001Welcome to the March meeting of the Greater Jasper School Board. You're welcome to join in with us. Stand up and recite the national anthem. >> National anthem. The >> pledge of allegiance. >> Get me out of this hole. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I was waiting for him to recite the Ireland pledge next. >> Okay. First order of business. Each member of the board received a copy of the consent agenda electronically. Does anybody have any questions about the consent agenda? >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I oppose. No. Motion carries. Give
002us a minute while we sign the books. >> Welcome to the Monica Young Clan. Thanks for increasing our attendance. First up, walk out spotlight, Mr. Hubster. Good evening, everyone. thanks for uh giving us a few minutes tonight to talk about Jasper Middle School. We appreciate that and appreciate the support that the board uh gives us throughout the year. So, tonight we're going to just go through a few highlights. Um going to share a couple data pieces. Uh Jillian, do you know anything about this? >> Can you swipe up? >> Okay, go to the left corner. There you go. >> There we go. Okay. So, uh we're going to hit a couple highlights from our uh strategic plan, some data points, talk about some of those. You'll get access to that uh in the near future
003and can dig into a little bit more deeper, but we have a a few things we wanted to point out, show some trends in the past, and then kind of where we're hoping to go from there. After I'm done covering those things, then I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Tolbert, and he's going to talk a little bit about the the structures and processes we have in place to try to to reach those goals and and move JMS forward. And then we'll wrap up at the end with uh some non-academic type things, some things that we feel are important for middle school students uh to make it a more complete education other than just the ELA, math, those types of things. Uh the goals we're going to look at are going to be centered
004around math and ELA. Uh but then we're also going to um talk a little bit about two different types of of data points for ELA and math. One will be the growth. How are students growing? and then achievement where where are they uh mastering the content areas there. So the first one here is our math growth for our students. You're going to see a common theme on all these graphs. Uh COVID year the whole state everybody took that big dip and ever since then you see uh trying to continue to grow back up to that point we were at. Precoid we were at 49.2 for math growth and we are currently as of last year back up that 49.2. So, we've we've taken those deficits and and grown back uh and hope to continue that
005trend to get up to 55% in the next couple years. Then the other aspect of that is achievement. So, proficiency, how are our students doing in math? There's four different categories. Above proficiency, at proficiency, approaching proficiency, and below. And again you can see uh the number of above proficiency dropped quite a bit uh in that co postcoid year but then ever since then it's been growing and getting more and more in those top categories. So currently at 51.7 which is still significantly higher than what the state's doing but our hope then is to continue growing that and expanding the blue areas and shrinking the orange and pink. Same thing for ELA. our growth uh goal, you see after COVID took a big dip along with the state. Um but we've consistently gone up and up
006and are catching back up to where we were precoid. You see, we've expanded the distance between uh state average and our average for that growth in ELA. Same thing with the achievement in terms of iLearn testing. um currently at 56.7% at or above and hoping to increase that up to 65 within the next couple years. So those are the big big four that we have to look at and track on a regular basis. Uh a new goal that we have in our strategic plan this year is focusing on student literacy. And this is kind of the one I'm I'm probably most excited about looking at. Um, as middle school educators, most of our teachers are trained for their content, content knowledge, and we don't have a lot of background in literacy, uh, reading levels. We've
007always paid attention to reading levels for students to make sure that they're getting appropriate books in their hands and things like that, uh, and challenging and stretching them with their reading ability. But it's never been a schoolwide focus on increasing reading levels because we don't have that expertise. Well, the state has invested a lot of time, effort, and money into resources to build that capacity for schools, and JMS, I think, is is doing a really good job jumping on board with that. Dr. Laurai has, and with your guys' support, uh, allowed us to get a literacy coach. Uh, so that's going to help drive our direction. Uh, we've taken part in the training through the state for the science of reading. So, we're becoming more knowledgeable in that area. Um today we had a webinar
008with uh the state about a literacy cadre where we're hoping to be part of this group that has already been established for elementary schools to improve their literacy but now it's coming up through the middle school level. So they're going to pilot 10 uh middle schools this upcoming couple years for literacy cadre. So uh really paying attention to this because we know if we increase their reading levels uh it's going to improve everything else that they're doing in the school day. So, uh, this is a big one that we're spending a lot of time and resources on. >> Okay, I gave you a paper to kind of follow along because when I get excited, I talk fast and you can't understand me. So, I want you to sit back and relax for the next 45
009minutes as I take you through the world of RTI. I'm kidding. It's only 30. Um, we're pretty excited about some of the things we're hoping to build and some of the things we started this past year. Uh this past year our ELA department and math department started what's called a PLC process which is a weekly meeting a team of teachers that's talk talks about student learning. So they get together every week they talk about four questions well mainly four questions. What do the students learn? How are we going to know if they learned it? What are we going to do if they haven't? And what are we going to do if they have? And so our first year was it was a good start. We were hoping to strengthen that a little bit. we uh
010see some cracks in some of the things that we we have done, but we think it's a it's a good start. Uh but ideally, we want to expand that out even more uh to build what what this is what's called an MTSS, a multi-tiered support uh system support for students. Um go ahead and switch it up. This this idea basically is the RTI process, the PLC process, but expanding it out to our core classes and can work with behaviors also. And tier one is your core instruction. Um it's 80% of your students should be successful with a good tier one instruction. Um using different assessments, both formative and common, you kind of see which students are struggling and which students um are able to be accelerated or enriched. Um you can use those assessments to
011um have conversations with teachers who are teaching similar students to improve your tier one instruction. Um and once students then are um noted to struggle, you can move them to a tier two, which is about 10 or 15% if done correctly. Um and that then you have students that are about grade level, but for some reason or another, they're not quite getting that essential or priority standard that was uh just taught and we need to close some gaps there a little bit. So you get them in a room with similar students who are struggling with similar skills and you do some explicit direct instruction uh to help them understand whatever skill they didn't get. Let them show some mastery and then they move out. That's a constant cycle of tier 2 students because there's always
012a student here or there as you go through the year who's not getting it. Um but then you're going to have about 5% of students that are still not getting it. Um, and that's probably a foundational problem that it's a oral reading fluency or it's a foundational math skill or something. Um, and they need very intensive instruction uh throughout the year because it takes years to close gaps like that at this age. So, we'll take those students into small groups and look for ways to intervene. That is something we're looking to build out. This also works behaviorally. Um, something that we've not done a really good job of is building skill when it comes to behaviors. We're pretty good at tracking it. We're pretty good about assessing and giving the uh discipline. We're not so
013strong on building that skill on why they're acting that way. So, we're hoping and that'll be a new thing for us, but we're hoping to build out that intervention program. So, 80% of your students should be able to succeed in a school system based on your normal rules. you're still going 10 or 15% that need that skill built through an intervention program of sorts and then 5% who really struggle and then we'll need to be intensive with that. So, um we're excited about what this brings. In the end, what we want to have is an equitable education that's accessed by everyone with skills to support students that are struggling both behaviorally and academically. Um, it's going to be a process. We're going to build that out. Uh, but we're looking forward to to what it
014can do at at the middle school. >> I think secondary teachers, uh, me being one, naturally try to operate on an island. And so this process has been really neat to get them in the room weekly uh together collaborating, talk about what's working best in their classroom and having those conversations uh making sure all kids are getting that solid tier one instruction. So it it's been exciting to watch this year. Shifting gears a little bit then. Um we all know that this school is more than 8 to3 math and English language arts. There's a lot to it. uh when we have our fifth graders come in uh in May to tour the school and learn a little bit about JMS, uh one of the first things I talk to them about is the fact that
015if you just come to school from 8 to 3 and just do math, uh it can get pretty boring. You got to find something else. Uh middle school is such a a formative time for kids. Uh they're they're gaining their identity. They're finding their passions. They're finding their interests. So, we feel it's important to give them opportunities. So, I show them this slide when they come out and tour and their eyes get real big as I click through each one of these different things when they realize how many different things they can get involved with. And I challenge them, find something on here that will extend your education beyond the textbook and the teachers. Uh, I think that's super important. Here are four um areas that we have a lot of involvement in. One of
016the newest clubs we have is a fishing club. Uh, it started about two or three years ago. ton of kids, ton of community members, ton of parents uh get involved with that. Uh the other night we went to Louisville, took a group of about 50 kids uh to Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. Uh so just lots of different opportunities for kids to get involved. Couple other things we try to do to to give them other experiences. Uh a year or two ago, we started team building uh home rooms where we allow our students to uh collaborate, teamwork with their their classmates, uh problem solve, things like that, and go out and do different competitions against the other home rooms. Uh so we have dodgeball, tug-of-war, those traditional things, but they also have charade competitions,
017trivia competitions, so that every kid within those home rooms uh can find a way to contribute. It doesn't just have to be the the best athlete or the smartest. We try to make it well-rounded uh to give everybody a chance uh to be part of that home room. We've also implemented home room huddles uh the last year or two. Uh these are opportunities where uh Mrs. Flamian and some other teachers that support her put together uh topics that uh students need that maybe tier 2 support on some skills that we need to work on building. Uh this one that we did last month was focused on social awareness. And so uh Mrs. Flamy and the professional in this area put together um a lesson and then we give that lesson out to all the teachers
018and they carry it out in smaller groups in their home room. Uh so we know it's going to be researchbased, evidence-based information and all teachers are giving the same information and all kids are hearing the same information. So lots of fun stuff and it's a relationship building time too for the teacher and those students. We also try to bring in other opportunities. Uh sometimes you hear the same voices over and over and the message gets lost. So we try to bring in uh some other people, other groups to deliver some of these messages. Right now all eighth graders uh starting today uh are meeting with Mr. John Seagull from here in Jasper. uh he wrote a book several years ago and travels around talking about uh poor, smart, rich and giving some some real uh
019solid life advice to our eighth graders before they they move on to high school. So he'll be at JMS for uh four out of the next five days presenting to all of our eighth graders. And that is what we have questions. >> So have you started the RTI program already? >> We started the PLC process. We're meeting on Thursday morning with the steering committee on um to start the process of building out hopefully an RCI program starting with ELA math finding time how PLC process with science and social studies and maybe all >> and this will include all students all the IEPs everybody you're trying it's all >> are we trying to get them all what is so your IEP students, your ELA stu, everybody's in this group. >> Yeah. 80% of students should minus
020any student that has cognitive delays, but 80% of students in research should succeed in good tier one instruction from what we're reading. um if they're getting grade level um instruction and they're getting the proper supports, they they should have success. It's it's what the research is pounding us with over and over again. Everything we're reading is telling us the same thing. It is it's going to be an interesting journey because it's different than what we've ever done and the conversations we're about to embark on are going to challenge some of the processes that we've had for a very long time after middle school and um it's probably a long time coming. Um and it's okay to be challenged. It'll be a growth process and I'm excited about it. I'm nervous about it. Um if you
021see me cry in the corner, just >> it happens. I've seen it. >> Do you have uh much interaction or maybe even forced interaction between the eighth graders, seventh graders, and sixth graders to kind of teach the eighth graders leadership skills and that kind of not a lot. It's interesting because when the building was built, that was one of the the big selling points is they were separated and isolated and parents didn't have to worry about their sixth grader being negatively influenced by uh the eighth graders. But what we found over the years is we do lose some of that uh chance for role modeling and stuff for those kids. So um we don't have any kind of structure in place that specifically addresses that. >> We dinosaurs from the old building talk about how
022those interactions probably were more positive than negative overall that we were didn't realize until they stopped. >> They're still on the bus together. >> Oh yeah. What happens on the bus stays on the bus, >> right? Or let >> that is correct. Was there today >> anybody else? >> Thank you, Phil. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome to stick around if you need to go. We understand. >> Dr. Lauri, we have a light agenda. Is there anything else before >> No other business? >> No. Not unless any board member has any questions about any of the other broader categories under building and maintenance update. I know um Scott Steppenogle provided just an update of the different projects that are going on. There were no action items. Um we did not have any action
023items under curriculum or student support services. So if uh you have no questions, we can move on to other business. >> Good. Okay. Good. >> Great. Um the first item under other business, I'm going to ask the board to strike that from your agenda. Uh we are still working with the city of Jasper to finalize some of the details and the documents that I was going to ask the board to consider in regard to the property transfer uh agreement, warranty deeds, and then the shared parking agreements and ingress egress agreements. Um so we will hopefully have those available for the board at our April meeting. The next item on the agenda pertains to the new teacher appreciation grant. Uh GJCS has completed the teacher app appreciation grant process. The Indiana Department of Education allocated $121,948.72
024which would have allowed awards to be given up to 20% of eligible teachers. A total of 74 teachers applied for the award with 69 of those applicants meeting the eligibility criteria. To maximize the recognition, uh we would like to give all eligible applicants a consideration of a tier one award, which is $3,500. So, in accordance with the program guidelines, if you take $121,948.72 and you divide that by 3500, we don't get uh the the full 20% of teachers. We were only able to award 35 and that's if we can chip in a little bit of education fund money to fulfill that 35th award. So tonight, I'm asking the board to approve moving forward with the distribution of the teacher appreciation grant once we receive the allocation from the state and we anticipate receiving that somewhere
025around tax day, April 15th. Um and by statute, we have 60 days to liquidate those funds to the individuals who will be receiving the award. So, um, along with that, I would also ask the board to approve us contributing $55,128 from the education fund so that we could add that to the allocation from the board and fulfill a full 35 awards for the teacher appreciation grant. Um, so at this time we're seeking approval of our ability to make that distribution and then the addition of those education fund dollars to fully fund the 35th award. >> So we would be approving 35 out of the 69 that qualified. >> Correct. We used a lottery system. So for every teacher that applied and provided documentation and data that proved they were eligible, they were randomly selected. And
026so 35 of those were randomly selected for a $3,500 award. So is it anticipated the state will grant have this grant every year >> by the budget bianium? It for sure will be next year as well and then next year being a budget year will be at the mercy of what the general assembly decides moving forward. >> So I might be getting the cart before the horse but the people who are awarded this year would they be ineligible next year if there's enough applicants? Um, no. We would always allow all teachers who were eligible to again apply. Uh, and then if they are eligible, we would put them into a pool if we had more teachers than awards to be given. >> So, it' be another a lottery again next year. >> It would be
027another lottery. >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion by Sarah. >> I'll second. >> Second by Judy. Any further discussion or questions? What what does it mean to be eligible for? Can you explain the criteria to be eligible for this? >> So, in order to be eligible, one of the criteria was that they had to uh positively impact student achievement or growth. And the data that they used had to be a national, state or local assessment that um they were able to give data that showed they had either positively impacted the achievement of their students or they had growth. Um we also did allow special education teachers to provide information regarding student uh growth on individual education plans goals. Um, so that was another criteria for special education teachers. The unfortunate part of the the
028program is that there are some teachers that don't have a national, state, or locally approved assessment. And so there were some teachers that were not eligible to even apply. And so that certainly didn't create a lot of positive feeling because of that. And how would you acquire one of those assessments? >> Um, so locally we would use it has to be a assessment that we would purchase. It's not going to be I created an assessment in my classroom. It's going to be dibbles at the elementary level to show reading growth. It's going to be I read I learn. It could be an AP exam at the national level. Um IEP goals. Uh, one of the things that we've talked about, and I believe Tina may have shared a little bit about this in a previous
029meeting, looking at working with developing some common assessments in shared courses such as at the high school level, let's say algebra 1, maybe having a a common end of course assessment or end of semester assessment that all students re take. The results could be compared. um the test is developed in a way that we have a variety of of it's aligned to standards and the questions might have a variety of depth of knowledge from recall to more application of skills. So we do have an individual that we are looking to work with to start developing some of those but that work takes time and um I think Tina's going to be working to try to ascertain if there are teachers who want to volunteer for some of that work this summer. Perfect. Thank you for
030the explanation. You're welcome. >> We have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I oppose. No. Motion carries. >> Okay. The other item that I have uh the Poka Valley Career and Technical Education Cooperative owns a 2008 Ford Fusion car that they used to use as a part of transportation to and from different schools that are a part of the cooperative. They are seeking to liquidate that car and so in order to do that our board needs to declare it surplus. I'll make the motion. >> Motion by Judy. >> Second by Steve. Any discussion or questions? >> All in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. No. Motion carries. >> Thank you. And then I just have a few announcements here. Uh just a reminder that school will be in session on
031Monday, April the 6th. That is a snow makeup day. Our ISBA region 9 meeting has been set for Monday, April the 20th, and that will be at the clubhouse. I have uh registered everyone. If you're not going to be able to attend, let me know. Registrations at 5:30, and dinner in the program will start at 6. Our regular April board meeting will be Monday, April the 27th at 700 PM in this room right here. And then I have one other item that I would like to share with the board and everyone who is here this evening. Um before we wrap up tonight, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize Monica as this will be her final board meeting serving as the treasurer of Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools. Um Monica has given 30 years
032of dedicated service to our district and for three decades she's been the steady hand behind much of our finances. um making sure that things are accurate, making sure we're compliant and that things run smoothly. Um school finance is complicated work. I think everybody recognizes that and Monica has handled it with such professionalism. Um she's handled it with care and with a level of detail that has helped keep our district in a very strong position over the years. So Monica, we are so very grateful for your commitment to our district over the years and to our students and your work has made a lasting impact on Greater Jasper schools and we will certainly miss you and you leave huge shoes to fill. >> Congratulations. >> We're not done yet. Monica, >> I want to thank all
033of you for electing me to do it, appointing me, and it's I have a lot of good memories. So, now it's on my next set of memories. On behalf of the board, we do have a parting gift for you. Uh, I must admit when I came on the board, you were here. So, you've been here at every meeting that I've been at and it's always I've always had a feeling of safety and trusting in you. the state board of audits whenever we've been involved with that always knew that you were you were doing it right and it's always it was easy to count on you so we appreciate that do have a token of our appreciation from the board I don't know if there's an alarm on here I hope you don't ever >> thank
034you >> okay does any board member have any other business. If not, we'll ask for a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion, >> second by Judy. All in favor say I. >> Oppose. No. Meeting adjourned. Thank you all.