December 18, 2025 Katonah-Lewisboro BOE Meeting

001All right. >> Great. Good evening. It's hard to believe it is December 18th, 2025. It is our last meeting of the 2025 year. Um, can somebody make a motion to return to public session? Motion by Arwin, second by Marjorie. All those in favor? 70. >> Uh, would everyone join me for the pledge of allegiance, please? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We will start this evening with board committee reports. Going down the line. Audit committee has not met. Finance committee. >> Finance committee. We met on the uh well last week and um began the meeting by reviewing long range financial plan uh with a focus on the impact

002of our upcoming fiscal year's budget. Um as our projections became clear uh anticipated revenues are trending down expenses are trending up which is not great scenario. Um the revenue declines are driven by several factors including significant reduction state aid and lower interest income on fund balances as our interest rates continue to fall. On the expenditure side, costs are increasing due to contractual obligations and with health care expenses continue to be a major concern ongoing concern. U we've discussed the health care costs at length um but right now there is no viable option to uh change what we're currently involved in. Um the committee discussed the need to eliminate certain positions in next year's budget um primarily through attrition um in order to remain under the tax cap. Uh we've also been looking at the next

003several years which are expected to be very financially challenging. Um many surrounding school districts have pierced the cap or are discussing piercing it. To date we have not. Uh we've been able to avoid it but um at some point it may become a reality in the future. Um we also talked about ales. Uh Ray and Lee provide an update on the ales project and uh the committee is waiting for project cost estimates as well as potential options relating to the existing structure and property. So that's it. >> Thanks, Bill. >> Facilities. >> Um you might have noticed a little bit of construction outside the high school along Route 121 and it's very exciting. We're installing those EV chargers here at the high school and at the middle school. Um, still a few processes that need

004to be worked out before we can uh really think about how utilization is going to occur for our faculty, staff, and community members and how we charge people and organize people who are trying to get to the chargers. But, um, stay tuned in the new year for some more details. Uh, but that's what's going on. And then also very exciting. Thank you so much, Lisa, for really um prioritizing this. We closed on the EPC financing earlier in the week. And now um we're trying to secure some equipment and we're trying to do everything possible to be compliant with the big beautiful bill and to optimize the direct pay aspect of the inflation reduction act in a timely manner. Um this work is going to start in March when the weather is a little bit more

005um conducive to doing the work. Um, and targeted completion for this, just as a reminder, is June 2027. Um, hopefully that EPC goes a little bit of um, the way to mitigate some of what Bill was talking. Fingers crossed. >> Sorry. Yeah. >> Fingers crossed. >> Um, as a reminder, there's going to be exciting work over at KES over the winter break. That vestibule is, you know, going to see tremendous project progress. Excuse me. Hopefully, all of the substantial construction work is going to be completed over that time period. And we're not quite closed out on some of the projects we've talked about previously, but again, thanks to Lisa, we were able to obtain what we needed from the state to get an early aid start despite not being quite closed out. So, thank you

006for that. And then just finally tonight on the consent agenda, we do have two um items. one pertaining to infrastructure project over at Meadow Pond for the water remediation and huge thank you for all the behind thescenes work that's been going on on that Lisa and Mike and your team. Amazing. And also here at the high school for the fuel tanks and just as a reminder this is why we oftentimes talk about an interfund transfer to capital for things not only in the five-year capital plan but also for unanticipated infrastructural improvements like these. And then we have a few change orders. Um we're still doing well. We're still well within the publicly approved budget for our bond. Um items 14.09 to 14.11 um on the consent agenda if anybody has any questions. And lastly, the

007BCS administrative review is happening now and stay tuned in early 2026. We're going to have opportunity to hear more about those results and then start thinking about the five-year capital improvement plan. So, it's a lot going on and especially because it's the last meeting of 2025, like another opportunity just to say thank you so much for all of the unbelievable facilities work and um Ray, to Lisa, to Mike, to your team. I mean, really just an enormous amount of work has occurred and is occurring and you've managed to really put us in great shape here at the end of 2025. So, we're very grateful. Thank you. >> Thank you. And Marjorie, just for anybody's new watching at home, BCS is >> building conditions survey required by state ed department on a fiveyear cycle. And this

008is our year. >> Oh, it's great. It's a busy year for us. It's all good. Um, ales committee has not met. Um, parent council, >> parent council did meet. I was unable to attend. >> Okay. So, >> you next time uh policy >> policy met on November 21st and we do have a few policies on the consent agenda tonight. Um, I think the most notable agenda item for policy is actually pertaining to the safety plan, which we didn't discuss on November 21st, but I don't know whether you maybe it's just worth saying that this is in response to, and I'm not sure if it's pronounced DESA's law, DESA's law, DeAposts, passed in July 2025, uh, requiring that we add cardiac emergency response plans to our safety plan. So, the safety plan is back on the

009agenda tonight to open up a 30-day public comment period. Um, and that's probably the most significant thing policy related happening tonight. Everything else you've either seen. >> Um, so we're adopting something. We have some first reads, etc. And the next policy meeting is Friday, January 30th. >> Thank you. Um, sustainability. >> Sustainability met twice since our last committee reports on November 7th and December 5th. So, we have a lot of updates. Um, Melissa Brady, who's our instructional co coach and sustainability coordinator, shared some great news that the district has applied for Green Ribbon Schools recognition. Wow. >> Which is really fantastic. Uh, very exciting. So, this is an award that recognizes schools or districts for excellence across three pillars. Reducing environmental impact, promoting health and wellness, and providing environmental sustainability education. And the application is

010really um robust and you're required to demonstrate progress across a number of elements under these three pillars including uh reducing waste, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, providing physical fitness education, time outdoors in nature, having school gardens, all things that that we have done. And so this is something that we really should be very proud to to be considered for. We expect to find out in March whether we're selected by the New York State Education Department. Generally the states then submit nominations at the federal level. The program is paused for now. Um so we don't know whether that's going to go up but at least we feel that it's important even at the state level to be recognized as a green ribbon school. So that was really fantastic news and and thanks for all the work that

011went into preparing that application and um getting us through the finish line and the deadline. The committee also continues to work with our consultant AKRF to finalize the report relating to our last greenhouse gas emissions audit which covers the 2022 2023 school year and really to finalize this report so that we can share the news with the committee and then after that the committee is going to work on a roadmap which is how we think about we're going to meet our our long-term goals. So, so our goals as a district as outlined are to reduce our emissions by 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2040 using 2008 and 2009 as a baseline year. I'm not going to get ahead of the report, but I think we're well on our way. We're doing really excellent and

012so expect uh news in January. Um more exciting news that the district has received its second electric school bus um a micro bird type A and in addition to receiving NAERTA funding the district will be applying for grant support through the IRA rebate programs. Thank you Lisa for all of that work. So right now our transportation team is getting familiar with the new bus and its systems and we expect the bus to be on the road um early next year. Um you've already mentioned the solar project. So thank you for that Mar Marjorie but also very exciting work. Um on the curriculum front uh the district sustainability committee identified priority areas to work on this year. So for uh campus they chose to focus on waste minimization. For community they focus they're going to focus

013on local partnerships and under curriculum they're going to focus on defining sustainability learning outcomes. And then also under curriculum, we talked about how under project lead the way, there's going to be a new green architecture module that's going to be introduced in the 2728 school year for uh students grades six to eight. Um and then if we go back to our KLSD vision 2030, the exploration of the IP middle years program, you know, we might be looking at visibility study next year, but there are six universal themes including globalization and sustainability. And this is a program that has really strong uh focus on studentled inquiry and includes a community-based team project. So, more to come on that, but more opportunities to incorporate sustainability for reform. Lots going on. Wow. Again, thanks to to the staff

014for all the work that goes into making these things possible. >> Sounds like it was incredible meetings. >> Marjorie Nisba and Westp. >> Thank you. Just briefly, last week we had an EDL law workshop on civil service and transportation and I know several of us were there and I hope you thought it was worthwhile. I thought it was really interesting, actually much more interesting than I anticipated to be honest. Um, we are now finalizing our advocacy platform and if board members are open to it, I would love it if you mark your calendars for January 29th. That is our annual legislative forum. Um, so all of this talk about building the advocacy platform is really in preparation for a meeting with our regional legislators where this is our opportunity to share our public school priorities

015as defined by Westpot. Um, subsequent to that in February, we will then have opportunities to meet in very small, more intimate settings with our individual legislators. But the kickoff really is this bigger night. It's virtual. Um, and I'll provide more details at our next board meeting in January, but stay tuned. January 29th is the date. >> That would be great. Thank you. >> You >> um, district safety >> is that they have not met, right? >> Um, no, but but but as was mentioned, the safety plan is back on the agenda for this unique kind of um requirement >> for the 30-day public comment period. ERJC >> ERJC was set to meet last week, but due to a number of people being under the weather, that has been rescheduled to March 9th. So, we'll be

016doing February 9th, March 9th, April 7th. So, it'll be nice to have three in a row right in a row. >> Yeah, that flu is really going around. It's no joke. Uh food service committee. >> Yeah. Uh we met twice since our last board meeting, once yesterday. Um, and hats off to all the food services folks who are navigating free breakfast and free lunch for everybody, which is a transition. Um, I think it was exciting to uh to report districtwide our breakfast participation is up 943%. And districtwide lunch percentation uh pre participation uh is up 33%. >> So, I would say it's a huge uh positive reaction for the community um taking advantage of the free breakfast and lunch. Kudos to the staff. I think there's definitely, you know, always things to work out when

017you have that many more kids eating breakfast and lunch. And I think particularly at the high school, um, now there lunch is free and we're offering it all at the same time. Um, >> that's a huge undertaking, >> a huge undertaking. You know, things like they used to have their little scanner on their phone and now they don't have their phone, right? They're to scan for their lunch. So, they have to remember their >> card. Um, but you know, we talked about, you know, they're trying to, you know, trying to get kids to pre-order their deli sandwiches and just logistical stuff like that. They're working out. But I think overall it's a really exciting um um time to be in food services. And hats off to everybody who's adjusting to the big um shift. Um,

018I think, you know, one of obviously, you know, the goals of food services is to make sure as many kids as possible can take advantage of the the free uh lunch and make it as healthy as possible. Um, and I think one of the other things we encountered in asking questions is that um there's actually two ways to access the lunch menu and one is via PDF and one is the digital print. And the PDF um is a little more descriptive. So, I encourage parents and the folks that are interested actually take a look at that which it makes it actually gets more specific like it's a whole grain waffle. Um additional fruits and vegetables that are being offered for that day. I think they're working to try and get that digital um representation to

019match the PDF because I I think it's just not um sharing with parents just how the var the amount of variety and that that these are whole grains and and health you know that we are because waffles it doesn't mean that it's you know what I mean it is a whole grain waffle. Um so I encourage PGO everybody download that PDF. It's more detailed. Um and I think the other thing I you know a lot lot of questions from parents about the uh snacks the add-on snacks and I just you know in learning myself that Doritos are not the same Doritos that you buy in the store just for everybody's there are requirements for those snacks. Um, so though they are packaged similarly, >> they are they are healthy Doritos. They are they are baked,

020they they their first ingredient has to be like a whole grain um, etc. So they are not the same even though we trick kids because they look the same. So but let parents know these are not the same level of snacks even though they look So I just wanted to give that announcement. It was a new learning for me and hopefully address um, you know, questions about our our our healthy food that we're offering. That's an update. And >> that's great. >> Yeah. So, I think just continuing to help as many kids get through the line as possible is probably the biggest hurdle given >> the staff, given, you know, our our elementary schools were not designed and set up for 100% of kids taking the lunch, you know. So, um, kudos to the staff

021as they were. >> I mean, I will tell you that my daughter orders the same thing every day, but the staff is so good. They see her three people down the line get her sandwich. I'm not kidding. She tells me it's ready by the time. >> So they they put the link for pre-ordering the deli in. >> She doesn't even pre-order it. >> She needs to pre-order. I've talked to everybody. There's like they make 75 sandwiches a day. And if the kids could go on Schooly and click the link in high school in particular and pre-order, it would help more kids get through. >> But that's also a testament to how outstanding our support staff is because they really care about our kids. like they are they're special >> and they did comment about how

022much more chatty and social the kids were with each other at the high at the lunch. >> Thank you. Uh special education empowerment council or seek. We had an amazing second meeting. Um we learned we're a council and not a committee. Uh we learned we're here to stay. We even have a logo in the works. So it it is something that was one of the questions the parents >> happen. And I know Dr. Pler, you say t-shirts, but I'm not sure. >> Um, and it was a I don't think we have enough time in each meeting. Um, Dr. Partardies, like the information and the energy that you bring to our meetings um is really special. Uh, this past meeting we had a discussion about cse meetings and we met in small groups. So, we all

023met together and then we met in small groups and we discussed strengths and weaknesses. So, the good, the bad, the ugly is being discussed there. It's a safe space and I feel that parents really are sharing like what's on their hearts and their minds. Um, and I'm I'm trusting that we're going to have some good outcomes as a result of the parents just sharing like what is working for them and you know what did they want to see going forward. So, um I walked away um with a lighter step in my day and um it was just a great time spent. Um, yeah, it's um it's a really great addition. So, thank you for bringing that to us. It's um I think it's been a great addition. Um any 7.01 any other board announcements? >>

024Just briefly say thanks to Frank for organizing the um webinar on uh testing for the high school parents. It was very informative, especially for new parents to the high school. I really appreciate it. I think And thank you to our PTO for winter wonderland today which we know was well enjoyed by everybody during that lunch period and um just a really lovely study break and um opportunity to decompress at a time when I think kids really needed and really appreciated it. So huge thanks to the partnership and um thank you to the PTO. >> It would be interesting to know how much their numbers increased with having the having the community lunch. like I'm sure more people were able to finally take advantage of it. They weren't taking a class during that time. >> Absolutely.

025>> So, um we we appreciate our members here, our our guests for joining us for a conversation about belonging. >> Thank you. We'll go ahead and join with Dr. Drake and we'll go ahead and kick off this evening. >> Thank you. Good evening everybody and a really special welcome to all of you. We're really excited that you're here. Thank you for coming and agreeing to speak with us about your experience in Best Buddies. So, we're going to begin our presentation tonight with a presentation from you. So, thank you again. >> You're on. >> Well, thank you for having us. And we we can introduce ourselves. I'm Maria Melon. I'm the teacher at the high school that teaches life skills class. And this is >> I'm Ellie and I'm a student here. >> I'm Ace. I'm

026a senior here at John J. This is my second year as president and my fourth year with Best Buddies. >> I'm Sean. I'm also a senior here at John J. And this is also my fourth year Best Buddies and my first year as president. >> Yeah. So, we have a wonderful club here. Um Elena Kreper, Peter, Illi, and I are adviserss to the club and we've had um upwards of 30 students come to our club, both middle school and high school. We're trying to have more uh middle school students come up and that would you know that's that's something that's ongoing and it's great and um so the kids here students here are have their questions that they've been have prepared for if if that's okay. >> Yes please. Thank you. >> Uh so I

027will kick us off. Um first of all thank you to the board for having us. This is a big honor. You know, I've personally have been Sean and I, this is our fourth year with Best Buddies, and to, you know, to have gotten to this level where not only am I helping lead the club, but I get to help come represent the club with Miss Melon, Ellie, Sean. Um, this is a great opportunity, and I really thank you for it. Um, uh, I would just like to say that, uh, your pillar of belonging, if you know, if you're looking for a model, this is your club. This is like I I couldn't think of a better word to describe Best Buddies. I think we do an excellent job here. Miss Melon has obviously leads us

028in her own fashion and it works so effectively and um that I'll start with our first question here which is about how best buddies actually works and what activities we do and um at the beginning of each year Miss Melon calls us in all our uh presidents um all vice presidents we all come together and we kind of review what worked in previous years and what we're bringing back the following year um our seasonal activities our holiday activities, everything that's worked in the past and stuff we want to move forward with. Um, and just yesterday we had a meeting and we built gingerbread houses, had a bunch of other holiday snacks, music, dancing, songs, activities, and treats for everyone. And this is not uncommon at Best Buddies. Every meeting we have snacks for people, we

029have music, some sort of activity. Everybody always has somewhere to go. There's never anybody left alone and belonging is I would say the perfect word to describe. Um, anyone want to jump in on this? >> Thank you, Ace. That was wonderful. That was really wonderful. And I just want to say the snacks are homemade. Our my students in the life skills class make all the snacks this and it's been really working nicely. Right, Ellie? All the cups cupcakes that you made yesterday. They are delicious. >> Delicious. >> Yeah. So Ellie's here to talk about how much she likes Best Buddies. is really fun because it's like a group of all people that you get to meet and it's um sorry my best buddies is like a group of a lot of people and it's just

030like a good place to hang out with friends >> but it's nice to see them outside of that class too in the hallways. >> Yeah. >> It's very nice to see new people and new faces, >> new snacks and we get to smile. >> What's your favorite snack? Me, too. >> My favorite snack? >> Probably the Oreos. >> Oh, that's a good one. >> Yeah, we have several kinds of Oreos. Ellie knows a lot about different kinds of Oreos. She's taught me a lot. Yeah. Who knew there were so many Oreos? >> Yeah. Thank you, Ellie. >> And Sean. >> Yes. So, I wanted to talk about what I've learned from Best Buddies. And I think the most important thing I've learned is the value in creating safe spaces where students with different abilities get

031to interact. Because when everyone is in this fun and comfortable environment that we've created at Best Buddies, it allows us to not just enjoy these activities, but to really get to know each other. And what I see every day that I love so much is people aren't just there, they're not just being kind to each other, they're starting to build genuine relationships with all the other students there. And in doing so, I think it really strengthens the sense of community within our school. And personally, I'm so grateful for Best Buddies because it's introduced me to so many kind and amazing students that frankly I may have never had the chance to even interact with if I was never a member of this club. >> That's really >> Thank you. Thank you, Sean. That was amazing.

032Thank you. >> Um I completely agree with what Sean has to say. I think there's a lot of people along this Best Buddies journey that I may have never come across throughout this, including Ellie and Miss Melon. I mean, there's just like so many great people along the way who've now either graduated or are this first year coming up from the middle school. Some people from the middle school this year. We now have some we have an activity of us bringing middle schoolers up to join us. And um another one of our questions here is I that I'd like to talk about is how Best Buddies helps to create understanding and friendship among people with differences. And here at Best Buddies, we make um inclusion personal, consistent, and meaningful in that every meeting there, you

033will always be with a group. whether it's two or three people or a big table of eight people, everybody will always have somebody to talk to, to interact with. And um I think that having so many different people, you know, we have such diverse groups coming together at this common goal of belonging and just all activities are meant to promote teamwork and inclusivity, which I think we do a great job of here at Best Buddies. and I've just come across so many wonderful people along the way and I hope to continue that. >> Thank you so much. It's really wonderful to hear from all of you. Thank you very much. >> Before you all hit, I had a question. I was um yesterday in my office showed up a gingerbread house >> and I heard

034you guys did you guys do this? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, tell me a little bit more about it. Yeah. Yes. So our December our activity for our December meeting was building gingerbread houses. So every table we had a set of gingerbread house. It was like a kit with the base house and then all these decorations and the frosting and everyone just sat down and started putting whatever they wanted. And at the end we just had a bunch of these amazing houses that we were able to >> then give to all the administrators. >> Awesome. >> I'm pretty sure I know the answer. I'm not supposed to eat it, right? Okay. All right. It was great. It was great. Everybody's been chatting in the office. So, so one fell on the floor. So, so

035thank you. Lovely. >> So, I have a question. Oh, Mar. >> Um, so I was curious about your membership. Um, how many members do you have? And do you have a consistent number of people um attending each meeting or is it people are in and out depending on different other activities? Can you talk talk a little bit about what your membership looks like for us? So I can take that question. So we've had upwards of 30 40 students come. We take attendance for every meeting. >> That's awesome. >> Um sometimes the sports schedule gets in the way, but mostly we've had a lot a lot of nice numbers and it's word of mouth and it's um building community um sending out the gingerbread houses, sending out the pumpkins, inviting the veterans over for for our

036Veterans Day club. Um it seems like we're getting very popular, right? And we don't turn anyone away. So as they as Sean were saying, it could be a group of two students at a table, eight students at a table. Everyone has a place to go. But our focus this year really is to build that community, build a sense of belonging, including all you guys. So what whatever we make, we try to distribute it out um around the school. >> Thank you. >> How often do you meet? >> Twice a month. I was so happy to hear that you're also finding middle school students who are making their way to the organization and just thinking about your legacy or sort of you know what might be next for the group. I know that Best Buddies is

037a national organization too and I don't know whether you ever take advantage of regional or um national opportunities but one thing that we sometimes do here is we approve field trips and um if if anybody wanted to look into like attending a conference or something like that I think there might be best buddies opportunities that could you know just help students learn more about you know what other schools are doing and poss possible things that our chapter could do, you know, to connect to other chapters or these kinds of things. So, I just wanted to plant that seed in case there's anything we can do to support you. That might be one thing, you know, in the future that we would be happy. >> We'll be reaching out to we'll be reaching out. There is

038a walk in the in the spring in Caramel that we're taking part in. That's great. >> As a club, but but we'll definitely connect. >> Great. Thank you for letting us know about the walk in Caramel. That's awesome. >> Yeah. >> And Ellie, can you tell us about the football game? There was a football game with Best Buddies in Fox Lane. >> And I know you're on the dance team. >> Yes, I was on the dance team. I dance a lot to stay fit and it's very, very impossible to keep up with the dances. >> I think you do a great job. I've seen you out there on the field. >> Yeah. And the coin toss, we kind of lost because Foxes won. >> I was kind of sad because I wish we that we

039would win because we're the wolves. >> But you you'll get them at the unified basketball game and you you're going to win. >> Yeah, I will. >> Yeah, you're a very fierce competitor on that basketball court. >> I'm also very cheerful. I also um tell people to not to give up on their dreams. message, >> great voice. >> Yeah. >> Thank you so much for being here, everybody. I really appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. >> And I get to see all of you guys and you seem all really nice. >> Thanks. >> Hopefully you can consider us your buddies also. >> And with that, you're all welcome to come to any club that would love to have you. I was going to say it would be so nice if our visit of JJHS

040coincided. I mean, not to create a logistical issue, but it would be really nice. But we could always just come on on a separate day. >> Dr. Siciliano is here. >> Yeah. >> And I do want to say like every time we have our students come in front of us, I am always impressed at how well spoken, how well you present yourselves and the fact that you're up here talking to us. A lot of a lot of students, you know, shy away from that, but I'm always impressed by the caliber of our students. So, thank you for thank you for your involvement and thank you for coming to speak with us and we hope you'll come back. >> Thank you so much. >> Guys, I'm so happy that I'm here with all of you guys

041because you are just really nice. >> Thank you. >> And I was actually born different actually. >> I have Down syndrome and I hope I don't get bullied for it. Never will >> because I'm special to everyone and especially to Miss Melon. >> You are. >> And I just love the school. >> That's great. >> Because they treat me like a queen. >> But I think you are. >> Please stop making me cry. >> Thank you. Thanks. Thank you guys so much meeting with all you guys. Okay. >> Do you want to take your tag with you? >> Yeah. >> Happy holidays. >> Happy holiday. >> Thank you guys so much. >> Guys, have a great holiday. >> You too. >> Thank you. >> Bye >> how you want to continue on. >> I have

042to back to follow. Drake. Yeah. >> Oh my goodness. >> That was really special. >> And the meeting is done. Now >> that's a mic drop moment. >> Oh, it was a mic drop moment. That's really, really important. And it's really nice to see words come to fruition in life and lived experiences. So, thanks. >> Such a genuine manner. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm gonna pass the hot potato to my good friend Frank Gizo, our director of guidance. >> Thank you very I mean that was such a touching and heartwarming narrative to hear from everyone. I'm just afraid now I have to follow up because I know >> but talking about inclusive student organizations. So great segway. >> It's it is a great segue into that. And just uh to recap back in November we learned

043about some of the great happenings in KSD around pillar 5 well-being. So now to kick this part off with the great work that's connected to pillar two and belonging I think about like what we're doing as an administrative team and we've been reading about Zach Mccurial is the power of mattering and so some of those salient points in the book explain mattering as a basic human need meaning that people they want to be seen they want to be valued and have importance in what they do. So what you'll see in pillar two is how our teams work to make people feel valued and know that they add value, meaning that their efforts have actually made a real difference in the world. And we heard some of that uh just from our from our best buddies.

044So to connect to these points, some of our other inclusive student organizations are Key Club at Katon Elementary, BAM at Meadow Pond, Beam at the Middle School, Beat at the High School. There was just a lot of bees rolling off there to go through all that. And all of these are they're making points for the for all the individuals to have uh a deep uh sense of belonging. Uh and so I just one more thanks to our best buddies for for hearing that again. It really does hit home when you hear how they've been impacted and how our culture and environment have led to that feeling that we heard from Ellie. So uh it's it is very telling doing that. Uh, so actually we do have another just short video from some of our members

045from Increased Miller's impact. >> Um, which I think >> Yep. Hang on one second. Rich, are you with us? Let me >> There you go. Right under there. Thank you. >> Can you raise the volume, please? >> Hang on. Hey, Rich. I don't know if you can hear me. and feel like you're able to walk up to some new person in the school and be able to say hello >> a little bit more if you can. >> We go into the classroom and like we show them like a slide. It shows them like like how to look for people who um are having healthy alone time or are actually alone and it helps them like practice on like how to um like um say hello and like ask them if they want to play. We

046asked from um the most previous time we went into the class. Um we said um did any of you guys um like start with hello and like ask someone if like they wanted to play and we had a lot of people that said that they did. We plan to go out to the kindergarten and first grade recesses and see and watch the whole recess to see if we see anybody saying, "Hey, you want to join in our game?" And if they do, we would give them a sticker. Yeah. >> Or like if there's something on the buddy bench and somebody walks up to them and then like we don't need to hear what they're saying, but if they two run off together, we want to push it to the whole school, not just on like

047certain grades cuz we want the whole school to feel like they belong and they're included and like they have someone that cares about them. >> Great. Thank you. And so for the next part on equity focused resource allocation, I'm going to hand it over to Dr. feedback and special education, teachers, students and staff from central office building. January 14th and the the focus is um using the recommendations from our audit particularly focusing on family and community engagement to continue parents strengthening our partnership. >> That's great. >> That brings us to our next page. Here we go. Which begins with culturally relevant practices and curricular approach. really just embedding inclusive and culturally responsive teaching strategies into our taught curriculum and our classroom environments and designing and integrating lessons that explore different themes of belonging and equity,

048creating a welcoming environment, inclusion across all grade levels and all subjects. So, there are some examples of that listed here. Um, but we really do try to highlight all of that in our work. This past summer, uh, Neil and I collaborated to create a GCN module to help introduce the culturally responsive and sustaining education framework to all KLSD staff as part of their onboarding um, to ensure a certain degree of uniformity across the school and also we recognize differences and uh, Dr. Polar will speak also a little bit about the partnership with SETO that you have established this year. >> Thanks, but partner partnership between Septo and the elementary schools. They created um before the month of December to kind of honor the international day of persons with disabilities day. They created a variety of

049lessons focusing on different disabilities K through five. particularly the month of December, Metal Pond has been rolling out those those lessons and AES and and member are going to do it later in the year and the lessons focus on a variety of disabilities. They have um introduced them morning meetings. They have read alouds. One highlight um I happen to be at Metal Pond on Tuesday where they had the author um Violet Victory, Miss um Valerie Goldstein come and read to the in class and it was a really thing to see where she kind of spoke about her journey as as a disabled individual and her inspiration for writing the book. >> Wow. >> It's a really nice program and I'll just highlight another thing that you've heard of many times before but that is still

050going strong which is community circles and restorative circles especially at the secondary le uh level in a partnership with a group called YRJ as in restorative justice um and a partnership that we've had for some time has continued throughout this year as well. Um, additionally, crosswalks, the culturally responsive and sustaining education framework from New York State came uh with some crosswalks uh aligning that with teacher practice which are curriculum integration leaders have used to help identify priority standards and and do the work of creating and and curating and sharing uh resources to support that. And now I'll turn it over to Neil. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. My pleasure. The first point there is around the buddy bowl and and um many thanks to Ellie Ace and Sham. My heart's going to be warmed for a really

051long time. But that picture on the lower leftand corner is what Ellie was talking about and uh Lauren, you had asked about last fall at the uh at the Bedford coin toss and that's what she was referring to. It's a beautiful moment there and a and a beautiful night. Uh some other highlights uh that we're really proud to talk about is uh during ERJC this school year, we have focused our efforts on developing a district-wide cultural acknowledgement calendar. The goal has been to foster a deeper sense of unity and consistency across all schools, ensuring that our community's many identities, traditions, and celebrations are recognized in meaningful and intentional ways. Uh the creation of this calendar is one of our key empowerment actions and it represents a concrete step in our broader commitment to belonging and

052uh John as you noted uh we have uh three or four meetings coming up in the spring and they're really about four weeks apart. Uh so we really look forward to uh continuing that sense of curiosity and collaboration together with that uh connecting back to uh one of our empowerment actions. Um, a couple other things to highlight in this section. At the elementary level, uh, we continue to strengthen our sense of belonging through PTO sponsored heritage assemblies. Uh, these events give our students the opportunity to learn about, experience, and celebrate cultures, uh, that they may not count and count for every day. Uh, for example, this year, uh, students have engaged with have engaged with the Bokeendai African Dance Theater. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Um, and that was during Black History Month. Uh

053they've also explored Celtic culture through a visit from uh two bagpipe players in March and learned from the Red Hawk Indigenous Arts Council during their November program. Uh these assembles uh assemblies have become meaningful touch points in our schools helping students recognize both the diversity and the common humanity within our community. Uh one final point here are the BS and boards and that's the picture next to the coin toss there. It's at one of our elementary schools. I think that picture is from Increase Miller specifically. Um but just to highlight the powerful student centered and created art installations um at a couple of our schools. The image you see there um is a small section of a larger mural made up of self-portraits created by every student in the building. Uh the mural spans an

054entire hallway and is intentionally designed to celebrate belonging. uh when the uh when everything's assembled together, the portraits uh form a a vibrant uh rainbow offering daily reminder that every student matters and every student belongs. >> Thank you, Neil. >> We'll go back to Mr. Gizo. >> Yes. Thank you. So what's special about our community events are that they do celebrate diversity and foster unity and it's done with the inclusion of many people uh in their involvement, students, parents, staff and and those that in the greater community. >> So as we uh close this last section, we actually do have another short video. This time it's from Meadow Pond on their we belong Wednesday. >> Thank you, Rich. Hi everyone, my name is >> and I'm Rob Cohen. Today we want to tell you about

055someone very special in our family, my grandfather, Daniel Steinberg. >> He he was a veteran in World War II. Right. >> That's right. He was a first sergeant in General Patton's Third Army. He was an engineer. That means he helped build really important things for the soldiers like bridges. >> What kind of bridges? They were called Bailey bridges in France. He helped build them so tanks and troops could cross rivers while fighting to free France. >> That sounds really dangerous. >> It definitely was. And one day he actually met General Patton himself. >> The really strict general. >> That's right. Patton was known for being super strict about how soldiers looked. When he saw my grandfather, the only thing he said was, "Button your field coat." Even in middle of the war. >> Exactly. My

056mom used to joke that her dad saved France. She said that because she was so proud of him. He landed on Normandy beach after it was secured and later he received a medal from Charles de Gaul the president of France for helping to liberate the country. >> That's neat. >> After the war, he had lots of >> So you can >> very cool story. >> Yeah, it is. and and it's just one of those examples of a compilation of the student and uh and staff videos that they share about their cultures and then what belonging does mean to them uh in that regard. And just to highlight some of the other community uh building events around the district, we have uh we have JFest at the high school and that's actually the the top uh

057right picture uh as well uh and that's led by our lead John J students uh with a variety of activities, pickle ball, musical chairs, live music happening. Uh at Katon Elementary they host MLK day of action where families are invited to attend and learn more about civil the civil rights movement and participate in various activities there. Uh increase Miller has their T for two event uh which is a mother's day tradition where the children in kindergarten are singing songs, creating gifts, writing notes, practicing table etiquette and that picture is on the bottom left of that page 21 you'll see there. And both John J. high school and middle school recognize and honor our local military v veterans with their field of honor and uh veterans day assembly to both buildings. They host veterans with a

058meal and ceremony accompanied by songs of those respective branches. Uh and anyone who's experienced John J. High School's life skills cafe is very lucky because our students do a great job. I have to say that I've been the fortunate recipient of a few extra calories as a result of that. So I do look forward when they come around. Uh, and it just happened today as we heard, uh, John J. High School's winter wonderland. So, for me as a first-time experiencing this event, it's really magical. Uh, there's pure joy from those students, uh, as they group together making gingerbread houses along with having live music during the community lunch. Uh, as I learned from talking with a bunch of staff members, this is really a memorable event for our students before they graduate and move on.

059Uh, and they hear that year after year. Uh, so I just want to extend another thank you to our PTO for all their hard work and making that happen today. >> Thank you. >> Thanks everybody. >> I just wanted to highlight one program that I think is really great at the elementary level in terms of having kids have that feeling of mattering. So um, the fifth graders get paired up with kindergartens and they have a little buddy. And my son is just so proud of the fact that he has this little buddy that he is a role model and that he, you know, he looks forward the day before he's scheduled to meet with the buddy says, "I'm meeting my buddy today." So, you know, that that connection is just so special and I think

060that's a fantastic program. >> Yeah, I agree. >> Well said. feels as if in recent years we've we've really rolled out a lot of opportunities for older students to partner with younger students. It feels like that concept has really gotten traction across the district and at all levels. And it's really, >> I think, wonderful for kids to feel so useful and um as if they are serving as role models and and helping the younger kids make their way. That's great. >> I just think this is a great presentation to go into the holiday season with because this is such a truly special place and just to see the highlight, you know, you when you're living it every day, you know, it's, you know, it's a great thing, but to see it all put together, I

061mean, just thank you to all of our staff and administration and support staff. And it it takes an army to to pull all of these things together. And you know, it's just so important um you know, for people to see that they matter in order to further their education. So um it's you know, it's really special. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Frank, you're you're you can stay if you like. >> Switch with Maggie. Is that okay? >> Yeah. Thank you, Frank. And a thank you to Amanda Bergen who is very helpful in putting this together. >> Thank you for remembering that. >> She's um really really wonderful. >> And Dr. Siciliano, as I see that you're here, I just thank you for your students this evening. >> Um I

062know we're proud of the kids. I know you're proud of the kids. Seeing you walk around the campus today uh uh and walking up to you and just talking about how much they love the day and stuff. So >> glad you're here, sir. Thank you. >> Thank you. Can't wait to go home and I'll grow my daughter. >> Oh, they didn't even mention they've got the the house band played during the whole commute, the lunch, everything. So, it was great. You're singing Christmas tunes. Yeah, it was not for nothing. I was that hour went by fast. >> Mr. Henderson does a great job. >> Fantastic. >> Top notch. >> It was great. >> All right. So, now top that top. I know. battle from the beginning. Um I'm really delighted to introduce all of you

063to Dr. Maggie Conrad. Um she has been a wonderful addition to uh our office, our district office, our district period. Um and a partner in our adventures with the literacy leadership team, which I'm thrilled to tell you about this evening. Um it is the product of a lot of hard work um by a lot of people and we'll dive right in just I will go relatively quickly through these but you can ask me any question at any point but our team included an external expert who you may remember from the beginning of the year Dr. Molly Ness she was um the one who one of the co-authors of the literacy audit so it was really and an expert as you'll see in a moment all the administrators um including Dr. Siciliano uh K12 as well

064as teachers and curriculum leaders, specialists, coaches, Maggie, myself, Dr. Polarte. So, it's a nice group of people representing um a very wide cross-section of our district. Um this is a little bit more information about Dr. Ness. Um and a lot of her experience was really uh leveraged during this process. She's very knowledgeable. Her uh contributions really resonated with our team. It was a good learning opportunity for us as well. Um I'm going to talk a little bit more about that. We've already started um putting her in front of more people throughout the district and that's going to continue. Um and she's had a lot of really relevant and important experience as it relates to the work we're trying to do. So uh was a great resource to be a part of our process. Again, just

065setting the stage for our purpose u which was really to establish unified K12 approach to teaching literacy. Um these directives came from the audit and also are things that we are always striving to do and um we wanted to get together as a K12 group to also vet these high-quality instructional materials together because while our immediate focus is a K5 adoption ideal goal would be K12 or K8 coherence. Um I do have to put a disclaimer. So I'm talking about a K5 that doesn't mean that it's predetermined what we're doing at the secondary level. Um but it is um it was really beneficial to have the whole spectrum there um and to hear about what literacy looks like from beginning to end in this district. Um and uh this was our plan for the year.

066This is what we published. We put this we created a section of uh the curriculum instruction web page which we updated with each meeting. Um we outlined the times when Molly would be with us um and also what our goals were. And I must say we did a marvelous job of an accelerated pace um and really good teamwork. And it was because of that teamwork I think that we were able to come away with a recommendation and a decision that I'm sharing with you tonight. Um, and so as we went throughout the course of the fall uh to now, I would update these sections which we would add to the website um with a brief description of what we did at each meeting which I'll dive into next uh with you here. And then we

067also uh in November launched an FAQ section of our web page because we were fielding some questions from parents and thought well it would be wise to share that with the whole community. Um, and we included a a tab at the bottom if anyone had additional questions that weren't represented here, uh, which we monitored and answered and posted uh, when we received. So, um, that was a way of really being communicative about our process. >> And that that link to add questions will continue. It's not. It was It was primarily designed just to help like during our discovery and exploration phase and then it was serving as a way to help the committee or the team hear what's important to the public. Okay. >> Um so perhaps if there's another opportunity we could launch something

068like that again. But it it did help us understand what some of the needs are or some of like the most important parts of of the literacy experience are to the families. Okay. uh which helped inform our decision. Um and so one of the first things that we did um at our our first meeting was talk a little bit about what our priorities are and were and continue to be. And you can read them for yourself, but I'll point out one in in particular because the audit informed these priorities as well as our own knowledge of good practice. But that mention about authentic fulllength text is some I'm pointing that out specifically because I remember Molly identifying that as a characteristic she noticed was of something that we value here at KSC. So that that

069lived on on our priority list and then was one of the filters through which we vetted a variety of curricula that we were exploring. Um and so then the next meeting included um a little bit of PD for all of us. So Dr. Nes took us uh through a learning experience related to the science of reading. We talked about brain research. We talked about the profile of a dyslexic learner and the best practices for meeting the needs of all readers. And it was such an impactful presentation that we then had her come back for November 4th and she spoke to all the K5 um classroom teachers as well as the 6 through8 ELA teachers um a part as part of our professional learning day and she'll be back again in March to speak with secondary

070special education related service ENL um and we're going to continue the and come back again to elementary for a part two. So um continuing that learning which is which is exciting. So I've done nearly enough talking uh when you need to hear from Maggie now. But um what in addition to that on the 20th we also reviewed some curriculum evaluation tools. And this was really important because it wasn't just like what programs do we like? We vetted them through independent renowned like organizations that have rubrics and criteria through which they rate a lot of core instructional programs that are out there. and there are many. Um, so we learned specifically about ED reports, the reading league's compass tool and the knowledge matters uh campaign website which um produce uh evidence-based like reviews of programs and

071often give the programs an opportunity to respond or rebut what the review has been so you could really dive in deep. Um and so we had criteria that we established that we would filter each consideration through and then um also compiled a list and and began to the process of whittling quite a process. >> It is a quite a process. One of the pieces of this puzzle was this that which I know you're familiar with um from our boardwalk at increase Miller. Um but for the purposes of our conversation tonight, I'm going to have Maggie take you through it a little bit more um in detail. So thank you Maggie. >> Great. So when we think about skilled reading, it can be really helpful to use this image. And this is um was created by

072Dr. Scarboro. She calls it her reading rope. And it really breaks down the skills that children need to develop in order to become fluent engaged readers. Um so it's broken into two strands and two sort of buckets. So the top one is language comprehension and the bottom is word recognition. So word recognition can include skills like phonological awareness and decoding. How kids lift print off the page. The top section that language comprehension really focuses more on vocabulary and background knowledge, understanding and making meaning from what they're reading. So as these skills grow, you can see that the rope gets tighter and tighter. As kids consolidate these skills, they sort of work in this virtuous cycle to reinforce each other with the ultimate goal being really fluent in automatic reading so that kids don't have to

073work so much and take up so much brain space with that word recognition piece and they can really go deeply thinking about what they're reading, making sense of what they're reading and applying all those comprehension skills and their background knowledge to those texts. So this was important background knowledge for the committee to have as we looked at different programs because on the next slide you'll see that they were sort of in these two buckets. So we had to make a decision as to whether we wanted a comprehensive curriculum, one that took all of those components of the strands and sort of wo them together with one sort of product or if we wanted to go with complimementaryary curricula. So one that addressed language comprehension really deeply and that addressed word recognition. So that was always

074sort of something in the back of our mind as we were looking through these various programs. >> Yeah, absolutely. And these are the list. This is the list of the programs that we considered. Um and I'll just flip back for a second so you could put that into context. And thank you uh thank you Maggie. And then this is the these are the filters through which we place each of them. We reviewed the independent evaluations from knowledge matters, the reading lead compass and ed reports. And we also excluded some programs that weren't vetted by them. There are some new like brand new very shiny and exciting programs that that no one has vetted or that haven't agreed to be reviewed by some of these. And to us that was something that made us move them

075out of our consideration because we wanted we valued this um as one of our measures. Um and so that was what we did on the 5th along with making sure our priorities were aligning and and developing this response to the FAQs as a committee, not just one person in a room alone answering the questions. So it was a good learning experience for everybody. The next meeting we had was one in which we had many zooms throughout the course of the day with publishers as well as people from various districts that were implementing the programs we were considering. So there was a lot of homework for yours truly between the meetings but it was really uh beneficial. It made the learning experience while we were together um I thought very powerful and we were able to

076further narrow our list. So we kept we kept making the funnel tighter and tighter until uh December 11th when we landed on our recommendation for which is um a language comprehension recommendation. Um it is part of what I will be telling you about this evening. It's fish tank ELA and it's actually fish tank plus that we'll be investing in. Um it is aligned with the reading research in the in all of these various ways. it's aligned with the writing research because we were while we were talking a lot about science of reading we were also keeping the importance of the writing research in mind um as our student member very astutely shared there's a need for uh that kind of explicit instruction as well we vetted that it met our established priorities and I will

077add it is also a K12 uh program so we had the chance as a K12 group to look at it from our different lenses Um but again for this purpose we're considering it we are adopting it for fifth grade a K through fifth grade. So that brings us back to this visual of the rope where we have fish tank that addresses the language comprehension part and on the next slide I'll tell you much in much more detail how that happens. But that means if you've been paying attention we still need stuff for the bottom of the rope. um and that we have in existence. But while while we were thinking about the highest quality instructional materials that we could adopt, we continued our search. Um which led us to what you will hear in the

078subsequent slides. But before we jump there in in summary, this is really teeny font from far away, so I'm not going to read it to you. This fish tank curriculum, it builds deep knowledge through thematic units, essential questions, intentional background building. It strengthens academic vocabulary and language comprehension by explicitly teaching high value tier 2 and three vocabulary words. It's unpacking complex sentence structures, exposes students to a variety of linguistic patterns, and there are daily structured discussions that develop verbal reasoning, academic discourse, and broad genre exposure, which is going to prepare students to independently navigate complex texts and authentic texts because remember that was one of our criteria. Um, and it also offers supports for all students and extensions if necessary. So there's both scaffolds and supports um that are built in to this program. And

079so now that takes us to our word recognition challenge. So we were we were settled on that and by adopting that we realized as I said we needed to make sure we had the most robust word recognition offerings. And so that is part of what we did on the 11th. More we had more materials to review, more samples. We met with more u publishers. We asked them a variety of questions and we uh had to really compare and evaluate each of those. So Maggie's going to tell you a little bit more about where we landed, but essentially these are the this is the new suite of word recognition u materials that we will be um bringing to KSDFly foundations. More themes for little ones, more themes for little ones um in the future. Not not

080this one is going to be paused for a little bit. You will explain why. And Morphe Magic for grades four through five, which is also a 4 through 12 program. So our committee was exploring ways that that might live be in places beyond the elementary school. So Dr. Conrad, um, great. So in grades four and five, we'll be adopting morphe magic as Julia pointed out. Um this is in response to the recommendation from the literacy audit that we bring in a word recognition component into our upper grade classrooms. Um so this is a program that provides really explicit instruction into morph themes, prefixes, suffixes, roots, Greek and Latin combining forms. Um so it's a program that really helps students to take apart and analyze word meaning and the structures of words. So, it'll really be

081supportive of our students with their writing, with their vocabulary growth, with their reading comprehension. So, we're really excited about this program. Seems like a program that's going to be really engaging for students. Seems like it'll be fairly um easy to implement in the classroom. It's relatively quick. It's about 10 or 15 minutes per day. Um, so we thought it was a nice sort of stepping stone into word recognition in the upper grades in a really impactful way, but without taking over a ton of time in >> Agreed. And it struck us as being very explicit and direct, but and and following a similar structure daily. So easy to kind of fall into as a routine for learning. So great. Thank you. And oh, we see potential there's also really nice potential for cross content learning

082where because the morph themes and the roots and suffixes all of that can apply across the content areas which got us on an exciting conversation. >> It did. I think another thing just to piggyback on that because morphes don't need to follow a specific scope and sequence we can tailor our our instruction and handpick which morphes best match the curriculum at each grade level. So it allows us a degree of flexibility to really be able to tailor to what the curriculum our language um component the fish tank curriculum will be addressing. So >> right and that she's alluding to some of our future work. So that means we are have ongoing work to to continue. Thank you Maggie. All right. >> Great. So then we'll drop down to our primary grades in grades K through

083two. will be phasing out foundations um and replacing it with UFly foundations um for a number of reasons. It provides a more comprehensive and integrated approach to decoding which is reading words off the page and encoding which is spelling. Um it has a really clear and predictable lesson format similar to what Julia des described with um Morphe magic. And that's really important particularly for our youngest readers because when we think about the cognitive load for them, how much is going on in their little brains, the more we can routinize things so that they can really focus on the target skill, the more they'll be able to focus on that target skill and not which is that routine and how do we do this again? So, one of the things we really liked both for students

084and for teachers was that it's a predictable lesson structure day after day after day. Um, we also really like that it had an incredibly strong research base. The efficacy um on this program is really, really high. We look for 04 for pretty strong programming. This had between um 1.2 and 1.4. It's a really incredibly founded in research. >> Um along with phasing out foundations, we're also planning to phase out Heggerty um in first grade. So, Heaggert is a program that focuses on phonological awareness, which is the ability to really hear and hear and manipulate sounds in words. And it's a really important precursor skill to phonics because if kids can't hear those sounds in words, then they can't tap the sounds in words. And they can't then think about when I'm trying to spell tap,

085what's that first sound and what letter represents it? So, um, we really want to make sure that we provide our kindergarten students with what research tells us is about 10 hours of instruction. So, we'll provide that through integity and then we'll phase it out because you fly will address phonological awareness or phmic awareness specifically through segmenting and blending activities. >> Thank you. And as Maggie said, this still leaves foundations in third grade for the time being. Um, and I'll allow uh Maggie to explain it some more. >> Great. Yeah. So, we thought that it would be important to keep foundations in third grade for the 26 27 school year because our current second graders have lived in this program for so long that to shift them into something entirely new in third grade might be

086a little bit jarring. We wanted to make sure that they got the full complement of foundations lessons. So, we're going to let that cohort finish out their phonics experience with the foundations program and then after that we'll we'll transition into more themes for little ones. And this is a program sort of the precursor to morphe magic. It builds foundational skills in FM awareness, orthography, morphology, and syntax. So, we really think that'll give kids a strong foundation for taking a deeper dive into morphes in fourth and fifth grade. >> Yeah. which is also exciting because something like that has not existed in the upper grades before. So um explicitly so here on this slide is a one pager of of what we will be introducing and also you know what is exciting Dr. Blanch and I

087were speaking about earlier we we have a baseline right now kind of of where we are and after we implement these we'll be able to see with data the impact that it's having. So, we're really looking forward to that. Um, and our next steps include um adopting the curriculum decision to the budget conditions, which is um a necessary step for sure. Preparing for the implementation. We hope to use every available moment and create them where they where they don't exist if possible to on like to introduce this program these programs to all everybody who will be implementing them in the fall at a at a pace that feels manageable. We really want to support the teachers and the great work that they are already doing. And I I do again want to thank all of

088the members of the literacy leadership team. We're really blessed to have some really knowledgeable folks um in this district that are helping us make really smart and and thoughtful next steps. Um but our work isn't done. So we're going to meet throughout the rest of this year and in more of a subcommittee approach separating all the various aspects of implementation work that lives um in the elementaryaries and continuing the work to explore integrating high-quality instructional materials at the secondary level. Um so our hope is to continue and at this time next year have a similar report for you for middle school high quality instructional materials possibly uh going up into high school as well. Um but again we will see uh where this work takes us and um really continue to provide those professional learning

089opportunities. As I said Dr. Ness is coming back. We are actively working with all of the organizations that represent the various programs that we've just spoken to about aligning all of their professional development opportunities um with our schedules and our ability to purchase all the materials at a at a time and a pace that will enable the teachers to really immerse themselves in it before we ask them to use it. Um and and our hope is by adopting these really high quality instructional materials at a time like this, teachers will have fewer things to navigate through and really impactful tools to use to complement their already really effective practices. But um together as a group, I think uh we have really great opportunities ahead because we have a really strong team. So thank you for

090listening. >> Any wonderings board on anything or >> Yes, sir. Um, first of all, I got to tell you that the community is super excited about that you've, you know, made literacy a priority in our district. >> Um, I've heard from many, many people, which is great. Now, being on the finance committee, >> do we know any of the costs involved? Okay. >> Yes. Yes, we do. And and we I'm sure we have to make some choices, but >> but we were we were just speaking the other day. We we know we need to support this. Well, we can't just say good luck and and that happens in lots of scenarios and lots of districts and we're committed to not doing that. So, we want to assess with the budget conditions what we can offer

091and if we can do it all at once, that is our hope that that what we showed you tonight will be what we do. If it proves to be fiscally not possible, we might phase it in a little bit, but right now signs are pointing towards we can. So >> we will try to find No, I think we have it. We we we may have to make some sacrifices which you know we all are doing in this fiscal climate. Um but this is the this will be the focus of the work. >> This is so important and it's critical. Yeah, >> it's highly critical. I you know >> and I would say with one of the pieces inside of here too that is as Julie and the team spoke about looking at a three-year PD

092plan, right? >> It's not going to happen overnight for everything there. So and as we know we have faculty members who will be changing in the coming years. So, we want to have a a really strong clear experience for our teachers. And then as we look at um empowering our teacher leaders uh more directly across our schools, that's a key spot we want to really invest in those positions. So, um again, we'll make those adjustments. Um I have no doubt we'll be able to make a significant impact. It's just a matter of exactly the timing, but we do have actually thinking out three years because we know it's going to take that part and as we talked about it to phase in on some of these elements and so and that helps in a lot

093of ways where it's not so inundating out overnight and also from budgeting piece we kind of feather that in. So I have all the confidence we'll be able to provide our teachers with the PD that they need and in some accounts as Julie mentioned before some of it is is the time and finding that time. So, I want to thank the board again from last year. This year, we have two additional days this year in our professional learning opportunities for our faculty. It's never enough, but that certainly is a piece where Julie mentioned before, even this spring where we're to start warming up the conversation with our teachers right away. So, having that available in the spring, which we in before. So, again, thank you for that. >> Yeah. No, I just wanted to add

094to what you were saying. Fish Tank is is really committed to teacher um like development and and and giving them the tools to make choices to best do what they do. And the professional development organizations that we're considering partnering with are going to help to build that leadership structure like help train our teacher leaders in order to continue to turnkey this to their colleagues as well. So the they told us their hope is to be obsolete after a few years, which is a great thing to hear from a group that is charging you money to do professional learning. So um an investment truly that that would last is what we're after. >> And I would add to that as well, the per part of the reason that we pick these programs because there's embedded professional

095learning within them. As our teachers are teaching these programs, they're going to gain deeper understanding in all aspects of the Scarboro's rope. So over time they'll become more and more efficient and effective in their practice by virtue of having taught these programs. >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> Are we doing um are you signing up for a subscription that's looks like fish tank plus is a subscription model? Yes. Are we committing to three years or one is it one year at a time or >> or you know what I mean? >> Yes. No, I don't see a limit an end. >> No, I don't think so. >> Annual subscription, >> right? But I'm saying we're committing to >> we're all we're all saying it's an annual two feet. Yes, we do. >> It's an annual cost which

096which the subscription is um is is relatively modestly priced. But the thing that is more expensive is the purchasing of all the texts. There's whole class like whole novels that students are reading that are like the trade books and that part is a pretty sizable investment but it's not something that has to be done annually because they're books and we take good care of our books and you know so they should last us for a little bit. Yes. Um so there there's layers of that um some materials for each each Morphe Magic has some materials. Youly also had all digital time cost for Each of the three word knowledge programs we chose, there's a teacher edition that we need to purchase and then that's it. There are no studentf facing materials like some environmental like

097u additions but that's it. Yeah, >> for the word study programs, right? Okay. And then the fish tank plus would be like an annual. >> Well, I I will say like the the some of the word knowledge pieces like you fly for example also have some digital enhancements that we could do, but they're m they're the they're much more moderately priced than some of the current things that we have in place. >> Um so there's there's >> I know we spoke uh between the three of us a little bit about the opportunities as they'll present themselves for professional learning for our faculty. So they have a very tight description of like here's this five-step course, new teacher comes on board. Look, that's your new learning experience and here's the, you know, roughly five hours you

098need to get to go through that. So we really do see support for current teachers and then future teachers coming on board. So very quickly we can bring on a new teacher, say, "Ah, here's the program you use. Here's the clear steps you can walk through." And so it seems like there's some very um um uh opportunities for new and then and then veteran teachers for us. So that's going to be I think a very new experience for us as opposed to you know kind of slowly get that by kind of a osmosis kind of thing. But no, it's like right off the bat you'll get started right away with our new teacher training as as Maggie's kind of leading that spot. We anticipate at that level there's going to be components baked in to

099that you need to walk in and have that experience in that classroom ASAP and then we'll kind of continue the development. >> Was Dr. Ness or were you with your own professional colleagues able to talk with any counterparts in other districts who are using some or most of these >> um pieces of the curriculum? >> Yes. So we that was part of part of our agenda item on I I can't recall the exact dates but we had we would have zoom sessions with districts that were implementing fish tank for example and some of the other finalist curricula um to ask them questions and I remain in touch with them and they've offered to be uh in touch with us throughout our process. So, it wasn't we we weren't just listening to the publishers. We wanted

100to hear from practitioners as well. >> Have any of these pieces of curriculum been around long enough that any districts are able to share data? I loved what you said about being able to look at data, you know, starting sort of next year will be year one. >> Um, does that data exist in other districts yet or are these new programs? >> It exists especially for UFly. As Maggie mentioned, there's been like research studies that show its effectiveness and that that I think is really exciting. It was very exciting to the committee. There was definitely an energy in the room and I know teachers were already dabbling in it um as a supplement to what we were doing. So, I think there's some excitement about being able to use it as their their sole piece.

101Um, and the the others are a little harder to quantify like larger language comprehension programs might be difficult to measure the impact of but the tools all come with assessments and progress monitoring. So, we'll be able eventually to gauge the impact that it's having compared to ourself. Um, and the independent reviews of things like fish tank proved to be really supportive of the notion that they'd be highly effective. So to to us that was a good vetting. >> We'll also be able to track student progress through NWA map and dibbles. So we'll really be able to see the fingerprints of what's working and where do we need to maybe shift gears or re-examine or sort of bolster support for students >> and Dr. Conrad has done an amazing job um helping to launch both NWA

102and Dibbles throughout the district. >> Thank you. >> Is going on a world tour a world doubles tour after the break. traveling road show traveling road show through all the elementary schools but um she's helping us really make sense of that while helping us also move our RTI to an MTSS approach and this is very intertwined because this another natural uh next step is discussing interventions and their relations to it's it's like an onion it just keeps um peeling but Maggie just led a meeting that was today right today this morning >> with the interventionists discussing implications of all of this and all of that. So, we have a lot of work ahead of us and I'm I'm grateful again that we have a strong team um because we do there's a lot a lot

103to do. Um but it's all for really good reasons. So, >> well, I'm appreciative of the the quick very quick action on our literacy survey and really hearing the community um for what they really wanted to see come out of it. I do have just one question. When are we bringing back sentence diagramming? Because my children really missed out not living my pain. We'll have a special. >> I I asked him. >> I was like, "Aren't you diagramming?" They're like, "What are you talking about?" Anyway, >> but this is structure. >> In all seriousness, just to connect that, sorry to interrupt, but to what Hudson had asked about at our last meeting where we talked about literacy with the consultants. I think it would be interesting to really think about um like vertical articulation of

104the data and what impact these changes potentially even could have on I'm thinking about like the high school profile where we have our average range for verbal testing on ACT and SAT and who knows what those assessments look like by the time our next year's fifth graders who will be the first students to reach junior year or whenever they're taking those tests. But I think this like real dedication into morpham work maybe starting as early as third grade eventually that can >> that could be pretty powerful later I think I mean I don't actually I don't have that data but I think it'll be really interesting what if it really does you know and so anyway just to connect up to what he was talking about >> thank you the hope for sure >> and

105Margie when you spoke before about that data set um this year is our baseline so we have our current reality and experience with our current structures and system systems in place with the NBA and the dibbles as Maggie was saying now moving forward we'll have this new reality. So in a lot of ways again very fortunate that we made a clear hard shift this fall to start with this work. So now as we make programmatic changes we can see as the anticipation is it will have a noticeable difference and we can monitor that not just grade but cohort two and so that a piece we'll be able to do with inside here soon. I have just one question to make sure I understand something. When you were talking about fish tank, you talked about scaffolding

106and extensions and that made me think about something and I want to make sure that I'm understanding correctly. I know for our PLC's we have our guiding questions, right? Like what do we want students to learn? How do we know they learned it? What do we do if they didn't? And um what do we do for those who to extend the learning for those who have? So is scaffolding referring to what do we do if they haven't learned and extensions referring to how do we continue to extend for those who have learned? Yeah, well well said. And we we we're calling them thanks to Maggie's affirmative touch on MTSS striving learners, not struggling, but striving and scaffolds would help. It's like scaffolding on a building helping you get up a building, right? And then extensions

107would be like what for what students already know and and fish tank has supports embedded in it for that purpose. So like opportunities for enrichment for those who might be ready for >> so this the teacher doesn't have to sort of come up on their own. How do I continue to extend this child who is capable of doing more? They have built in within this program tools that they can draw from. >> Correct. And the specifically um regarding enrichment, they have opportunities for enrichment that focus on providing extended learning uh for students who've already mastered or who can quickly master the core curriculum. And they allow students who are eager to learn more about a particular concept or idea, the chance to do additional learning or research through additional readings, extension tasks, and they have

108family and community engagement opportunities as well. So >> I want to say like to piggy back on that like the the shift that based on my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, all kids will have access then to the grade level check. >> Yes. >> And that that is such a huge it's hard to under hard to explain how how huge that is. Instead of being stuck in a leveled reader that's down here and only moving up one at a time, >> everybody's going for this >> Yeah. >> this grade level authentic text. >> Correct. >> And the scaffolds are there so that every day every child has access to grade level text. that mind shift shift mindset shift and that you know that will be just I mean a huge a huge change for

109our teachers and students in such a good way. I'm very excited. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, you answered my question about intervention. I think that was my natural question. Okay, how does this what is it? Because we're using Wilson Foundation's you know >> we're using a variety of of things. >> Okay, so that's sort of the next thing to figure out is >> Yep. They were just I'll let you say it. You were just inventorying that today. >> We were doing an inventory of what are we using for our assess our diagnostic assessments and our intervention programs with a real eye to being able to very growing out of our universal assessments once we identify kids who may have some areas that we want to take a closer look at. How do we use diagnostic

110assessments to take a really deep dive to specifically pinpoint where is the breakdown for each of these children if there is one and how do we use our targeted interventions to really address that? and hopefully in a way that really speaks to the work that's happening in the classroom so that they're not two different languages, two different you're getting at the same idea, but let's use consistent language and let's be consistent in the structures that we're putting into place to address these skills to the extent we're able to. >> The improvement of the, you know, tier one instruction always helps. >> Exactly. Absolutely. >> And then I'd anticipate Maggie, uh, we'll be kind of back in the fall as the team is working through with the shift. RTI to MTSS as Julie was saying and

111then that be ready to really be brought forth because it is a significant shift and yet I would say everything is there's a there's a positive energy and then like a welcoming energy from our faculty with that that piece. So we hope to be back you know probably in the fall to say here's where we were and here's where we are now with this really clear shift for all of our students. again remember the empowering all does does actually mean all and so so getting those kids. So we're um again with that meeting today had a chance to just look at the kind of um trajectory where they were and where they're at now where they're going. We're we're right on target. So thank you very much Julia. Thanks Maggie. Appreciate it. Thank you. >>

112Thank you. >> It was great. Thank you, Maggie and Frank, for joining our family here. Um, you've been great additions and we've both enjoyed having you at our table with us. Um, I am going to open and close public comment. Um, as people are hopefully watching us from home and we really encourage you to come join and come down and join us. Um, there's a lot of good things happening around our table. Um, the consent agenda is next. I am going to pull um agenda item 1316 because I am very proud that my son is going to be joining hopefully is seeking to join the wrestling family as a volunteer coach. So that Ian Gallagher um is my son. So I'm going to pull that one out. Does anybody have anything else to pull? Can

113we have a motion uh to move the consent agenda with the exception of 13.6 bill? Second by Arwin. Any discussion? All those in favor? 70. Somebody make a motion on 13.16. Barbara. Second by Bill. All those in favor. 61. Obsession. Thank you. I did almost get him to come down here tonight. I said, "Oh, it's a requirement. Like, you have to come and sit in our audience." And he was really going to come, but then took his sisters out to dinner for me. Um, >> that's nice, too. >> That is nice. >> Well, we've had no water for a week, so um 15.01 board dialogue and discussion. >> Anybody have anything dialogue and discussion? I I do want to wish um our administration, our cabinet, um our support staff, our teachers, our bus drivers a

114very happy and everybody, all of the KSC family a very happy and healthy holiday season. I hope you have a wonderful amazing this year two weeks um off to rejuvenate because uh Dr. Drake is going to be working everybody to the bone, it sounds like, with our exciting new our exciting new curriculum adoption. And I feel like that's kind of a gift to the whole community from from from you that um we really have something to be excited for. So, um happy holidays to everyone for Hanukkah, Christmas, Quanza, whatever you celebrate. Um hope and happy new year. Next um is our future meetings. We will be Friday, January 9th, the sustainability committee will be meeting in the district office at a bright and early 8:15 a.m. Follow January 15th, we'll be back here in the

115library at 7 p.m. for our board of education meeting. January 28th, we will have the finance committee at 6 PM in the district office conference room. January 29th, we will be back here again for a board of education meeting 7 p.m. in the library. And finally, uh January 30th, we'll have a policy committee meeting at 9:00 a.m. in the district office conference room. Then we turn for our superintendent. >> Oh, just same. Just wish everybody a wonderful holiday season, everything. And um Bills, >> wait a minute. Wait a minute. Those were fighting words from the Massachusetts. That was some game. Um, can somebody make a motion to adjurnn? Motion by John, second by Carolyn. All those in favor? 70. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.