001I'm not really Back on the chair. Mr. >> I want them to be It's kind of like Okay, Joey, are you ready? >> Are you ready? >> Ready, Joey? Go back. >> All right, nicely done. Call our meeting to order at 6:00. Thank you, Joey. Give Joey a round of applause, EVERYBODY. ALSO, Hannah has a very important job, which is leading us in the pledge. So please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the for indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very >> All right. Mr. You can call >> Mr. B >> here. >> Mr. >> Here >> Mr. B here. >> Mr. Lauderdale >> here. >> Awesome. Welcome everybody. Jim, why don't you tell us why our special friend?
002>> Sure can. So, I was very thankful. Um, it's a nice lively room. This is the last board of education meeting, I believe, that we'll be in this room. Um, we'll be over in the at the new place um soon. So, with us today is uh Falls Lanox Elementary School and um staff members and students. And one of the things that we've do instead falls is we work a lot on student engagement. So, you're going to hear a lot about that. And here to tell you to kind of give you a more detailed view of what's going to happen is Lisa Williams. She's the principal. >> Thank you, Dr. Lloyd. Good evening. I'm Lisa Williams. I'm the principal at Falls Lenox. And we are very excited to share with you this evening our work um
003that we do. And as Dr. Lloyd said, we are all about engaging our students. And so our presentation this evening is about how we get uh student voice and input from our students which then drives the work that we design for them. I'm here with our building design team. So we have uh Mrs. Castraba. She's a first grade teacher. Mr. Jenkins, first grade teacher. Uh second grade we have Mrs. Gomel and Mrs. Tamura. Third grade we have Mrs. Petro, Mrs. Richmond Smith. And then we also have Mrs. to set and they have brought some of their amazing students that a little bit later in the presentation we will introduce and they're going to share their work with you when we get to that part of our presentation. So they're they're ready to do that. Um
004we are going to start out with just a little intro video. Heat. Heat. All right. So, the title of our presentation, designing beyond the script. So, we're going to get to that and talking a little bit about how we have taken our new language arts curriculum and designed work for students that is engaging. But since our entire presentation is about engagement, we would be remiss if we did not engage our audience. So, throughout our presentation, we have a couple uh factor fib slides. So, our board members in central office, what we would like you to do is on your note cards, you're going to write true on one note card and you're going to write false on the other note card. This is actually an activity that comes from the lead forward playlist um that
005some of our teachers have done with their students and it's a strategy that gets all of the kids participating and uh talking about their learning. Um, so we're going to have you participate in a little factor fib and quiz your knowledge of engagement. All right. So the first statement, you're going to hold up a card whether it's true or false. The definition of engagement work that is fun, entertaining, and results in exttrinsic rewards. True or false? See couple trs. some. Okay. All right. I want you to turn and talk to someone sitting next to you about why you think it's true or false. All right, Parker, you want to come on up? Okay, >> so Parker just said >> Parker over here >> stated the correct answer. So he has not been prompted for this.
006Parker, what's the answer to this? >> False. >> That's right. Why is it false? >> So we can have fun um learning without words. >> Very good. Very good. Thank you, Parker. So if you said false, you are correct. >> And Craig is going to talk a little bit about the definition, the true definition of engagement. >> So um going back to my members of my design of our design team here, um met with um the Schllecti Center who we do a lot of collaborate work with. Um and one thing that we came up with earlier in the year, the bu the district design team tried to take the different elements of um of design that we worked together with and also um the the different attributes we're looking for out of work and put
007it into of course we're teachers and creative. So it became a little acronym called camp because if we make it something we can remember we can actually put it into practice. Um camp meaning committed. Are the students can the students use their time and effort without extrinsic rewards? Um are they attentive? Um students are focused on the task. Do they find meaning and value in it? Um students find meaning value in the task and then persistent. The students stick with a task even when it's difficult. Um as a first grade teacher, there's a lot of things that can be difficult and I'm sure you can find that at each grade level. Um, but when we put that together, um, well, to circle back to the camp idea too, um, earlier in the fall, we took
008those four elements and we asked each of our teachers at our staff meetings to come up with questions they could ask their students um, about the work that they're doing to see if we're hitting all four of those different attributes. Like, how are the students finding meaning and value in their work? Ask them, find out. Believe me or not, believe me, they'll tell you. Um, so we ended up coming up with a definition um of that and then we we put that into an action research question that we've been working on all year. And our question was to what extent does the regular use of reflection questions that our team designed um designed to measure student engagement inform and motivate our teachers to design language artwork um for our students. Um the reason we focused
009on language arts this year is because we got a brand new um set of curriculum. So, we got um a curriculum called Benchmark, excuse me, benchmark advance. And um rather than just, you know, we get these beautiful boxes with all these different resources, but rather than just getting those boxes and then just teaching exactly from that script, um each classroom has the liberty and I think okay, we have Whoops. Um we have the liberty to go through and and make that authentic to our classroom. So what might work for my classroom might not work for Angela's and what works for Angela's might not work for Emily's. Um but we go through and try to make it work for our students because we ask them um where they find meaning and value in those. Um to
010that end um we have a video that shows you some of those questions and responses um that we got from students. >> We would like you to listen for what design qualities you hear the kids talking about in their responses. So, you have a handout that gives you the 10 design qualities. Um, there should be at least four or five that you hear. They won't say the actual design quality word, but you'll hear them talking about it. I think you're going to have to >> I think sharing sharing it with my family and um other parents I think my I agree with him. I was excited, but I was also nervous because there was a lot of people there and my whole um family's attention was on me and I didn't want to mess up.
011What made you want to put forth a lot of effort into your project? >> Cuz our parents are going to see mom going to see our hardest work. And then after you finished all of your projects, you would go you would go on and your teacher would would go into the gym and and would take all of your beautiful projects and hang them up. >> And you got to see them. >> You your mom, dad's, friends, family members. >> How long did it did you work on these projects? like like a month and a half. >> What made you want to keep working on on them for that long? >> We because we don't just have to like read stuff and just go do reading centers. We could actually just feel how we could like
012to do this. We because Miss Balco, she like put all of the things in. She put writing in it. She put art in it. She put collaging in it. She put reading in it. How did you know that you like to do this thing? >> Because we love we personally love art. We love using new products. >> Hello. So, let's start out. Tell me your name and what grade you're in. >> My name is Natalie and I'm in second grade class. I'm my name is Amelia. I'm also a second grade and also >> So why did you do this project? What were you learning about? >> We were learning about money. >> Yeah. Um but also we were learning about things with how things would be in real life. >> So tell us about your
013project. >> Um >> what did you do? >> So we um we made a food truck like this. So we can go um so we can go like this and we make a menu and an advertisement. So the advertisement is for because they want they want to see like how good it is and like make it pop and because we did the food section we all worked a lot but really hard and it was fun >> and we all worked together. So what did you find most interesting about the project? >> Working with friends and it was still learning. So that was >> and um being creative and um with my friends and letting like we could um share like our own things in our minds and um be able to do whatever we Okay.
014Um, so what design qualities did you hear the kids talking about? >> Affirmation. >> Yep. Affirmation. Sharing their work with um people that are important to them and that gave a lot of meaning for meaning and value for them. >> Choice. Choice. >> Yep. Choice. >> Variety. >> Novelty and variety. Any others? >> Yeah. Where did you hear the product focus? >> Yeah. Yeah. They created a food truck. Yeah. And that was to um learn and practice about uh exchanging money and the values and which is a very hard concept for second graders to understand especially since everything's plastic now. So, um, you know, going back to the definition, it's challenging work that's designed in a way that allows them to persist and that they're motivated by it and they find value in it. So,
015it's not necessarily fun. It can be, um, but there's not necessarily, you know, a reward to it. It's something it's designed intentionally. So, lots of design qualities. Authenticity was another one. You know, work has its significance and is related to their lives. Um, so you know, it's really cool to hear our kids talking about those um, and exp, you know, explaining how those design qualities are relevant in their work. What drew us really to this action research project this year is, as Craig said, we have a new language arts curriculum, grades K5, which is benchmark advance. Um, and although that resource comes with some great um, you know, resources for the teachers, for the students, when we talk about curriculum, we really want to make sure that we are not just teaching to the resource.
016It's a springboard for us, but really we are looking at the motives of our students. We're incorporating those design qualities. you know, obviously teaching the Ohio learning standards, looking at ways that we can apply the portrait of a graduate competencies and have students practice those throughout their school day. Um, and then utilize benchmark the resource as just that, a resource. Um, so really all of these components go into um what makes up our curriculum in Homestead Falls. It also ties with our benefits based accountability work. So these benefits listed at the top are the ones that or some of the benefits that false lenox has chosen to work on and our goal is to provide more of these benefits to our students. So when we talk about deep content, we're designing work that gives students
017practice with the portrait of grad competencies, aligns to their interests, align to need. um not only does the work align to their interests and their motives but also their academic level. So differentiating the work own the work. You know this is you heard this a lot in the uh student video when we know that when students have a voice in the work and when they get to share it with people that are important to them, they take greater ownership in it. So when they know the work's been designed in a way that's motivating for them, they take greater ownership and then they get to share it with people that are important and and that leads to greater ownership. Students do relevant, interesting, meaningful work. And then parents as partners, we've done a lot over the
018last several years with um family engagement. We actually presented on that topic last year at the board meeting. And so, you know, it goes handinhand with the design work and also with our benefits that our families are part of the process. They're there hearing from their child what they're learning about, where they're growing, and how they're growing. Um, and they're really, you know, a partner with us throughout the child's school day. All right, we're going to give you just a little sneak peek into our design process before you go around and visit the various stations and in the stars of the show. So, I'm going to turn it over to Angela Castraa. >> Hi, welcome. Um, just to kind of give you a Oh, I guess we have another factor before we get any further.
019Guys, do better this time. We're all right. So, it says, excuse me, the role of the teacher is to design work that leads students to be knowledge workers and volunteer their time and effort to the work. The role of the teacher is to design work that leads students to be knowledge workers and volunteer their time and effort to the work. Do we think that is true or both? Don't don't overthink it. The women are ready. That one is in fact true. Yes. >> The differentiator here is that it is it's based on students. The students are the leaders of the work. It's the base. We have the framework. It's it's about the the student are what guide our decision making about what kind of design qualities to include and what elements we want to change
020to make it more accessible to what their interest and um choices are. This is just a quick overview of our timeline this year. um going back to January, we've used all of our PD days um going forward, which we are always grateful of the time to work on this work. Um but one of the things we asked both Mrs. Dr. Cos and um Miss Williams this year before we got started was that having new curriculum that we wanted to make sure that we also use that time wisely to be able to adopt a new curriculum because that can be really overwhelming. um and we know it is an important resource but something that it takes a long time to learn itself and to figure out what the gaps are and how we can modify it.
021So um we did a lot of time working through the curriculum unit by unit and then looking at where's the places that we want to add engagement elements where are some of the things that we can do and what are things that need a little bit more work. Um, so each of the design days, as you can kind of see, going forward, that was our focus. And then we have other meetings and different things in between where we just kind of kept going on the work each time, bringing back our own information and data about our own students and taking our own ideas, but then making it personable to what um makes sense for our classrooms. So we did um just to have a common document where we house things. It's a growing document always.
022We used the same framework that we've used for our design work for the past few years, but we modified it to what that would look like for simple lessons. And some of the things that we tried to do is instead of um like maybe you saw more like let's just use that food truck example where that would be more like a a design that maybe is taught over a month. And we tried to think more um globally where it was try to come up with things that could be applied at an instant in a lesson. like how could you just tweak this one thing and then use it over and over again when something maybe isn't going over well with your class or something needs a little bit um another level of engagement. So, we
023created this document and we just keep adding to it um different units, different things where it's just kind of a growing list of by topic under that larger umbrella of what our um curriculum is of places that we see these things um being able to benefit our students and um make our work more accessible and engaging. So, we're going to show you some examples and we want to get you to the students because they're going to show you some of the real world examples. Um, all of our examples that we brought today again go back to language arts. Um, this is just an example for my classroom just to kind of just show you like a difference between um, it's still the same goals of the lessons, but just this is like curriculum based where
024it was just basically like charting ideas and kind of their the books that came with the program going into okay like what are the students interested in right now? My kids are really into weather and rainbow. So we did a little main idea supplement with that and then we did a little more hands-on of an activity kind of culminate where they had to get a bag of items and then figure out what the things in the bag had in common and kind of come up with that sentence together. So it's just still under the same umbrell umbrella but just taking a lesson or two to just to make it a little more interesting and appealing to what works for your classroom and to give students an opportunity to work together and collaborate and get to
025do some of those other things that we know are important to them. Um the other area that we felt was like the most um need and supplement this year and just kind of talking across the grades was writing curriculum. So um there wasn't much like a like instructional it was kind of like maybe like the the theme. So like a top more topical planning with the program. Um so we did spend a little bit more time in that. So the example you're going to see today is how-to lessons. My classmate mini books. Victoria's being a spokes model without even being asked to. she was really ready to share hers today. Um, but then they had an opportunity to do like what we call a playlist where it's just something that could be done over and
026over again called each one teach one which we're going to show you today that just worked logically um with that kind of writing instruction just to make it a little more interesting and to give them like an end goal and a purpose more purpose practicality to their writing. um second and third grade is gonna also share some of their examples and then we are going to get you to as Miss Williams refer to them the stars of the show. So um grammar grammar has always been an issue. Um we teach it believe it or not we teach it they don't remember it and they don't like it. So it has always been a problem. Um, we were thrilled when we got Benchmark that grammar is mentioned in every story that we do. However, they they
027point out a grammar topic. They show a few examples in the story and then they get a worksheet. Well, you can imagine that um that doesn't go over super well. Now, we use the worksheets as followup, but the other problem is they don't retain it. We teach it and it's gone. Ask I mean a third grade teacher will tell you that my kids never heard of a noun before. Um so when we go through the design process we look at what what motivates our kids what are they interested in and when we started this uh comic books and graphic novels were huge they still are they probably will be for a very long time. So um we thought okay let's let's use that somehow. The other thing is because they forget it we wanted them
028to have some sort of resource that they could use so that they would remember this and go back to it. So of this hatched grammar guy so or girl grammar guy or girl is our superhero and they each got to create a character um which was their favorite part. They the character then teaches the teaching point and then they put examples in into the book so that they can go back to it. Um, I'm not joking. When I say it's time to do Grammar, they cheer like they're so excited. And my girls over there are gonna tell you like why they cheer for it. And um, and it's not just because they get to draw the superhero. Um, and so they do remember their things. And when they don't remember, they know exactly where to
029look for it. I'm not sure which third grade teacher is next. So, It got like even. Um, so as Angela Castrama was saying, writing was a big like sticking point with the um just like we were noticing unit by unit. That was the biggest area of me um in terms of engagement, making it fun and also making it like accessible for everybody. Um I felt like there the goals were really lofty and it was just not super fun. So case in point, our unit three um goal for writing according to benchmark. I love this. Students will choose their own topic related to government then plan an informative or explanatory essay. and I was just like, what do I do with this? Um, the all the reading that we were doing was about government and it
030tied really nicely into our social studies standards, but it was just like such a lofty goal and I wanted to make it meaningful. We were kind of coming upon um kids were starting to talk about like trips that they were looking forward to, whether it be spring break or summer. Um, that that got conversations into like, well, my grandma lives here or I'm curious about this. And I I was trying to think like government topics for for third graders. And you know, we were just learning about local government and what is government. So the more I thought about it, the more I connected it to their travel um interest. And we came up with our idea of state reports. And the way that my students approached this was instead of making like a report about
031any idea in government, they chose a state that was meaningful to them. And then they also developed questions on their own. So, I didn't give them anything specific because I just kind of wanted to see like what do you want to know about this state? So, um we had lots of different um routes that they took with it, but it was so cool and they all have such like really cool um reasons for choosing them and then the facts that they took away. It was really interesting. And as you'll see with my group, like we did this a couple of months ago and they had brought them back out and they were like, "Oh my goodness, I would have written so much more than this." and but that they can keep going with it and
032they're like, I learned this and I know so much more. And so it's really cool to see the connection that they still have with it. Um, and that they're able to reflect in in a really cool way. So it definitely stuck. I I feel like we did a good thing moving away from from that topic, but they did an awesome job. Thanks. Um, this was a unit four writing project and actually it was really good. So we started with a really good one. um they read a lot about fairy tales and characters and the main idea with this one is to find um a first person point of view and to know the difference between those. Um, so they their the idea was to write a narrative journal entry and they were either Cinderella or
033Cinderfella and I read both stories or m multiple versions of them and then they were supposed to write a journal entry um in a first person point of view which a lot of them didn't know what journal writing was or like what a diary was or how to start it. Um, so we um did this activity and they really got into it and really started like giving great examples and they were really mad at their step brothers or stepsisters and they were really like passionate about it. Um, so after it was done, you know, the writing program is great. This this part was really good, but then it went home, you know, and then they didn't do anything with it and it was really powerful and really worked out really well. So, we decided to
034pull in a celebration that we had designed a couple years ago for writing. And this program doesn't have a lot of celebrations for writing. And they loved it because they got a chance to go around with a rubric. They read everybody else's story journal entry. And then they on a post-it put all kinds of suggestions or comments or you did this well and they used the rubric to help them with their wording. Like I love how you stuck with first person point of view. I love how you use the word I and my and me. And it really was uh very much um powerful and also taught me that they need these celebrations. They need these ending activities to say, you know, I did something really hard and I worked really long on it and
035look what I came up with and look at what everybody else thought about. we were talking about it earlier and they were like, "Yeah, that was kind of cool to read everybody else's because they had a great opening or a great uh example and so they were able to kind of gain knowledge by looking at others journals as well." We have another fact true or false for you. >> Last one. >> Okay, promise. Is it possible to determine if a student is engaged by direct obser observation of that student's behavior at a given time? >> Kind of focus on that given time part. This is a hard one, I think. Okay. Okay. Oh, I love how they This is good. >> Oh, awesome. Awesome. It's actually This is a harder one. I thought it was
036a harder one cuz I when I first read it I was like yeah of course you know but it's actually false. It's over multiple times that you're looking at their um so you can't just take one little snapshot and say yeah they're engaged you know um you have to keep kind of looking at them and looking at what they're doing and what activities they're are they going to the bathroom five times you know like what is that over a period of time. So that one's false. So that leads us into our stations and you have a handout that says student engagement feedback form. So we gave you just a sampling of some of the questions that the teachers ask students to assess engagement. So as you're going around to the stations, if you want to
037ask the kids some of these questions, you're welcome to do that. Um and the stations are numbered. We have um with Mrs. Petra's class, Joey and Hannah with Mrs. Richmond Smith, Eloise and Ali, Eliza, Mrs. Gstraa, Anna and Victoria. Um Mrs. Tamura, Brooke and Russell, Mrs. Stovis, Hazel and Parker, Mrs. Dav, Kendall, and Maggie Sue. And Mr. Jenkins, Sophie, Wyatt, and Nora. So, you are welcome. We're going to take about 10 minutes for you to visit the various stations. Yeah. She was your focus though, right? Yeah. You want to tell her why you chose Tell her why. Please science. that no more. >> Yes, they did a really great job in different resources. Play your favorite. Thanks for visiting. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Heat. Heat. Yeah. All right. Good job. lady and kindle. I'm trying
038to Please. Heat. Heat. I Yeah. Thank you. Mommy. Yeah. Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. How are you? You know that very special, right? Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. That would be all right. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. to the next two more. Nice to meet you. Heat. Heat. All right, if you want to wrap up the station that you're at and return to your seat, we're going to bring our presentation to an end. Yeah. Yes. Heat. Heat. All right, we are going to wrap it up here. We have just a couple closing uh slides. So, we hope that you enjoyed um hearing all the students talk about their work. >> Turn it over. So obviously the last thing that we do after we implement these designs is um we take
039a look at um obviously three important pieces and that's teacher feedback that is um feedback from our students as we call them our co-designers and feedback from our parents. Um I'm not going to go through and actually read these testimonials. We do have a very short video. I promise it's very short. >> Hi, I'm Tara Belook. This is my second year of obstacles and I just want to share with you what I've learned as a teacher when it comes to designing a lesson since coming here. Um, before coming to this district, my previous district, I was very like, teach to the standard. How am I going to get the standard across my students? This is coming to obstacles and learning about the design qualities and truly engaging work for students. I've learned that students are
040my co-designers when it comes to planning these engaging lessons. I really need to take in what they're interested in, what they love to do, the choices they like to have, and um help use that to create my engaging lessons. Correct. Um I think you can see kind of like um you know from two of the teacher testimonials over on that side. Two um big words that stick out in there are interactive um purposeful um which are you know obviously two big key words there. um in technology um Miss Dar Miss Daro does push out um a survey to the kids and uh these are pretty significant numbers. 89% of the students report that um the class work that they are given by the teachers is interesting and important to them. 83% uh report that you
041know they are given choices in their learning and their work. And 83% of the students report being able to share their work with people who are important to them. And then again, I'm not going to go through the testimonials um from parents, but I think the last count that we did was 200 300. Um we do the parent engagement um opportunities and at the end of those we do ask for feedback from parents. Um, I just finished my second one right before spring break and um, you know, I just kind of wanted to go back and see what my parents had said. But then, you know, I went back and was reading some of the other ones and it's pretty amazing to see um, you know, the comments just how they love coming in and
042um, being able to see what the kids are doing because you know, they're not in the classroom. But um it's nice to have feedback from three different sets of people, parents, kids, and the teachers. All right. Um I just want to thank our families again for being here tonight. Thank you to the board of education for having us. Um want to give a shout out to Mrs. Carrie in the back there, our assistant principal. She supports our students every day. Um and it's a a big part of our work. So, um, thank you to Mrs. Carrie and all of our teachers and students that were here today. So, um, thank you for HAVING >> all this over here. >> Question. He had a question before. >> Yeah. >> So there's no snow coming. So no,
043>> Mr. >> This guy up here. >> Yeah. Let me see it. >> He wants to know if this is where the high schoolers have indoor recess. >> That was his question to me. >> Sure. Once these guys are done in here, I want to turn this into a true activity center for kids that don't necessarily need a quiet study hall throughout the day. >> Mr. Spagno is the high school principal, by the way. >> You want a picture of the kids in the front? >> Squirrels. Yes. table color. All right, guys. Smile. Everybody smile. Say bulldog. Bulldog. Awesome. Go to my heart. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. That's a nice She's playing. She's alive. Wave your hands. I'll show you. at the end of the meeting. >> All right, great. >>
044Awesome. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you so much for being here. Teddy SW of the public. Is there anybody wish to address the board? >> Actually, I do have one question slash comment. Not really expecting, you know, necessarily any dialogue, but we heard a lot of talk about student engagement, interesting work, and obviously that's a theme throughout. I see Dr. wondering where I'm going with this. Um, I'm with you. So, you know, thinking about that is something I've thought about for the last couple months because my son's going to be going into middle school and he's not looking forward to doing choir. >> Um, he had no desire to do band so choir is the default. Um, and I'm just wondering, you know, why we do that. I don't believe that it's a state requirement
045that they have to do that. Um, and I think obviously when we see, you know, students being engaged, being interested in the work, and when they're not, I think you have stuff what happens, if you're not aware, like the seventh grade choir concert. >> Oh, no. I I don't I'll let you finish, man. >> No. So, just I mean, you have something that happens like the seventh grade choir concert this past December where I think a couple of kids wound up being in detention afterwards because they don't care about it. They don't have an interest, >> don't have an interest in it. um it's forced them to do essentially what's an extracurricular something outside of class after hours. So that's wanted to raise that >> that has been brought up before. >> You're good. >>
046Okay. um it's been brought up before and it so one of the reasons why that's done is because it's in the wheel and the wheel at the middle school is a series of different classes and one of the reasons why you have the wheel is to give um students um comprehensive experience with different things but also to give teacher planning time and other kinds of things. However, that being said, Mr. Sysloowski and I and others have talked about like do we need to do that to students who don't really have an interest in music to force that on them and so if we don't then we have to think of what is the alternative that we're going to do there but I've seen you know my own students went through so I understand I've seen
047like when they kind of roll out the the choir that doesn't necessarily want to be in the choir and kind of how that goes and then everybody has to listen you know it's interesting So, um, I hear exactly what you're saying and I can tell you that it's something that we're going to continue to take a look at. I don't know if I have, um, a solution right now because it's like, what are we going to do with those students? One of the things I think we're thinking of is as teachers retire, um, taking a look at what other wheel opportunities we might provide outside of just having a student choose between choir and band. But it's a it's a good question, Matt, and it's one that's on our mind. >> Fair enough. Thank you.
048Appreciate it. >> Yep. Isn't there a nonquire? I like there are kids that take like history of music or something >> at the middle school. >> Yeah. I don't know what grade level >> or is that eighth grade? I thought >> it may it may not be in sixth and seventh. It may be that and that may be like the temporary solution right now that we're going to have to take um a look at. We have there's two choir teachers at the middle school and there's two band teachers at the middle school. And one of the reasons being is because of the wheel and the fact that you know they have those students. So, those are things that we're going to have to take a look at. >> And like my daughter's interested, you know,
049when the time comes, I >> Yeah, but your son's like, "No way, Dad." Yeah, I understand. >> Yep. I understand. >> All right. Awesome. Thank you. Good question. Um, anybody else? No. Okay. Um, all right. Moving on to uh the consent agenda under the superintendent's recommendations. Um, Jim, do you want to uh give a quick rundown just >> there's a few things in here. Um, and I'm guessing that when we get to admin report, Shannon, you're going to probably talk about >> handbooks or at least >> We don't have admin reports, do we? >> So, am I allowed with your permission to go? Hey, Shannon, would you like to speak to handbooks and then Okay. Um, Jan, would you like to speak to handbooks and maybe even the early entrance policy that you and Ann
050took a look at as well? >> Sure. So, with the early entrance policy um across the state um there was a new requirement with this next school year that for early entrance um our entrance date used to be August 1st and as it relates to early entrance students um if their birthday was after that they would go through the early entrance process. Now the kindergarten entry date is the first day of instruction. So we adjusted that. there may be students who are still considered for early entrance for kindergarten or first grade. So that board policy addresses that. As it relates to handbooks, I had shared with you in an email last week that we are in phase two of revisions to the handbooks last year with three of you being new board members. you were
051not a part of that conversation, but we went through some significant revisions as it relates to we're always looking through the lens of families who have students in multiple buildings and how can we have symmetry and communication whenever possible. Um, in terms of the content, but also students when they move here, they typically stay and as they're moving through the buildings, it's important to us that those expectations are also um the same when appropriate. they're not always developmentally appropriate for a high schooler as they are for an ECC student. So, the handbooks last year we updated in terms of content um even the optics where you could find information in the handbook if you have a student in multiple buildings. And so that was a significant revision process with our building leaders, teachers, building secretaries
052and even Kim Patrina Julian Allen um and myself at the board office. Um this year it was really very minor revisions but we updated three areas in particular. Code of conduct we wanted to ensure um was consistent across the district. It wasn't inconsistent but the way the rules were numbered maybe build one building rule 14 was another building's rule 16. So we lined all of those up so that they are clear. And then also with attendance there is an attendance policy that you adopted earlier this year that's um applicable for next school year. And so we wanted to make sure the handbooks aligned with um new attendance requirements and that is related to whether it's excused or not excused. Um every family member will be notified after students meet a particular threshold. So the handbook
053requests that language. And then finally um we also updated fee schedules in each of the handbooks. And so we made a few um minor changes um but these are the first changes we've made in almost o over 10 years in terms of fee schedule. So you'll see across the board um K to8 a $10 increase. Seven of that is going to go towards a tech fee. $3 is at the building's discretion where they can put towards consumables and that's where they've all decided to take those. So K to8 you're going to see a $10 increase. Seven for tech, three for consumables. So when you think about the benchmark curriculum um or a math curriculum, there are the student materials that we buy that they take with them. They travel back and forth to home. Those
054are not kept in the district. After the year is over, the student will keep those materials, those cost, right? And so the cost of educating has increased and as it relates to consumables. U middle school, you're also going to see a slight increase with the PE uniform. It used to be $14 and it's we've now increased it to 22. Life skills used to be a cost of $8. It's now 11. And then finally, at the high school, and I know Mr. Specola is here, when you have students um enrolling in different classes, those classes class specific fees may have increased. And so those changes were made in the handbooks as well. and you have two opportunities to read the handbooks tonight, but also if you have questions even after tonight, the second and final reading
055would be May 20th. And by approving those, what we're doing is we're memorializing what is in the handbook in terms of code of conduct, in terms of fees, etc. Um, and so if you have questions, I can look to answer those. If you have other suggestions, I can take those back to the building and then we would always look um to take that um into consideration. Before you ask questions, I would add on to the fee thing and I mentioned we mentioned this at PTA when we met with council um is is Dr. G said we haven't raised student fees in about a decade. Um, and what you want to do, and this is always a balance, you balance between um, the amount of money that the public pays for education or the cost of
056operating, which includes some of those supplies and materials, and then also parents partially subsidizing that as well. What you don't want to do is at least I don't think I don't think this is a good business model is to have everybody outside of those in the school subsidizing all the supplies and materials for education um because you know that would raise the cost considerably. And so what we're going to do is we're in the pro really for next year is we're going to conduct a fee study and take a look at all of it in totality. Um, I think what we're finding from where our fees are and where they've been, you know, where they are right now and where they're going to be slightly compared to other school districts is that there's going to
057be I mean what people will probably say is a sizable increase. I don't know exactly what that number is going to be um yet, but what we've experienced over the last decade really are online resources that are more costly um along with a couple other different things. And so that coupled with the fact that we have technology increases um as well and we're what we have just in the hopper and I can talk and we will talk I guess to the board about this probably at another work session or potentially in a regular meeting. Um the age of our uh our infrastructure, our switches and our routers and the expense associated with that. Um and then also our wireless adapters that are around as well. Everything has a every piece of tech technology has a
058shelf life. Uh and then finally the Chromebooks as well. If you'll recall and some of you are you know parents who pay this fee, there's a technology fee that's associated with each person as well. So that those resources have gone into an account and that account is built up to the point where when we need to do when the shelf life of the Chromebook is over, we're going to go to there and we're going to purchase additional Chromebooks. What parents are not subsidizing is the cost of switches and routers and the infrastructure. At least they haven't because we haven't updated those. Um and then also the wireless access point. So I think it would be time well spent to probably get Avette in here as well, Avet Davis who's you know our director in that
059um regard to talk about really just what is the plan moving forward for aging technology and the replacement schedule for it because what you can't do is replace it all at once because we don't have the resources to replace it all all at once. We're in the process of working with Patrick and his office to develop a plan um on how to uh to do that. So that is the school fee and the study that we're going to do next year along with what's ahead um really into 2031 um and the you know the aging infrastructure that we have. So that's all I would add there. >> Any questions about handbooks or the um early entrance policy? So know that the first, you know, to be five by the first day of instruction is now
060what we would say for a student to attend kindergarten rather than August 1. So that's important. >> Why the change? >> Uh because everyone needs to >> the state law change. They said that's what it must be, >> right? Some districts who had the September 30th, I think saw a bigger impact in terms of oh my gosh, we need to open up another section um of of a class. What we found is it it was not significant from our August 1st to the 25th. >> I have a couple questions just just to clarify with the entrance requirements. So in the past, I'll use the example of a child that went to preschool maybe turned six over the summer mid August and was then going into kindergarten as a six-year-old. Does that mean at this point
061they would I was reading what the difference between the the kindergarten date and the first grade date that said six by the first day of school look like first grade. So they had to have completed kindergarten. So they would need to complete kindergarten if they're going to go into first grade. If they have not, we would consider them a candidate for early entrance to first grade. So there is an early entrance process for first grade >> um and also kindergarten. So that's what the board policy reflects. >> Okay. I was just thinking about those like the kids that were held because they had the summer birthdays and >> the red shirtters. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Right. How that affects them. >> Yeah. And there's people that maybe wanted to go in but based
062on the August 1 date, they didn't need it. >> So, you know, they either registered them or they went somewhere else and or maybe they skipped kindergarten all together and now they want to go into first grade. So, >> yeah, we just want kids to be successful and we want to follow the law. So we're trying to >> very positive to make it work. >> Um and then with the with the student fees also the class fees there was like the activity fee. What is that typically used for? Is that like field trips and things assemblies? What is that? >> It could be a variety of things depending on the building. So for example um and I know this came up at our PT PTA meeting last week. So while PTA and our um partnership
063with them covers field trips, it may not cover all the activity. So, um, if Playhouse Square is coming into the building, that field trip, although it's in-house, while they didn't want to call it a field trip, some of the activities are coming into the building. So, the activity fee includes field trips. Um, or it may also include partnerships we have coming in where there's a cost acrewing to provide an experience for the students. Um, the good time free trip for third graders, um, that is a trip that they take. Um, but that is, um, something that we pay for and it's covered in that fee. Is it also like PBIS type of stuff or is it >> It could be. >> Okay. >> It it could be. Now, within each of the buildings, we do
064have um parents who may donate um gift cards or items, prices, and so forth, but that could also cover um the cost of some of that programming. >> Um one other thing I saw there there's so much information for five buildings, so I like was just kind of >> It's a lot. Um, I think it would be beneficial to put a little bit more just looking at Falls Linux as an example of the assessment data. I think for like second grade for example, there's something that they do are required to do to flag kids that were not identified for gifted testing, but they give that to all second graders. >> Am I right on that one? >> So, your question is in their assessment section. >> Yes, that one wasn't listed. So, is that assessment
065section in the handbook supposed to be all inclusive of those things that we do by grade? >> I would want to make sure I'm looking at the page that you're referencing. Okay. So, I'm going to pull it up. And you're looking at falls on. >> Yes. And there was a section on assessments. It had like the DRRA, the air testing, the MAP testing >> in. >> And your question is, is that intended? And should it be all encompassing of all the assessments they give? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Not like you know unit tests or things like that, but state testing surely. Um, it was one time. >> So, there's a gifted section. Um, but I want to make sure I'm following which particular section are you looking at? >> It was the assessments
066section where it was. >> Okay. So, I love control F which I did and I'm on page 16 and it list air the map test and DRRA. >> Right. >> And I think what you're asking is does this cover all the assessments that they give in the building? Right. That's your question. Um and there are some formative assessments they may give. Um there are this covers the main assessments that they give but each for example bridges math program or benchmark may have built-in assessments as well. So that would not be captured in this section here. Um but that is feedback we can give the building. >> There's one in particular I'm thinking >> I'm wonder do we don't cogap grade level. It's something sim I don't think it is the KOA. It's something similar to
067that that I'm trying to remember. >> They had to test in second and fourth. >> Yes, that's it. Yeah. >> So, those types of things like I'm thinking about like the office schedule in spring. Those kids are >> almost every week you're looking at that schedule like what test is coming. Um and I think it's helpful for parents to see what those tests are. I know I hear chatter in the community each year like what what which test is this? which >> and which rotation which >> just so they know what they are, what they're about, when what grades they're required in, when to expect them. I think um you know, there's just little stuff like that that I was like, are we intending to put those things in the handbook um as a resource?
068>> I would want personally I would want to try to put that we can consider consider this like on the website just because things can be they may change, dates may change potentially. So I think that's something we can take a look at. I would want to know like if my kids's going into fourth grade, what are the assessments? They're not When I say assessments, I don't mean formative assessments. I don't mean unit assessments. And that's what you're saying. You just want to know like >> the ones that are required by the state. The ones that we require is a school district and the ones we choose to give, right? Like the major ones. So, we can think of an assessment. Well, and I will tell you the end that we may be looking to
069move away from. We're exploring another >> assessment that actually has a verbal and a non-verbal component when we're thinking about gifted identification. We just had our department meeting last week. >> So, that would be a reason why we don't want to put a name brand in there, but I think it's good feedback of, oh, every second grader is going to get a test like the NAP. It might be the, you know, it might be this other test that we're exploring instead, >> right? So, I will um take a look at that and inquire with the buildings and if that's a revision that we can place in before May 20th, is that an option? >> Yeah, I mean that's one of the reasons why we have two meetings is to do that and if it's something
070that we're like, okay, >> I'm looking for your blessing. >> Yeah, we could do that. But I think that's good, but I also think that there ought be maybe like an assessment map >> on the website if you know that's going to vary, >> right? A and again as I look at this um I would want to ensure you know is it captured in the gifted section >> or is it better fitting in the assessment section and what does that mean for the other buildings as well? And at the same time too, I would just add because this is adopted by the board, we like you said, Shannon, we don't want to box ourselves in, right? That's I mean, you could write um um I a cognitive abilities test that's both verbal and non-verbal and
071just have it like that and then on the website you would put whatever it is that you're using as far as the measure because you don't have to go back. I wouldn't want to come to the board and have to change like well we're going to go from that assessment to this one and get order approval for that or anything. So, but I I hear what you're saying. >> Yeah. My question was more around like is it is the handbook the place for it or not? Is that is that what the goal is is to make sure those things are captured or >> it could be and then also the website for example my section which we continue to update the website could be another place for a parent to go to >> but I
072will be bringing this back to uh the buildings and asking and >> what I'm seeing is it could be a very simple revision. Yeah, some of those like you know when you get into middle school some of those subject based math tests that they get into. >> I think that would be great information maybe not in the handbook but elsewhere that they know these grades get these subjects this is when you're getting beyond just the language >> and math >> and for high school right like which classes get an end of course exam which ones to thank you very much. >> Yeah, I think it's helpful. >> Okay, any other questions for Dr. Goss? Um, just to flag also too, um, on the consent agenda, 4F is approval of the girls wrestling program as an
073official, uh, varsity school sanctioned SP school sponsored sport. Say that five times fast. I don't know if there's anything more to be said about that, but it's one for everybody that is officially on the vote. >> In G um, certified personnel there, this is the last group of teachers that we're going to hire. So, everybody is officially done. We've survived hiring season without an HR director and and I my appreciation goes out to so many different people for getting um through that. One of the people that you saw the very end there, Miss Alco um is one of the people that we're hiring uh as well. She was in a long-term sub position for Ann stocks this year and um we hit a grand slam in the interview. I mean, she pulled out all these
074different artifacts and things when talking about design work and everything else and she was uh absolutely amazing and the other and I know her more than I know because she's worked for us more than I know um Jules and Casey, but both of them are going to be uh great ads as well. And then the last one is uh um the extension of uh Don Spec as well um in office for next year. and then uh bringing Julianne Allen underneath uh the district's um kind of uh contract thing as well. So, >> does Don intend to stay pass next year? >> He didn't say actually he he it's funny, you know, this is he called me. He's like, "Hey, Jim, um am I going to you am I allowed to come back next year?" And
075you know, cuz I've written you a lot. We're going to talk probably about he it's been an interesting year at the intermediate school. And so I'm like, well, thank you for for wanting to. Um, so I don't know. I think if he doesn't, he would let me know way in advance to the point because we would conduct a we would open it up and conduct a search. Um, so I don't know what the full plan is for Don, but um yet, but he and I would sit down and we would talk about that when he wants to come back next year. >> I guess that was more of the nature of my question is like when is he going to >> when's he going to Yeah. Yep. I agree. I I mean I think when
076he you know and it's a year-by-year thing but I think whenever he originally made the request I think it was really more for two years and then um you know to go and do something different but it's a yearby-year thing. So next all right I'll accept the motion to approve the items in the superintendent's recommendation agenda 4 A through H. >> So moved second. Any further discussion regarding any of those items? Hearing none. Mr. Golano, please call. >> Mr. Funk, >> yes. >> Mr. Antos, >> yes. >> Mr. Aboud, >> yes. >> Mr. Aaron, >> yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. Thank you. Um, regular meeting scheduled for May 20th. It is also a Wednesday. That's intentional, right? There was something on the 21st. >> Yeah, we need to move a couple around.
077Okay. And then uh graduation is Thursday the 28. >> Um and then we'll have work session on the fourth. So we can as we That's a lot stacked back to back to back. So maybe kind of play June by year in terms of what we need. I know we're going to have to probably come back and do approve some stuff. So >> there may be a couple things in there as far as uh Oopsy hires and that sort of thing. >> We might ask if we could fix push the the regular meeting as close to the end of the month just for final appropriations and all that stuff. So >> for June. >> Okay. >> Send something out about that. >> Cool. >> If we absolutely needed to, you could before graduation. We've done that
078before. Something weird comes up. >> Yeah. >> I think we hired Sean >> before graduation. >> Yes. Yeah. I've done that a couple different things over the years. >> Okay. Um any general discussion before we move into executive session? So we will be moving into executive session to address an item in uh 12122 G5 which is discussion of matters required to be kept confidential by federal law, rule or state statutes statutes. Um I'll accept a motion to go into executive session at 7:21. Second >> Mr. P. >> Yes. Mr. L. >> Yes. >> Mr. Loot. >> Yes. >> Mr. Antos. >> Yes. >> Mr. Road. >> Yes. Mr. Spagnola with me. >> Invite Mr. Spola to stay. Thank you, Mr. Aans. >> Thanks. I saw him last year