001Everyone, we are meeting uh at Legacy Campus in the boardroom and it is the 15th day of January 2026. We will begin with roll call starting with Jared. >> Jared Black, business administrator. Jeff Nielsson, board member. >> Brian Chambers, board member. >> Roger Pulser, board member. >> Alan Grunig, board member. >> Kathy Christensen, board member. >> Todd McKe, superintendent. >> Randall Baggley, board member. Terry Rhodess, board member, and Brian will lead us in the pledge and mission statement. Please rise. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our mission is to educate students for success in a changing world. >> Thank you, Brian. Uh in our first agenda section this tonight,
002it we have the reports um for learning and growth and we have the new construction update which will pres be presented by Don Adams, our facility supervisor. Hi. Hey there. >> Well, good evening. How is everyone today? Great. >> Excited. >> Good. >> The weather's good. The weather's holding. >> When did we move Logan to the banana belt? I'm just This is so great. >> I feel really loud. Yeah, >> maybe. Okay. Well, let's see what we can talk about since last December. Keeping in mind, of course, um I want to say two things. It's always slow over the holidays. There's no expectation there. And sometimes some of the pictures, it's really hard to find the progress that's being made. So, image- wise, you may say, "Oh, that's kind of the same." Tried to do
003some before and afters to to capture some of that. Speaking of great weather, we have been pouring a lot of concrete in uh Hyde Park Middle, which is pretty exciting. Uh it's also uh been temperate enough in December to make sure that it's a good concrete finish. So that's pretty exciting. You can see that we're starting to get sidewalks in. One of the big things about pave parking and paved sidewalks when we start doing interior materials and bringing in carpet, we're not tracking in nearly as much mud. So, a lot of big wins here at Hide Park. A slightly new format. So, we have been working with DWA to start to actually quantify things uh on a spreadsheet that's tracking it. So, I can we haven't done January yet, obviously. Uh but we're showing what
004what's being completed by these major categories. What I do have uh now we had a formula that was not working when we put this presentation together but I can tell you the overall building completion now in uh November was 65% at December we were at 71%. We're averaging on this building somewhere between 3 and 5% increase every month and it's starting to compound and get faster because we're getting closer to the end. So we're starting to see good completion there. Uh interior progress again, our hydronic heat, our pumps and our boilers are showing up. They're being connected. Um so, uh kind of nice. Um oh, the picture did not come through in the cafeteria for some reason. I apologize. You can see what's happening. So, in the office, we went from everything just framed in
005December to now we are uh sheetrocked out, starting to to start to see some of those uh finished HVAC items going in. And then the main office there on the right, we are grinding and prepping the floor uh for finishes. So that's pretty big and exciting. Anytime you pour a concrete slab, you're always going to get imperfections and so you can see them grinding away. The middle schools, depending on where you're walking it, almost feel like a warehouse of materials. So for example, we have two classrooms lower left where we have nothing but flooring starting to show up. We have nothing but paint in another area. So, it it it means we're getting good stuff in media center is getting its drywall moving along. There's a great picture of uh Spencer uh standing in front
006of a lot of the low voltage wire and technology polls that are happening. So, when you go in the classrooms, it's not that we just have the rough wiring done, but we're actually getting the finished work out there. And um you know in the main hallway we had kind of the first coat of uh mud on the drywall. Now we're sanded, finished, ready for paint. So it's it is a lot of work effort, but moving along. Restrooms are starting to see the fixtures installed. We'll have to get partitions in in a while. Big important stuff to me. The electrical mains are now being pulled and coming into the main uh the main cabinetry. So, uh, Rocky Mountain Power is out there helping us on their outside end. We're doing the inside end and we're not
007that far away from when we actually have power in the building now. So, upcoming uh, Hide Park Cabinets and Millwork, that's finishing up very quickly. They're doing a great job. Starting to see that electrical finish, starting to get the the boilers, chillers, and rough plumbing done. Um, one of our targets is by March we want to start to fire up the main equipment so we can climate control so we can bring in the wood for the gym floors because it has to sit there and acclimatize so we can put it in. So it's, you know, we've got to get stuff done by March so we can get stuff done by June. So it's kind of fun uh getting that building power on. Starting to see some flooring. They're prepping uh and leveling as we speak.
008We could see some type of flooring down in the next 10 days. and really working hard for tons of tile and restrooms and hallway. At our elementary uh [clears throat] in December, we had a lot of tilt panels on the ground on December one. We in January have all of our tilt panels up, all of our block walls done, all of our cast and place walls done, and we have a substantial portion of roofing done and tied in. They're making very good progress. Um, doing some site grading. Uh, this is our big win through December. Let me just say that of of the active projects. more happened here in December to get us on track than the other schools. The other schools are on track and doing fine. Herculean efforts at the elementary. I'm actually
009I I can smile. We had the construction meeting this morning. I'm smiling at at what we saw in December and November. So, let me get to that spreadsheet here. We had 16% building complete in uh November, 22% complete in December. And so the January completion is going to look really good when we get to it. So we have a lot of uh the truss and deck underway, concrete slabs underway. I think this is what most people would envision. Okay, I see what the building looks like at this stage. Dawn, it's got to be open in August. Um oh no, it still looks more like dirt and you know, rough stuff. Yeah. When I say they got ahead in December and they worked hard the first couple of weeks, we have HVAC, we have framing, we
010have electrical boxes coming in, we have plumbing coming in. Yay. Right. I mean, I was really really nervous um last month. So, upcoming, we'll finish the main uh floor concrete slabs. We're pouring suspended floors up on the second floor. [clears throat] Uh we should finish our underground plumbing. For example, today uh learned they completed all of the rough plumbing in the kitchen area. That's big work, right? That's the heavy ugly stuff. Moving along. Uh we'll finish our underground electrical, our uh joist and deck and our roofing will go in. Um and we are powering through the first floor uh framing and HVAC. >> Ask your question, sir. uh projected completion >> today. We had a very long hard conversation about schedule and where we're seeing it and we believe that projected completion is looking very
011good for the occupancy in August. It's the first time you've heard me say that. >> August, middle of August, end of August. >> Yes. Yes. All of the above. Uh we're we're doing some contingency planning, right? We're we're we're wanting to make sure that hey, if there's a room or two in the building because we're not we don't need the full capacity of the building, what can we delay by a couple of weeks. So that's where our contingency planning is, but with full hopes that yeah, it's going to be kind of a rough move in, but it's going to be a move in. So I that's my best projection 7 months out. Uh but I I think both well both the contractor and I felt pretty good after our discussion where we're headed. So, I
012it's positives right now at the elementary school. For example, do I think I'll have every single tree planted in the front yard? No, I don't. But it'll be a pretty good building to move into given the cycle. Now, if the weather that I may have just cursed, knock on wood, holds, we'll we'll keep doing well. Is that does that answer your question? I mean, I I gave you the first part of August. No, middle part when we need to start moving teachers in. Yeah, tight uncomfortably so, but we'll just keep striving. >> Yeah, you must be living right. >> I must be living very right. Yeah, I don't know how that happens. So, >> middle August would also be assuming that weather continues to be good for us. >> Or is that factoring in some
013stormy >> it? It's factoring in some some some poor weather conditions. Uh as we start to see the roof deck come in and all of the slabs come together over the next couple of weeks, we'll get over a hurdle that that the weather bothers us less. It's still there. Uh we even start to see window frames in the next 10 days. I mean, so we're starting to get it tightened to the point where what we need to do is not necessarily bothered by snow coming in. You know, the the roof membrane, yeah, we're a little nervous about that. That's where I'd love the weather to keep uh shining on us uh or at least being somewhat warm. But the rest of the interior finish is to the point where we think we can manage it
014with traditional winter condition techniques. Yeah. Okay. Our friends at Nibi are also uh doing well. uh they are remember they started 6 weeks behind and so their total building completion numbers in November were 63 and in December we're 66 so they're about 5% behind the other school which is about right on schedule for when we started. They are getting a little competitive between the two groups and our friends at Nibi are uh I think pushing hard. Um, great example, the main hallway is getting its paint, which puts those guys celebrating ahead of the other school. Um, again, we're getting more uh tiles in. We even have some electrical that's beating the other school. These, for example, are ceiling mounted power cord reels in our science labs. And so, we're starting to see that finished electrical
015coming in uh at both schools. Bathroom tile. Yep. It's in. It's getting its grout. It's curing. The others had their um their sinks and and toilets in now. Okay. So, these guys are now not a month behind or three weeks behind. That that's 7 to 10 days behind. So, that means they're catching up. So, they're doing really well. Uh the media center is getting its drywall. Uh the media center at Hyde Park had drywall and mud done and they were sanding. Yeah, we're within less than 3 weeks of catching up in the media center as well. So, we're moving things. Uh the main electrical lines are at the exact same stage uh at both schools. Uh the boilers here, for example, we're getting their isolation pads. That means they're two days ahead of the other
016school. So, you can see they're they're they're running neck and neck, which I kind of like that good spirited uh competition. So upcoming, uh, Nibbi needs to get its gymnasium drywall in. Um, Hide Park is 90% done with its drywall. So this would be the one area you walk in the building. Yeah, visually you'll see they're different. Uh, we have to work hard on the kitchens of both of junior highs, putting down a lot more tile. We'll get the restroom fixtures in. We'll finish up some cabinetry. Uh, we're starting to see fire alarm devices in both buildings. So, the the reds on the wall, uh, horns and strobes, so that's good. And we're starting to see electrical fixtures, switches, and outlets populate. I'm pretty upbeat given the fact that we had a holiday where folks
017rightfully took some time with their families. I think it's been very good, very productive. Um, the contractors show the willingness to put in the hard work. The subs are there with them. Um, it's all about living right and and hoping the weather doesn't come and bite us. >> Welcome to Cash Valley. >> Welcome to Welcome to the banana belt of Cash Valley. >> Yeah. Any questions? >> Looks good. >> Yeah. I mean, oddly upbeat, right? I mean, yeah. Smiling by voice. So, we're there. They're doing a lot of good work. >> Super exciting. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Big crane came back into Hide Park Elementary. >> What were they doing? >> Hide Park today lifted in their air handlers. So, uh, our air handlers are roughly coming in chunks that are 8 ft
018wide or 8 ft long, 6 feet wide. And, uh, we were on site during our construction meeting where they were lifting them, and they were flying them in pretty fast. So, they're about as center of the building as you can get. And, um, the crane operator has to drop them in from a pretty good distance. He's going over the kitchen and the gymnasium into the the mechanical heart of the building. And so he's lifting 120 ft away from where he's sitting. And he's lifting two stories up and dropping it into the first level, which is probably 15 ft below where he's sitting. And he's putting them, oh gosh, we are 6 in off a concrete wall. That's how snug he's fitting them in. And so that was exciting. >> The cranes were gone and people
019just said getting closer and then they're back and so >> yeah, this was a smaller crane. This is a smaller crane to handle those mechanical lifts. >> Yeah. So he'll be in, out, and done. Uh he's also a much quieter crane. Yeah. I was really surprised we could have a uh just a talking conversation next to the crane today where you could not on the big crane that was lifting up the panels. Yeah. >> Yeah. Well, I just needed to know what to tell. >> Yep. mechanical equipment. I'd love it if he'd stay there and swing some some steel trusses in place, but I don't know if he will. >> Okay, >> thanks. >> Thank you. >> That's awesome. So exciting. We appreciate you coming every month to give us an update. >> You bet.
020I'll try and I'm struggling to find pictures that show progress right now, but I'll I'll get some. >> Good. Okay. Thanks all. >> Thank you. Uh, next up in our reports agenda, we have a report on the school enrichment model or SEM as most people know it. And this will be presented by Tiffany Whis, our SEM coordinator. Okay, perfect. Hello everyone. Um, as part of the grant process, we are encouraged to present how we use the funding from the state. Um, and so I prepared a a Google slide presentation just as a quick overview for you and I believe you all have it in front of you also. So I'll just go through if there's any questions that you have as I go, don't hesitate to reach out, but we'll just we'll just go through
021this. Um, yeah. So, what it what was just announced, SEM stands for schoolwide enrichment model, and that's currently what we use our gift and talented funds for the elementary schools in our district. Um, just really quickly so you kind of have an overview, most of the funding that we receive is used for our salaries for our specialists. We have six SEM specialists that each have two or three schools each. We do a fourth, fifth, and sixth grade pull out for one hour each week at all of the elementary schools. And we do small group enrichments. So fourth we have six to eight students. Fifth we have 8 to 10 and sixth we have 10 to 12. >> I had a quick question. >> Yes. >> So with the six SCM specialists in 2 to three
022schools that's 12 to 18 schools. Do we have SEM in all the elementary school? >> Yeah. So we currently have 17 elementary schools. So five of the specialists have three and then I have two and then I do have other responsibilities that Yeah. But good question. Yes. >> So in the slide before is that per school the students? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. Yep. >> Um so who are gifted and talented students? The Cash County School District recognizes gifted and talented students as those whose superior performance or potential [clears throat] for performance requires a differentiated and challenging educational program. Our gifted or enrichment program is currently language arts and science-based with a desire for expansion in the areas of math when and if funds allow. Um, it was also brought to my attention a
023few days ago that this is super helpful too in the Utah definition R277-7. Um, a K8 student who demonstrates or shows potential for exceptional ability significantly beyond that of age peers in one or more of the following areas. Gent general intellectual ability, specific academic aptitude in language arts, math or science, and creative thinking. And the requirement according to the the definition is multiple measures not limited by English proficiency inclusive of students with disabilities, language learners, etc. Identification must lead to appropriately differentiated, enriched or accelerated educational services. And like I mentioned earlier, we focus on the enrichment with our program. >> Will this continue for sixth grade when they go to the middle school? >> So we we have been not that I'm aware of. We've been advised that when we have the switch that we
024just do fourth and fifth grade next year. That's the the um the instruction that we received from the instructional council as of now. And I know we've been talking about different things for the middle school, but as of now, that's our plan. Um, just a quick overview of how we identify. We use um teacher recommendation and then we use scores that we have access to. Those are some of the ones that we used last year. Um, depending on the test that we have access to, they could change year to year. And then we have a ranking percentile that we rank our students and 60% of that. So the scribzies and I'll get I'll give more information on that in just a minute. That's our teacher recommendation form is 60% and then academic is 40%. And
025then from these rankings we choose the students that we invite into the program. And now I'll just give a little more. [clears throat] Um so the scribzies form is from Joe Ren Zuli and um it rank it's the rating the behavior characteristics of superior students. So that's why we just call it scrizzies for short and those are the six areas that we kind of have the teachers give us some input on um leadership, learning, motivation, creativity, communication and planning. And then um I have attached I don't know whoops if I can you can probably access it but I have attached on the form um it's kind of intensive but if you want if you're if you have any questions about if you kind of want to look through that you can like click on that
026and it I have attached like a scribzies form that kind of just shows what the teachers go through and the different questions that they ask about each student. Um, so what we've kind of decided, the foundation of what we do in SEM is depth and complexity because we feel like these students really need an opportunity to have to be able to dive deeper into different enrichment projects. And so that's kind of the foundation of what we do in SEM. And Joe Renzulli is also a big part of our curriculum and the foundation. and he has this three- ring conception of giftedness that we really try to help our students understand that they have some above average abilities and they hopefully can use creativity and then task commitment. And if they can get all three of
027those things going in their lives and with their school and with all the things they're involved in, then where they all overlap, we call that awesomeness. And so I just try really hard to just help the students understand that they can they can and be awesome and we talk about what that looks like for each of them. Um the enrichment trial model is also part of the foundational part of our program where we talk about different types of um learning opportunities. And so type one, we tell our students anytime you experience something new that you get excited about that you want to learn more about is a type one. And obviously they are also experiencing lots of type ones in the regular classroom. And then once they get excited about something, we let them choose
028um a topic of choice that they can learn more about. And so we teach them all the skills they need. A lot of what we do is researchbased. So we teach research skills, note-taking, finding sources online, keep being safe on the internet and we do our projects are all research based and then ultimately the type three is where they have an opportunity to present in front of their peers or to present at the entrepreneur fair or just opportunities where they can get up and have kind of a real life experience. And if if you notice all the arrows are just continually going back and forth. And we really hope for all our students that they're getting things from the regular classroom, they're getting experiences at home and just other things where they're having a really
029enriched um educational experience. Okay, these are just some things that we kind of like try to help people understand just different characteristics. I'm not going to read all of those, but you can kind of look through those. Definitely, they have some different characteristics that make them um a little unique and we have to proceed with caution with some of them. Um but it's super exciting and that just kind of gives you just a quick overview of some of the unique characteristics that they have. Um so why SEM? The Utah State Office of Education has said Utah educators are committed to the belief that education is a means by which each individual has the opportunity to reach his or her fullest potential. We believe that all students have a right to educational experiences that challenge their
030individual development, whether it is below, at, or beyond the level of their age peers. In accordance with this philosophy, Utah schools provide educational programs that recognize and make provisions for the needs of gifted and talented learners. And then, um, I thought it might be kind of fun just for you guys to kind of get an overview of the different projects that we do. This is currently um the curriculum calendar that we do. So right now we're kind of in the middle of January. So we're just finished fourth grade has been doing an eye search and I'm going to go into detail in all of these in just a minute. Um fifth grade has been doing a big how project and then sixth grade is has been working on creative problem solving in preparation for the
031creator project that we just barely started. So now I'll just kind of give you um really quickly. So fourth grade does an in-depth study of a topic based on an essential question that is not too broad or too narrow and they each get to choose. So I is like them. They get to choose what they want to study. So that that choice is really important and then like I said we teach them all the skills they need to write a paper and then they create some kind of visual to teach um their peers which we'll be doing next week. In most of the schools they'll be teaching what they've learned. And then in the spring we do images of greatness where they do an in-depth stud study of a person past or present who has
032exhibited positive gifted qualities in their life. The presentation consists of preparing a display board chosen subject dressing in character and giving a memorized first person bio riddle at evening of excellence. And then that's just kind of a picture of one of the students from the past Audrey Hburn. And then fifth grade, um, we call it the big how project. So, this is an in-depth study on a chosen big how of a topic. So, they each have to come up with a question that starts with how. A lot of times it's how something works and then they have to come up with three to four additional how questions and then write a paper and then create a visual or a model um to teach his or her classmates and parents. And those are just some examples
033of some of the models that like a microscope like how a microscope works, how a jet plane. And then I think is that a kaleidoscope? No. What is that called? The little [sighs and gasps] I can't think of what it's called, but um that was pretty those are pretty fun. And the kids just they do it all themselves. >> Yes. Thank you. I'm like that didn't sound right. Okay. And then um starting in the next couple of weeks, fifth grade, we teach elementary debate where um students will be assigned either an affirmative or negative side of an issue and then defend that position against a team representing the opposite position. So we teach them how to find evidence and contentions and how to basically have a discussion where you differ in your opinions, but you
034don't have to get all heated and angry. an educational agre uh argument is what we call it. And then um we culminate those activities for the fourth and fifth um that first week in May. And those dates are just in the process of getting um solidified. So once I know those, I'll get those out to you guys. We'd love to have you at any of those. Um we have we have four or five that we do in various locations. So that would be awesome to see you there. And then the sixth grade curriculum, um, we start out in the fall where we do a world traveler where students will work in pairs and they choose a country of choice where they create a website to promote tourism. So they're kind of like creating a super
035exciting website to get people to come to their country. And then we teach them creative problem solving um, CPS. And the students will learn the steps of creative problem solving and practice using those steps to solve various problems. And then I am a creator group project. They identify an everyday problem. Students will work in a group to come up with an innovation to solve the problem. They will also write and film a commercial and participate at the I am creator fair, the I am creator young entrepreneur fair. And this one is scheduled. So this will be Thursday, May 7th um at Green Canyon in order to accommodate all of the students because we have all of the sixth grade from the whole valley come. We have two different sessions. Um usually the first session starts
036at 5:30 and then the second session starts at 7, but once all that is finalized also I will get all that information out to you. But that's a super fun event also. Okay, that's my that's my overview. Thank you for watching. Thank you for your interest and your support. Any questions? >> How does it look next year with sixth grade then moving? You'll still just you'll just focus on fourth and fifth grade. >> That's what we Yeah, that's what we've been advised to do. >> The number of students >> possibly. That's all that's all a work in progress right now. Um but we are looking at different options. We currently have an advanced learning committee that we've been meeting monthly where we're just kind of doing a deep dive with all the different advanced learning
037that we And so we've had some really good discussions. Some of you are involved in that and we haven't made any final decisions but we're definitely making some progress there. So >> yeah. >> Can I just add a couple of programs? This is all I mean I am like 150% in favor of doing this >> now move it to middle school and I'll [snorts] be really really happy about that. But um >> I would love that too. >> So just a couple questions. My daughter lives in Texas and actually our school program and district is so much better than theirs. But her kids are involved in two programs that I asked her about. >> Oh, awesome. [clears throat and cough] >> And I think they're really cool. One is called National History Day. And um
038she just wrote this. The purpose of National History Day is to improve history education by engaging middle and high school students in year-long projectbased learning, fostering research, critical thinking, and presentation skills as they explore historic topics related to an annual theme through papers, exhibits, performances, documentaries, or website. It aims to develop students historical understanding, analytical abilities, civic engagement, preparing them with college and career ready skills. So that's one of the programs that they have. That sounds great. [clears throat and cough] >> And then the second one is called DI, Destination Imagination. The purpose of destination imagination is to foster creativity, teamwork, and problem solving skills in students K through college by having them work in teams to solve open-ended challenges in STEM, arts, and [clears throat] service learning. Nice. developing crucial life skills like critical
039thinking, competence, and innovation for future success. It empowers kids to become independent thinkers and innovators through a structured creative process transforming challenges into opportunities for growth and self-exression. Anyway, I've talked with my grandchildren as they've gone through this every year and most of them, both of these programs, you win at the school, you win at the district, then you go state and then you can go to the national things. >> Nice. >> And I don't know if that would ever work out for our district, but I just thought I'd throw that out. >> Would you forward that information to me? I'd love to look at that. And yeah, that would be wonderful. >> They they do it in elementary, but now they started in middle school as well. And it might just be something. >>
040Well, this is a good time cuz we're we've been looking at all sorts of things. So, yeah, thank you for that. And I'd love to look at that more in depth. So, yeah, send that my way. That'd be great. >> I I like it. >> Yeah, it sounds great. >> I always like everything, but I [laughter] really like that. And I love this. >> Well, thank you. It's been It's been fun. >> So, you'll get us the days of the end of year culmination events for >> Yes, for sure. >> Be awesome. >> Yeah, >> I've been to multiple of those and I love them. Yeah, they're fun. >> So much fun. >> Okay. Anyone else have questions for Tiffany? [clears throat] >> No, thank you. I appreciate your time. >> All right. Thank you
041for coming, Tiffany. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Next up in our last in our reports agenda, we'll hear from Bev Saunders, who is our elementary STEM specialist, and Melissa Coverstone, who is our teaching and learning administrative intern. and they are going to present on uh the adoption of a new elementary math curriculum. >> Well, thank you. Thank for thank you for letting us come. >> So, like she just said, we're here to um address our elementary math curriculum adoption. Um and specifically, we're focused on our elementary curriculum. We originally started with a K11 adoption. Um, and given the what do you want to call it the curriculums that we received to review, we determined that we needed to put a halt on the secondary curriculum adoption and just move forward with elementary. So, um,
042secondary will be coming in the future, but for now, we're just ready to adopt elementary curriculum. >> What's the reason for the delay in secondary? >> There were not suitable um, curriculums that we received. Oh wow. Okay. >> Apparently the state's going through the process of changing standards. >> Yes. So we decided to wait specifically on the high school because we anticipate that the standards will take longer to adopt at the state level. We are moving forward with releasing an RFP for middle school here in the next month or two. Um, we found because we had written the RFP for 6 through 11, there were not vendors that could meet the requirements for both 6 through 8 and 9 through 11. So, we found we needed to separate those two. >> Okay, great. Thank you.
043>> Um, we started with creating an adoption leadership team. That team consisted of Bev, our elementary math and STEM specialist, Heidi Hall, who is our secondary math curriculum specialist, Britney Foster, our executive director of teaching and learning, and myself, our administrative support in the teaching and learning department. We also had lots of guidance from Karma Leam, our purchasing manager. Um, after we created our adoption leadership team, we got together and we created our committee, our curriculum committee. That committee was composed of our adoption leadership team and 30 teachers from our grades five through or K through five, 11 instructional coaches from the district and specialists from the district. Um, ELLL specialists, bed specialists, um, and the instructional coaches, um, one school support leader. We had two elementary principles on our team. We had 10 parents
044who applied to be part of our committee. And then Terry joined us as our board member. We'll start by going through our timeline of what we have done. Um explain a little bit about our curriculum that we request to be adopted and then explain our plan for training the teachers and moving forward and actually adopting and making this curriculum successful. So what we started with back in September, we wrote our request for proposal and we requested sample materials from vendors who could meet our request for proposal. Um then our leadership team got together in a room and reviewed the um curriculum options that were sent to us. We narrowed the selection down to two possible curriculums and invited vendors to come present to our full curriculum team to prepare our curriculum team. On November 14th,
045we got those grade level teachers together and had them do a deep dive on the standards so they would understand what they were looking for in a curriculum. Then on November 21st, we had our vendors come present about the curriculum and then we had our um curriculum team go through a very intense rubric um rating the curriculum on things that matched our RFP. So our RFP was accompanied by a rubric and they rated um the curriculum for our instructional needs. Um those ratings were all put into a Google form and put on a spreadsheet. And then Karma, our um purchasing manager, looked at the proposal for co the cost proposals and took the instructional rating along with the cost proposal and determined which curriculum won the RFP. That curriculum was I Ready Mathematics by curriculum
046associates. So then we took in December, we laid out the curriculum books in the district office for the public to come review. So anyone who wanted to look at the curricular materials could come and look at them. Um we also held two public meetings about the curriculum so the public could come ask questions. Those meetings were held December 15th and 16th and we had no feedback received at those meetings. Um the materials were available like I said in the district office lobby. We had a QR code so that um anyone who wanted to could comment. We received very limited feedback and I believe that feedback has been sent to the board. All right, I get to talk about next steps. This is the exciting part. Um so we're here tonight to present um what we've
047done in um the process and we're asking for approval of um curriculum associates readym um classroom. Um once that's done then we'll start working on the implementation plan. So what that looks like is February 13th we have a district-wide PD day. On this PD day, we are going to take all of our teachers through a review of the new draft standards that are supposedly supposed to be approved by the state board in March. That was what I was told this week. But, you know, things change every day, but that was the word I got. Um, and we're going to take them through those standards so they understand the changes that are coming. We're going to actually have the vendor come and do some training with the curriculum so that our teachers know what is in
048the curriculum curriculum, the structures that are there and how to move forward with that curriculum. We're also having teachers pilot right now. They are actually working in the curriculum so they can do a model lesson so that teachers have a view of what that would look like with in the context with children. and then we're going to give them time to dig into their curriculum and do some PLC planning. That's what February 13 looks like. We've got a huge crew of teachers that are helping us do that so that we have lots of people who've been in the curriculum. Um in the spring we are having 78 teachers pilot this curriculum throughout our district. We have multiple teams. Um, we have teams on every grade level. Um, today I had one um, second grade team
049that dropped out. I only have one school that would will not have a team in their school piloting and that's in preparation for the implementation. If they're piloting now in the fall, they can help their colleagues in their in their schools. They can help with those tips and tricks and hey, you know, we these are things that we came across in challenges when we were piloting. So that's what we're going to be working on. We're going to be meeting each month with those teams, coming up with pacing guides for next year, how to attack that implementation in small achievable steps. Then moving forward into full implementation in 2627, all of our teachers will be using this curriculum. Um the plan is these are very sketchy um loose plans. will get more information through the pilot
050team as to what's needed. But the idea is to have weekly office hours for teachers to um join in a Zoom call, get support that way, have some PLC meetings, have another training day in August, have some touch points training days with the vendor in October and February um to kind of refine our practices and then continue doing those follow-up PLC's. And then of course I'm going to be out in schools working with teachers and working with staff doing training as um requested by principles and I'm going to be in seeing what it looks like and seeing how we can best support. So that is what we're our plan is but I also wanted to talk about the highlights of the new program. We've been doing go math for a very very long time. 13
051years is a long time to have the same curriculum from the same publisher um surrounded by the same standards. So, this is going to be a a little bit of a shift for our teachers and I think it's going to be a great shift. I'm excited about it. So, the highlights of this curriculum um are it we are doing a lot of taskbased learning, a lot of putting math in context and how it can be used in the real world. Um, the lessons are very studentdriven where students have to generate ideas, they have to generate models, they have to come up with solutions and explain what that is. Instead of the teacher just explaining how to do it and they follow what the teacher tells them to do, they're going to have to be able
052to explain how to do it, why it works, how to apply it. And I'm really excited about that because it supports that critical thinking and problem solving. And that's 21st century skills, right? If you're out in, you know, the industry, [laughter] our industry partners want problem solvers because chatp can do anything that a kid can just do procedurally, but it's the problem solving and the conceptual understanding that we're we're trying to support. Um there's a lot of scaffolding in um ready classroom for our teachers to make the shift from where we've been to where we need to go. Um, the other one that I'm super excited about is all four dual immersion languages are represented and we can use the same curriculum in the DLI target language and in our English which will have better
053coordination between those two sides and I'm thrilled to to see that happen. There's also really strong um support for language learners um down to the um granulation of where are they on their WEDA scores and if they're here as a Wedas as a WEDA um outcome, this is what you can do to help them access curriculum. I was really excited about that. In in the curriculum, there's family resources. There's letters that help parents understand what we're doing in the each unit and each lesson and here's how you can help your kids. Here are the models we're going to be using. And I think that will help our parents in that transition as well. There's embedded interventions and fluency and it's aligned to the research around best practices for math and I think it's going to
054be a good change. I also think it's going to allow teachers to have that breath of sometimes a change is as good as a break. And I think that's going to be good for our teachers, too. So, we're here to ask, please consider allowing us to adopt this curriculum. I think that um you guys have had maybe some opportunities to look and and Terry can give some feedback from going through that process with us. Um but that's our our option. This is what I wanted you to see in terms of what our pilot team looks like. Um, we have six teams that are going to be piloting in kindergarten. First grade we have two teams. Second grade three. Third grade five. Fourth grade five teams. And fifth grade three teams. That's a lot of teams.
055And we wanted them to do them in teams so they could collaborate together and problem solve together. All right. We already went through this. Am I going backwards? >> Talked about it, but that's okay. >> Okay, here we go. Talking again about those next steps. Um, just that those training plans. Yeah, I think I Here we go. I think I covered it all. Sorry for the Oh, the repetitiveness. Do you have questions for me? I would love to answer any of those questions that you have. >> I do. What? You know, you mentioned that there are some critical thinking skills and and those kinds of issues, and that's great for most kids, but what about the lower kids? How are they going to be developed? They're having a tough time just keeping their head above
056water. >> The nice thing about this curriculum is it has really low floor entry points for the tasks. Any kid can access it. They actually bring the tools they have in their math learning to the task. they problem solve it in that way. So you can have a kid who can solve some problems that maybe is lower and and you're going to extend that learning through the conversation and through the process of of the curriculum. Here's a good example. I was in a classroom watching this type of um instruction happened because I have a teacher who's been doing some of this um and we had a group over here working on a task, right? I had a a language learner in this group, newcomer to this to the country, paired up with two other students,
057and they were problem solving. The two students that are English- speakaking, they actually didn't have as good a understanding of the concept, and they were supposed to talk about what they were doing. One person was recording, the other two were telling the person what to do. the language student was was there and he's like there's nine groups because they were doing multiplication and the other two kids were really not attending to this language learner and listening to the degree that they needed to and with um within ready classroom part of the process is you can prompt those students what's your next step and you can say hey I think your buddy over here has a key piece that you might need And this was a kid that has struggled in class and he was actually
058flourishing in this format. So I think with that low floor where they can access it from that background knowledge like bring your information here and then the teacher is going to facilitate moving it forward. We call it backing up the train and then moving forward. >> I just worked with those lower end kids and some of them really struggled with >> for sure >> type of I've learned so I hope it works. >> I think that there will always be struggles in the messy middle when we're first implementing. Um but I actually have have really strong respect for what our teachers can do. You give good curriculum to teachers, they are going to find a way. And and it doesn't mean there's going to not have there are going to be students that struggle for
059sure. But we have students struggling in our schools now as well. And so I think that being able to bring the concepts down to their level and then connect it from where they are to where they need to go is what we need to do. Instead of isolating this one skill and let's teach this one skill and if they don't get it, they're done. Let's connect it to the skills they know and then bring them forward to the new skills. So we'll see. I'm there. It'll if we have to tweak and do some new things, we'll do some new things, too. We won't let anyone fall between the cracks. >> That's not [clears throat] what we're That's not the business we're in. >> So, thank you for your presentation. It is the investment what's listed
060here under the fiscal impact. >> Um, I have not seen the fiscal impact. That's not something I have. >> Yeah, we have not been >> privileged to that that information. >> Okay. I just wondered what is our investment and how will we measure uh like our return on investment if that makes sense. >> I'm not sure on the fiscal side but I know how we're going to measure whether or not the curriculum is working is if that is that what you're looking for. So one of the things that we we are always watching data like that's one of the key features of my role is I'm watching data across Aadians and I'm watching data across um rise and I'm also looking at formative assessments as well and I think that's one of the things that
061we're going going to be watching to see where we're at um from now until as we implement. We do expect that our scores may fall into the implementation dip that is pretty typical. Teachers are just scrappling with new curriculum. >> So, they are going to have they aren't going to have the fine-tuned polished um product that they've had for 12 years, right? So, we do expect some of that, but we're going to be watching that really closely to make sure that our kids are getting what they need. And for me, that's where it really comes down to it is are we meeting the needs of students? >> Sure. >> And if not, then that's something that we will we will make sure we take care of. Go Math had the same problem. There were areas
062that we had to backfill. With Go Math, there's never a perfect curriculum. >> You mentioned that the this that we've been with for 12 years. what would you expect the life cycle of this uh curriculum to be or I mean what would be an optimum opportunity there? >> This is this is me speaking from experience. >> I think if it's a good curriculum and it meets our needs, it's more appropriate to stay with it longer. Right? It takes teachers usually about three years to get really good at our curriculum and knowing where everything where all the holes are and getting all of their refinement, bringing their skills into the the delivery of it. And and some teachers get there way faster than that, but we start to see really good trends at about 3 years.
063And one of the things that I think is exhausting for teachers is when they have new curriculum and then three years later they have new curriculum and then they have another it they never get good at any of it. They're good at it. That's probably not the the right way to say it. They're really good at it but they don't become experts in it. And and so I think if it if it's working for our students, I think we we ride it until we find that we have other needs that are being >> so best case it would take have a similar life cycle to what we've just experienced. >> Yeah, we we are on like a five-year contract is usually how we we go through that with the option to renew. >> Okay, >>
064that's how we usually look at that. >> Well, that's how we've written this contract. >> And that's how we've written this contract. >> Contract. Okay. Thank you. So but if if that also gives us the option if we find that it has not met our needs then in five years we can choose something else or if things drastically change we have that option. I don't like to lock us in for you know a 10ear cycle when [laughter] our kids are very different now than they were 10 years ago. >> So >> okay thank you. >> Any other questions for us? >> Have other districts used this? Do you have any reports from them? >> Yes. So, we've been down the road needing to do an RFP for math for a while. So, we should have
065done that a couple of years ago, but we had to do Wonders first because of the state requirements. So, I started talking to districts who have been going through adoption who've gone through this change. and I've talked to probably seven different um districts who have actually adopted Ready Classroom and I've learned from them some of the challenges that they experienced and some of their remedies that I think that we'll be able to prevent some of those. Some districts love it, some districts don't. It just depends. And you find that no matter when anytime there's change, you have those who love it and those who don't. Um, we've we've seen um in the data because I'm a data nerd. I like to go see how their implementation has impacted their data um with their assessments and
066they're seeing increases as they as they work through this process too. So I overall it's a good change for the most part. So >> one question. So we had 30 teachers part of this. That is great. >> Yes. >> Was there a cons? There probably wasn't a consensus from all the teachers but was it a large portion that were supportive of this? Yes. Because buyin is really important with the teachers. How would you say the teachers are with this decision? >> I I've spent the last three days with teachers. I've we've trained about 40 teachers in the last three days in math and the consensus that I'm hearing is they're excited. There are a few that are like but I love go math and and and a lot of that is in that survival mode,
067right? It if you already know how to do it and you've been doing it for a long time, it takes a lot of that cognitive load off of our teachers. But for the most part, most of them are super excited. And I'm sure we'll we'll I anticipate it's going to be challenging in the beginning and there's going to be messy middleles. >> Well, and as teachers have gotten into the curriculum um dive more into it, even some of those who are on the committee who preferred the other option once they've gotten deeper into the curriculum been like excited and oh, okay, this is going to be good. We we're okay with this. >> Yeah. In fact, um we have the digital resources available right now for our teachers, particularly for our pilot team, and we
068have teachers already using it, and they're like, this is so great. And they're and they're sending me emails, hey, I did this lesson, and this is what happened, and that you should have heard what the kids were doing. And and that has been fun to hear like that. That kind of energy around it, I think, is a positive sign for the change. So, Terry, what's your impression of it? >> Um, it was the one that I scored highest. Uh, the other option that that was presented um seemed a little clunky compared to this one. And um they provide so much for especially um new or inexperienced teachers as uh Bev talked about the the scaffolding word. Um lots of helps in their teacher manuals to help them know how to present this new topic or
069this new unit or that type of thing. So that um having had a uh I guess gone through the experience having a new teacher in my own family a few years ago. Just the angst of trying to um implement new curriculum at the same time that you are trying to become a new teacher. I mean starting as a new teacher. I think that is really helpful for them and um it was exciting. I like it also that um it's not mostly digital. There are digital supports but most of it is paper and pencil and um working together. Uh and there's a lot of talking in this one between students and um math is math should be a lot of talking, right? Um when we're problem solving and things like that. So anyway, that's what I
070thought. But um I actually I should give a disclaimer here because 10 parents were selected and two of them were my sons. [laughter] >> That's true. >> I said I was teasing [clears throat] Todd. I said, "How was that random selection?" And he said, "It really was." And when they were selected, Britney looked at me and said, "Now what?" [laughter] Um, so it was really fun to go to that whole day of evaluation and selection with my sons and they disagreed with me on which one they liked the best as parents. And so um, we had a lot of family discussion about that. And um I appreciated the fact that all the parents in the room um with that committee of between 50 and 60 people, the parents were really engaged with um they put
071us in teams of a parent and um a couple of teachers and a an administrator or two. I mean not two, but an administrator or a district specialist, things like that. So we were in teams evaluating for small teams of fiveish. And so that process was really interesting to go through and um I I could see my sons from across the room but didn't hear from them until the end of the day and um it was really robust discussion from the parents and I appreciated that they were all really engaged in that process. >> Anyway, it was a fun process. You missed out, Alan. >> Any other questions for us? >> Thank you. >> All right. Appreciate your time. >> Thank you so much. And thanks for all your support and what you do to
072help us do our job better. So, thank you. >> Great presentation. >> Thanks, ladies. Moving on. Our next report, our next report's agenda section is systems of support and this will be the positive behavior plan report given by Alden Jack who is our executive director of student services and Denine Lusley who is our general ed behavior coordinator. [clears throat and cough] >> Well, as she said, I'm Denine Loosely. I this is my third year in the district and uh first year um as behavior coordinator for gened students as well as the PBIS coordinator. So happy to be here. Uh what we're presenting today is the positive behavior plans which um are submitted every year. We have spent the first half of the year helping schools prepare to get these um ready and submitted. Uh the
073state requires uh that we each school uh plans and prepares a positive behavior plan to support student wellness um through um using positive um supports. And we as a district kind of roll that into our PBIS systems of support that our district uses. Um plans have um ways to support their tier one and strengthen their tier one. Our um a lot of our elementary schools are super strong in their tier one, but we can always improve. And uh and our middle schools are coming along with that. And our high schools are coming along with that tier 2. Um if they feel like they needed to um strengthen tier one more, they could do two goals in tier one and not worry about tier 2, but a lot of them have um tier 2 goals also
074to um strengthen that piece. Also another requirement is attendance and um they have attendance goals so that that is always um being worked on through that. Um so that's basically it. Do you have any questions? You have you I think receive them in uh electronically through your mail. Okay. All right. Awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you for your work with behaviors. >> That can be really challenging. Sorry. >> Well done. >> All right. Um, we have reached the end of our regular agenda and we are ready to move into [clears throat] executive session unless you have something else to add, Alden. All right. Um, and so I will take a motion to enter into a close session. Um this is a a close session for um discussion on potential litigation. So um that um needs
075to be mentioned in the motion. Please >> move that we enter into a close session to discuss potential litigation. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded that we move into close session to discuss uh potential litigation and uh we'll vote by roll call. >> Yes. >> Starting. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. So we will move into We are now into a closed session. Are we going to stay here? >> Yeah. We'll just stay here. >> All right. YouTube. Yeah, it's called