001program. I appreciate what um gets accomplished with our kids and let you introduce and maybe tell us a little bit about what your program does and u and how important it is to our kids and then we'll let them say a few words as well. So, Mr. Malone, thank you. You can start us out. Okay. So, um I I was talking to Dr. Duggets earlier today and um I told him this is the third school that I've worked for and I've not worked for a school that cares about the students as much as this one and it's beyond the academics, you know, it's about their lives and what they're doing. So, that makes this job a lot easier when you know that you're working with a team of people. Uh Mrs. Brimberry, our coordinator, we
002work with the guidance counselors. We work with Dr. Deets. Uh Lyn Brown pops in also. And so it's like and even the uh special ed u teachers we work with everybody. So that what makes it good. So what we're going to do here is I'm going to share the purpose of our program. Um Mr. Box is going to share with you uh some of the student backgrounds that we deal with and then we'll have our two students uh speak. So obviously you know we deal with credit recovery but it's not just uh credit recovery. Um, we have students who deal with adverse situations and challenges and those obstacles aren't all the time just falling behind on credits. Uh, we had a student this year who had two classes that were offered at the same time.
003And so, in order to get around that, we had to uh have him for a period at the academy. So, we got him through that. Also, we'll have uh we had a kid that got injured, so we could not do PE, couldn't do the weightlifting. So, to get the PE credit, you know, he spent time with us. So the obstacles aren't always what uh Mr. Boxel is going to have to share with you. Uh some of the other things that we do here is we provide caring and supportive environment. Um um nurse Meg uh deals with the mental health side of things. So she comes down once a week, speaks with the kids. Sometimes she'll do one-on-one with them to uh set some goals. Also, um they get an occasional dad joke from me. So
004sometimes you got to uh keep things light because we all come in sometimes you don't want to be there but you know if you can laugh you make somebody laugh then you can kind of take the edge off a little bit. Um we build uh self-esteem and confidence. We like to celebrate uh kids when they uh recover a credit. There's times where Mrs. Brimberry has drawings where we'll put names in the hat of the people who recovered a uh credit in a three-week period. Uh there's times where she'll get donuts and all the kids that got credits uh for the nine weeks, we'll we'll do that. Uh we have these caps. Every credit that a student gets, they sign their names on these graduation caps and we hang them on the wall because that's a
005constant reminder to them what their goal is. Um other than that, um you know, it's a people like to say we deal with non-traditional students, but they're traditional students. It's just that, you know, life sometimes throw things at you that's not under uh your control and our job is just to get them back on the right road because there's nobody who's ever lived that have everything go straight and right for them. So, it's good to have uh people there for them. So, Mr. Box was going to share some of the student backgrounds that we have. >> Thank you. Um, Coach Malone and I were just talking before we started here, but it's hard to put an exact number on it, but we guessed at least threequarters of our students probably come from a split household.
006So, that could be just purely divorced, but it's not uncommon to have students that have had parents spend time in prison. We've had several deceased parents or multiple deceased parents and then they end up living in in a foster home or with their grandparents. So, family life for most of our students is not great to say the least really. But, um, like he mentioned, Meg Fzen is a great asset for us with a lot of the mental health issues that our students face. We have a lot of anxiety, some depression, some students that have spent time with the Parkview Behavioral Health in Fort Wayne. We have kids involved with Boys and Girls Club, youth service bureau in town. So just a lot of they've faced a lot of adversity and they have some sort of
007repercussions. A lot of it's out of their control, but um most of them face that stuff head on. I think the two kids we have here have had their fair share of adversity, but they've faced that stuff head on pretty well. Um now I'll let Megan talk, but she spent a lot of time out of school. So she was homeschooled for a long time. She came in class and has hammered out I think she's Libra in clubhouse with 30 credits which is outstanding. Um Mason's done the same thing last couple years. He spent at least a how long a school year out >> for no different reasons but he's been in the program last two years and has faced every obstacle we put in front of him. Never said he can't do it. It's too
008hard. It's too much. I've never heard him complain at all about anything. So, you know, our kids do face a lot, but most of them that are successful and leave our building as graduates, they have never backed down from any of the challenges. >> Hello, I am Megan Gillian and I'm a senior this year. Um, I feel like my situation is a little different than a lot of people in Viking Success. Um, you know, as he mentioned, I was homeschooled all the way up until my junior year. And then, um, none of my credits, they none of them transferred. And so, I was planning on getting my GED, but then cuz I didn't see a way for me to graduate. And then last year in the summer when I was told that I could graduate
009this school year, I knew I was going to try like my hardest to be able to complete the credits. And at the start of the school year, I had 30 to earn. And yeah, I've completed them all. And now I can graduate my class. with my class and have no need to take a GED or state test or anything like that. And then um I think the program like I just wanted to say something about the program like it allows everyone to focus like it's made to where you can learn on your own time without depending on anyone else or being influenced by by anyone around you. like I specifically was able to put music in on and then focus on the material on my own time and in the classroom. Um I got to
010choose what I wanted to work on for the day. Depending on how focused and how motivated I was, the more I could get done. Um being at Viking Success helps to protect from stress, drama, anxiety, and the influences of people around you. A lot of people agree that this is the best way for them to learn and from all things that can stall your learning and pro be protected from all things that can stall your learning. Some people can't learn the way um that you know most people can or anything like that. And then they need to be able to learn on their own time or in their own way. And then uh lastly, Viking success is just a way for people to graduate who like never thought that they would. Hello, my name is
011Mason. Um, I don't really have a speech prepared, but um, I'm a senior now and I've been in the program since my sophomore year. And my freshman year, I wasn't in school either, just because different life events. And, uh, when I started, they told me I had a very narrow window if I wanted to graduate. And this program really helped me do it. I'm about to finish my last credit tomorrow. So that'll be I think 25 I've gotten from this program and without this I wouldn't have been able to graduate. And without Mr. alone and box like he said, making us laugh every day and just being more than teachers. They actually like I really respect them like really. And um I think this program is very important because like they're mentioned a lot of
012kids have different life events that you know they can't control and this program helps them do it on their own time and like she said at your own pace too. So, I' I think it's a really good program. >> Thank you. Um, to our two students that are here tonight, uh, number one, congratulations. I I was looking more forward to tonight to hear you two uh, and Mr. Malone, Mr. Boxel speak, and Mrs. Brimberry's home ill tonight, but she had tears in her eyes when I left because she knew what tonight means to so many of our students. and the investment. And so, um, I'm proud of you. Um, I love the program and I will tell you this exemplifies pockets of excellence in Huntington schools. And I say that because a progressive high school
013must meet the students where they're at. And your different scenarios are great example of this is what life kind of dealt you and how can we help you be successful and believe in you. And it's not always easy. And what you guys have accomplished is not easy to do. Um it is not um without hard work and it's not without commitment. And I appreciate greatly you coming here tonight. I know our board loves tonight and I want to congratulate both of you and I may do everything in my power to pop in there tomorrow to give you the the true congratulation uh high five, hug, whatever it is. But I appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you. to our board. Um, I know you understand the value of the program, but I'm interested before we
014move on to the next of of your thoughts when you hear the kids tonight or when Mr. Malone or Mr. Boxel, it it helps us as we continue to grow and shape uh for next year. They came and talked about um I think a year ago we really could use some stuff in our rooms if I remember and boy pretty soon we had some stuff in our rooms and it looks fantastic for the kids now. So I'm interested when you hear the kids tonight if you have thoughts on this and uh after we're done we'll move on the next one. As I look back from even when I worked here till today and when my kids were going through the corporation, one of the things that I'm really happy about of what we're doing now
015is that we're trying to, like you mentioned, meet the kids where they're at. We're not just shoehorning them into that square peg, even if they're a little round or if they're a different way. I think that's the best thing that we can do for our K children in this community and everything. I I think it really is a positive that we try to find every child every day just as our motto says because that's that's what we need to do. We can't just focus on the the college person. we need to fe we need to meet everybody and that's every time they come I'm I'm always very happy for where we were at today because I know when I look back that's not maybe where we have been and I continue to want to push
016to continue to make sure that we are doing every student every day. So I commend you. I commend Dr. Deets and everyone at the high school and I know everyone in the corporation that's trying to do that every day. I think it's very important to do that. And if we ever need to take a step back and figure out what other ways we need to do that, let's do that because Meg's got a hard job out there. Dr. Duggets has a hard job out there. But if we can help in any way, shape, or form to hit get to every kid, that's the important part. >> Thank you. Couldn't have said that better. Other board members, >> fantastic program. Oh my gosh. Um, just fills my heart with pride what Huntington's doing for kids. I
017assume this is true, but I'm just curious as to how we do this. I assume we have learning aids and support for all the different learning issues for kids that might be in that program. >> Um, it depends on your audience. Um, as Mr. Malone just uh listed. So, yeah, if uh a student from special services, they would still have access to their teacher of record. um if students um may be needed uh as you heard with me, they have access to that when needed, as needed. Um it is a village going on in there. It's it's one of my favorite places when um different opportunities come my way. I sometimes try to get to that room to rep prioritize because you will see not just Mr. Malone, Mrs. Brimberry, the guidance counselors, sometimes special
018education, sometimes others that are investing, but it's just a wide variety of people who are doing their part for these children and it's pretty inspiring. And so your point is well taken. It is a it's a lot of people and a lot of different services under the leadership of three or four, but they all pitch in. >> Fantastic. >> Yeah. I I would also add um obviously this platform is um a combination uh most of it is virtual. Now if you remember we spent some time as we installed our virtual program here um with Mrs. Brimberry not being able to be here tonight due to being ill. I wanted to to give you some numbers. We have a platform called Apex. You heard that. We also and that's really reserved for um our uh Viking
019success kids but it's also reserved for sometimes special services if that's best fit of a credit recovery there that might be done in with the to it might be done there depends on what's best for the child. We also have uh an adoption that's called courseware and that's apex but the new modern version of it. a little bit more up to-date and we're that will be in instituted next school year. It's Apex but more modern. Um I would also tell you we have ed options if you remember and that's for the kids that have singleton classes. If you remember we had a lot of scheduling different you know as you heard hey we've got two at the same time what do we do? Well one that we're pretty proud of is at options where that's
020going to be a live teacher from outside the district. They can watch that live or recorded, kind of synchronous or asynchronous. We have 53 children that are either full-time on our virtual program. You say, "Well, what does that equate to?" Um, remember full-time kids are funded at 85% of the $7,100. So, at count day, which is February and October, you look and say, "Okay, it's at that time how many kids are at least uh 70% of their day are virtual." And on the last count day, we had 53 kids 6 through 12 who were at least that part of their day virtual. What does that equate to? Well, that's about $320,000 coming to the district based on virtual education. Now, your assumption can't always be that if the student wasn't full-time virtual, they wouldn't be
021with us. They might have been the old hybrid where their percentages were different, but what we do know is that our platforms virtually are supplementing all the way from the AP course to the academic honors, the scheduling conflicts, all the way down to special services in terms of they have a um maybe need longer time to take a class than what would be on time allotted to kids who are behind on credits. So these three platforms have a variety of students from all levels, but they're working simultaneously under virtual education. And this team under Dr. Digits, his counselors, and our team that handles the virtual education with Mrs. Brimberry, um kids have opportunities here. Might be one class, might be a medical, as you know, might be medical, and they're working through those things with
022those kids virtually. It might be I'm postcoid and I don't do public high school and those kids that live in our county that are doing that full-time virtual right now. Is that the best game in town? We still think in person is but if that student in Huntington County needs that other that's exactly what they'll get from us now. So I would tell you um we are higher than self-funded when John and I put this in with the board. We hope to be even because it's a great investment. It's actually been more beneficial that way. So it's not a budgetary item. It actually is a benefit, but as you just heard, it's immeasurable. It's immeasurable. If there's a loss, it's still immeasurable. And so, I want you to always hear the student because this continues
023to be needed here. And um I know that you value it, but I I value it at the highest level because it helps every kid every day. >> Thank you, Mr. Burberry. I just want to reference uh these two students and I know they're just two of a lot of the same stories. Um not having that opportunity to do it virtually, they would not have made it. Right. >> Um so I think it's a real um it's a real feather in our cap that we you know put our head down and made sure that the virtual option was um rigorous um worthy because I know that initially it was not and so the addressing that problem has been such a positive. Um Dr. Deetsz your leadership here at thank north is is so blessed for
024us. Um what a great program. >> Thank you um board. If there's no further questions, I believe our next topic, Dr. Digits is here. Um he has uh graciously offered to discuss the law for the wireless device policy. We'll bring you back at a later time uh the actual what policy we're going for. So today's discussion is kind of what's the law say? Let Dr. Dr. Diggas, take questions from you on what that may mean here without getting into too deep on the weeds since the policy is still being developed. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh not nearly as exciting or inspiring, but I guarantee you this will gather plenty of attention. Um, in case you're not aware, at the last legislative session in Indianapolis, uh, the general assembly passed Senate enrolled Act 78. And
025that was essentially an amendment or an addendum to some existing laws. It relates to schools and wireless devices. And the governor actually signed this into law effective, well, excuse me, on March 5th that will be in effect and effective July 1st. So this summer is when it will take effect to start next school year and by that time all school districts in the state of Indiana will have to have their policy posted on their website. That's one of the components of the piece of legislation. Um this is a K through2 legislation item. Um when it was originally going through the general assembly it was initially some 6 through 12 discussion but now it is K through 12. Um, the prior and current approach to wireless devices, if you're not aware, is to allow a lot
026of teacher autonomy and discretion, allowing teachers in the classroom to make that judgment and that decision if there's educational value for some of the instructional activities they're doing. So, our default at Huntington North is when students enter a classroom to put them into um a pocket or out of the way um and a teacher can provide instruction if there's discretionary time or those types of things. But what we have found um is that consistency is hard, especially in a high school this size. So, to a degree, this legislation will help provide a lot of consistency not only for Huntington North and our school district, but around the state. And a lot of this is being led by some data and some research that's happening on a global and a national level. But essentially what the
027legislation says is this. It's called a belltobell um wireless device restriction. So for us at Huntington North High School, our school day begins at 7:40 and we dismiss at 255. This is a 740 to 255 piece of legislation. And the legislation allowed for one of two approaches for schools to address their wireless device policy in a restrictive manner. One is there was a no device policy where schools were told they have the option to not even allow them on their property. Can't bring them at all. Second option was a storage policy where devices are permitted at school but must be stored away and off. And so that was the first fork in the road. Um we've had some discussion. I think we have landed um as we're thinking big picture primarily on the we should
028allow our students to have them because of the number of afterchool commitments, extracurricular activities, not to mention a countywide school district with a lot of transportation challenges for parents picking up their children after school in a K12 environment. It's also important to note that this is not just cell phones. Our mind initially drifts to that and I think that's our biggest challenge. But the legislation actually outlines that in addition to student cell phones, the law specifically names non-schoolissued tablets, non-schoolissued laptops, gaming devices, and smartwatches. anything that essentially can pair with or provide a technological distraction to students are now restricted from that bell-to-bell scenario. And so that includes lunches, passing periods, and instructional time. The legislation did grant some exceptions. This is something that our district will need to uh wrestle with. Um I think
029we'll probably lean on some legal counsel to advise us on how to be consistent and fair in this process. But the exceptions that were outlined in the piece of legislation include students that have an IEP, a 504 plan, may need language translation, could be authorized by the superintendent during an emergency, or a documented medical condition. Um, it doesn't mean if a student has an IEP that he or she is guaranteed access to the device. What it means is it can be considered. I think one of the things that we'll need to really be mindful of is obviously we issue devices to our students. So, for example, in the 6 through 12 world in our school district, each student receives a Chromebook. I would challenge anyone to find a um tool or uh an item on
030a cell phone that is not permitted educationally on their Chromebook. So, if an English learner, for example, needs translation services, our Chromebooks will provide that. if they need access to something for an IEP for an accommodation or an extended um time through Canvas, our Chromebooks provide that. The one that seems to be our biggest need in terms of students having access to a personal device would be those with a documented medical condition. Um that does outline that it would need to come through a licensed health uh professional. Um, we all have seen probably circumstances where somebody with diabetes might have a monitor or there's a heart monitor that's not appropriate to put on a school issued device. And so we'll work with those parents and those families on that. Um, at the end of the
031day, we're going to work with legal counsel. We're going to work with those partners that we have such as schoolboard associations and NEOLA to provide us some guidance policy. We've already come up with a in essence a draft um that's being reviewed by legal counsel, but Niola does expect to release some guidance documentation on that in the future. I want to share a couple of goals that our team has batted around at Huntington North and that I know the administrative teams at the various schools in the district have also considered. Um at the end of the day, this is going to be a shift. Um and so we know we're going to have to communicate clearly with our stakeholders, uh particularly with our parents and students. It's already out there. I spoke at the optimist
032club last week. One of the parents asked about it. Um and I said, I think maybe our biggest challenge could be with parents um who have to culturally shift how they operate and communicate with their students um during the school day. And then enforcement will be a challenge. I think a lot of like a lot of things, we'll want to be clear and consistent upfront to make sure everybody knows that we do have an expectation and a need to enforce the legislation from the state. Um, but those will be challenges and then our goals will be twofold. And this came actually from Mr. Brimberry when it came out. So, he deserves credit for it. We want to be functional with it. Okay? So, it needs to be functional. It needs to be a way that
033works with our families and our community, but we need to be compliant and in alignment with the law. And so, we will do that as we think about how to incorporate the policy and then post it by July 1st. So, those are the core components of this legislation. Um it came out of the general assembly this last session and there's still a lot of guidance being provided from uh the school board association at the state level through the state board of education and the department of education. So I would be happy to entertain any questions. >> So um I know for community schools had was testifying down at the state during this time because they've already went through this process. Have we reached out to them and said, "What can you tell us and what
034have you learned?" >> We have. And so I'm chuckling because what we've learned is students are very creative and they find cracks in any policy. So um one of the things that we've considered is actually following the middle school approach, which is in your locker and turned off, which satisfies the core components of the law. Um, Fort Wayne Community Schools adopted um, pouches that you can place in there and essentially lock and some of them are even as advanced to not allow a signal. Um, what Fort some Fort Wayne Community Schools administrators would say is students became very creative and they would put a phone in their pouch for the day and have it locked and it'd be a burner phone and they'd still have their other real cell phone where they could access and
035work around it. Certainly not all students, certainly not all schools, but I think anything that happens, we'll have to be mindful of enforcement and following the spirit of it. So, we've been in touch with folks that have been ahead of the curve and instituted some things. It's just going to be an age-old kind of cat-and- mouse game a little bit. >> And I believe IdoE was going to come out with a sample policy. Have they done that yet or has that not happened yet? >> I've kept my eyes and ears open. I have not seen that yet. Um, and so if if they have, it's been very recent, like within the last day or two. >> So I know we're focusing on the middle school and high school as well, but we have, again, as
036you mentioned, this is K's K through 12. What are the elementaryaries? Did Fort Wayne Community Schools deal with the elementaryaries or or what have we what because that to me is a completely different ballgame. Sure. >> And so I'm just curious. >> Yeah. Um, have I had the conversation at the elementary level with Fort Wayne Community and the other schools? Elementary schools are a different animal in a lot of ways. They may not have a locker per student and those types of things, but students do typically each bring their own book bag. And so if they follow our kind of structure and policy that we're considering within HCCS, it would be in the book bag and turned off, which keeps it inaccessible and then also turned off. And so those satisfy the two main prongs
037of it. >> Sorry, I've been thinking about this for a really long time. I think the hardest part is going to be the smartwatch person. I think that's the one that's going to catch everybody off guard. So, I don't commend you. I I I don't envy you in this process. Um I can't wait to see the final process. And I know you guys are working on it hard, but uh I all I can say is let's start communicating early and often because I think we're going to need to get everyone happy and we're going to have some unhappy parents, but unfortunately we're we're doing as we're as we're told to do from the state and so it'll be interesting. Um, but I will say listening to to Steve Corona, who is the uh schoolboard member
038from Fort Wayne Community Schools, where I first learned about this, there's been some positives up there. So, I I look forward to that and maybe that's part of that conversation thread that we we have and take some of those interesting ways from there. So, he says the lunchroom is a lot different than it used to be. So, I I look forward to hearing that and hearing your comments maybe this time next year how it went. So, >> and I will admit when I first read it and heard about it, I kind of sideeyed it and thought, see what this looks like. But the more I've dug into the research and the rationale, I think there are some clear benefits that data and research are showing, student engagement's up. Um, get a lot more of the
039soft skills, the personal skills where students are having conversations. Um, it is disheartening. You know, we do our best to engage students in our lunchroom when we walk around, but that's their time and they they kind of get that that fix of their cell phone time a lot there. So, we won't allow that here because of the bell-to-bell philosophy. Um, the other thing probably multiple generations of cell phone policy ago when I was a dean of students here, it used to be in your locker and turned off, but we'd allow it during lunch with three lunches. you'd have students in a lunch here that could use it texting friends in classrooms and so it was this whole sense of missing out on something and so it just created a lot of angst and so this
040makes it very clean very clear and I'm actually very happy for our teachers that to a degree they may have some battles but it's very easy if they see the phone and there's not a documented medical condition um it becomes something that our administrative team can help report. >> Can we limit those with the the documented medical condition that they still can't have it out and things like that or that's the one I think is ultimately going to be the one that causes a lot of problems. >> Correct. I I agree and there'll be a a conversation with the health care field. I think that's a community conversation um because we'll need to help educate them on the spirit of the law as well. um because if they're not informed or equipped with that and
041a parent asks for it, they may be inclined to write that excuse even if it's not medically necessary. And so, yeah, we'll need to work through some procedures and processes in our classroom to say if you have a student in your room with a phone documented with a medical need, how we address that because often times they there's a distance component where it still has to be read. Um, and they sometimes have to check that, but it shouldn't be wide open to be able to use it in all forms and fashions. >> I'm assuming the policy will be ready to go and come before us. They'll meeting in June. >> Yeah, let me um tell you number one, thanks Dr. Digs for a number of leading our our committee. What we've been waiting on, we
042just now are receiving uh Mrs. Gray and I was the Niola recommendation and it literally we've not met with our rep yet, but it just arrived. So, they're ready with their draft. I want to make sure it's compliant with Niola and then the last step gets to our legal counsel. The goal if Niola had actually got it sooner was to kind of talk about our policy tonight hit the communication scale so we can start saying this is what it'll be next year. So we're a little slowed down but I want to be compliant with Niola and the recommendations. But I will say once those are in place we are hopeful to bring that to you. We're hopeful to get that out on multitude of platforms and to parents and kids. And then I really mean
043this to our community and board. We will be compliant at Huntington Schools. We will be functional on how we deal with this. And then our job is to educate children um in a multitude of areas. And so once the first two are in place, we go back to doing what we're paid to do here, which is we're going to work with kids. And this will be a change for some, but it won't be a big change for a lot. The watches will be a change. Uh a lot of kids have them. My kids had them. I mean, they're used to them. And so, the high school will be the the challenge for every district in the state. The K8 will be a modest change, but not a big one other than the watches. And what
044I've seen when legislation gets involved, um, be compliant, be functional, be reasonable, and then be consistent because kids can handle consistency, and then get back to teaching kids and taking care of what's important here. And Dr. Digits, I truly mean thank you for your leadership on this. Um, we are blessed to have you in Huntington um and the leadership role you're in, but we give you uh big rocks because not only you're capable, but it'll be done well. So, I appreciate your team and your leadership. >> Have has anybody looked into the meta glasses? No, I don't know about those. So, I guess I'll have to find out. Um, >> I think it I think it's still it's basically any type of technology that's not school issued. I think those would be not allowed either.
045It >> be not knowing what they are exactly. My assumption would be that'd be the spirit of the law. And I also mentioned to Mr. Brimberry, too, just to help our people because we'll get asked for a lot of these exceptions, getting some legal counsel training um from a couple of those that we work with directly to help give us some talking points and know how to hold the line and and the things that pop up like that that once companies read legislation and they can, hey, we've got this product that isn't mentioned in the legislation, but we'll still get you, you know, your technology. We'll just try and stay ahead of it. So, I think that'll be another component is training our staff to understand where where we draw the line and how we
046can do it. >> My my point being with the meta glasses, it would be hard to tell them from regular glasses. So, >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> on that. Are we gonna is our policy going to be enough or are we going to have to touch the handbooks again too? >> I'd like to see the Neola policy before I give something definitive. I think my initial reaction would be we have policy from a consequence and discipline standpoint >> in terms of a cell phone violation or a technology violation. I my thought would be this could be an amendment as a policy but then refer to the handbook in terms of disciplinary and consequential um steps after that and >> you may not know this but did we do away with our bring our
047own device so everything has to be school issued now >> I don't know that be probably technology director question >> yeah and I that I know you may not know that but that may be a question because I think that basically by my reading of the policy what the law says is we basically that's done now so I thought we had already done with that, but I wasn't sure. So, >> anecdotally, I don't really see many, if any, in our building. So, even if it's in theory allowed, I don't think that we really have it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Other questions for Dr. Diggins. >> Well, I appreciate you uh talking through that one. I'm sure that will create some interest from a few different levels. uh board. We will bring back um this
048multiple times um throughout the summer and we'll be very very upfront and communicative with all audiences on this and you're going to keep hearing this. I've I've been doing this a long time and so is Dr. Diggins, but um we'll be functional. We will be compliant. We will communicate this and be consistent and then we're going to get back to the business we do. And so once you do those four things, um, kids will adapt and we'll handle it. Parents will adapt and they'll be fine and then we can quit talking about the legislative actions and talk about um, two examples of these wonderful kids that showed up tonight. So, um, we I appreciate Dr. Diggins and all you're doing. I'm more interested if we're ready to move on in the um, and I believe
049we got Miss Brown and Mrs. Zahog here tonight and uh really interested in the next topic on the school accountability model. Um that is uh been approved and adopted as we move forward for all districts in Indiana. So I appreciate the uh trifecta of you three being here tonight to maybe just begin the groundwork of discussion of what that really means for schools and and uh take some good questions tonight. Well, everything old is new again. The last time we had letter grades for schools and school districts was supposed to be the 2019 2020 year. Um they were also looking at changing the laws for accountability at that time and a few things stopped on the planet including accountability during that law and um we recently have passed a brand new law that took place
050December 2025 that creates letter grades for schools and school districts again the traditional A throughF letter grades. Um, you can look and see on the GPS that the state has created most of the data, but not all the data is there yet. There's pieces that the state's still creating and there's some pieces that how they've set the groundwork for, but they don't actually have the data. So, as you look at it, just know there'll be spots where you'll say there's no data and that's not on us. That's still on the state. So, we would like to talk just a couple of minutes about what is happening with this new data or this new accountability law. Do some this is what it was and this is what it shall be. So, Cindy, if you'll hit that
051one more time because we have coolness there. Yeah. Thank you. So, um one of the big changes in the new accountability law versus the old accountability law is now we not only look at academic progress, we also are looking at skill development. and we'll give you some more information about that as we move along. Cindy, would you hit the button one more time for me, please? Thank you. So, while we were told that um the new law would take place on December 31st, 2025, retroactive to the beginning of this school year. So, think on that for just a minute. We're being held accountable for a law that passed um in 2025 for this year. But, we have some new and exciting news. They actually passed the final draft in March of this year. So, we
052were all excited. In December, they said they were going to pass the final draft. We were all sitting around our computers like waiting and they said, um, we will bring up the new accountability measures at another date. So, we watched in February. So, in March, it actually it actually took place. That's pretty exciting except there's still some other pieces. You're going to see things like I read and I learn are really important to this accountability law. As you would guess the ILR cut scores to help us determine if kids are going to pass or not pass will be looked at in Janu or excuse me July of this year in theory then to take to the state school board in August in theory to pass in September. So far throughout this entire process, we've been
053two to three months behind whatever they've asked us. So, I'm not going to get my hopes up too much that we're going to see those cut scores until December. But hope springs eternal. Even if they follow the process, we'll be through the first nine weeks and the first set of checkpoints before we see this year's results. So, that puts us a little bit behind, but we we're quick. We're quick studies. We'll catch up. If you could flip one more time, Miss Cindy, I'm going to hand this lovely mic to Lauren, and she's going to talk about preschool through about sixth grade. And I'll give you a couple of things for seventh and eighth grade, and then Dr. Daggins will talk for a minute about ninth and 10th, or I'll talk about ninth and tth grade,
054and he'll follow up in a few minutes. So, as you can imagine, the lower grades, there's less to kind of tell you about uh as we're not in testing grade levels, but attendance is something that you're going to hear throughout the entire model. Uh attendance is huge and we've already had conversations. We're starting uh to have conversations about what can we do. Uh, as Lynn said, we were ready to really know in December and and we were we're still waiting, but we've been having those conversations, especially around attendance to be proactive in helping get getting our students to school. Uh, so as you know, I read is huge. Uh, and with that starts a big piece of accountability as far as testing goes. So with student um I read scores, the attendance um and then
055we have the WEDA goals and their proficiency standards that they're trying to hit as well. Um that is huge even in those lower grades. And then when you get three through six of course then you have iLearn. So uh those scores become very important to us. But a huge piece that has changed from previous models is the growth piece of this. So, not just students who can take the test and pass the first time, but also what kind of work are teachers and students putting in to then uh achieve growth in some format. And there's several different layers of that which we'll get into as we go. The growth piece was one of those not 11th hour, but 13th hour pieces that got put in. We were excited. It was one of the pieces that
056typically when they wait a long time, we're not excited about the news, but that one made us happy. Uh for seventh and eighth grade, there's a couple additional things besides the pieces that she just said. You'll see that you just keep layering on top of. Seventh graders need to have a post-graduate uh plan, an individual plan that their parents sign off for. And then we need to not only record that, but make sure it's in power school so the state can look at that. That's a first draft of that plan. Um Dr. Dr. Dots worked with the middle school principles to make sure that we didn't create something that the child said, "I'm going to be a marine biologist and then everything we tried to help him with at the high school level, they're like,
057"No, it said when I was seventh grade, that's all I'm doing. Don't don't teach me Spanish. I'm going to go be a um so we worked hard to get some qu cooperation there." Also, in the middle schools, each student needs to earn at least two high school credits. Both of those credits need to earn a C or higher. For all of our students, we've added a couple of courses in the middle school um that all kids would take anyway to build upon the possibilities of algebra, geometry, JRT, some egg classes, and now there's a couple of business classes that can go along with that. The teachers who designed the new business classes also designed it understanding that it's kids' first attempt at a high school credit and what the stakes are and then supports that
058go along with that. Again, weeda again attendance and ninth grade is on ninth and tth grade is on track for graduation. Making sure you have the the right amount of credits. They did raise the amount of credits. Dr. Dets will talk about that. That was not a red letter day for us, but but we figured it out. I think we're good to go. Also, coursework, CTE credits, um I learn biology, which we're above the state average for. Just putting a plug in there. Woohoo. PSAT benchmark scores. And then attendance again. And then in the 12th grade, it's all about graduation. It's the SAT SC cut score that is the same as the college entry cut scores. um is also earning one of the Indiana diplomas and an attendance. Cindy, could you bump me one more
059time there? Thank you. So, these are the pieces that the state talks about a lot. Academic mastery, career and post secondary readiness, communication, collaboration, work ethic, civic, financial, and digital lit literacy. So, if you'll flip one more time, I will talk a minute about how we're actually getting to those things. So these are slides directly from the DOE and what they're encouraging. So academic mastery looks like proficiency in reading, math, science, social studies. That's largely I learn SAT. The second piece is about the new diploma seals. So remember within the new diploma seals, this is not only credits that you've earned, but sometimes credentials that you've earned. And by credentials, we mean industry certified credentials, not just ones that we made up. We had a very creative teacher who thought that maybe they could create
060credentials for their pathway. And we're like, those have to be industry certified, not just you think they're a great band student. So, we have to stay on path for that. Um, you'll see that communication and collaboration is not there and they're still working on it. There's a rubric that I've seen in secret sworn to secrecy that I believe that we will use in various courses to determine the students uh level of proficiency and communication and collaboration. We are very blessed. We have a great number of teachers using PBL our project based pieces and problem based pieces that will easily fit into those rubrics. And then work ethic is all tied to attendance. And we have added classes in financial and digital literacy. And we added the government test that we had not given in the
061past to cover the civics piece. That's a lot. We did a lot. And now we're going to pass it to Dr. Dots to talk about some of the nuts and bolts especially leading towards high school. So, one of the things that I would say is yes, there's going to be a learning curve as we figure out how to tackle this. Um, but I would call your attention to that slide. I don't see anything on that that causes me concern. Who doesn't want to help our kids master academics better or be able to get a stronger work ethic, right? These are things that matter and that are meaningful regardless of accountability model or not. So across the district last week, each building went through a little bit of this just to create awareness with their staffs.
062And at Huntington North, we talked about let's do what we do. We help kids at a high level every day. There are nuances that we'll need to educate ourselves on and some of the rules of the game, but at the end of the day, all that's great stuff. So if we do that well, we're we're winning for our students anyways and our community is winning. I think Mrs. Gray shared this with you as part of your board information. and it's a single page or two cited. I would really encourage you if you want to learn more about this after we're finished. That's probably the single best resource that encapsulates a lot of what we're talking about here. But on the next slide, if you don't mind, Mrs. Gray, it really talks about kind of two
063lanes. The first lane or your kind of entry gate point is academic mastery. So, if you think about um attending a sporting event, that's general admission seating. You first have to pass through the gate. So, the academic mastery is your opportunity to get into the stadium in the first place. That's your ticket. And the way we do that, like at the high school, is to be able to have a a cut score, PSAT score, or SAT score, or earn your diploma. That puts you in the arena to compete. And then after that you can choose your seat so to speak or earn bonus points um for the school and for each individual student through the additional knowledge, skills and experiences. So in order to do those though you got to be in inside to be
064able to accomplish that. So at the end of the day really focusing on those big rocks at the elementary, middle and high school levels will be important and then we'll be able to build off of that. So, at the elementary level, it's about I read and I learn. At the middle schools, it's about earning some high school credits and I learn. And at the high school, it's about earning diplomas, earning higher seals, earning numbers of credits. As Miss Brown alluded to, we did get a curveball right at the end. Um, in fact, we thought it was all done and finalized and they bumped on target and on track credits for freshmen from 10 to 14. Um there are some philosophical issues I have with that for students um especially um that receive special services and
065have an IEP with a modified schedule. Um if they have one resource period, they are potentially already behind on the on track 14 credits. Uh but we will work with them. Uh we'll meet them where they're at as Mr. Brimberry said earlier. And so just be aware that again the real importance is helping them achieve that academic mastery through the ways that the state has identified it and then helping them to build off of that. Cindy, if you don't mind the next one, please. That just shows the sheet that I referenced earlier. Um, we're going to talk about this a little bit later. Um, and I think Lauren's going to talk a little bit about the the elementary level some, but on the high school side, it does talk about how we need to really
066support our students in meeting their goals. And some of that starts already in in middle school. Um, I heard a a research study a while back that said um the previous generation um is about a full academic year behind the generation that follows. So, I would argue based on that research that our students today are receiving an additional year of educational experience in the K12 structure. And when you hear conversations like this and they're creating some frameworks of graduation plans in seventh grade, it kind of adds up. And so, when our high school students are leaving with uh full years worth of or multiple years worth of college credits, industry certifications, etc., Um, I think we're seeing that uh come to fruition. So, Lauren, any additional on the elementary level? >> So, just to add,
067as we talk about Russ's analogy of the gateway of getting in, taking that test, we've actually been very excited about the other side. So like the side if you look at that sheet, the really big box on that right hand side that gives us so many more opportunities and it helps us meet many many many more students uh because of that growth and Lynn and I have been here before telling you about things we've been doing and working on this year and really a lot of the work that we've been putting in this year and digging into our data and meeting students in small groups or individually to help them because we are meeting where them where they are and helping push them forward. It's really makes this actually very exciting because the work we're
068doing serves this purpose, you know, before this even came out and was published. So, um, students can be successful hopefully, you know, on their island and if they're not, they can still, even if they're behind and they make growth, they can still then then be able to choose their seat. And that's something that's very exciting with things we're already starting to do. And then it just helps you know that motivation to push forward for next year as well. >> Mrs. Gray, if you don't mind going to the next one. This is one of the points that the Department of Education and the General Assembly has really really emphasized and that is the idea that the N size is one meaning they literally want to look at this granularly at the individual student level. Um so
069previous accountability models a lot of time took into account averages. So, what was your iLearn percentage um pass rate for a school or what's your attendance rate at the high school? It literally breaks it down by student now. So, it's no longer, hey, we feel great. We have a 97% attendance rate at Huntington North High School. Well, that's great. Thanks for participating, but that means nothing in this particular model. Now, it's about each individual student. So you can have a 97% attendance rate, but it's now going to be the number raw number of students that have 10 or more absences. The state has identified that as kind of the magic number because after that it starts to negatively impact learning and their academic mastery. And so we have to really look at each individual student.
070Mr. Peters, Mr. Brimberry has trumpeted the the district motto, the district saying every student every day. It's at the state level now. Um, and we really have to walk that walk as it relates to knowing our students and knowing what they can do. Mrs. Gray, the next one, this one was interesting. Um, so if you followed Miss Brown's timeline earlier, she said, "We thought we this was going to pass in December. It didn't. So it got finalized in March, but we are going to be held um publicly accountable this current school year." Okay. So they're calling it a baseline. They're calling this year zero. So it won't be punitive in a sense, but we all know that when a letter grade gets published and it's and it's publicly available, there's still that court of public
071opinion. And so we will, even though we just learned about this model uh a little over or a little less than two months ago, will be held to account for a letter grade this year. Uh when I presented this to our staff last Wednesday morning, it just so happened Coach Thompson was sitting in front of me and I said, "Coach, imagine this. You're playing a basketball game and at the end of the third quarter, because March is about threequarters of the way through the school year, the referees huddle with the two head coaches and say, "You know what? We're actually going to change the rules on you at the end of the third quarter here, and we're going to retroactively apply them. So, you lost some points and you gained some points, and that's the
072score we're going to play with moving forward." I don't think that would go well. he kind of shrugged it off and depending on which side of the scoreboard he was on. But what we don't know is what we don't know right now. So, we're going to learn a lot um once we get the letter grade, we're going to learn a lot. We are learning a lot, but just making sure that we're aware of that that this was passed in March, but we will be given a letter grade for this entire school year. Um that obviously started last August and August of 2025. Mrs. Gray, if you can advance one more slide, please. This just really gives you a sense of how the breakdown happens. The challenge is we don't really know how calculations are done
073yet. Still waiting on some guidance there. Um and with the end size being one. It's literally student by student. Um but that's going to be the grading scale. Pretty traditional. We know that. We come to expect it. I will draw your attention to the note at the bottom though. um that if schools perform extremely well, so if a quarter of them earn an A, the scale is going to bump up. So um so it's great to do well, but the penalty for high success at the state level is continuing to increase the percentage that it takes to earn that A to 2.5 points per year um until it gets to that final grading scale to the right. And so there's a lot of unknowns not only at the individual school level but also at the
074state level. Um our team has invested a lot of time um and energy learning about this, hearing the experts. Uh Mr. Steve Baker is still um even though he's retired from principal at Bluffton High School, still um hitting the circuit around the state presenting on this. He came and presented to our administrative team. Uh Mr. Brimberry set that up. And so there are people that are spending large amounts of time learning about this and and helping us to figure it out. And so Cindy, if you don't mind, the last one thought it was fitting to end here because at the end of the day, that's what it's about. And we're going to still do that regardless of what accountability models might propose to us. >> So one of the coolest things that I liked when
075I first heard about this was the focus on the individual child. And I think that's a great thing. The other interesting thing as I sit here and listen to you explain what's going on, there's a key data point that goes throughout this entire model that I think we can start paying attention to. And then when I look at this data model too, I have several questions. They're ultimately going to be questions for you, but then you can very well and very easily turn around and send them to Mr. Brimberry because I've asked him about this too and you can definitely throw him under the bus at this point if you want. But how are we as a board going to start watching this and seeing this information? because I know the cut scores and all
076that stuff are going to change. When I was last told about this, they said they were going to give that information to us in November, which is not a Nate that I heard you guys say, but that's when they thought they were going to lease that final stuff in November. And so I hear this and I see this trending and I see some of this stuff, but some of this stuff is stuff that we can see on a quarterly basis, all that stuff. Now, how are we as a board, how are you guys as an admin team, how is everybody going to be able to see this and watch this? because we should be able to start seeing those trends sooner rather than later and be able to know what our score is, save the
077minor adjustments on those trend lines. So, how how are we going to do that? And then how are we going to see that? And how can we monitor that? And I know you're all looking at Mr. Brimberry. I'm not looking at him right now because I know exactly what you should be doing. But I I'm I'm curious because to me, when I hear you talk about this and I hear the data, we should know we shouldn't be surprised after we've done this for a year or two. We should not be surprised at what our scores are because we should already know that. We should already be correcting stuff to fix this so we can all be in that A category or be on that pathway to A because we should know about that and be
078able to make those corrections because I've heard you guys talk about that in the past. And so I my expectation is that yes, when we get that initial cutline, we'll know that that's our baseline, but then we will know what we need to fix. You're shaking your head at me, Lynn, because I know exactly what you're thinking. But how do we do that? How do we make sure that and hold you guys accountable? And then how do we make sure and public says that so everybody knows where we're at and there's no surprises. >> So we have been working really hard on it this last year, year and a half and have a plan to create a more sophisticated day-to-day board for the school corporation. It is why um it it turned me into as
079close to gambling junkie as I maybe ever will be as those checkpoint scores are coming up. Like I'm like and now what are they what are they now? Um so we have been working on that and have been working with that data with our teachers for the last year. you're going to have to give us a minute because given that we don't know what the cut scores are for I learn yet, it makes it a little difficult to be able to predict what's going to happen for this year and even next year, right? But we are working really hard with the checkpoints and that data to be able to then predict where kids are going to be. The state has also begun to the the newer data dashboards that are coming out next year or
080we're promised at least and I've seen the mockups of them um are very granular for kids and we'll be able to do a much better job with each and every individual kid saying here's the exact thing that we need to help you with and this is how much growth you need with that piece. And so we're we're much closer. We were looking at PSAT scores and SAT scores. Um, and I'm I'm like super excited that for the 60% that we have to get to get the cut score in math and English for English, we were about 11 kids shy of getting the the 60% on the cut score. Like 11 kids and those 11 kids missed it by one question. And we had 14 kids actually that missed it by one question. So that's how
081close we are in being able to jump over that bridge. Once we are once we clearly understand and SAT's done a better job because they were farther down the road than iLearn has done for us so far. Once we clearly understand what it is that's being asked of our kids, then it's just reverse engineering, right, for each kid. What is it that that kid needs to get to that spot? Um, and we will need to add some pieces to the to the dashboard like attendance because we have to look at attendance in an entirely different way. If you look at Huntington North's attendance on a GPS, it gives you a very different number than what Dr. Det said. And it took us a hot minute to figure out why those two things were different. Um,
082so the work we've been doing is the exact work we need to do continuously. and tech. Uh, our new tech director is delightful and he's working with us, not this week so much, but most weeks to, um, to create exactly what that dashboard needs to look like. And then it'll change over the next couple of years as we get better at looking at the data. >> Yeah, >> Chuck probably wants to say something because this is what he loves more than anything. But Michelle and Brooks, >> um, I'm looking forward to the state's final model. you're starting to see it. Um, I won't get into how I feel about why they wait for cut scores, but I I will just tell you this. Uh, my entire past leadership model was tell us the rules you
083play by. We feel like we have a really good school in Huntington. Uh, Mr. Peters would tell you we're just over 90% last um, summer with the I read. That's that's a really good that's a great number. I see Deb smiling. Um, I know Dr. Digits and his team and and a multitude of leaders there, we end up between 94 and 95% on graduation rate. So I know the beginning and the end. And then you say, well, what what's the rest of it? The rest of it is determining what we're being evaluated by. Attendance is an intervention based which you have the least control over. Um, this is these are kids and so our goal is to have the kids show up as much as humanly possible because they want to be here. Well, kids,
084as Meg will tell you in a little bit, um, they got a lot going on. You know that you guys are advocates. That's why you're in the spot you're in. So, I'm a it's not a ABCDF. I'm a what experience are they having? And Huntington does this really well. And once we understand what we're looking at, um I know we'll rate extremely well, but we have to get our team and we've been working on this and then we I want it to be live in terms of it's fluid. Here's what they monitor us and here's how we're doing on some key categories. No judgment. It's a continuous improvement model. These are children. We're not factory workers. Uh factory workers, five of my brothers, very proud of it. My dad was there. These are children. We're
085not making, you know, working at Chrysler where we're making an engine. We're we're forming humans. And that process is done differently over time. As you just saw, it took somebody till they were 17 and then they got it. Others, Jay will tell you, not only they have it, but they're two years ahead, probably on where they could be in in second grade already because they came to us differently. So, you'll see the data at a highest level you've ever seen in Huntington soon. But then we're going to talk about we have to remember the narrative is they're changing and looking at cut scores. I just know the best experience they have is going to be at Huntington schools because I have evidence to prove that the beginning and the end 19 different pathways. Kids will
086walk out of Huntington North with associates degree in the very near future here. Um go to any of the six elementaryaries. They're fantastic environments for children. Go to our middle schools. They're celebrating kids like we have never celebrated kids here. Intentional, positive school culture. Now, we'll see the data. We've been doing it. Uh this is right up our alley. But we also need to understand kids growth rates are what's important here. Whether they give them an A or a C personally is is irrelevant. The the product along the way is what we're focused on. and the product does this and the those are called children. And so when their emotions go up and they struggle one year, you heard a kid, I wasn't in school one year, that's going to be kind of a difficult
087deal that year for that kid's grade. We're going to take them the next year and then we're going to make it great again for them. And that process is in place here right now. I'm anxious to get this going so we can see and be um have the data in front of you each board meeting to say here's where we're at. But keep in mind others will set lines that are based on things that have nothing to do with Huntington schools. They're looking at percentages that is not as important to me as what the kids growth rates here at Huntington are. And when we do what Russ just said well and what our two experts say we're already doing pretty well at this that becomes the focus and this is a passionate part of what
088I believe is we will take to make sure that the kids experience at Huntington schools is unmatched in Indiana. We already have a lot of those programs. As soon as we dive into the weeds and get some database points to say, well, why is this group not progressing at the same rate we want them to, it's not because of the A or the B that motivates me. It's because these kids will have the best possible experience for growth rate in the state of Indiana very soon. We're already working on those things. If they're a B in fourth grade, know this. As they grow, that child, I want to have an A. And it happens to make our district an A. Each kid motivates us. Every student every day. And if you do that over time
089long enough, the A's take care of itself. This is old hat to me. Okay. Um, they told us what the model was in a previous district and we weren't doing very well. Four years later, we were the everyone was coming to us to say, "How'd you do that?" We didn't worry about how they determine the rules. We worried about the continuous improvement model at a passionate level with experts to help children be successful. And when those children are successful, they can put any accountability model out there in the world. We're going to we're going to dominate in that for the end product. But know this, I don't want our kids thinking they failed because they got a the personal grade of this and they were the reason of this. That's very dangerous logic or thinking.
090We're taking the positive approach. It's going to be the greatest culture for kids and we have evidence of that. We're going to work on attendance rates through interventions, not a hammer here. Interventions as we sit and talk to moms, dads, grandmas, and kids and say, "We want you here. How can we help you?" The growth rate, we're already into that here. You'll see that throughout our thing. And the end product is, you just heard Dr. Digs say, "My goodness, is this a progressive high school. This accountability model actually will model us, not the other way. We just need to know what the rules are at a high level." So, our kids benefit from it. But we're 90% home. And then you'll see an active dashboard that just updates all the time. And then we talk
091about it and you guys ask questions. But please know this, a certain percentage of our children may not do well as any other district. They will never be the blame of a percentage here on a school grade and that will never come out of my mouth or anybody's mouth in Huntington. Those kids are progressing at a rate that's appropriate for them. And maybe it's even better than one would hope. And so please know with comes accountability comes those who would throw stones. Those stones are being thrown at children and their success rates or the pace of their success rates. That will never be our model here. We'll be protective of our own. We'll own it if it's not going well and then the data will be so fluid that we any of us can talk
092about it at any time. And then soon as we figure this out, I'll show you. By the way, hey, our growth rate's actually a time and a half above everyone in the north right now. By the way, your SAT, I believe you're just under the international group right now. Correct. Currently, the kids of Huntington North are doing better across the board in the SAT. The end result academically of how we're doing at a higher rate than almost everyone. Jay's rate already there. It's excellent. What's wonderful, what matters, the process along the way, great environment. Mr. Allen reminded me and I really want to make sure this culture is the is the best environment on earth for children. We want to celebrate them all the time. If you're not careful on dashboards and those things, you
093can forget we're not making a car. These are children. And if they bump along the way, we own it. We protect them along the way. So, I appreciate your your stuff tonight. I assure you I know the end product uh very soon. This isn't the first time through this and I have the best people on the planet and teachers and administrators helping them. So anxious to get started here and then um watch Huntington roll shortly. >> Yeah, I I appreciate that and I really want to see the see that and again I'm not as the model is that you have right behind you because I'm looking behind you and I see that every student every day. I'm more interested in the growth. >> Me too. >> That that's what I care about. And I think
094I've learned that from you and I think that's the important part. Um, but I still think we need to be able to tell that story and that's why I think we're starting to push on that. >> I'm so ready to tell that story. I'm so proud of this district. I'm just anxious to to get going and that data the data in front of people that we can talk like you're asking about is the key because the the truth is the truth and our growth rates are going to be excellent and some of them already are. our SAT already is our IE already is our cultures are these are measurable and that's what you're asking for and I'm anxious my previous experience on this and our new deputy soup coming in uh his experience and I
095know Lyn and Dr. Diggins and and Lauren have been working on this with Mr. Peters and Tech. Um we're going to be ready to roll on this. I'm anxious to get going. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. Are the different categories are they all weighted the same or are they weighted uh you know attendance is it weighted lower than >> Great question. So yes, there's some tiered uh waiting. Um so for example, um at the high school level, there's a heavier weight for some of the test scores like PSAT and SAT compared to some of the other uh information. But it's kind of again that analogy, getting yourself in in the game, so to speak. So if we're looking at each individual student, for them to really benefit us, but as Mr. Brimberry indicated to really benefit
096themselves. If they perform well from a test score or graduation diploma seal, um then the other things start to kind of stack on top. So when it comes down to it, the big rocks are weighted heavier and the others can add kind of bonus points for lack of a better phrase. >> So the the weight is changing as they get older. it. So, it's constantly changing from preK clear to 12. >> It's just there's different components. Okay. >> So, I don't I don't know that the that the waiting changes per se. It's just elementary will be weighted on things like I read and I learn whereas ours is more >> SAT, PSAT, graduation rate, diplomas, those types of things. Okay. >> So, just different inputs. And then uh you were talking about the different I
097guess pathways uh graduation pathways. So um is there any that we currently have that won't roll over? I didn't know where my question was going was like a sophomore or a junior coming in and they're in already in this one pathway and it's like nope that's not allowed. Um >> all of ours are aligned well. Um and so really the pathways are kind of the process towards the end of a diploma or a seal. Um and so we have 19 and counting. Um all of those align well with what the DOE has outlined as um certifiable credentialed pathways. Um and so we're in good shape with those. I don't like the fact that you have to pick your at seventh grade what you want to do the rest of your life. I know a lot
098of adults that still can't figure out what they want to do. Um I don't know any kids at seven at that age that are going to know it and stick to it. I mean, I'm sure there's a a few out there or something, but um I guess, you know, it's it's not a huge thing because, you know, as long as you're focused towards college or or not or whatever, but >> and that's our our middle school um administrators and counselors really worked with us because the last thing we wanted to do was make a seventh grader feel pigeonhold into one specific like job. And so really those conversations are super broad right now. It's more identifying, hey, what do you think you want to do when you're done with high school? And so we talk
099about the three E here, you know, are you interested in maybe, you know, going to college or are you interested in maybe going straight in the workforce or does your family have a business or, you know, are you part of a military family and dad's your hero and you want to go enlist? And so it's kind of those conversations, but it's never we're never I know this as long as I'm at the high school going to say, you know what, in seventh grade you said you were going to college and I know you got in Mr. Murray's precision machining class and you love it and you want to go straight in the workforce, but in seventh grade we're not going to do that. And so it's very fluid. It's just starting the conversation, which for
100us will help some of those conversations with parents and families as they're scheduling some high school courses and exploring their interests. So, it's I I was with you um initially until I learned more about what really it entails. It's very broad. >> Well, and as you spoke about it, it kind of it all makes sense and it calmed me down a little bit, but but initially when I first heard it, I'm like, man, you know, there's nothing worse than telling a seventh grader, "What do you want to do? What do you want to do?" you know, or back years ago when we told everybody that they had to go to college and stuff and I just didn't like that. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> So, I want to flip Matt's question back to you,
101though. So you what I hear when I hear you say that and I think we need to do a better job at it is is you come to Huntington Community Schools and you come to Huntington North, we have 19 pathways for you to go where other people around us may not have all of those pathways. So I think that's again getting back to that story we're telling. >> Yeah. Well said. >> That's the story that we need to tell. Huntington North has 19 pathways and counting. If you're in middle school and and the where you're going doesn't have that, hey, by the way, 19 pathways in counting, we we probably have it. Come come take a look. I think that's part of the other reason of talking about >> Very well said. >> And and
102I would say too, keep in mind for the high school, so have little grace on on our staff. This accountability model passed in March of 26. In December of 24, we got new diploma requirements. Those are two massive lifts in close sequence. I started thinking I was kind of the bad luck guy when I came back. It was a new diploma requirements, new accountability model, what's next? And so we're positioned well in both. Um, but to your point, our ability to have those conversations with students and have the menu of options to say maybe not everything, but if you name it, we probably have it or at least a class to help you explore it is really powerful. I I'll just add I piggyback Mr. Wall here. I I think that just being very very
103consistent about talking about it a lot. We do a lot better job of that here the last few years. Uh the way that we've advanced our thoughts at giving as many opportunities as possible for kids. Um this has always been a really good place to go to school. Uh I think it's outstanding. We're in a great position right now. Um, I had a couple questions. I I wanted to make sure I understood that. Um, accountability is then the the grade is leveled for each building and then for the corporation as a whole. Is that the way that's set up? Is there any monetary value to that? So, does the state have anything attached? Is it or is it just we're going to tell you you're a A minus, so everybody should want to go there
104and if you get more kids, you get more money. Yeah, I ideally that part is um you know how this really plays out um previous existence when uh the school corporation that I had uh been involved with wasn't doing well. What did everyone market around me and know that became their marketing tool. I do not believe when every student can choose anywhere that that will not be the same situation that every school deals with. Again, I saw this um 2010 10 to 14 15 16 that era. And so although there's not a per se monetary value, it's a really good question. In reality, it becomes a recruiting war for the most successful schools. And I believe unapologetically, I'm going to say it and say it and say it, and I'll prove it to everyone with
105data, as Mr. Wall is alluding to and then I'll be able to show it actively as we head into next school year on an academic update to the board and to the public regularly and Mr. Butler turned loose unapologetically. I will show people why Huntington is one of the top school corporations in Indiana. I'm not just saying that. That's not just a bunch of smoke coming up. There'll be data to prove it. So, I think it comes around with success comes students. Um, and I know that we're in a very competitive environment and um, that does not scare me at all coming from Huntington. Mr. Brimberry, could I just add a comment? Did you happen to listen to the two students, Mr. Malone, Mr. Boxel, doing an excellent job? What did those kids say about
106those two teachers? >> Yes. And I'm 40 46 years into this business. I'm old. You can say Jay, you're going to retire and you can put me out the pasture. But something so small as I wrote down here as they're talking, I put down here. Building relationships. Does anybody really care? Does anybody care? Kids don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Mr. Boxel, Mrs. Mr. Malone, Mrs. Brimberry have invested time and effort. They've built relationships with these two students and they sat right here and told us if you heard it. They cared. They cared. Now you say, "Jay, every student every day." This m this sounds so cliche kind of thing, but if across the district we embrace this and we program for every student every day and we
107strive every single day to build relationships to make a difference in every student's life, we made a difference for those two. Those two are going to make it. And if we can have that kind of mindset across this district, stand back. Katy bar the door. Here we come. Here we come. And it it sounds so simplistic, but right now as I'm talking about that, you're thinking of the teachers that you had in your career that you know that you knew that cared about you and would have done anything to help you be successful and you were because of them. >> Yeah, >> that's where we need to be. So, I'm excited. >> So, well said. And I'll with academic and databased education on continuous improvement model and Mr. Wall alluded to it and so did
108Mr. Allen with that must have an intentional positive school culture and it's more needed today than ever and we will do both here and if we ever fail the intention and positive school culture will not be the one that fails. You it's pretty simple. Early grades, this sounds hokey, but it's real. Um you need to love the kids and they need to be literate and you need to do the first part at 100%. And Jay's got the second part already just approaching 91%. And 91% does not take in some cognitive factors that these children are being judged on that they're not ready for that yet. And so we're going to protect that 9%. I assure you. Uh they will never be the discussion here. But the first part will be we're going to love the
109kids and we're going to do our very best after Jay has got them ready to read and the teachers um and our principles. Then we're going to be continuous growth model with the greatest school positive culture to help children as they progress. Those two do not work independent. They work together. Previous success academically when you become Hey, what's going on there? Is that intentional positive school culture that Jay's talking about in relationship must be in place at every level. And we already do it well here, but we're getting ready to do that better. And that's no judgment. Help them. And we're already one of the top school districts and this model. I can't wait to get started on it. >> Mr. Grimberry. Um, just quickly and Lauren and Lynn, you can tell me if I'm
110if I'm missing it here, but as the state's moving more, I mentioned a medical model before in the past that that's what the testing part's about. And we move away from a general diagnosis that these kids or this child isn't doing well. And we test to try and find out why. We're moving away from taking temperatures and maybe an X-ray to an MRI. And we're taking that data and looking at where each individual child is and where we need to put the resources. >> There it is. >> As we're doing this in a state accountability model, I hope parents and patrons and schools will look back at the state and say, "How do we get help with the resources we need to help these individual children?" Because individually, it's going to take more. And if
111the state has this expectation, how are they going to support that? Because it's going to take more time, more tools, and more personnel to make it happen. >> Yeah, very very well said. Uh the funding must match the expectations and the divi diverse audience of needs and um we're looking at significant cut in the next three years. And I have done a lot of lobbying in the last 90 days and I do believe that the sea one is going to swing back a little bit on some funding and that will help Huntington as well as that of other schools. >> I I would just say that um the board is is here and receptive to helping um approve the things that you need to be successful in the classroom. um that's never been a a
112problem on the boards that I've served on and I don't believe it's a problem now. Um so encourage those people that you work with to bring those things to us. Um we were we're anxious to be helpful and uh to be a part of the celebration. Um we don't um yeah schools can take a beating about lots of stuff but um we are extremely proud of serving I think uh the school corporation and and this is a chance for us to you know be be a little more help. >> Thank you all for uh again uh I knew that would bring about I much more enjoyed that topic Dr. deets. Uh that that one's up my alley and I it's all what we're supposed to be about. It's children and so thank you all for
113presenting tonight. Our last topic, Meg, thank you for your patience tonight. Uh Meg Me Fen is going to talk a little bit about postvention response. Uh Meg has been very very busy this year in terms of a lot of different hats she wears, but I appreciate her attendance tonight. I know the board and our community appreciate Meg greatly. So, thank you Meg for being here. Okay, thank you for having me. Um, I just want to remind everybody that I will be back on May 26 to talk about mental health in general. So, if this sparks questions about kind of what we're doing um in the preventative space or what we're doing with mental health in general, I'll be talking about that um at a future um time. So, um what I'm going to talk about
114tonight is postvention response um to suicide in the district. Um and this really has to do with postvention response to um really any death in the district. Um but I'm going to be focusing primarily on suicide. Um, and something that I wanted to make sure that we're all kind of on the same page is, um, I passed out a definition of suicide. And when you look at the purple paper, um, if you were to look up on Google or if you were to look up like an AI definition of suicide, it might be the first definition. So, death where there is evidence that the injury was self-inflicted and intended to cause death. Um, but when I'm working with students and when I'm teaching in classrooms about suicide prevention, I use the second definition, an attempt
115to solve a problem of intense emotional pain with impaired problem-solving skills. And I feel like this definition is something that gives me hope and gives me something to work on within the district. Um, so I always tell kids when I'm talking to them that I can't take away intense emotional pain. That that's something that happens when you're a human being. that all of us are going to have um loss and really um if you have a loss and you experience intense emotional pain then I think that you experienced a lot of love in that relationship. Um so that's again just part of being human. But as I talk today I really want to focus on that um second definition so that we're all um on the same page. So I also wanted to make sure
116to point out that this work has been going on for about six years. Um, and I was not the person that started this work. Um, so we have in um, Huntington an organization called HOPE. Um, it stands for Huntington Outreach Prevention and Empowerment and previously was um, a youth suicide prevention task force and that is headed up by Jan Williams and previous to me, Trace Hinesley, who is currently a counselor at Horus Man. Um Jan and Trace had worked a lot on suicide prevention and then we got to the point where we felt like we had um kind of a handle on suicide prevention and it was Jan's um vision and foresight to say we need to start working on the post vvention like what is going to happen um if we do have a
117suicide in our district. So in the last um uh four years we have had three suicides um of students in the district. two of which have attended our high school. Um so I think it's important to note that um we did have a su student die by suicide that lived in our um community and has siblings that go to school here. Um so we need to be really aware of all of the students that live in Huntington County um when we're doing this work. Um, so where we're at right now, um, kind of my, um, dream and vision with Jan is that I wanted to, um, create a post vvention plan. So, in the event of a death or a suicide that, um, a principal and a superintendent, um, have so much going on um,
118emotionally in that moment. And so I wanted to set something out where you didn't have to have all of the thought of the logistics of what do I do next? Um that that was all laid out. Um and you could really focus on um your teachers and the students and you didn't have to focus on what are the words that I'm going to say, what is kind of the next thing um that I'm going to do. So we created this postvention plan. And um there's a lot of other organizations like the American Suicide Foundation that has done a lot of the groundwork, but we wanted to take it and make it our own. Um so in the event that there is a death um there is a collection of Google Docs um that is all
119in a folder that would be shared with a principal um in that event. And what that does is it goes through and it has the actual postvention response. It has a list of all the crisis team members and what their roles and that's the counselor. What is that person's role? What's the principal's role? The assistant principal, the counselor, the nurse, um the secretary, the teachers, what does every individual person, what are their expectations? So, that's all laid out um in the post vvention. And then I thought I'd share the suicide postvention checklist with you. So, again, this gives the principal an idea of a place to just start, right? So, what is the very first thing that I need to do? Um and then goes in order of all the different things that they should
120be thinking about. And when we first created this um you know we were using uh documents that different suicide foundations had said here's what you would do you know in a suicide. Um but then um a few years ago it became a reality and then we took everything that we had learned that we had put on paper and then we had real people in front of us. And so then um after that suicide we had a lot of conversations with parents, with teachers, with principles. I went back to teachers and said, you know, where did we um drop the ball? Like what did we not do? When did you not feel comfortable or wish what did you wish you had more support on? And again talk to the principles. And so out of those conversations,
121um we added a whole bunch of new things to the checklist and then a whole bunch of new documents um for each of the the principles or whoever is in charge at that time. So um one of the things that's also in this folder is um emails so that you know who do you need to let know when this happens. So you need to let your staff know, you need to let um the community know. So there's emails that you can use as a starting point. Obviously, every principal is going to add into um you know, their own emotion and feeling of what's going on, but you need a starting point. Um, one of the things that I heard from teachers is that we weren't sure what to say during first period. Like, we felt
122a little bit lost. Um, so I wrote a script about what you could say in first period and then sent it out to a team of teachers and said, "You read this and tell me if this feels like something that you could say, you know, the first time that you're addressing students." Um and so we created that um for teachers. Um and then we also wanted to make sure that um when students came to talk to a support team. So one of the things that we did here at the high school is we opened up the library and the locker lounge as a place for students to come and talk. But we realized we weren't creating like a grief log or a log of each of those students that came, why they came, what was
123the connection to the student who had passed, and how could we follow up with them afterwards. So that was something that we changed, too. So now we have a grief log so that every um supporting adult that comes in um gets logged uh logs the child that they talked to and kind of what was the conversation that they had afterwards so that myself and counselors and nurses can follow up with that student afterwards and see how they're doing in the days and weeks and months afterwards. Um, we also talked about, you know, for the, um, actual principal, what does that morning staff meeting look like when you first bring everybody together? And then we found out from teachers that they wanted to have some sort of touch base at the end of the day. It
124didn't have to be something that everyone had to attend, but come back together at the end of the day. and if you need, you know, a hug, if you need a conversation, if you have a question about something maybe you said to a student and you weren't sure if it was the right thing to say, um that all of that would happen at the end of that first day. Um and then there's a whole checklist of things that we didn't think about um as far as like uh you know, if that student was on a list for military recruitment, how do we reach out and make sure that those phone calls don't keep happening? um we give blood at this school and that student might be on a list of donors registered. And so there's
125all of these different things that parents clued us into that if you could help us with basically the logistics of death, help us to coordinate that so that we're not getting phone calls and we're not getting reminders. Um so that was really um helpful talking to those parents. And I think in this past um couple months I think that I've learned so much from um students mostly of what we can do to come around them. And I think the biggest thing like my biggest takeaway from the last couple months um is that after a day or a week or a month a lot of us are moving on and we're healing because maybe we were on on an outer circle of what happened. but that there's so many students that are still grieving um and
126are still dealing with that loss and for us to be mindful of what that looks like. So I am glad that we have this post vvention plan that um that we have created it but I always want it to be a work in process as every single family comes to us and tell tells us like this is how our grieving process was and this is how um you could do things differently. I hope that I never open this Google doc again, that this folder just remains a project that we worked on at some point in time. Um, and I will talk about what we're doing for um, suicide prevention uh, when I come back and talk later. But I just wanted to make sure that you knew that this these documents were available to principles
127um that we're thinking about this ahead of time and that we really want to do a good job um for the community, not just the people who work here at the school, but the broader community of Huntington. >> Me, I want to thank you for coming today. This answered a lot of questions that I think several of us have had. Uh I commend you on the amount of work that has put into this. Um, and I'm happy to hear that. Well, unhappy and happy at the same time that we're learning unfortunately through through things like that. The other question I have for you though is do we do tabletop exercises to help people maybe understand and work this plan at the point just so we can get them used to this? Because while the checklist
128is great, sometimes having been through it even in a sinuation, I know EMA does that. They do those tabletop exercises and things like that. And we thought about doing something like that just to get people more comfortable with it, hoping that we never have to use this. I would ra I'd rather you open the folder for tabletops once a year, >> right? >> And we learn from that and not have to use it in real life. >> Yeah. And I think that any sort of like crisis preparation that we can do is always I mean just as a nurse like working in the emergency room I know like I want as many possible practice crisis so that my muscle memory so that my brain is you know thinking about oh what if this you know
129would happen. So I would be completely open to that. I know that we do a lot with our um like physical health like okay we have a medical emergency CPR things like that but I think just wrapping your head around um the mental and emotional exercise that this is and what kind of mental and emotional strain that would put on you um as a leader in your building. I think that's a good exercise to go through so you can reflect and ask questions now so that you could be ready in the future. >> And then a follow-up question. This is a great checklist even just if it's not so much a suicide but maybe just a traumatic event. Have we thought of maybe having a variation of that or are are there things in this
130that say if there was an accident a different type of accident that we could use this as a model for other things as well? >> Yeah, the actual like title of um the whole package is postvention response to a suicide or death of a school community member. And so one of the really important things when you're looking at like postvention resource research is that you don't treat a death by suicide differently than you would treat any other traumatic death. So if we had a car accident or if we had some sort of everything that we're doing in here could be used exactly the same. Um and that would include if we had a death of an adult within the school community as well. Um there might be, you know, a little bit different as far
131as the grief process and then covering other teachers like within the building, but I think that we could look at this and use it in the exact same way. >> Yeah. I just sit back and and I know you do a lot of of work with the kids and and I bought cookies from you at a soccer game not too long ago and I appreciated that and I really wanted to support you. But I I think what maybe sometimes goes unnoticed that I want to call out is you're helping those leaders in the buildings with this as well because like you mentioned the thought of writing that first email to the staff. I I I wouldn't want to be in that situation because of all the things that are going on and and just having
132a a template that I can start from and then and tweak is a is something that is immeasurable and I would almost guess that anyone has to use that will will thank you so much in the future and and even to the teacher where they have to say something in the classroom. I commend you on the the tweaking of that and the the continual work to improve this to help support everybody in the community. So, I I just want to thank you again, >> Meg. I'm going to um in fact, this might be for Mr. Brimberry. Uh, one of the things that I um it's not a part of this and I understand why it isn't, but it is something that I think was um a real challenge and it always is social media is
133so so much a part of our kids' lives uh in our grandkids lives that um any delay in it a statement from the school uh becomes a a way to grade us. Um I think that the there was u something happened with one of the students here uh maybe six months ago or so and there were quite a few statements made by I think student was connected to a few different schools. Um, and we were a little later in in our in our statement and um, it reflected poorly on us for really the wrong reasons. Um, I think we were trying to do it for the right trying to do the right thing. You know, we protect privacies. Um, but we were late and so how that is handled I think is is delicate, >>
134but I I think we can do better. Well, and I'm going to continue to say um in the age of social media where, you know, one district wants to get some word out quickly, I rely on experts. And one of the experts I rely on and trust at the highest level in our district just sitting with us right now. She is an expert. Um she is um very thoughtful, very caring. there are no surprises to her on processes and she's very very prepared but so is the administrative team because of Meg and so I do know that society is instantaneous if somebody heard it and needs to go out and I I disagree with that there's a family involved and you saw that on the checklist sometimes and this is not my first district and
135they followed it um Huntington does this um horrific challen challenging, awful situation at the most professional and communicative way that I've ever been around. That's because Meg's involved with this district. And uh I commend you, Meg. You are a blessing. Um when we rely on you, we don't question. And although the everyone will have an opinion on how and when, Mr. Allen's correct, there is a process. That process needs to be followed in the best interest of accuracy, delicacy in terms of the family and those affected and then making sure that these things are done appropriately and sometimes that means you pause to make sure those things are in place. And so, Meg, I will tell you from a guy who's I w I hope I never talk about this again, and I have in
136different districts, um um you are a true blessing of expertise, knowledge, and compassion. And that's what I rely on, and I'm grateful for you, and I know Mr. Trout was, and I know the previous one was as well. So, thank you for all you do. >> Anything else for me? Thank you, Mr. Fzen. >> Thank you. >> Uh, we are done with our items. I will take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Wall. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Mr. Mlen. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed.