001call all this work work session for the tip city board of education to order at 5:04 p.m. We're going to go ahead and start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice crawler. >> The defendants have said all my apologies. All right, Mr. Stevens, would you please follow the wrongly? >> Mrs. McMurray >> here. >> Mrs. Dillard is absent this evening. Mr. Thompson >> here. Mrs. >> here. >> Mrs. Plyman >> here. >> We do have a quorum this evening and we can't continue the meeting. >> Excellent. Thank you. I do want to mention um very sorry for Cindy's loss. airs. Um, next I would like a motion to
002approve the agenda for tonight's work session. >> I'll make a motion. >> Thank you, Mr. Thompson. I'll second. Thank you, Mrs. Ernst. Any discussion on the work session agenda? Great. Hearing none. >> Thson, yes. Yes. >> Murray. >> Yes. >> Flyman. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. >> Our first discussion item this evening is regarding the 2026 2027 program of studies. So, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Moran and our administrators that are here. And you can see there is a public doc uh attachment that is there um an overview including the programs of studies. >> So with this site we have uh director of teaching Larry Don Scott, high school principal Katherine Weaver and middle school principal Austin Hollyy. And they'll kind of give you an overview of the how things
003go together and the minor changes to the propuls. So Don sorry about just before we get started we have a couple of questions just about the process regarding course selection um how we develop new course proposals and then also our decision around approval of programs or um when we choose to change or modify courses though um we do have a process for for those things and Mr. Haly and Mrs. Weber will share more about that process that they're respecting building so turn it over to Mr. Yeah, the um to keep improving and setting up kids for success in the long run grades, but also so that they're starting high school with uh um you know, the content that's going to make them successful. Um when courses come about, it's [clears throat] usually between opportunity or
004need as kind of the things that that foster that. Um a few years ago we sent out a survey about what parents would like their kids to learn. Um foreign language was one of the top ones at that point and that's one of the newest programs that we've been offering over the last few years. Um so that was kind of a a want. Our uh community wanted foreign language so we offered it and sometimes they come up that way. Um other times it's uh out of a need and in the same vein with foreign language. Um we realized very early on that our kids didn't have any exposure to it before they stepped into a high school credit class. So, um, one of the things that you'll see on ours is a world language kind
005of survey class. And that's just to help them set themselves up for success when they actually do hit that uh, foreign language class. And um, that's how all of our courses go. It's either a need, something that our community wants and we want to utilize better to to set our kids up for success. Uh, or it's a it's a want. something that our community has asked for and we want to honor that by um listening to the surveys and feedback that we have and moving forward in that manner. >> Questions for Mr. Holine before we move on to Mrs. Weaver. >> Did you survey the students? >> Uh actually I believe you took it. It was a few years ago. Uh [clears throat] we we sent it out to all the parents. Um and they
006did that. Uh and then of course uh student uh students kind of vote with their feet, right? If you if you take up for a class and it's a popular class and everybody wants to take it, then clearly it's something that they hold as valuable uh or their parents have told them to hold valuable. Uh and um so the students get their feedback that way. And uh we also obviously listen to our staff. What's some concerns that we hear from them? Um for example, like uh in our um STEM program, some of the classes kind of seemed that they over overlapped and that's going to be something that we're looking into. How do we clearly distinguish these so kids get um structured and different types of science? So improving in that way. >> Um so
007do I understand that there'll be seventh graders and eighth graders that would be taking high school credit foreign language in the future. Is it just the addition of world literature? >> Um it's it's going to be a longer process than that. Sixth grade is kind of like all the world languages and kind of getting a feel for culture. Um and then we won't have it next year because we won't wouldn't need it because no sixth graders has taken it. But we would like to um explore the idea of a seventh and eighth grade or a seventh grade foreign language class that is not for high school credit to kind of step our way through that until they do get to the the high school level. Um because it is definitely a very difficult jump to
008head into that having no exposure um to foreign language at all. And now our kids have handled it wonderfully. Um, you know, parents have been supportive. The the class has been a success. Uh, but that doesn't mean that we can't work to improve it. Continue. >> I wonder the gap. It's seventh grade. So, thank you. >> And that would be rolled out. So, that's why it's in phases. So, next year it would just be the global language survey for all sixth graders as part of our quarter rotation. So, many of you are familiar with that. Our sixth graders take required courses each quarter. That would be part of that rotation. And then it would be 2728 that then we would roll in the next state offered to seventh graders before they would take a high
009school credit. The I love the foreign language the overview of it. I think it's fantastic. Um and I I just have to ask cuz looking at the budget is this going to because every kiddo would take it. Is this going to be a full-time hire that we would be looking at potentially? Not sure >> for you go >> for next year um there would be no impact or little impact to staff um based on our current staffing it would an additional talking in sections it would be an additional two sections. So we do believe with our current staff that we would be able to absorb into a sixth grade. Um and that's why there was a caveat in there for the board. the next year 27 28 we would need to look at potentially additional
010staffing. So the next year it would be with current staffing we feel that we would be able to um still have the additional sections with the with the current world language staff. The next year um if the program continues to be a success right now we have 150 middle schoolers taking um world language as eth graders which is tremendous then we would need to look to answer your question Mrs. at at the budget um and what we could allow and what we would need for stopping >> and just the impact on staff because if they're not taking this elective >> if they're taking this elective means they're not taking other electives. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> What what's the impact of that? >> That was my other question. >> That's all determined after they go through
011the program of studies and select courses. That's how you determine our staffing. >> Yeah. Okay. That was my here. Sorry. Um, and because it's not, sorry I had a lot of questions. Because it's not a te tested subject, is it that's why it's able to have any educator at 6 through 12 or teach those extra classes? >> That would be No, it would be a world language. It would be a a teacher who has has that certification. >> Okay. Okay. Would be doing the global language got course. Awesome. Sorry. Sorry, I'm just going through my questions. How will it how would it impact um because I know I have a freshman who took the eighth grade foreign language and he got high school credit for that and now this is basically like another high school
012credit as a freshman. If they start in seventh grade and that's not credit dependent at the high school. Um you know that could get what does that look like? vertical alignment up at that high school level then sorry >> well the the progression would not change okay for a student you know the the students taking foreign language for high school credit would still be in grade eight right so our current progression really doesn't change what we're looking at um and Mrs. Zeba can speak to this as well is vertically we are working with our world language department of what the upper level foreign language will need to look like now that students are taking world language in grade so that impact vertically miss we're still examining what we need to be doing for our students
013junior senior year but as far as in the middle school it really doesn't change aggression we're just offering more scaffolded support and culture vocabulary and exposure um that we've seen even with the success that that students will need in world language. >> Absolutely. >> Um [clears throat] I have one last thing. I know this is going to sound crazy coming from me. Looking at the course of study for the junior high, um I do think there are too many STEM electives. Um I do think that they can be combined. um I'm all for it, but I think that a lot of the um the blurbs are very similar and I think that they could progress on each other, but I think there definitely can be some combining of those STEM electives that are currently listed
014in there. So, >> yeah, I mean, I'd agree. Um that's something we've been looking at and and trying to work on. Um, in addition to kind of setting those distinct fields, like we know that the high school is a has um some cyber security types, you know, like the the tech field and we want to offer something that's going to then work into that. Um, so, you know, we agree and something that we've been looking at and working with our STEM teacher as well as our careers teacher as well as our science department to try to improve that. Good. We are hoping to have I mean I I I know you know the the science curriculum process that we're working in kind of the two-year process. We're hoping to come back and it'll be a
015year from now when we're when we're here again [clears throat] with some of those updated changes. Um it does take a considerable amount of meetings and work and collaboration with both the middle school staff and high school staff and I know many of you know to make sure it's vertically aligned. Uh but that is definitely something we hope to present to this full board next year. I have a question. So, and then the life skills class that's getting dropped is that is that uh not a requirement from the state. It's not life skills is not a requirement, but those skills are still vitally important and we believe that. So, those will be absorbed in our home room. So, you know, grade six now has a home room advisory period and many of those life skills
016aspects um will be taught with our general education teachers in that advisory period. So, it's not being removed. It's just being um taught in a in a different way and in a different >> one of the other things we surveyed parents on last year was what do you think is causing you know such a drop or what struggle with sixth grade and they said it was stress and and so that's when we implemented the pod system for the sixth grade but we've also found with that first period of the day we actually can get a lot of resources pushed into those rooms um like our SRO's and our SPSWs and our counselors and they can come in and they can talk about a lot of those life skills, stress management, time, you know, and study
017skills. All of those things that we were putting in a class, we now can do an advisory. Um, and so, um, if we're covering those in other ways, it provided an opportunity for other class, >> Mrs. Weaver. [laughter] So, high school scheduling has a lot of nuances to it. Um, so I don't know if many people I know obviously Mr. McMurray has, but if you haven't been part of high school scheduling, there's there's a lot of pieces and a lot of entities. So, anytime that we look at adding a course is a very different process than maybe having a course that we not might not offer. Um, so the student interest drives everything for us. What they're willing to sign up for, what they're willing to stay at school for, what you know, either college
018path, not college path, all those things kind of dictate that. So you'll see that we are trying to lessen the number of courses that we offer for business. It doesn't mean that we don't have courses that still exist. It means that those aren't what we're going to offer. We we offered quite a few the last couple years. And the students when they went and registered for them each spring I meet with Mr. Moran and Mrs. Scott to go over our requested courses. And when we do that and I have so many within a department and you have five sign up for this one and seven sign up for this one and 20 sign up for this one. the ones where the 20 sign up is where you're going to offer the course in order to
019be able to get the students into them. We then have to go and figure out where we put the five and we put the seven and the counselors start meeting with all the students after they've put the requests in, even though they've met with them before to then determine, okay, where are you willing to go? So, the courses that we have listed for this program of study are the ones that were the most popular courses that we were able to manage. um while still one of them that is in there, there's a a fourth class that's in there that is still a requirement for some of the students. And so based on those numbers, that's what we felt that um the students were willing to sign up for that we were able to manage and
020not have those one-off courses that students thought that they would potentially be able to take and you have to come back and say sorry. And when you have a bunch of those courses that you're coming back and saying I'm sorry, it just it puts the schedule in a bind. and put students in a bind um when we're trying to to dictate. Um I've been in several different districts and in every district I agree that we all the adults always say, "I want my kid to take accounting classes. I want them to take accounting classes." And the kids never sign up for [laughter] accounting. Um it's a wonderful course and they're wonderful skills, but the students do not want to take that class and I don't know why. I think it would be a great deal
021of not living out. >> Well, right. Yeah. once they graduate they were like, "Man, I should take that accounting class." So, that was one of those where you only get a couple students to sign up for them. So, we're trying to hit home on the other ones. Um, you know, we have a business teacher who's in there right now who's very invested in business and what's happening in our business world came from that sector, but also still kind of works in that sector when he's not here and um has made a lot of connections in the entrepreneurship piece. We've seen students doing uh projects over the last year and a half um that are quite incredible. they're they're very interested. So, we went in that direction with those courses. So, the reason why we're trying
022to dial in a little bit more so that we protect their requests a little bit to make sure they're getting into the courses that they would like to take. Um, when something comes off of the program of study, um there is a lot of discussion besides just the request of what's the intent. So, one of those courses right now is Hope Squad. Um, we don't want for Hope Squad to go away, but right now we currently only have a process uh for Hope Squad. It and this is what's on their like website. It's like a national, you know, organization. [clears throat] Uh, so in order for students to get into Hope Squad, they have to be nominated in the eighth grade by their peers. So, what we have been having at the high school is
023students only get to take this course if they were nominated in the eighth grade. So if I have students who move in, they don't have the opportunity to take that class. And that's something that we kind of struggled with as on the adult side and even talking with the students of well, we want for students to want to be a part of things and we want for them to be a part of organizations that are that are part of this. The other thing is the state changed the law a couple years ago about electives, which is that goes back to the question that we asked about the foreign language. It used to be anybody could kind of teach general electives. That's not the case anymore. For you to teach an elective, it has to be
024under your lensure area. So, right now, we have that course in an English class and so it has to have English type standards that at least go with it. So, they do a book study, they do some other things. Um, they're all basically always presenting. So, there definitely are some English skills that go along with that. When you have different teachers who are trained in order to do that, sometimes it has to flip-flop between them depending on the number of sections you need to have. If we go up in sections for English, that course would have to flip-flop over back to either social studies or or a health and a health teacher. Well, then all of a sudden, you're changing the standards and the credit that's assigned to that class. So, that creates kind of
025a bit of an issue for some of the students. It let's say we had the PE teacher teach it. Let's say he's trained in Hope Squad. Well, we're now limited in the number of PE credits that we can give that just came out from the state this year and it actually causes errors with us for EMS. So, so after a lot of discussion, we knew that we needed to move it. Um, we I prefaced the students last year where if we keep having to bump between staff members or if I don't have any staff members that are trained to do this, I don't know that a course is worth it. One of the concerns that they had was we don't have time after school. I'm sure that that is very possible. Our students are incredibly
026busy in extracurriculars. We right now are looking at um uh with furniture purchase for the lunchroom, looking at going to two lunches and having space in the middle between lunch periods where we might be able to have advisory slash time where there's some club meeting time. If we're able to do that, I'd really love to offer that because if students aren't able to get to something after school, maybe they'd be more interested in doing some of the clubs that they would be able to get to during the day. Even if it's once a month, even if it's every other week, we could have, you know, times. that that was an important piece that we wanted to listen to what they had to say about the importance of it. But I I I will go back
027to them and say, should it really only be 19 students who get to do this? If somebody moves in and they're a senior and they're passionate about this and they want to be included, can we find a different way for them to be able to be included? Cuz I'm not sure four years ago makes sense that that's the only way that you're possibly able to participate that it's a hard reason to give and not give a credit to somebody. So, kind of coming in with a different lens. Um, and we're running out of teachers who are trolled in order to do hope squad. So, we have to navigate how to redo that and how do we fit within the community. So, I think those are two of our our major changes. Am I missing anything,
028Mr. Scott? Mrs. Scott. Okay. Questions for Mrs. Weaver. So am I right that hope Squad is coming off entirely as a class and will transition to being a club as it is in the program of study? Yes. Because Okay. >> Yes. Yes. There are currently 19 students who are able to take the course. I love the thought. I've wor I've been in two districts who had the lunch or it was actually it was clubs and then it was lunch and advisory and whatnot. They saw an increase in their club participation because it wasn't always before or after school and so they were able to have that dedicated time with an adviser and they were all there. if they could still do sports jobs, whatever they needed to do at home. So, I I applaud you
029for thinking outside the box on that. >> That was Mr. Brand's help. I'm going to give him [laughter] the credit for like, hey, you do two lunches. >> That was a dessert, honey. So, we'll stay the culture that >> Yeah, that would be also I can attach to. >> Yes, for sure. Cuz that that's the other piece is our intervention specialist at the high school. It is very common that they aren't able to see all their case load during that day just the way that the schedules navigate and if we have this [snorts] common unified time they would be able to have time to be able to see them. So we're working through that. I have a we have a faculty advisory council in each building and so we're working through how to how to
030work that even if it's 15 to 20 minutes. Right. >> Well and when the last district I was at it was Tuesday and Thursday were club days. Monday, Wednesday, Friday was you know advisory pitch. So right it's just thinking outside the box and I you know I applaud you for the course studies recognizing that you know this. So >> I have a question. >> Yeah. >> Just splitting the lunch extend the lunch time for the cafeteria workers. No >> fantastic. [laughter] >> We're working around all the parade. >> What additional questions do you have for Mrs. Mever, Mr. Holsey or Mrs. Scott? >> I've got one. Um just you mentioned accounting being a difficult one to get students into which I totally understand. I cared nothing about it till I turned 21 22 I was
031in college and my parents were like you're on your own so I had to learn it fast. Um I wonder similar to the approach I guess that was in the middle school where life skills isn't going away but some of that's being absorbed into like a general ed. Is there other ways to address that because obviously we all know the importance of knowing how to manage a budget and especially if you're going into business or whatever. Is there other ways creatively to work that into other? >> There are. So the state requires every school district to provide personal finance as a standalone class and we do have that for students. Now one of the things that we did in the program of studies. So thinking ahead, we have a personal finance teacher who is retiring
032after next year um after having been a longtime employee in our district. And so math and social studies teachers by um the code of their license can also teach personal finance. So, we did add that just in case to a social studies um um social studies teacher like to the department just in case when she retires because that license that she has is very difficult to come by. It's much easier for us to come by a social studies teacher. There's just more who graduate. Um you have two of them sitting right here. That's the thing for us. So, we wanted to be prepared that if we weren't able to find that license that we could put it in another department because that is a required course. That's a nice one, too. I was in there
033one day and they were going over um credit scores and so they were talking about when you get a credit card, what's your credit score when you go and you apply for to get a car, what types of credit are they, you know, working through and looking at? Um so it's very like what you would want for your kid to have >> what I needed. >> What I need [laughter] it is so that does exist in there and it's a it is a still a state requirement. We do still have quite a bit of that going on. >> That's great. >> Yeah. the and I think because I think one of the reasons the accounting is less popular is because in our mind that's the accounting that we want for them to have when the
034kids go in and take the course. It is a much more elevated version of what accounting is and I think that that unexpected nature is not something they're as interested in until they have to do in their business major. >> Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. This is we is like the MMR science. >> Oh yeah. So that's pretty big. So, we have two math courses that are that serve as our either third or fourth um credit that they need to have for math class and those are all of our real world. So, AQR um which is the old MMR and then we also have a math apps course. Um so, Mr. Stevens was in one day teaching them. Were you doing deductibles with them? >> Talking about insurance. >> Insurance. >> Yeah. >> All kinds of differential
035terms, >> right? Yes. And so, so there are some really neat classes that are much more tangible that they could walk out of there. I mean, I walked out of there because I don't do a lot of the insurance myself. My husband does that. And um I walked out of there going, I actually could now explain that better cuz I sat with him and did some of the assignments. So, I felt pretty good about it. I wish more students would take a couple of those, you know, but but it is it's a really great real world course that they offer. >> Some of those kids were really interested and they were paying attention and others were >> [laughter] >> No, but it hasn't hit him yet. But they need to know it. So >> probably
036hasn't hit him even. I think there was one gentleman with brilliance to know about car insurance, >> right? For it. [laughter] Yeah. >> Coming up in about two years. >> Yeah. When I Yes. Well, those courses they turn 18, so all of a sudden that's a lot of responsibilities on them from, you know, home too. So I think that they're great, but um I wish more students would take those. It's like they're just so they they walk away with a true skill when they walk, you know, walk out of there like skill. So So they exist. >> Good. >> Mhm. Thank you. >> In a similar vein, I really like the data science that you're adding. Um and particularly like using Python and R and getting kids into probability, which is going to get the
037basis for AI. Like I think that's a that's a great to thank you. Yeah, we're excited. You know, these things exist. like there's courses that exist through the state department that we just have to be able to, you know, adopt and navigate and the kids just do really well and things that like relate to them so easily, you know. So, we're excited >> on some of those electives that I did notice and and Katie and I probably are thinking and the same thing. Are there would and I think it's fantastic that Dave came in. Is it an opportunity to reach out to community and we're looking for today? Okay. Yeah. What do Well, are we able I'll let Katie somewhere we >> I did I'm sorry. >> We're excited because I love the curriculum piece
038and I love the fact that we're in you know these workforce skills. >> We're in we're in planning stages. Then you got data science. Katie and I have wanted uh to do we're finally able you know with with staffing and and just all the pieces Katie talked about to put that in the state has been supportive of these algebra 2 equivalent courses. So we brought in MMR a couple of years ago. You guys were here now called advanced quantitative reasoning. Now we have data science which is really just another one um that we know our students will be so excited to take um and we have the training occurring and the state like I said has been very supportive of that curriculum. In addition, um I think the the board would be happy to hear
039about some of our planning recently regarding career exploration awareness and our vertical alignment that we're working towards at the 612. We were together today for two hours um working on that plan with external partners, Mr. grant of what that 612 career exploration, discovery, internship, job shadow, pre-apprenticeship, etc. What what is that going to look like at every grade level with our coursework, with our um external things that we would have the students do um with partners coming in like lunch and learns we talked about today at the middle school. So, we're really working through all the pieces. We are still in planning stage. I'm going to turn it over to Katie who facilitated so well today. Um and and we're, you know, it's every grade level. It does take time. Uh we're not ready to
040present all all those things to the board um for formal adoption at this point, but we are working through all of the pieces Katie keeps talking about. I know you guys have been around a long time, kind of the portrait of the graduate, like what that looks like at the end. all the pieces, the community service, the internship, the job shadow, the the resume, um all the thing, the coursework, um what we want our students to have when they lead and and be proud and present it, um and have it as a product, something that they're really proud of, um all of the skills they have at the end. Um go already starting in middle school. I think we 910 we talked a little bit about today. >> Sure. And so share more. Yeah, just
041as a final piece, one of the things that came up as we were looking at grade levels um was if if we have an AP environmental science or an environmental science course, what type of expert is in working with the staff member, not just on coming in and speaking about what you do, right? But the the actual lesson, hey, here's my idea. What knowledge or content can you bring to it? How can you be a part of us to to do this? some we do have some content specialists coming in um at our next PD. Um so we we do have science and a couple other subject specific people coming in because we want for them to take not just an anatomy vocabulary thing, but we want for them to take that and create it
042into an actual discovery concept of a how do I do this in a real world lab and how do I solve this problem? And so we we believe that being able to bring some of the people who know their fields in to be able to help plan all those pieces would be hugely helpful. And so that's what we're looking at some of our career services and outside partners um to be able to help us find that and then work with the staff to create pieces. >> That's great. So working with the the center for student success who brought in and then also with job family services >> very interested in partnering with us. >> Awesome. We had the counselors >> to work on it. What is it that we want every grade level to do?
043>> Making sure there's something and multiple multiple grade levels thing for them to do. Expose them to get more of the awareness >> and the you know you science. So kids take an interest and uh >> aptitude survey job career survey. Those not just what do you like, it's well here's your skills that match what you like too. So, uh, it's coming along and said, uh, the high school, middle school are doing a great job getting some things together. So, but they lost hope. It's really interesting. >> Yeah. So, I guess I have just two more questions. So, are just for my awareness. So, these new courses are being offered the cyber security too and like the um, uh, data analytics, are these existing curricula or are these something that the teachers are building? >>
044Yes. So cyber 2 is um it a little bit of both. So because there is a consortium for cyber security in courses in Ohio and so she's part of that and so she's able to pull the pieces um and works with the rest of the teachers who are part of that consortium to be able to navigate that data science exists from the state department. >> Okay. >> And so it's just pieces that you pull in and then you know make it adjust it for what you need for it to be for your students. >> All right. So my second question is I guess um uh so I moved into the state of Ohio when I was in seventh or ninth grade and my sisters went through middle school and they did shop and they did
045all the kind of and so I I feel like uh like life skills is now going away and that was where my I think my children did cooking. So is there like where do those where do those activities go? Because that's a certain type of person that we're going to graduate. they're going to go and they're going to be a building person. And so it looks like we have courses to support them in the high school, but I don't know where those where that work is at the not um and so the where where would that be? I mean or and are you talking about specifically getting wood shop or like or or just like the things where you're building with your hands, right? Those are skills that um were taught and and have been
046taught and and and where are they? So much of that's actually going to probably be in our our STEM program, our engineering 101, our design thinking. In fact, uh Mr. Bonafice's class is the old shop room. Like if you go in there yes, um so I mean that's where you'll see like the tools kind of hanging out in the kids being to build things. They've done things like uh they had to create like a face and they had to use hydraulics to make like certain things move and someone would stick out their tongue, some their eyes would bulge out, some would wiggle their ears, all kinds of just, you know, uh stuff like that. So most of like the building the analytical life process of design and measuring and getting things to work like that
047with their hands um happens in our in our STEM and engineering programs. >> Okay. >> Um we do not do anything cooking related. >> Okay. >> But uh honestly I think they probably learn 10 new recipes every time they scroll through their phone. Um cuz you can you can see all kinds of good food that way. uh uh but uh you know the the the hands-on type stuff are still taking place. >> Thank you. >> I say gone to bet me in some other ways. Great leaders going in and simple >> exciting >> future. >> Yeah, future >> lovely culinary arts is a big thing and that's big STEM. People don't realize that but it's a big STEM course and I know if anybody's going into the military, it's also a great opportunity to move
048up through the ranks very quickly if you are in culinary arts. So, um I mean that's if you would have told me that 2 years ago, I wouldn't have known that. But because my son went military, now I know that. Um I just think I agree with Katie. So that was my final question. I know that a lot of our students are headed to the MDCTC and I fully believe in career tech. Um, but I know not all of them can and not all of them even want to take that leap and go even maybe they should have, could have, would have. So I asked this question a few years ago and so I'm going to throw it out there again. What is our vision opportunity to offer career tech courses here in the district?
049>> Go ahead, Don. Well, your off. So, um I'll say at the school level, I know we hired a career tech certifed by the teacher this past year. Correct. >> Um that individual is teaching some of the career tech courses right now. Um our career exploration course and our technology courses are being taught by by that staff member at the middle school. Um, one of the things with kind of the STEM conversation that we talked about that we're hoping we're still working working through is the opportunity for um, him and others to grow the career tech um, uh, programming that we offer at the middle school. the state's offering a lot of middle school certifications now that I know everybody's aware of that we're also exploring um um perhaps through project lead the way or
050other programs that they're making um training available um for for a list of courses. So, we've had a couple in meetings um and that's part of the of the process and implementation at the middle school is working through those pieces, but more than one staff member is on hope offering different career tech opportunities. And then at our high school, um we have we have several we have several career tech opportunities. So, that can be Yeah. So, they have so Mrs. stop if you haven't talked with her much about um career tech courses and pathways. She knows more than I've ever heard anybody be able to know about that before. Um and and Mr. Gorby does business I would say the same with the two of them. So, one of the things as part of the
051career pieces that we're working at on the high school side is those people are involved in that conversation because I think that having as many of our students take our business courses, our IT courses is kind of the direction for a lot of them especially as of what they're interested in. We do have a lot of students who are interested in the like the tech kind of classes and they're specifically the ones that Pam's doing, the cyber um or IT fundamentals. Um and so they're kind of interested in more the coding side of things a little bit kind of like the Python and and others. But um what we've talked about and with the the career is if we can get them in ninth and tth grade, then how do we help them develop those
052specific pathways through CTE courses to be able to get them into a credentialed path? And Sinclair has a nice partnership specifically with Pam's classes. Um Jeff's working on those types of things as well. And so it's it's the navigation and part of it is this career stuff that we're talking about is how do we give them those opportunities because I think these courses could lead them into the internships and the pre-apprenticeships that we've been talking about with the career piece. Sorry, I keep thinking about it cuz I'm looking at the sheet in my head [laughter] of the sorry I break my hand movements. Um but so we're working through then each grade level of what do we want for them to experience because ultimately in 11th and 12th grade we want for them to be
053doing as many shadowings, internships, pre-apprenticeships, whether it's in the summer, whether it's during the school year. So we're trying to come up with flexible ways too for us to work around their schedule to be able to say how do we have like a cohort on Wednesdays and the other days they're going out to be able to actually do and see. And I feel like these CTE courses are the way for the students to be able to have that initial experience and have these teachers help them develop into with our career people into the pre-apprenticeships and those internships and then you know move on. I saw it with my own kid. She did an internship on base this summer as part of a right scholar. Um so for her to do that as a chem perspective
054you know it was a big deal for her to take that chem class. But if she had had something else to go along with it, you know, how could that have helped her develop the specific internship that she was looking for? And so I think us being able to navigate that for the students is a big deal. It just takes quite a bit of us to be able to fit what that piece looks like. So this career the career progression that we're looking at I think is a really big deal. And then I don't we don't want for the students either though to think that it's a CTE course and a career that it's not also college too. So, I don't want to lose that piece as we try and navigate, you know, getting them
055where they do an internship. It's not always just work right after school, right? There are the other programs that you would potentially go into. So, so that's the conversation right now. I agree with you, but I think we're the prep and the plan and and the teachers have to help make that progression. Thank you. >> Because you mentioned it, I mean, we have 4550 students who go to the CTC, but that's still the majority of students who are in high school. So that's why when we're building our plan, we're notching those interest alignment, college, postsecary, all of the options to to our student population. Um both who are staying and then obviously who are who are going to the CT trying to align those. >> Have you looked at all Dawn into kind of just
056piggybacking off Katie and actually both for um food and cooking? not necessarily down that path but nutrition because if we're talking about creating holistic students nutrition especially as you get into your 30s and 40s you start to realize how much you should have focused on that earlier is there any interest in that or have looked into >> it's a great question so our our aptitude at so the youth science data is kind of becoming kind of our benchmark data [clears throat] so you you know in English I have state testing and map data and those things kind of in our career exploration we're using our new science which we're giving to our seventh graders and then our 10th graders. That's kind of our benchmark data and trying to figure out what they um have aptitude
057for and what they have interest for. And one of our top ones um has been um healthcare. So we know that one of the needs when we look at kind of our entire plan working on one of the things we need to develop are courses and opportunities centered around that aptitude and interest. So you have students who are showing in the last couple of years that we've had the data um that that is a that's a big um it's a field that they're interested in and have attitudes for. So to answer your question, yes, we are still going. We obviously have a core science path, we have a path, um we have students, you know, they want to go into nursing medicine, but all of the different opportunities in healthcare. So getting in all of
058our [laughter] Sorry. >> Should we listen to it? No, I'm just kidding. >> Therapy. Our students are interested in those things and how they provide internship job shadow opportunity. Um the way professional field is definitely a key part. We know those are the people need. So students have opportunity in those field. So yeah, I mean currently if you just look at our current first IE do have nutrition courses um that they're interested even more like even with dietetics and some of those things. So we're aware we're building um and that's what we we have so many contacts in the area and Austin do too. CTC has been really helpful um in meeting with us and and helping in any way they can and neighboring school districts as well. It's also part of our health class.
059I at least at our building we have seventh grade's mandated health um and then eighth grade's optional and they cover nutrition with both of those. >> Yeah, it's very important. >> Awesome. Great questions. Anything dad anything else? >> Yeah, I just appreciate the connection back to measures. So, I think that's something I'd like to understand more as a board member. [clears throat] >> Great. And >> I appreciate you guys trying to stay ahead of world changes very quickly. >> Yeah. >> And especially kids interest and as fast as technology moves all that see a real effort for you guys to try and incorporate that and stay ahead of it and you know offer things that are relevant and current. So thank you. Keep up the good work. >> Thank you. Anything else? Thank you all.
060Thanks. >> Thank you very much. No, if you shut the speaker wrong, you like I think Lydia said that cuz she saw my dinner tonight. Said every [laughter] was very nutritious. [laughter] All right. So, next on our agenda is our school board liaison. So, currently um these are just relationships liaison relationships with our key community organizations. So, they support communication, collaboration, and alignment between the board and community partners. um most of you're not really sitting on a board for them. You're just headed to a meeting and you're listening and um letting us know so that we can reach a broader part of the community um what's happening and we can offer support as needed and necessary especially with the weekly um announcements that go out and done in the community. So these are some great
061opportunities to get involved. Um, we have our TIP education endowment and they meet at 4:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month at the TIP City Board of Education office. We have the TIP Monroe Community Services. Um, that meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month at the Tip City Senior Center. And the Tip City Parks Board meets at 6:30 p.m. on this, this one made me laugh on the second Monday of each oddnumbered month at the Tip City Government Center. And so again, it's you're just a point of connection with them, letting them know that we hear them. Give out additional information, sharing relevant updates. They might ask you questions about what's happening. um with a building or something like that and just attending meetings when you can and when
062appropriate um to have that collaboration. So it's not like a vote on um is if if there's one that you really are driven to want to um participate in, you know. >> Well, the one immediately that's a conflict for us is the parts board. >> Yeah. >> That's in the middle of our board meetings. >> It is. Yeah. So, we might have to >> get the second. >> Wait, we're the odd. We're the fourth. >> Oh, >> yeah. Fourth. >> That's right. We talked about the second, didn't we? >> Yes. >> Wait, do I hear that Kyle? [laughter] I don't know. I said no second. Yeah, no second week. >> That's right. >> So, if there's I mean, >> Cindy uh had mentioned that she would like to stay with the >> Oh, community service.
063>> Community service. Okay. being with >> Yeah. If nobody unless anybody else is interested. >> Okay. >> Uh but she was actually doing parks as well. But if that'sbody, >> we can share them. Do you have any of them that you're feeling a strong and you don't have to like if you're like I don't have any more time. >> We can I can't make it work. It's we can figure this out and we can even share and divide and conquer too for all that matters. >> I would have to abstain from volunteering for I can't I my capacity is maxed. >> No. And I appreciate your honesty, Cole. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Did you have any that you were particularly attached to? >> I was on tea and it was a great experience. So,
064it's a great group of people. I would be happy to go back, but I'd also be happy to share the love cuz it's a great a great group of people to be involved with. So, I'm open to either. I know that Mondays are tricky for you. Correct. Mondays are good for me. >> Good for you. >> Yeah. So, um I'm happy to go to the parks board cuz that would work well with me. It sounds like he's on the park. Yeah. >> Well, do you have one that you'd like to learn more about or be more involved? She's like, and and again, it's you're like, "Nope, I'm tapped. We can figure it out. I'll I'll do the T." Okay. >> I think you'll be >> I think you'll really Yeah. actually. Um I mean if
065Sydney likes to stay with Dis I'm cool with that too. >> Yep. >> Is everybody okay with that? >> Right with it. >> Yep. >> All sounds good. >> All right. Uh, another thing that just kind of came up, um, we have, uh, updates to legislation, you know, from the state and then Neiola, our policy, they put out at least twice a year updates. One is in the fall and one is in later. So, the the winter one literally just came out today. Uh, so we I'm meeting with that uh, named Norm. He's the representative from Niola. I meet with them on February 10th at 10:00 a.m. We meet to go through there and make recommendations. Um, is it February 10th? >> February 10th. And um, Cindy was and Cindy was part of it last
066year. She would like to continue, but we can have another board member if they're interested in being part of that participate in those things as well. Uh again it's sometimes depending on what the legislation comes up with is is when we have to meet but it's usually uh twice a year but you know it could be more than that depending on what again what happens at the legislative level. So if anybody's interested I know you know the legislative representative. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> But that >> yeah so I'm interested in that. I think there's an AI policy requirement that's coming up that would be required sometime in July. That's >> so that's that's one of those. So they once like the state just came out with their model policy right before break. >> They
067take it and either create policy if it's brand new or tweak the ones that need to be tweaked based on the legislative and then they present to us. Sometimes there's options, sometimes if not, sometimes it's just words. Exactly. You know, you know, >> it's we went through that with the cell phone calls. >> Yeah. Just different. So, >> just think having a couple board members is always helpful to to make sure we're landing in the right spot. >> I am unfortunately not able to. It's been a day. I'm in this. >> Sam, Tuesdays are tough. Do you have any interest or I do, but if Katie does? >> Well, does that mean I both can? >> Yeah. Oh, okay. >> Yeah. Well, I can only have two. >> Oh, Sydney still wants to do it.
068>> Oh, yeah. Like, well, yeah, they I can only have two. >> Okay. >> I I had the system set up for the superintendent. >> Yeah. >> So, I'm h I mean, if you want to go, that's great cuz I'm traveling the next day uh for six days. So, um >> and you can switch on. Yeah, I'm happy to roll out the AI in later in the year. Is that possible to switch out or does it need to be the same person? >> Well, so this AI this is one and everybody has access to. So if you're on so in your board documents, >> just go to your the right now you have uh featured meetings, agenda and policies. So you go to policies and go to local policy updates. Everybody see that? you will
069see on the left hand side by years, you know, all these things. So, you click on 2026 and there's your volume 442 local >> uh you're not logged in, I think. >> Yeah, I was >> all the time got kicked out. So, you got to log it back in those that are going to get a description on there. We able to access it. Yes. >> Okay. So, a brief description. So, we need on all those and go spend the time to go through each of those uh and make recommendations uh to the board and then we'll have so that will happen in February. We would by the time it gets done I don't know if we'll get it in time for February. First reading will be probably in March and final reading in uh April
070in April. Lydia, I'm willing. >> Okay. >> All right. And it doesn't mean we can't all work at them. Again, >> everybody has access to this >> recommendation, but if you're willing to run me there that day, that would be great. Thank you. >> Are you able to see that? >> I think so. >> If you scroll all the way down like that gives you a brief those should be those should be PDFs. So, click on the um >> the AI at the very bottom. at 7540 at the very bottom >> the things that here. >> Yeah, it should pop up the whole policy and anything in you know green is added red. This is [clears throat] like this is a it says like a I think this is a brand new policy. >> I
071can click but it does not go anywhere. >> Yeah, I don't see the icon where mine >> it's up here. So, I just clicked. >> No, she's she's got it, but it's >> It says I'm still connecting. >> Yeah. Okay. Where >> What browser are you using? >> Uh, >> okay. I was going to say in my experience, Chrome works far better with four docs tomorrow. >> I think >> I guess work. So, uh, Lee, I will add you to the invite. >> Thank you. Thank you. And uh we do have um we have found a mechanic for the operation. So you need to start February sometime. for executive spend right well. So like be a substitute bus driver. >> That's just the driving. >> Yeah. Do you use the sign? >> Yeah. The magic
072phrase at the end. >> All right. >> The contract. So >> anything out there? Okay. Well, with that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn the work session today. Make a motion. Thank you, Mrs. Ernst. And a second. I second. Thank you, Miss Py. And a call to vote. >> Yes. Ernst, >> yes. >> Flyman, >> yes. >> Murray, >> yes. >> Don, yes. >> This work session is adjourned at 5:58.