this conversation as well but can you talk
009about this what these Steve has just put up the posters what these posters are and uh and where we're heading absolutely so we know that in today's world our students need to be book smart as well as I'll just say life smart U have the life skills as well I we call those success skills so we're in the process of planning not just planning but now we're implementing for what's going to happen for the fall of so as we as you see there explore connect and graduate it starts in Pre K and it finishes upon graduation but our idea is we want to ensure that our graduates are ready for their next stage in life and it could be enrolling in higher education it could be enrolling in or enlisting in the military military services
010or maybe going and being becoming employed in a particular job but what we're after is every student graduates with the plan so I'm going to bring Cara in this conversation now so as we look Cara and the secondary world what's that translating to you happening in year 2024 2025 what do what does how does that begin so right now we are actually working with our middle school principes and our High School principles and their teams to plan for next year our Middle School principles are looking at um a couple of different options that we've proposed to take at least two courses from the high school level down to the Middle School level we're looking at U making a transition with our pe1 and possibly are preparing for College and Career and then with each of
011our high schools then we began we met once and actually we've started our second round of meetings as we plan the specific Pathways within each School of success and so for examp example today we met with Southside and they had narrowed down within each of our three schools of success that will be at each of our high schools um four to six Pathways um that will begin for those The Freshman will not begin that next year that will begin their sophomore year and so we're not only planning next year's Freshman School of success but planning the years Beyond um so that we can get those students to the day after graduation with the appropriate plan so again those three schools of success and that's what we call them schools of success those are based on
012what we see as high areas of demand in our local economy Regional economy Statewide as well as Nationwide and so one of them is health services and Human Services so high demand in that area so there will be Pathways associated with it and students will eventually be um if they have interest in that particular School of success they'll have courses that tend to even if it's your core subjects like math English social studies and science where teachers flavor their curriculum their examples their um their problems uh their projects they'll flavor it based on that particular interest area um we'd also like to have Capstone activities so we find finally do have those graduates of 2028 literally they're in some type of internship some type of apprenticeship or say I'm a high uh I'm an exceptional
013student in regards to my academic Pursuits how do I achieve more and more of the Dual credit AP courses so I actually receive start receiving credits towards gr towards college and those Co college credits not all will transferer but many will transfer and it depends upon the university that you might attend but our idea is we really would love to see all students have about 15 dual credits every student have 15 dual credits but you could have another layer where maybe it's 30 dual credits maybe even 60 dual credits and those credits could come from all of our local colleges and universities so it's not just one it could be multiple so we're working with those post-secondary Partners emphasizing that's a pathway but we also have Pathways and I'll give you another example let's talk
014about our manufacturing engineering and our traits and you think about that group and you know engineering could be a four-year degree or after upon graduation it could be I'm interested in going right into the trades and we have seen some increase in interest in the trades area and Cara you you know this better than I do but what we're seeing at the construction trades and their finishing of that building and how the students with our vendors with construction trades coming together to to to create a state-of-the-art facility certainly the equipment there but also I'll just say I'm a little partial to the instructors I happen to be a teacher of one of them and uh back in the north side days but I'll just say wow so impressed with happening what's happening in that space
015But talk to us a little bit about how for instance I may be an eighth grader and I may have strong desire to be in the to be in that field of engineering I love math I've I know my skill sets how do I know that because I've been doing naviant and doing things in sixth grade and seventh grade and eighth grade and now I really want to go so I could go into things like engineering Project Lead the Way engineering and with that is that a four-year sequence of courses that a student would take in that particular yeah so we were having conversations today because all of our freshmen next year the plan is for all freshmen to begin in a principles of business um course which aligns to multiple Pathways not necessarily that
016pathway so it will count um as an elective for those students and then um we have what's called Next Level um programs of study and so for those engineering students there would be a principal course um and then their concentrator B and C and possibly as you mentioned earlier that Capstone so one of the conversations we had about an hour two hours ago was how do we collaborate with our traditional schools in the Career Academy to provide some of those principles opportunities at every Traditional School so we can enroll more students and the Career Academy programs on site so again whether I'm a student looking to go into the to an the job market after graduation or whether I'm a student who's interested in trades going into an apprenticeship so the career antis Center is
017still very um very very vital and important um but we're working out what are those sequence of courses and what is the emphasis of those Capstone courses and where they're housed so the third area the third School of success would be business technology it if you will and the Arts so you're looking at truly three three schools of successes so students have a choice to really focus on those particular those particular schools and it's really about the experience it's really about how do we have more work-based learning and just as myself I have a business degree but I also have an education degree and I was in the School of Engineering so we know that we'll have students that will flow between but again we'd like to work through that I think the culmination is
018going to be we're gonna have a day of Celebration and that's November 8th so on November 8th we're inviting It Is by invitation um many of the people that attended the portrait of the graduate which were the three uh connect explore and graduate as you looked at those we did have a rather 200 plus folks who came together parents teachers students as well as Community leaders that helped guide us through that process and on November 8th we're going to celebrate that because we now are a dedicated site for Ford NGL but it's really Fort Wayne Community School school of success and we're also going to bring together hopefully a steering committee that will start to oversee and truly lead us in this implementation process and become partners with us so uh I give an example
019of the Junior Achievement 3de program and seeing the businesses that have linked with our various or two high schools which next year all five high schools will have 3de Junior Achievement 3de where students are actively involved in solving a real problem coming from organizations and businesses outside the school system but they're mentoring our kids and our kids are problem solving their critical thinking they're communicating they're warning that they're learning how to truly collaborate and the growth of those students has been phenomenal and we expect that to continue to happen as they become sophomores but again it's those it's these programs various programs coming together as one and we'll call that Fort Wayne Community Schools School of success so with this that November 8th is going to be a wonderful night um lot of hard work
020put forth up to this point but the most work the hardest work is truly in the implementation and are making adjustments but I would love to see our graduation rate increase I'd love to see our attendance rate increase and you ask well why will that happen it's because students are engaged teachers are utilizing work-based learning experiences and Hands-On instruction in the classrooms student engagement will increase which means their interest is really peing and then also we expect to see fewer and fewer discipline issues because as students become more involved in what they're doing um you'll see these other things start to wne and quite frankly we're seeing that already with the students that are part of 3de um maturation continues to uh I'll just say rapidly improve and increase at the same time we're going
021to have challenges and we know those challenges will be Staffing and how do we share students across buildings and how do we use potentially if you will hybrid type instruction so you may have a teacher in one building that's teaching to students in four other buildings and this is Nationwide too folks this isn't just fwcs all the districts I with just last week Teacher shortage is very real it's even more real rural more real in rural communities but we need to start thinking of outside the traditional ways we have to start becoming very Innovative and finding solutions for staffing issues I.E we can't afford to have 50 classrooms and are not filled and I know we have over 2,000 teachers so you can see the numbers and you say well that's less than two to
022three 4% but it's still a percentage and we need to figure out how to maximize our resources which means we may need to link with organizations even outside us so those are things that are that keep us highly motivated and inspired in what we do and uh again I'm hoping our teachers see this as as something that is not more to add that but is actually going to improve what we do and hopefully better meet the needs of our kids and better meet the needs of our growing economy in Northeast Indiana so I'm hopeful that the uh Secretary of Ed Dr Katie Jenner will also be visiting with us on November 8th we've invited her hopefully she'll be able to attend but even if she's not I'm sure she'll give us some type of message
023um some type of uh video but again we're looking at Fort Wayne Community Schools being if you will that North Star for not just Northeast Indiana but for the state of Indiana and I'm thinking things are coming together very nicely and uh I can't thank enough my co-chair the schools of success and the steering committee is Keith is uh Edmund O'Neal of work one and really excited what he's going to bring to this because he knows what the workforce is uh what the needs are in Northeast Indiana and he's a highly intelligent gentleman and can't wait for him to help guide us in the process as well and of course we're very fortunate we receive grants to help to help us with Ford inl but that's a partnership I think that's going to remain and
024be very strong as well as what's happening with Junior Achievement in 3de we're so very fortunate to have both of these organizations come alongside us and it's about implementation and you've heard what our goals are increase dual enrollment increase higher level courses like AP for our students increase attendance increase graduation rate decrease of uh discipline so th those are the things we're after and I think we're going to see some phenomenal things happen when this all comes together yeah I'm really excited about the opportunities that our students are going to have and um just the engagement that we expect to see with our students and and the community um this has been a great process so one of the other things that uh is new this year um Southside is our first school to have
025some of our new security features they have the open gate weapons detection system and the um student Advocates have been added there and we've been asked by a lot of people why would we pick Southside to start with and uh we actually have a very good reason do you want to talk about that Dr Daniel what brought us to start this at Southside and and what we're seeing so far so because we have various student groups at Southside that have been embedded for the last several years and that's the uh we call them the peacemakers so those are a group of students and they're growing in numbers because every summer there are probably 20 to 30 students that are engaged for three-week training period and they're discussing how do we become peacemakers how do we
026support Martin L Martin Luther King Jr's six principles of Peace well we had student leaders we also were able to Pilot two student Advocates at southide so you combine the two student Advocates with our peacemakers um it was one of those natural things to say let's look at these uh let's look at this open gate process and you saw some of the video in regard of that and what this is is basically yes it's something that you'd see at the Coliseum it's something that you'd see at sporting events something you see at the embassy um I'll like to say it says uh as seamless as possible we wanted to be very as you saw there students walking through Southside was a pilot there that was a summer with the peacemakers that's some of the leaders
027right there but anyway you look at this and we've had maybe at first 125 to 150 students that we had to pull aside and and say hey could you go through this again now it's down to less than 25 on a daily basis so we're feeling as if it's it's becoming embedded um and we're not just looking at Southside so we're taking these These are portable and we're now moving them into our co-curricular so for football games with large crowds so we can start experiencing that now again why are we doing this we want to create safer schools we believe we have safe schools if I look at information and data uh 806 plus percent of our parents and students believe that we have safe schools but we need safer schools and we do this
028not as a reaction but as being but being proactive we want to do this in advance and do all that we possibly can and if you've seen some of our videos uh from our student Productions again uh I want to thank our students especially Steve Armstrong and you'll s you saw those student interns uh media student interns they're doing phenomenal work and putting together videos that explain this far better than I can but my message is this students want safer schools and with what's happening across our country even across the world we need to do our best as adults to create that safer environment so again all hands on deck what are the things we can do and again uh yeah the open Gates one of them but it's just one of many factors that
029come to play to create a safer school yeah and I think you're right that what I've seen at both at Southside and at athletic events that I've been to um you know this is sort of the norm which isn't anything I think that we wanted to have happen um but people are are pretty receptive to it um and especially when they you know they're out out at an event with a lot of other people and um it just makes them feel more secure so one of the other things you talked a little bit about earlier um was Transportation um and we have had some good news there this past week um one of the things we started using this year are the small yellow buses so can you talk a little about why we have
030those what the benefit is and then you know maybe for anybody who is looking for a job uh looking for a job that matches with their kids schedule why should they apply to be a bus driver so the 14 passenger yellow buses do have a stop arm so those yellow buses can literally stop at a child's at a child's home and pick them up right in front of the residents now you might ask well they're only passengers but you have to also realize because of our magnet programs and our Lottery system we have some students that come from all over the district to a particular school well you have to you only have X amount of time to get them to that position or get them get pick them up and and have them delivered
031at school and also taken home so the idea is you can collect those students yes you may be able to do 10 12 students but that's about the length because you're picking them up at greater distances between stops and then you have to deliver them to one of those particular schools again that could be a lottery selection of students it could be a magnet school it could be our mcken Bento which are homeless students it could be special needs students and again we have programs that are unique to certain buildings and yet they draw from all over Fort Wayne Community Schools School District so again it's more efficiency and as you were alluding to Christa you don't you need um to drive that bus it's a 14 passenger bus you don't have to have a
032CDL but you do have to have training you do have to go through that process so we're looking at a fleet that is probably needing to be refined and adjusted because how do we become more Nimble at picking up students not taking 84 passenger bus but maybe a 14 passenger bus to get students from one point from point A to point B CDE e FG to where they're finally at this building and you're doing it with a time with a window that where student's not sitting on the bus for an hour and 20 minutes or hour and 30 minutes so that's our goal I we know it's a process we know we have to constantly be working hard to find bus drivers so for instance we still have that $2,000 sign on B bonus for
033people who want to be trained we also have if you're current school bus driver we'll give you a $5,000 bonus as long as you stay with us for for a year so we do train people we're going to start training people but also expect for them to stay with us for at least a year we want to make that a longterm or I I would still call that a shortterm a shortterm um relationship an expectation because when we train people we need for them to stay too so anyway yeah you see it right there um we've also done some things in the co-curricular making a little more um uh noteworthy for people for our bus drivers to work those those particular ular jobs so those are above and beyond uh the daily jobs but also
034in other words the morning route and the afternoon route but also evening routs for co-curriculars we would love to expand our after school programs and I you know I see John here as well we want to expand our programs for our elementary kids and Cara's here representing secondary we'd love to expand those programs for after school for our secondary kids middle school and high school school but we need drivers to do that and I think we're seeing an influx of drivers so key is when you compare us to other districts we are very comparable then you add the bonuses and I think we're above and beyond so it makes it makes uh sents and no pun on the you know no pun there but it makes dollars and cents to join fwcs team Transportation team
035because it is going to be a little more lucrative um and I'll say I I visited the bus station or bus Department one Friday morning around 5:15 in the morning and I want to tell you those drivers really love what they do they love the kids they want to help kids at the same time uh they want to make sure the kids are acting appropriately and we work hard to do that so um but I'm amazed at what they're able to do I'm also amazed with the uh transportation as the routers are steering drivers to this spot to that spot and really it's almost like a airport it's like a a flight control center uh what's what's happening there it's it's amazing to see how they're interacting that team to get the P get the
036students that are on the you know they need to move to a different bus because maybe a bus broke down or a driver wasn't able to make it and we didn't have a sub and now they're having to it's been a it's amazing to watch what they do and they do that with limited resources in other words they don't have a lot of Subs that are able to kick in that's why it's been a bit of a transition because we needed more Personnel we needed more drivers and we're starting to find them we're starting to see them apply and now it takes about six to eight weeks to get them on the bus where they can drive uh independently so yeah transportation is going to be here with us I I think this will always
037be somewhat of an issue because the marketplace is what it is and we're just very fortunate we haven't had to say well parents I'm sorry that bus isn't going to run today you're going to have to find a way to get your kid to school if you can we have not been able we have not had to do that yet and I'm hoping we will not have to do that especially with the addition additional drivers so that's all I have on Transportation unless uh John or Carol want to talk about so you mentioned uh co-curriculars at the elementary level and that's something I was actually going to bring up with John uh last week was the elementary cross country finale um we have I don't I don't know John if you know how many kids
038participate throughout the season but it is it has grown so much so can you talk a little bit specifically about that but then also what other kinds of programs we have for kids after school at the elementary level sure so yeah regarding our cross country series um it has really grown e exponentially over the last five years or so uh I think the last school year we had approximately 14500 students who participated and based on some of the numbers I'm hearing this year we may have um we may have beaten that that was a record for sure so we may have beaten that this year um so and we have almost every school participates um all students who are interested uh in running and that's the other thing too I really want to give a
039shout out to our PE teachers in our elementary schools um they work really hard to um you know to help students think about safe um I'm sorry not safety but their health and wellness and so of course one of one of of the ways to do that is is running anything um that works on you know endurance uh cardiovascular exercises they promote those things so shout out to our PE teachers who really promote um the sport um the sport and the runners um so we start in the fall with our cross country um then we will do we have limited um opportunities but we're working on expanding um incorporating wrestling so we do have some wrestling camps we work with our local high schools with some wrestling camps and our High School coaches uh and
040then in the um also we have basketball uh co-ed basketball we have boys separately and then girls separately depending on the numbers at a school uh additionally we have cheerleading opportunities and then um you know we do we have limited um opportunities for some track and field in the spring so we're looking to expand that and then as a matter of fact I I had a meeting about a week ago to talk about some additional opportunities because really our our our goal is to try to provide students as many opportunities uh to participate in sports that would reflect our middle and our high schools so you know we it's we don't want a student um you know say for example they want to play football and like the first opportunity for football is Middle School
041or high school so we also are incorporating flag football uh in the district that we started a couple years ago and then um we are looking at Poss Poss in the future how do we work with other organizations um to start a soccer league perhaps um get soccer in our schools and also baseball um you know perhaps a partnership with some other organizations to get baseball in the district and golf uh golf is something that we've been working on we did have an introduction for our PE teachers probably six or seven years ago um through a grant and we work with parks and wreck and they purchased some materials some golf materials through the first T program which is a national program um to get students involved in golf so um we are going to
042do as a matter of fact we have a training here um in the next couple of weeks to work with our PE teachers to kind of make sure you know we've had some turnovers some folks have retired um and so we just want to make sure everyone's on the same page regarding our first T materials and how to use those and Implement those so one of their National trainers is going to come to Fort Wayne and support our teachers so so we have a lot of things going um things in the hopper for sure really excited about giving our kids the opportunity to participate you know and Dr Daniel mentioned something earlier just around student engagement and involvement I mean and that that keeps our kids at one it it it enhances the learning experience
043so all of our co-curriculars it enhances learning experience um there's so many things you learn along the way in terms of teamwork um a family being a family with your team um and then again just building continuing to build School culture and um school spirit so we're really excited uh about what we're doing and all these opportunities you know I think back my goodness you know 10 15 years ago and we you know we may have had a few we had a few schools participating in across country I mean that really was the that really was uh all we had at that time so to think what we've done and continue to do and work with our Virgil Tharp our liaison uh in the district for our our athletic programs uh we're really making Headway
044and just really excited about what we're doing right now more to come more to come for sure all right and if parents have questions definitely they should contact their child's school yes all right um so one other thing that uh let's see here oh we we actually have some some comments tonight uh I was starting to think our group was just gonna sit and watch us all night but we have a comment from a parent who says it would be nice to reach out to families who have children in the applied skills programs and talk to them about opportunities specifically sporting programs yeah I think is that we do now or would have the opportunity to do um yeah and I I think that is something we need to explore I think that's a really
045good question because currently you it's just kind of an open open process for who wants to participate we do like in basketball there may be some limitations because you're gonna only have so many people on a team um but I I you know as I think about some of the opportunities that I know some of our high schools have um um you know I've seen some of the students that say half time of some of our basketball Games Etc um that we should those are some things we need to consider so I do appreciate that comment and that's something I'll take back to the team um to see what kind of opportun unities we can create there I appreciate that comment all right so one other topic I was uh gonna bring up Dr Daniel
046uh we just talked about this earlier today um you mentioned it to teachers last night and families will be getting a survey from us soon about the possibility of adding a true fall break to the schedule um not this year of course uh but at some point in the future you want to talk about what we're looking at yes um I had that on my checklist so I'm brought you I'm glad you brought that up so you may have noticed that Northwest Island County Schools Southwest Island County Schools some other districts around us have gone to a full week of a fall break so right now we have one day um we also have what we've done with paren teacher conferences so we're examining this and you're going to receive a survey because we would
047like to hear parent input we also are going to hear from teachers their input as well um my colleagues have said that it is a break that really refresh refreshes you start you know in August so early now um like the second first second week of August so people are sort of looking at hey October is a week long I can extend this to um it's much cheaper to travel during the fall than it is during the summertime or it's just a time for students to sort of gather themselves see where they are after that first nine weeks and get ready for the second nine weeks and finish strong um it would not impact our co-curriculars they'd go on as they nor normally would um but it would really really would be a fall break
048so that would probably move us a little bit earlier in August but also extend us just a little bit but we've also been discussing what if we would examine how we're utilizing our waiver days and uh that is a possibility because we're looking at four days that we'd have to adjust or what are we doing with parent teacher conferences and I think that's also going to be part of the survey there are many districts now look at parent teacher conferences and say you know we really should be having communication with our mothers and our fathers and our our uh care givers anytime a student is not successful or in possibility of failing so how you know how do we use our technology that we have today I.E texting I.E parents Square I.E email all those
049things we have now today so we can get hold of parents and we know many parents it's not a uh single income household it's a it's a multiple uh income household so it's hard to reach parents anyway during the day but if we do that what if we use that kind of messaging and have that type of dialogue and if we need to have a traditional inperson meeting we have those too but you start arranging those those aren't the norm those are now what we'll call uh the exception but we're going to survey parents asking for your input and uh we have some mock schedules or mock calendars if you will so you can look at those and also we'd love to have some of your input on parent teacher conferences um secondary one wise
050uh it's not uncommon for maybe a teacher both those nights to have a total of five parents on the other hand you know Elementary they may want all 25 students are in a classroom all 25 parents ATT 10 so it does vary depending upon grade level but again we have to look at this as a prek through 12th grade uh Continuum but we're open to ideas on this and we want bring it to our teachers I'm going to bring it to our parents to have some of this to have some input on this so be looking for some type of survey in the very near future so I'll also say this and I didn't say this what I'm hearing from other districts as well it's a great recruiting tool for teachers so again as we
051look at teacher shortages how do we position ourselves to uh to attain teachers and hopefully retain teachers and again if it brings some some uh uh Rejuvenation if it brings some calming where teachers can collect themselves as well as students and it benefits the majority then it seems to me like that would be a way to that would be a way to go but again that is not for this year this is for next year if we would consider it so it would only be for the 2425 if we're truly going to consider this thank you Christa for reminding me about that all right uh anything else that is on your list that you wanted to talk about tonight no um one thing we have said though throughout and we've been looking at our K
052through 12 Insight data which we would love to see 90 to 95% participation rate of parents so we're really urging this to happen I know this is not going to happen until spring but our students if you correct me if I'm wrong Christa our students will be taking this in November and again that input does Drive some of our planning and decision making so it's very important that we do have uh participation and as such it tells us what we're doing well but also areas where we can improve and you know I've been stressing the last several years there really three things that we're focusing on highest priority is literacy we want to ensure that every third grader is reading at third grade level by the time they finish and there's been some serious conversation
053at the state level in Indianapolis with both legisl S as well as Department of Ed saying maybe we need to rethink what happens if a third grader is not reading at third grade level um yes we have interventions and so on and so forth but maybe we need to be even more systematic in regards to what happens or what we should be doing to support students who are not reading at third grade the second item is numeracy I.E how can you are you able to work with numbers manipulate numbers um absolutely critical so as we problem solve but again your literacy is needed to to enhance your problem solving reading of the question very very important for us and so pleased in the trend line that we're seeing with literacy I think we're going to
054see a similar trend line with our with our num mercy and again what do we look at we look at what we're doing with our fast bridge and you know right now we do both beginning of the year middle of the year end of the year we are considering maybe just middle of the year and end of the year um and use end of the year as the beginning of the year for the following year so anyway those are just some details but point being we are using that data to drive student interventions I.E we knew we had students in sixth grade seventh grade and eighth grade that were not reading at grade level so we had something called read 180 that was in implemented last year and also during summer school that has proven
055to be a very successful program so the return on that investment is exactly what we want it to be we're seeing that return which is measured by student achievement and then finally the whole well-being piece so well-being meaning do our students feel safe do we have a culture of learning do we really believe that what's happening in our classrooms and in our in our school buildings it's happening for the benefit of students and that's where we're heading and those are really our three goals and you're going to hear me say this as long as I'm superintendent those three goals are not going away those three goals will remain and we'll continue to chip chip away where we're going to see greater and greater number of students at a proficiency level so looking forward to again
056the mission the mission is this is for all students and we want them to be ready for what happens on that Monday after graduation so uh that's what fwcs is proud about proud of and proud about as we look at the strength of our district and that is its diversity and students coming together to solve real world problems and having the input from multiple different backgrounds and that brings strength to decision making and strength to experiences so I'm just uh you know very very excited and waiting with a great amount of anticipation to see what rolls out the next four years so when we start start with our schools of success and it's it's moved into all levels even in kindergarten we start having these discussions of students have play they play in the world
057of let's play like we're a carpenter or I'm going to play as if I'm a physician or a nurse or I'm going to play I'm a banker that play is my mind is really work for our little ones but it's also in improving their ability to think what is it that were what is it that really excites me where's my passion what is it that I really want to be able to um to be able to move into in my latter years of my of my secondary world so and then preparing for where they go afterwards so again want to stress that we may you may have a survey question about this particular topic does the superintendent communicate the mission and vision of the district and what is that mission it's about preparing students all
058students to be to be ready for Life After High School and to be successful so we also have a Northstar that we talk about that we'll getting talking about more and more in regards to our schools of success but again this is all about about connection and having relationships and moving those forward so um I'd rather our teachers have profound relationships as they teach the curriculum teach the subject material and sometimes maybe we need to modify what we're teaching to focus on what I would call are the essentials and focus on that as we continue to build student relationships um so many great things happen when that when that occurs so that's my only thing I'd add tonight Christa again what are we really about literacy numeracy well-being and I think we're on the path
059for all three of those with what we're doing in the programs that we have programs we've had in the past but also programs that we continue to enhance and modify and bring to bear for for our community sounds good so tomorrow is going to be an exciting day in all of our schools it is our annual principal for a Day event and so every one of our buildings has someone from the community maybe an elected official maybe um a business owner uh someone from a church or a real estate agent so make sure you ask your kids who their guest principal was and hopefully you'll you'll hear some good stories about that tomorrow tomorrow is also walk to school day and so we have a number of schools participating in that some of our schools
060some of our kids of course walk to school every day and tomorrow is a day when we celebrate that and just encourage uh safe walking and finding safe routes to school and then later this month we have our one day fall break on Friday October 13th our next staff training day is Monday October 16th so kids will have a 4-day weekend that weekend and then our parent teacher conferences are November 1st and 2nd and there's no school on November 3rd so lots coming up we are definitely in the thick of things well thank you so much everyone uh thanks for those who turned in tuned in and thank you to Steve for all the wonderful graphics and shifting of our puzzle pieces here we will be back again in February so we have kind of
061a long break uh for our Facebook live feed but we will we will be back and if you need to reach us in the meantime you can always catch Us online get us through let's talk um or give us a call have a good night everyone good night thank you Christa thank you everyone [Music]