MSDLT Board of Education: Board Work Session 4/14/2025

001Mr. Sven Schemacher up to the podium to present about the sharing place which is a wonderful community partner for Lawrence Township. Good evening madame chair board Dr. Smith. It's one of my favorite moments to come and tell you about something that's really soling a lot of people, solving a lot of issues and uh I'm so glad that we are part of the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township. We have uh served as you Miss Blankenship put this in in I think in your package. You have seen record numbers. Now if Dr. Smith, if you would ask me why, I'm not totally sure, you know, but I think since co we have seen more people are willing to ask for help than maybe in a proud community like Lawrence before and I think that's good that

002we that we have more people that we have uh people from all over the world. I don't know how many languages are spoken there. German not as much but uh I think it's a wonderful program. We're looking forward to the renovation here and have worked with this man for many years and I wish him all the best for his next steps in life. And uh that was another thing that was so easy all the time to work with you. You know we we don't have much barriers. Sometimes there are things we needed. I remember the first days more than 10 years ago when we said how many refrigerators we want to have in there and you said oh wait a minute I don't think our electricity system for the old band room is is working

003on that but I just want you the board and Dr. Smith and all of you here to know how uh how glad we are to be here that we're can serving so many folks. There's one program that you might not know as much about it. It's called Silverbox. We have about 69 people that are homebound. You know, these were folks that could come to the sharing place someday some time ago, but we are now going to them and they have a choice of uh food and there's groups of people that put these packages together and our volunteers deliver highly highly intensive work. But there are people out there on hospice care in our community. There are people out there that are very very ill. There are people that have some other challenges and that's how

004it is a lifeline. It's not as you all know about food because we're in the richest country in the world. It's about connectedness and uh being part of a larger community. So again, thank you so much and uh we're looking forward to uh all the new uh paint schemes. I'm I'm not sure it will be all orange or green, light lime green. We we don't know. But it's uh it's it's great to be here with you and I would just want you to know how much we appreciate it and how much the um the clients like it. It's one of the favorite food pantries they have. We sometimes do some questionnaires and people really like the friendliness of the folks and that we are uh you know making it real easy because we are not

005asking for 500 different documents before you get a can of soup. you know, we come on in and we help you. And that's and Amy, thank you so much for for your special interest to to be uh part of that. And then of course, one time you had to feed me too. So at a is that I think they're running our kid is running at Mount Vernon tomorrow. So anyway, thank you. Thanks everybody. Really enjoy being part of you. Goodbye. Okay. Time for questions. Yes. Actually, would you like to stay up there, Mr. Um the board will if there are any questions um go ahead. It's done. First of all, these numbers are so incredibly impressive. Each board meeting we have the opportunity to review the documents prior to and the increase in the number

006of families that you are supporting is just absolutely spectacular. So just a couple of questions. Do you does the sharing place serve families in specific zip codes? Do they have to prove their um residency in a zip code? Yeah, you know, that was until a few weeks ago and there is I think a sentence in there in that report that uh some of the new federal guidelines basically mean that everybody somewhere from Indiana could stop by there. You know, we have sometimes some transient people that come and travel through our community. But in general, it was the zip codes of the MSD plus two zip codes, 46218 and 46219 that were over on the um west side from your district where our sharing place was in the past and we didn't want to cut people

007off. So we said you know if you want to come over there uh and they do you know but it's uh it's basically uh no restriction uh on uh do you know in in the past we just had people maybe bring a uh you know their bill from the electricity or driver's license or somewhere but you know there's a lot of people that don't have much documentation at all and so we try to you know try to work with that. That's wonderful. And then I think the thank you for sharing about sharing place silverbox home delivery because that was news. Yeah. Would my mom was a volunteer with Meals on Wheels years and years ago. Do you coordinate your efforts with Meals on Wheels? Do you know there's what a good question. Do you know

008what's what's happening? I'm not you even sure if I told Roger about it, but it will be now. What what what's happening is, you know, the wheel the local Wheels on Meals program was located over at the the retirement community here on uh on Sunnyside Roadside. Yes. Right. And when they switched ownership, they kind of said, "You are not really able to do it at our place anymore." And so they are repackaging their food that comes from the hospitals right over there and and deliver it to their clients. Okay. So kind of an interesting thing. I think we put a little they I think they brought a little uh oven type thing. Anyway, so normally he asked if this stuff was inspected, you know, but we will be we will be but that's that's a

009good question. So we coordinate in that way with with them. Wonderful. Thank you again for your wonderful partnership. Much appreciated. Very good. And uh thank you so much and thank you for your support. Yeah. Yes. Oh, go ahead. Oh, yes. I'm jumping way ahead. Yes. So I don't even know who I will direct this to, but as we are looking at our changes in diplomas, there's a portion of it for the honor sales plus where we have to have like 75 hours of work of uh workbased learning. Is that something a partnership to be able since we Yeah. You know, Miss Crystal, you remember we talked a little bit about it that I believe that there is a whole lot of opportunities and uh we had today a wonderful conversation with our program officer at

010the Lilian Endowment, TA, and we told her about our amazing relationship we have and I told her, you know, I could see a time where young people from this district could run the sharing place and get all kinds of opport opportunities in terms of their vocational pre-training and so on. If you if you really uh look at a a nonprofit like the sharing place, there are lots of different jobs and skills you can learn from food safety to logistics to, you know, customer relations to uh all kinds of things. And so I think we we're looking forward to explore something like that with you maybe through the summer. And uh I I remember our conversation. You were kind of fired up about this idea. My girls love the sharing place. Funny enough, they love the

011boxes. They like taking the shopping cart and packing up the boxes. And so just for teens and pre-teens to enjoy that. They love the atmosphere. And so yeah, it is. Yeah. Showing places near and dear to my heart. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Okay. Very good. Yes, we have. We We're very interested. Mr. Don't go away. just yet. Not when I was going to tell you how grateful I am for the partnership that we have with the sharing place. Okay. And and how critically important it is for our families. I know the partnership with Miss Bush's department is very um is very tight. Um I'm just curious how if we have an estimate on how many uh Lawrence Township families are coming through the sharing place or I you may not be able

012to get that kind of granularity, but I'm I'm just curious. Yeah, it's it's kind of difficult a little bit difficult to say because under the federal rules and maybe all of this changes, you know. Yeah, you don't ask. It's a kind of we we cannot ask really any questions and uh but we estimate that a lot of the folks here are connected with your school corporation and on all levels of uh so many kids know about the sharing place and especially those that come with their parents. Sometimes these uh little kids are the translators for their parents and I think you you of course you know about that and so it's u but it's a I I would sometimes like to know but I have to tell you be rest assured there are very few

013people from Fort Wayne and other places that are coming common coming there you know even despite the fact that it's everyone's favorite country. Yeah. Um that's really wonderful. Uh so so thank you for all the work that you do and I just I I think this represents a really um important linkage between the community and our school district and how critical it is to continue to foster those relationships. So thank you for the work that you do. Thank you. And one last thing, Mr. Schumacher, um since you have the mic and you're on the record, what is the sharing place's greatest need for help right now? you know, the greatest need and we were able to talk a little bit at the faith meeting a few weeks ago is uh people. Do you know when

014we had uh maybe 15 years ago, our biggest problem was we didn't never had enough food. Now we don't have enough people and especially people that can lift more than 10 or 15 pounds. I have to tell you there's sometimes this uh the frozen pork and so on that comes. So there is another opportunity to work with each other and get the word out together to people and I think uh that would be great. You know I I I like to put uh a positive on everything if possible. We have to watch a little bit what's going on with food on the federal government level because if you come to the sharing place you see a lot of cans of uh fantasy names and you think what is this for food? Yeah. It comes from

015the federal government you know tomato and other things. You would never see them in stores those brands. But so that's something we together with our partner gleaners are watching very carefully. Well, I can commit that I'll make a bunch of Salesforce people come at some point and volunteer. You can hold me accountable for that, right? We'll we'll make sure we have some teams that come and help help out. Thank you. All right. So, Dr. Smith, so for the community to understand how important sharing places is, just a historical context. Most school corporations don't have this type of partnership. We're very blessed as a community to have sharing places uh an unbelievable organization uh housed here in our building. And I want to give a little bit of historical context. Mr. Schemacher alluded to it. Roger

016Smith. He was in a very small area on the south side of the building. I don't think people understand the context of how much this program has grown. and with the partnership of the school corporation, we've been able to probably triple his space and give him more space, which has served our community. So, going back to Miss Dunn's question, excuse me, Miss um Lawrence's question about, you know, who do they serve? I summize that looking at the zip codes, the majority of people are Lawrence Township patrons and we share zip codes. He's got a few westside zip codes that we share with other places. These are people in our community and so we're very blessed to have you, Mr. Schumacher, and thank you and all your volunteers and all the work that you guys do

017to provide food and I mean at food for children and families that are in our community and that that makes a difference folks. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And a lot of this has to do too with our personal relationships that we were that we were forging over years that we are so successful. I think is there's always a wonderful support from the administration and I think that's uh uh that's very important too that makes this program successful. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Schumacher. Thank you board. At this time we will move on to our blue ribbon facilities update with Mr. Roger Smith. Thank you madam president. Dr. Smith, members of the board, excuse me, coming off spring break, uh really we took advantage and uh got a lot of work done

018at all of our sites. Bells are serving lines. We have three new serving lines in place and we continue to put the cafeteria or the kitchen back together. Uh demoed the wrestling room and we'll start putting that back together. uh orchestra room was demoed and now it is going back together. A lot of hallways were stripped, removed of the old flooring and they are working evenings to replace uh Fall Creek Valley uh cafeteria walls. They continue to work around the outside of the cafeteria. Again, the cafe also ceiling work and lighting. Uh the main gym, a lot of work went in there. They removed the old uh bleachers and uh now working on the walls and then the floor site work. Uh we've had a little some some good weather out there. Uh so we

019continue to do site work. New LACC the exterior uh the brick twocolor brick is all finished. They're working on some uh uh concrete inserts on the southwest corner. Again, outside work continues. Interior first floor. Uh finished work is going on. Carpets going in, ceiling being laid, and finishing network runs. The boardroom, main lobby, uh big space, uh coming together. Still a lot of work to do. And again, uh the the one on the left is the entryway coming in. And then the one on the right is the balcony looking over the lobby area. Craig phase two. You'll see a lot of lifts and out out and about in the shoot. We're prepping and starting phase two on Craig and they're doing some tuck point and uh seal work on the outside and the chute is

020ready for demo of the second floor. A lot of materials have been uh staged at four different buildings. Uh Crest View, Harrison Hill, Indie Creek, and Sky Test. If you recall, part of the guaranteed energy savings contract we have with HVAC and roof. And a lot of roofing material has been staged on the roof for that to start actually at all four buildings this week. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Board, any questions or comments? Yeah, I do. Mr. Smith. Uh, it's always great to see so much progress happening. Um, I did sneak into the band room at Ball Creek Valley recently and got to see all the renovations that are happening there in person and it was great. Um, question for you about the spring sports. Um, I I know only because I have a baseball

021player at Lawrence North that we have some Fall Creek Valley kids that are coming over um to to utilize the fields there. I'm just curious if you can give us a sense for what what's happening. I know that like construction's been delayed in many cases. We've had snow and we've had rain and the baseball field at Fall Creek Valley is uh really we just had the dugouts and the fencing so the field is playable. Uh the softball field is coming around. The grass is is coming along so we expect the season to progress there. Uh we're waiting some for some warmer weather on tennis. It has to be a certain degree to put that finished coat on the color coat similar to what's out here at LECC. So soon as the weather uh warms up,

022we'll get that on and then I'll finish out the Is it also happening at Belzer? I just have Okay. So we we found alternate spaces for those students. Yes, we have accommodated their needs. Yeah, the high school. I know. But we have some over here too. I know with the tennis All right, very good. Miss Dunn, I have just got to tell you, I live at Fort Ben and watching the LACC come up has been truly incredible. To see folks are working there non-stop and just want to commend the wonderful, wonderful contracted employees who are working tirelessly to get that building up and ready for this community. And so, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for that board. Any other questions or comments about our blue ribbon updates? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Smith. At

023this time, we will move on to our update on the request for bids for Crest View Elementary. At this point, Madam President, Dr. Smith, members of the board, I want to start off with a little bit of trivia here. uh Schmiden Associates and David uh Davidson Associates. Uh you may not know, but they were the first architect and the first contractor working together to start Blue Ribbon phase two or phase one at Crest View Elementary. So, we're excited to have them back as the architects. Anna Marie Burough is here from Schmidt and Greg Edmund with Davis and Associates who will oversee our project moving forward. We received bids on March 27. There were nine bid categories with 17 contractors. Bids came in at estimated cost. Uh good competitive bids. is a GMP contract for Davis

024and Associates for Crestview Elementary Edition is 5,731,457. Total project all in hard cost soft cost is at $7 million. Later in action items, I'll be bringing to the board a recommendation to approve this contract. Thank you, Mr. Smith. board. Any questions regarding Crest View? Okay, thank you for that. Now, we will move on to our um update on the diploma task force recommendations. Mr. Noter and Mr. Knik. Good evening, Madam President, Dr. Smith, members of the board. In December of 2024, the state board of ed ruled in favor of a new high school diploma and new graduation requirements. That was about a two-year long process going through several drafts that we monitored closely and we were able then to hit the ground running in January to prepare for this. In January, we formed a diploma

025task force and met several times coming to you tonight or to be able to come to you tonight with recommendations. We also discussed those recommendations with our LEA throughout the process. Uh just as of note, implementation of the new high school diploma will be for the class of 2029. Quick math for you. That's current eighth graders. So, we have to move fast because they just have a couple weeks left of eighth grade before they start high school. And as soon as next year, current high school students can opt into a new diploma if they get an honors seal. And we'll talk about in a second what that is. As I mentioned, we convened a diploma task force that consisted of myself, Mr. Noter, Mr. Harsha, and several who are in attendance tonight, administrators at the

026high school and middle school level, um, principles, assistant principles, and department chairs. If you were on that diploma task force, if you wouldn't mind standing up real quick to be recognized. Thank you for your hard [Applause] work. We had to move fast. We appreciate their hard work in moving through that process. And now I'm going to turn over to Mr. Harsha who will go over through the specific diploma changes. Good evening. Um when the state board of ed and IDE set out to make these changes um one of the things that they were looking for is to provide some of our students some more flexibility particularly as that got up into 11th and 12th grade and also to allow some intentionality um to make sure their high school experience is directly preparing them for what

027they're going to do after high school. So on these um next couple slides, you can see on the left side, we've got a list of what our current core 40 Indiana requirements are. And then on the column on the right, you can see in blue um the future diploma. Um and we've just highlighted a couple of the changes in red. I'm not going to read through each of them, but um you can see there um there is a requirement for a communications focused course. Um in the second line there, you can see personal finance is a new requirement. Um in science there is a computer science requirement. Um and then you can see also um in social studies there was a change there um from six credits down to five. On the next slide um

028you can see also one fewer credit required in PE. And then you can see they've also taken the directed electives and personalized electives which was 11. And they've just sort of combined those to allow again some flexibility for students in their choices of electives. Um and then also they've added the one credit for preparing for college and careers. Then um the state created with some feedback uh created some um readiness seals and those cover the three E enrollment, employment and enlistment. Um students can opt into one or more of these honor seals. Um and you can see there as you read through the the difference there um different requirements for each one depending on what students are um pursuing as goals after high school. And then lastly on the next slide there are also honors

029plus seals. And so in addition to the seals that were listed on the previous slide, students who um meet some of these additional conditions particularly around work-based learning experiences can actually earn the honors plus seal in enrollment, employment or enlistment. Good evening. We're bringing to you several recommendations and these recommendations are really at the 30,000 foot view. Um there'll be many uh changes and recommendations that happen at the building level and then some that will come through our curricular advisory council as well. But these are the big picture recommendations that we'll be seeking board approval for. On the left hand side of this slide, you can see our current reality and then we've matched that to the recommendation that we're seeking. And so the first one is currently our default diploma, if you will, is

030the core 40 with a preference toward an academic honors diploma. And so we're recommending for the future that the default diploma be the 42 credit readiness honors seal in either enrollment, employment, or enlistment. So really seeking to get that readiness seal uh honor seal for our students. On the next line, um you can you can see that um we do currently require two fine arts credits to earn the academic honors diploma. And so, you know, our district is very committed to the arts. And so, we're recommending that we continue um that requirement in two of the 12 personalized electives be fine arts credit for the enrollment honors and honors plus seals. And that's currently equivalent to the academic honors diploma requirement. The last big picture recommendation that we're bringing um currently our principles can grant

031PE waiverss for students based on participation in particular activities. So for example, if a students in marching band, show choir, dance, or on an athletic team, they can receive their PE credit. We're recommending to continue that practice and even expand it. And so an example of an expansion might be a student who um participates on the speech and debate team, being able to earn the communications credit. So continuing that practice of looking at demonstrated mastery of those standards in other ways. We also have recommendations for the middle school. Um and the first one is to enroll all eighth grade students in the required computer science and prepare preparing for college and career courses. So these are two courses that are required for graduation. Uh the recommendation is to use one of the electives at the

032middle school level for students to complete those requirements in 8th grade. Now recognizing that that takes one of the students electives, we're recommending that we explore the possibility of combining for dual language students combining Spanish language arts and English language arts into one bilingual space uh to allow dual language students to have two electives. So this would be an option for students and families to choose. And then the last recommendation for the middle school uh related to the number of electives is that parents and students may request a course deferment for an eighth grade student um and elected elect to take computer science and preparing for college and career in high school and that would allow them to maintain their three middle school electives like we have now. Be happy to entertain any questions or

033discussion. Thank you Mr. Noter and Mr. Knik. This is great. Thank you to everyone who worked on this um board. Are there any questions, Miss Lawrence? I do. Uh because this was hot on the lips of our seventh grade student, soon to be eighth grade student um as it relates to the middle school requirements was not a I'm happy to see that we're preserving the opportunity for our um immersion students to um to have more electives. um it was difficult to understand that um our families wanted kids to have those enrichment activities. So, I'm excited to see that as a recommendation. On the deferment piece, um is the expectation then that they would take those courses in high school once they Okay, so they could still elect to um to to opt out of it

034for now in the in the eighth grade and then defer it to high school where it may fit in within their schedule. Yes. Does that have any implication for their GPA in terms of like how how that gets factored in or are the classes they're taking in eighth grade still counted toward their high school GPA? How does that work? Yeah, it would not it wouldn't have any impact on their overall cumulative GPA. It would on the yearly GPA, but the overall final GPA, it all would get be they can take a class in eighth grade and still counts on their high school transcript and their high school GPA. Got it. So if we were trying to like if a student wanted to take a weighted class for example in high school, the recommendation might not

035be to have the deferment in middle school if they wanted to keep their high school transcript with the weighted class student and what they have available in their schedule considering summer options and things like that. Absolutely. Did you miss Dun? I have several questions. First of all, thank you. This is a brand new world that we are embarking on with this diploma for sure as I have been navigating it myself. I just I do have a few questions. I think the the first question is is that I appreciate how we are on slide eight talking about the default diploma should be the 42 credit readiness honor seal in enrollment um employment or enlistment. How are we going to communicate to families and to students this so that we don't My fear is is that we're

036going to go back to tracking students into from the time they're in 8th grade tracking them into a path. And so how are we going to communicate this? is how are we going to ensure that we are providing students an option if they want to switch from for example enlistment to enrollment that we are giving them all of those opportunities and that communication will begin in 8th grade just like we do now but I'll just give you an example of a recommendation that came out of our math department um the recommendation and this would be enacted at the building level is that all students for their math sequence take algebra and geometry even though that isn't required by the new diploma, but it keeps them on track for the enrollment uh seal if that's the

037direction that they want to go or they can easily switch in their junior year to an employment seal or an enlistment seal. So, it just gives more options for students by keeping them in that traditional math sequence for an extra year. That is wonderful. And how do we plan on communicating to our families who have an English or who have a preferred language other than English? because this is it. US schools are challenging to begin with, right? Let alone um adding all of these complexities. So, what is the plan to communicate to our families whose preferred language is not English? Yeah. And we'll translate all of our materials just like we have with our current materials and be able to provide through our district family liaison direct one-on-one support if families need that. Is there

038a plan? because I I would think that we might want to engage with families in a broader scope. Could we potentially think about family engagement evenings or something of that nature? Awesome. Absolutely. Um then one other thing that or I've got a couple of others. Um so you had talked about the waiver on slide eight. I'm assuming that that is still um approved by IDOE that those have to be go through the Indiana Department of Education. Correct. Um English credit. I know um that there are options beyond English 9. Could you share a little bit because the current trajectory is English 10 112 obviously um one of the things I loved about my personal this is years and years ago decades ago is that I was able to choose things like other voices in specific

039English courses that I was interested in. There were other things like um graphic novels, comic books, things of that nature. So are we going to move towards as a district having um specific interest in English or are we going to continue down like a pathway of traditional English 10 112? I think it's yes an okay I think it's both and those type of recommendations would come to you as a board um because you approve all curricular courses through our curricular advisory council. So as our teachers and our department chairs really begin to grapple with the type of courses that would be offered particularly to upper level students that'll come through curricular advisory. And one other thing I was at a dual language networking event on Friday and one of the things that I learned is

040that worksplace Spanish 2136 um will be um counted as a communications course. And so just want to make sure that we are thinking about again obviously this district always thinks about dual language was the top topic of conversation is what great work Lawrence does. Um so I know that it's already top of mind but yes just thinking about how we can make sure that we're thinking through all of those options for those kids. Absolutely. And you'll see that in our next presentation. Outstanding. Thank you for all of your hard work. It's very exciting to see this. Mr. Noter, I do have a follow-up question to what Miss Dum was asking. Um you mentioned debate as being a potential for um fulfilling the comm's requirement. Um will we have a list of all of the one

041for ons that could happen? Um just as I think about myself as a parent who's planning um ahead for their students. How can we encourage extracurriculars that might be a a different way to free up their schedules or or things of that nature? Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Um board. Yes, Dr. Mahalland. I was curious um as situations that you might expect where parents or the students are going to request the course deferment. Um yeah, what have there been some thoughts about what might be, you know, the reason where where they want to defer? example might be um an eighth grader who wants to take um first year of a world language, so Spanish or or French. Um they also are in the jazz band and they um that's a course that that they have or

042um another type of of performing art and they want to take Project Lead the Way because they're really passionate about the engineering pathway that they might go into as in high school. So, it would really be individualized for each student, but particularly students who are interested in world language and performing arts that tends to fill their schedules. That was my question. I was kind of wondering if it was going to be a performing arts sort of a, you know, question, but thank you. That's helpful. Miss Pucket, did you have a question on the diploma? right the state level is referring to not the model attendee rate which I think is what you're referring to but they're referring more to excused versus unexcused absences and how many unexcused absences a student might have in terms of

043qualifying for that would we'd be able to set that and work work with the definition per the new diploma to see how that would fit into we have a lot more flexibility at the school level. Determine what's excused versus unexcused. Sure. And and we're just in the preliminary phases of envisioning what this could look like, but it would be an option for our dual language students who still want to have two electives. So, um right now, Spanish language arts takes one of their their electives. And so it would be a bilingual space um co-taught by a dual language teacher as well as a an English teacher. And so they would create and use the same standards and it would be a 50/50 type of language allocation model. Question. Okay, one followup and I think I'm

044done. maybe um proficiency will that affect or how would that for our like non for Let me finish processing this out because I'm stuff is coming to me as we're um talking along. I'm going to put a lipstick on that. Hold on. Miss Lawrence. Yeah, I have a follow-up question related to the fine arts requirements or the proposed requirements. Um, first, you guys all know I'm a band nerd and it makes me really happy to see those requirements suggested in there. Um will if a student um were to participate in fine arts in middle school but but elect not to in high school, would those count toward those requirements in the same way that that uh you know taking um taking one of the other courses that they could at middle school, the computer proficiency

045for example, would that count toward our proposed requirements? It would depend on if it was a high school course or not. So currently I don't think we have any middle school classes that are actually high school courses in the fine arts area. So if we were to do that we have to bring that through curriculum advisory council and bring that back to the board. Fair. Thank you. Yes, Dr. Mholland. Um on the high school recommendations um it says the default diploma should be the 42 credit readiness um in honor seal and enrollment employment or enlistment. So how does that work with the or? So students would choose one So that they would either go for they'd go for an honor seal, but it either would be the enrollment requirements, the employment requirements, or the enlistment

046requirements. There three different sets of requirements. So the default is to choose one of the three. Choose one of the three. All right. Just want to make sure. Thanks. Then Miss Pucket, did you have your post? Okay. Um I think I have it now. Okay. How would combining the Spanish language arts and the English language arts into one course impact the language proficiency for our dual lang for our dual language students since we are combining it into one? Sure. Um it could potentially impact um the development of the second language. Um, I think that would be a student by student conversation that we would want to have and counsel based on the proficiency that students bringing in and whether it's English proficiency that we're really working on or it's Spanish proficiency that we're working on.

047Thank you for that. Is the assumption that the students who would participate in that course be part of the immersion program or to Miss Pucket's point I think the point that you're making was it could be a native Spanish speaker or yeah it would be an expectation they're in the dual language program. Okay. The dual so not a new um a new student who's coming in. Correct. And I I guess I am I'm con I'm just a question. How logistically do you combine those two into one course? Because usually a dual language course is you're working on the target language. So how would you go about having a course where Spanish and English are both being taught simultaneously? And how is that considered dual language? And that's what we would need to work through. Um

048there are models that are out there across the country of bilingual spaces and um some of our our um educators who attended Lacoscha last fall were able to go to a school that had a bilingual space and so we would be working through the logistics once we receive approval to do so. So is that something that we might pause on until we get the logistics or is this something that we have to approve? because I research as far as I'm concerned or as far as I've seen is that having both Spanish and English in one course and giving two electives I've not seen that done across the state. So I just I guess I'm wondering where is that happening in the state? That's across the country. It's not happening in the state. We'd be the

049first in the state of Indiana. So can we as you said we're leaders in dual lang. You are. We are. We are. We are. No, not not at all. In fact, we've had models at our high schools where we've combined uh social studies and and an English course, but it's all been a humanities course. Exactly. Right. Where you're covering both those standards. I guess the purpose of dual language though is to ensure that you are promoting the target language. So, I guess I'm just curious as to how that would work out. To be clear, there this would be one option. So, our traditional programming would still be in place, but if there's a student and a family who have to decide between taking two electives a or staying in the dual language program and receiving

050some Spanish language arts instruction, this would be an option for them. So, this wouldn't be for every student. I just had two quick questions. So, just to make sure I'm understanding it correctly, there is a lot of flexibility to move between the seals. So, say you're a student that's in the enrollment pathway, but you decide you want to go into military service. It's a fairly easy transition to the other seal. Correct. And then, uh, oh, yeah, go ahead. I don't know about easy just because of the requirements for work-based learning. Those are significantly higher in the enrollment or in in the employment pathway than they are in the others. And so, um, that would be a decision that, uh, you know, schools would work with individual students on the timing of that. Um, but the

051workbased learning is significant with the the new diploma requirements. I I think I used the wrong term or term. I'm thinking um, it's not 100% set in stone. It's start in one. That's right. It's never too late. That's right. It's not 100% set in stone. Thank you for that. And then finally, um, we've had a lot of great questions. I'm sure other parents will have questions. Um, now that this is being rolled out, who would you direct them to? Would it be their building principal or the guidance counselors at their child's secondary school? Um, who do we recommend? Yes, the the counselors. Okay. School counselors. Okay. Yes. I do have a couple of more questions. So, one of the things with employment, as we were talking about, is that we would have to have an

052approved career preparation experience aligned to Indiana's CSA program. So, are we where are we right now in the process of creating those opportunities? Because I do think once we get into, as you guys alluded to, 9th and 10th grade is kind of paving the way, 11th and 12th is really when it becomes kind of set in stone. And so do we have those partnership in that um process already or is that something that we can expect more information forthcoming? Yes, an uh we need both. We we currently have partners that are in our network um but we definitely need more partners and I this rhetorical question. And the reason I asked that is because we know that currently um there is a lot of legislation that is underway that is potentially cutting funding. Just to

053go on the record, is it going to cost the district more to be able to transport students to these various opportunities than it currently does now? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Oh yes, Dr. Mahind. So, um I just appreciate this this discussion. Um and as I'm looking up at the framework, um I feel like this is a little bit of a silly question, but I noticed that the attendance goal is on two of the three. And so, I guess I have two questions. Are we going to present this as is? Are we going to kind of make our own framework, you know, with this information here? Do we have that ability? And second, are there any unintended consequences or any things to be aware of when we don't put that attendance goal for each one

054of them? Because I think we really want to hold our students to high expectations and similar expectations. So the slide on the screen as well as the other three slides that Mr. Harsha went through, those are from the diploma that the state approved. So that's been that's done. That's a done deal finalized by the state in terms of the state diploma. our recommendations both on the high school recommendation page and the middle school recommendation page where what we're recommending for Lawrence Township to go above and beyond what the state's requiring. So that's the state minimum in terms of those and then we have the other requirements that we're recommending. Right. Thank you. And so to my first question, I think there's an opportunity then to and how we share that, right? Because if I'm a

055parent looking at those three lists um from the state, it could be a little confusing. If I can see something from Lawrence Township that's more clear and I think that will be very helpful. We've been through this before board. Um I've sat here and this is probably Mr. Not Mr. Gnik the fourth change in graduation requirements over 12 years. So, we've gotten a very high graduation rate because we've done a very good job of communicating the changes and the team will go to work immediately as soon as you approve it. Board, we'll go to work immediately. Thank you for that. And we will leave you that rolls into our next um item on the agenda for curriculum advisory committee recommendations. Mr. Noter. Thank you, Madame President, members of the board, and Dr. Smith. Each semester

056we bring to you recommendations from our curriculum advisory council and Mr. Harshshire, director of secondary education facilitates that council and we'll bring the recommendations this evening. Good evening. Uh as you can see there just as a reminder uh we do meet as a curriculum advisory council twice a year once in the fall and once in the spring. Um those uh proposals are taken here and um we as you can see there in the third bullet point um that group is made up of building level and district level administrators, counselors, teachers, department chairs. Uh the council ensures that all recommendations are on Indiana's list. The state does give us a list of approved courses which of course we need to uh follow um as we continue to build our pathways. Um we're paying close attention to

057those. And then just as a reminder, anything we would um bring to you for approval this spring could be implemented as soon as the fall of 2526. So the first uh course is actually related to the slides that we were just talking about. Um our curriculum advisory council would like to add offering course 7218 technical math to our course offerings. This would meet the graduation requirement for math. Um it is a focus on mathematical reasoning in realworld skills and problem solving in things such as fabrication, manufacturing and business. Um it includes a lot of hands-on work and projects and real world application. Um which our committee felt very strongly would be a great option for students all students particularly students who might be employing that or uh excuse me pursuing that employment seal um as

058an alternative possibly to algebra 2. On the next slide, you'll see we do have one elective course recommendation that was mentioned earlier today and that's our 2136 workplace Spanish. So, just as clarification, 2136 has been board approved and we are using that course here in MSDLT. um our committee felt strongly that we have some students who are um proficient in their written and oral language also in um ASL and in uh French. And so the recommendation is right now the state only offers workplace Spanish. And although we could just use that course code for some of those students, um we want to make sure that their transcript reflects the language that they are utilizing. And so right now in the state that process would involve um filling out a course waiver proposal through the DOE

059um to offer workplace French and workplace SP uh ASL. On the third slide, you can see we do have one recommendation for a weight adjustment. Um back in the fall of 2020, the board approved a full weight for some of our other advanced um performing arts courses. Um and at the time we were just beginning to develop that advanced jazz jazz ensemble course. Um so the recommendation from the committee is that we um make that match the other similar courses that have those high levels of literature study and um college level work to have an additional weight as well. Then on the last two slides I really just wanted to or three slides I wanted to just highlight um our continual growth in dual credit. We've been working hard to continue to grow um the

060opportunities that we have for students to take dual credit courses and we have a um fantastic partnership that we have begun with Indiana State University. Um right now we've got courses lined up for our students that are in the early childhood education and education professions pathways. Um it has been a a great start to that partnership and as you can see there 10 new dual credit courses um will be available to students in MSDLT as a result. Um, on the next two slides, you can see on the left side I've just listed the courses that have already been approved. Those are state courses that the board has already approved that we offer. And then on the right is the corresponding Indiana state course that our students now have access to. And that's again for our

061early childhood. And then on the next slide, you can see ed professions. I'd be happy to entertain any questions. All right. Thank you. Board questions. I I actually have a point of clarification and Dr. Smith, this may be better addressed to you, but I I think I think the general public doesn't quite understand how curriculum and courses are proposed and how it works through the system. Um there's a lot of misperception, I think, in the media and um and in the general populace. So, I wonder if you could just give us a quick primer on on how classes get to our students and what that what that involves. Apologies, Mr. Notary. That's okay. The the numbers come from the Department of Education. Um, and so those are the the courses that our uh teachers and

062department chairman and administrators have to choose from. they then recommend to the curriculum advisory council. Um there's discussion at the curriculum advisory council pros and cons and determination of whether they want to bring that forward to the board for approval. And so once it um comes through the curricular advisory council then uh like this evening Mr. Harsha brings those recommendations to you and asks for your approval to add those courses to our offerings in Lawrence Township. And those courses are the Indiana Department of Education approved through the Indiana Department of Education. Um and uh any of the courses that are done at the collegiate level like we saw from Indiana State um Indiana State University that those would also be already approved through the Department of Educ Indiana's Department of Education. Correct. Those courses would

063be approved through the university and they would be aligned to a course that's approved through the department of education. Yes. Thank you. That's done. First of all, I um just want to say that again leading the way with workplace French and ASL is very very very exciting. I'm assuming that that would also if they were approved would um be allowed for the communication um aspect of the diploma so that they would apply for both the communication and um aspect. I don't know why I'm struggling with the word I'm trying to find way well but communications is a part of the mandated right and so those would be acceptable courses for those two. Yes. And then how long will we know until we find out if we are approved for those courses? Does it take like

064how long it takes? I'm not certain about the turnaround time. Um but I know um but we're pretty confident that we would be able to offer them in the 2526 school year. Yes, that would be the goal. Well, and Mr. Harsha, you have already contacted the state about our desire to do this and this was the process that you were recommended to follow. Excellent. Excellent. Um, the other thing real quickly because I think that it is amazing that we're able to offer so many dual credit options. It's a way for students to get a leg up obviously in college. Are those are the ISU credits? I know IvyTechs are transferable to other um Indiana institutions. Is it the same with ISU? Yes. And um I put a point there at the bottom that I didn't

065speak to, but um obviously those will transfer directly to if one of those at ISU if our students wanted to go in into those pathways there, but um I know ISU mentioned that they absolutely are transferable to Indiana University and I didn't ask about every other university, but I know they did mention that during our conversation, but the assumption would be that and I know the answer to this, but just for our families, um what is the cost for those dual credit courses? zero dollars. Yes, indeed. Thank you very much. Yes. Thank you. Yes, it is. C can I get an amen from everybody who has students that are coming through this district and looking looking to pay for college? And I had a comment about it, too. It's encouraging to see that partnership to

066um for ease of entry for our future teaching workforce. Yes. Yes. Um board, any other questions? Question. Uh, yes. How would I move forward as a parent if I'm wanting to submit a non-standard course waiver? Is that something I would go through a counselor? I can do on my own. That is a a process that is done by the school district. So, we will do that on behalf of our students to be able to offer those courses. We are making we are making a request. Okay. So, the student account Oh, you would do it. Okay. Yes. Gotcha. Gotcha. All right. Thank you. Mhand. I I just have more of a comment that I'm just excited that we're going to be able to expose students to the career of teaching uh the education professions um while

067they're in high school. And um selfishly I have to say I'm very excited that you'll have the advanced jazz ensemble as a a to jazz band at Lawrence North and I know we would have loved that. So thank you. Um and also the uh workplace ASL. Just want to commend all of you for your great work. You thank you board. Any other questions regarding that? If not, we will move on to curriculum updates for PE and health uh recommendations. Mr. Noter. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board, and Dr. Smith. And this is the year for our program review for physical education and health. And I do want to recognize those that are in the audience that have participated on the committees. I know we've got uh two elementary teachers that are with us

068this evening, as well as our high school department chairman. if you'd stand and be recognized, please. Thank you for your [Applause] service. This evening, our director of elementary education, Mrs. Schneider, will update you on the elementary recommendations and then Mr. Harsha will come back for the secondary recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Noter. So, we'll start with the review process. So, um PE curriculum was last reviewed in 2019. Um in our review process, all of our elementary PE teachers were invited to participate in the review committee. Um the review committee met monthly from September through March. Um we reviewed the current curriculum the and the equipment um assessing the alignment with our goals and the standards. Um we explored lots of resources that would complement and support the goals that they had for the year. And then

069for the members were able to attend the inshape PE conference to um learn what's new with in the world of PE. So from that um came some recommendations in place of a written curricular resource. The review committee determined that equipment would best meet their needs at this time because at this time they are using free and open curricular resources um for PE. Um they had three recommendations for equipment. They are wanting a Gaga pit for every school. Um the Omnic I see you guys uh raising your hands. Everybody knows about Gaga. The Omni sixpack of balls and the Omnikin 48 inch ball. And that's actually a kinball which is um there's a whole sport around this. Um, and also the third recommendation was the speed stacks, uh, 30 pack, and then the jumbo stacks. So,

070I'll kind of go into each one of those. So, the, um, for the Gaga pits, we're recommending nine pits, um, because we have, uh, nine schools in need of them. This is appropriate for K through six. Um, it's it promotes exercise, physical activity, social skills, and learning through play. Addresses almost every standard. When I went through and looked at them, I couldn't believe how many different standards it would address. Um, they are portable and they can be configured also for multiple activities and they are also designed for indoor and outdoor use. And there's a little picture for you for those of you that are visual like me. Um, also the second recommendation was the Omni. Um, they're looking to um the Omni Six. We need eight sets. Um, Sunny set actually already has a set,

071so we're trying to level that out and make sure all of the schools have a set. Um, and the Kinballs, um, we need seven of those because two schools already have a set and are using them. Um, again, appropriate for K through six. They can be used for a lot of different things, a lot of different games and activities. Um they promote motor skill development, defending open space, communication, cooperation, um challenges, physical literacy, and then fostering those positive social interactions. And then that third recommendation is the speed stacks. Um we're looking at the speed stacks, the 30 sport pack for six schools because we have three schools that already have them. And then the um speed stacks jumbo pack for six of the schools because we also have three that have those as well. Um,

072again, appropriate for K through six. Um, it's great for fitness, agility, concentration, quickness. Um, it's also really good for hand to eye coordination, cross body movements, a lot of brain development, muscle memory, all of the above. Those are our three recommendations. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Harsha to talk about secondary recommendations. Good evening again. Uh likewise, the last secondary health and PE review process took place in 2019. So we pulled together uh teachers and department chairs, building administrators, and even um student and parent from um our campuses. You can see Belle, Fall Creek, LN, and LC were all involved. Um we had a number of group meetings, and I tried to bullet there kind of our process. We first started off with creating a vision. What is it that we really want

073in health and PE for our secondary students? Um, we took some time to explore what we're currently doing, how our programming is currently working. We had some shared experiences. We sent some uh folks to some conferences, had a few group meetings. We also piloted uh a number of different curricular resources at our building so that our teachers could really dig in and and explore them, and then we met um to finalize those recommendations. On the next slide, you can see um just a a a rundown of our a summary of our vision. Um our teachers were very adamant that uh we in health we wanted to make sure that we were really focusing on um healthy versus unhealthy lifestyle and choices of our students um our teens um focusing on the whole student um and

074of course making sure that we have relevant updated resources because they were feeling that our resources we were using were a little bit outdated. So that was good to hear that we're moving forward. On the next slide, you can see in PE um same thing, focus on healthy healthy activity and lifestyle, not just games and sports and their rules. Um and there was a real big push from this group about making sure that our curriculum um represented a diverse um the diverse cultures in which we serve and a variety of games and sports, not just um the ones that maybe are typically done um particularly in Indiana in PE. So, uh, on the next slide, you can see our recommendations for grades 7 through 12 in physical education at our middle schools. They would like

075to recommend, um, Spark digital curriculum. And, um, some of the supplies that will come as a result of some of the new activities that they would be doing with those. And then for our high school, um, the recommendation came for REF reps, and I'll talk about that uh, in two slides. On the next slide, you can see for SparkCC, very tight connection from that curriculum to the Indiana standards for um middle school. Um very inclusive activities. Um the the curriculum is designed that way. Uh longstanding organization with a lot of research-based programming. Um and it was really the favorite from our um pilots. On the next slide, you can see a little bit about refs. Our high schools were very excited about this. This course will allow our high school students to earn a PE

076credit, meanwhile having the opportunity to be certified in up to three different sports in which they would then be um certified to go and referee. And so great opportunity for kids to learn about different sports, but also be able to go and um serve back in our community, maybe um refereeing some youth sports games or go out and um get a job and make some money doing so. So, we were really excited with that option for uh ref reps. And our goal would be um next year that we would start with one section in the fall, one section in the spring at both of our high schools. In health, both our middle schools and high schools after uh exploring both chose health smart. Um, I'm excited that our middle school and high school students will

077be using the same curriculum. That will be really good for our transitions for our students and also for our teachers to be able to work together. And on the very last slide, I just had a rationale there about that curriculum. Again, tight mapping to the Indiana standards. Um, very comprehensive resources for our teachers. Uh, a lot of, uh, information that was available in multiple languages, which was important for our folks. um a lot of built-in group and partner work um which we know aligns tightly with our instructional framework of getting students to process and and work together in teams. Um and again just a a really relevant curriculum that had updated videos and slides and high quality materials that our teachers really felt would be engaging for our kids. And I think that's it. Thank

078you. You have any questions for Natalie or for me? We'd be happy to take them at this time. Yes, Miss Lawrence, a couple of quick questions. Um, the Gaga Pit, which um, as we know is the great unifier across cultures, languages, uh, etc. Um, the ones that you featured here are portable. I don't know if as we're updating some of our, and maybe Mr. Smith, this is more a question for you. as we're updating some of our elementary schools if we have plans to add a gaga pit in and then would we then not get put that gaga pit resource at that school? Yes, three schools were renovating as we speak. Uh we'll have uh new playgrounds and Gaga pit each of those. And are we supplying shout wipes to all of the families that

079have to then take care of the clothing because I had plenty of Gaga pit related stains in my life. Um the refere uh the refrep curriculum which I think is really amazing. Um are we going to reach out to any of the like Pride and O who are always looking for referees as a resource for some of our students? Yeah, I'm certain that our um our community partners would be thrilled to know that a lot of our high schoolers are going to be certified and able to do that. Um I'm pretty certain that our coaches and our athletic directors and I'm sure Dr. Nesbbit and all of his work will let know let uh all of them know that we've we're going to have quite a few students that are going to be ready to

080earn a few dollars. Very good. Other questions, Miss Dunn? So, first of all, absolutely incredible that we are offering that opportunity for our students to become refs because obviously with physical education, many of our students by the time they reach high school are taking that credit prior to and so just brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. So, kudos to those of you on that committee that have worked to do that. Um, just a few questions. Um, you're talking about gaga pits and other things and updating uh PE equipment. How are we updating PE equipment throughout the years when it's not a um curriculum adoption? So, I know there are things like nets, balls, cones. I mean, there are so many things that go into that that I would hate to think that our physical education teachers are only

081getting these resources um every since I mean, it's been six years since 2019. So, what is the process to update those resources? Mr. Miles, Roger Smith, you can chime in on that to help them out. How how do we handle this? We have two ways. Yeah. So board when you're approving the projects there's in the detail a lot of loose equipment and also Mr. miles when we approve geo bonds for very specific equipment needs that we have in the district you you will find that okay so do so is that uh like does the school get that is the district purchasing that like how is that process occurring because overseeing physical education in IPS I know that has been a huge huge huge bone of contention for our physical education teachers is that a lot

082of times it's given to the principal to be able to purchase urch those things. And sometimes if the principal really um values the physical education, they'll purchase those things. Whereas we did a a huge refresh to make sure there was a level playing field, no pun intended, um or maybe there was um to ensure all kids had the appropriate materials. We work with the buildings to assist them in the purchases uh getting their input and their recommendations. So what needs to be purchased and then uh we fill out the process for them. Great. Thank you. And when is swimming being offered for our students? Because I know that with the number of refugee and immigrant students, swimming is something that many of our students are not familiar with and is one of the leading causes

083of death for the demographic. And given our demographic of students, uh how are we ensuring that swimming is being taught? I know that's being offered at the high schools, but it's not mandatory for students anymore. We also have a plan moving forward for our fourth graders to participate in um exploration around swimming at our high schools. So, putting our two uh beautiful high school pools and to use for our fourth graders. I would hope that we would do that as well as meet the needs of the dynamic community that we serve. Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. And you have an advantage because you have two wonderful pools, Dr. Grant Nesb. And then we have the swim club and but pay attention to fourth grade swimming coming to a theater near you. That's something that we wanted to

084have. Earlier the better. That is absolutely fabulous news. And then just two other questions. Adapted PE. We didn't hear anything about our special needs students and how they are engaging in physical education. Mrs. Meer um our students do participate in a variety of ways. Uh many times our classroom teachers are in there working with the students as well as with the PE teacher. Some of it depends on the ability of the child. But then we've also been blessed enough to have our children go to the high school and also swim and participate in that way as well. um where we also have our physical therapists who are involved in that process and also give um ideas and thoughts and processes on how to work with the students in the different activities. But are we purchasing

085any specific um adaptive PE equipment for our special needs students? If there is adaptive equipment needed, we do purchase that. Um again, depending on what the activity is and things like that, we work closely with, you know, Mr. Smith and then the teachers on what is needed. But it's not something that's across the board that all of our stu schools have in order to meet the dynamic needs of our special needs students. I would say the majority of our stu um schools do get what they do need. Not all of our schools contain classrooms that are life skills and things of that nature. So it is dependent upon that. Okay. Um because I know that that is something that is um there's just so many different resources for our students that are special needs and

086we just want to make sure. And then we did not talk about prek. So, our material is being purchased for our prek students. Well, I just want to make sure all kids get physical education and health. The prek students aren't a part of this adoption, but we purchase materials separately for the big playroom because big playroom. Oh, yes. We have we have tricycles and scooters and Yeah. Dr. Mahaland. I think most of my questions been asked, but um just appreciate the focus and how much I learned from, you know, learning about the physical literacy that you mentioned and how much this connects just the whole child and being in Indianapolis where sports, the amateur sports capital, I think it's just going to open up even more interests. Um so it's it's wonderful and I love

087Mart Lawrence's question about you know connecting to community partners. So very excited to see what will happen. Mr. Smith, I love history. My board has asked questions and when we renovated elementaryaries, I can remember some of the elementary school old gyms because I've been here a long time. Sorry, board. I've been with you for a while. They were old. When I think of Crest View and I think of Scal Test, I see Miss Whitaker sitting over there. She had a gym right out of Hoosiers. And when we redid the gyms and the equipment for them, we I mean we just completely transformed them. We've come a long way as a school corporation uh with the facilities. So board, I want you to kind of think when we think of equipment, when we renovate buildings, we

088really go after those big things, but those loose equipment things that the schools need, those things come up through curriculum. They come up through my office and on to Mr. Smith and uh Matt Miles there. I don't think there's anything that we've ever turned down that our schools need when it comes to physical education or programming. So, we've been very blessed. We also have some wonderful groups. We've talked about swimming. The Lawrence Township Swim Club is outside of us, but a part of us and it's massive. They have grown their membership to encompass both swimming pools right now, Dr. Nesbet, and they are bringing in numbers like they've never had before. So, we're really proud of that. So if someone in the community wants to learn how to swim, we have that option. Uh we

089have the pool set up to accommodate that now and it's happening. Okay. So really proud. Thank you. So just out of curiosity with that, are those options free for members of the community and how are those communicated especially to our families that are not that is I have never seen an issue with a family who couldn't afford something that it's not taken care of in this community. There are ways to make things happen that's done and in Lawrence Township it will happen including our swim club that raises money just for that need. Am I correct Dr. NZ? Go ahead. Yeah, just to answer that question. I had that conversation earlier today. Um the uh talking about funding with the aquatics director. Um he he said they need to raise some more money because they are

090being overwhelmed with students coming out for swimming and they do have a the Lawrence swim does have a policy if you're on free reduced lunch with the school then you do get a drastically reduced rate and as Dr. Smith indicated they are going to turn it away. We we want to get every kid in the pool we can and so that's good news. So they're working on funding for it and some new uh ways to bring money in but but it's good news. We have a lot of kids using those new pools. I um as I think I've shared with you all, I had a student who in kindergarten between her kindergarten and first grade year was a refugee student from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and she um drowned. And so if I

091seem a little um passionate about this subject, it is because Fabola today still leaves a resounding um impact on me as um as a teacher um as her teacher. And so I just want to make sure that as a district, not only are we offering that, but we're communicating it to our most vulnerable families so that no family, no mother um like Fabola's mother ever has to experience the death of a child because they cannot swim. So thank you for the I'm sure we'll give a I'm sure we'll give a report uh in coming time, but starting next year, Operation Water Safety will have every elementary student in Lawrence Township uh through fourth grade will will get in that pool and learn how to if they get in, how to get out. Wonderful. Yes. Thank

092you for those questions. Yep. Does anyone else have any other questions or comments? So, this is great. We're learning about grow your own for teachers and referees and um safety and swimming. Now, we'll move on to our last curriculum update for computer science recommendations. Thank you, Madame President, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. we are bringing to you um an opportunity to learn about computer science this evening and I do want to recognize Elise Bonds who's in the audience this evening and her leadership in this work. So thank you Mrs. Bonds. Uh background information. Uh we last reviewed computer science in 2019 and as follows all of our other processes, we brought a committee of district leaders, administrators, and teachers together to um land on the recommendations you're about to hear this evening. As

093we look at the program review process, there's just a a couple pieces that I really want to highlight for you. Um the first is our process of engaging in shared experiences. We do that for every program review and that includes professional development. It includes lots of discussion um and attendance at conferences. We also pilot resources um and computer science is no different. You can see the schools, elementary schools, middle schools and McKenzie uh where we piloted computer science resources um and we collaborate with outside districts and we do that for each of our program reviews to come to final consensus on recommendations. So the goals for our K12 computer science uh first and we've already talked about this one this evening is the requirement the graduation requirement for all students and that course is called

094computing foundations for a digital age. So we needed a curriculum to match the standards for that course. Um we also want to create a progressive pipeline that's K12 so that our students can see where they can progress um as they go through computer science in our district. Um, we also wanted to incorporate real world applications and collaboration and problem solving, those real skills that students need in the workplace. And then of course increasing overall student engagement in computer science. So the recommendation for K6 for our kindergarten through sixth grade is called Skillstruck computer science. Um and there's six different aspects to skill struck that really resonated with our teachers who piloted it. So problem solving, critical thinking, the integration of technology, the design and engineering process that's integrated into it, inquiry based learning, so really

095having students investigate um and and not just uh do algorithms all the time. that collaboration that's already been mentioned this evening in another uh program review really matches our instructional framework where we have students collaborating on a daily basis and then the skills of data analysis that was really important to our committee as well as we move on to our 7 through 12 recommendations seven and 8 and remember 8th grade is where the we're recommending that the computing foundations for a digital age that graduation requirement be held um We're recommending a pilot of the Project Lead the Way Computer Science Foundation course. Um so as this new course was announced and the standards um were uh released, then Project Lead the Way released a course that matches those standards. And so we want to pilot

096it for one year because it came out too late for our teachers to pilot it this year. So we want to pilot that for next year because it does appear to be a close alignment with the the standards for that particular course. And then in grades 9 through 12, you can see the three courses um there uh on the left hand side. And the recommendation from our high school teachers is to adopt skill struck computer science for 2526 because it best aligns to our industry certifications, our advanced course offerings, and of course those real world skills that I mentioned for our elementary. As part of our computer science uh review process, we also reviewed AI um and feel like it's important to bring forward a recommendation around a district-wide pilot for AI for next school

097year. And so um this group of teachers evaluated multiple AI solutions um and they narrowed down to chat for schools and school AI. Um we engaged with other districts uh traveled around the state to see uh what we could learn from other districts and then our e coaches piloted both chat for schools and school AI this semester to assess the impact on student engagement what personalized instruction might look like and to support teachers in their workflow so that our teachers could be more efficient and have more time to focus on students. So the recommendation that they landed on uh for the entire district would be to pilot school AI for next year. Um and really the rationale for that is the student support and that personalization um and the interaction with the AI tool. Um

098improving teacher efficiency, school AI really is built around supporting teachers as their lesson planning and then future readiness as well as AI literacy. Be happy to entertain any questions at this time. Thank you, Mr. Noter board. Any questions on the computer science? Do these courses also include um information on digital literacy and readiness and digital citizenship. Absolutely. Okay. That's embedded in in all the curriculum. And uh if and maybe this is something you can dig into more offline because I'm deeply uh interested in the AI curriculum um especially given the fact that that um that that world is moving so rapidly and we just uh this month reached AGI which many of you may or may not know is kind of the threshold for uh the difference between humans and computers. So that line is

099getting increasingly blurry and I would love to know more about that curriculum. So if there are materials just not as a but out of curiosity. Absolutely. Happy happy to share those. Just I was just going to ask about the process. You mentioned the the pilot um from like a cost or uh support. How much is the vendor involved in that pilot or is that more independent with the district? And I'm, you know, kind of a newbie question curious. Our goal is always to have free pilots. We we never want to pay for pilots. And so, uh, it didn't cost anything. And the vendor, both vendors for the AI pilot as well as our vendors for, uh, computer science are very invested in the success of the pilot because then that turns into an adoption that

100then generates revenue for them. But we always, we always do free pilots. Okay. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. Just I had just one comment and that is again like dual language, Lawrence Township is leading the way with AI. I know so many of our districts surrounding us are fearful of the tool that this offers our students. And so as an educator knowing that we are going to provide a tool that is going to save our educators time and allow them more opportunities to be in front of kids. I just applaud the efforts of this um cabinet. So, thank you for your leadership. You any other questions or comments board? I know we've had a a heavy night of curriculum. Thank you. So, we appreciate everyone who served on all the teams. I know this is

101a multimonth process. And just to tie it into the work we do as a board. If anyone's interested, it is in our board policy adoption of courses of study in board policy 2220 which says the school board shall provide a comprehensive instructional program to serve the educational needs of the students of this corporation. In furtherance of this goal and persuant to law, the board shall periodically adopt courses of study and that's what part of what we are doing at this time. So, thank you to your team and everybody who is involved. At this time, we'll move on to our two action items. The first one up is Mr. Roger Smith approval of the bids on Crest View Elementary. Thank you, Madam President. Dr. Smith, members of the board, I recommend the board approve the GMP

102contract to Davis and Associates for Crest View Elementary as presented. So moved. Second. Properly moved, Miss Pucket, and seconded, Miss Lawrence. Um board, any questions or comments before we go to a vote? All right, we'll go to a vote. All in favor? I I. None opposed. All right. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Now we will move on to 3.02, approval of the personnel report. Miss Carla Johnson. Greetings, Madame President, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. We request approval of the personnel report. So moved. Second. Properly moved, Miss Lawrence, and seconded, Miss Dunn. Any questions or comments on the personnel report board? All right. At this time, we will move to a vote. All in favor? I I. None opposed. All right. The personnel report has been approved. At this time, we will move on to

103our administrator and board comments. Would anyone like to volunteer to go first? I know it's been a while since we've been here. We have been busy and traveling spring break everything. Anybody? I know we've had a heavy night. Yes, Dr. Mahalland. I'll just start and say again, I'm very excited to see the computer science um curriculum updates and the um standards shared with us today. I think um we also talked about the different pathways and what I love uh and appreciate about computer science is it is focused on skills and preparing um students for high demand careers high wage and um you know workplace play workforce development college it it just meets everyone and I I'm I'm grateful that we are putting such a a focus on that and um you know we know that

104our our students need those collaboration skills um problem solving uh the data analysis I love. So, I'm very excited and um looking forward I I've said that a few times today, but looking forward to see how that all unfolds. Thank you. I'll just go down the line. Miss Pucket, do you have any comments or you'd like to share? You know, I think I will. I don't know why I'm sharing this, but I'm going to go ahead and share it. Um I pay attention when people speak. I pay attention when things keep coming up. And it actually doesn't have anything to do with what we had talked about tonight, but um there's a lot going on around us. And one of the things that I have been trying to be active in is being present in

105the journey. Um I have a simple thing that I do driving into work. I have my coffee. I don't listen to music. I don't take any calls. I literally pay attention to my body, how my body feels. Um pay attention to my thoughts. I honor my body and the space and my mind. Why am I sharing this is that I ask that you guys also um be present in this journey right now. Things are changing. There's a lot of voices. There's a lot out here right now. And so it allows a space for me to be present in the duality of emotions. And so why am I sharing that with you? I don't know. But that that is something that has been extremely helpful. It's almost like my body tells me thank you on seeing

106me and hearing me. And so I just ask that you guys in all the chaos that's going on, I see you as educators. I see you as um just humans living this thing called life right now to be present in this journey. So that's my share. I um I want to express first of all gratitude to the individuals that are sitting around the deis. Um we had an opportunity to attend NSBA um and appreciated the opportunity um to grow with and learn from each of you. Um I want to also thank you Dr. Smith um for your continued advocacy at the state level um as well as the members of the cabinet. There are so many things and all of you there are so many things that are happening in education right now um and

107it pains me. It makes me very very sad to see um what is happening. But what I know is that this district continues to put kids first and kids and families will always be at the forefront of what this district does. Um, and while I may ask questions and I may um, come across as, you know, too inquisitive at at times, I am so incredibly proud to serve alongside of each of you and to know that while it may not always come across that we are working um, together on behalf of our kids, we are um, we just all have different ways to go about doing it. and um know that I believe that the best is yet to come despite all the odds that are against public education. We have a strong LEA that's

108there advocating at the state house. We have wonderful educators who commit um to serving our kids and we have wonderful families and most importantly wonderful students who come to us each and every day who demand our best and I have no doubt that this township will continue to serve them to the best possible. So, thank you for this opportunity to serve with you all. Thank you, Miss Dunn. Um, to go along with that, thank you, board, Dr. Smith and the team. Um, we've been able to meet or at least talk with all six of our our Lawrence uh state legislators and both Democrats and Republicans and we appreciate the relationship um the advocacy that they'll listen and we have good conversations. So, we're we're going to keep pushing forward. So, thank you for that. Um,

109thank you again board for a good national conference, good travel. I hope everyone had a good spring break. Um, finally, it is autism acceptance month. Um, I just wanted to point that out because we have so many wonderful, exceptional learners and educators and staff. And in a time where school choice is mentioned, school choice is not always a choice for every child. But the traditional public schools are here to meet that need. And so I thank you for the work you do, Dr. Smith. Thank you, Madame President, and members of the board. Um, Madame President always reminds us of board policies, and one of your policies, wellspoken, is that you're supposed to advocate for state funds, lobbying your legislators, and that's one of the main responsibilities of the board of education. If we could allocate

110our home funds, we would not hold back with this group. I think they would allocate every single dollar, but it's not that simple. We have to speak in front of the state government. And as well as this year, we made a travel to speak in front of the federal government to advocate for resources for the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township. That's always been a strength of this board and past board is to advocate for resources. We're going to continue to do that regardless of the final decisions that are made at the state legislatores. We will be back again. And that work starts the day that they finalize this session. Is that correct, ladies? And we will be back. And I think we've learned that that how important it is to speak to our legislators,

111respect the process because there's a process and we're going to continue to do that board. On a positive note, your next meeting is coming up. We are going to celebrate Lawrence Township excellence at a high level. The students are coming. I want to warn you. I see that stack over there. That that's just part of the stack. and they're coming in large numbers because this year, Dr. Nesbath, from an athletic standpoint at the elementary, we've had a lot of success this year. So, I just prepare you to shake a lot of hands and celebrate our excellence this year. We're winners and we should be proud of that as a board and a community and we're going to celebrate all the students on the 28th of April. So, that's all I have today, Madam President. All

112right. Thank you, Dr. Smith. So, you just gave a segue into my closing. So that will be a Monday, April 28th, our next board of education meeting promptly at 6:30 p.m. and we will be in the PD room here in the middle to recognize all of our wonderful students. So at this point I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Properly moved Miss Dunn and seconded Dr. Mahalid. Have a good night.