MPS Board Meeting | 5-13-2025

001[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Good evening. Today is May 13, 2025. The time is now 5:00. The Montgomery County Board of Education meeting is now being called to order. First up is Pastor James Ingram from Trinity Assembly of God to bring us word and prayer. Thank you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for life. Thank you for the opportunity to serve. Lord, we ask that your anointing will be upon the people of this meeting and upon all future meetings of this board. Father, I ask that seasons of refreshing be upon Dr. Bird and upon this board. May they be refreshed with wisdom. May they be refreshed with the power of collective wisdom. Refresh them with hope for and the reality of their great success. May Dr. Bird and this board be

002refreshed with divinely inspired vision. May they be refreshed with joy in serving. Lord, we pray that all teachers, administrators, and all personnel of our school system will be anointed, encouraged, and strengthened to achieve their goals. Lord, we ask that homes, families, parents be blessed by your hand for their success. May every student be taught truth. May we prepare them for and help them discover their ordered paths of life. Jesus, you are the prince of peace. So we now confidently ask may peace and safety be upon Montgomery County schools. May your favor and blessing rest upon Dr. Bird and his family. Upon these board members and their families with faith we proclaim your words, Jesus from Matthew 19:26. With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. We give you all the glory

003and honor in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Pastor Ingram. At this time, if we would all stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag. A quorum is established at this time. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Madame President, I move that we approve the agenda. Is there a second? I second it. It has been moved and second. All those in favor do so by showing of hands. It is unanimous. Next agenda item will be the board president remarks. So at this time we'd like to welcome Superintendent Zakius Bird. Your leadership marks a new chapter of excellence and dedication to education. We are excited for the vision, the guidance and inspiration you bring to our schools and our community. May your tenure be filled

004with success, progress, and meaningful impact for all students and all educators. Thank you, Dr. Bird, and welcome to your first meeting. Thank you all so much for this opportunity. Thank you. Congratulations to the class of 2025. Uh I read or heard a report that this is the largest graduating class in American history. So that is um uh history in and of itself. Their hard work and perseverance and dedication have brought them to this momentous achievement. As you all as seniors who may be listening at home or may hear about it step into your next chapter of your journey, may you carry the lessons, friendships, memories that have shaped you. The future is so bright and we know that you will continue to make us proud. And to our longerving teachers and staff, we extend our

005deepest gratitude for your unwavering dedication. Your passion, patience, and commitment have shaped generations of students and enriched our schools in countless ways. You have been the heart of our educational community, inspiring learning and growth every single day. Thank you for your invaluable contributions and we celebrate you today and always. And lastly, on Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend Keep the Beat. It was both inspiring to see our students showcase so much talent and to promote the importance of reducing chronic absenteeism was the message of the day. Um I think the message along with the talent and the art spoke volumes and I think Miss Jones that it it definitely left an imprint. So, I can surely say they'll be back and they'll be in those seats beating everybody to school hopefully. And those are

006my remarks. At this time, we will have Miss J. Jones to do board recognitions. Thank you, Madame President. Good evening to you, Madame President. Dr. Bird, welcome. and to our McGomery County Board members. Uh we want to officially well uh Miss Smith already done so we want to give Dr. Bird a round of applause as being our new superintendent. Welcome. Thank you. And if we'll keep our hands right here, we want to give a round of applause to our car middle school baseball team and our Floyd Middle School softball team because they are the reigning champions and their pictures are on the screen. Wonderful. Congratulations. Congratulations. And just as uh Mrs. Smith has shared, "It is May and our students and school staff had done an outstanding job this year and it is almost over.

007In fact, we're gearing up, as Miss Smith said, uh to celebrate our high school graduations. And I'm excited to share that as of today, we have 1,478 graduates that will walk across the stage." So, let's give them a round of applause. Awesome. And we're also sending a job well done to our students that were represented at the Dallas competition for the VEX robotics competition. And we want to give them a round of applause. And Miss Smith, we want to thank you for your kind words. Uh we would like to thank our parents, our schools, our community supporters, our sponsors, all of you as board members, Dr. Bird, my colleagues on the leadership team for your support for our keep the beat event. Grammy award students and she provo played a solo due to his amazing

008talent that Miss E witnessed during um the sound check. We had several student performers and we can't thank uh Miss Natalie Mcnite enough for uh securing all of our student performers. It was just so wonderful to see all of that talent on one stage and I'm so proud of each and every one of those students and the teachers that worked with our students. Also, we want to thank our dedicated volunteers who were many from uh the central office staff and also our schools, our logistics department, our wonderful, wonderful, wonderful security team and of course our in-house print shop team. And I would like to take a um a personal privilege here and say thank you to the communication staff for all of their hard work and putting up with my crazy ideas. But most importantly,

009Madame President, I'm happy to share that we're up 12% in our contact information being updated. That was the goal. And to spread the awareness of student attendance. And if I may share and not steal Dr. Williamson's thunder, kindergarten enrollment numbers are up for this time of the year. So that is really exciting and great work to student services and all of our colleagues across the district. Thank Now, Madame President, it is safe to say that we are definitely keeping the beat. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next agenda item is schedule public comments. Requests must be made in advance in writing to the superintendent's office by 4:30. Um, do we we don't have any. Okay. Public comments? No. Okay. Well, I can skip that. Thank you. Our next agenda

010item will be brought to us by Mr. Chad Anderson, Morning View Elementary, HBC, HBAC, and Windows Lighting Renovation. Good evening, Dr. Bird, members of the board. uh before you have the Morning View and Davis uh certified bid tabulations for those two projects and we're recommending the low bidder for those two projects and begin processing that as quick as we can to start this summer. Uh it includes the uh windows, HVAC, uh drop ceiling, lighting, and some um door access for those projects. All right, that's for both, correct? Correct. All right. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Our next any um questions? I'm sorry. Any questions? Okay. Our next agenda item will be Miss Pamela Watkins, the March 2025 financial statement. And she will also bring to us the resolution authorization certain prelim preliminary actions for financing for

011the Percy Julian School project as well. Good evening, Dr. Bird, board president Smith, and our board members. Um you should have before you the financials for the month of March. Um within those within the financial package there is an explanation of the financial da um data basically our general fund. It provides a statement and an overview of the financial status specific to our general fund which is our primary operating fund source for the district. And this is a statement um of highlights by the CSFO by me. Um you also have a snapshot analysis which is a highle summary of the district's financial position for the month of March. It highlights key figures such as our local revenues, our payroll expenditures, and our general fund balance as of March of 2025. This also provides an at

012a glance view um overview for the board and the public to quickly assess the financial health of the district. Next, you'll have a general fund recap which provides a detailed recap of our fund balances that make up the general fund balance of 131 million. Um it's I think it's important to see and understand that although our general fund balance is 131 million, not all of it is discretionary. um as some of those funds are specific in how they may be used from the state department. Our true discretionary balance which you'll see is 109 million. You also have the monthly percentages which provides a percentage of where we should be revenue or expenditure- wise. Um this is the sixth month or the fiscal year. And so with that, our expenditures should be approximately 50% and you

013will notice that they are. Additionally, you have a monthly and annual comparative statement of revenues and expenditures. This is a comparative statement that shows our current and our year-to-ate revenues and expenditures alongside the monthto-ate and year-to-ate expenditures at the same period in time in fiscal year 2024. We also have a statement of cash flow which provides our monthly income and revenues for the month of March. Um, it also shows the months previous prior to March and provides a total of those re those revenues and expenditures as well. Additionally, there is a pie chart which provides a visual of those inflows and outflows and then our F exhibits which is the information as it's uploaded to the state provides a financial statement and balance sheet from the state department. If you focus on um section two,

014our snapshot analysis, you'll see that our revenues are at about 62%. You'll also see the comparison of our local revenues for fiscal year 2024 and 2025. Um the difference in those collections are strictly due to timing. Additionally, you'll see a comparison of our total payroll expenditures and our general fund balance analysis. If you flip over to um our general fund recap, as I stated, although our general fund balance is 131 million, many of those revenues are restricted. Um you'll see that our transportation is 6 almost 7 million of that as well as various other fund sources that are restricted and how they can be expended. So, our discretionary local fund general fund balance is $109 million. Um, additionally, I do want to state in the recap um the financial recap by the CSFO, I did

015mention that um and I've been mentioning also in our monthly um recaps out to the board that I would like to recommend in the month of June that we increase our um reserves. Um, in fiscal year 2023, we did start reserves for capital, technology, security, and vehicle. Um, and we added to those reserves last year. So, we currently have reserves in our capital, technology, security, and vehicle um, for a total of 23.1 million. And I would be recommending in June that we increase those reserves. Any questions? I have one. Yes, ma'am. Madam President, um it it's it states that that uh for the 2026 fiscal year that we you know we declined, but we only declined by less than 200 students. Yes, ma'am. We declined by um 125 students going into fiscal year 2026. Did

016they say the reason? I mean, is it I mean, well, th those numbers are usually based on the 20-day count, and so um there's a 20-day average daily um attendance, and that's where those numbers come from. Miss Brown. Yes, Mrs. Watkins. Uh, I would like to know if we have received all of the expenses around the um superintendent search or are we still receiving um expenses? Um, we have received one final invoice as far as I as far as I'm aware that will be processed this week and the payables this week. Okay. Will you be able to share that with the board? Yes, ma'am. I can keep everything in the totals. I can. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you, Miss Watkins. Okay. Um, next I have the um resolution um

017related to the Percy Julian. Um, I do have our bond attorney here, Kane Bernett. He's going to come up in case you have any additional questions. So, as you remember last month, the board approved the bid for the construction of the new Percy Julian High School, um, including related capital improvements, equipment in installation related to that. So, this month, as we transition to the next phase of that process, the board will need to select and engage an underwriter for the issuance of the bond warrants. Um, requests for proposals will be released to engage underwriters for the warrants. So, this resolution that's brought before you all tonight will authorize the superintendent, the CSFO, and the district's financial advis advisors to prepare and distribute the RFP as well as take steps needed to facilitate the process. Um,

018additionally, the board may incur some expenditures necessary related to the Percy Julian project um prior to the issuance of those warrants. And so this resolution will also temporarily cover the board's general fund and allow the district to be reimbursed for any related expenditures. Any questions? Okay, thank you. Our next agenda item is the consent agenda. Dr. Bird. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much, Madam President. Superintendent recommends approval of the graduation policy update. recommends approval of the graduation policy update, the Morning Hback windows lighting renovation pro project, the Davis Hback windows lighting renovation project, the March 2025 financial statement resolution authorizing certain preliminary actions for the finances of Percy Julian High School. Superintendent also recommends approval of the April 8, 2025 regular board meeting, the April 8th, 2025 work session, the April 15, 2025 special call

019meetings minutes, the April 17, 2025 special call meeting minutes, and finally the April 23rd, 2025 special call meeting minutes. Hearing the superintendent's recommendation, is there a motion? Madame President, I move that we accept the consent agenda as given by the superintendent. A second it has been motioned and second. All those in favor do so by showing of hands. It is unanimous. Any discussion? Uh consider for approval Dr. Yes ma'am. Thank you madam president. Superintendent recommends your personnel report certified personnel for approval. Is there a motion? President, I move to accept the superintendent's U recommendation for certified personnel. Is there a second? Is there a second? I second. All right. It has been motioned and second. All is there any discussion? your mic. Turn your mic. I'm sorry. I'd like to see Miss Murray come to

020the podium, please. I have just a few questions for you. Thank you. Um, we have a lot of supplements on this agenda on these uh report. Could you tell me? We've got some for robotics. We've got some for building inventory coordinators. Why are we They've been doing this all year. Is that correct? Correct. So, why why are we just now seeing them get approved for this? I I just want to know the process, please. It's been uh the district's standard process for supplements to be paid at the end of the uh current academic school year. Okay. But I I would like to I looked through these and there just seems to be an awful lot and I you know correct me if I'm wrong. There were things like and she uh uh Miss Cloud brought

021up the one that I was concerned about and it was the building inventory coordinator. There were just several per page. What is logistics for? You know what is um that's what I'm not understanding is the what what are these people that are that are working at the school that are doing a number count and and getting that supplement for that. Correct. There are people uh at the building levels as you know realize we have several uh physical locations um within our within the school district. So those are staff within the school who actually perform those uh duties at the school. Now, I can follow up and provide you specific, you know, tasks that they're performing as it relates to your question about why logistics is not doing that. It just seems like that we're overlapping

022on certain things and that, you know, that's I mean, I just thought that's what we pay logistics for and that's the that's the information I can follow up with to to to show comparison as to uh prove or dis disprove that there is not an overlap in the work. How many years? Because I've never seen that specific topic. And to see it as many times as I see it on here, it did get my attention. So, this is this is not the first time the district's paying out that supplement. Okay. Follow. Can you will you follow up and find out when we started that? Like under what superintendent? That would be interesting. I will. Okay. Thank you. And I have one last question, please. um student government and student council sponsor. I love that idea.

023I just wish we knew more. I wish we were seeing some evidence of the input. I mean, these people are working hard to get those children to understand student government and student council somewhere. Can we work together to see the outcomes of that at these schools? I would love to know what they're doing. I'd like to see because that's important. that leads them to good citizenship. So if anyone else I don't know who's partnering with her curriculum, just let us see these wonderful activities that they're doing because a lot of these people are putting time in after the school day and I'd like to them to be noticed for their effort and also the children. Thank you. Sure. Those are two points of information I'll follow up with. Thank you. You're welcome. Is there are

024there any other questions? All right. Hear none. It has been motioned and second. All those in favor do so by showing of hands. Did you comment one more time? She said if you raise your hand. Thank you. Thank you board members. Superintendent recommends approval of the personnel report classified personnel. The superintendent's made a re recommendation. Is there a motion? Madame President, I move that we accept the superintendent's recommendation on classified. And I second it. There's been motion and second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the superintendent's recommendation for personnel report classified personnel do so by showing of hands. Anonymous. All right, our next agenda item. Thank you, board members. Superintendent recommend to the board the naming of the Booker T. Washington Magnet High School Chapel. Board members, uh, we have two names

025that are up for consideration. We have Carter Stark Center and Foster Hall Center. So, at this time, I will turn it over to Madame President for your motions. All right, we have two names. We have the Carter Stark Center and the Foster Hall Center. Is there a motion for the names for one of the names? If somebody will motion to name it the Carter Starks Center. All right, there's a motion on. It is motion and second. All those Is there any discussion? I'm sorry. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of the name that has been proposed to Carter Stark Center do so by a show of hands. It is unanimous. Thank you. At this time this At this time this board meeting is now adjourned. I got to go right now. Today is

026May 13th, 2025. The work session portion of our meeting has now begun. Uh, Miss Smith had to step out. Her baby, her senior, Ellen Smith, has been nominated for a Jimmy Hitchcock award. So, you are left with me. should be painless. Um, we have established a quorum. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as printed? A motion to approve the agenda. It has been motioned and second to approve the agenda as printed. Uh, we will now receive information and the order is printed. Uh, for Voker, we will have Miss Penn today. Oh, I'm sorry. Told you. Hold on, Miss Pen. We need to vote um on the approval of the agenda. May I see a show of hands for all those in favor of approving the agenda? Thank you, ladies. Y'all are wonderful. Now,

027Miss Penn, if you would like to join us. You guys hear me now? Uh, good evening. Good evening board members. Dr. Bird, welcome. Look forward to working with you on the capital uh improvement program and the projects that we've we've started executing on behalf of the district. So, welcome. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Going to dive right on into uh our May update on projects. And so, All right, first up is South Lawn Middle School, the gym edition. That project's currently uh at 65% complete this month. We have not made a whole lot of progress since last month. Um, contractually, our completion date still shows July of this year and this summer. And, um, I foresee I walked the site this morning and foresee um, we're going to have to extend that contract completion date. Now,

028I've got the GC currently requesting a couple of contract time extensions due to weather, couple unforeseen uh conditions as well as a change in the roof design. Uh he has submitted that. We are taking it under review with the architect as well as Vulgar KWZ team and um once we have vetted that information, we'll bring it to the board hopefully next month. But just wanted to let y'all know I'm still showing a July completion date, but and you'll see with the pictures there's it's just not going to happen. The two biggest things though that we have been able to capture with last month into this month is they have poured uh the the actual uh topping slab of the entire building and they've also started back on the the roof installation. So we are moving

029forward with that. Couple exterior pictures. Reminder of your floor plan. Our interior pictures. This is the connecting corridor from the existing [Music] building. And then a view of your weight room on the right. Gym edition. This is your gymnasium. Interior of the gymnasium as well as the lobby and concession area. And then this is just our picture of that actual uh topping floor slab that's been poured and crews are are uh finishing it out. Rolling into the Park Crossing uh high school project. We actually had a we had a really good day out there today. Um there was an overhead inspection in which it passed and so that was our one of two inspections in order to get the building turned over to the owner. So, we're we're billing out 97% complete. Um, our tenative

030substantial completion inspection was they were trying to get that scheduled for May 22nd, but the DCM inspector has actually confirmed that that'll be a June 12th uh substantial completion inspection. And so, we anticipate no issues at that time. progress. Um, just again with the overhead ceiling inspection passing, we'll be able to start laying ceiling tile in. We've also got furniture scheduled to be delivered to the site beginning June uh 16th. Just some interior pictures of of how the the weight rooms finishing out. use of the corridor and film rooms, your athletic locker room areas. We've got the lockers actually set and the um concrete floors are stained and sealed. Here's an interior view of the student study area as well as the coaches suite, our conference room, and then the the actual fieldhouse front entry.

031Moving into our next project, which is the phase one of the Percy Julian High School, and it's the relocation of Todd Road. Uh contractors bill in 65% complete. I believe it's actually further along than that. They have all except put the final uh asphalt covering on the on the um road as well as stripe it and they've now started moving into um doing the median work. So the biggest uh progress that we saw from last month again was the asphalt being placed and um the storm storm inlets are poured and then our power poles at the um connection of the boulevard and Todd Road. those power poles have been and fiber have been raised in order to accommodate for emergency responders. Um, again, here's another picture. One thing I want to notate as well, we've

032be we've begun with GMC's help the process of vacating and dedicating the streets. Um the vacation pamphlet or actually uh packet has been submitted to the city of Montgomery's planning commission for review and approval on May 22nd. Um so we will be there in order to support and answer any questions that the planning commission may have. Once that's been approved, we will roll over into the dedication process of the new Todd Road. Phase two, which is the new uh Percy Julian High School, we've made a lot of uh headway within the past month. We've had the owner and GC contract fully executed and the PO has been received. So, they're they're ready to mobilize and and start work. Uh, our pre-construction conference is scheduled for May 22nd with the state DCM inspector and the architect.

033And once that is um held, we'll we'll actually begin seeing earthwork out there starting. One thing I threw up there just to get on everyone's kind of calendar for near future events is a groundbreaking ceremony. uh if that's something that MPS would like to try to coordinate, it' be a good time during the summer to do that and maybe once um students come back in the fall, we might be able to do something out there at the at the job site. But just to just to put it out there for you guys, if it's something that y'all would like to do, we can start planning for it. Um our overall MPS uh MBE DBE participation, this has actually been updated to accurately reflect projects that have either been um completed and are currently in construction

034and for POS that have been executed. So, we're at 45% participation for our professional service contracts and right at 4% with the construction contracts. Any questions or comments? Hearing no questions or comments. Thank you, Miss Penn. Yes, ma'am. We will move to facilities update with Mr. Anderson. Good evening, Dr. Bird, Miss Poris, members of the board. Uh, if you'll take your spreadsheet with me for the capital projects. Uh we've already gone through the Vulkar projects. Skipping down to the capital grant and ATF Morning View and Davis. Those were just voted and approved and we'll begin those as quickly as possible. I'll be giving you updates as far as when the pre-construction meeting will be scheduled with the state and we can kick those off. We definitely want to kick those off this summer and begin

035some of the larger areas such as the cafeteria and the office areas that uh that really can't be disrupted during the school year. So, we want to get those larger areas done first and then we'll be phasing off the classrooms as we go along to uh to get the classrooms done. The drop ceiling and lighting may be pushed to a next summer project with that. The most important thing will be to get the HVAC and the windows in to start with and then come back in with the drop ceiling towards the end with the lighting. The park crossing turf and track replacement, uh, that's well underway. was out there today for above ceiling at the in the fieldhouse and those are going along very well. They've started the uh the track surfacing at this point.

036They were in the the bottom curve and then next week they'll start be on top of each other with the track and the turf going in at the same time. And then the Carver High School turf and track replacement. We have the um pre-construction meeting scheduled for next week on the 21st that will we'll start that and begin that project as well. Any questions or comments? Excuse me, Madame Vice Chair. Uh Mr. Anderson, it's not on this month's report. Yes, ma'am. But um recently I've read where the state superintendent has begun conversation about the high cost of our buses in the future because of tariffs. I'd like to know uh I know it's going to affect the electrification and you know the Yes, ma'am. uh soap box I'm about to get on, but ma'am, can

037you give us an update? And it doesn't have to be today, but please let us know where we are with what happened with the uh previous manufacturer. Yes, thank you. That company, uh where are we? Are we putting off electrification? We've gotten grant money uh to get started with that process and if prices are about to increase, we have money sitting here and it's not going to do nearly as much as it would have done. Yes, ma'am. Uh if we aren't moving forward. So, you know, let us know where we are. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Thornton is working with the state because of the the grant and the way it was awarded was to that manufacturer that is now out of business. So trying to swap it to our local vendor international is what we're trying

038to do. But we're also in the transportation renovation project that we're doing. We're also going to add the power and infrastructure in there for charging stations and put those stub those up so that when we get those pieces in place, we're just plugging and play. And from there, not having to dig up the ground or cut the concrete or add electrical. We're going to make sure we have that infrastructure in place that we can just continue on as as we get the technology in. And then fortunately, we're in a really good spot with our fleet. Our oldest fleet is our oldest uh buses in the fleet are 2018s, so we still have several years. They usually on a 10-year cycle, so we're in really good shape with that with as far as our fleet. So,

039we're not in a hurry on things, but I think it's something that we definitely work forward to to getting those uh those electric buses on there for our pilot program of it. And then as the technology, you know, it just improves each and every year as that comes online, I think we can continue to make progress on it. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Any more questions or comments? Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Yes, ma'am. We'll move now to our 202526 GPR updates. Miss Hedge welcome Dr. Bird. Thank you. I am here to provide an update for the GPR that's been proposed in draft form for next school year. Um, according to our MPS policy, we have to have a um, procedure in place for grading and we have to update that regularly as needed. Um so the

040purpose the overall purpose of the GPR handbook is to establish a systemic standard procedures for all teachers throughout the district so that we can support our student learning um and evidence their as evidenced by their demonstration of knowledge. Um the update is a collaborative um effort and it is uh we have a committee that works to do that. The committee is made up of approximately 35 people. Um it is made up of central office staff members from all areas um of the central office, academics, special education, student support, technology, professional development, edtech. We incorporate all of the central office staff. Um we invite principles to be a part of the committee and so we have committees from all the elementary, middle and high school both in traditional and in magnet programs. And then we also

041invite teachers in all of those same uh areas to be a part of the the the committee. The way the procedure for um how the committee works every year is the principles are asked to they they always review it at the beginning of the year and they they continually um revisit it with their faculty throughout the year, but they are asked um they were asked in February to specifically review it for any requested updates or changes. And then those principles then bring those to the committee and the committee discusses it. So uh the committee met in March uh in person and um then we discussed all of the requested changes from not only the principles but this year we also had um all of our other departments had uh had specific requests for changes. Um,

042so we discuss those, we come up with a good wording, and then I share I recap all of their input and I put it in a Google form and then they vote on it. And then one of the selections is is yes, no, or I want more wording. And then they email and we work on the wording and we massage that wording and we get it just right. I resend it out again. They vote on the new changes that that didn't get a yes. We discussed those um electronically and then we uh this year we voted on it another time just to make sure that everything was as the committee wished for it to be. So I'll uh with that quick overview I'm just going to go ahead and go through the proposed changes instead

043of going through the whole handbook. We're just going to go through what we propose to change for next year. So this first one was on um the existing page five number two letter B. And the only difference in this statement is we added the words elementary and secondary because it's uh stating that the grades the assignments have to be on grade level. But in secondary it was brought up by the secondary principles and teachers that their standards aren't necessarily on grade level. It's more course level because a course um you know a science course or a math course doesn't necessarily have to be taken by all 10th graders or 11th graders. So they wanted that uh language to be clarified. The next is um on page six letter C and um this statement was originally

044added during the COVID time and it was had to do with just online assignments and it was the expectations that teachers would have the online assignments due during the school day because we found that some teachers were saying, "Hey, turn it in at midnight or it." So we limited that to just during the school day. And so we wanted to keep that in because we have taken that digital learning as a part of our everyday curriculum and instruction, but we wanted to expand it. We we the the committee wanted to make it fit a little bit better, not just for COVID and online learning. So that was why that language was changed a little bit and we added the little the bottom of it that this of course excludes um your evening academy because that's

045naturally going to be outside of the school day. The next one is page six letter D. Um re we uh the committee wanted to reward this to be even more in line with our MTSS process. Um and it was requested that we um we put a quantifying score to define what mastery is and what mastery is not. So non-mastery is a 59 and below and mastery is a 60 and above. So um we didn't want to assume that people knew that mastery was a passing grade. We quantified that in um in the language and um then we uh stated that it's the major grades that will be reassessed and not all not to ask the teachers to do all daily checks. It's the major grades that they would um reassess retach reassess. All right. The

046next is page six letter E. And this really all we did on this is the the team wanted to remove some redundant language and uh oh I went too far. I did two clicks. It's going crazy on me. But we just um removed a little bit of um redundant language on it. It's still getting stuck in that same spot. There we go. Maybe it'll say um so instead of um rather than one source as a test, things like that, because when you when you tell what the major grades have to be made up of, it is it infers that it has to be more than um one source. Um all right, next page six, letter F. There we go. A new statement. Um so uh we added this language in. It has been in the

047GPR in the past and the committee members asked for it to be uh returned to the GPR and that is guidance that um if more because that's part of the they have a have to have a minimum of three major and six minor. Um that's just a minimum number and they wanted guidance back in for if a teacher wants to go do more than the minimum. They're always been allowed to do more than the minimum number, but this just gives them a guide of that ratio still must be met. All right, page seven, letter K. Um the only part if you look um the third sentence, upon returning to school, the students will have three school days or a number of days equivalent to total number of consecutive absences, whichever is greater. That language was

048added back in. Um it was taken out last year. If you remember, we made the change of allowing the students to have up to 10 days to turn in their late work. Um you'll see in the next slide that that was adjusted a little bit. And because of that adjustment, um we put this language back in to put the three days or the number of days absent. Next page seven, letter I. Um, previously it had a 10day uh so this is regarding uh referring to late work. Teachers can always receive late work and not count off. That's up to the teachers. That's whatever the teacher prefers, but we did have um a a limit on how much they could count off every day. Last year we extended that to 10 days. the teachers um many

049teachers, many administrators made the request that we uh nobody requested to do away with it, but they all requested to reduce it from 10 days to a 3-day grace period. And then after 3 days, they if they choose to, they can start counting off points after that. They don't have to, but if they choose to count off points, they have to wait three days instead of 10 this this next year. Next, um page 11, middle school. Previously, um the eighth graders all to prepare them for high school, they had to pass all four cores, but sixth and seventh graders um had to pass math and English and either science or social studies to move to the next level. the committee really um felt pretty adamant that um especially science it's an accountabil accountability area and

050history does not want they they didn't want history be to be discounted either. So, um the committee requests that all four cores be passed in order to pro be promoted to the next level. And we removed the um the language about um any student not passing English or math will be required to attend summer school because we can't require summer school. So, that that um statement was removed. We can require that they don't pass if they don't attend summer school, but we can't require summer school. Um, okay. Page 12, letter A. This is a new statement and this statement establishes a timeline for accurate grading procedures. Um, when a student transfers and brings grades in, they there was no time limit and so the grades are just we're finding that they're not being put in

051in a timely manner. So, we put this in so that we can give a guideline and an expectation for when those grades go in. um so that we don't have to go back and open previous grading periods and we can our report cards when they go out are correct and that's the goal. All right, page 14 number four. This is the same um pro the same idea. Um if a when a student uh transfers into one of our schools um there is an expectation that within 10 calendar days all of their previous grades from their previous school gets added into power school and it's a part of their historical data. Um we can't make good decisions and reflect on a student's performance without looking at their past performance. There may be something that happened in

052their life and now they're they were a students and now they're dropping. If we have a good picture of their historical um their their record, then we can really make better informed choices and it's just good recordkeeping. Next, um this is part of what has to be uh in the cumulative record and what has to be presented when the students enroll and um the social security card is no longer um required and so we remove that from the list. Uh page 22 number 15. Um we added the only thing that was added was um the words to include adding and dropping a course. We only added that just to be more specific about um changing a course, a course uh change. And the counselors asked for us to put that specific language in there. Um

053and this is uh this was a statement page 22 number 15. Um this this is a statement regarding referring to students who transfer into Montgomery from block scheduling because if they come in from block scheduling, they've already had and completed their courses in the first semester and they're coming in in third quarter. We can't put them in an an English class that they might need because they've missed an entire semester. We can't put them in quarter three and let them do quarter four and they they would have wasted a semester because they don't have first semester. So, we just provided some guidance. The the committee um wanted to put this in so that we can um give some guidance on how to correctly schedule these students that come in from block scheduling. Page 22 number

05417 is next and that's another new statement and I'm happy to say this is to support our IB programs um that we needed to have that in and it supports the importance of this um this these culminating projects that these students are required to do. So we put a statement in at the request of our IB schools So we have McMillan and car and park uh park crossing and um we hope to share some more information about that soon. Uh page 36 number one again we happily added the IB um diploma in into that language. Uh page 36, number one. Um all of the language that we removed, there was a whole paragraph after this. Um but we removed this language because it's redundant. It's already in the dual enrollment handbook. So just like last

055year when we cleaned up the ESL section and just referred to the handbook, we did that for the um dual enrollment. And so everything is just now referred to the dual enrollment handbook instead of restating it again in the GPR. All right, page 37, number two, letter A. Um, this one was I I didn't realize that we needed this in here. Um, the senior exemptions. Um, it said that the seniors, if they meet all of those criteria, they may be exempt. Um, the high school principles asked us to change that to they are exempt. um because there were teachers that even though they met the criteria to be exempt didn't exempt them. So this is just saying that you will be exempt if you meet those criteria. I know that was the same look I

056got. I didn't realize that. Um so the next is um page 38 number two letter A. This is for junior exemptions as well. you just added is instead of may maybe. Um and then uh page 38 letter D. Um we added in uh this the last sentence about semester exam exemptions must qualify under the guidelines outlined in letter A. there was just some uncertainty because if um students um who are maybe in 10th grade taking an AP course, they can be exempt if they take the AP exam and they they meet these requirements, but there wasn't any real good guidance. That's the final exam. There wasn't good guidance regarding the semester exam. So, um we added that in at the request of the high schools. Next, I didn't have a a way to put all

057the pictures in, but um all of the new um requirements for graduation, we remove the old ones that are no longer relevant and put the new state requirements in for graduation. I think that's the fastest I've ever gone through this DPR. What questions do you have, Madame Vice President? Yes, ma'am. I had you you answered some along the way, but didn't answer some. Number one, I wanted to say 7K. I was glad you put that back in there with the with the three days and then the number of days that they were absent. So, I'm I'm pleased with that. 7 I you answered for me because I was going to, you know, say what if they didn't want to um do late fees or whatever. So, you answer that. I don't have any problems with

058that. But two more. One um just clarification. It's not like that like I'm saying anything's wrong, but it goes back at the very beginning on page five. Let me find that. Um, yeah, it was five. Hold a minute. Hold on. Maybe. Okay, it's five. Yeah, where you your updated language. All grades assigned must be on grade level elementary and you just added the elementary secondary, which is what you set. But here's my here's my issue. It says assignments completed by students below grade level cannot be used as part of the grade. Okay, we all know I'm just I'm just picturing myself. Um when you're dealing with 10th, 11th, and 12th graders, they don't know um say for instance, they don't know their eight parts of speech. So that is not on that is actually not

059a standard for them to learn. So technically, if you go and say, well, that's not a standard. yet if they don't know those eight parts of speech and you've just had uh you know know your 26 helping verbs then to me you're telling me that hey that kid doesn't have to know his helping verbs do that's that is my and it is so key uh that that kids know your eight parts of speech you know the right you know there are certain basics that students have to to know just like in math and if it's not written in a standard the way I'm reading that as a, you know, a person outside the the wall here, that could be confusing to me. I just wanted to make that comment. Yes. And it it is um

060when you teach a standard, you have to assess where the students are. Um that's part of their their um informal evaluations. And the teachers part of their remediation they spiral down and go back to what they don't learn and they teach and bring them back up but they that's not for a grade that's a part of the teaching uh process. I would have a problem with that because you know that's uh I see you obviously do too because it's it's uh they they've learned it you know if they don't know example you know you they've got to know their prepositions and I I teach pneumonically so it it is it is required with me thank god I'm probably retiring tomorrow although my school's asked me not to and my kids have asked me not to

061it is so important for them to understand that Christie um and I don't understand why you couldn't count it as a afraid because to me it's mandatory. Think about it. And I'm going to tell you why I tell when people go, "Why do I need to know a verb?" Well, you need to know how to write a sentence and you can't have a sentence without a subject verb agreement. Do you see what I'm saying? So, I agree. I just think that that needs to be looked at. But I think what's going to be covered next with MTSS will kind of bring a lot of that in. Um Yeah. Okay. The other one, it wasn't a question until until you went over it and I jotted it down, so I may have even forgotten it, but

062it's 22 uh number 15. Um, so let me look at that real quick. What it was was it? Oh, yeah. Okay. Here's the deal. I'm looking I'm looking at I do remember what you brought up. Okay. because it's it's looking at like it's like real specific like you if you are on the uh okay let me look the four like you're taking a core four the block schedule it's called the block schedule okay and you're coming from another system on the block schedule and you come over to us second week of January third week of January okay so they are still getting the rest of January, all of February, all of March, all of April. Are we are we going to be so close-minded that we're going to go, "Oh, you've missed the first the

063first window of two weeks or three weeks." Do you not think that there should be something in there? I get it saying, "Hey, you've missed this much." But let's just say, you know, some people do things different from other state to state, and we're a week or two off. What if they miss that window is what I'm saying? Are y'all following me on that? I just thought that was a question that we are we going to be so strict that we don't that we put them into a take them out of an English class that they really need keep them think about it keep them from graduation because they have to have that English core course because they came to our state or our system two or three weeks late yet met the majority of

064what we needed. Yes. But if a student would the this only applies to year-long courses. If a student comes in the second week in January, they've essentially missed 20 to 21 weeks. Looking at it from a semester, my my question was from a semester block schedule. Yes. Yes. Okay. I I would like to go back to page five, number two, letter B, um about assignments completed below grade level cannot be used as part of grade. What are you going to do with 504 sped and e? So that would be a part of their individual education program. Yeah. But this is the grading and I think there should be a connotation that that with the exception of I can we can definitely because people are going to be reading this. It's going to be posted on

065on our website and I want to make it very clear. I want to be transparent with the exception of 504 bed and the definitely you can put that in. Um, I just have one comment and that the same that same number that concerns me the the language of it because if I'm teaching math and this baby doesn't know multiplication facts and I'm thinking now I'm a emergency search teacher I need some rewards too. So, if I'm going to get them to algebra, this says that I can't count what I the building blocks, I I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned because it um number one, not as capital is capitalized. So, if I'm not a seasoned teacher, I'm not going to count any of that until they get to the core. And you let's look at

066that again. Well, according to the state, all we have to teach the standards and our grades have to be tied to standards. Sure. And so if that grade is not on a standard, if that assignment is not on a standard, it can't be officially graded. But think about it. You have the kids in that. That's what you you It's almost I mean, if I'm hearing you right, we're going to go ahead and put students that shouldn't be in there anyway. Okay. and you're and you're saying, "Okay, we're going to put you in with this high class even though you shouldn't be in here and you're not meeting the standards and we're giving you it's not Do you see what I'm saying? There's something wrong with what she's saying with this specific I think this one

067just the wording of the wording needs to be I don't I mean I just think you're diggating things that so many think about we've got 400 emergency certified teachers, okay? unless they know to go back, you know, with if they're cracking a book, they're not going to crack the eight parts of speech, right? But the Alabama course of we are bound by the Alabama course of study and it requires that we teach grade level standards. I understand that we have to spiral down and I and I understand what what you are saying that it is required to teach those the the precursor and that's part of the teaching process but not the grading process but you're that is what we're both of us are saying you're saying you can't grade that and that I'll just

068go ahead and say it's ridiculous. Well, Dr. Keith, can we do this then? Since this is by committee and there are 35 of you all, can you take back the board's uh concerns with these numbers and ask them? There has to be a teacher in that 35 or somebody that either understands or sees the concern in the wording of it. Yes. What we can do is it's we would really need to be consulting with the state department and not with the teachers. That's what And so we can definitely take that and review it and consult with our state department. And who is that at the state department? Who is that at the state department? Well, it's going to be um Meadows, Andy Meadows. Yeah. But and Sean Stevens, but they we all know they can

069deviate. Okay. Especially when you're trying to you're not trying to leave any child behind. I know we're past that. But you you've got to look at it from what we're trying to get across to these kids. Yes. Yes. But here, let me I'm not trying to redesign, you know, the world, but I'm giving you example with my kids. Um, and I'm not don't keep going why the kids my kids, but yeah, you're going to have your class know your eight parts of speech. They're going to know your verbs. They're going to So, they make the hundred. All right. My what I do is, hey, once you made a hundred on that, you're exempt from taking it again. and they feel like big stuff. Even seniors are like, "I'm exempt." They It's almost like they want

070to put a poster up there goes, "I'm exempt." And they work toward being exempt. Do you see what I'm saying? Yes. And just because you have that one slot, think about it. If you have that one slot, every kid doesn't have You can still put in 100 because that kid made 100 because they're exempt from it. There are ways to, you know, to rub this, to massage this. Yes, I I understand. Um, and we will definitely review it and um, see if we're what constraints we're bound by by the state department by and and we'll see what we can do. I think when we lean into this that that's where the MTSS uh, schools pops them immediately to where they need to be instead of waiting and causing a a problem at at the most

071fundamental level. Yes. Um, I just have one more on page seven, letter I, where the teacher determines um the points taken off or late work. When is that determined? Is that written in a teacher's plan at the beginning of the year or they're going to assess? I mean, because what do we do? We have a teacher that took off three points at the beginning of the year, but say, "Y'all know better, so I'm taking off 10 at the end of the year." Is it written somewhere or we uh if you can just ask that? Um I can't speak for elementary. I know in secondary it's always they all the teachers are expected to put out a syllabus. I believe in elementary they're they also have to put out their class expectations and grading guidelines. Yes.

072Okay. So that it's established at the beginning of the year with the parents and the students. Okay. Is this something that we go over? I know you may not know this and we've got title one schools. They they're required to have title one school parent meetings. This needs to be written up, given to the parents signed that they received it. Everybody's on the same page. Yes. We don't have anything hidden that that it it becomes a hiccup later on. I want all them to know at the beginning of the school year. Thank you. Thank you, ladies. If there are no more questions and concerns, thank you, Miss Hatch. You're welcome. Dr. King, you're up. MTSS and data analysis. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Dr. Bird and board members. I'm going do my best impression of

073my team uh who could not make it tonight. Uh and then also I just want to preface uh we postponed this about two times. So some of the data uh is was during that time period. Uh but anyway, I would like to uh just go over the MTSS uh data analysis uh and then uh uh take some you know questions afterwards or uh as we go through. So the office um again uh thank you for this opportunity. Okay. So, the M uh the MTSS K12 um uh instructional support is a tier. It's in three tiers. Tier one is the uh the core instruction and that's uh whereby the teacher is delivering the instructions and we're we our goal is to implement high quality instruction for all students. uh ensuring differentiation and the goal is for

074them to receive standardsbased instruction. Uh tier two is targeted intervention. I think you all mentioned some of that uh today as you were discussing. But if we do use data uh in some cases universal screening, classroom performance to identify students who need additional support. Uh and then tier three is a little more intensive instruction. We provide individualized researchbased interventions as well as we with with frequent uh progress monitoring. So the MTSS at the elementary uh level uh looks uh similar to uh what you see here. uh and I I won't necessarily read it all but it's it's uh there the the purpose is uh to assess uh academic uh progress and intervention effectiveness using uh using the same group of students and uh when we get to the next slide but the district expectations is

075very clear uh and this applies to all of our students including uh our magnet school students and so I just want to stress that um and also our our team uh both at the elementary and and secondary uh both at the secondary uh level. Uh our teachers are are actually uh trained on universal screeners and core instructions to all students. Uh we also again as we said in the mention we provide targeted interventions and then um we do have uh support with our student support team on the tier three or SSS SST teams and also uh PBIS and having those conversations and and the goal is in some cases it may not be instructional it could be social it could be uh some behavioral issues that may impact a student's uh uh ability to learn

076and so the goal is to provide wraparound services and to have those discussions with experts in different uh areas so that we can provide some strategies to the classroom teachers and especially uh as Dr. Keith mentioned some of our emergency certified teachers may not have those tools or or in their toolbox. So therefore that support uh could be provided by that student support team. And this was an example of a six week intervention plan. I think I could uh actually open that up, but I'll uh the the example of a a six week or uh uh intervention plan, it really has uh the teacher, it has the standard that the students is not being successful at. It has schoolwide interventions and practices. Uh that's not a live link, but I could uh uh uh share

077it with you. Uh then it has both our our state uh state tiered instructional support services that we're supposed to use that could be our ready in one cases and then uh do the math for our second and then spire for our third. Uh then we we also even use our our our textbook adopted curriculum such as open court resources. The goal is to the more we expose students to standards, the more successful they are uh going to uh achieve standardsbased instruction. The other key thing me when you're thinking about MTSS, the more you take students away from core instructions, the further they get behind. So you almost got to do both the spiral but you also got to do the actual progression towards standards because standardsbased instruction is what is how the students are

078going to demonstrate mastery. So if you're not exposing them uh in uh these uh MTS interventions they're going to get further behind. So uh it is a both and not a eitheror. You have to spiral where they have weakness and they don't show. But then you also got uh to make sure the students are still exposed to core instructions. Uh and that is because as class as their peers are moving in c tier one, they could get further behind. And so that's the whole goal is to make sure that we are are focused on standardsbased instruction. MTSS secondary is uh similar. Uh again uh here we're here we're track Oh, okay. Could you move to the second one? Next one, I'm sorry. So the MTSS uh here similar process to the elementary but a a

079little more just appropriate for uh middle school and high school. So we must track uh track academic behavior and attendance data to identify struggling students early. some cases attendance does directly impact students uh attainment of mastery of standards and so that's real critical. You do tend to see more behavioral uh type issues in middle school due to uh pure and due to that teenage years. So you're going to have some of those that impact the students uh ability to learn. And so here we also want to implement early warning signs to flag students at risk of failing a course or dropping out. And we could do that with our periodic assessments. Uh our teachers do use progress uh learning uh assessments. We we'll see some of that data a little later. And progress learning uh

080really is designed to ensure that students are mastering standards. And so each each school at at the secondary has an MTS team composed of teachers, counselors, and administrators. They have monthly monthly MTSS meetings uh uh to ensure timely adjustments to intervention plans. Uh and they and schools do based on the schools offer a variety of options such as academic labs uh built into the school day, uh peer tutoring or mentoring programs, uh behavior intervention groups, and then social emotional learning. again with our colleagues working very closely with our student support services team. uh they provide seal embedded into advisory period or counseling sessions by counselors uh students I mean uh similar to the MTSS meeting they do hold uh student success uh meetings uh with families to create individualized support plan and that family component

081is is as critical in middle as it is high school because in high schools students don't want their parents there a lot but that uh that is a positive uh way to have parents still involved. Uh then regular check-ins uh to receive academic and emotional support that they need because uh you know you never know what students are dealing with socially and emotionally outside of school and that does have a direct impact. So part of this is to make sure that we are not we're separating the student behavior from what they can achieve academically. we address the behavior and then we can address the academics at the same time. So that's the uh thought behind that. Okay. In the high school intervention plan again these these links are not live but we can share it

082uh with with uh Dr. Bur. Some of them are very extensive uh because in the high school intervention plans, what we're looking at there is grade uh credit and course recovery because in high school given that they're on credits, we want to make sure that they're on track. So, one of the things uh I mean one of the the tools that we have in uh in our power school repertoire is to look at what's called a graduation progress report. And so that'll tell you in live I mean in live in in live time what students have already received credit for and then how many more credits they need in each grade in each grade. We also can pull their their grades, we can pull their attendance with our team. Uh we can check all of

083that. And so from an IT perspective, uh we have a lot of information where we can see where students uh a student is and then potentially try to develop a plan to kind of help those students. And so uh these intervention plans uh also sort of teacher driven, but it is in support of the MTSS team at that particular school. So the data review and again the data review is a little older but it's just to give you an idea and then uh so here uh and I'm sorry you can't see much of it it's small but uh just to describe what you have what what we wanted to do we wanted to assess the academic progress and intervention effectiveness and I think uh vice president has asked this question and so this may uh

084address set. So we used the same students in the group when we did this to see okay uh to compare apples to apples and so uh the analysis included a comparison uh comparing grades quarter one and again that's I know we are down at quarter 4 but just want to acknowledge that at the original posting with updated quarter 1 uh grades as of three uh March 2nd 2025 after quarter two and following MTSS support efforts. So when you look at this uh student groups uh with at least one F in quarter one was identified and tracked. And so this cons this consistent group again allowed us to say okay same students uh then we can see they receive the intervention then how well did they do after the intervention and so uh in this initial

085uh we had a uh a thousand one I mean 167 elementary students in grades 1 through five with at least one F in math or ELA and the timing of the the the second uh the second grade pool was on March 2nd, 2025. It was intentional allowing time for the MTSS interventions to kind of uh take place and other support strategies in uh implemented in quarter 2 to potentially uh influence student performance. And so the day the the the the data from quarter two shows an overall improvement of uh from quarter 1 of 26% and that's about 28 uh 278 students. that that's you know that is uh relatively doesn't show like a large percentage it's almost a little over a quarter in terms of that improvement so a number of things uh we could

086kind of uh ascertain number one whether or not MTSS was provided that's one number two whether or not the the services or the MTSS that was implemented was effective right then Number three could be uh other social uh issues or things that may have emotionally impacted that child that we were not aware of. And so what that tells us is that uh we have to do still look at uh all of our MTSS process and then we have to do better tracking of that. So this is but again I think in terms of being able to track and that expectations of us looking at this and with the team actually pulling that data uh it's a good way to say hey how we're doing uh but I can tell you now uh this is not

087according to our expectations and it's not uh according to uh what is expected of us as a team and as a unit. So uh these are things we will be working on and so secondary you'll see that similarly a little uh maybe uh a little more success here comparatively when you look at uh the schools again if you look at uh we took again the number of students uh with death in quarter one we looked at uh uh the number of deaf uh in quarter two and then we saw we looked at the growth in those areas and so you'll see and some in some cases and I'm sorry in some cases we did have a particular school over 50 58%. Uh and that's and if really when you look at comparison we need about

08875% to 100. So I don't want you to uh uh think that we even though we saw some growth there our goal of height should be a 75 or 100%. And so, but here we do see uh some examples where some some teachers or some schools have been very effective at MTSS. And then there's also indicates that some other schools may need uh some support in terms of their MTSS and then whether or not uh the the the teachers have the the tool uh kit to order to meet uh those students where they are in order to uh move them. And this also for the these were students that were were nonproficient uh in this group. And so, um, in the the non-proficient, uh, students, quarter 1, quarter two, and quarter three, uh, we looked

089at 200, I mean, 2,640 secondary students with at least one F uh, in a core subject area uh, as of uh, December 9th, uh, 2024. And so if uh and so in in looking at that data uh we can see in some cases you know the the number increased and that could be some possible contributing factors. Number one, uh students adjusting to grade level expectations in terms of standards and or the teacher teaching style. Uh gaps in found foundational skills from previous years especially in some of those subject areas that that relies on building of skills and skills especially like math uh in those cases. And then in quarter two uh you had uh 20 uh 2,910 secondary students with at least one F in the subject areas as of January 22nd, 2025. The trend

090compared to quarter 1, there was an increase which we don't really want. We want to show a decrease actually. And so uh this is possibly a number of things to kind of uh uh possible reason for this. We haven't really been uh looked to kind of pinpoint it exactly but midyear assessments happen around that time and grading may uh reflect sustain uh sustained struggles and then also it it also may depend on what resource or what classroom materials a teacher is using. So we we really want our teachers using our our adopted uh materials. We want them to also uh utilize whatever supplemental services we have approved by the district so that we can really know that what we're using is that whether or not it's being effective and so interventions also may have not

091been implemented uh effectively during that time. So these are some of the uh contributing factors could show that increase and then we saw it in quarter three as well. Uh so we increased again by 20 uh 2,000 I mean about a 1.44% uh increase on that uh secondary students with again one F and this was as of March 28, 2025. And so here we can see the effects or a lack of academic support, tutoring and or MTSS. And it really depends on what what resource was used to address that in each school. Uh the goal there is when we look at where the needs are, we can make some conclusions that more schools may need more support or they may need more uh academic uh uh rigor or uh some more instructional coaching. So it

092it really depends. And so and uh so the goal in all of this honestly was to uh you know get an idea to identify the failing students and I think that was something that the board had really uh wanted in terms of uh our team really producing those reports because of the concerns about our students uh failing and then again how are we supporting them using MTSS. us. Uh so uh and the other goal is to once we identify where they are struggling then the trajectory should be towards standards and then we want better grades and then we want students to graduate on time. So that's that's the the the goal there and so the next the next uh data that we we have uh is grade recovery. So we use uh in this partic

093uh for this year we you do use schools pop and what you'll see is that uh we had about eight well uh 189 uh 1897 students enroll in schools pop as of uh February 28, 2025. Uh the breakdown is is below. So we can uh there's uh of there's 15,000 I'm sorry585 students enrolled in virtual instruction which means the number of students in a teacher online certified teacher and that normally uh re uh is in support of our teacher vacancy. So where you see virtual students enroll um that's that's what that is. uh there is not a teacher physically in the class. So we use uh schools PLP to provide that virtual certified teacher. So 67 75 students are passing I mean uh uh overall passing and then uh there are 910 students which are

094failing and and 57.4 4% failing as of February 28th and it could be because of the number of assignments that need to be completed. Uh there uh they do assess they are aligned to uh our uh Alabama course of study. So the work has to be completed and so that is could be attributed to that. Then in grade recovery we have uh 308 students enrolled in grade recovery. Uh 116 uh students are are current I mean not currently they were passing at this time when when we had this uh and then 62.3% which was 192 were failing as of February 28th. And again uh this uh it's really about completion in schools PLP. they have to complete the work uh and we don't uh move them uh on unless they complete the work and so

095that's that could be attributed to that as well as students who may not be online learners uh may need that direct teacher touch I mean those are a number of factors that will impact that and then we have uh four students enroll in credit recovery uh you have uh one student uh passing and then you have three students failing and so this again could be uh uh available based on a completion of the assignment. We're not uh one of the changes uh we're not moving students on if they don't complete the work and that that's our expectations uh using this online platform this but in all cases we we have provided more time because of the adjustments uh schools PP is different than what some of the students were accustomed to in the content uh

096even though it may be similar it is uh standards align and so uh it's going to be a little higher expectation for that. Then progress learning is is one of the tools we use for standardbased assessments and it is used uh it can use it's used daily. It's used quarterly. We use it sometimes for when students enroll into our school and we don't have any indicator or grades for that student. We give them progress learning because this is the only online platform that we that standardbased intensive assessment perspective. So our teachers uh utilize this but you can see across uh K8 uh and these are mastery mastery standards uh that we assess in all four subjects for subject areas and also in secondary. We we also use it in secondary as well. And you can

097see the number of uh usage there. And again, this is a point in time. It's not the whole year. Uh and then if you look at 12th grade, you'll see missing math. And that's because we use Alex as an assessment tool uh to kind of gauge that uh interest. I mean, try to gauge how well the students are doing. the instructional supports. Again, what we've done, we utilize title one for extended day and that's for 21 days. It's after school program to address math and reading deficit. The ARRI also is a a state funded uh program K3 literacy before and after school. Uh that's 21 days for teaching units. And then we have supporting struggling readers uh grant uh for fourth fourth and fifth grade and it's uh intervention program before and after school uh

098tutoring summer reading camps to address ongoing literacy needs and then uh oh next steps. So the next step for our team uh we still uh we still continue to look at by bi-weekly grade books uh audits by standards teachers and schools. Uh this process allows the district to monitor and make informed decisions about classroom instruction. And again that's important u because in order for us to we have to diagnose but then we have to also provide the support in order to make sure it's very impactful on student achievement. And so we also collaborated I mean collaborated and calibrated a systemic system for instructional walkthrough form to collect uh for instructional decisions. So when we go in and look at teacher teacher practice uh we gain that information and then we use that information and then

099we decide on how we're going to support uh teachers and then the uh we have created a grade level performance process that clearly communicates expectations of teachers provide formal interventions on all assignments uh uh because and we are continuously on track uh for that and then targeted professional development which again uh I think you all I mean Dr. Keith and others alluded to when you have the emergency teachers it's what do they need in order to teach to the standards because it's it's more art and the science of teaching but you also have to have the content knowledge for that. So we do have uh uh uh teacher professional development that will be planned for the instructional walkthroughs and then um principles with nine 9% or more failure must create an action plan to address

100uh school failures and the plans uh needs to be revisited every nine weeks. And we also uh have a midyear uh review that we've uh used uh especially with the uh some of our CSI schools, but it's also can apply to all principles where we have them look at the data and then they make adjustments based on the strategies that we have employed and are used with CSI funds. Uh and then uh uh finally uh we have summer school planned uh and one of the things that uh uh we we updated uh based on uh you know Dr. Bird's 100 day plan was to you know put some acceleration in there and then also um uh make sure that the student has access to STEM because Uh uh and then our dual enrollment is not

101is also in here but we have dual enrollment for those students to get ahead for our high school students too. So the we have curriculum documents for 2025 260 and then we already completed those and so um and then we are really working with uh Jamie and our executive team on the curriculum plan aligned strategic plan and our board policies which is specific to 7.0 0 and then board policy 5.0 that specific I mean that speak specifically to uh professional development. So a lot of things we we actually are addressing in the curriculum audit that had to do with those those policies. And then uh I think some of you uh have or may have heard about the curriculum instructional policy committee. That's what we do uh to update the board policies to reflect the

102state the changes in state law but also things that we might want to strengthen to make sure we have uh better instructional outcomes. That's was a result one of those uh policies was the option B workforce uh program. And so that's all I had uh for now but uh thank you for your time and uh any questions? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. I recognize Dr. Keith first and then I'm sorry. Um, thank you, Madam Vice President. Um, I have Was that Let me ask you because when you when you got up there and you first started, you said, you know, we we didn't get this for a couple of months even though we've been asking and you've been trying to get it up. Is there is this the the uh what Dr. Chenise Williams was supposed

103to this was her? Okay. Yes, ma'am. All right. Here's here's where I'm concerned. Number one, I don't know why it wasn't why because I know she would be out there both times sitting to present and could never present and I never understood why she wasn't able to present. So I'm not you know that's not my business and and it sounds like I'm micromanaging. I hope it doesn't but I didn't understand that. Yes, sir. But looking at the highlighted continuous on track I don't have questions. I have concerns when you look and you've got near the end. We're continuous and on continuous on track, but then you go back and you look where and I'm not looking for school names. I mean, I know we can't know school names, but let's just look at the go

104back to the schools PLP where your schools have been blacked out. I don't it maybe maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't look like all schools are represented there that would be using that. And what it looks to me when you look at these when you look at the data because I'm certainly a data person when you look at like one school you can see one school is definitely using it because you've got uh I mean look at your number of users versus another school that doesn't look like they have any use in some places and then you get down to the end and you only have four people using it. So, I mean, I know this is new, but it it's concerning. And what to me, what's even more concerning is our numbers. I mean,

105the numbers, we're we're we're putting out in the thousands, but we're only hoping in the 200s. We're not even reaching a third of our kids. And one of your statements that you set up there was that maybe the intervention didn't work. Well, I think I think this is a wakeup call for us. I do. I think this is something we've got to we need to hone in on. What schools what interventions were used? What why are zero? I think when you're looking at quarter 1 zero and you look at quarter two zero and you got the same amount of students, there's just so many more questions I have about what are we doing with the data or what are we not doing with the data because if we're just putting it on paper then it's

106just data. But if we're do, you know, when you're not actually honing in on what this intervention specifically is and what it, if you look at the the fallout of PLP, have all our schools been trained properly on schools PL because it the the the fallout to me looked different per school. Sure. And I if I can rejust on too because and when you look at schools PLP not all schools had teacher vacancies. So it's not then that would account for the low number. Okay. Right. And then the credit recovery was only those students. It was limited because we hadn't completed the year and most of the time credit recovery because we give a whole credit. So some of these are students that we doesn't that make sense? I mean I I was like why

107four? Yeah, but I also but I also want to tell you the reason the this was intentional because these data points we are being transparent on what the work needs to happen and that was an effort because in response to the request what are we doing so now in terms of changing the culture and saying there is an accountability we don't shy away from that because our job is to that's okay I didn't know it's all good so that was that was one of the reasons why we put that uh put this particular system in place to be not only like data but we got to respond. So so that is this is the the effort to do that and I'm not sure I was necessarily uh to see what was done before but I

108can assure you the data is looked at and in terms of it does inform what we're going to do and uh so but anyway but thank you for your your your question. Okay, I've got several sticky notes. Um, you've got a six six weeks schoolwide intervention plan. Don't you want it to be nine weeks? What's happening to the other three weeks? We're just leaving them out there struggling continuously falling. No, not necessarily. Uh uh it it you know you not necessarily. It's not the same because nine weeks is when uh we want to see before the nine weeks end. so that we can improve uh student outcomes. And so that's why it's very intensive in that. And then for uh high school, it's about eight weeks. So they go up to one week because that,

109you know, in terms of the credit recovery and then what the students need to know. So that's that kind of explains well that's our thought about the six weeks versus the the nine weeks. Are you informing the parents when you put them on an MTSS plan? That is that is definitely our expectations and then that's definitely our expectation. You know, you have to ex you have to inspect what you expect. Yes, ma'am. All right. And then the last thing it was about school's PL. Yes. You've got virtual instruction when there's no teacher. Is there a facilitator in there to keep them on task? Yes, it should be at every every class. But do you know if you That's another thing I' I'd really like to make sure that all of those children going into a

110virtual classroom taking a course that there's someone in there an adult directing them. Yeah. and and that is that has to I mean that is supposed to happen so for a facilitator in in the classroom because in those cases they are like as if it was a regular class a teacher a teacher vacancy but those students are some cases that students that are in the class so it should be a facilitated class well I know there's a zoom situation where the teachers are there on screen but you still need an adult That's right. Moving in the room like a regular teacher would. That's right. Last time, last thing, uh, extended day opportunities. I don't see schools PLP for credit or grade recovery in that on that page. Are they using? Right. So, so, so for

111the high schools, some of the high schools use uh teachers to teach uh credit recovery and their evening academy. Some use uh schools uh PLP, but most of them use uh teachers. Uh they hire teachers to do credit recovery. Are there any schools, middle or high schools that do not have access to schools PLP? Not that I'm aware of. No, I know too. We'll talk later. Okay. They shouldn't. Every every school has an opportunity. And so that you know our process, we we've sent the the enrollment form to every school. The only the only school uh that I know of doesn't use it because the student there's not a need there. But all schools had was given the opportunity to uh uh enroll students uh in those courses. Um just one question. It schools pop

112is any portion of it graded? Yes ma'am. Okay. So here's my question. If it's graded, do we know that it's graded on the on the course content or is see if I give a project and I'm teaching a standard, right? And I grade at the end of that standard, which is what I was asking Miss Hatch, if I grade at the end of that standard, then everything I've taught is included in it. So school's PLP if we're grading it, are we not doing accepting the same thing? We're it is aligned to our GPR standard like the six like the minor and the major. So it's aligned to that. So as if the kid was in a regular class we we it's aligned to and we grade it based on that. What are what are minor

113grades and what are major grades. So that's how we grade it like as if they were in our regular class. Doesn't change. And I have one more on the I think early on on the graph you said you take a group of kids and see how many have Fs. You take that same group and measure who doesn't have an F anymore. Yes, ma'am. Is that right? Yes, ma'am. So, the data doesn't show us. We don't know who fail. If we're using the same children, those if we have 30 children, we're only measuring 15. Are we looking back at those we have left or we just following? No, that's a that's a good that's a good uh good question and I'll probably will follow up and get you to answer that because we we asked we

114do collect all the Fs uh for all all of the the grades. Uh uh so we do collect the Fs from all of the schools. So I I'll Sure. We understand there's a lot of ways to collect that. I just like to see it massaged a little. I have one last question, please. I forgot to ask it. Can I ask it? Yeah. Okay, we'll talk later about that attitude. Um, one last question. Do do all the teachers have access to schools PLP so that if their child a child in their classroom middle or high school is having fallen behind can they sit them over on a on a computer to maybe revisit that lesson or revisit the concept of of the content. It it wasn't designed that way. Um honestly I mean because of the

115timing that we adopted school's PLP and at the time that we adopted schools PLP we didn't have any training days built in to provide it. So teachers is different from imagine learning where you teachers had unlimited access uh with that but but the only problem with that is when you're using uh any resources state requires you to document you use it on that services. So no at the teachers may have access now but not in the way that they used to have it in Imagine Learning. Oh, I thought that they were ongoing trainings that was available to them that they could go in and view the training uh module for to learn how to Yeah, that was that was available u for teachers. is just what the timing we really focused on the teacher vacancy

116the triage uh and when that transition happened to make sure those students were not penalized so that's what we focused on it wasn't the ideal situation but now uh and and Dr. Pelton is also working with schools PLP. So now we could provide more uh trainings for that. It just wasn't the ideal situation to do that uh where we can take all of the teachers and train them. So we focused on you know those students grade recovery credit recovery those teachers with vacancies. Uh but the the the service is available now. I mean PLP just provided that unlimited. However, again, we want to ensure that we're just not putting students on a computer, but rather the standard is being taught and then supplemented uh by that. So, but you you ask great questions, but it

117was just the timing of that as why we didn't didn't have it. But we it was and we did honestly the team uh uh we had a small mighty team but to pull it off and to get it up it took a lot of work and a lot of working with schools PLP to kind of talk but uh it'll be a lot easier coming up uh this year I mean this upcoming year and we're starting with training early by May 30th. So we sent that out uh to principles for uh you know teachers or people want to be trained. Uh then we have other dates that are in gonna be uh July May 30th and yeah July 31st and August 1. And then we'll try to build in more days where people can come in

118and get uh more training. So are the goal is to hire So are you using for summer school for credit some of it some some cases? Yeah. And then some principles are using teachers, you know, so I prefer that. But uh but yeah, we are using it. And I just want to thank you because I mean for for acknowledging what you know I I think the work that you've done is good and and for making me understand what I didn't understand. So I appreciate like I said a long time ago, I'm glad you're with us. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you Dr. King um for everything. I think we'll all be in for a treat because Dr. Bird is a real numbers person. I've seen some of his drill downs in his district. So,

119we'll we'll get He already Yeah, he already started. Yeah, that's that's good to hear. Okay. Thank you very much. And your team uh we'll move right into uh new business. Um it'll be short and sweet. One of the things that we did, one of the things that maybe the public does not realize and maybe even the district employees is that uh board members have professional development too. And we take it serious what we learn. It's always intriguing to see how the rest of the world's board members think, the questions they ask. And so, um, if it seems very technical and nitpicky, there's a reason for it. Um in uh last month uh Dr. Coleman, Mrs. Smith, and myself went to Washington DC to NSBA's uh conference on core values and and district budgets. A lot

120of the numbers that you see is the reason we have to ask so many questions. One of the things that stuck out in the conference to me was um it said, "Show me your budget and I'll show you your values." You know, a lot of times they say that uh in your life, if you open your checkbook, people can tell uh what how you live, what you fancy more, what you um you know, what are your values? And so our mission, our vi vision, and our strategic plan has to align. We have to put this money knowing this data. We know that we have a high school that's struggling. Knowing where to put that money is valuable to us. We can't be accountable to the people that put us here if we're not following the

121trail that that we lay. If we say that reading, teaching little children to read is important, but our budget doesn't show that it's important, nobody believes us. We don't care about little children reading. So, um, we were able to grace the classroom with board members from New Jersey, Oregon, California, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. And when I tell you these people, I mean, they knew intricate details about their district. And that's that's one of the things that we have to do as board members. We have to know this district. Not just I think I know my schools well, but they I may not. if I look at their numbers, are their numbers going to tell me what I walk in that building and see when I'm visiting? So, um, finding out what ethical leadership looks

122like. It's not about stepping on toes. It's about being a partner and some of the framework that they talked about was community partnerships, um, fostering transparency, trust and agency, ethicalions. I know sometime when we look at our financials, we there it's a lot of numbers. It's a lot of different accounts, but we're responsible to understand the flow of the money, where it's going, who we employ, and then the question comes back a lot of times to Dr. King. Well, are we bought this program, we paid a million dollars for it, what's our return on investment? Are we looking at the return enough? Are we counting just dollars or are we counting graduates? Because the return on the investment for us should be the understanding of children and the growth in the movement of them. So,

123um just those things and it it's fun. It's fun to uh understand and know. It's always so welcoming when you have other board members because they give an input from their side and then we hear others. So, it's it's really great. Dr. Coleman, you like to add anything? She was there. Thank you. I was there and uh I'm very very excited now that we've returned so that when we sit down with Ms. uh Watkins, Miss Watkins, yes. Uh we will know better the kinds of questions to ask, why we're asking those questions to get to specific answers and uh to to serve our purpose. So, it was a delight and I look forward to sharing more information not only with Ms. Watkins but with fellow board members. Right. And and Dr. Coleman and Miss Mitchell

124went to policy. Was it policy? Policy. So, they'll be sharing that along the way also. So, we're excited for that. Uh, your next board meeting. Miss I had I did check with new business with our superintendent and our president. So, I have one little thing of new business. Okay. Go. Right ahead, Dr. King. One one thing that's kind of inappropriate. I've just had three texts on my phone and people are asking me about the bruises on my my left side. Al does not beat me on Mondays, okay? It's only on Sundays. I'm kidding. But I have not been beaten. I have baby ducks and my husband cannot get on his knees. And if anybody's ever had six little ducklings, I got four more weeks of probably bruises. I've fallen four times and I won't tell

125you why I'm falling, but it's the ducks and they do something that's not fun is that I have to clean up after. But new business. Um, I do want to say this. Um, I met with Angie Pelton today and it was an absolute delight. I have not been able to spend any time with her uh teachers that she works with, the new the new teachers. and I looked at her heart and um I met I think her dynamic duo. I've already forgotten her name and I'm sorry, but she was just a delight. And I met so many teachers that were like wanted to teach, that wanted to be here, that were excited about being these teachers. And then I asked, you know, one of the things that my curiosity got the best of me uh

126when she introduced me and and graciously let me speak to him for about 15 minutes, which they did. They probably were like, "Lisa, please stop." But I was so excited about getting to speak to them. And I wanted I want to continue to do that. That was so much fun for me. But um uh Miss or Dr. Pelton said, "Oh, these are the ladies that um that got y'all y'all stipen." And so of course I was like, "What's stipen?" you know, and I know what that is, but I was like, what is it? And I didn't know that they were running out of money and um and we can't afford that. I wanted to get more teachers involved in your program because if you are motivating like what I saw today, Dr. Pelton, that was

127the most impressive thing I have seen in months. Um I I mean I think I'm other than our superintendent that we have here, I'm excited. Um, and I do I still want to thank um, uh, Dr. Jamie Wilson. Um, I noticed she sat down over here and I I'm so pleased that she has been with us and I hope she stays with us because I just think we've got too many good things coming and I mean, we've just got a new group of people that have been here for at least a year and I want to keep them. So, I'm excited. Thank you so much, Dr. Um, June 10th. Oh, Dr. Coleman, I'm sorry. Thank you. There was a call out for new business items and I do apologize for the late entry, but I've

128gotten several calls after that call went out for us to submit new business items and it has to do with addressing overcrowding in our schools. Uh I do encourage our this team as well as district leaders to have a discussion about some overcrowding instances and the challenge has become urgent at one building that you're probably very aware of and I'll be delighted to to have that one-on-one conversation with you. Understanding that when we have overcrowding, it impacts not only student learning but safety as well as the appropriate accurate function of the teacher. And so I'm hoping that we can engage in those conversations and take care of uh some of the problems that have been submitted. I wanted my colleagues to be aware of the concern and I wanted um our constituents to know that

129we do hear you and we are going to have those conversations. Thank you. Just a question is so you're saying overcrowding at a school? Yes. Okay. Okay. and and I will talk specifically about that school with the superintendent, but I do want those who called me to know that it's important to us, but we have to have those conversations to get the background information uh before we can talk to you about where we're headed, where, you know, what the decisions are. Sure. Well, thank you for that. And my last final note, I'll be quick. I want to thank you for doing what you did today and taking over. And I want to thank both you and the president for keeping us so well informed on our retreats and always making all of us a part

130of the planning of those things. It's important that the continued emails that you all send out, they're veryformational and if I didn't get them, I wouldn't know what was going on. And even if that's all I get, I still feel a part of it and I thank you. Well, thank you that we we try very hard. I know you do. Uh it's a it's a hard it is job, you know, and uh but somebody's got to do it. Um and I'm glad y'all are doing it. Well, thank you. Thank you. Uh June 10th, uh 5:00 uh is our board meeting, our regular schedule board meeting. Immediately following will be our work session. So if all minds and hearts are clear, this meeting is adjourned. It's important that every student goes to school every single day.

131That's right. Every single school day because face it, if we don't come to school, how will we prepare ourselves for our futures? I want to be prepared for the future. So, I'm making sure I go to school every day. Parents, did you know that if a student misses at least 2 days of school a month, they miss at least 20% of classroom instruction? And missing that much of school without a valid reason causes students to fall behind academically. Let's work together to ensure students are present in the classroom. Together, we can do this because it's our future. It's our future. And our future impacts our communities. Let's be present together. UPS. Get it.