001to order and begin with the flag salute. Please rise if you're able and remove your hats for the Pledge of Allegiance. Ready? Begin. Okay, great. I'm back and we are I believe we don't have anyone here who's in attendance for public comments. So we will move. Is that correct? There's no public comments? Right. Well, I'll kick it off. This is the next edition of our principals round table. We've kind of went out of a little bit of order this year. We had the high school earlier than normal this year by themselves. Then we had elementary last month. And now Brian with the middle school has got the entire stage to himself today. So this is you know, in the past uh we've had Mark Galloway who had been the principal at the middle school for
002a long long time. >> [snorts] >> And we want this is two parts. Brian wants to tell you about what's going on about the middle school. But for the board it's a great opportunity for you to just get to know Brian as a person if you haven't had that opportunity to. Hunter and I have worked with Brian um over the course of the year all the way back since the time he was hired. So I'll let Hunter do a little bit of kick off and then we'll get right to Brian. Yeah, so similar to our other our elementary presentation, Brian's going to talk about just kind of what's going well, what are things that he's noticed in his first year, and what's kind of on the horizon. Um you know, I think coming in after
003a principal's been there somewhere for 20 years, there's a there's a lot to kind of take in and to see what has been kind of normalized and what what needs changing, and I think Brian's done a really nice job of pretty accurately assessing these are the areas we need to focus on. It's been fun to work with him. I'm excited for you guys to get to know him. And so, yeah, Brian, go ahead and take it away. All right. Well, thanks for having me, you guys. I appreciate this opportunity. I'm not a big talker. So, if you have a presentation prepared, but if you guys have any questions, please stop Please stop and ask. Um So, this is my first year here. I got hired in July of last year. My start date was July
0041. Our school's about 850 or so kids. We have about 50 certificated staff members. Um So, about me. So, I When I graduated high school, I was not a fan of school. I had no desire to go to school, no desire to go to college. I wanted to do something else. I joined the military, enlisted in the Navy December of my senior year. Left for boot camp shortly after graduation. After I got out, we kind of traveled the world. And after I got out, I had my GI Bill, got married, had some kids, worked a bunch of crummy jobs, wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. So, I used my GI Bill and I started going to YVC. Kept my I got hired on in Yakima School District as a as a custodian, and
005I worked there while I was going to YVC. Took me about, let's see, 8 years to get my AA. So, I was kind of stopping starting stopping starting, having kids, going back to school. Then, once I decided what I wanted to do, I wanted to get into teaching, I I enrolled in Central, and then took classes in the morning, worked in the afternoon and the evening, and then I would leave work, I'd go and I'd take a night class just to get done a little bit quicker, and then go back to work at Davis. So, the principals were super accommodating, the staff was super accommodating. I always tell everybody that the kids at Davis, they're the ones that kind of helped me get through with my program because I was constantly going up to the
006library when I'd get to school and the kids would tutor me on basic stuff. They would tutor me in my college class like, man, I don't have a clue what's going on. And they really saved my butt in just helping me out getting through that thing. So, after that, um that was about Oh, jeez, that process was about a 10-year process and then I got hired on at uh um 6th grade at Harrah Elementary School on in Mount Adams, Mount Adams School District and I worked there for about 4 years. Then went to Union Gap and I was there for about another 4 years and while I was there uh teaching 6th grade, I went through my internship, my admin internship and I had no desire to be an administrator. I liked teaching, loved what
007I was doing, but I knew that I needed to keep get up on that pay scale. So, I got my admin internship, had no desire to look for jobs. Something came along in Grandview. It was a little like a little 1-year um 1-year thing. So, I applied for that, ended up getting it, went to Grandview, spent the last 4 years down there and then again, I had no desire to be a I'd be a head principal, but this job came up and I was like, man, looking at the you know, being from being from Seattle living here the last 10 years or so and then uh having the kids go through the school and looking at all the all the data and all the systems and everything that were in place. I was like, that
008could be a pretty good place to go. So, applied for it and we got it. These guys gave me an opportunity, so I appreciate that. So, let's see. My goal this year was to figure out figure out the school, figure out the people at the school, figure out what Toppenish Middle School is all about. So, I did a lot of listening and a lot of talking to people. Just asking questions, just kind of sitting back and observing. Um I worked most of July just kind of rooting around in the Google drives, just learning the school, walking around the school, talking to the custodians, talking to people who'd pop in. Um, talking to the VPs that are there. Just trying to figure out get as much information as I possibly could. I didn't have a predetermined
009plan. Wasn't exactly sure what what needed to be changed or what was what was going well, but I knew that I just needed to get some things figured out. To start. So, that was the main goal is I wanted to make sure I understood the building before we did anything. >> [clears throat] >> So, my first couple months, I uh spent a lot of time in classrooms, hallways, uh conversations with people, observing the culture of the building, the history of the building, talking to kids, talking to families, um talking to different community members, talking to district office folks. I met with every single staff member um for 10-15 minutes, just a little one-on-one conversation to find out get their perspective on things, find out what they what they enjoyed about the building, what was going
010well for them, what kind of things they thought needed to be changed. Spent a lot of time reviewing the current systems that were in place. So, we looked at the master schedule, we looked at gradebooks, we looked at some of the teaming structures, uh some of the existing processes to figure out exactly what was in place and what was going well. Um but again, like I said a few minutes ago, we needed to focus on building a very clear picture of that of the building before we could make any changes. So, some things that I learned early on was the biggest thing was the staff care about each other. It's a very very veteran staff, and they're they have strong feelings for one another. Relationships is a word that I heard all the time. Um
011many many teachers work extremely hard. Many staff works extremely hard. They all want to do better. They all want what's best for the kids. It's just a matter of getting everybody aligned with what that looks like. Um there was some pockets of very strong practices throughout the building. Um we got a great dual language program. I think right now we serve about 200 205 kids, 220 kids in our dual language program grade 6 through 8. Um so half their day is dual is Spanish, half their day is English. Uh we have a ton of CTE classes including several hands-on classes. We have a killer greenhouse program, an agricultural program. Kids get to do a lot of hands-on activities, they get to do a lot of gardening, they get to do a lot of things with
012plants and what not. Um some of the gaps were several systems they lack consistency, weren't aligned. Um expectations varied greatly between classrooms. Um many roles and responsibilities. There's a lot of support staff at the middle school, but some of the roles and responsibilities aren't clear. It's a lot of oh this is this is you know not my job, this is such and such's job. This isn't this this isn't what we do. This is what this person does. Um systems systems tend to be pretty reactive rather than proactive and uh um some of the decision-making processes in the past weren't always transparent. So one thing that stuck out to me was I talked to every single staff member and I asked them asked them the same questions. One of the questions I asked them was what
013the best part of the Cela Middle School was. What's the best part of working there was. And nearly every single staff member told me oh the staff the staff. As we would talk you know students would come up but the first initial initial uh response to that was oh the staff. So I think it was like number 48 or 49 49th person I talked to was the first person that said oh the students kind of like why why would you even ask me that question. So that was that was just something that I've paid attention to this whole entire year. All right. Let's see here. So I want to be transparent with you guys. I want to be honest with you guys. I don't want to come across like I'm blaming anybody, bashing anybody. That's
014not my intent. So if it comes across that way that's truly not my intent. Um it's just I I I believe that all systems work exactly how they're designed to work. So, that being said, before we can move before [snorts] we can move forward and start to see real improvement, we we got to be we got to be honest, especially in the building. We have to be honest with exactly where we are, so we know what's working, we know what's not working. Um, one of the biggest issues is inconsistency. It's inconsistency in classrooms, it's inconsistency in hallways, it's inconsistency with uh you know, with with my admin team. It just inconsistencies uh is a is an issue. Kids, depending on where depending on what classroom kids go to, they have a wildly different experience from
015day to day, depending on depending on mood of uh mood of staff, depending on you know, what who the who the kid is, who their family is, what they come into the building with, different things like that. Depending on that, that kid has a wildly different experience than other kids. So, that's something that is incredibly important is it needs to be We can't control what's happening outside of the school, but we we can't control the certain things. We can control structures, we can control adult consistency, we can control things like that. And that's important. Kids have to know what to expect from classroom to classroom and location to location. So, the current reality, our academic performance, our SBA scores, our WIDA scores, they're way lower than what they should be. We all know that. We
016are we are performing below state average in all areas, in SBA um math, SBA ELA, the science assessment, and our WIDA for progressing and proficient students. Um, and I don't exactly know why. I I I feel that the building kind of lost some urgency with uh with the importance of state testing. Um, and academic academic outcomes. Uh back to the relationship piece, that's kind of been at the forefront of of how decisions are made and things like that, how decisions have been made, and not necessarily student achievement or student outcome has not been has not been the number one priority. Um, behavior system, and I'll talk a little bit more about some of the data on the next couple of slides, but some of the behavior systems, there's some pretty good systems in place, but
017they they uh they're heavily reactive to things. They they they don't think they're they're not working how they're intended to work. They're working how they're designed, but they're not working how they're intended, if that makes sense. Um, we have kids that are being removed from classrooms at a extremely high rate. Um, classroom exclusions last year were uh ooh, upwards of 5 600 for the year. Um, and and they could be different amounts of time. It could be 10 minutes, it could be, you know, the entire class period, it can be it can be different amounts of time. This year we're down about 100 or so classroom exclusions compared to last year, which is better, but we're the kids are still missing out on a ton of instructional time. Um, >> [snorts] >> and I contribute
018that to expectations being fairly unclear and and inconsistently enforced. Um, instructional variability, um, there's a lot of inconsistency with with how content is taught. Um, we have we have several grade level teams. Um, within within the teams, for example, a uh three people in a three people in a team teaching the same content, same grade level, they may all be doing things quite a bit differently. Um, it's one thing to have your different styles and and, you know, teach your class a certain way, but the content should be the same. It should be the standard should be the same. What you're teaching should be essentially the same. You should go into one classroom and they exactly what you're going to get going into the next classroom. Um again, personalities are going to be different and
019that's good, but what's being taught should be the same. Um and that goes back to the the kids experience depends heavily on on uh what classroom they're in and what adult's in front of them. Um inconsistent intervention structures. So, one thing I noticed this summer was was uh um there was an intervention program that was different than the previous years. And it was uh um talking to some people, it didn't sound like very many people knew about it. Um it was something that was planned in the spring by a smaller group of folks and uh it it wasn't it wa- it wasn't it wasn't communicated it wasn't communicated very well overall. So, uh I had a bad feeling about that knowing that okay, the teachers are going to be doing this, but now they're also
020going to be asked to do this during a during an advisory time. So, there was a there was some different things with that. It didn't seem like there was a lot of structure in place with that. It wasn't real clear what the intent of it was. Um So, that we ended up rolling with that for the first few months of school and then it kind of just uh we let that go cuz it wasn't real effective. Um kids were accessing electives. So, currently right now kids are accessing electives. We're very elective heavy uh building. Um when they should be receiving more targeted supports for reading, writing, and math. So, some key data points. So, our our WISA data is Washington School Improvement Framework. So, we're our middle school is one of the schools that's in
021the school improvement. I don't know how familiar you all are all with that. Um but the state takes into account um uh EL EL progress. It takes into account SBA math progress and proficiency proficiency and growth and uh math SBA proficiency and growth. And then also takes into account attendance. And then it kind of gives you an overall score and then it ranks those with uh it ranks those with schools in the state and then it gives you a specific decile. So, our decile is 2.55 which kind of puts our school right now in the lower lower quartile of the state with school improvement. So, it's not it's not necessarily a bad thing. It just helps you identify what your areas of need are and then what you need to focus on. So, it can
022be every school that I've ever been at has always been in school improvement. I I don't know if I don't know if uh the middle school here has ever been in school improvement. Um but it's not it's not I don't it's not treated as a bad thing. It's just treated as a growth opportunity. Okay, now this is targeted. We need to shore some things up and then get out of this which is which can be good. Um significant reading gaps, significant math gaps math gaps. Like I stated high exclusion and discipline referral rates. Um Our staff does a really good job about documenting sit situations. Some things can be over documented. Um we'll talk about that in a couple minutes. Chronic absenteeism. We were roughly around 70 to 80% average daily attendance. Um which I
023think's fairly consistent with with most middle schools. Some are some are are higher and some are a little bit lower but that's that's pretty average. Um Our two our two biggest things our two biggest uh disciplinary areas are defiance and disruption. Um so, we've been working at ways to help define what does what is what constitutes defiance. What what constitutes defiance aside from normal typical 14-year-old behavior. If you guys have kids, you know there's just you ask them to do something you're going to get your eye rolled. Is that worth getting kicked out of class? Probably not. If it keeps happening then we can change the conversation. But so, things like that. Um what the data also confirmed was that we need a lot stronger tier one system. So, overall overall school wide systems and
024consistency. Um a big thing is instructional consistency and then behavior expectations. Um the data we spent a lot of time this year with staff looking at looking at SBA data data, looking at WIDA data, looking at >> [clears throat] >> looking at the um exclusionary data, looking at um discipline data, looking at all sorts of different things and and it's been tracked, but a lot of uh staff said, "Well, we've never really done anything with it. We've never really looked at it. We know that we have to take the test every spring, but that's kind of where that's kind of where it stops. So, that's been a that's been a big push this year is just sharing that data and what it means and what it looks like compared to to local schools. Do you
025guys have any questions so far? I'm just yammering on. Okay. Um Brian, maybe could you talk to with the the behavior data? What have you noticed in other schools you've been in? Does behavior stand out to you at C the middle school compared to the >> Um No, so it doesn't. So, I'm I'm a I've been in I've been in my schools that I've been in were are are kind of high high poverty, low income schools, uh title one schools, schools that have uh you know, a lot of a lot of family issues at home, a lot of a lot of gang a lot of gang issues, a lot of gang involvement in the communities. Um We have high numbers of of of behavior, but it's not I I a lot of it is just
026typical I think it's typical middle school developmentally age appropriate behavior. A lot of it is. There's the there's the talking back and there's the disrespect. But, there's not the there's not the the just the mean nasty kids. Most Most of our kids, 99% of our kids are great kids. I'd say all of our kids are great kids. We have a couple kids who just continually do stupid things, but for the most part our kids are really pretty good kids. Um our our we we we tend to I think over police some of the smaller issues, and then that kind of creates a spiral effect and can create can create bigger issues when that's not really necessary. Um >> [sighs] >> So, a big thing this year was was don't get into them. And I I'm
027I I'll occasionally say swear words. I'm not going to do that today. So, um we get into kind of you know power struggles with the thing. You know what I was going to say, so I appreciate that. So, we get into power struggles with kids, so that's not something that you're typically going to win with a 13 or 14-year-old kid. So, knowing when to tap out, making sure hey, you can hold these guys accountable and provide consequences and things like that, but we got to make sure we're treating them with dignity and respect and not button heads with them. You know what I mean? That's just going to escalate things, and that's not something that's going to work out for anybody. So, our our our behaviors are are we have our issues. I'm not saying
028that, but our but our typical behaviors are fairly minor compared to where I've been to answer your question. I got I have a couple questions. >> Yeah, yeah. You talked about um five to 600 exclusions for the the classroom, I think you were talking about. Yeah. What percentage of the school of the students is that is like the same kids over and over, or is it different kids? It's it it varies. It's um I was just curious if it was if it was like a small percentage of of the of the students, or if it was a larger percentage if it was spread out over a larger group. Um re- repeat offenders, there's obviously our repeat offenders, um, and that's that's a concentrated that's a concentrated group of kids, um, but the bulk of them
029I would say are just kind of they're more they're more one-offs, um, and some of them are valid. I'm not saying that. Sometimes you just got to get a kid out of your class for the sake of everybody. But a lot of them are not valid. A lot of them are, oh, you know, I'm going to I'm going to teach this kid a lesson for and remove him from the classroom. Well, >> that's part of the power struggle. >> Well, that's what they want. Yeah, I'm good. I get to get out of here for a little bit. I'm not going to listen to you talk to me. So, that kind of thing. So, the So, it's not it it it goes back to it goes back to, uh, you know, where where there has to
030be there has to be clear expectations and everybody has to essentially follow the same protocol for when you if you need a kid removed and go through those steps so the kids know what to expect from person to person. Um, it's it's it's pretty sporadic if that answers your question. There's a there's a concentrated group that are repeat offenders, but it's pretty, um, it's pretty sporadic. I think probably about total kids last year I would say um, two 200 200 or so kids different kids. So, a quarter of the a quarter of the building. Um, at at one time or other, you know, at least once I would say. Uh, this year it's it's probably about Well, it's it's probably pretty close to that. Same number of kids. Um, there it the the biggest concentration
031is, uh, is, uh, um, certain certain staff have significantly more than others. Um, that answer your question? Yeah, it did. Um, you're also talking about different classroom experiences for the same. Is that because the curriculum for each classroom is different? They're not it's not all No. No, I mean, so if if if, you know, if him and I both teach both teach sixth grade math or both teach sixth grade ELA and you come into our class, you know, you're going to get you're going to get two different teaching styles. You're going to get you're going to get two different personalities of people, but what's what's the what's different is some of our some of our our teams are teaching two different standards. Some of them are teaching more activities just to kind of get through
032the day. Others are teaching an actual standard a little bit more more rigorous. So, that's that's the inconsistent piece that I'm talking about. >> [snorts] >> Um last one I'll leave >> Yeah. No, go ahead. Um you have said that the absences are 75 to 80%. Is that is the same is it like the same kids absent more often or is it kind of spread out again like the discipline stuff? That So, they so that that chronic absenteeism, that means that if you miss you know, if you miss 10 Well, it's 10% of your school year. So, once you hit 18 days, you're essentially chronically absent. Um which we have a lot of kids that hit hit that right out of the gate, you know, for various reasons. And that's excused and unexcused. So, it
033could be folks go on vacation somewhere. It could be a kid gets sick, has to go to the hospital. Whatever it is, that all contributes to those. So, it's uh I don't know the the percentage of kids who are are chronically absent, but it's it's it's probably fairly concentrated again. It's typically the same kids who are chronically absent. Um there are there are uh um more and more each year that I that I'm in schools, more and more folks are keeping their kids out for various reasons, you know, for the you know, mental health days or or whatever it is or just hey, I'm going to let them stay home because they want to stay home. And I hear that as a reason more often than not when I'm talking to folks. Oh, they didn't
034want to go to school today or they're having this issue so they just were going to stay home instead. Those kinds of things. So to start getting that back drilled into the into the community, into the staff, and into the kids, hey, this is important. This is why this is why you're coming to school. This is what we're doing. This is what we're working for. And just getting that message rather than oh, I can just take a day off here and there. You shouldn't You shouldn't be able to take days off but not to the extent of where it's detrimental to you. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Okay. So like I said earlier, so this year it wasn't my goal was not to do a massive overhaul. I just wanted to learn some things, stabilize some
035things, uh identify some priorities, and then kind of set a clear direction moving forward for the next couple of years. Um what we did change this year was we did uh one of the first things we did mostly cuz it was it was bothering me when I was looking through the Google folder and trying to sort things out for the start of the year was um a teaming inventory. So I wanted to see how many different teams we had operating in the building. Um typically I would say efficient and effective places have three teams. You have a tier one team that's kind of overall school-wide systems, a tier two team that's a little bit more targeted, and then a tier three team. Um and those three teams should be talking back and forth with one
036another. And that can be that can go as far as, you know, for instruction, for behavior, and for um acade- for uh instruction, behavior, and attendance. Well, what we what we figured out was there was um as this as of this as of let's see, it was uh as of June of last year, so the spring of last year, there was 13 different teams operating in the building. Um there was a lot of redundancy with teams. There was several different tier one teams. There were several different tier two teams. Um there was some different subcommittees of teams. There was uh teams that were doing the same work. There were teams that were doing uh the same different work with the same goal in mind. They weren't They weren't talking with one another. They weren't communicating
037back and forth with one another. So, they didn't really have a lot of clear roles and responsibilities. Some of them were just kind of hey, I'd like to do this. Is that all right? And then a team would a team would be started. So, that's the first thing we did is we consolidated some teams and we got down to a a overall tier one team and then a tier two team. Our tier three team, it's it's it's still mostly our mostly our our sped our special education staff and things like that. So, we haven't really spent too much time with that this year, but our goal was to get a a clear tier one team that could set some clear expectations instructional and behavioral within the school and then a clear tier tier two team
038as well. And that's been um that's been helpful. It's been helpful for me. Um it's like it's like when you organize your garage. It's a giant mess. You got to take every single thing out before you can put it back in there and kind of clean it up a little bit. So, that's what we've been doing is we just kind of been pulling things out and figuring out what's going on. And And again, the the you know, this is my first year there. A lot of the folks have been there for 20 plus years. So, why things are done the way they're done is that's you know, there's different very there's different variations. >> [clears throat] >> Another thing we did was was set up more consistent meetings. So, a consistent building leadership team where
039we meet every 2 weeks. It's structured. Consistent tier two team meetings where we meet weekly. And then we have staff meetings every 2 weeks. We have a clear agendas, running agendas that are Oops, sorry. Clear running agendas that are um notes documented. They're consistent. Um we knew that we needed to be in the classrooms as an admin team. So, we created some some main look fors. We try to keep that mostly positive this year and provide a um positive feedback rather than constructive feedback, especially for my first year. Um we set a goal for a certain number of walk-throughs and how many classrooms we wanted to get into for the year. We knew that we needed to be able to we needed to find a way to give teachers immediate feedback on what they were
040doing, what they were doing well, some different things that we were wondering while we were in their class. Um and then we've been using that walk-through data to kind of help guide uh some of our professional development and in throughout our staff meetings this year. Um we met our goal, which is good. Next year we got a bigger goal, so I think we should be all right, though. Um another issue was gradebook consistency. Um this summer before school was starting and meeting with teachers and looking at looking in Skyward and looking in their gradebooks. Um The the the grading system has been standards-based grading. So, uh one, two, three, or four. What we found out was there's certain percentages that were weighted depending on the teacher. So, the teachers had a lot of say in
041how they wanted to wait weigh different things and um the overall grading was inconsistent from classroom to classroom. So, many of them were were a little bit screwed up and I guess that was something that would go in and it would get kind of tweaked uh tweaked manually individually based on the teacher. So, we we shifted that this summer more aligned towards towards the high school's grading grading scale, um where it's still standards-based, but there's a letter grade attached to it. It may not be ideal right now, but it's it's I think it's a step in the right direction for where for where we want to go. Um that was a big that was a big change for people. But, I think it's it's helped kids overall just like, "Okay, well, when I get a
042two or a one, that really doesn't mean anything, but now I'm looking at a you know, a C- or minus or an F, that that kind of hits different. It stings a little bit different." Um Data center conversations, so our our weekly PLC or CSL um um that our teams meet Wednesdays weekly. Um there was not a lot of uh notes or documentation for uh the CSL meetings. So, we created agendas with that. We tried to guide that on the four guiding questions. So, every every uh every CSL meeting, we ask the teacher looks at, "Hey, you know, what do we want the kids to know? What do we What are we going to do when they What are we going to do when they don't get it? What are we going to do when
043they don't respond? What are we going to do when they do respond?" And just start to think about how we can guide our instruction based off of what the kids are getting and what the kids need and where they're at. We haven't got We haven't gotten >> [clears throat] >> consistent with collecting data with those yet, but the main the main goal this year was just to get into that consistent routine of meeting weekly, of taking notes, of thinking about being more intentional with your teaching. Oops, sorry. Went the wrong way. Okay. So, one of the uh one of the biggest probably the biggest philosophical shifts is uh is shifting it from an adult-centered building to a student-centered building. Um So, when when when I say student-centered, I don't mean giving the kids everything that
044they want or making their day, you know, just nothing but fun and excitement. And we student-centered means we have to give the kids what they need. So, that goes back to what I said a few minutes ago with the electives. Yeah, electives are fun, but if a kid is in eighth grade and they're reading at a first-grade level or second-grade level, I don't know if if certain elective classes are helping them. They need to learn how to read and write close to or at grade level. Um we knew that we needed to protect instructional time. That's a non-negotiable. Uh consistent expectations for all kids, and increased uh focus on engagement and academic rigor. Um that that's been an area that's uh that's lacking. We need to design our systems around what students actually need rather
045than what's easiest. So, when you're thinking adult-centered, it's kind of hey, you know, this is my preference. I'd really like to do this, you know, this this could be fun for the kids, da da da da, things like that. Shifting that to student-centered, hey, what does the kid need? What's going to actually help these guys be successful? Um, and that's [clears throat] a that's that can be a little uncomfortable for people at times. Another thing that we did was was uh celebrating student success cuz like I said, we have a we have a lot of great kids. We have a lot of kids who constantly doing the right thing. We have a lot of kids who are who are, you know, trying hard every single day. We have a lot of kids who they may
046not be at grade level, they may not be proficient, but they're they're growing every single day. So, we we created some of our You guys have been to the middle school tour. We have a ton of display cases. Um, so we took some [clears throat] of the things out. We set it up a student of the month display case to award students that are showing growth or um, you know, getting better every day in the classroom. Uh academic performance, uh attendance, perfect attendance. We started celebrating growth on assessment growth, um SBA growth, I-Ready growth, um different things like that. We started celebrating kids for um their WIDA their WIDA. [snorts] Um WIDA growth, ELL progress, ELL proficiency, uh stamp the stamp test, the kids that take the uh um the test for the seal of
047biliteracy so they can get high school credits. We [snorts] created uh we created different things like that. So, as you're walking in the hallways, you can start to see, okay, shifting the shifting it from this is not just fun and games. We got to we got, you know, we got business to attend to and these kids are doing what they're supposed to be doing and we're going to celebrate them. Okay, so moving forward. >> [snorts] >> So, goal is consistency for every kid no No where they go throughout [clears throat] the throughout the throughout the building. Um and I think that starts with Well, I know that starts with adult consistency. If adults are consistent, adults have clear expectations, then the kids tend to follow. Kids are kids are fairly easy. They tend to do
048what they're asked for the most part. Um So, I want kids to experience strong instruction no matter on their classroom, clear expectations, uh class needs to be meaningful for them, what they're doing needs to be meaningful, and they have actual genuine support um regardless of where they're at. Um so, a couple things. Strong tier one, we spend a lot of time we spend a lot of time looking at looking at a tier one school-wide behavior expectations, uh consistent classroom norms, strong high-leverage classroom instructional practices, um making sure that we have actually proactive systems, behavior systems in place rather than reactive. Uh instructional alignment, um common expectations [clears throat] in every single classroom, so there should be a few things that you see no matter what classroom you go in. A stronger literacy and vocabulary focus.
049And then uh start getting towards a better use of data to help drive our teaching. And then clear interventions, so next year on the master, um we're building in intervention classes, enrichment classes into the schedule, so some kids will get what they need. So, we're going to go more more enrichment {slash} intervention heavy in sixth grade and kind of get the kids shored up and then ease off as they go to seventh and eighth grade with the intent that we shouldn't be sending to the kids sending kids to the high school that are that are you know, 30% of them are at grade level. They need to have We need to get them get them shored up here so they can go up there and have more opportunities. So, building that into the schedule has
050been has been a little tricky. I know I talked to a few of you guys um earlier this year, and my original plan was I wanted to go to a seven-period day just to have more options, but because of staffing and because of uh um contractual language and things like that, we just couldn't do that yet. Okay, so >> [gasps] >> um some of my priorities were a a streamlined master schedule. Um I'm I'm a very simple person. I'm not I'm not very complex, so I don't I don't I look at things I look at things logically and I think about things strategically and I want to make sure what the domino effect of doing certain things is. So one of these things and this this was a topic that came up a lot when
051I was talking to staff was uh an inconsistent master schedule. They would they would teach different things from year to year to year. Um and they would [clears throat] have multiple preps. So many of our teachers have three preps, four prep periods. And by that, I mean, you know, they'll they'll teach three different three different content areas or they'll teach four different content areas. Um and then that'll change the following year and that'll change the following year. So our goal was to do max two preps per teacher, no matter no matter what they're doing. Um intervention built into the teacher's day and built into the student's day, not something extra that they're doing on top of their on top of their five instructional periods or six instructional periods. And then try to keep a consistent
052master schedule from year to year. Um [clears throat] solidify tier one expectations and then just continue with their tier two system uh development and teaming. So success to me, discipline referrals will decrease, classroom exclusions will decrease, our test scores will start to increase, our attendance will increase, um we'll start to get a little bit more positive community feedback. Um A lot of friends and and family in the community and it's not always not always positive uh with schools. I think especially in the last couple years, it's kind of been uh it's it feels like it's an us against them kind of thing. Um and I want kids and families that take pride in Steel Middle School. I don't want to talk to folks and say, "Oh, we're going to move to West Valley because you
053guys, you know, you guys don't know what's going on that kind of thing. I want people to say hey, we want to move to Sila because you guys are doing great things at the school. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Um >> [clears throat] >> So what I got so I want you guys to know that we got a lot of really good solid folks in the building. Um caring people, care about each other, care about kids. Um we have a pretty clear view of where where we're going to go and then uh I know what needs to be improved and I have some ways to do that and I also want you guys to know that the decisions that I make they're majority of the time they will be they will be made in the
054best interest for the kids. It doesn't mean not look like it always at the time, but that's always my goal is to make sure that the kids are going to benefit from our decisions. Shouldn't be adult benefits from the decision. That could be a byproduct of it, but kids kids should be first. And I want the school to be an example of what a middle school can be in the valley. I don't like to look at I don't like to look at you know, valley data and and see Sila middle school near or towards the bottom. That rubs me the wrong way. I want it to be I want it to be way higher because we're way more capable than that. So what I got also know that this takes this is going to take
055some time, but we'll get there. Questions you guys have? I have a [clears throat] couple again. Um you talked about contractual language changes keeping you from doing what you want to do. Yeah. Um is contract up this year, right? Are we you're negotiating that? Um is that something that we can try and get buy in on from the teachers and that kind of language or is that like an absolute stop. It's not Excuse me. It's not been part of the package from either side in initial negotiations. And part of that is because Brian found a a way to do his schedule without having to get into that mess and make it an issue. Uh if if his schedule would have been one that would have needed uh go to the association and see if we
056could change that language. We we could have done that. It's also part of um Brian had to because of students has been asked and has done a reduction in his number of staff he has available in his schedule. So that as you said that also played a part of it is too is having less staff to work with to make the schedule work. Okay. The the changes that you're making in the staff that you talked to you are you getting buy-in from them to be able to make these changes? Yeah. They they uh overall it's been mostly positive. They less preps, less less classes to prep for, more consistency. I mean who doesn't like those things, you know? Um so it's it's been mostly positive with that. They they a lot of folks may not
057necessarily like or agree with agree with my method, but I that it kind of is what it is. Um try to be as transparent as possible with the staff. I try to keep people in the in the loop of what's going on and what changes are being made. I don't want any anybody surprised with anything. Um >> [sighs and gasps] >> the folks that I've talked to that that are teaching something slightly different next year or maybe a little bit out of their wheels it's been it's been positive so far. Um and they understand why most importantly. So that part's been good. Are you also looking at like curriculum changes for this as well or No. Just organizing things better? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And that you know that can be something that can be something
058down the road, you know, but I think if if uh if we have we have fairly solid curriculum right now. Um it's just getting getting folks to consistently consistently use that from classroom to classroom. And not not venture off with doing what's fun and exciting for them at the time. A master schedule is I mean, it drives everything you do in a school and I think I knew Brian was on the right track when he identified that really early on. Uh it's been from a T&L perspective every year there's been a different master schedule. Um I think looking at our core academic courses ELA, math, science, those were generally larger than our elective courses. Which logically doesn't make sense, right? When we have elective courses running uh at 20 or below and we have our
059core courses that are filled to the brim. That was a priority that Brian made or kind of assessed early on and will be addressed going into our master schedule next year. And those those are you can argue that. Right? When when we have our data what looks like what it looks like and our master schedule should reflect our goals and what we're working on and so that's I feel like uh but it's a it's a tough uh go of it for Brian cuz what I what I've heard and what I've known about there's been a lot of autonomy and autonomy is a is a good thing but too much of it it's people start all doing their own things and they get really um they're proud of what they do um but it doesn't always
060so pull it kind of reining that back in is is something I you I've heard it's been a lot for Brian to kind of take in and and um figure out where is the highest priority and and a master schedule is is of the of any technical changes, that's probably the most impactful thing you can change. Good. Brian, thanks for sharing. Yeah, absolutely. Um appreciate your perspective and your intent here. Um regarding discipline which I think we all Well, I I'll just speak for myself. Most of us up here, I think see that as a >> [clears throat] >> fairly large issue. Our our our student board members have shared um quite consistently that, you know, it's often a distraction for them as well as like the the good students that are there every day
061and investing in what they're working on and kind of some of those bad apples can just kind of make this experience difficult for everyone. Um is there like a graduated process? So, you said out of the 500 you know, referrals or removals from class, it's 200 kids repeating and then there's kind of some other sporadic stuff. If they get Is there a graduated process? Like if you get kicked out the second time and then the third time and is like is there a Or is it just like uh get back in there? Um and I only ask that because we've got this infamous class about to ascend to the middle school that like have led the led the league in referrals for a long time. Um and so I'm curious how you're going to approach
062that when you we've got this like known known quantity about to knock on your doors. Oh, yeah. So, that's a good question. Y- yes, there has to be consequences in place for kids and there is consequences in place for kids. But, that being said, they need to be they need to be they need to be um fairly logical, I would say. Um if we have, you know, if we have consistent structures in place, consistent supports in place, um consistent adult responses, it makes it a lot easier to to provide a logical consequence. And I haven't met Well, I'm not going to say that. That's wouldn't be true. I haven't met too many folks who who don't want their kids held accountable. That's just not something I hear. What I hear from folks is they they
063they think their kids need to be held accountable for things when they're when they're messing up and and you know, making mistakes. But the biggest complaint I hear is how their kid was treated throughout that process. Um to specifically answer your question, um we don't have a a specific I guess a specific flowchart like a like a progressive discipline or a progressive consequence flowchart like you do this then this happens you do this then this happens. Um If a kid is getting removed multiple times then then we're typically on them, you know, talking to folks, writing lunch detention, providing different support opportunities for that kid to help figure out what's going on. A lot of those things can be can be changed with just because of a personality conflict between the kid and the teacher.
064And that's okay. And um I've we've moved a lot of kids around different places this year just because they're they're not meshing with the teachers. Some, you know, who who does well with me may not do well with with you. Who does well with you may not do well with me and I just may butt heads with a kid give you the best kid in the room, but it's just that personality. So, we move kids around try to find the right fit for the teacher and the kid, but to to specifically answer your question, there's not a there's not a specific you do this you get X number of detentions or or this warrants a suspension. Um So, that that is something that and I you know, that's hard cuz I don't know I don't
065the state doesn't They're kind of against that progressive that progressive discipline, but it needs to be there to an extent cuz you can't just keep doing the same things over and over and over. And that's where a lot of our our tier two work comes in was hey, this kid's been removed several times. It's only from this one teacher. Well, let's get this teacher some support. Or hey, this kid's getting removed from, you know, three or four different class periods. Let's let's figure out what's going on and and and get parents in here and we can we can get a plan for what's going to help support this kid the best. Brian, would you I mean I think the bigger the more of the issue is kids are getting kicked out of class for not
066legitimate reasons, right? Would you say that there's there's kids who struggle with behavior at every school. I wouldn't say there's more at the middle school. What we have more of is kids are uh given consequences that don't match what they did, right? Like kind of going back to the typical middle school like kids are going to have attitude in middle school. Doesn't mean you kick them out immediately and I'm not going to deal with them. That's kind of our job as teachers is to teach them how to operate within expectations. So I think that's that's the as this you mentioned that cohort the fourth grade cohort coming up. If we're focused on kids rolling eyes at us, it's going to be a rude awakening in a year and a little over a year when that
067cuz there's just there's way higher needs if that's what we're tuned to. So I think that's the work he's trying to shore up is what is what is something that would warrant removing a kid from class. What is something that this is part of teaching we can handle on our own and we can support you and give you strategies and and help you, but our go-to strategy should not be kid said something back to me, I'm kicking them out right away, right? We need to have some other things to try first. Would you say that's Yeah, and I'm not saying those those those things have to they have to be addressed. You know what I mean? If you if you ask a kid something and they're rolling their eyes at you, they don't need to
068get kicked out of class, but address that. Address that with that kid. Let them know, "Okay, listen. My my kids do it. You guys have kids? My kids roll their eyes at me all the time. Try to address, "Hey, that's disrespectful. You're being rude. Don't do that." kind of thing. I'm not going to kick them out. Um the the you know, the cussing at at a at a staff member or the or the just the blatant disrespect, that's those are two different things. But there's there's the minor developmentally appropriate things that middle school kids are going to do um that we can still address but it doesn't warrant being removed. >> [clears throat] >> What else we got? Um I I really like your presentation. Thank you. Um it hits on a lot of things
069that I focused on uh as a board member and it would be I'll be interested to see what the results are and if they are successful, it would be great to see us pass it along in the rest of the school district so that we can create a culture where like you said during your presentation, people are proud of the Selah School District. We're not having conflict on Facebook you know, of yeah, them, stuff like that. Um and it would also make your job easier in the future if we can instill that type of culture and those expectations of behavior and success at a younger age so that by the time they get up to the middle school and the high school they're already used to the system. So I think there's a real opportunity
070here to uh to change kind of the direction things have been going over the last when we moved back to Selah in 2013. I think there's an opportunity here to make changes. It'll be unfortunately too late for my children, but um it's not about just my kids. Right. I appreciate that. Thank you. No, I I think what you're hitting on is is something we talked about that too in the building and the some of the things that that seem like they could be changed and one of the things I'm focusing on and and I appreciate the fact that you pretty much hit on every one of them and any even more uh detail about how how laid out it was. It's like, okay, this is the problem. This is an identified problem. These are the
071issues that I see. This is how I'm going to fix it. And I really appreciate it when things are laid out like that. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. Just real quick uh with the cell phone policy of what we're looking at. Yeah. Talk to your staff about that. Not yet. At my former school, it was it was zero cell [snorts] phones. Not not the district, it was just the school. It was it was zero cell phones from the time they walked into the building to the time that they left. So, they they they could carry them on them. They needed to be out of sight, out of mind, in their backpacks, put away. Um It It It really wasn't an issue. It was more of an adult issue than a kid issue. The
072kids just kind of like, "All right. Well, I can't have it out or have it on them, I get it taken away." And it was it was a parent thing. Obviously, the parents wanted to be able to get a hold of their kids for whatever reason. But, they also knew the more consistent that we were with with, "You have your cell phone out, I'm going to take it. This is first offense, come get it at the end of the day. You know, second offense, parents have to come pick it up." kind of thing. Um once parents had to start coming down and picking up their kids' cell phone at the end of the day, it kind of it kind of nips a lot of that in the bud. It just annoys you. "Dad, I don't
073want these guys taking your phone, but but keep that thing put away." kind of thing. Um so, it really at my former school, it really wasn't it really wasn't that big of an issue. We would have still have our kids who would push it, you know, and but it wasn't it wasn't um I think people are more nervous about it than they should be um in the building. Yeah. It's It's not High school, that's a different animal. I don't know what I don't know what that's going to look like. I can't speak for that. But, the middle school the middle school kids are going to I think they're going to adapt fairly well to that. They may not like it. There's going to be some grumbling, but it'll be There's two different things, but one
074of the things that we did after the second day of school was we stopped letting food go outside. Um I told everybody we're not going to let the kids take food outside. They're not going to let them go eat outside. They're leaving their junk everywhere. Um and it was it was all they're going to this is going to be constant fighting, constant battles, this and that. And like well, let's just see. Just tell them eat in here, leave it in here, and then go outside. All we started noticing was the kids were going outside. Now they're talking to one another a little bit more. Now they're hanging out with each other, not just sitting out looking at their cell phones. They're doing different things. There less problems arose because we didn't have to be on
075the kids about hey, make sure you pick up your garbage. Hey, make sure you're you know, not throwing food. Dah. So, the kids the kids adapted in 2 days. It was more of an it was more of an adult thing. So, I think I'm not I'm not too worried about the the cell phone thing. I think it's good. Um There's always going to be problems with it, but I think for the most part most of the kids will be just fine. I don't know. We'll see. Some adults will be just fine. Some Some adults will Some adults will Most I would I would say most will appreciate it. Most would like it. I don't know how strict it the plan is for adults on cell phones in the buildings. I know some districts have or
076some buildings have a where adults aren't on their cell phones either. We were actually down at one a um a couple months ago and zero cell phones bell to bell. And then the adults can't be on their cell phones either in the hallways. The exception is if there's an emergency, then the principal and administration can have their cell phone out. But what they started doing was uh the principal told me that if there was an adult that was on their cell phone in the hallway, the kids could go and take their cell phone and bring it to the office and turn it in. And once they started get letting the kids do that, then it was immediate buy-in. They said it almost eliminated their cell phone. And that's a pretty good idea. And they would
077explain to the kids there's certain times where we have to be on them, but you don't just need adults, you know, walking up and down the building either looking at their phones. So, that that'll be a that'll be a difference for for some people, but I think the I think the no cell phones at lunch time and in the hallways will be will be just fine. We'll have some issues at the start, but it'll be okay. I think it's important that that the adults in the building also role model the behavior for students, no matter if whether it's cell phone or discipline or arguing, back talk, whatever. Yeah, I think that's important as well. Yeah, and that and that's been a that's been a thing that I I just constantly say is is being respectful
078to people is incredibly important to me. So, I don't even if I have to, you know, get into a heated argument with somebody, I I I always try to make sure that I'm very respectful with that person. I don't want to kids to angry parents or whoever it is hear my I need to hear them out. I need to be respectful. I need to treat them with dignity and remember that. So, that's kind of been a message that I'm trying to get across and that's hard when you uh when you're, you know, dealing with a couple hundred kids a day and they're just constantly coming at you and they start getting you a little bit riled up. And I've been telling staff, it's okay if you need to tap out. It doesn't it's not bad.
079You can say, "Hey, I just need a break for a couple minutes." That's perfectly okay cuz if you're if you get heated, you might as well just put a a button on your shirt that says push here cuz every single one of those kids is going to go right at you. Um that that's been something that that's been important to me that we've really tried to work on is with uh you know, folks coming into the office and just how they're how they're treated and their initial impression of the school. So, I hope that's gotten better. I haven't heard too many complaints this year. I don't know if you guys have, but I haven't heard too many complaints. Anything else? Anything else you're curious about? Dan, are you frozen? No, I can hear you. I'm
080just making sure that everybody had a chance to ask questions. Can you hear me okay? Yes. >> Yes, we can hear you. Yeah, Brian, thank you for being here today. Your academic journey is inspiring, I think, to all of us, and I'm sure it is to the students, as well. And I appreciate, like others have on the board of have mentioned, your your straightforward approach to this, I think, is uh a a a great start here for this first year in CELA. So, continued success, and um I'll look forward to talking to you when I get back. All right, thank you very much. Yeah, great job. All right, I think that concludes our uh our study session this morning. So, I I appreciate everyone coming here. I don't We don't have a need for an
081executive session, I believe. Is there anything else anyone wants to say for the good of the order? Okay, with that, then, we will adjourn the meeting, and we will have our uh our business meeting in 2 weeks, and we'll see you soon.