001it is 5 30 and um we have an unusually large group with us today which is really exciting as a work session we're just going to get started before we start um if you would all with me just take a moment of silence for the children and families in Nashville and all the other places where we have to deal with violent death of children so take a moment of silence with me thank you very much I appreciate that time I just went to a conference to learn how to be a better school board member and as such I'm going to start every meeting with a little statement good evening as president of the Board of Education we extend a warm welcome to everyone present and to our television viewers the board the superintendent and I
002are pleased that you've joined us as we celebrate achievement review information and make policy decisions related to the effective operation of the Lawrence Township Public Schools this is a work session and all items discussed are voted on this evening have been posted as required by state law as the MSD Lawrence Township Board of Education we're here to set goals listen to the reports of the superintendent approve budgets contracts and Personnel appointments and make policy for the district we are not here to make management decisions or solve the problems of individuals management is the responsibility of the superintendent meetings of the board are open to the public the work sessions are not meetings with the public therefore comments from the audience will be reserved for our regular board meetings the next regular board meeting will occur
003on April 24th and we will be in the PD room as this room will be used for voting I'm pleased you've taken the time this evening to join us we're very proud of this school system and thank you for your interest in MSD Lawrence Township Schools thank you all right um the first item uh Mr Smith is an update on our Blue Ribbon facilities Madam president members board Dr Smith we continue on LC just to mention there's about 85 percent complete of the building in itself so we are starting to see the end of the light at the end of the tunnel on these projects there on the West End we're looking uh forward to turning that back over to the building by the end of May it's a new senior Cafe on that West
004Side connected to the cafe as well as the media center in that entryway LC pools Move Along decking goes on and I believe this week we're going to be setting some concrete short walls uh there on the west side of that pool Ln demo continues on they've been working on the inside working their way out phase two classrooms this is six classrooms the LGI room uh or small theater if you will that is being renovated at the present time Ellen Poole continues they had drained the pool and uh what they're doing now is putting the uh tile work down on the sidewalls and work their way out over the deck We are continuing with our HVAC with middle schools and here at lecc and again getting ready to start full Renovations on these on the
005two middle schools and part renovation on this building starting in June fabulous board members do you have any questions for Mr Smith on this update Madam president the only thing I wanted to point out was was kind of exciting when I learned of this um Mr Smith I when I spoke with Dr Smith earlier he said that this was that these two High School Renovations were the eighth largest construction projects in Indiana is that correct correct pretty incredible project it's pretty incredible that we've got all of this work happening in our district yeah Mr Smith up again can you fill us in on the request for the approval of construction sorry Wendy I'm sorry yes just um just for public knowledge on if as we began our Middle School Renovations will this interfere with any
006jump start programming now the middle schools will have full jump start in the building we've been working with the building to section off so that the students and staff will be free and clear of construction but we'll continue with both thank you for that clarification sir thank you Miss Puckett um okay the request approval for construction bids on lecc Renovations Madam president members board Dr Smith we receive bids on March the 24th there were four bid categories and we had 10 contractors bidding the bids came in about 2.1 million below our estimates uh good competitive bids and the GMP contract for powers and Sons to renovate lecc is 11 million thirty thousand four hundred seventy one dollars and we'll recommend this later on in the board meeting thank you any questions from the board I
007do have one Mr Smith I read in some of the documents ahead of time that we came in under budget in this in this bid what happens to the remaining budget that was originally allocated for this project oh we set that aside for the entire project for some of the unforeseen things that may take place during the the renovation we have those dollars set aside there to make sure it is completed okay any more questions um and just a quick note the board does not usually vote on items presented at the meeting unless it's in the case of um this kind of building construction time is of the essence so we probably wouldn't vote on a strategic plan at a work session for instance but these kinds of budget items we do vote on okay
008um curriculum update this is uh now this would be Mr noder are you with us Stephanie he's going to start us up okay okay good evening Madam president Dr Smith members of the board this evening Mr Andy Harsha our director of secondary education we'll be presenting our math program review information and recommendations for adoption good evening Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board I bring to you this evening are recommendations from our K-12 math program review uh on the next slide you can see a little bit of background uh in 2011 public law changed from the state to more of a local control on our curricular recommendations so we as the local school district set the procedures for what a review will look like and also which materials we will adopt for us
009moving forward I will start with our elementary as you can see there we have not reviewed our math curricula in about six years our teams and math Specialists have worked together to really focus on our nctm that's National Council of teachers of mathematics and our goal was to become very systematic and make sure that we had a similar approach across all of our elementary school and again aligning to our state process standards and always we are looking at our curricular adoptions to make sure that we are promoting positive identity development through our resources um the next slide shows we did have a number of Pilots that were occurring at buildings at different grade levels throughout our district um and you can see there we had quite a variety on the next slide I want to
010take just a minute to pause before I get into all the details of what that review looked like our teachers and our building leaders play a tremendous role in this process and we have a number of Administrators and teachers that took part in our elementary math review so I would ask at this time if you took part in our elementary math program review would you please stand and be recognized thank you so much um as you can see we typically start by doing a little bit of research through Ed reports and a number of other resources to make sure that the pilots that were or the curriculum that we're piloting are established and receive high ratings as you can see there we've had teachers from grades K through six we're in violated pilot invited to
011Pilot those various curricula we had a number of shared opportunities including the nctm conference different School visits and our large group meetings at those meetings teachers were engaged in research articles we previewed our data we had conversations about what we were you know trying to create a common vision and then of course updates on all the different Pilots that were going on throughout the district on the next slide you can see a few bullet points from the vision that was created at our elementary school they were really focused on a student-centered curriculum that created that positive math identity they wanted an evidence-based program that focused around problem solving strategies instead of simple application of memorized algorithmic or computational procedures um and as you can see on the next slide after all of that work our
012elementary team has bring brings to you this evening a recommendation for reveal math again trying not to read each line to you but uh it is important to know they were meet expectations on our Ed reports um direct alignment with our instructional model and those eight nctm principles that were part of our Focus there's some SEL component into the lessons all of them of course promote mathematical discourse we want our students to be talking about math and engaging in math in groups um and uh again you can see there are a number of hooks that engage our Young Learners um so that is our recommendation for the elementary and I'll pause here for just a moment before we get into the secondary to see if there are any questions that I might be able to
013answer about those slides I do have a question I'm assuming that the materials and span as well for there are in addition to some embedded language supports um yep so thank you and then teachers says every teacher in the district have a voice and turn terms of are they able to vote on what curricular resource or is it just the Educators that were in the committee that's a great question and typically the um the option to Pilot a curriculum is open to all buildings so we communicate that through the building principles and the math leaders our math Specialists for example at the elementary school so anybody that wanted to Pilot was able to do that and then we invited representatives from each building to actually come to the large group meetings so they were able
014to be a voice for the other teachers back at their school final question what was when you choices was reveal were vfar the choice of most Educators in the district yes and um I don't want to necessarily give a specific percentage but it was the overwhelming Choice from the teachers it was really down to three and that was the overwhelming recommendation yes thank you very much um I wanna I think it's important for us to be a head of the narratives that are currently out there that are in our learning spaces and so CRT for my understanding is a Collegiate level courses that are the intersection of race and law so I just want to be dutiful and asked to do any of is any of what is being presented to us tonight would you
015call any of that CRT I hate having to ask that but it's the narrative that's out there no I would not thank you I have a similar question um just for those members of the public I think there's a general between the difference between state standards and curriculum could you please just take a moment to articulate what we're talking about here when we're talking about curriculum yes and um so if you think about our state standards those are the skills and and knowledge base that the state determines is appropriate for students at each grade level to master in order to um to be successful our curriculum is truly a resource it is part of that equation but another really important part of that equation is the people that are here tonight also in terms of
016our instructional framework we use that curriculum as a a resource as a support to give us instructional materials to give us practice problems to give us assessments to help that teacher help students achieve the standards I have a few questions um first of all I don't know that I'm understanding everything I hear about the curriculum but we still teach multiplication tables addition tables to our youngest Learners correct we we still that memorization process is still important yes and um my um my area of most confidence is at the secondary level I am trying to do my best to represent our elementary folks here this evening but yes um the the the the math is the math what we really are trying to work on is how do we support the students that are struggling with
017the math and also different ways that we can present the math to make it meaningful for our students good and to that remark um can you describe I think in the room we understand this but can you describe for anyone that may be listening two things can you describe what it means to to instill in the student a positive identity with math and also and maybe an example of an SEL component in the lessons so um the first part is about students seeing themselves as mathematicians and seeing themselves as being able to be successful at math what I do know about reveal math which is the recommendation for elementary is that um many of the lessons include your math story is what it's called where students think about how that math might be relatable into
018their own life and also another thing that I know is for both of our choices this evening they talk about multiple entry points for a student so when students are given opportunities to have a discussion in class they may not know all of the ways to solve that particular problem but they can engage in that conversation that's their entry point into the learning so that was the answer to question one and I'm going to be very honest that I don't um I can't give you a specific example today about the SEL and how it is a specific example of what that might look like but I can't tell you that they are embedded the SEL components are embedded into every unit of reveal math great okay one other just point of clarification of the questions
019are any other school districts in Indiana using this curriculum they are in fact are um look at my cheat sheet here for a minute if you'll let me I know that our math team reached out to a few districts in our area um I think they talked to go ahead Troy so specifically within Marion County um Pike or excuse me Warren Township Decatur Township and Pike Township all have adopted reveal and they adopted it last school year and so um team members from our committee were able to connect with both Warren and with Pike through a virtual conversation and working from their implementation experiences and then we actually conducted a school visit to Decatur Township to see it in action so those three school districts have been very helpful and collaborative in supporting our process
020of making this recommendation ladies and gentlemen that's a voice of our academic team Mr Troy nolder our chief academic officer he does have a nickname but I won't say it from the 1980s he's been on a lot of these Zoom meetings thank you very much Mr noderer we appreciate that input very much um if it's all right with the board then we'll go on with 2.04 the curriculum update for the English language arts adoption he's finished math he's got it oh I'm sorry I paused there just to ask specific about elementary and I'm sorry I will tell you that this is going to be a little bit shorter because many of the procedures and the first slide for example are the same but I do want to take a moment I know we've got a
021number of our secondary principles and some of our Math teachers and leaders that are here and again I would ask if they please be stand and be recognized [Applause] and again I just want to publicly uh recognize all of the folks that participated again we have asked them to do research we have asked them to Pilot and try something brand new um during the school year they have attended conferences and been away from their family they've attended meetings after school and really given a lot of themselves to this process and we just genuinely appreciate all that they've put into this for our secondary math review process again very similar we looked at our Ed reports we reached out to our buildings and asked them to Pilot a few different products that were out there we
022created some of those same shared experiences we attended the nctm conference there was a virtual conference at a lot of our secondary folks attended we made some school visits and then of course we had our meetings where we just tried to figure out what else is out there we talked about shaping that vision for what secondary math should be for our kids and then of course gave them opportunities to talk and build a consensus around our recommendation on the next slide you can see a little bit about the vision I just put a few bullet points there about what was important to this group of teachers and leaders that student-centered curriculum where we really are focused on the student uh and being the doer of math not the receiver real world and authentic opportunities promoting
023student engagement high levels of rigor that will align with our instructional framework that positive math identity and then of course a lot of we believe that our our teachers believe that the more information they can understand about what their students know and don't know the more effective they can be in helping them Reach those high levels of learning and then of course I know you asked a question about our language supports and again that was very important to our teachers so on the next slide you can see there our recommendation for grades seven and eight as well as at the high school algebra geometry and Algebra 2 is in Vision math I want to remind uh everyone that are upper level courses for example are IB and ACP and AP courses those textbooks and curriculum
024are dictated by the providing institution so um there aren't an extensive list of those because they frequently change and then lastly our high schools have been piloting part of this process they piloted Delta math and they would like to recommend that that remains part of their curricular resources so again a quick sheet there uh of the why for Envision it scored meets expectation in all the categories on Ed reports it was tightly aligned with our vision that secondary math teachers created they've got a lot of new highly engaging digital content videos and images um links for students to utilize a strong focus on academic vocabulary and support for all of our Learners including our English language Learners lots and lots of teachers supports and resources for planning instruction and assessment and every lesson focuses on
025student discussion and collaboration which is where we want our students to be so we also we're very pleased although it was not a mandated part of our outcome that the middle schools and the high schools would utilize the same curriculum but it actually ended up that way so that really will be nice that will have alignment from seventh grade all the way up through algebra two we'll be utilizing the same product Delta math just a couple quick hitters there this is not a full-blown curriculum it truly is going to serve as a resource it allows our teachers to assign specific practice problems to students and see the students work and get notes and it allows some really great digital interaction there integrates nicely with canvas and most importantly what the high school leaders said was
026that many of those cases those other textbooks that I just spoke to don't provide a lot of practice problems other than what's in the book and Delta math provides that for them students and teachers both were really really pleased with that during the pilot so when students are working independently at home you can see there are support videos and some other things there so that was part of the recommendation and and that is uh the end of that any questions about the secondary recommendation I just had a question thank you Mr Harsha for non-educators like myself can you explain again on the the products so enVision Math would run up through Algebra 2 is that correct that is correct and then um Delta math would be trigonometry and calculus no I'm sorry so Envision does
027go up through algebra two and most of the resources do because beyond that there are lots of different math courses so most of our of the publishing companies will have a a standard product all the way up through algebra 2. Delta math is actually a school-wide license so all students at Lawrence North all students and teachers at Lawrence Central all of our students would have access to Delta math there are resources that are also good for Algebra 1 and geometry but particularly it was our upper level teachers who said we don't have access to these types of practice problems that students can do when they're trying to you know work at home or they need some additional practice and so that was a really important resource for them okay thank you for explaining that one
028I just want to Express gratitude to the teachers who have spent their time and talents in um in really supporting these uh recommendations I know it does not um it's hard work and it's a lot of looking through various Publishers so a lot of gratitude there um but also just wanted to ask or also Express gratitude for looking at Ed reports I know that is such a fabulous fabulous resource so love that Lawrence Township is using that the Dual credit ACP IB AP courses that curriculum I know for example we were able to adopt in the district where I work Bedford Freeman and worth for um IB is that something that is completely dictated by IB or is there Choice within the district to be able to choose from a variety of different vendors my
029understanding is that that is dictated by the providing institution so they will say if you're going to offer our dual credit for example of course this is the text that we use at Indiana University so this is the text that you will use how quick how how often does that shift in change oh I think it depends sometimes when there are department head changes at the universities and things like that things can change some of the techs have stayed the same for years and years and others seem to change every two or three and what support is given to our Educators in terms of professional development for all of these curricular resources great question so um starting with the folks that were part of this math program review they are going to be leaned on
030to be some of our building level experts because they've already had a chance to dig in a little bit another thing we obviously will um as part of this adoption we will be purchasing some professional formalized professional development over the summer so we will have you know launch training and everything from how do you log in and all the different resources that are available another thing that we have started to do which has really been beneficial is that we pilot these curriculum during our jump start programming so for example this summer in June when student are coming both are teachers and our students will have access to these curricula here so they can start to get familiar with them and that way when it hits in August they're they're ready to go thank you again
031for all the hard work you bet okay um just so one more question um the videos that we have connected with these curricula um are those in English and Spanish uh that is a great question and I don't know the answer um but I will sure uh find out for you I will find out thank you thank you thank you okay and um those of you those of you secondary teachers who have worked so hard on this please forgive my passing over secondary math um so now it is time to hear a little bit more about the curriculum update as it relates to the English language arts and for sixth grade yes Madam president Dr Smith members of the board tonight I bring an update on our language arts review process for sixth grade in
032April of 2022 we had asked the school board to extend the sixth grade language arts review so that they could be allowed to Pilot springboard for this school year the seventh and 8th grade did adopt springboard in the spring of 2022 and the sixth grade teachers want an opportunity to try out that curriculum as well and at this time they would like to bring forth for your recommendation to adopt springboard officially for sixth grade I'd be happy to take any questions any questions board I don't have any questions um all right curriculum update again science adoption yes Madam president Dr Smith members of the board tonight Chris mceloon our assistant director for Workforce Readiness will come forward and share our science stem program review and recommendations for adoption [Music] good evening Madam president Dr Smith
033members of the board I'm here to present the stem program review and our science curriculum adoption uh background of context so this first slide here just reiterates the point that public law allows our Lea to make these decisions about um curriculum on the next slide this slide discusses the Lawrence Township stem for all process that was conducted in 2018 uh so to kind of frame this up in 2018 we had a 45 member committee assembled members of the community including representatives from business and higher education and families all participated in that this was kind of a launch point for a larger initiative that launched that included bringing on elements of Project Lead the Way the kind of formation of our elementary maker spaces the introduction of computer science for all kids in Lawrence Township and
034the the development of what became the Inspire series that was powered by nepris which we'll we'll talk about in later slides uh this last round what we did is we Revisited that process with a 35-member committee that committee was broken into these six subcommittees to address things from elementary stem education to high school science classes uh to the again that computer science and Makerspace this slide represents the process that was common across that K-12 curriculum it's kind of a four-phase process that we've developed to to go from building a vision to implementing a curriculum this was something that we did back in 2018 uh the implementation process in 2018 was interrupted with a minor hiccup called a global pandemic and we have been kind of trying to get our feet back underneath us ever since
035so this stem for all 2.0 process really was a good healthy way for us to get our feet back underneath us and come up with the recommendations we have for you today the next slide talks about our elementary stem so let's let's start there uh the subcommittee for uh for the elementary stem decided to recommend an expansion of our existing programming so in 2018 the recommendation was that we would have one Project Lead the Way module implemented at each grade level kind of as a start uh and we had invested in those modules we began implementing those modules later just on the heel of the curriculum we introduced a jump start and jumpstart created the impetus to have another module of practically the way introduced the success of those two things has led to this
036recommendation of a full adoption and full expansion to four modules and at every grade level K through six we recognize that there's an important connection with literacy and so that's where the CK science comes in and a recommendation to connect with some additional literacy supports that provide some background knowledge to go along with those modules the next slide just gives you a little bit of why Project Lead the Way launch is good there's a lot of pieces here um but the I think the highlights include everything's available in Spanish natural Spanish so not just translated from English it is a major component of buildings your positive stem identity right so having kids have positive stem experiences at younger ages just kind of builds that that confidence and this curriculum really does directly align with our
037instructional model the next slide describes the secondary current reality it's been six years since our last science adoption we had amplify science was our curricular resources in grades seven and eight and nine through 12 kind of had a hodgepodge of different things all aligned but different providers for different courses Sciences kind of unique at the high school level and that you have several different curricular areas with lots of different curriculum providers for each the next slide talks about our recommendations so the secondary science level we've recommended the adoption of a couple different things I'm sorry this is the process we had participation from everybody so middle school and high school science departments were fully engaged and participating they attended multiple conferences attended the the science curriculum Caravan we piloted some things in the in the
038classrooms we've looked at modules from different vendors they attended vendor presentations and this group actually there are several members in the audience that I'd like to recognize so if I'm May I'd like to pause and recognize the members of that science secondary science group that worked so hard to make this presentation possible so secondary folks thank you okay on the next slide are the recommendations so for Middle School we have the twig science is the name of the curriculum twig science is a seven and eight adoption is what we're recommending here it is based on authentic phenomena so it starts with an anchor phenomena or experience something like um you know a example of a marsh that is dying out because of an invasive plant species could be an example and they show a photo
039Lapse video of the effect of that invasive species as an anchor phenomena and then that phenomena drives the rest of the curriculum throughout the rest of the the unit right it is all aligned with the new Indiana standards which are all aligned to the national standards the ngss and we felt like this curriculum really does support that positive identity development it has embedded language supports which are huge embedded reading ports right inside of the the curriculum itself and it really does build a nice skill based data and assessment system that isn't so heavily layered onto literacy as to make it impossible to really enter into so this is our middle school science recommendation the next slide is our high school science recommendation for this we're recommending the provider Savas there's a common platform across all
040courses which will help kind of streamline that transition As you move from one course to another you're using the same product just different content there's rigorous text embedded in all of that along with those phenomena right and there is a shift in kind of traditional labs to more Labs based on these rich experiences and Rich phenomena and we felt that Savas provided that there's additional course specific recommendations like Mr harsher mentioned for AP IB and ACP that would go along with again those that those specific providers that wouldn't necessarily align with Savas and then we're also recommending some additional equipment and lab materials be adopted to really beef up and modernize our science labs and our teacher leaders really did a fantastic job of identifying some of those that will really take us to a
041whole another level next I want to speak about computer science so computer science is wrapped into our our stem work here the T in the stem right the elementary level um we have a scope and sequence that we adopted based on the former standards the recommendation would be that we revisit that given that there are new standards out however in looking at those standards we discovered that the two curricula that we had already adopted in 2018 were actually kind of the natural national leaders in that uh in that field so easy Tech is one of those curriculums that's going to cover digital literacy and digital citizenship and then Tinker provides a scope and sequence for coding at Middle School level we're going to recommend that we expand Tinker to grades seven and eight for all
042students this is a little change right now if you want to continue your computer science work and you're inspired by that in elementary school you have to sign up for specific electives in computer science nothing wrong with that that's truly fantastic but it also leaves some students that choose other electives without additional supports so by having access to a a tool like Tinker for all kids they can use that tool to express their learning in other classes through coding but they can also continue on that path to learn more coding individually and independently I think that does it so questions comments concerns just have a comment I'm excited why am I excited I have a kiddo who is in school right now who the light switch did not come on until she was like junior
043year that stem was something that she was passionate about and it was from Project to Project Lead the Way in stem where the light switch came on so just to hear all of this um I'm really excited so I thank all of you because it literally like kids don't quite always listen to the parents but the Educators who kind of pour into that kind of help flip that switch on so I'm excited so if you guys see my son work on him we're trying to figure out which one of these that he's gonna do so thank you I completely agree this is so exciting again thank you so much to those Educators that worked so tirelessly on this process in the vein of thinking about our fabulous Educators in Lawrence Township I know you um
044shared that you are working to provide materials um I also know that as Educators many times we're going out and getting the consumable items out of our own pockets are those things that the district will also be investing in for our Educators they are and I will say that's one of the benefits of having at the elementary level maker spaces in every building the maker spaces that we're putting in at the middle school and high school level having a space wherein those materials can be stored supplied and regularly available is huge right because even even in the event that the teacher wants to go out and buy it oftentimes it comes down to a storage and Logistics issue right so being able to have that available is is certainly part of the plan all of
045the curriculum that we're adopting I think pretty much all Maybe minus the computer science will include kits that have all the materials and those kits are refilled every year that's absolutely outstanding I'm sure our educators are going to be very pleased to hear that um one other follow-up question and that is you referenced a rubric that you all use is that rubric the same rubric that's used across all adoptions it is not so that that rubric was very specific to stem education it is one that we adopted from um the stem ecosystem which is a Statewide organization that provided a resource for us to look at stem curriculum through that lens uh the the teachers that served on the committee use that to particularly at the Caravan and in some of those presentations to kind
046of give them a starting point to to judge everything off of and then superintendent Smith I do have a question about CTE courses are those because I know some of our CTE courses my daughter had the great opportunity to attend McKinsey career center and really really enjoyed the biomed courses and so thinking about science and so forth are those courses also taken into consideration in terms of textbook adoption at this time they are not so yes biomed and those programs are fantastic they are in a different cycle than this right here okay however I will say one of the lenses through which we looked specifically at the high school programming is how can we take elements of those incredible expertise level programs like biomedical science and Infuse those down into like a biology course that
047is available for for all kids right so that was a lens through which we really looked at this adoption Stan again thank you so much for all the hard work that all of you have poured into this I Echo what Ms Dunn was uh was saying about the work that you all have put into this this is a lot of of work on everyone's behalf uh one question this is actually a question for Roger Smith I don't mean to pull you back into this convo but I'm wondering if you could just highlight some of the work that we're doing in all of the different buildings to help support some of this learning because as we all know Sciences uh is needs some physical space to help support um to support that activity so if you
048could just tell us a bit about that we work with curriculum at all levels at all buildings so as you heard uh well they wanted stem in the elementary so they designed it we put it in place and build it and they are using it so we do that at each level the maker spaces is what I was hoping you could kind of touch on just quickly the maker spaces and some of the updates that are planned for the middle schools and yeah yeah a lot of neat things that they have required in the maker space we've actually grown the space from the old industrial Arts areas in our middle schools and turning that space into both robot robotics as well as Project Lead the Way in the stem space and of course with the
049high schools we have made historic changes in their facilities would you agree high schools okay it's been a long time so all of their facilities have been upgraded into modern spaces and Roger Smith was starting on the middle schools so Dr Smithy thought I was going to let him the hook but I wanted him to brag about those maker spaces a little bit put that on the record all happened thank you Mr mcaloon for that wonderful update you've all covered all the points that I had so um we'll accept that as information this evening and we will move on to our board goals updates Mustin Dr Smith members of the board were excited to bring to you tonight an update of our board goals and we'll begin tonight with equity and anti-racism and we'll look
050to miss La Plante for that date thank you just as an update we do continue to implement the action plan that was approved by the board almost a year ago this month and we continue to update and put our progress on the dashboard as we move forward to student achievement just a review of the goals our graduation rate as you know the goal is to maintain a 93 graduation rate we will have a preliminary idea at the end of July and then we'll have a final number um in October of 2023 of where we've landed this year our rigor Diagnostics this is our instructional goal how we get in and take a look at how all of our teachers and buildings are doing with our instructional framework the goal is to have an end-of-year score
051of a nine or to grow by two points from beginning of the year to end of the year we are just now starting those we've had three buildings complete their end of the year with diagnostic to date our growth of 10 percent with the number of students meeting grade level proficiency as you can see our semester update is on there and we will be able to give you an end-of-year update at the end of May and then an increase by 10 percent of the number of students designated as approaching at or above proficiency for iLearn the iLearn window starts April 17th and goes into May and by the time it's ready for public it'll should be about the middle of June that we can give you an update on that data our next area is
052strategic planning and as you've heard pre yes it's on can you hear it now okay thank you Dr Smith um as you might remember from previous updates we completed focus group interviews with Dr Jill Kramer in November December and January and then held to very well attended community-wide meetings on February 1st and March 2nd um we have since March 2nd been taking the input from the various um uh strategy groups and compiling that for you and we tentatively will have a board recommendation to you at our April 24th meeting up next is our people goals and I'll turn it over to miss Carla Johnson our chief of Human Resources good evening Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board proudly present our people goals we've not had any changes since our last update but
053in the four areas our first one are all employees will participate in common District develop PD for all job classifications and that all Remains the Same I we're hoping to have a hundred percent completion of our safe schools by the end of the year but we're constantly bringing on new staff in various roles intentional focus on hiring recruiting and retaining our bilingual staff that is our new goal for us this year and we're in the process of working with technology and building a Data Tracking System for that goal increasing our racial and ethnic certified staff diversity by three percent through Recruitment and Retention our current reality we remain steady at the 48 percent and recruiting and retaining 90 percent of District effective and highly effect of teachers will be able to bring you an update
054on that at the end of the evaluation season so we have operations and finance and most of these levels Center on finance we'll turn over to Mr Matt miles yes as we shared the first two goals in our operations in finance were end of year end of calendar year goals and we've met those we shared those of our last update but uh just so that you the audience can see those once again our cash balance goal which again we met 1231 of 22 and all of our taxing funds being a positive balance once again we met that 1231 of 22. but happy to share tonight a little more detail in our third goal we had previously mentioned that we had met this goal but just some additional details here are minority vendor spend the goal
055as a refresher was three percent we actually added 43 percent more vendors from calendar year 21 to 22 and that's not a typo you don't normally see a percentage like that but it was a 1.8 million dollar additional spend uh year over year with our minority-owned vendors thank you and last but not least Safety and Security Mr Roger Smith we continue on with Safety and Security plans are in place and we'll follow those plans to the end of the school year and carry those on into the summer pre-impose security checklists changes as the weather and activities change and then to review and update the board policies and we're gearing up for this summer at the end of the legislation probably to do some more updates on board policy expand and updating internal School plan equipment
056of course we're just moving right into the middle school so we'll start those safety processes as renovation takes place at the middle schools it's even happy applications just just a statement you know as somebody who works in sales um an 8 000 increase in your quota is is quite impressive so it's very exciting to see the amount of minority vendors we're bringing into this District to to start to start working on our buildings and and helping us move this District forward I don't have a I have a comment um that's TIG ahead of those good old narratives you know um one of the things that I wanted to emphasize I know that when we had talked about or brought up equity and the intentional use of anti-racism I just wanted to read really quickly and
057these also too I thank you guys for bearing with us because we get questions we get emails and so some of the questions that are framed are addressing those in a form to where there's not to where to where it's just clear um and so one of the things that I wanted to um Give a definition for was the difference between equity and E and equality as to why we chose equity and not equality equality versus Equity equality simply means everyone has treated the exact same way regardless of need or any other individual difference equity on the other hand means everyone is provided with what they need to succeed the example of that would be um during cobit hot spots we could have given everybody a hot spot but that would have been a waste
058of resources and other things that could have been delegated properly the hot spots went to those students that needed them that is an example of equity and so as we move forward and we keep looking at policies I thank you that we are leaning into this because I also see it as um like a risk management as we stay ahead of this as we said in one of our courses and learned about how there's different Bills moving forward different laws moving forward as far as was it the disability um yeah Title One there are so many things that are moving forward that when you view equity through the lens that we're viewing it through it's also a way to lessen risk um mitigation so I just wanted to just put that out there that we're
059just not doing this because it sounds fun but it's actually purposeful and our students have benefited from it and that is the reason why we chose the word equity and not equality there's a very vast difference so hope that allow Clarity that's it great point this bucket yeah thank you for clarifying that that's a question I get often too to our equity and anti-racism policy I would also like to say that um every time I choose that button on our home page there's an update and I really appreciate how tightly we're sticking to our plan how tightly we're working that plan it might be something perhaps if the board wants to that we want to review at a at a coming meeting because I'm so proud of the work you all have done I'm proud
060of the work we did to create that to create that initiative and I'm so proud of of how tightly you manage the information and how that's coming it must and I was just also going to Express gratitude to each of the cabinet members for these updates um you guys are doing tremendous work the work of the equity just everything that you pour into this district is much appreciated and we appreciate the updates thank you very much absolutely so that brings us if there's no more questions or comments that brings us to our protected tax waiver Mr miles thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board in front of you you have a memo for us to apply for a protected tax waiver from the state of Indiana this is something that we do
061procedurally each year and it helps to protect our operations budget our operations fund rather than take all of the hit of our property tax caps in the operations fund this allows us to spread that over all taxing funds and so we bring it to you tonight initially here as an information item and it is time sensitive so we'll see it again a little later for and as we come back and ask for approval to take action on it questions board if there are no questions we'll move on to the proposed a memorandum of understanding between the district and the Lea Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board I bring to you our memorandum of understanding between the district and the Lea that's being presented to you an mou that is designed after the
062collective bargaining agreement is that we were unaware of these funds this was an unanticipated act in that Lawrence Township was able to apply for a grant for the doe and we received word over spring break that we've been approved for that Grant and so now to seek your permission for the funding as we look at it to support Brook Park Elementary for student achievement when we look at the area of student achievement one of the areas that Brook Park has not been able to have a full staff keep it fully staffed and so we would like to look at the funds for using a sign-on bonus of twenty five hundred dollars for all teachers that were able to hire as well as providing a three thousand dollar retention for teachers that will remain with Brook
063Park for three years so we are going to look at a reimbursement agreement but that is why we are bringing this to you it is a very short cycle in which we applied the funds have to be expended by mid-september so we are anxious as our principal is looking for candidates to be able to utilize that so we will be bringing this for approval later on in the action item this evening questions I had a comment um I wanted to say I appreciate bullet point three about addressing the uh the climate and culture of the building because um bonuses are are so valuable but if you have a great school culture environment you want to work there absolutely and we even heard that at our conference so I really appreciate that thank you absolutely I
064really appreciate the use of Sig funds in this in this manner I and I also think this is going to definitely help principal Posey for sure so great way to use those dollars the one clarifying question I did have is how are you going to ensure that folks actually stay for that three-year period of time well we're planning to go out and meet with the Brook Park staff once this is approved and to share that and to be able to have stable leadership at that building will be key I think when we look at all the different things that are being provided for that staff the renovation the curriculum the updates why would they not want to be here plus they've got a little extra Change Is there going to be if they do leave
065before those three years is there any sort of contract that they are signing that they would return Yes we share with them yeah because we already have that in place so please share with the board members yeah they're a reimbursement agreement okay we've got a great teacher leaves they're going to sign that at our go out and share that share that perfect thank you so much and board member Don we do that also with professional development in many categories when we spend a certain amount we ask that staff sign off on that okay if there are no more comments that brings us to our action items um approval of our construction bids for the lecc renovation Mr Smith Madam president members of the board Dr Smith I'd first like to recognize Fannie and Howie Dennis
066Bain who is here with us again tonight and also with powers and Son Dustin Thurman who helped bring this recommendation to the board tonight and we recommend the board approve the bids and GMP contract for the lecc building as presented not all in favor please say aye aye any opposed the eyes have it we move on to the approval of the resolution for the 2023 protected tax waiver Mr miles thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board as we discussed a moment ago tonight in front of you you have our recommendation for approval for a protected tax waiver and at this time we ask for you to approve the recommendation so moved second properly moved and seconded any further discussion or comments if not all those in favor aye aye any opposed the
067eyes have it now we'll move um Miss Johnson to our approval of the mo proposed mou Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board as was presented the information memorandum of understanding we seek approval to proceed some who did that excuse me all right second properly moved and seconded if there's no discussion move on to the vote all in favor aye any opposed the eyes have it the memory has been approved approved and we have the approval of the Personnel report Wisconsin Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board we seek approval of the Personnel report that has been submitted so moved second properly moved and seconded all those in favor please any opposed yeah I used to have it we've approved our Personnel report thank you well it's that time that lovely
068time for board comments and um administrator comments so I'm going to go ahead and start on this side tonight miss Dunn thank you so much president Mustin I just want to express uh extreme gratitude to the wonderful secretary to the board Sheila Blankenship as well as superintendent Smith as um as our secretary and vice president shared we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel as a board to the National School Board Administration conference and as somebody who's newly elected of the board that's still learning the ropes it was a wonderful way to learn alongside of my fellow board members and also to have fellowship and so just really want to express the Gratitude to the district for investing not in not only in our people in our schools and our students but also
069investing in us it's very much appreciated and um Sheila you always go above and beyond and you my friend are dearly dearly dearly loved and respected by these people that are all seen around this so thank you very much well said well said well thank you thank you madam president to that end Sheila helped me move my flight around I had a family emergency she's just the bee's knees thank you so much Sheila for all of the work you do and I just to Echo what um what Ms Dunn was saying you know I think um I think it's very easy to take for granted having a collegial board a board that that likes cares for and respects one another we had exposure to boards that do not have that at all and you know
070I I think what that says is not that we aren't here to question or to push back or to have a voice in the ongoing work of the district but it but we do so with a matter of respect and an ability to um always assume the best intent of one another and I just you know I think moments like being able to go to Orlando and um you know have the most delicious Cuban bread ever together um is you know is just one example of how we actually do want to work together for the betterment of this district and I'm so grateful that I sit up here every week well every other week with you all um and um we even just as a little behind the scenes you know share family photos together
071with one another and so I just I want to point out that that is that is an asset that this community has that many other communities don't have and it is very important particularly in trying times that we work together to continue that sort of effort thank you thank you very much Miss Lawrence Miss Norman yes thank you for saying that Miss Lawrence um one thing that became apparent to me is As on the board the superintendent we set the tone for the district in some ways so if we can show respect and dignity and professionalism um because we do care we all care we all have passion I think that's what we all um collectively agreed on um and work together well so that's kind of an area I felt called is um to
072be to be good public servants and to lead by example as best we can to go along with Miss Puckett's point of equity I hadn't planned on speaking on this but it just kind of naturally materialized tonight when I think of equity I have a personal story I get to share with people of it in action my youngest daughter Ellie is sitting in the back right now stretching um oh yeah yes yeah Ellie um our district this was equity in action um she couldn't walk when she started preschool at age three at the ELC the care team put together an amazing plan and had her I mean I think Mr Smith even remember seeing her walking down the hall in her gait trainer um but um so it's kind of come full circle it's a
073big reason why I serve for all the kids but um all those extra supports that were put in place that she needed to be a successful learner were put in place and to me that's Equity she's able to be in a general education classroom with her peers so I think the whole district for this this is and to go along with that my second point that I was going to make it ties into it is I want to thank our state legislators for meeting with us during this busy time being able to share our stories of how the tax dollars impact real kids real teachers real people is powerful and I don't take that privilege for granted and I just um I thank the rest of the board and Dr Smith and all of our
074legislators who had time to discuss the topics that are important in public education as they work through the budget it well said well said Miss Puckett I'm behind that I mean um just now I'm gonna have my tennis shoes on tomorrow I'll be standing in solidarity as we go down to the state house tomorrow pack the house event at 10 A.M at our state state house it's the only place where you can bombard your leaders and it not be creepy like literally last Tuesday we were running to catch up with them to talk to them and stop and I have the 30 second Pitch down to a science so if you guys need to any speaking points I've got you but that's 10 a.m tomorrow at the state house I'll be there standing yeah thank
075you for that further service I appreciate it I appreciate it so much and you know I got a little smoke in my eyes up here with all these comments today I I appreciate working with each and every one of you and um I want to say that on Friday um Dr Alter Meyer organized a meeting with our PFO leaders there were a lot of PFO leaders in this room we have representation in our schools and um the the discussion was all about the kids and a little bit about a solar eclipse to come so so and a little bit about our calendar and that solar eclipse so stay tuned um thank you all for all the hard work you've done I know our teachers have left but my goodness there there's no District without our
076teachers and for those of you in the back that are helping make our buildings um the vision of our buildings come to fruition thank you so much too okay and Ellie we see you okay yeah you're Smith thank you madam president and members of the board I want to remind you our next meeting is April 24th I do advise you to bring your firm handshakes as Mr kuznick and Dr Brown have informed me they've invited the entire Township to be honored we will have 300 plus honorees we have had a good year for Lawrence Township when it comes to achievements in our school corporation so we'll have a robust recognition at our April 24th board meeting we're starting Madam president at 6 30 because we have so many honorees that we do plan to take
077through we also have a few individual honorees that we will have so we won't be in this room because Roger Smith just a reminder this room will take over as a early voting Center so we'll be in the PD room for the next meeting so that's all I have today Madam president board members thank you well thank very much so we are we are oh