001thank you Public Schools they're not awesome hello hello kill me there we go all right so follow me in the water please rise from the Pledge of Allegiance congratulations [Music] Teresa present Michelle here Kate here Gladys Cooper yeah Lauren Daley here Bridget here Julie here Ralph Elle here and let me see here soon move on to edit participation more welcomes public participation asks that comments be limited to three minutes the public may offer objective comments or School operations and programs that concern that the board will not permit any expression of personal components Missouri comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the Danbury public school system we have a couple names on here um first name is Oswaldo Chen so um it's a three minute time limit I'll give
002you a 30 second warning before you're you're done to the wrap up all right videos thank you and I would like to thank all of you guys for your service I would expect to understand that I appreciate it and I understand that this job is not a volunteer you guys don't get paid with all that but I would also want two ways to understand that from the point of view of the parents in the park you guys volunteered to do this job nobody to ask you guys to do this job so you guys have to hear from Republic as well foreign schools is no leadership from the top and down and what that's what's happening right now and I think it's cancer brings the last time I think we hit into a point of no
003return I mean you can blame a lot of factors why our schools are not funded you can bring people to come from overseas like I came 30 plus years ago you can also blame people coming from other states what happened in the pandemic you have people that are from other states coming and moving into Cambridge and always will be happy camper overseas but what a place right now sort of different our leaders but then they stress the problems but right now you guys don't want no I'm not gonna blame you guys because at the end of the day I understand you guys just recommend the past but our city council is amazing for 22 years they've been demanding our Public Schools and I think the lack of leadership because there are issues but we kind
004of not talk about it and which is so kicking kicking down the road and I think we come to a point that we have to speak up and what I'm saying this because in the past last year I saw some of you guys speaking I'm okay for our kids but some of you guys were not even there to speak for our kids and then I understood that you guys are not really doing the job for our kids but in this day killing water for you political party 30 seconds if you guys don't want to do the job please don't run but please do something for our kids leave the political parties outside in this face it at our schools are number one thanks so much thank you and riddle no okay I I um Denver
005I live on Washington Avenue and I'm a former January a public school teacher one for a long time and I'd just like to bring up the quote I've heard many times why maybe there was a delay in passing out technology like laptops or that some some staff members work to get them and others who are not it's just a little example that we would hear back we don't have the money now in fact the laptops were there but they didn't have the staff to distribute and set up the laptops and I I know that that I've I've sometimes apologize I really appreciate the connection with the asks for a budget and the um how it plays out in the classroom and I think that was your uh it was meaningful and because that is one
006of the things that we have to think about how does it play out in the classroom and what are we doing for the students so this year I would like to change what we're doing a little bit and ask the board members who are very dedicated to education to take your advocacy to the next level and in asking the city to fully fund the budget for the health of Danbury students in the entire community thank you Miss Rachel I'm gonna give her two minutes so it wouldn't be um would we write if I didn't type my notes so one last time yes [Laughter] found this is not how I envisioned saying my parting words but nonetheless it's familiar we had different microphones back we also had that it's all about the kids which I think
007I just thought of a parting gift I think maybe I'll look into later um so for a few years I sat on this side of the table core deciding to run as a candidate for Board of Ed um in my mission to keep sibling preference at AIS barn on the side of many things and also our dear friend and uh chair at the time Eileen Alberts cannot accurately express how much I enjoyed serving these past five years on the board even among our challenges and [Music] even through the politics and the scrutiny it has been an absolute honor working alongside all of you and all those previously sat around this table as well as with all of our incredible teachers administrators and entire and reposable staff on behalf of our kids I am grateful for
008the experiences and connections made and I'm proud of our accomplishments I think I've served on just about every Board District I mean every committee District committee City Schools combination committee at some point as well as secretary Vice chair chair which was the ultimate honor to be your spokesperson and establish new Partnerships and try out new processes among new leadership of both district and City this was a very difficult decision however given the responsibilities of my new role as state representative I know that I cannot hold both positions and give adequate attention that they deserve ironically to to this new year to this year's new legislators during one of our many orientations both majority and minority leaders conveyed similar points that I'd like to leave tonight one to protect the Integrity of the institution this institution
009through Civility and respect for each other and two good leaders will tell you to read everything if they tell you otherwise it is it's for a reason I look forward to continuing to advocate for our kids and I look forward to resuming my place on this side of the table from time to time over the next few months we'll be extremely busy but please do not hesitate to reach out to me at any time any I think you all have my personal cell phone anyone can sign up to receive my email updates by visiting Brett cholesky.com thank you Rachel I just want to say that um back when I was elected in 2013 Rachel I had the wrong joke is that she attended as a parent into more Board of Ed meeting than some of
010the Board of Ed members so it's funny and yes I do remember Eis days and uh you advocated very well for them and through the different levels of participation as a parent you did to the ultimate on being the more on the board of education and and chair and my personal opinion myself included I think Rachel was one of the best chairs ever before it's half and like I said I'll include myself from that too but I just want to say thank you for your dedication and I just wanted to see if any if anyone say anything um yeah I'd like to make a comment about Rachel I mean you could thanks Rachel chileski has a tenacious spirit that we have all observed her spirit to seek strive not to yield in order to get
011the job done but yet to recognize that the job is never done in order to keep us moving forward I just wanted to say that it's been an honor and a privilege to serve with you and we wish you all the best thank you Mr chicken I just want to thank you for taking me under your wing and teaching me or helping me maneuver through these Waters they're not easy Waters helped me figure them out and make them learn from a better person so thank you so much for that Rachel we have a little something here for you on behalf of the board [Music] don't cry that's original she wants to [Laughter] come you can take one for 30. he's more photography yeah he is I agree I agree thank you chair s feel free
012to stay Rachel if you like all right I make a motion that the Board of Education approved the items on the contact calendar I said it's 23-15 for your 23-18 as recommended second so move secondly uh any discussion um [Music] extensions yeah she carries educational Representatives oh student Representatives all right action items smoking yard Al how about you read the first one action item a board member ratio solesky letter of resignation quotient at the Board of Education except the letter of resignation from board member Rachel toloski fed were reflected January 26 2023 and according with exhibit 23-19 your second second by Michelle Paul was in favor I don't know any opposed who cares any commotion that the Board of Education except the November December 22 financial report in accordance with 23-20 second I had a
013discussion all in favor opposed extension [Music] I mean sorry policy 5 118.1 Global students motion that the Board of Education except for first reading policy 5118.1 homeless students as recommended by the policy committee and accordance with 23-11 page 47. any opposed and extensions Bridget can you do the big emotion that the Board of Education except the first reading policy 514 .4 physical exercise and discipline of students as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 23-22 on page 52. by Bridget the second second by Teresa discussion are those in favor aye opposed Michelle can you do uh sure motion that the board of education is set for first reading policy 5144-2 news use of explosionary time out as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 23-23 page 54. the second time portion
014of my Rochelle seconded by Bridget any discussion all those in favor of abstentials good don't forget presentation and superintendent support flying through this house E15 yeah I should put on it good evening everyone some exciting news to share I've had a number of items under these superintendents update but first I'd like to start with recent news I know our board members just recently received an email I don't know if everyone has had enough opportunity to see the email s that I received a email from the mayor's office early this afternoon there will be a groundbreaking ceremony at Descartes site and they have their Career Academy on Monday afternoon at 1pm so we will be there with the construction hats and shovels and for some photo opportunities and quite frankly an exciting time for us as
015a school district that's good the city is actually Broken Ground on the side already with this economy ceremonial opportunity for us to talk about next steps and it'll be a nice press conference can I take a picture for the Kate they were asking for pictures of our schools can I do that for Monday let me take a picture of these sites the breaking ground sure sure and there will be pictures taken as well that I'm sure we'll have available of course yeah well no about uh they want School teachers or it wasn't today's thing school events in school yeah school events and happenings they wanted pictures that'll be a great opportunity yeah okay sorry so the the next item and really this is a request one we've um I believe it was two days ago
016we spoke with the chair of the finance committee requesting a meeting for February 7th at 5 00 PM I don't know if we make the rest of the committee you know the board is aware of that but we were hoping to get one more finance committee in before our board meeting next week and so that's why the meeting on the 7th has been requested the board Might Recall every year typically we have a book submitted to the council that book is of course been updated we've decided last year you might recall there's a book behind the book with all the line items we had our PowerPoint as part of our presentation that we had done this year we've kind of made the book one big story and so it's the Powerpoints with the line items
017to tell one story versus mine items and then an addendum has a PowerPoint I feel pretty good about that kind of tweak that we made this year and so just physically I'm sorry visually just looks better so the content is not really changing but the story is more cohesive now so one we want to walk the committee through that but also we want to make sure there's an opportunity for any to ask any questions that might still be outstanding I'm gonna be just assume that the finance committee would be the most important going into the board meeting next week [Music] no no so that that's my that's my other item I wanted to respectfully ask Miss Russo and the board um if we can change the date of the 14th given that it's Valentine's Day
018and see if we can either back that up to a board meeting we don't have to necessarily do it right now but I just wanted to just wanted to avoid to understand why are we making the requests we realized afterwards that the meeting was actually on the 14th we know a lot of folks right even at this table might have commitments for Valentine's Day and we don't want to be the reason why you don't get to have the data it would kick me out of the dog house yes yes excuse me through the chair to the superintendent uh we're changing the um Finance committed me on the 7th so February 7th has been is an added date at 5 p.m very special meeting at City Hall at seven o'clock this meeting is at five yeah
019but she's scheduled excuse me is it going to be Zoom or is it going to be in person is assuming and we're canceling the 14th correct rescheduling the 14th because we won't have an opportunity to go over the financials excuse me you said the one on the seventh is the soon meeting yes [Music] do you anticipate of being the one leader who's using their meanings are about half an hour 45 minutes for the finance I anticipate at least an I would imagine the committee would want at least an hour of our questions but I guess it really depends on the questions that might be coming from the YouTube Community Center thank you and so the next item is an update on open Choice program and so CES which is our risk in Trumbull Connecticut CES
020is in charge of the open Choice program in Clearfield we do have a couple of other districts that have open choice after a lot of hard work this last year uh to be clear we are not facilitating the open Choice process that is actually address which is CES they have found a partner and that partner is region nine in Reading region 9 has agreed to at the minimum have eight seats available for Danbury public school students that number is will be in kindergarten grade to start and again they have committed to at the minimum of eight seats I don't anticipate that will be much more than eight I know in previous discussions kind of in the community I think some folks I think inappropriately thought that this would be a solution or possible solution to
021our overcrowding it was it frankly was never going to be a solution to our crowded none of our neighborhood schools have the capacity unless you go to a bigger Urban like nowhere to Stanford but it's but it does provide choice for our families and so I know there were also some questions about funding and transportation so Transportation the receiving school will be responsible for transportation there is an ECS formula that will be calculated we still continue to receive 50 of our ECS formula they're receiving the school will also receive the other 50 of that ECS form last but not least the receiving District owns all of the financial responsibilities of a student however in the event one of our students who are now in region 9 in Reading if for some reason that child is
022recommended to be placed in the out of this replacement Kelly and likely someone also from our office will be part of that PPT that placement team meeting and if it's determined that that child is going to be outplaced we would then be responsible for the cost of the outplacement because that will be over and Beyond but outside of that agreement the entire responsibility of Education childhood vehicle so this has been a initiative of the state for some time they were called to try to find Partners in our region and region 9 has stepped up we have placed on our website and opportunity for families to learn more about Open choice I believe it is on the ticker that continues to switch over this location there very kind of simple straightforward application I would leave the
023application ends at the end of March that positive way I do have it in my paperwork here so again for our families it's on our website we will include it and the correspondence to families inviting them in but I just wanted to share that with the board also understand it might be some questions also let me answer anything there's yeah just so who chooses the students to go there there was a lottery and so our families would apply that there was a lottery that's um conducted outside of Danbury public schools um and then those families are informed and they have a a similar waiting list like we have for aisles and it is it just so there are kindergarten students going out so are they just there for kindergartners this are they there so it's
024incoming kindergarten students and the kindergarten students the idea is they would become part of the school community so it's important to start with kindergarten Grace so they'd be a running student correct right first yeah next year they may have another eight students and we'll continue to bring more students assuming things excuse me I'm not here in his office thanks so are we calling about just eight students or he's a member associated with those students yeah so I I was a little vague and that's because I don't have any more clarity on this mystery so the number is a minimum of eight students okay I do not anticipate it's going to be more of the name of students and honestly and I'm sharing it with you the same way Eric can see as shared it with
025me possibility may have more than eight it's a minimum of eight you don't expect it's going to be really more than eight somewhere around there yes somewhere around eight is the number I continue to go and I guess my final question is since it's going to be a lottery it could just be one-sided of one part of the community on one side a part of another the other part of the community am I right very possible depending on the applicants so the first thing we want to make sure the entire Community is aware of so here in Denver we've worked hard to make sure our AIS Families Our West Side families have access to the application process and so that's why we will push out and make our families aware of the open Choice application
026opportunity as well so the first barrier for us is to make sure everyone has access to the pool once they get to the pool it very much it very well could [Music] you welcome and then our next speaking of Lottery our next update is an update on the AIS Lottery and AIS they just their Lottery just closed on January 23rd we had over a thousand applicants for the school I'm sorry so we had 1148 applicants for the school 1086 were Danbury and we had I believe it was 62 that was outside of Danbury and so I don't know if the board is aware but we have seats from our neighborhood schools like those partner schools have a certain amount of seats that kind of they can apply on we can accept it to the district
027um Chris and Mel Jackson principal at AIS Chris wrote to our chief of schools on as in which he's responsible for they've worked hard going out to the respective communities and trying to drum up interests and the death to apply it AIS we certainly got folks in Danbury excited about AIS and got a little bit of traction for our neighborhood school we also have a couple of schools that are not partnered with us and so no walk we have one applicant from Norwalk one apple came from Waterbury one African but Woodbury three applicants from Jumbo two applicants from Stanford and I mentioned in those districts because those are non-party districts which again will invite in additional Revenue to the district if they do indeed get accepted and so the lottery was drawn on January 23rd
028we will be mailing out letters next week to families and families we'll have until March 1st to confirm the seats at AIS Le so we are excited about that and our families are typically this is an exciting time of year for us as families or applying to get into the building and we are excited too provide those updates for them so just to get back to I'm sorry I was there a question about you guys um so are they served so many seats for the outside district and then so many seats for our district yes right yes we have to maintain a 70 30 ratio in order to maintain our magnet school Monday yes how many seats all together or the entire School makeup so our next item I can find out we can get
029the entire number the next update is the 2023 legislative update I'm going to ask Mike to provide the update Mike before you do I just want to say worked with our lobbyists who's also lobbyist for the city of Danbury as well uh Brian Bingham and also worked with Erica Haynes works with the state finance project the idea boys who live with Heritage the two of them have been talking behind the scenes would be quite a bit appreciate both their their respect their work together we have put together a letter with the city of Danbury by testimony to the to connect to the to provide testimony on behalf of our district in support of the bill to fully fund ECS formula so we're excited we are going to a press conference this Friday in support of
030that bill with the mayor's office in hopes that we will have a different outcome this year like I know we have some other updates according to build and I just want to thank the board aware of locally kind of what's Happening yeah thanks that's uh that's probably the big big new um has representative mentioned it's it's the busy time it's still early in the session um we're very excited to see February 8th when the governor's budget is released we'll have a better sense of what funding for education is going to look like at that point um all bills have to be dropped by the 15th of February so we'll see which ones um sort of get subtraction uh in committee the one that's of course made the most guarded the most attentive so far has
031been this HB 5003 which is a reiteration of last year's bill that I was going to accelerate the ECS funding as we know last year it didn't it didn't pass but uh it's it seems to have some momentum coming out of the gates here early so we're very optimistic in multiple as Kevin mentioned uh Erica Haynes from the Connecticut state school Finance project has been working with us as well as Ryan and Zach himself in the Shane obviously with his testimony everyone will be up there with a group of superintendents fishing report passes and depending on the way it's written and the way the rules are set up we can see anywhere from 1.5 to 2.7 million dollars in accelerated ECS funding coming to us next year they'll be on top of the standard Alliance
032Grant so it would be really good news if this passed so we're going to push hard on it thank you Mark and last but not least school is a distinction so to make the board aware that we were notified recently from the state of Connecticut for the 2122 school year we had five schools of Distinction in that athletic share the private schools so Ellsworth Avenue School case Town Avenue School Morris Street School South Street school and AIS Le so you will hear from Carowinds and momentarily a part of the superintendent goldstalk date of the teaching and learning that these five schools and only one other District in the state of Connecticut has had is two other districts in the state of Connecticut has had as many schools of Distinction as we have had here in
033America so once again we're really proud of that fact continues to speak highly of our staff and Leadership across the district just want to also say before we ask Carol to come up over the last couple of months as we've had enough so Cara is Carowinds is going to speak to this evening is an update on the accountability report for Danbury public schools I.E our report card which you can write an overview of kind of crosswalk kind of what we know a Park would look like and what the accountability report looks like from the state of Connecticut and why we've had five schools of Distinction and just kind of speak to some of the work that's so Karen we are ready for you marawanza thank you foreign ER I'm the director for data assessment and
034research for the district um tonight we're going to talk a little bit about the Next Generation accountability index um this is also a part of the update on our goal one of teaching and learning and it gives a very holistic view of how things are going in the district and the schools so this particular capability system is done through the Connecticut State Department of Education they are every District in the state of Connecticut participates every school in our district receives an index score as well as a district it's an important piece that we use to track strikes in our districts as well in our district as well as areas that we find might need Improvement or more support so it really is an idea to promote transparency across the state but also within our own
035District of where we might need to make them adjustable um each district is a part of it and these systems kind of assist all of us in developing this transparency and what we're really working on is developing that culture at the school level as well and kind of take the guesswork out of everything we all are on the same measuring stick every school every District so the next train is accountability system was developed in the year of 2014 and 15. um so we've been tracking it for quite a bit and so the board and Veteran members have heard this presentation before but it was interrupted for two school years due to the fact that some of it summative testing was canceled within the pandemic so when that was suspended we weren't able to receive scoring
036around growth so that was suspended the accountability system or Court was suspended by the state of Connecticut as well so that was from 1920 and 20 21 school years um and so Kevin and I have talked a lot about this and I can go deep into a lot of data speak so I'm going to try to keep this a little late because there are a lot of formulas associated with it but there will be a ton of her questions at the end basically this is our district report card it's a holistic way to look at all different parts of all different parts of the district as well as the school most importantly around the growth of students so we say all the time we accept every student who comes in we make a promise to
037do as well as we can for the student to help them grow and and and graduate within our district so that being said the 12 indicators that are part of our report card are academic achievement and that's our performance index in each one of these indicators if you see an H that means it's also measured for our high needs students separately so those of you who have heard of presentations by me before are high needs students are categorized as multilingual learners students who receive free emergency smudge as well as students with disabilities so if you're a demographic if that's checked off even just one box you're considered a high lead student you can be all three or just once one of those identifications okay so in the academic achievement for example we get a score
038for all students and we get a score for high needs students okay you're not in one or the other I need students are in both operations academic growth and progress towards English proficiency that includes highly students as well as all students both one and two are our Ela and math scores in espa sats ngss are a Next Generation science standards assessment as well as the last things for our multilingual Learners who have not exited that status yet number three is our assessment and participation rate so that is the district is accountable to at least assess 95 of their students so if you don't hit that you are dropped a category in your school designation and there's a couple other things you can't be considered School of Distinction but you are rated on your participation rate
039as well for all students of Chinese students chronic absenteeism for all students and timeline students chronic absenteeism is whether or not a student is absent for 10 or more of their enroll days if they are asking for 10 or more of their normal days they're considered chronically accent um preparation for post-secondary and career Readiness is really around the courses our students are taking in the high school if you think two AP courses two in dual enrollment courses two cge courses or two work experience courses we get credit for that so that's the percentage of students who are enrolled in those courses number six is a little different that's our high school students and what is considered career readiness um that are related to those courses that they take so how do they score an AP
040exam how do they score on the Benchmark for the SAT and whether that they received three dual enrollment credits so number seven is pretty easy it's just our graduation rate um or I'm sorry number seven is our on track and 9th grade that means how many ninth graders what percentage earn six credits or more that keeps us on track that's an adjustment it used to be five but as they change the um the amount of required credits for high school graduation we now have to hit six for that so you'll see a little change on that in the index um our graduation rate for four year uh within four years as well as our graduation rate for six years that's our hiding students our post-secondary entrance is how students how many students enter within a
041year of graduating high school second or four-year College institutions physical fitness scores you gotta get all of them a meeting standards so there's different parts of the subtasks everybody has to ask all parts and then artifacts is how many students are enrolled in arts classes at our high school okay so moving on to the next one I know whether you have this so it doesn't look right here right now on is by far away um but as a part of our Danbury district report um if you look at your available um BF that you probably received prior to the meeting you'll see each indicator and what the score is when you look at the white area that's up there being Fancy with like winter this way area here is how they've come up with this
042score okay so that's how we're created essentially and then the blue part is what our grade was or what our score is all the way to the right in the column is what the um the state earned so it's a comparison of where we are in the state average as well so the first piece is for ELA our Ela performance index for all students for example the index rate is 57.9 that's the formula of the average performance of students the target is what the state says they want us to be at 75. so the points earned is that we earned 38.6 points out of 50 so we got a 77.2 all right so it goes by how many points we earned compared to what you could have earned and then your score is in the
043blue so if we look at the LA for Heidi students we were at 71.6 relatively close to the state percentage points our math was at 68.8 and as well as the high needs students at 63.6 which matched this state um which matched the state percentage of coins earned science we were at 72.2 with our Heidi students at 66.8 the next piece is really where you will see a lot of change within if you compare pre-pandemic to our kind of post-pandemic results and that we'll talk about a little bit on the next slide but where we shine really is around our academic growth for all students and 90s students so our Austin Ela growth we've had 50 years 59.3 with high knees at 57.2 math at 61 and math Heidi students at 16.5 so with those
044being said that's really looking at the kids who are included in the growth as well as other parts of any part of this index you have to be enrolled with us October 1st of the reporting year so for this they had to be a student with us October in 2021. so that way they can really see like is this the results attributed to Danbury public schools or did the student come later and so for this purpose those students are the only ones to count it in this as well for growth you had to take the test at a at a point in the spring and then again with us the followings right so the progress towards English proficiency is how students do a literacy oral on their lost links um and then our chronic absence
045and that has been an area that we've seen tremendous growth and are above the state average um for our students who are considered multilingual learners chronic absenteeism truly is an area where everyone has struggled in the state of Connecticut we were below this state chronic absenteeism rate overall when you looked at our attendance for the previous year the College and Career Readiness and then present passing exams um clearly there's there's some work to do right and and looking at how we're supporting um some of those students are on track to high school graduation at 77.3 all these to our graduation rates for all students this is now the 20 2021 cohort so the four year is just graduated then and then the sixth year grad graduation hiding students it was the students who could have
046graduated in 2019 if we gave them six years to graduate they stayed retained how what did our graduation look like for particularly our ID students um post-secondary entrance was at 78.7 and physical fitness at 54.5 that number also includes our participation rate and our Arts access at 89.1 which is also about the state average if you take into account all of our percentage of points earned our accountability index is a yellow Sal at the bottom at 66.8 slightly under the state percentage of 102. so just I know it's a lot but it what it helps to do is compare kind of our pre-pandemic um our pre-pandemic scores to our post-pandemic scores and so I highlighted these areas of where we went down and stayed the same as a side arrow and is where we need
047Kings um clearly the Green Arrow is kind of highlighting where we went up so we know we have work to do a proficiency everyone does as a part of the pandemic and and the learning loss and associated with that as well as places that were kind of exacerbated from the pandemic but the way we get there is by accelerating growth and showing that we've gone up and growth as well as our schools of Distinction is really tracking our growth towards proficiency that's that's kind of how we'll get there including our last place growth growth for students who are multilingual I just had a quick question so in terms of of how do you measure progress check um so if someone's uh let's take it someone's out of one but they should be out of four
048if you bring them to a two or three that's that's how you measure progress right sorry right so it's not you're not getting into where they're supposed to be but there is some growth within within that number right so with the ELA and math in particular as well as last links depending on what your score is it's identified how many points you need to grow one for a full Year's worth of growth beyond that to close the gap you have to accelerate that growth really so so that's what they're tracking is how far students are getting to their target and what's the average Target chief for everyone so yeah so you have to accelerate Beyond a Year's worth of growth to move a one as soon as a one to proficiency a lot of places
049when you look at a one if you hit your viewers worth of growth over three to four years you can you can close that Gap so it really depends on where they fall on the scale score of these yeah you have to accelerate the growth to get proficiently so as a result you can see that like a lot of places that that did go up or around growth as well as the percent of students taking collagen career Readiness courses um as well as our high school graduation accountability index score went up in our sixth year um as well as the Arts access so um just a lot of times we're kind of looking like what's our data point free pandemic to where we are um finally as a result of the accountability index a couple
050more things are tracked um with the uh with the district and that's including that includes district and school scores um they track an achievement Gap as well as a graduation Gap so that's if if our Gap is substantially different than the average Statewide Gap if we're considered an outlier then it will be identified on our accountability and index so this is kind of where it's tracked for Danbury public schools you have the ELA performance for you compare now before we had all students versus the bucket of just timing students this is non-high need students I'm not free we're just lunch I do not I am not classified that I have a disability and I am not a multilingual learner that is the students in the first comma High needs rate is right next to it
051which we explained before and that shows you the size of the Gap so Ela performance there's a 15.1 gap between those two groups and then you see the state Gap next to it we're not considered an outlier that's the same for Math and Science but we do track those closely especially at the school level to make sure that principles and and teachers are focused on that as well and how students are performing in their class that um we do our we do have an outlier when it comes to our graduation rate Gap so our students who are non-high needs and the 2019 cohort that's a six-year graduation it was 94 or non-high needs and our honey is rate was 83.6 the size of our Gap was template for the state is 10.2 were considered an
052outline if we move to our schools of Distinction kind of where I identified on the report card of where we were identified with um with a change in the higher levels of growth these are the schools that are our highest performing in the district it can be identified as a school of Distinction if you're in the top 10 percent for your overall accountability score so our one that was highlighted in yellow at the bottom schools get those as well so if you're in the top 10 percent of the state or if you're in the top 10 percent of the state for high growth either for all students or high needs students so these schools I put their Distinction on there so that you would have an idea of why they received the award um if
053a student if there's a school that is not tracked with their growth they can also receive a school of Distinction award if um there if they were their overall accountability index growth the big score at the bottom was in the top 10 of the city so these particular schools were in the top 10 first set of the state around the smarter balances as a response to this I I have to say we work very closely with the principles to really Target what's happening in their schools that are contributing these scores there are so many pieces that go into this that are not just about the summative assessments that you see at the end of the year student work how we're tracking cohorting kids at the high school when we at least graduation we experience our
054amounts of legal Learners and their services so there are so many cases that really lead to the holistic experience of the student and so we have a lot of responses that we make a strategic priority in order to kind of Target of how to increase and and really Target Improvement at each level foreign thanks Kara all of the things that you see listed on this slide are really reflective of a lot of the work in the Strategic plan that's ongoing over time so it can be working several years to continue to get better at assessing and diagnosing areas for targeted academic intervention one of the things that's common with all of the different content areas up there is the use of more robust ability to to assess we create a heavy investment in the i-Ready
055system which has been really well received there's been a tremendous amount of feedback on that and teachers feel like it really has provided a flashlight in terms of areas for growth for students and their ability to address instruction and planning so we're really happy with that in addition to that we've made a lot of space in in this in in the course of the of the week for teachers to have some additional planning time that's very intentional around their professional practice understanding data and being able to change course if needed especially with what we're seeing coming out of the pandemic with the needs of the students and having to really differentiate across a wide variety of levels so overall really this diagnostic process that people have engaged in but also deepening understanding of practice with
056our standards and I got to say Carowinds there's been absolutely instrumental in being that flashlight going into schools and getting folks to look at their data across all groups of kids to really understand what their needs are and to kind of put some things on the table of consideration so we do appreciate that work and our schools have made who are our distinguished schools won't be the first to say that they work very closely with Kara and attribute a lot of these success in their understanding to some of the work that they've done around the data so I do want to say thank you for that so the next piece is really around questions um I know it's a lot to kind of digest at once so it looks like that Foods your proportion of
057present things about data I appreciate it let me also say a good person special person that concludes so that leaves or just the everybody sees that the budget um intense budget is on for information and in honor of Rachel I have about 15 things for my board chairperson's report actually I know I just wanted to make sure everybody got the um invitation to the um groundbreaking ceremony groundbreaking ceremony but there's graduation this is Friday at six o'clock um yeah Grace Molina sent it out to Canada I asked carius of it out to the whole award if that's did anybody get that um [Music] thank you that's uh at this point pretty much that's all I have but I just wanted to ask important Communications and comments I know some people been visiting physics um Michelle
058and I have been going and visiting schools we've been doing about four a week um it's really enlightening and I'm truly enjoying it I think you are too correct um and if you get the chance to do it talk to Tara from no and just see if you can set that up it's it's the schools are really welcoming and budding you get a different view of what's Happening clears up some things and it's just it's just great it's fulfilling everything to go in there and see what they're doing and get a tour of the building talk to the principals and they're really open and honest and just kind of lay it all out on the table for you and it's just really a great thing to do I know Ralph does it too but it's
059great so you get the opportunity please I had I had a wonderful experience and it just brings everything we're doing here and on that screen in in view you know like we actually get to discuss it we see how excited they are and about the actual growth that we're seeing in the i-Ready program and just checking out on certain things on sites and Facilities or curriculum that you know it really just I've been learning a lot from them and how they have the ability to maneuver and have the freedom to actually work with the curriculum and these new programs so it was kind of exciting actually I always recommending I don't recommend more than two people going at once because that could be a little remaining but um you know it's and it's good to
060let the staff know that and see and you know we're there for them too I mean it is all about the kids said earlier but you know it's good to let them know that they have someone to reach out to if they think uh I think and also one of the things it really back in 2013 when we first heard about the um you know the growth and how big the high school was and stuff like that it's pretty impressive when go there and it's in between periods and class comes out and you're up against the it's just it's it's good to see um for yourself actually what kids go through staff goes through um and it made it for me and just on a personal note made it easier to make decisions in here
061after being out there you know because if Beaver broke everything's great always you know they're going to be here for a bubble everything's fantastic but it's good to go out and see the you know the actual buildings and stuff but um and last thing for me actually is just want to thank Al Kate and the rest of the finance committee and John everybody uh really uh I said everybody been playing this game if you're a chair or vice chairman you get mentioned wow oh I'm sorry um so I just want to say thank you you guys have done a great job and I think that there has been a lot more questions asked and answered this year than there has been in years in the past and I think that that's good I think it
062helps when you can really those questions answer so thank you and that that's it for me can I get a motion to adjourn good um [Music] number one could we schedule a housekeeping uh Workshop or whatever you want to call it you know what matters in March six seven I got three dates you know we can think about those March 6 7 or 13. and we can do what they can do it with a pay someone from the case [Music] and hopefully by then we will have a new person that's home that can participate right and I think that would be an excellent thing to do so um I'm asking you are you would you like to set it up or would you like me to meet for that communication or or soon [Music] any
063specific day what do we got March give me a couple minutes the board [Music] you brought it up you wanted 5 30 like to 6 30. on the day before can we do that now I don't know about that I'm sorry can we do that in an hour it all depends on who got to have it um [Music] because we're going to do it you can't do it zoom and then get over here by the time so do we think and and hours enough well we'll do 5 30 you got 6 30. I always you know we're going to take care as much as we can take care of as a board and then we can invite him back at another front but we leave something like that he's getting very important because I think
064you really need to understand really speak our roles a little bit more parliamentary procedures and how we're conduct ourselves so I think an hour an hour or so do you want so we'll do um so let's do five five thirty on the 8th now who's March 8th what would you reach out to from game I'll find out [Music] care of people well you know um he was addicted and they have a couple other guys you can also ask him if he's not available for about 14 years and uh in the schools so either are they mentors vacuum schools since covet so the doors are back open for mentors to go into the school I can't be sorry I said the doors are open for mentors to be back and supposed to work with kids I
065don't know if the dsabc is still in remote or or if they're working directly with students and actually on the board but I didn't think to ask that question so they so they are they're they're back in the schools the mentors are doing you know in-person visits with the students and they're growing until they're just lacking mentors okay they have wait lists in every school almost every school in the district I believe is involved um I think Ellsworth just it was kind of just added um just joined dsabc but the problem is they just don't have enough mentors so that's what we mean right now for the bsnbc mentors and thank you for because I really didn't know that yeah thank you absolutely thank you excuse me Lord do you know the requirements for mentoring
066um I can send you I can send you the information for the lady in charge and then perfect thank you anyone else got a motion to return exactly by June all's in favor um