School Board Organizational Meeting & Work Session: 1-7-26

001Good evening everybody. I'm going to try not to screw this up um tonight, but I'm going to call this meeting to order. And the purpose of the beginning of the meeting is for schoolboard organization for 2026. Um I'd like to call the role for attendance. Miss Bassine >> here. Miss Buffalo >> here. >> Dr. Martin >> present. >> Mr. Pollson, Colonel Pollson >> here. >> Miss Slaughter >> present. >> Miss Thomas >> here. >> Mr. Collierro. >> All right. Made it through the first part. So we're we're doing all right now. Um now nominations are now in order for the office of board chair. Do I have any nominations? >> I nominate Miss Thomas. >> Um I'd like to nominate uh Mrs. Moa Buffalo. Any more nominations? All right. If not, I need a motion

002to take a vote. >> Motion that we take >> and a second. >> Second. >> So, the motion by Mr. Caligarro, second by Dr. Martin. Um, so I'm going to now call each board member's name. if you'd respond in the um with the name of the candidate that you're voting for here, I'd appreciate it. Uh >> sorry, hold on. Um I'd like to uh I'm voting for Mrs. Moore Buffalo, and I'd like to state why. Um Mrs. Mrs. Moore Buffalo led our school board when she was previously chaired through sorry our uh student outcomes focused uh movement so to speak um where we put greater focus on our students and I think we made tremendous progress with our board goals and non-negotiables under her leadership and I think that's where we need to kind of

003get back to and um I'm looking forward to having her continue in that role. Um, so I'm supporting Mrs. Moore Buffalo. >> Thank you, Miss Buffalo. >> Buffalo, >> Dr. Martin. >> More Buffalo. >> Colonel Pollson. >> Miss Thomas. >> Miss Slaughter. >> Miss Thomas. >> Thomas. >> Mr. Calerro, >> Miss Moore Buffalo, >> and Mr. Cloud, if you'd verify, I had four for Miss More Buffalo and three for Miss Thomas. >> Yes. Well, >> um, so at this point, I'd like to congratulate Miss Moore Buffalo as the chair for the school board for 2026. And if we can take a brief pause to reposition U, Mr. Kalera, Miss Mor Buffalo, >> congratulations. >> Thank you. Hey, to move on to the position of vice chair. Well, again, thank you everyone. We're going to move

004forward with the agenda. May I have a motion um rec um for vice chair? Names for vice chair. >> Nominate Miss Slaughter. >> Slaughter is nominated for vice chair. Is there any other names for Buffalo? Um I'd like to nominate Sarah de Caligerro. Let's just stick to the >> So, Miss Slaughter, I'm sorry. >> I think you're supposed to ask if there's any more nominations. I didn't hear that. >> I'm going to my script. I need to stick with my script. So, is there any other names for the nominees? Not the motion to close nomination is in order. So do I hear a second? All in favor to close nominations. >> I all those uh opposed. Mr. Cloud, please call the role of each member. Dr. Paul is going to do it. >> Oh, yeah.

005>> Okay. I appreciate that, Dr. Paul. >> Okay. So, I'm going to call the role and please state the name of the individual that you support for vice chair. Miss Bassine >> Caliro Buffalo Decalero Dr. Martin Caliro >> Colonel Pollson U Miss Thomas Slaughter. Excuse me. I was looking at her name tag, >> Miss Slaughter. >> Thank you, >> Thomas. >> Caligger. >> So, with that said, I have four votes for D. Caligger and three votes for Miss Slaughter. Congratulations, Miss Dalero. Okay, with that said, we're going to move on to item number 2.03. I'm going >> 2.03. Um, Dr. P. Recommendation for a board clerk. >> Thank you very much. Uh, I'd like to uh I'd like to recommend um uh Miss Karen Tanner as the as the board clerk. Uh she's been in

006the position for about the past 5 years and I'd like to administration recommends she continue in that position. >> You heard the recommendation for board clo to I have a motion to that >> recommendation for there a second. I second Martin second discussion hearing none call it again >> this procedure okay >> and then Miss Tanner will take over >> okay Miss Bassine I >> Buffalo I Dr. Martin. >> Hi. >> Colonel Pollson. >> Abstain. >> Miss Slaughter. >> Hi. >> Misty Caligger. >> Hi. >> Recommendation. Motion passes. We're going to move on to item number 2.04. Dr. Pole. recommendation for the superintendent designate. >> Thank you again. Um I have uh a couple different recommendations due to a retirement. I would recommend Dr. Michael Katado stay in the the position of superintendent designate till

007retirement at the end of this month. And following his retirement, I recommend both Dr. Sherry Agnes Scott, our chief human resources officer and Mr. Richard Fail Freillley, our chief operations officer, to be in the roles of designate. Board members, you've heard the recommendation. May I have a motion to that effect? >> Second. >> A second. >> I will call the row. Miss Bassine. >> I Buffalo. >> I Dr. Martin. >> I. >> Colonel Pollson. >> I. >> Miss Slaughter. >> I. >> Miss Thomas. >> Hi. >> Miss D. Caligger. >> Hi. Motion passes 70. >> With that said, we're going to move on to 3.01, academic state of schools. I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Paul. >> Um, thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, and we have with us Miss McGarity, who is going

008to review, as you've seen, a a plethora of data that was uploaded. Um I have um worked with uh Miss McGary and we've talked through how to streamline this knowing the board has read through the data already. Um and and then we'll be prepared for questions at the end. Um of course. Yes. >> Have the work session starting at 4 pm. Is it >> loud? Uh, so it was advertised as not starting till 4 pm. >> Then we can recess for It's 3:40 now, so we're going to recess for 20 minutes. >> I think that's a good idea. >> Be in 20 minutes. going to call us back from uh recess to get started on our work session. Um we're going to start with 3.01. Dr. Pole. >> All right. Thank you again and uh

009here's Miss McGary to to share the data with us. >> Okay. Good evening, Chair Mor Buffalo, Vice Chair Daler, board members, and Dr. Pole. I have the pleasure of presenting the state of the schools for Norfick public schools tonight. Throughout the 2425 school year, divisions in Virginia endured many changes. While that is true for Norphick P, Norfick public schools and ensured we navigated that change with intention, stayed the course for stability and ensuring serving students was the focus of our course. This presentation is organized around three questions. How is accountability changed? What do the results show? and how is Norphick public schools responding while staying focused on instruction? To answer those questions, the presentation is chunked into two sections with an appendex of slides that are forformational purposes only. The first section will be a

010review of the Virginia accountability and accreditation final outcomes of the 2425 school year. The second section will dive into each component highlighting data on Norfick students performance that led to the accountability outcomes. At the end of each section, I'll ask you to join me in celebrating our schools for all the hard work they did throughout the school year. Let's begin with section one with the accountability and accreditation outcomes by school. These visuals are intended as a reminder of the two systems in Virginia that we reviewed in a November school board meeting. The one on the left is a representation of the accountability system known as the SPSF and on the right is the accreditation system. The two systems represent an explicit input output review of schools. Virginia school performance and support framework. The SPSF is

011the explicit output system to review and report on student outcomes resulting in a performance category and possible federal identification for schools. Virginia's accreditation system is the explicit input system to review and report on implementation of school interdivision requirements resulting in an accreditation status for each school. The two systems we'll discuss are listed here with the addition of the federal identifications layer of accountability. This frames the entire section that follows. Important context as we go through regarding the systems is that schools can have mixes of categories, identifications and/or statuses. For example, a school may be fully accredited and still be identified as offtrack and may or may not be identified federally. Regarding performance on the SPSF, Norfick has 43.9% of its schools performing on track and 56.1% off track. There are zero schools in the needs

012intensive support and distinguished performance category when only considering the school's performance. We previously discussed that the SPSF does not round up the final total used to assign schools with a performance category. Due to this calculation rule by VDOE, it is important to mention for us that we had schools on the cusp of higher categories. Larchmont was half a point away from being distinguished and Southside STEM Academy, Oceanir Elementary, Lynwood, and Lynenwood Elementary were less than half a point away from being on track. Had they rounded as they have in past accountability systems, these schools would have been in the higher category. PDA's next layer to the SPSF overall performance is a more detailed review at the student group level resulting in schools being identified in one of the three possibly resulting in schools being identified

013in one of the three federal identification groups. Looking at targeted support and improvement, which we also call TSI, a school can be identified when one or more student groups performs below the designated threshold. Schools are identified annually and dropped by one performance category on the SPSF. For example, if a stu school's performance is on track, but they are TSI, they'll be dropped by one category to off track. Next is additional targeted support, they are identified every three year, reviewed and identified every three years and they as well will drop their performance category just like TSI if identified. The final identification is comprehensive support and improvement or CSI where a title one school can be identified if they are performing in the lowest 5% of schools in Virginia. Schools are identified and reviewed for exit every

0143 years and uniquely CSI schools are not dropped in their performance level. Excitedly we have some schools that exited their identification at the end of 2425 school year. Southside STEM Academy was exited from CSI due to continuous improvement in reading and math indicators for all students. Zelia Gardens, Blair Middle School, Northside Middle, Norview Middle, Little Creek, Ocean View, Ocean Air, and St. Helina elementary schools were not reidentified for ATSI or TSI based on improvement in their identified student groups. Norvick does have two new schools who entered CSI, five remaining CSI schools and seven identified as TSI. However, we have dropped by the amount of schools identified overall. The federal identifications for school changes the view of the final SPFS outcomes. It moves to 34.1% of schools are on track. 53.6% of schools are off and

01512.2% of schools are in the needs intensive support category. All bolded schools on the chart are the schools that were identified as TSI and dropped in their performance category. The recent JARK report cited the procedure of changing performance category for federally identified schools of concern which of concern which may bring changes in the future. Not for this year though. This is a comparison of Norphick um with other divisions in our region and beyond based on their school performance categories. Moving to school accreditation, all but 13 schools are fully accredited. The areas Norphick schools were cited were either section 4, which was leadership and support staffing, section 9, federal program compliance, or both. The section 4 staffing reported as out of compliance were due to unlicensed support staff such as media specialists, school counselors, GED teacher,

016and athletic director. Section 9 was due to lack of student improvement in the SPF, SPSF. All procedural areas were followed for section 9 and it is currently unknown how this factors into the section at the time. We've sought guidance from VDOE though. A formal accreditation appeal has been submitted and received by VDOE at this time. The Virginia Board of Education will review the appeal and determine if a change will be made for this year um for the listed schools. Regarding celebrations, really the celebrations are Larchmont, Southside STEM, Oceaner Elementary, and Lynenwood have been so close to on the cusp of those higher designations. Moving into section two of this presentation, the data outcomes are based on each of the SPSF components. Most sections are structured the same, so we'll review the initial section and then

017move quickly through the remaining data while pointing out highlights and celebrations. As a reminder, the accountability system was being developed and changed throughout the school year. The results presented in this presentation reflect teaching and learning under changing accountability conditions. So moving into mastery and growth of reading here are a review of for reading to navigate of the barriers that we had to navigate through throughout the school year. The top barrier on the list is not only the amount of vacancies in teacher positions but the experience levels of teachers as well. This will be a general theme throughout um along with the other barriers listed and a lot of those are just what the requirements were were for this SPSF as we are going through the year. It's a lot of text here. I'm not going

018to go through it. The list is here for your review. But as barriers were navigated, Norfick Public Schools stayed the course in a focused and intentional way. And we'll continue to move forward with that same intentionality. The course and steps forward for all areas are divided in two equally important chunks. Improving the tier one core instruction and targeted interventions and extensions. Specific elements are then listed in each chunk for review as needed. The first area is focusing on tier one instruction which ensures that every student receives consistent highquality standards aligned instruction as their first and most powerful opportunity for learning. When core instruction is effective, coherent and accessible, the majority of students are able to meet grade level expectations without the need for additional information. Here one is where prevention happens and where systemwide improvement

019has the greatest return on investment. couch that with staffing vacancies and years of experience of Norphick teachers, the improvement of tier one instruction is the most sustainable lever we can pull at this time. Simultaneously with improving and protecting tier one instruction, targeted interventions and extensions provide focus short-term interventions for students who require additional support or enrichment beyond tier 1. These supports are designed to respond to specific student needs identified with varying measures. The targeted interventions and extensions should never replace or impede on tier one instruction time, but provide supports focused directly on individual student needs. These are our annual pass rates in the area of reading. The green arrows illustrate the student groups that improved when comparing them to the prior school year. So, spring 25 to spring 24. And if there is a yellow

020star as well, there's been improvement each year from 22 23 to this current year. So multiple of our student groups have improved continuously over the years. Digging further into our annual pass rates, let's look at the outcomes at the performance level, which helps us understand the mastery index outcomes of the SPSF. The four performance levels on reading will also be on math on a future slide. They're pass advanced, pass proficient, fail basic, and fail below basic. And just as a quick reminder, pass advanced is the highest and fail below basic is the lowest. Growth compared to mastery of students gives us a glimpse at who is improving as a result of instruction based on performance levels. These data show that while mastery remains a challenge, a majority of students are demonstrating academic growth which is

021critical in trans in a transition year under new standards. While focus is given to the students who are in that failed below basic area. The top corner left corner high performing high growth. Bottom right corner low performing low low no growth. for reading. Let's celebrate again for reading. And the schools listed here, there's many schools listed and they are celebrated for continuous improvement um of proficiency by student groups and for large amounts of growth at their schools. Right? So, we're going to move into the math section. And for math, science, and history, we're going to move much faster. They are laid out the same exact way. So, with math, we have math barriers here. Again noticing similarities of pieces along with what's added for math is also um delays in textbooks and from the state.

022We have here the barriers of the course forward in math organized into tier one core instruction ways of tier one core instruction improvement and also targeted interventions and extensions um for focusing on students who have the higher needs math annual pass rates. So if there's a same as reading if there's a green arrow and a yellow a green arrow they've improved over from the prior year the yellow star two years and then if they have a purple star then they have had three years of continuous improvement in these student groups which we have a lot of purple stars which is great that we are moving forward looking at the performance levels in math you have the same perform four performance levels for math as we did with reading ing pass advance being the highest performing

023fail below basic being the lowest performing. Looking at the growth that comparison of the amount of growth it is a similar pattern to reading um when we look at this same layout for reading and math at the student group levels we are seeing the patterns across the board being exactly the same. In the area of celebrations for math, same thing. We have many schools listed here. They are listed for continuous um improvement in proficiency in math as well as growth points. All right. Science science list of science barriers. We see a lot of the similar pieces here. Um, a few little things move around, but they are pretty common across all the areas. And then moving forward, staying the course, protecting and improving that tier one instruction, as well as improving and leveraging targeted interventions

024and extensions. Here are science annual pass rates. With those pass rates, you see same exact thing. We have some that have three years, some two years, some just one year. Um, so we are picking up some steam across the past three areas that we have looked at. Here's the science annual pass rates down into the performance level. Notice there are only three. There is not a fail below basic level for science at this time. Science celebrations. Again, many schools are on here that are schools for continuous improvement towards proficiency. There's no growth as part of science. So, that isn't a piece that we have here. Next, we have history. History barriers. Again, very similar to everything else. Um, some of it is there's also with history. One of the additional pieces that have been added

025is just available time due to test especially in grade five. But some changes that were made this year should be um mitigating some of that issue. History staying the course moving forward. Same things. It's not the exact same things within the list, but really appropriate things around protecting and improving tier one instruction and focusing on tier targeted interventions. History annual pass rates. We're not seeing as much movement as we have been in the other areas, but we do have a few that have improved across at least the the one year. And again, looking at the pass rates at proficiency level, history, just like science, only has three performance levels. history celebrations. These are lots of schools on here. Same things though for continuous improvement. Um we're really looking at those annual pass rates when I

026keep mentioning the continuous rep improvement. So that is the base and foundation of all of the systems. um as well as then this one is just like science there's no growth and so this piece of it is just that continued proficiency moving to EL progress there are barriers for EL progress staffing is one but it's a little different where there was an SOQ change so been hiring um to get people in so that we can fill those spots but as a reminder here I want to get a little more specific about what the EL progress is. It is measured by for kindergarten through grade 12 EL students its growth spring to spring on the required English language proficiency test. Schools must have 15 students in grades K through 12 to have this calculation included in

027their SPSF. If not, the points allotted to EL progress are then redistributed to other areas. The recent JALK report also spotlights this practice as a concern because other indicators become weighted heavier for some schools than they do when compared to others. So things can start to get muddy a little bit of what's going on when you're making those comparisons. The likelihood is this will change in the future but it was not in place for this data set. So another here stay in the course moving forward. Again a big focus is also getting those EL positions um filled. Looking at the progress and proficiency data for EL. What this is is comparing EL progress to proficiency. Progress monitors students improvement year after year and proficiency monitors the percentage of EL students meeting English language proficiency established

028by VDOE for the year. And that is all with that language proficiency assessment, not from SOS. We have a state level celebration here. So I want to highlight Larchmont Elementary. They were reported out by VDOE as one of the top five schools for EL progress in the state. So I want to make sure we really do highlight highlight that exciting celebration. All right, continuing to move quickly. We're moving into graduation and readiness. With graduation, remember it was the state has moved to using the four-year graduation outcomes and in another location the six-year but of the federal graduation indicators. Um we're we've always talked about the Virginia on-time graduation or the OGR, but we're going to quickly look at both of those. Graduation's unique to bar um barriers unique to graduation and how we've stayed the

029course and moving forward for graduation. Tier one instruction, it really is if you we've got to have good tier one instruction for students to be able to pass all the courses they need for graduation. So, it really is just kind of hearkening back to those other areas. Virginia on-time graduation rate. If we look at the 4-year Virginia OGR, Norfick has made a slight improvement in the OGR while the state's rate declined. As part of OGR, we have here um this is a slide we've looked at multiple times where it is the different types of OGR completers. It's represented here by the student group as well. The difference with the first two bar cluster rates is the one on-time graduation rate includes diplomas only and the other is the completion rate which also includes diplomas and

030GEDs. Now looking here with the fouryear so we just looked at what the OGR was and so your the blue bar here are your OGR rates and then the yellow bar is the FGI fouryear. So this is a comparison of those two and with where we've talked about the OGR already and the FGI this is that piece comparison the compared piece the biggest differences are going to be between students with disabilities and English learners and that's because they are legally allowed to stay longer so they might not have earned their diploma by the fourth year where this is calculated. So that piece of it that's a lot of the reason that's happening along with applied studies they also look at the sixth year. So if we are that fouryear is still that yellow bar but

031moving to the right when they look at the sixth year it is with the applied studies diplomas included for readiness. That's the blue bar to the right where we can see it is also applied studies. It is also where it is the um any additional diplomas that have been earned standard or advanced since year four. So they kind of keep tacking them on the end there. Graduation celebrations. I'm going to pull out especially because they're here my high school improving their FGI. So that is a tough one to improve because it is only advanced and standard diplomas but and they surpass Virginia's FGI. There are other schools listed here as well. All right. Chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism. It's a readiness indicator as well as it has its own unique set of barriers to navigate and

032as well as the course moving forward. Tier one instruction is still included here. Um may wonder why. The first intervention to get kids engaged is to have good engaging tier one instruction as well as targeted interventions that may be necessary for individual students. Here's over time the last five years of chronic absenteeism. So we had a little bit of a backwards slide this past year. Um but other than that you can kind of see the whole historical view. We're still not back to precoid in celebrating. We have lots of schools celebrating. lots of people did improve their rates. So, you know, it's exciting that we're seeing it's heading in the right direction. Mathematics with the advanced coursework in middle school, the there the barriers and the um course forward are the same exact thing as

033math. So, we don't have that piece. But what this includes is passing assessments in algebra 1 and geometry in middle schools and any of our combined schools. These are just the rates overall. And then here we have um enrollment just to see are we getting kids enrolled and with who with the kids that we do have enrolled which enrollment did go up for this past year in these courses that we have what are the percentages of students who are enrolled what their demographics I am really excited about this one as well this celebration um I want to highlight on this slide that the middle schools listed here which are Southside STEM Academy, Crossroads, and Academy for Discovery that they had a 100% pass rate for their EOCC math assessments in the spring. That is a

034very exciting one. >> A hard thing to do. >> Am I right that all three of these schools are K so schools? >> Yes, they're all combined schools. >> Interesting. I would agree. But it's very exciting to see these pass rates. These kiddos are leaving middle school especially these re ready for high school endeavors. >> 3E framework nav this was one that was just a big barrier in itself. So the 3e framework includes an index of students who participate in enrollment employment or enlistment tasks to be ready for their post-secary life. This area has been and continues to be the most challenging indicator to navigate regarding the guidelines and requirements. We have here courses forward. One of the big courses is us understanding more about you know everybody understanding more and more about what's being

035calculated here. These are the tasks that students have the options for in this past year. This is changing moving forward. Um so but for this data set these this is the completion rate of those ta any of those tasks. So we had 38.7% of students completed a task in enrollment. 54.7% of students completed a task in the area of employment and 6.6% of students completed a task in enlistment. The tasks are going to be updated mostly in the area of enlistment for the upcoming school year. It's not fully clear how much change there will be though. This indicator is another area JARK cited in their report as concern with and then with follow up with recommended changes regardless of all of the challenges we had through all of the barriers we had. Um Mory and

036Graby High School were still able to earn 80% or more of the points for their 3E indicator. Key takeaways from all of this to try and sum up all of the data we've just quickly gone through are one, accountability has changed, but our instructional focus has not. Two, results are a combination of progress and navigating challenges. Three, no schools fell below the lowest performance category threshold when considering performance only. Four, growth is happening for students. Five, these results are used to guide our course moving forward, including supports to schools. And six, stability matters as we move forward in this work. In summary, Norfick Public Schools has demonstrated improvement despite significant barriers and challenges with noticeable gains across multiple indicators along with no schools falling below the lowest performance threshold when considering overall performance. This progress

037affirms our direction while underscoring the importance of continuing the work ahead of accelerating Norfol public schools student outcomes. One quick look at the totality of the celebrations and Southside STEM Academy at Campastella had the most celebrations across the entire um presentation in each area which really does speak to a comprehensive improvement um for the school. So they showed up the most times all as it gets smaller they are showing up less and less but again all important then the I am ready for questions 26 minutes though not 20. Okay. Well, board members, you've heard the presentation. Are there any questions and all put your hand up at once? Go ahead. I have questions. Um, but happy to defer to anyone else and go last. >> Can I just make a statement? >> Yeah. I'm so

038proud of the work that's being done at Southside STEM Academy and so notable and those kids deserve that and I'm just James and her team for this >> for a while and work I know everyone's been working hard behind the scenes but >> move your mic closer. >> Oh yeah, sorry. I was just saying how just how proud I am of the progress being made at Southside STEM Academy. Um, it's gotten a bad wrap for a while and I know everyone in that building has been working really hard to make sure that those students get on track and not and they've more than gotten out of track. They've blown it out of the water and I think it's really exciting. >> Yes, I would agree. >> Miss Bing. >> Yes. >> Um, so there's a

039lot of great information here. Um, so thank you again for walking us through um what our results look like with this new framework. Um, and I'm still, you know, trying to get my handle on it as well. Um, one of the biggest pieces, you know, and I've been watching how other districts are also trying to communicate this with their in their communication plans, and I think everybody's trying to figure this out, >> of, you know, the accreditation piece, which is the definition of it is so different than what we've been been used to over the years. And so, you know, it's easy and I've seen the state pushing it out. you know, just how are we as a district going to be communicating um our accountability results, the school performance, which is really ultimately what,

040you know, why we're here, why we exist, what people really want to know, how our students are doing. Um, and the accreditation piece, which is really all the adult inputs, right? So, how are we as a district going to be communicating that out to our families and our community? And if you know, if you still in the process of figure trying to think through that, you know, I understand, but I just >> Yeah. And I'll I'll take that, Miss McGary. So, you know, with the late data shared with us that was confirmed by the state, um we'll we'll be similar to what we've done in years past where at the school level they'll be sharing their celebrations as well as their needs. It'll show up in their uh comprehensive school support plans um that that

041are, you know, published online and put out every every year. Um as a division, um we'll work to create um uh web you know, a website that shares the data differently now and it'll share it in two different ways. It'll share our um accountability um and our accreditation. Um so we'll you know we'll openly share the you know the schools and where they fall in the four categories. Um and then we'll we'll look at doing something over time as well so that we can see movement over the categories over time. Um, and then for the accreditation piece, we'll we'll be very clear that that it is adult inputs. Like, you know, to be clear, one of our schools was accredited with conditions because we couldn't find a library media specialist. And in order, we we

042found out later that if we would have just said the position was vacant, >> that school would be accredited. So, those are the kind of appeals that we have. And so, once we hear back from those, we'll publicize that more. We're just waiting to hear back so we don't publicize one thing and then go back and publicize something different. Um we did get confirmation the appeals were um received um well before the deadline for the appeals from the VDOE but really looking and you know and then also looking at what other divisions are doing. I've seen some of the smaller divisions have really nice graphics >> because they can fit like all the smaller um school things on there but you know ours can be a little bit different. So um as we go on

043and then it's not it won't be uncommon I think next year to kind of maybe take a different direction a little bit once we see what might be better of how to do it. really trying to be transparent with our data as we have um and and you know show the areas of celebration but the clearly the areas of growth that we need to see as well and that's one thing the new system does do is it really opens up and shows some areas of of growth where we need to we need to improve upon >> right so kind of transitioning into that thank you Dr. for that. Um because I know once we figure that out as a board member who's out in the community, I think it's important um for us to have

044any highle talking points that you feel uh would help us engage in those conversations because you know accreditation you know has just like I said you know previously been one thing but you know that might be the first thing that they ask about like where are we and so if you were to take what we have right Now, that would be close to synonymous with what was previously accreditation. Would it be the ontrack versus offtrack um percentages? That would be right. I mean, that's what I would get, but I just wanted to verify that >> and I that's what we pretty much have been functioning off of because the distinguish is supposed to be above and beyond what's expected. Um, of course we want to all shoot for that, but on track, off track, and

045then looking at it at that performance before federal is applied. Federal MA the federal identifications matter, but that dropping and especially with JARK really citing that practice um as an issue. So really because where are you performing because we have the 12.2 that are needs intensive support, but really their performance was up and off track. Um and some of them were really close to even popping over into ontrack maybe you know with that federal identification. So that's kind of that toss up. So we really try and talk about it from performance first. >> Right. Okay. >> Let let me extend on that a little bit because it has been interesting to watch even as media has brought out things. You know I do believe when we look at last the past accreditation system it does

046more lean towards the distinguished ontrack offtrack needs intent of support. So if you look at ours last year we were just at around 56% accreditation. This year we're 43.9% on track. If you look at the before we get docked for the CSI or the TSI ATSI schools. >> Okay. >> Um however one of the talking points that we'll share we'll create a one pager we'll share is the fact that um you know the right now it's it's with the e progress you know schools that that don't have e students every all the weights shift at that point. So that changes how this comes in. Um and and you know it's it's been interesting to watch you know other divisions report out and saying hey we're 100% accredited now and the accreditation is totally different you

047know and we could you know once once we get back the appeals we'll probably able to say we're highly accredited now but it's a totally different definition. So we'll work on some kind of a one pager for communication so you have it so it when you're at civically meetings or anywhere else you're able to talk about that more when they say well well we saw this division is 100% accredited now you can talk about well what that really means because you know we've really been trying to be talking about the bifurcated system that we have now and one's about inputs and one's about outputs >> okay and I appreciate that and that I think will be really helpful to us um but to get to now the performance performance piece, you know, so while we

048had some a lot of growth in areas, we're still have a lot of areas for improvement. And specifically, um, I wanted to, well, and and I asked this, tried to ask this ahead of time because I wasn't sure if you were, uh, going to readily have this information, but what percentage of our our African-American students in MPS are would be in the distinguished and on-track schools? Um, >> I have it available. You know, we kind of we dig down that far. Um and so with that Pete looking at it that way um or if we're looking at it there's also differences if we're looking at it before federal ID and after. So again kind of leaning on that performance piece of it. So before so um uh black students that if we look at it

049before federal ID 41% of them are in ontrack schools 33% if we look at it after federal ID. Um, if we're looking at offtrack, we're talking 58% before, 55 after, and then of the needs intensive supports, it's only after because they were dropped. Um, black students, it's 11% of the students are, >> but that's within two percentage points of where all schools fell of all students fell. >> Okay. And I I'm asking these because when you look at the JAR report too, one of the biggest indicators was was SCEs, right? And so how we target our strategies, our resources and all of that is really why I'm was asking >> across the board SCES is the highest in I mean it's the highest in each area but it is the highest of our in offtrack

050when if we look at it as on off and needs after >> right >> the federal ID. So as that really kind of rang true for us. >> Yeah. >> Um because as soon as I saw that I kind of went digging in like let's see. >> Yeah. It does. It >> does, right? Yeah. And I sus suspect it does. It always kind of has been obvious. >> And that was one of the fears going into it of a former state board member that they brought up at the beginning is that really kind of the way they're doing this really is going to just highlight more of poverty, >> right, >> concerns than it is >> Yeah, I watched those meetings and yeah, that that was >> But to that end, it's what can we

051do? We are responsible for for so much. How do we advocate for ourselves with the things that we need and then so that we can better support our students? Um so um and so there was a SLI slide 20 if we could go to that it was where 61% were not demonstrating growth um for reading. if you could speak to us a little bit about so in my understanding so they fail below basic and then did not earn growth so 61% of students >> yes I'm listening to you while I was watching >> well I'm also I'm looking at you for making sure I'm understanding this chart correctly so >> yes >> what does that so for those 61% so that 61% of those students did not grow show growth >> correct >> so What

052do we know? What are the characteristics of those students that did not show growth and um you know what do we learn from that I guess? >> So it with that that 61% is 696 kids out of the whole division. So it is so we got to remember that even though it feels like that is a big number. It's not saying that that's not important but that is of that set of kids we're really looking at um SCES is the highest. So once again, this is where those things start to become highlighted just like Jay Lark mentioned, followed by black students and students with disability as the majority of that group. And so, but what this is saying, we use this information too to look at it a little differently just to say, okay, you

053are here's your student group. We need to do this different for the student group, but it's also how are you that group breaks up in a different performance as the slide before this shows. Um, and so this is kind of showing us how are our how's our instruction landing for the different performance levels. So different performance abilities of kids maybe. Um, and also those targeted programs. So but that 61% we got to remember does not always mean that it's not being done right. We're not intervening and targeting. So this is what we talked about with the math specialists when I did a training with them around this and we look at it by student groups and everything. But it's also remembering that as we talked about that tier one instruction that is that that's a

054lever. It's a huge lever. These are also the set of kids who qualify for every intervention that is out there. So we have to be really careful and we've heard Miss Nash talk about this during the reading um the reading presentations for the goals and things like that. making sure we're not pulling them from tier one instruction to go do targeted intervention because now they're we're losing the big lever of instruction and the target the targeted interventions are becoming could be becoming that that's why this year is a big one of the big pushes from curriculum instruction is monitoring that tier one instruction is not getting not getting taken over by targeted interventions. And so, um, it could be that. We don't know for sure if it's that. So, that's really one of those we

055want to dig into that. Um, but it could allude too that maybe what the target interventions are that there's something different that needs to be done. Schools have this for everyone. We did training with all the schools, so they have the information and those kinds of things. So, um, we just have to remember that we're talking about how instruction is falling not out for kids here, not we need more targeted things because we just start pulling them out of the good instruction at the first step. >> Great. Okay. Thank you. >> And Mrs. Morbuffalo, if I wanted to pause there, I >> I was going to ask is there anyone >> other that have any questions? Okay, Miss Pine, you may proceed. >> Okay. Um, so with the math, so one of the things that

056came up with math was around the well maybe not just math but was around textbooks um not being HQIM. Can you can you elaborate on that because I know just a year ago we we adopted textbooks. >> No. So it was the the point that was made was that VDOE was very delayed with the standards and then implement then giving textbooks uh that were that that were um aligned and qualified. So they didn't give us a textbook list to to match the curriculum. So we we we actually did our RFP and everything else as the state was doing theirs because they were so delayed in that process. So it wasn't implemented as quickly as it could have been because the VDOE was delayed in the process of putting out their list of acceptable textbooks. >>

057Okay. So the textbooks that we because I went back and I was like we spent last year >> ours are ours are aligned. They're HQIM. We're good. It was the delay of the VDOE. Okay. >> On So part of the purpose was you know we we try to again with transparency you know they've taken away crosswalk years. Um the the we're implementing things as we're going. I like to say we've we've jumped out of the plane and we're sewing the parachute at the same time in some instances. Um, and you know, that's happening, but at the same time, we're trying to change our course to if that's the direction where we're going, we need to be ready to meet that direction. Um, but just pointing out that these were some barriers we faced. Um, and

058and now we're ready and and we were much more prepared this year because as we started the year, Miss McGarity and the ARRA team had all the documents for teachers. So they had all of this already prepared based off our notes, you know, for their current class based on how they performed last year. So that we knew starting the year where were they falling and what deficiencies do they have and what strengths that they have. >> Okay. So just wanted to clarify that our textbooks are are aligned and all. Yeah. Okay. >> Absolutely. State delays, but there's other materials coming. >> Okay. And we'll go ahead and let Mr. Yes. Yeah. Um, >> what percentage of our student population is Asian? >> Because they're, you know, they're a statistical anomaly here, but you know, if

059it's one or two% of our student population, it's it is >> 2%. It's right 1.9 for >> it was about 2%. And so students with disabilities make up what percentage of our population? >> About 18%. I think we went up this year from prior years, but we're about 18%. >> English learners. >> A little less. I think it's >> I think it's a little less. I I would I can get back with you. >> I think English learners I want to say 14%. >> I want to say 14 also or is sticking out in my mind, but I >> I could find out for sure. >> Yeah, it's just hard for me. L is one that keeps growing. Um, so it it's ever changing. It feels like >> it's a it's hard for me to

060quantify myself, >> you know, h what impact these different groups are having if I don't know >> what are the totals. >> What are their totals? Like like >> I have >> so our um Asian is 1.9. I remember >> um our um EL is 7.1 and our students with disability is 17.7 and we stayed pretty level last year. The the group with the highest growth was our students with disability and then our our actually our biggest decline was our SCES. They declined by 1.8 points. Absolutely. >> Numbers a little bit better. >> Can I ask a question? Type of disability because I would think that number would be a little higher. >> That's all disabilities. >> All disabilities. >> Any any child with that's any child with an IP. Any one of our students

061with an IEP. We have 17.7% of our student population that has >> But I'm sure we have student that hasn't been recognized yet. that maybe should >> that doesn't encap that doesn't include kids who maybe have been referred for evaluation. >> We're in the process and these these are our September 30 numbers. So there could be a student who's in the process at that point but we we float right around that number. Um we we've grown a little bit in the past years but um and that that also doesn't include our students who might have a 504 at this point. >> That's just IEPs. >> I was gonna ask we do have students with disabilities that have 504s. So it would be nice to know what that >> true total percentage is if we were

062able to somehow parse out the students with 504s that have disabilities. >> So we we know that it's reported it's the way it's reported is with students just with IEPs. >> So all of our data reporting there is that's how these numbers >> but but those 504 plans affect the other categories as well. So it would be good to know, you know, how many students that we ha that we have that are potentially already learning challenged, you know, and and things that we do >> because that would help with staffing, too. Correct. >> Not necessarily. The 504s wouldn't the IEPs absolutely do. 504s could be as simple as double time on a test or >> and it could it could also be temporary because of an injury. You know, it's it it they vary so

063widely. 504s too, >> right? >> The 504s are focused solely on accommodations, >> right, >> for work time, >> um assessments, those kinds of things, not specially designed instruction delivered by um a service provider. So that's the difference with the reporting of the numbers why the 504 is not included. >> Right. Right. Because Right. Because 504 can be something as innocuous as you broke your leg, you need to take the elevator. >> Absolutely important, absolutely needed, but doesn't have that service provider person attached to it. >> Are you are you >> I have two quick questions that I'll round out this presentation with. Um so virtual scholars academy and and Rosemont. So are those those two >> program wellmont really has um AOIS and Young Scholars are those scores >> still going back to the

064home school? Same with Virtual Scholars Academy, right? >> We provide them their data but they have >> parsed out that they're able to work from because it impacts, >> right? >> So they have their data to work from. >> Okay. um and their kind of formative version. So all of the things where teachers have it, that all goes there, too. But they're back in their home schools, but they go back to their same with virtual scholars academy. Okay. From a staffing standpoint, I think not not so much AOIS and young scholars, but um uh virtual scholars academy, how our students are doing in that and how are they doing in that? >> Well, yeah, how they're performing, how they're doing, how we're supporting >> the top side of if we look at it pulled out

065by responsible um serving schools. Yeah, >> they're the kids are doing well in all of the areas. Yeah. >> And they're they're highly monitored and they we also >> um we we also contract out uh uh special ed teachers to work with them on their IEPs online specifically. So, um if they aren't performing well and online's not for them, we pull them out mid year and we we have them go to their home school. >> You want to say they have to meet a >> I have a quick question. Are uh homebound students included in virtual learners or is that separate? >> Separate. >> Okay. And they're included in the regular numbers >> in their Yes. They're they're in their home school they're attached to. >> Okay. All right. Thanks. All good. Sure. All right.

066>> Thank you. That was a lot to get through. We appreciate it. So, with that said, uh we're going to move on to 3.02 graduation coach update, Dr. Paul. >> And we have um our new senior coordinator. Well, new new this year at least. She's been here a while now. And she's a returning um staff member who was in Norfol previously. So, >> good news. >> Dr. Moore is going to um present. Oh, sorry. Miss Moore is going to present. Yep. Um our information graduation coach. She did bring some phone of friends with her who are going to be a part of the presentation for my as well. So take it away, Miss Moore. >> All right. Well, good evening uh board chair Moore Buffalo, Vice Chair Dalagerro, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Paul,

067and other distinguished guests. Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. Um, I welcome the opportunity to share more about the impact of our graduation coaches and the critical role that they play in actually supporting student success, persistence as well as ontime graduation. Our graduation co coaches, they actually work uh at the intersection of academics, attendance as well as student engagement. This evening, I intend to highlight how graduation coaches influence student outcomes, address unique, diverse needs of student populations, and contributes, of course, to the district's broader goals of accountability and long-term success. Now, recognizing that we've had an opportunity to engage in the uh state of the schools uh overview as well as previous exposure that the board has had, I wanted to simply uh highlight uh the slide that appears

068uh before us at this time. Slide two, our graduation coaches play a vital role in helping both our students as well as our schools meet graduation requirements and state accountability expectations. Their work directly supports uh students in understanding and fulfilling diploma requirements including verified credit, course completion, attendance expectations and on-time graduation benchmarks. Importantly, the work of our graduation coaches, it aligns with the support and goals outlined in Virginia's uh SPSF framework um by focusing on student progress engagement as well as completion. Our graduation coaches contribute to improved performance on key accountability indicators including graduation rates, chronic absenteeism, as well as post-secary readiness. As we look at this slide, again, I recognize that the board is familiar with the 3E uh readiness framework and again that has been highlighted, but I want to specifically connect it

069again to the work that our graduation coaches uh fulfill across our schools. Our graduation closes co coaches play a critical role in helping our students demonstrate readiness with that framework in enrollment employment as well as enlistment which reflects a distinct commitment to actually preparing our students for life beyond high school. Whether a student's preparing for college, entering the workforce, um pursuing military service, our graduation coaches are providing individualized guidance to help students complete coursework, earn uh high demand credentiing uh participate in meaningful experiences and develop the habits needed for success beyond graduation. At the same time, the student centered support allows schools to document readiness uh indicators that contribute to those state accountability measures. When students demonstrate readiness, schools earn points towards our state's performance uh framework, reinforcing the connection that exists between strong student

070outcomes and school success. In this way, our graduation coaches help ensure students graduate with purpose and direction while also supporting schools in meeting those state expectations for readiness and accountability. As we take a look at the next two slides, it actually happens to organize uh goals that are broken across each of our um five high schools pictured at this time. We actually happen to have Bookery Washington High School and Graby High School. And the following slide will feature uh Lake Taylor High School, Mory High School as well as uh Norview High School. But I want to highlight the fact again the graduation coaches are pivotal in actually advancing the graduation and readiness uh goals outlined in each of our schools uh comprehensive uh school support plans. Their work is intentionally aligned uh to the strategies

071schools have identified to improve student outcomes, particularly for students who need additional guidance to stay on track. By monitoring progress, addressing barriers, and providing individualized supports, our graduation coaches help schools move forward um from planning into action. uh they support efforts to again increase that on-time graduation rate, connect with the attendance and help our kids uh prepare to demonstrate post-secary uh readiness. They are a critical link between school improvement goals uh and student readiness. Again, helping make helping our schools meet those expectation. And as you look across the uh graduation goals or readiness goals for each of the schools, you will see a theme that is tied in where our schools are focusing on specific um measures that they expect to see improvements in over the course of the year relative to graduation readiness. As

072we advance, you'll actually notice that we also have consideration for attendance because again, chronic absenteeism plays a significant role in making sure that each of our cohorts are able to move forward uh in accordance with those uh timeline expectations that have been designated for our kids. And certainly, I won't read this to the board. I recognize everyone had an opportunity to scan that information. Of course, I did want to uh have an opportunity to share uh images of each of our graduation coaches. Again, this evening, I'm fortunate to be joined by uh graduation coaches from Mory High School. Mr. Price will actually take the lead in giving us a little bit of insight in terms of the daily practices of our graduation coaches. But I wanted to share with the board the faces of the

073members of our team who are in the trenches dayto-day making sure that we're supporting all of the kids that we happen to serve uh in the district. And we do actually have one member who is not uh pictured here as they are actually on uh leave at this time. But we certainly want to recognize them uh which is exactly why we have uh them pictured here this evening. Each of these individuals represent a deep commitment uh to our students and the success of our schools. Their work happens oftent times behind the scenes. Right? If we don't have this slide here, you may walk past them and not even know uh who they are. But please know that they are meeting one-on-one with students. their problem solving uh barriers, engaging with families, and ensuring that none

074of our students are overlooked. They're advocates, they're mentors, and I really like to think of them as problem solvers, right? In terms of helping our students navigate academic requirements while also building confidence, which is so key, uh and a sense of purpose. Collectively, these graduation coaches advance uh graduation and readiness goals uh for each of their schools daily. Their dedication directly supports the improvements that we've talked about with uh student outcomes and strengthen the uh capacity of the schools overall in meeting those statewide uh expectations. We're grateful certainly for their professionalism, persistence, and their unwavering focus on student success. their impact is not only reflected in data um and accountability measures but more importantly in the lives of the students that they support. Here you'll notice that I've actually um tried to include consideration for

075how our graduation coaches are supporting uh students in each of the cohorts in each of our high schools. As you take a look at this slide, you'll notice that it's broken uh to actually share what we have at each of the schools. One coach will support cohort 2026 and 2027. And then we have another coach who's designated to support uh members of cohort 2028 and cohort 2029. So, of course, we refer to our um students in that manner because as soon as our students enter high school, the expectations relative to on-time graduation within that four-year time span, it begins. So, wherever it talks about cohort 2026, historically, those are your seniors, right? All the way to the opposite end, 2029, those of our of course are our uh freshmen. Uh the other thing that I'd

076like to mention here is that our district has intentionally allocated two uh graduation coaches to each of our five high schools to ensure consistent support across sites while remaining responsive to student needs. However, I would also like to share within this model, two of our high schools have graduation uh coachto student ratios that are lower than the others. And that allocation reflects an equity- based approach uh recognizing that some school communities require additional more intensive support to address graduation and readiness challenges. However, I would ask that uh we continue to keep this slide in mind. uh until I reach the end of the presentation for the great ask of support. >> Send it over here. >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Okay. All right. Continuing on um our graduations again support

077all of the students that we have, those who are on track as well as those who are off track. And we really want to make sure uh that we emphasize that that our graduation coaches are committed to supporting all of our learners uh by ensuring every student has a clear and supported path to graduation. Uh they participate in weekly graduation meetings where student progress is reviewed through data analysis allowing schools to identify concerns early and respond uh with targeted support. Using this data, graduation coaches help plan, implement, and monitor individualized high school graduation plans that reflect each students uh needs, goals, and readiness pathways. In addition to prevention and support, our graduation coaches actively uh engage in dropout retrieval efforts. Uh this is where we are working to reconnect students who have disengaged from school

078and help them return to a pathway towards earning a diploma. That is certainly our goal. Uh through consistent collaboration, datadriven decision-m and personalized support. Our graduation coaches help students move forward whether that means staying on track because there's also uh a rhythm to that, right? to help our kids stay on track, getting back on track, or re-engaging after they've had some time away. Here's a image that uh really just tries to provide a visual in terms of the the mechanisms which actually prompt uh action. our graduation coaches are consistently looking at attendance behavior and course performance to make determinations about how uh to move forward. So they activate our graduation coaches activate evidence-based uh practices each time they monitor the progress of all students and proactively intervene when students show early signs uh relative to

079attendance, behavior or academic challenges. Uh this continuous monitoring allows our graduation coaches again to work in a proactive manner with our students, families, and school teams to address barriers, adjust supports, and reinforce positive uh progress. Whether a student needs academic assistance, attendance support, or behavioral interventions, our graduation coaches collaborate to make sure uh that the right supports are in place. Now here what I've tried to do is provide uh data snapshots. The next few uh slides actually offer data snapshots. This one is a data snapshot for the district as it relates to attendance. You'll notice that it's broken into uh tiers where we have consideration for uh our students that are not demonstrating any type of attendance issues. Those are the students that we say we have strong attendance or perfect attendance. It's further uh

080divided all the way into consideration for our kids who are experiencing chronic absenteeism which of course we recognize a definition for that that's recognized nationwide is when we have a student who has missed 10% or more the time in which they are to be uh actually engaged uh in school. And so you'll notice that we've broken this out by cohort. you're able to see exactly what we have from 2026 all the way through uh 2029 uh cohort. Attendance is a non-academic barrier which offers uh critical insight about support needs. As a result, graduation coaches work with our attendance technicians. They work with counselors, teachers, and other key school staff members to determine root causes of absenteeism. When attendance metrics indicate concerns, schools respond by initiating individual meetings uh with students and families. In doing so,

081schools are then able to uh proceed with evidence-based practices uh by providing intensive individual supports to students who've fallen off track or face uh significant challenges uh to success. Based on what's learned, schools implement appropriate student centered uh interventions such as check-in, checkout systems, uh mentoring relationships and connections to uh wraparound services. And I happen to see Dr. Moors here. He actually leads uh that uh capacity for us at the district level. Uh these supports are designed to address both academic and non-academic needs while reinforcing consistent attendance as well as engagement. One of the things we always like to talk about uh relative to attendance is that attendance always needs to partner with engagement. It is not sufficient for our kids to simply attend. We need them to attend and engage to have expectations for

082our kids to satisfy promotion criteria and certainly progress with graduation expectations. Moving forward, here's a snapshot of data. Again, it is broken uh by cohort. The data that has been pulled here actually reflects the percentage of referrals that resulted in an inschool suspension or an out of school suspension. It does not include uh the numbers for kids who have received a nonsuspension consequence and that would be something such as a warning or an afterchool detention or Saturday detention, things of that nature. However, we can certainly provide an addendum uh to provide even greater detail on what uh these happen to look like. Did I happen to see your hand? >> Yeah, it just I can read. >> Let me take my glasses off so I can actually see people. >> Yeah. Yeah. Let's go through

083it. >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. All right. Well, I took my glasses off to see people glasses off for words. >> Went back. All right. Thank you. So when we the other thing that I wanted to share relative to um the behavior consideration, we look at the discipline data as a part of uh our monitoring efforts uh by reviewing patterns in behavior uh incidents. Our graduation coaches uh and other key members of school uh staff are able to identify students who may need additional support uh to remain engaged in school. This data helps our graduation coaches collaborate with school teams to address underlying issues, connect students again with appropriate interventions and reduce barriers to those um barriers that stand in the way of academic process. Uh using discipline data proactively allows support for positive behavior

084while keeping students focused on graduation and readiness goals. This is a snapshot that brings into uh focus consideration of core subject summary. All right. Now, our graduation coaches again they take a look at early warning uh metrics that are tied in with attendance behavior or course performance. I wanted to provide a snapshot here. This snapshot is simply focused in on core subject areas. However, we recognize, of course, that our graduation coaches have the responsibility of not just looking at core subject performance, but they have to look at the broader spectrum because we we know in order for our kids to satisfy uh graduation criteria, there are certain other courses that they have to be able to obtain, the health and physical education requirements, foreign language requirements, things of this nature. But I wanted to uh

085include this snapshot just to give um the board and the viewing public a feel for uh the scope of the work that our graduation coaches take on on a daily basis. So again, they review the overall course performance to identify students who are marginally passing. This is what this data reflects. kids who are marginally passing or actually may be um just beneath passing um at this particular point. Um this early identification allows schools to respond before credit loss occurs. This is exactly what we're trying to do. We want to know that information as soon as possible to be able to uh intervene, try to ascertain root cause, work with students directly as well as families to leverage um support uh in a timely manner to help our kids actually regain their focus. So, our coaches

086help our students maintain focus on accumulating credits to satisfy those graduation requirements. Additionally, they work with school teams to connect students uh with targeted supports such as tutoring uh academic recovery and progress monitoring. All right. And the other thing that I wanted to uh share before progressing here is that when we look at uh the percentages that are reflected here for again students who are marginally passing or may actually be experiencing failure. This was based off of the last uh marking period. the next marking period actually closes in the upcoming week uh January 14th. But when we look at this, we have to have consideration for again the full scope of service that our graduation coaches are providing. Some of the kids that are uh nestled within uh the numbers that are are on the

087screen are actually engaged in higher coursework as well. There are times where we will have honor students, students who are actually engaged in AP uh level work as well as IB uh who grapple with the complexity of the content that happens to be before them. This is why it's so important for our graduation coaches again to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, work in collaboration with members of the team to uh get to the heart of what's going on and support our kids. But I just wanted to share that because many times there can be a misconception that our graduation coaches only work with a certain tier of students. They support all of our students uh to make sure that we continue to uh progress. Lastly, I wanted to uh return to take a look at the quarterly dropout

088rates. Now I know that Miss McGary had an opportunity to share uh quarterly dropout rates with the board in uh previous meeting and uh at that time quarter 1 uh data was available and we were celebrating because we recognized that the uh numbers are actually lower right we were at 11.5%. We continue to monitor uh dropout not on a quarterly basis. We monitor it weekly. And so December I think I put the date up there. Yes, December 15th uh during the week of December 15th, our dropout rate was actually that of 11.83%. So I wanted to share that with you. It's not final because of course the quarter has not closed out. But I wanted to share that with the board uh to to highlight the fact that that remains a metric that's on uh

089the radar of our graduation coaches coupled with uh supports to be able to reclaim uh those students uh and advanced learning. So it shows that our dropout rate continues to be lower than it was during the uh same time in the previous year. Uh it reflects sustained efforts to identify at risk students early and provide those timely targeted supports. Ongoing monitoring of dropout data allows schools to respond quickly. Uh strengthen re-engagement strategies and maintain momentum in keeping students connected and on track for graduation. So, we look forward to being able to continue uh to reclaim uh in this area. And then I just wanted to highlight some additional aspects that our graduation coaches uh fulfill in serving uh the students that we happen to have. And you'll notice that over the course of the next

090two slides. um our graduation coaches, they support um not only consideration with the dropout rate, but they engage in those weekly on-time graduation meetings. In each of our high schools, we are hosting on time uh graduation meetings every week. It is common to find uh either our school principal or our school assistant principal you working directly alongside our graduation coaches and other key members of the school to look at exactly where our kids are with being on track off track what adjustments are we making in real time. We early we intervene early and often. They also monitor credit recovery, right, to guide progress. And then uh you also notice the importance of being able to connect our students and families with resources um contingent upon what we learn in terms of root causes. I won't

091continue to um share that information that that happens to be available on the screen for review, but the graduation coaches are supporting our kids while they are in uh school with the realities of what they're taking on to continue to advance uh progress. And so, at this time, what I want to do is actually invite uh two speakers. And it's funny I didn't see those two speakers stand. I'll rec say it again. >> This is our queueing line. Okay. At this time I would like to invite two speakers who will share uh perspectives just to further color in um the work that goes on with our graduation coaches in collaboration with uh the administrative team. But they will share perspectives from both the school leadership perspective uh and direct practice um regarding the impact of

092our graduate. Okay. Yes. And direct regarding the impact of our graduation coaches. First we will have Mr. McCracken. He is uh assistant principal at the illustrious Mory High School. uh but he will speak to us uh from the perspective of the school administrator sharing highlights in terms of the importance of that collaborative partnership with graduation coaches and how that collaboration supports improved graduation outcomes. We we know that we will be able to uh feast upon what he will share after which we will be able to hear remarks from uh Mr. Price. Mr. Price is also uh from the illustrious Mory High School. He is a senior uh graduation coach and he will speak in terms of daily practices uh that our graduation coaches engage in and how that advances graduation and post-secondary readiness. After that

093time, I will uh return just to share a few uh closing remarks and then invite any comments and questions. Good evening, school board chair Buffalo, Vice Chair Caligger, value members of the school board, student representatives, superintendent Dr. Paul, and esteemed members of central administration and colleagues. Thank you for the opportunity to share an administrator's perspective on the impact of graduation coaches. My name is Michael McCracken and I am currently an assistant principal at Mory High School. I speak to you today wearing two lenses. first as an assistant principal overseeing our multi-tered systems of support team and second as someone who previously served as a graduation coach. That lived experience matters because it fundamentally shapes how I understand the work, the data, and most importantly the student behind the numbers. At Moria High School and across

094the district at every high school, our MTSS teams meet throughout the week. These meetings bring together graduation coaches, behavioral specialists, student data specialists, attendance staff, counselors, C's counselors, and teachers. This work is not isolated to one building and or one program. It is a coordinated district-wide effort rooted in collaboration and shared responsibility. Graduation coaches are not a supplement to this work. They are a cornerstone of it. When we talk about chronic absenteeism, we often begin with quantitative data. attendance percentages, missed instructional minutes, course failures. That data is important. It helps us identify patterns, allocate resources, and measure outcomes. But what data alone cannot capture is why a student isn't coming to school or why when they do, they may not be ready to learn. Graduation coaches help us uncover that story. And they do so

095by going beyond the walls of our buildings and into student lives. They meet families where they are, sometimes literally in their homes, to understand the barriers that are invisible in a spreadsheet. Lack of stable housing, no electricity, no running water, inadequate clothing, limited access to hygiene products. These are not isolated circumstances. These are real recurring challenges that directly impact a student's ability to attend school consistently and engage academically. Graduation coaches also play a critical role in re-engaging students who have disconnected from school altogether. Students who at one point may not have believed graduation was possible across the district. They assist in recovering dropouts, rebuilding trust with families, and removing barriers that once made graduation feel out of reach. Whether it's addressing attendance gaps, credit recovery, transportation challenges, or unmet basic needs, their work helps ensure

096students are not just enrolled, but positioned to walk across the stage and earn their diploma. Through partnerships coordinated by graduation coaches, we've been able to connect students to care closets, essential resources, and a community supports. That coordination matters because before a student can focus on grades, test scores, or graduation requirements, they need dignity, stability, and trust. I know this firsthand. As a graduation coach, I had experiences that were eyeopening and humbling. You gain a deeper understanding when you see the environment a student returns to after the school day ends. It reframes how we interpret attendance data. It changes how we respond to behavior. and it reinforces that progress is not always linear, but it is possible when relationships come first. I want to commend the district leadership for recognizing this need and ensuring that each

097high school has a minimum of two graduation coaches. That decision reflects a commitment to a holistic approach, one that acknowledges academic achievement is inseparable from social, emotional, and environmental factors. This is not to say the graduation coaches are not focused on academics. They absolutely are. They monitor grades, credits, testing requirements, and graduation pathways. But they understand that academic success cannot be sustained without addressing the conditions that make learning possible. I'll share one example that illustrates this balance. We had a student who was supported all year by teachers, interventionists, and graduation coaches to prepare for an SO test. Instructionally, the student was ready. However, the night before that test, that student slept in a car with their siblings and a parent. When they arrived at school the next morning, they were physically exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed.

098That context doesn't appear in the data, but it explains the outcome. Because our team understood the student's story and responded with targeted family centered support, the student was able to stabilize, graduate with honors, and through commodity partnerships coordinated by our graduation coaches transition into permanent housing, changing not only an academic trajectory, but a life trajectory. The work we do every day supported by graduation coaches is about bridging that gap. It's about ensuring students know they are more than a number, more than a data point, and more than a single assessment result. Every student has a story, and it is our responsibility to learn it so we can respond with equity, understanding, and intention. Graduation coaches help us transform adversity into opportunity by honoring both the quantitative data we analyze and the qualitative realities our students

099live. That balance is where meaningful change happens. So on behalf of our students, our families, and our schools, I want to sincerely thank the school board and district administration for your continued investment and in support of these invaluable positions. Your commitment allows us to meet students where they are, address barriers before they become outcomes, and ensure that every student has a pathway to graduation and success beyond our walls. And as always, our doors are open. We welcome you to come see this work in action to see how the words I've shared with you this afternoon are matched by daily practice in our schools. At this time, I will turn it over to Mr. Wesley Price, graduation coach at Mory High School, who will share his additional perspective on this work. Thank you. >> Thank you.

100>> Good evening, members of the school board and our interim superintendent, Dr. Pole. I'd like to take a few moments to share the daily work of the graduation coach with a primary focus on our graduating seniors and the systems in place to ensure that they successfully reach graduation. The graduation coach position is different at every school, but at my school, we have an open door policy. In fact, on our door, we have a sign that reads, "Puzled about graduation? Stop here. This invites students in and gives mostly seniors uh it gives seniors an opportunity to utilize the space daily to ask questions about credits, grades, transcripts, and graduation status. Each day, we closely monitor senior progress using our academic tracking systems. We proactively identify students who may be off track and meet with them individually

101to review graduation requirements line by line. These meetings are intentional and students never leave without documentation such as updated transcripts, graduation checklists, and most importantly, supports so that they clearly understand their path to graduation. A major focus of our work for all students is preparation for life after high school through the three Elistment, enrollment, and employment. We coordinate military recruiting events, assist with job searches, support college applications and essays, and guide undecided students through interest and career surveys. We also play an active role in MTSS meetings like Mr. McCracken said where we collaborate closely with parents and a multiddisciplinary team that includes the assistant principal, behavior specialist, attendance, technicians, C's counselors and attendance secretaries. A strong emphasis in these meetings is placed on attendance and chronic absenteeism. As we know, consistent attendance is directly tied

102to graduation success. Through MTSS, we take a deeper look at students academic progress, attendance patterns, and personal circumstances. This allows us to truly meet students where they are. In some cases, that support extends beyond the school building through home visits and connections to resources such as clothing, food, or furniture. Removing these barriers is vital to keeping students engaged and on track to graduate. In addition to supporting enrolled students, we are actively involved in dropout recovery. When students disengage or leave school, we go into the communities to find them. This often includes multiple home visits, ongoing outreach to reconnect with students and their families. Many of these students will still need a significant number of credits. So, we work with them to identify alternative pathways to completion, including GED and other flexible options, ensuring they still

103have a viable path to earning a credential and building a future. While our primary focus is on graduating seniors, we also support freshman students through the freshman transition program as well as early graduation requirement sessions that explains what it means to be on track and off track, helping prevent future graduation issues. In closing, the role of graduation coach is about more than tracking credits. It is about celebration, collaboration, accountability, and advocacy, ensuring every student has the support, information, and resources needed to graduate and succeed beyond high school. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. And so, in closing, we wanted to uh simply share uh next steps in terms of our work. Uh, of course we will make sure our graduation coaches continue to inform our students and families uh not just about uh

104requirements but actually how they are able to successfully uh progress uh in a manner that's on time. Um we also uh have consideration with uh supporting the latest uh adjustments from VDOE relative to uh so um requirements. We recognize that that is a moving um dynamic for us and I know that Miss McGary spoke about that in a previous uh board meeting as well. Um that impacts the verified credits for our students. And then of course we remain interested in exploring additional uh viable options to support students who uh have credit deficits that we are really working to uh overcome. We certainly request uh consideration for additional allocation of graduation coaches. This is where I had tried to allude earlier. I don't know if you remember it was a slide that talked about the staffing

105allocation and and certainly we are grateful um to to have the allocation that we have but I know that uh the board also uh has consideration for the numbers and we certainly want to uh operate in an equitable manner and I also recognize that the numbers are higher in some of our other schools and we could also use a support there as well. When you have a graduation coaching, a graduation coach that's responsible for supporting, you know, uh, 7 800 students is tough. Meeting with them on a weekly basis and you're really trying to make sure that the relationship piece demonstrates trust, respect, you know, consideration for exactly what's going on. So we we just wanted to share that you know as possible consideration and with that uh certainly we welcome an opportunity to take

106on uh questions or engage in discussion at this time. Thank you. >> Um just one second real quick if you don't mind. Um thank you for the presentation. I'd like to also point out uh principal Karen Berg is here as well who does a great deal of support. I'd like to um thank Mr. McCracken and Mr. Price for their hard work and inviting them back up for as questions they may have. And on their way back up, I'd like to also commend uh Mr. Price for his lanyard because that is a a wonderful choice of lanyard. >> We're not going to talk about the lanyard. >> Yeah, we're not because I almost threw up. >> And thank you so much, Dr. Paul. I I um so sorry I forgot about that. But of course, Miss

107Berg is always uh supportive and she is here with us. And as soon as I had actually shared that uh with us, I knew she was on board to be able to support us. So, thank you so much, Miss B. Please forgive me for the oversight. >> Thank you. Well, um before I get uh Miss Slaughter, I'll say go Chicago Bears, but Miss Slaughter, go ahead. Commanders, excuse me. Thank you so much for your presentation. Um it's uh really good to hear the work that our graduation coaches are doing. I know it's not easy, especially when you're not just dealing with academics, you're dealing with life and helping our students and their families navigate life and that can be very difficult at times. So, thanks so much for that. Uh, realistically, what should the ratio

108be? That's my first question. >> Honestly and realistically, >> are we asking for I see Dr. Paul L. Well, I I think it varies on the data because you know the the ratio um you you also have to look deeper in the data. What what is the dropout rate? What's the graduation rate of the specific schools? Um where are the higher need students versus you know not so when we placed two per high school um like Miss Moore said earlier it was purposeful because we knew the higher need schools were our lower population schools already. So we knew they had a different line of work to do. Um, you know, in an ideal world, you know, our ratio would be more similar to our school counselor ratios, but >> you know, unfortunately, budgetary restraints um

109hold us back from that right now. >> Chief, your second question, but can I ask a followup to >> um do we keep data on the percentage of students that the graduation coaches touch? So like at Grandby High School or at Mory when you have like seven or 800, do we keep data on the percentage of students who actually utilize the graduation coaches? So like you know then you could really see where the discrepancies are if >> Yeah. They they keep the data at the school level. Mhm. We don't have it centrally anywhere input, but the school levels they keep their data on on their logs of of who they're meeting with so that we can start >> having that on the school level potentially give some guidance on what that school's actual need was.

110If if you're at a school where 50% of the students are utilizing graduation coaches where but another school where 75% and 75% of 700, you know, that's significant. I'm I'm just wondering like like have we analyzed our data to try to figure out you know what realistic number at each school are the graduation coaches working >> well you I think it's a balance of of number of students in the student need as well because as as as both Mr. Price and Mr. McCracken, you know, presented as well. Some of the students, it might be we've got a weekly meeting and we're good and and and we had that touch point. Some of the students it's, you know, I'm visiting their house. I'm doing higher levels of intervention. So, it's more time commitment and that level

111of student at different schools presents different needs. So, it is it's a complex, you know, it's complex to do right now. Um, but we do we do work with the schools to track the needs. And then we also ask, of course, when we do budget season, you know, what are certain needs? um at each school level. So, which is where we landed with having 10 graduation coaches um in the division, which I I I do believe is more than our partnering divisions when you look at a school ratio to the the student ratio. >> Slaughter had a second question. >> Yes. And my second question, it looks like according to um slide number 10 addressing attendance that our senior cohort has more issues with absent um ab uh >> absent chronic absenteeism. >> Yes. Do

112have we been able to I mean I know it can be a multiplicity of things but have we been able to identify any specific um root causes? >> Uh yes. Uh this goes back again to engaging in those weekly on-time uh graduation meetings. When we have opportunity to meet with kids individually, that's when we're able to uh actually uh discern what specifically is going on for this particular kit. Um now chronic absenteeism just so that I can uh make sure I clearly state this it is inclusive of excused and unexcused absences. Right? So there are sometimes where that could be you know something such as a kid was sick. It could be a kid received disciplinary consequence that was out of school suspension or it could be you know travel. so many different things which

113is why we have to take this on at an individual level. The data that's reflected here is just a snapshot districtwide but in each of our schools the uh graduation coaches they remain uh on the forefront of knowing exactly what's going on with those students. And then I also wanted to uh follow up on the initial question that you uh so kindly uh asked as it related to the graduation coaches. Certainly uh deferring to Dr. Paul and what he shared. I also want to emphasize that we are working uh diligently to really bring our uh freshman classes in well with great clarity in terms of the needs so that we can actually navigate away from um having significant uh credit deficits that have to be overcome because that's when it becomes very challenging not only

114uh from the practitioner perspective, but more challenging for our students. It requires a great deal of resolve when our kids have credit deficits. And so, this is why we wanted to end with that slide of the next steps. Just put that back in front of this one. Um, to be able to share that we we don't ask for anything, you know, half-hazardly. We recognize that the board does a dynamic job in terms of um making determinations relative to staffing. We simply wanted to share uh what the day-to-day work looks like and the scale of what that happens to encompass to be able to have a greater impact. >> I have a question. I know once that eighth grader hits the floor of the high school that clock is ticking as they're part of a a

115cohort. So are there any conversations at the middle school level 8th grade? Because again you say credit deficit and if a a student is having issues in eighth grade, then there can be some um things put in place to make sure that their first day of high school is they're on the right path. >> Absolutely. And I so appreciate you framing that question in that manner because it it speaks to an acknowledgement of the fact that when we talk about graduation, this is not something that it simply resides at the high school level. This actually begins K all the way up actually prek because we have prek um many of our kids participate in prek. The early literacy at the elementary school level is huge. Every time um members of our curriculum and instruction team

116talk about uh reading where we are with reading plans, we know in terms of graduation that's already informing the work that we have to do at the middle school level. Many of our students have opportunities and we had some of them uh even highlighted in the state of the schools and you made the uh note about the K to8 uh Southside STEM and other schools. I'm just using them as an example. But at the middle school level, this is where uh some of our kids actually begin to attain credits in the area of foreign language. Some of our kids are attaining uh credits relative to end of course and so certainly those conversations are going forward. Uh but that's going to need to be an ongoing conversation as the accountability measures are shifting and so

117we have to make sure that we you know to the best of our uh ability are able to be in front of uh educating our families, equipping our students. But we are really pursuing this ninth grade um to try to uh establish structures that help our kids encounter greater success because the need for resilience and resolve is huge. And this is why I think it was Mr. Price who had mentioned the home visits. Yes. And in mentioning the home visits, a lot of times uh that gets overlooked, but our graduation coaches are actually in the neighborhoods trying to recover kids who are not reporting to school because graduation, we know how pivotal that is for postsecary outcomes, right? And so if we have a kid who for some reason has disengaged, we're even if they

118aren't coming into the school, we're going into the homes, into the communities to try to uh activate a conversation that brings us back to the table. Now sometimes that conversation happens to uh result in our students coming back in and being able to uh engage in credit recovery efforts you know from edmentum different alternatives and then other times our students uh recognize that the scale is quite daunting and then we host conversations about the possibility uh once once we have exhausted every single option to try to get our kids re-engaged. That's when we would actually move forward and talk with our kids about the possibility of uh pursuing at least a GED because as I've heard Dr. Paul mentioned um before we really want to make sure that our kids leave us with that high

119school diploma and if not at least a GED because it impacts their earning potential. I know we all recognize that. I'm sorry. >> Oh yes. >> I don't want to talk too much. Can I add Miss Buffalo? >> Yes, >> please. >> At Mari High School, I can't speak for the other schools. >> At Mari High School, we actually visit some of the feeders middle schools. We've gone to Gant and to Blair. So, we are touch basing with the eighth graders that are rising to be nth graders. and and further you know we have also worked with powers school our data warehouse to do early warning systems for on-time graduation all the way to the elementary level that include nationally uh normed indicators like your attendance grades discipline um and then when you get into

120middle school start talking about high school credits being earned at the middle school level um to help give those indicators along the way as well >> because I think one of you mentioned and I'm just kind of drawing on my own experience at the high school level those students identify that may be overaged credit deficit you all I'm sure are giving them alternatives of pathways out because I mean a n um uh 18year-old with I don't two credits you know those conversations I'm sure you all are having with those students and you know trying to find them alternative pathway ways to >> for education, >> which is exactly why that's also a part of our request. We recognize that we need to uh be able to pursue some additional um alternatives as well, just to

121customize the support based off of what we're seeing that are at no cost, right, to our students. >> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Dr. Martin did um the calera. >> Um thanks Mrs. McCar for um sorry >> that's mary >> I have we have a neighbor >> it's fine >> more okay um for your presentation I appreciate this information my question is around um >> what was um I guess kind of how we're managing the uh absenteeism and um trying to so so at what point do we fail students is any of that going line where if they miss what eight like eight days or so, they fail their classes. >> Well, what we try to do relative to attendance is be able to support our kids first by honoring our attendance process, right? Um if we

122have a kid, you were talking about eight days, they've missed eight days. At that point, we expect that they would have already had a plan, right? We refer to it as a chronic absenteeism truency intervention plan. and the team would actually come together and meet. That would include our graduation coaches, uh, as well as the attendance techs, school counselors, other, uh, various members of the team. We invite our students and our parents to be able to talk about, okay, what is really going on, here's what we can do to support based off of uh, what they're saying. If uh there's a concern relative to a kid being able to actually secure credits, we do actually happen to have opportunities for our kids to engage in attendance recovery efforts as well uh to be able to

123earn back a portion of lost instructional time >> and and is this something that are are you do you feel like you're doing a lot of upfront work to I mean that's obviously the point is to try to mitigate a student getting that far and can you give us an idea of like how how students are doing. Um I mean how many students would you say are getting to the point where you have to implement extreme more extreme measures with >> more extreme >> with their recovery? Well, that varies uh from school to school uh in terms of what the needs are and exactly what the factor is that we're pursuing because there may be times where we're uh really trying to go after attendance, right? We have a kid who's experiencing chronic absenteeism, but

124for some reason they're able to come in and ace uh an exam. We still have a a problem relative to attendance, right, and engagement. So, we could probably have them not just, you know, perform well, but actually experience mastery. Other times, there are concerns that are tied in with behavior. If it's something with behavior, those are the ones where it tends to um actually touch upon a need for uh more extensive supports. It could be something where we are trying to work with our kids with conflict resolution skills. We're trying to enhance that. We're trying to support uh self-regulation. Uh it just varies depending on what we have. But every week we actually receive uh reports from our uh friends in ARRA uh that actually details each student, right? We can look at each and

125every student uh in every uh cohort to see exactly who's on track, who's off track and even know what their average happens to be in the class at that time. >> Thank you. So we so to answer I hope I answered your question. We have to ear intervene early and often. >> I think that goes back >> I I think that goes back to the MTSS process as well when we talk about being proactive versus reactive. And so MTSS process starts early on in the school year. And so for as an example I said that it's a district-wide initiative. It's happening at all the high schools. I'm sure many of the middle schools and elementary schools at a at a different capacity. But but in our school in particular, we meet a minimum of four

126hours a week over a two-day period to look at again our chronic absenteeism, but as well as failure rates. But we also do teacher what we call teacher referrals for teachers and say student is going to blocks one, two, and four, but they're not going to block three for some reason. So we can have that teacher reach out to us and say, "Well, this student's not, you know, getting them the content within block three because they're skipping this particular class or they're missing their last block of the day um because they're leaving to go to work." And so that that again goes back to that piece of we look at the quantitative data and we say well this this data doesn't look where you know perfect or where we want it to be. But then

127we go to that qualitative piece of understanding that student and why they're having to navigate that change of you know a particular student we had of had 40 days of absences and we say well that's that's a lot of absences for one particular student. And then you go to that that student's um story and understand that they're they're one one sibling out of nine. the mother's a single mother, they're going they're now the only one that's old enough to go and work. So, they're trying to leave school to go to work. And so, then we have to try to adjust around that to be able to support the student, keep them in the block and keep them in school, but also navigate the barriers that they're having to have at home to be able to

128get them to graduation. But that the MTSS process is really where we we are able to kind of facilitate getting that data early on, but it has to be intentional and and it has to be on a weekly basis. Thank you for all the work you are doing. >> Hey Calero, you had a question. >> Yes, I do. First of all, thank you for the work that you're doing. Um all three of you and looking at slide 11 um on the behavior slide. What um what I feel it's lacking because I can't get my head around the out of school and in school extension rates. I need to know more of how many students in the cohort were actually being referred. >> Okay. >> Um >> what we will do uh is actually pull an

129addendum uh and get that put together >> because it's hard like 51% but 51% of you know is or 10% of the students in the cohort or or 25% of the students in the cohort. So it's just a little hard for me to get my head around this particular piece of data. We'll pull that and get that to you. Absolutely. >> See? >> Um yeah. Was that >> That was it. Okay. Um first, thank you very much for the presentation and thank you all for the hard work that you do and I know we have others back there. Um >> oh yes, I also need to acknowledge Miss Revel. Please again forgive me. I am in presentation mode. and and to all the graduation coaches in our district that are watching and you know appreciate

130all of the work that goes into this um endeavor to get our students you know to graduation. Um so you talked about so there were some great questions asked today um around you know what you need what do we need for our students to be successful not just you know in high school but throughout their their um academic life and as Miss Moore Buffalo asked you know that eighth grade transition to nth grade and you capturing them at that point um is really important uh before they fall too far behind because then we know that that impacts dropouts uh and um trying to capture that. So speaking more about what infrastructure changes are needed to really do this well knowing what our students needs are and Mr. McCrack and you talked about basically you know

131this the care team what what I always refer to as the care team with the attendance technician the counselors social workers so it's not so much is it just graduation coaches that and I don't mean just like that's not they're not enough but you know like you said you it's it's a multidisciplinary effort to get students what they need to be successful to graduation and beyond. And so, not just what are the needs from a graduation stamp, graduation coach standpoint, but school counselors, social workers, you know, attendance technicians, like what does that really look like to meet the needs of our students based on, you know, the data that we have in front of us? Because some of these numbers, you know, like you said, are large. >> Absolutely. you know, in some of our

132schools and but the needs, you know, where we have smaller groups of students this it's still like I'm grateful that we still have graduation coaches um at those schools, but it seems like we need more of that care team. Absolutely. >> Let me let me let me Sorry, Miss Moore. Let me tackle that in in in a couple ways. Of course, you know, more social workers, even some more school psychologists would be helpful. Um I think though what's what's most important is the systems that are being developed. So you know if you recall we just put graduation coaches in places what four years ago I think. Um and then this is the first year where we've had central office support to really support that work and to and to create more of a structure of

133what's going on. So we're looking at the schools you know and the coaches that have strengths and trying to grow those strengths across. Um, and I think that's, you know, using what we have is is very important right now. Um, and you utilizing those resources even more. Um, I think most importantly being able to fill some positions that we have that are vacant within social workers or school psychologists. Um, our our our 10 graduation coaches, those are all filled. Um, but, you know, to make sure that we do have the full grounded support in place is, you know, more important. Sometimes I think we get in the trap of throwing more, more, more and saying we need more, more, more when we we really need to organize our efforts better, which is what we're doing

134right now. And we're building this process. And and this is this is a this is a a tough task. You know, we're talking student by student that these gentlemen work with to to make this number different. And and they're doing it in two different ways, right? They're going after our seniors who are at the cliff's edge that we need to make sure we're there for. And then at the other end where our students who are coming into high school saying here's how we stay away from getting to that level. And as we do that, we'll see progressive improvement um with our numbers. It it's a slow move, but it is it's it's a solid move with what's being put into place. So I I do think, you know, of course, you know, we we could

135use more you know, positions, you know, on the ground. But I think first we need to make sure that we're utilizing our positions to the fullest and that we've filled the positions that we have opened before we create new positions just because we can't fill the other positions, >> right? And and I appreciate that and agree wholeheartedly that the systems that we have in place have to we have to ensure that they're working effectively for our students. Um, but to that end, it's it's, you know, do we I guess do we ideally know what that would look like? Is kind of like where we need to go in order to um feel like we're we're making an impact there, I guess, is like where where are we trying to go? even whether it's the system

136that we currently have in place or what we might need to ideally get to. >> Yeah. >> Um so and you know you might have to think about that and >> well and and I think part of it you know comes in when we you know bring Dr. Moore in with wraparound service and everything else and and our social workers. I think you know some having additional social workers who can do more home visits and who have more experience in that. So graduation coaches can focus more on the the core academics and the supports and and attendance and other things and and you know discipline and really mentoring that that will help but you know we have vacancies in those areas still so >> really filling in what we have is is is is important

137right now. >> Okay. And I didn't real so about how many vacancies I mean it's if it's in the chart I'll go back and look at it. >> It should be in the chart. I don't have the number off the top of my head. >> Okay. Um and if there are barriers associated with getting those vacancies filled you know I'd like I think the it'd be important for the board to hear what those barriers are so that when we talk about um what we might be able to do to get them in place um or get those positions filled that would be um important. Um, and speaking of so the graduation coaches that are doing the home visits right now, are they also trained to navigate some of the needs that our families may need?

138Like you know, you talked about um, you know, some of some of the the social and emotional needs of of our of our families overall. Are they trained to deal with um those situations where >> Yes. And and they're all All of our uh graduation coaches are experienced. Um earlier this year, I actually had an opportunity to engage in a home visit alongside uh one of our graduation coaches at Lake Tail High School. So, uh certainly they recognize uh the complexities that are involved in being able to support um our families with the sensitivity of actually being at someone's home. >> Yes. And finally, so we have open campus, which is our credit recovery program, and it's like if there if there are ideas that you might have about how do we strengthen opportunities like

139that to help engage our students because some of this is just engaging students, right? They're disengaged. So you don't see um the relevancy of being there, especially if they're like like you mentioned, you know, too, you know, not reading on grade level and they're several grade levels behind and academically struggling. like how are we creating um those systems and opportunities like open campus or um with the 3Es like how are we building that infrastructure to meet that need um of just engaging students back into >> well and that's that's a part of the whole process with graduation coaches so they know the connections they know if a student you know needs to connect with open campus or if they need to to go online with our software ware provider for credit recovery. They know the

140the connections to make and they are that tool now um to to help build that process for each student individually because each student's going to be different um to meet their needs. >> And do we have tutors, especially for those that may be on admentum that might need like the, you know, one-on-one interaction with a teacher? Do we have tutors to work with those students? >> There there are tutoring funds that are that are usable for that. And there's also this year we engaged with another when FEVt tutor closed down we went with a different company um that is more broadly has different availability and also we went with another online provider that's more face-toface and uh does more with the high school student than what we had previously as well. >> Right. And that's

141specifically I think you're referring to tutor.com and its capacity to be able to uh support students who are enrolled in uh general classes all the way up to AP course work. >> Okay. >> All right. Dr. Mark, >> I want to acknowledge Mr. Brady and sharing that information as well. >> Thank you. Um, Miss Mor, my question for you is around um if there are any I just like to know from you if there are any policies that are in place currently that may be um an obstacle for the work that you're doing and if so um you have any recommendations for us? >> Well, um thank you so much for the for the consideration. Um earlier when we were actually engaged in the state of the schools address uh one of the themes that

142uh was woven across uh multiple slides that talked about the importance of uh quality tier one instruction right and of course we have uh wonderful educators uh across our schools who who work um long hours to really be able to support our kids. But we also have emerging teachers who need to have uh time to actually hone their skills. And so as we continue to make strides with quality tier one instruction, we will certainly be able to capitalize on that uh relative to uh graduation as well as uh promotion. Um, in addition to that, just to go back and tag on um to a a question that Miss Bassine had had mentioned, um, and you had actually mentioned attendance technicians. Uh, I also happen to have the good fortune of being able to support our

143attendance technicians. At each of the high schools, we have one attendance technician. So if you go back to the slide uh and you notice the uh ratio of uh graduation coaches to to students, you could just add those numbers together and that's what we have in terms of our attendance technicians at each of the high school which of course we say thank you. We say thank you. We celebrate this because we know that that was a shift uh that was approved in the past year. But we certainly would not want to be remiss, right, in bringing that to the board's attention. And certainly we will work uh to um share um additional um factors for consideration that of course I will run by Dr. Paul before speaking publicly because there's so many thoughts streaming through

144my mind, but I will be disciplining you. >> Miss Slaughter, you have a question? Yes, I have one more quick question. Um I know the focus of graduation coaches is to help our scholars graduate. Are we also uh focusing on co um career readiness or specifically college readiness? Yeah, when we talk about the 3E readiness uh framework, it is and um so um as a result, our kids can actually engage uh for example in the ASVAB assessment and they could uh actually be pursuing a high demand credential credential in partnership with uh CTE, right? And Miss Gian is here. I want to acknowledge her as well. So, uh there are so many options that our kids can pursue and we stand ready to support uh progress across each of those. >> And I'll I'll add

145to that as well that you know, our school counselors do a lot with academic and career planning. So, so from elementary school up, you know, we have a lot of pieces in place to help guide students through that path of of where do they want to go? Um, and then of course when we get to the high school level with our students who are struggling um to get through that pathway, then our graduation coaches come in and say, "Well, let's look at this path and maybe some alternative paths." >> Well, our last um comment will be if you happen to see Miss Chandler win or Miss Ash come across names come across your desk, just let us know. >> I have something I want to say. >> Oh, Miss Thomas. Um, thank you. And I

146want to say thank you to all the coaches. And I'm very familiar with one of your coaches. Um, three of my kids went through this one coach. And when I say she's putting the work in and still putting the work in, she knows I'm talking about. Um, I would have liked to have um seen all of the coaches um represent all our um high schools to come here and just share something like these young men just did. you know, share their story or what they do in their school to make things um you know, more successful for our students. Um absolutely, uh Miss Thomas and if we have a opportunity to come back before the board, we will certainly integrate that. Uh this invitation came just prior to uh the holidays and Mr. McCracken and

147Mr. uh Price were kind enough to take my call uh and so they were able to be with us this evening. But this is exactly why I wanted to include a slide that actually showed exactly who our coaches are because they are major people. >> If you could just give us the names and what school >> Oh, absolutely. Thank you so much. Okay. Yes. Okay. Uh on the left uh top row, we happen to have Miss Jacqueline Elely. She is a graduation coach at Norview High School. She supports cohort 2026 as well as cohort 2027. Next, you'll see Mr. Price, who is actually here with us in the flesh and has already shared remarks. He is a graduation coach at Mory High School. Next, we have Miss uh yes, Miss Walker. Thank you. Uh Miss

148Sheena Walker. She's a graduation coach at Lake Taylor High School. She's the one I was actually talking about when we had an opportunity to engage in those uh home visits together uh earlier this year. Then we happen to have Mr. Matthew uh Whitehead. He's a graduation coach at Booker T. Washington High School serving uh cohorts 2026 and 2027. Miss Rail is actually seated to my left. She is the other uh companion graduation coach at Mory High School supporting cohort 2028 as well as 2029. Then we happen to have Miss Tracy Boone. Miss Tracy Boone is a graduation coach at Graanby High School. She is actually right now uh working double duty with the principal uh Mr. Smeaggel as her graduation partner is out on leave. Um but she is supporting all of our cohorts right

149now alongside with him because of the lead factor. Then of course we happen to have uh bottom row left to right Dr. Andrea Callahan. She is a graduation coach at Lake Taylor High School supporting cohorts 2026 and 2027. Then we happen to have Miss Veronica Hill in the middle bottom uh row. She is a graduation coach for Norview High School serving cohorts 2028 and 2029. And we end with Mr. Levi Wall. He is the other graduation coach for Booger uh Washington High School supporting cohort 2028 and 2029. >> I'm impressed. >> I am impressed as well. too. >> If I can see, you know, I'm like, bring the picture close. >> Well, thank you. I'm going to ask one last time. Any more questions? We're good. Thank you so much for this presentation. >> Thank

150you. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> For board members, we're going to move on to 3.03, draft schoolboard calendar. I believe you all have a hard copy. If you do not, let me know. um as we move forward in our uh business meeting, it will be there for approval. So, if there's any um comments or regarding this, just just reach out and just let me know. But take time to review that, but it will be on the agenda um I was going to say June January 21st for a vote. So, just please review that. Also, um the committees are is not up there, but I will send this out and I say if you're okay with your committee because it is January and we know usually these committees go from July to June, right?

151And so sometimes in a break with this can be, you know, you have to get on board and learn and all those things. So if you are pretty cool where you are, I understand that. Um I know there will be a shift with um um De Caligger and myself, but if you're okay with your assignment, I'm I'm good with that because I again I understand that it's usually um these committees uh serve from July to June and taking a break in the middle of the service would probably have some kind of impact. >> Yeah. So So I'll at the same time something. Okay. >> That is, you know, >> Yeah. >> that you would enjoy serving on. >> Yeah. But I will send this out. Okay. And we we can um get that updated. All

152right. So, that brings me to 401 future agenda item. >> Oh, okay. I'm sorry, >> Madam Chair. I'd like to request um next our our January business meeting to be held at Lake Taylor High School. Um we'd like to recognize our uh spring uh our state champion spring track for my Lake Taylor High School football and Mory football. And that would be a large crowd and I think it's kind of inconvenient for our parents to have to find parking here. Okay. >> So, I'd like to request if we could do our January 21st business meeting at the high school so we have more space so we can celebrate more students. >> Well, you've all heard Dr. Paul's request. So, is the board okay with that? >> Yes. >> Good. All right. Well, there you go.

153Our January 21st meetings at Lake Taylor High School. >> We'll take care of the rest. Yeah, we got it >> strategically. I do want to before we go around to include Dr. poll if we could in the future um whenever you see where it fits um a presentation on the family engagement specialists and their role and impact and I'm sure it's intertwined with you know what graduation coaches do and um had an opportunity to speak at a task force and that came up multiple times and and as I shared with um individuals that that looks different from school to school ba based on what the need is. Right. And so um how do we measure that? How do we know that it's making an impact in those schools? So >> that >> I will add

154to my list. >> That's slaughter. Um Dr. Paul, while you're adding things to your list, I would like to um find out the current mental health and mental wellness status of our scholars. um sometime on the agenda, please. And what we're doing to address the what we're doing and how we are addressing those needs. Thank you, >> Dr. Martin. >> I'm just going to um bring this up again about training on data. Oh, yeah. >> As a data driven board, we need to have that training. And I think the longer we wait, the more detrimental our work here. >> And to expand on that, we just need training period. Um because uh yeah, we have a new board. I mean, obviously anytime a new me member joins is >> and we we just need board

155training. Um and that needs to be prioritized. Pollson. U last time we talked about uh where >> I'm looking at the minutes from the last meeting. U I still think we should re our the ability of the citizens to be able to contact us and never said, "Well, we got an email. You got this. You got that." Again, I think giving them more time, not more time, but some time is I think twice a month is still an an idea. We didn't talk about it a lot last time, but u didn't seem to have a good standing with anybody, but I still think it's necessary because again, everybody's changing. They have expectations. sending them an email. They're sending it to us. They don't get responses. We're all busy, but I think we need to give

156them more of an opportunity to speak to us. >> Are are we following the process that we making sure that everybody is in agreement with what's being added to the agenda? >> Yes. So, well, um, back to what Colonel Pollson said, I, you know, I'm assuming you're talking about speaking at a work session. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, >> I didn't I wasn't that clear. >> Um, for me, I I I'll stand on it. It's a heal, I'll die on that. I believe a work session is what we're doing now. You know, having conversations around a subject matter, having discussion. we have multip of ways for the community to contact us and everyone can't come up here and and in person and speak. Um so again work sessions is is exactly what they are. It's

157a time for uh the board to come around have discussions around subject matter and talk things through. And so I I I'm not in agreement with with having um comment during a work session. >> That work work sessions are for the work >> work of the school board. >> Business meetings are for for the community >> business of the school board. Yes. >> I agree. Is there anyone else >> also mentioned was the possibility or potential for having a survey like they could find out what everybody what's their concerns? Uh and I don't see that. Uh >> so don't we have an annual survey that goes out to Colonel Pollson that the the school I mean school board the um administration sends out? >> We we do. It it doesn't I'm not sure if if

158Colonel Pollson's talking about specific school board or ours is administrative and school right doesn't have anything on school board. So if we wanted to add something like that that would be at the direction of the board if we wanted to add some questions on that >> when you >> are you are you saying a survey car >> on the school board. >> So somehow uh there's another way for them to reach us and we can do the survey once a year twice a year to get input. So your audience be >> right and what are what are what are what what what is the endg game? What are you trying to >> get from the public? Because you keep saying contact us. So are you >> what their concerns are? They change from day to

159day. >> Who's they? >> I guess >> I'm sorry. What >> a constituent. Okay. That's that's the important piece is who that's why I'm trying to Yeah. to get >> the con constituents have another way to reach us. Uh that's what I'm trying to advocate for a different way for them to reach us. Some some don't have the ability for they don't depending where you live. Uh emails not uh sufficient. they don't have access like some uh some of the parts of the city where the the in in the poverty areas that you they don't have a way to reach us. They don't have u access to computers. I think they give them hotspots but that's for the child to do his his u his or her work. But what about the parents? >> Surveys

160would be electronic. So, right, we still have the same barriers >> between an email and a ser in a survey. >> And and for most of us, I I I I think we have schoolboard issued phones. Um, and that information is on the website under all of our um profiles on the website. We have email addresses. Miss Tanner is our board clerk. She is um um citizens contact us through her as well. There's a on our website there's multiple opportunity. Miss Tanner, can you pull up our website? >> Multiple opportunities for the public to reach out to us whether it's telephone. Um shoot I have some people come to my house and ring the doorbell because I'm right in the you know steps away from St. Helena school. You know I'm like oh hey how

161you doing? Okay but um oh you still can't go to Okay. So there's there's different ways for the community to contact the board. Um and again we have at our business meeting opportunity for agenda and non-aggenda um topics for anyone to come and speak. Um and they can also if they want to contact us via email and and share their comments that way. So um weren't able to get it >> but we do have like you said the email clerk in there's many ways constituent like I said I've had several come to my front door so you know um >> okay here we go you've been holding out Dr. Oh, >> I'm familiar with with the >> but I was just what's on there. >> I was just again trying to advocate for a different

162way. >> Right. >> What about the joint meeting with the city council? >> That is on my list. I I I personally I'm going to call the mayor and get that as a priority. >> But we go ahead. >> Go ahead. >> Yes, Miss Slaughter. >> I wanted to make sure. Are you finished? Yes. >> You sure? >> Yes. She said that she's gonna >> Yeah, I'm I'm gonna >> reach out. >> Um self evaluations >> and then um we have a student rep who would like to make a comment. >> Um I just wanted to say um if we could have a discussion on our student representative roles and just like a little bit more insight on what exactly we're supposed to be doing. And that's a priority for me uh Chandler Wyn because

163in my experience the school board uh rep plays a vital role in in the school board and I also um will share that um we're in the beginning planning stages for the Tidewater VSBA Tidewater regional forum and we talked about and you all being part of that um that event and showcasing our students. So I hear you. I agree. Anyone else? Yeah. Right. We're going to move down to 4.02. May I have a motion to go into close executive session? >> I make a motion that we move into close executive session. >> Second. >> I second. >> Pollson slaughter. >> Oh, no. Barton, >> somebody over there. >> Okay. All right. Good. All right. Any discussion? No. So, we have Slaughter M. Martin. >> Yes. Right. Okay. You're ready. >> Read the motion. >> Move

164that the members of the school board of the city of Norolk go into a closed meeting for the purposes which are set out in subsection A of section 2.2-3711 2-3711 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as amended four discussion, consideration or interviews or prospective candidates for employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of specific public officers, appointees or employees of the schoolboard pursuant to subsection 2.2-3711A1 of the act. The subjects covered by this exemption are the discussion of a potential violation of confidentiality in connection with a specific personnel matter and a discussion of specific candidates for appointment to the position of superintendent. Discussion of the award terms or scope of a public contract where discussion in open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body.

165Pursuant to subsection 2.2-3711A29 2-3711A29 of the act. The subject covered by this exemption is the discussion of the award terms and scope of a possible superintendent contract consultation with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters requiring a provision of legal advice by council pursuant to subsection 2.2-37118A1 A8 of the act. The subjects covered by this exemption are consultation when in connection with an alleged violation of schoolboard policy and the matter set above in subsections A and B of this motion. Bassine >> I >> Buffalo >> I >> Martin >> I >> Slaughter >> I >> Thomas >> to Caligerro. >> Okay, we're now in close session.