001good evening welcome to the rsu5 board of directors meeting it is Wednesday October 11th 2023 and we are in the Freeport High School cafeteria uh we will get started uh I don't believe Susanna will be joining us this evening and we don't have a student rep just yet I hear the big elections are happening this week so hopefully our next board meeting we will have a uh we will have one of our two uh student Representatives with us but in the meantime we will get started with the Pledge of Allegiance so do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes from the September 27th 2023 meeting as presented barring any errors or omissions Cara and Maddie thank you all those in favor great none opposed uh adjustments to the agenda I do
002have a couple this evening um under item eight reports from the superintendent a items for information one I have another resignation to announ announce and I'd like to add item two to that I have retirement to announce I would also like to add a letter B um I would like to have Mr PID um inform the board about the guidance position at DCS and some thoughts he has and we will as a result add a uh an item under 13 new business it will be be a letter B um consideration to employ a PE teacher instead of a guidance counselor at Durham for the remainder of the school year but he will discuss that under uh the superintendent report that's it okay wonderful um so we don't have our student rep here but we do
003have Jen so occasionally she wants to fill in and she's coming up yes well Jen's coming up wow very quiet tonight uh a Community member said they can't see us on YouTube so I just I don't know if we could double check okay you can see it on you can see it on your computer okay maybe it was just a timing yeah all right great thanks for having me Jen goo principal of the high school um just realized this is my ninth year speaking to the board and my first year I have to use the readers cannot see my own notes so Will's laughing at you from over there it's okay Will's laughing at me a lot it's okay um so I'm gonna give some quick updates since we don't have a board rep um
004as Michelle said we have our elections coming this week so I'll give a couple of quick updates but then also wanted to do some more programmatic and year-long updates of um some things that we have happening at the high school this year um so for some of our our recent updates um our Sports season's in full swing we've had some um great wins and some tough losses um which are all learning experiences for our student athletes uh we are incredibly proud of our golf team they are the class B State uh championship runner-ups and um senior Eli Spalding who's come um and visited the board before he won for his third time as a Class B individual champ so he is certainly somebody to watch in college um our drama program is gearing up for
005the fall musical of The Adams Family in November um this includes our students who are in our production design class which happens during the day they are the ones who help to build the set so there's lots of excitement around this show um uh across the school um we had over 50 students and staff participate in the out of dark out of thee Darkness walk for suicide awareness and prevention on September 23rd and team Theo U which was uh created in honor of Theo Ferrera our student who died by suicide last year uh raised over $226,000 uh for the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention the team that was right behind ours was around like four or5 thousand so it was just an outstanding effort by everybody who was there in a very powerful day um
006so um I wanted to um talk a little bit uh more about um School in general and one of the things that I wanted to uh bring up is something that has been addressed in the last few board meetings which is um talking about the bathrooms at the high school so um this has come up in the past and I just wanted to um give a few updates so um just for uh informational purposes during a typical day we have three sets of multi-stall bathrooms that are open and we do only have three single stall bathrooms um across the school one of the things that um Michelle had shared uh at the last meeting that we have done this year is that we included um vacant and occupied signs um those are the new locks
007that are on the bathrooms that are by the library um and the teachers and staff who work around there have seen a significant Improvement because students know if the door is locked then someone's in there so um it's definitely uh not a lot of single stall bathrooms um but it is um something that uh the the addition of the locks has certainly made a difference there um the other thing that I wanted to comment on is that um and I've said this to the board in the past the only time that we lock a bathroom at the high school is if there's been vandalism or there's a smell that we can't get rid of um very quickly such as uh marijuana which unfortunately happens from time to time uh we have never locked the single
008stall bathrooms this year the only time that they're locked is when they're in use and they are frequently in use um and we do not uh our number one concern right now uh for sure in terms of substance use is vaping policies and and consequences across the school so we're trying to battle this there are students who are vaping in our bathrooms and we are trying to handle it um both with um as I said providing them support and um and also trying to be really clear about those expectations and and consequences uh we implemented last year limits on the number of people who can go into the multi-stall bathrooms at the same time and that has made made a a massive difference so no longer you opening the door to the um to the
009bathroom and there's like a crowd of kids who are standing there they they're not allowed to do that we have um PE enough people that can go into all of the Stalls plus a few people waiting and then other people wait outside the bathroom and the vast majority of the bathrooms um during the the school class periods are empty um but it's obviously when 640 kids are passing um through the hallways then they tend to get busy in between the classrooms so excuse me in between the class periods um so we're checking bathrooms frequently we are um again we have um I had a fun time this summer wallpapering the bathrooms with information about vaping just how to get support um all the different information about what chemicals are in there uh and those are
010the things that we're we're really trying to combat but hopefully this clarifies some of the points that have come up uh we are always concerned about safety and comfort uh we addressed this with all four classes at their opening assemblies talking about respect and talking about comfort and also being clear about the expectations and the consequences so we'll continue to monitor that and and hope that we can um make sure that people are feeling comfortable and and and feeling safe so um shifting gears again a little bit um a central Focus for us this year again will be student mental health um it it continues to be um something that we are constantly working on focused on um as I've shared with the board we entered into the three-year partnership with the Jed foundation and
011their first site visit is coming up on October 26th so their team comes here for a whole day um they share the data reports from uh the surveys that they gave to all students and all Staff last year and then we analyze the data with them um and then they come up with a help us come up with a strategic plan to think about what we are already offering for mental health support um and where the gap are and where are some things that we where we need to take action um we're also really excited about a new local partnership um with the organization valo and we this year um a couple of weeks ago some of you may know that we took our ninth and 10th graders for our um trips to L Bean
012for outdoor Discovery and um at first it we thought it was unfortunate and then it ended up being serendipitous that um they could only take uh two grade levels and they could only take us for half of a day and so we decided to focus on the ninth and 10th graders because we have a trip planned for 11th and 12th later in the winter uh and then um and thinking about the other half of the day that's where the partnership with voo came about um and valo agreed to partner with us to do some social emotional learn uh social emotional learning and um programming for the students and tonight I asked Dana Anderson who is the executive director of valo and also a proud former FHS teacher um to come and um speak and talk
013about our work in September and our partnership for the year thanks Jen can everyone hear me I don't use a mic very often so let me just raise your hand if you can yeah you probably need to get a little closer okay how's that sorry yeah that's better thank you go back to my karaoke days right um really grateful to be here and it's um when I was doing the work a couple weeks ago with the ninth and 10th graders it just felt like coming home so I taught here for 15 years before I founded Volo and feel really grateful to be back with these students and the staff um so I just want to talk a little bit about what our organization is and then I'll get into the work we've done um at
014Freeport high school so far and the work we're doing this year and hoping to do into the future um so I'll start by saying that Volo is the because it's the million-dollar question what does it mean it's the finished word for light uh when I founded the organization I want I didn't want to call the organization light but I wanted that idea and um the notion um like a a multiple um meanings behind why we chose it the idea of reflection and the importance of reflection in our lives and and uh in this day and age especially feels uh poignant and relevant the idea of lightness and hope so our mission is to cultivate the emotional well-being of young people adolescence specifically aged 14 to 24 and we do it through group conversations and in
015an unplugged atmosphere small groups where uh at the core of it is peer-to-peer uh engagement with each other um in the decade I've been doing this work it has never felt so poignant or so relevant um I want to just back up uh a bit or maybe go up a bit 30,000 fet and um Talk talk about the climate of our country especially following the pandemic and as many of you probably are aware the Surgeon General um merthy issued what probably will become a landmark advisory on social media this was in May I'm going to quote him he said the current body of evidence indicates that while social media may have benefits for some children and Adolescence there are simp there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm
016to the mental health and well-being of our children and adolescents and um he basically has described this Mental Health crisis as the defining health issue of our time that is volo's call to action that is this affirmation that the work we've been doing for 10 years is finally being seen by society as important as important as Sports and academics in a school setting and obviously in a home setting as important in in as having a square meal on the table or uh a bed to lie in um that when um when that came out I think it was um I think it was kind of surprising for all of us who maybe are watching ourselves and our children on social media and thinking oh it's pretty bad but um for the Surgeon General to make
017this statement was um I think really important for our nation um Coming closer to Maine um a pretty sad statistic but one that uh fuels Us in terms of our work is that um in the main integrated youth Health survey which was last given in 2021 um nearly 36% of main students said they felt sad or hope hopeless almost every day for two weeks which was an increase from 32% in 2019 so the combination of this being a national um recognized crisis and right here in Maine US feeling it um is is really honestly an inspiration for us to to spread our wings and expand our work so um when Jen and Charlie called me to say uh could you come here in two weeks and work with 300 nth and 10th graders we said
018heck yeah um we do much of our work in small groups on Retreats with um groups of 10 to 20 young people so you can imagine working with 150 people kids one day and 150 the next was a um paradigm shift for us but one we were um honored honestly and grateful to lean into you know I said to Jen this is going to be a different kind of work and um we'll we'll do it if you promise it just becomes the foundation and um she wholeheartedly supported that idea of finding ways to continue the work that we start with these young people um so we feel really really grateful that um schools around us in Southern Maine and hopefully Beyond are recognizing um not only the importance of social emotional well-being for our young
019people but also the fact that and I come to this from a slightly biased standpoint that it's way too much for current School staff to be taking that on in addition to all of the other um responsibilities that they have as teachers and guidance counselors and administrators and so this is where it feels like our work as a partner really dovetail with um the work that they are doing every day um but don't have nearly we don't have enough time in the day to address um all the ways we can help young people um so I want to want to go back to um our time here with the ninth and 10th graders we had a half of a day or a couple of hours I should say with half of the ninth grade in
020the morning and then they flip-flopped beans and we had the other half so we were working in groups of um 60 to 70 students um um and while the circumstances are very different from being uh in a small circle over a 6h hour to weekend long program um I uh we felt so welcomed by this community it wasn't a surprise but it felt so good to be back students and staff um they were engaged they asked really really good questions they showed empathy um even if they didn't speak I think something that's really important is it was a little bit of the air they were breathing for those two hours and to me what the air was was recognizing our teachers and administrators think this is important because they're listening to the not only the
021national and local statistics but the things they're hearing in the hallways and what they're the small gestures they're noticing that um that the kids are really challenged right now and so for those students even if they weren't actively participating We Trust that they recognized the signal this was sending and it wasn't this gratuitous you know let's just do this I think they recognized that um as a district and as a school specifically uh the adults recognize the importance of them um and and I think you know I'll say that we've got a lot of metaphor I think as a former English teacher I can't help but bring some metaphors to my organization and one of my favorites connected to light is um the notion of Embers and what I believe and we believe in our
022organiz ation is that every human being and specifically adolescence have Embers within their being and that work um that we do at Volo is literally just Fanning those Embers so they have this capacity and sometimes they just need a space or someone to listen so that they can bring out um what what they're challenged by or they can bring out a question for a peer that they want to ask but they just need permission to dare to ask their friend how they're doing um so in that day that we had with them um I feel like what we we started this Foundation we maybe were Fanning a little bit of the Embers Jen actually I was lucky enough to have her in one of my four groups and um and she and I witnessed a
023group that you know in a matter of moments were um opening up to each other and this is with you know we're practically counting off it's it's advisories and so they're not with all of their best friends um and what what she and I witnessed is I think just the seed of what something beautiful that can grow here in terms of kids being able to open up with each other and trust each other and the adult in the room and that really is what our organization is founded on and when you look at all of the research from coming out of coid of all of the isolation and the needing to feel a sense of belonging and that you matter you know especially we're seeing with the current 7th through really sophomores in high school
024those two years of development that they missed that socialization they missed by being secluded essentially for over a year we and we've said this to the young people you have it in you you just haven't had enough practice like many people who didn't go through a pandemic and so we're just helping them along in that way um so we trust that they know the adults were listening and that we have created spaces for peer-to-peer and peer-to adult real connection um one of the things we talk about after an exercise we do is that um it's so in a hallway or on a sidewalk to say you know you say how are you and the other person says good or well how are you good and um that what we say at Volo is we're saying
025no but really how are you and helping them learn to ask that question so moving forward um we're meeting in a couple of weeks with the Freeport High School staff to give so some of the staff were able who were nth and 10th grade teachers were able to be there with us but half the staff over half the staff wasn't so we're going to um present at a faculty meum G give them a little glimpse of an experience of what we did with the young people so they have a sense of that and then our hope is that through this beautiful advisory program that is built into the schedule wasn't here when I was here in quite this way so I'm it's I applaud Jen and the work that the staff has done to build
026that in um that the hope is that nth and 10th grade advis all the advisories have um leaders and so Volo is going to come in and work with those leaders to talk to them revisit these check-ins that we taught them how to do a couple of weeks ago um and see about them how they feel hopefully they feel good I think they will um that they would then lead with their advisor check-ins um in their advisory once a month and we would be there as um to coach them uh on the side um but it's it's not rocket science and and I think they just need the confidence to know that they they can they can do this and we have have um certainly put structures into place so they understand if something comes
027up in a in a check-in that's too heavy for them that that they there will be an adult in the room and there will be places to go um so we're really hoping that we're we're building these skills that we started working with them a couple weeks ago I don't like to talk this much my my Vol youth will say I don't talk this much I swear but I I wanted to end um with an anecdote and um a couple of quotes we were lucky enough um in August to work with Bob strong and the varsity boys soccer team and that was like our ideal so it was 22 young people Bob four Vol guides on an overnight Retreat and um he chose this uh instead of whitewater rafting and I think that right there
028is a testament not only to him as a coach but the values and culture of this school it was um it you know I had goosebumps just going in there um and so the story is that last week we we check in with Bob periodically we've come and um talked with the players since to see how because they're doing these weekly check-ins um or somewhat weekly and so I texted Bob and said how's it going can we come in and talk you know do you guys need anything do you any support and he said no I'll just share a text with you and he had texted the boys and said um I think this afternoon maybe it was raining uh maybe uh we're going to watch the um the film from video from last night's
029game and um do some yoga or stretches how's that sound and um one of the boys immediately texted back and said can we also do a vol check-in so like sorry so like my vision of this work is that becomes the language of the school that kids recognize the importance and the uh tools they have within them to ask for what they need and sometimes it's a check-in and it might be for themselves Andor um what we saw in the soccer players and a bit with the nth and tth graders is to be there for each other so I'll end with the soccer players quotes we do a Anonymous survey at the end and I just think their words are more can speak much more than I can um one of them said after this
030Retreat I definitely feel like I got many things off my chest that I've been wanting to say for a while which really helped my well-being another said I feel even more connected to my team especially the younger players or the newer guys on the varsity team and now I have a deeper understanding of what my teammates are going through off the field and finally um I think the question must have been like how are you feeling and and this young person said very good because I really expressed how I felt and related really well with my teammates and I'm not the only one going through Stress and Anxiety so I really appreciate Jen nosis I keep thanking her um the opportunity to work with these high school students and anything we can do to support
031um the emotional well-being culture of the school uh were we're all in so thanks for the chance to share a bit thank you Dana thanks to Dana and um we're really incredibly grateful to valo for their support and for diving in and it really I think was more like a week ahead of time that I asked for them to come and shift their whole program and come with us but um we're really excited for this work too and for what it means for students so um that's it for my updates you'll hear more from me because it's my goals tonight so thank you thank you oh thank you all right so we are um up to public comments we only have three folks um but I'm I'm I'm going to go through our our quick
032public comment update because uh I'm not sure if everyone's heard it in the past so um so in order to hear uh from from different number of folks three minutes per person doesn't seem like that'll be an issue this evening so uh but for those who have not participated in our meetings before just like to review a few rules ahead of time to ensure public process uh public comment process goes smoothly with no surprises uh we ask for our speakers to identify themselves their name and their town of residence uh we ask you to be brief um uh we know discussions of school related issues can get emotional but please remember that our children are watching and we are neighbors so please be civil we will not permit profanity or shouting at one another or
033comments that disparage and attack individuals or groups of individuals uh speakers should direct all comments to the board this is an opportunity for the board to listen to the opinions of the public that relate to school and education matters it is not a public debate nor a conversation so questions should be directed so no questions should be directed to the board and the board will not be responding to questions at this point uh we're here to listen the board will not permit complaints or allegations against staff members these are Personnel matters which the board is not permitted to hear in public if there are complaints against staff these can be handled appropriately through our complaint policy of KB uh and if you're interested in a two-way conversation on the board uh on the rsu5 website
034are individual emails and phone numbers um for board members as well as the superintendent so thank you for for being patient as I went through the introduction and um Connie Clifford you're up first hi my name is Connie Clifford and um I'm a resident of Freeport and I'm here for two reasons tonight um the first is I'd like to read a joint statement of appreciation and support we recognize the uh sorry the joint statement and appreciation of support is from um the TR toown um equity and inclusion Coalition and um free port forward we recognize the effort of rsu5 school board's policy committee to research engage with staff write edit and advocate for the drafted policy AAAA transgender and gender expansive students we commend the board for consistent for considering the needs of all students
035in our district in voting to unanimously pass the policy through first read we urge you to vote in favor of passing this document into adopted policy at the next school board meeting because we support transgender and gender expansive Youth and value their safety privacy and autonomy thank you for all that you do to serve our school Community um and secondly I would just like to thank you for me personally I was at the last school board meeting and I did not speak and I regretted that um I regretted not speaking because there's so many voices in opposition of the policy and I felt deep regret for not standing up and um advocating for you to vote to pass that draft I appreciate it so much and I appreciate all that you do I would also
036like to thank our teachers and administrators and coaches and all the people who work for rsu5 um I have two children I have a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old and in the last meeting it felt very accusatory in some ways towards some of our teaching and administrative community and I just want to say thank you so much for all that you do for my children and the children of this community I know that in my experience I have never felt anything but the best intentions the best teaching and the best coaching um for my kids and the kids that are in our um friend group our community and on our sports team so I'm just here to say thank you and thank you for all the good work that you're doing thank you Connie uh Jennifer
037Curran good evening so the past couple times I've got up and I've just spoken about statistics but I really haven't told you why would would you mind just name and town residence you got it Jennifer Karen Falmouth thank you why I'm here um I'm a mom I'm a wife and it's not easy to get in the car when my family is finishing dinner in Falmouth and I Tred up here to come to the school where um my sister and brother-in-law live please keep in mind that being a gay woman I real realize that the majority of folks that create legislation or policies are typically heterosexual and cisgender as well as the people that'll speak at this Podium please also keep in mind that as a member of the lgbtqia community I've lived through years where
038mostly heterosexual cisgender leaders have created policies and legislation that has been harmful for the most part and recently hopeful and so I gathered strength when old older members or Elder members and I'm speaking of myself now but then spoke for me and that's why I get in the car to come to to Freeport to talk to you all because I have lived through times when gay folks did not have rights at all where I could have been fired where I couldn't get married I've been with my partner almost 25 years but married only 10 and we married the night we were able in 2012 at 12:30 at night in Falmouth and even then there was a protester outside the door and police presence so I stand here not because I like doing this I'm not
039a public speaker I work as a therapist I'm here because I've been part of a community where the homeless gay people are 5 to 7% of the of your community we are 40% of the homeless Community as a child I was raised in a very conservative Christian H household and I knew early on that turning to my parents to come out was not going to end well so I waited I knew cuz I had gay cousins and as I as they spoke of them you can tell they were not going to be supportive of me and so I waited until I was in my 20s and when I came out I was not allowed to come home again this happens this is real trans kids aren't scary I'm not scary I'm a Mom I'm in
040bed by 9:30 most nights later when I come here we're not scary people we want to go to the bathroom and then get back to class we want to go and play our Sports and then get back to class and anybody that says differently the statistics do not support that we're not showing genitals it's not happening and it's embarrassing and sad to have people stand up of my community and say so it's not there my brother and sisterin-law took me in and they live here and that's why I'll continue to be here thank you for what you do I thought you might want some background thank you thank you Jennifer uh Jessica Conley hi I'm Jessica Conley from Durham I believe we have presented you with ample evidence that this policy is unlawful overreaching and
041inappropriate I know you hear the truth in our words because you're getting defensive so much so that at least two of your board members actively behaved against what the school stands for at the last meeting according to our superintendent rsu5 stands for respect in inclusivity of all who walk through our doors we condemn hateful actions meant to demean others the beliefs and viewpoints of roughly half of your District were vilified and demeaned last meeting to validate The Stance of the board members who spoke in favor of this policy first our feelings and viewpoints were compared to the actions committed in World War II so because we don't support your trans policy we are just as bad as the Nazis this is what traditional families are facing if we don't actively agree with woke policies we
042are vilified by those claiming to be accepting of all the hypocrisy is so frustrating love for all except for conservative families let me be clear we do not hate trans kids or the lgbtq community what this policy does to upset us is it infringes on our rights as parents to teach our children about the world when it is appropriate to do so if you remember from my speech last time ages and maturity and brain development do not correlate with the population of students you are introducing this to they are not equipped to understand such an adult topic and when we speak of dangers in the bathroom we are not insinuating a trans child would be the one committing assaults of any and all kinds in the restrooms what we are saying is that by allowing
043any gender into any bathroom so long as they have given a self- declaration they can go in no one is policing the bathrooms to ask for such declarations or to enforce the privacy and protections for those inside what this does is make a revolving door for anyone to walk in unquestioned therefore increasing the risk of assault and decreasing the sense of privacy one has in a traditional bathroom now on to my next qual from a different School Board member insinuating there are many families in rsu5 that would not support their children because we disagree with this policy that's low we will support our children though we don't have to do it in the way that you recommend there's the beauty of Freedom thank God we still have it now for my final point of the
044speech keeping wording vague for the safety of the students leaves the door wide open for secret keeping from parents changing pronouns transitioning medications and medical diagnoses behind closed doors it may not be your intent for medication administration to be kept from parents but that vague wording leaves room to do so and you know it we have already seen it happen in Fairfield to a 17-year-old just this year and you know what happened when the father complained the school sent CPS after him this is the threat we as parents who don't agree with this woke agenda are being threatened with so how can you possibly blame us for seeing these intentional gaps in wording as dangerous these topics are where I take issue I do believe the traditional families of this District should receive at the
045very least a public apology for defamation of character by school board members insinuating we don't love and support our children and that we are hateful to an entire group of people likening us to the Nazis we just want what every parent should want safety and happiness for our kids we just believe that goal can be reached by a different path than this policy presents it is such a bummer because my girls love DCS but I feel like the views of this District are being completely the views of my portion of society are being completely disregarded and hated so thank you for your time thank you Jessica okay so we will move on to item eight report from the superintendent okay okay um item number one resignations I I'm announcing the resignation of Bethany Jensen PES
046and MLS speech language Pathologists Teresa ala DCS guidance counselor and Rick vashan Senor FMS custodian I also have another one not on our agenda Lyla Richards Mass Landing school edte and that's effective um on October 6 I have a retirement to announce this evening Christy Johnson uh who's been at Mo Street school for many many years as a grade 2 teacher is uh has announced her official retirement effective November 1st 2023 and those are un all under the items for information and now if I got to have Mr Pitt come to the podium he's going to have a conversation um about his thoughts about the guidance counsel position so Jen when you need when you're not sure which glasses to use that's when you know you're in trouble because these will be on and off
047I think um so thank you um will pit I'm the principal at D Community School you're gonna have to get a little closer or a little louder okay you could do with being a little nearer but I'll get a little closer okay hopefully that's a bit better a little bit better you could even be a little bit l got feedback from Folks at home that they couldn't hear the board members and the speakers so I'm just trying to head that off okay Colin's gonna come come help you out how's that okay and how's that dear Michelle oh sorry I forgot there was the rest of the group um unfortunately during the summer a candidate we had nominated uh for our guidance role you may recall I came to you in the spring to um explain
048the process we were looking to achieve which was we had a halftime guidance uh along with our full-time guidance counselor and one of the pieces not just similar to the update that Jen had given you was as we were looking at how do we um respond to some of the feedback that we had got from the data from uh the youth Health survey also and um our plan had been to add in this additional half of guidance counsel so we'd have two full-time counselors one of whom would be really focusing on supporting our students in grades 5 through eight um and combining that counseling role with some sort of Wellness roles um to teach into some of the to the gaps that we were identifying un un fortunately during the summer a candidate we had
049nominated removed herself at the last minute from the position um and we've been playing catchup ever since so um we had reposted at that point in the summer and then hired uh an experienced candidate the week before school started uh and we're hopeful that that would have been a good solution um unfortunately this employee has now informed us that they are unable to fulfill their contract and in fact will be leaving this week the reasons that these people their decisions are unrelated um so as a result we've been looking at ways to solve the challenge of enure ensuring that the students in grades 5 through 8 will still get the wellness curriculum that we've anticipated and planned for them um The Proposal that I've come to ask for your consideration with is to shift the
050hiring from a guidance position uh for this year into a a temporary hiring of a physical education teacher through the end of the school year it would be a one your only position the intent being that we would then repost for the guidance role um in the spring when we have a higher probability of getting a viable candidate the reasoning for this is that it'll allow us to have Mr Lions our current uh fed Wellness teacher teach the wellness curriculum whilst also having enough class sections for specialist groups to remain in small enough sections that their classes are meaningful the um we look to all options um and we think there's a higher probability of us being able to to fill this role under fizzed then we will under um trying to hire a counselor
051at this point in the school year there are very few counselor positions um I be you pardon very few candidates for counselor positions and um people who are in current positions who may consider this an attractive uh proposition um would not be leaving schools mid year to take a position um unfortunately we're now out of sync with the hiring cycle and as such we'll really need to wait until next spring to try and fill this role um in the manner in which we had first intended and still do intend so um we think as I mentioned that we have a better opportunity to hire fed teachers um we've been in contact with the universities around students who may be graduating in December we've talked um also around um with people are um potentially retired teachers
052who may be available and um that's why we're coming with this proposition today I will say to you that it still leaves us obviously a point five guidance counselor short of what we need um and less than what we had last year and we're certainly working with Miss triani who's our counselor to ensure that she's getting support she needs and also making sure that the social emotional needs of students are being met so um um it's been quite a lot of brainstorming but this is what we think uh will be our best proposition I'm not sure if anyone has any questions or any Clarity on that questions for will I was ironic that you couldn't hear me so was this and I might be recollecting incorrectly but um was this position originally a PE position
053last year and then we switched it to the counselor position so um sort of what we had done uh initially I'd come and requested that we would hire a halftime health teacher one of the challenges with half and this is why we then changed it is that halftime roles uh most people who pursue a halftime position do not look to work five half days a week they are looking to work two and a half days a week and have two and a half days not in the workplace when there are as part of a rotation of getting a daily class um then obviously that doesn't work we' also seen some challenges with the halftime guidance role because it was a similar situation where a situation may occur on a Thursday afternoon that needs some closure
054or followup the very next day that would then get passed from one counselor to the next counselor because the counselor who started that work won't be back until the following Monday or Tuesday um and so um what we had then said was actually rather than have halftime Health which was going to be hard to fill in that model if we had full-time position that solves both these problems in one go and as I mentioned we thought we had achieve that unfortunately a candidate we had um uh when we had hired earlier had then removed them pretty late in the summer okay thank you okay but you think you'll have better luck with the PE teacher even though it's midyear because there's a different kind of pool of yes right so um for example Mr triani
055also teaches adjunct um counselors um she's teaching counselors in adjunct role and um in her internship class that she's teaching the student students are hired already as unconditional certificates even though they're not yet got their certification there's such a shortage for um counselors entering the field um whereas we know there are candidates within fed as I mentioned we've reached out to universities not that they're necessarily waiting for this decision um and I will say as we're all aware housing it within the commuting distance of rsu5 is also becom increasingly difficult ult for beginning teachers um to get located um Close Enough by there's a number of factors but yes we feel more confident that we could fill it in this role than we could through a counselor thank you any other questions for will do
056you want to move the vote to now so that would be great yeah yep all right so do I have a motion for consideration to employ a PE teacher instead of a guidance counselor at the Durham Community School for the 20123 2024 school year candy and Beth thank you any other questions so this isn't a specific person yet this is basically just to change what we have for a posting from a counselor to a PE teacher uh all right all those in favor and opposed thank you well great thank you oh should thank you could leave your glasses for Jen yeah I don't know if there's another sheet uh Cynthia would know all right so we will move on to number 9 which is administrator reports we will continue on with our goal review uh
057and update for the upcoming year and we will start with Freeport Middle School and Ray Grogan I was teasing will but it just as easily could have been your reading glasses well and I when I was first hired here I did not wear glasses either so um so Ray Grogen Freeport Middle School principal um the you all have the documents in front of you the the big goal last year for us uh as a staff was really to improve our mainstream instructions for ESL students uh and we had a really good year with that uh we started you know early in the year and put really everything that's in place here with the in-house professional development the outside professional development coming in and working on each of the stages but what kind of happened through
058the year as we brought the kids along um we weren't continued to work on those skills because they were out of that introductory level they were out of that Next Level they're out of that next level and there wasn't the next group of kids coming in so we did it once and then moved on we did it once and then moved on so we really never became kind of owners of that skill because we didn't practice it enough with it and we made great progress through the year and then toward the end of the year as a lot of our um ESL students moved away uh our numbers dropped at the schools um and it really wasn't a priority in late spring or in the summer you know when we work with teachers on continuing
059to build these skills so then come August when we got the surprise we had to really go back and um relook at uh what we had done what we had in place bring a lot of that stuff back in for the teachers and then look at where are the next steps we need to go based on what we did um you know last year with it uh and if I go through last year's goals and the first one is learned computer based uh uh translation skills for content and Communications a lot of that last year was with the teachers this year we've learned it needs to be the teachers and the students you know so really working with the students on taking the ownership and and that skills come to with that when we looked
060last year a lot at work to determine essential skills and learnings at each stage that was really looking at what skills they have and what they should be learning in each stage and now we're looking to tie that to all right we know this is where they were in there you know language acquisition what content standards can we look at to teach to tie that in there as well so that's kind of the next step that's come with it um this year the outside professional development is something we are looking to continue because we are definitely not the experts in this and you'll hear me again come budget time you know with that that's going to be a need for us to continue to grow this and you know when we do look at our
061data on it it's a we don't have a ton of data of kids that you know tested NWA twice because they either weren't here at the beginning or weren't here at the end the limited data we have on the weda and the NWA is very good but I will say it is very limited uh just because of the kids moving in and out um so that really looks at that one goal that's now been stretched into two goals if you look at the 22 23 and then the um the on the 23 24 page page I really have gone over all that CU they are all really connected you know we're just kind of taking the next steps to do that and one of the things we've you know um you know we're taking a
062different mindset with that we really are looking at our school as we are a multilingual school now and we have to be ready for this all the time uh we just had one family move out and another family move in so you know we're we're starting over and that's what we you know know that we're going to be seeing we need to be ready for that that you know con you know continually moving in and out as they find you know permanent housing and you know they're replaced in the hotel with another family that wants this uh more permanent than what they are currently in so it is a a mentality switch for our school that we are a multilingual school that needs to own this over the long term because I don't see this
063as you know um going away you know in the spring like it did last year any questions on that kind of last year's and this year's goal around the multilingual Learners and then now go back to I'm gonna ask one question sorry um just in terms of Staffing for um I was just curious where we are because I know we had added another position and an edtech have we been able to fill those are they still they are posted and not filled okay so every all the good work you guys are already doing is with the staff you we're hopeful to you know have those positions filled I think they will like some positions we know we probably won't fill this year I think that the remaining ones we will be able to fill at
064some point in time uh with that but like that has been you know a huge you know you know concern because we need to get it fully staffed and we've had to pull Ed techs and teachers from different places to you know work on the language acquisition skills because you know we really need to make sure we have that support and if I looked at the improved communication um to students in parents at Freeport Middle School one of the big things in there um was really looking at our parent teacher conference setup with it um I think um probably prior to Beth's oldest coming through when Shannon was the superintendent we we looked at this with all the parents we surveyed the parents par we surveyed the teachers on how to best do it because
065the problem we face at the middle school is our teachers all teach more kids than the K5 kids the K5 they have their classroom they have 25 kids our teachers are all teaching about a hundred kids and at the middle school level the parents still come in at a very high rate so just the time slots that's in the teachers contract for um parent teacher conferences the model K5 doesn't work and and you know because of that higher participation rate uh than the high school it doesn't work either so we at that point in time switched to um when Shannon was the superintendent we switched to one time in the fall and then as needed in the spring um and you know that was through parent surveys with that and then through coid and just
066completely new parent groups you know all through and times we did uh we switched up what we were doing to have three in the fall all in one drop in permanent night in the spring and we did survey parents and teachers um last year to get input when we set it up and after and that is the model that we heard from parents and teachers that they one fall and then one drop in night like the high school had a few years ago um here you know with that so that is our model moving forward based on the feedback from parents and teachers um and the other parts of that goal were really to work on making sure we were getting out weekly emails with announcements and information and making sure that uh Power School
067and Google classrooms were updated regularly um for you know increased communication to the parents and kids um and we um feel good about that goal as well any questions about that goal from last year I'm curious um and I'm sure you guys have have discussed why it works differently in the different schools but um so Durham has a completely different parent teacher conference model than that will'll snuck out before I ask the question I think he filled out my survey because one parent said they wanted that I mean I'm not necessarily advocating for it because I mean basically how it works in Durham is you have your conference it's a student Le conference all through middle school and it's with your student and their advisor so which is either depending on which year your kids
068are in um whether it's um the Specialists or whether it's the classroom teachers the five classroom teachers um so I mean you could have someone who um who doesn't necessarily have your kid in a classroom as their adviser um but they have feedback from all the teachers and I've and I've done that as a teacher and we did have that model at Freeport Middle School with our advisory teachers leading that and that was parent feedback that we got rid of that model um uh it was you know in response to the parents that they really and I don't want the other teachers to take this wrong but they really wanted to meet with their math and language arts teachers is really the feedback that we got I was just curious why now as we've switched
069it's really been due to parent feedback and surveys over the years and it is a combination of in person and online with it some nights are in person some are online and that is based on parent feedback in the service and that's what we did last year and we'll continue that this year so there'll be both options available in the B so just to clarify so a parent would come to one night in the fall and they could meet with every teacher every teacher yep so we have a we put out we send out an email that has you know it's called pick a time the program that we use and use see all of your kids listed so at 3:30 you might pick the stem teacher at 3:40 you might pick the science teacher
070um and that and um and it's the same for the online night as the inperson night so it's the same way the high school does it yes yeah yep okay Carry On okay um and then um the other goal is um this year is to the implementation of responsive classroom in our advisory and it's really Beyond The Advisory because it's really a philosophy and an approach that's used in a lot of places this summer we did have 10 staff that were trained by the responsive classroom program themselves uh we hosted that training and had probably 20 people at the training 10 were free Port Middle School somewhere from surrounding districts um as well uh that came and participated it and really using the Train the trainer model where those staff are trained and then now
071leading professional development so at the last PD day uh there was staff leading professional development around responsive classroom with that this today's this afternoon staff meeting one of the choices teachers had was something that had to do with responsive classroom as well um with that looking at the other parts is you know staff providing materials for implementing it that has been done uh completely um with that they'll probably come back and ask for more but we will be able to do that for him as well um and then another big part is the um the time throughout the year to dedicate it uh because I know when I was a teacher I knew if a principal or school board or superintendent gave us the time and the money I knew it was important if they
072didn't give you one or the other it wasn't as important so like this is a priority to us and we really dedicated the time uh you know in staff meetings in plc's and in uh professional learning days that there's the time for them to work on their responsive classroom lessons and use their responsive classroom lessons you know in their classrooms and in their advisory uh and one of the words we use is uh responsive classroom like there are a lot of programs out there that are similar and have the same approach same ideas that's what we want we're comfortable with anything that has the right ideas and the right approaches to getting kids interacting positively and um you know things that benefit you know more students in their classroom I assume this program is replacing
073something else is that true it is um so can you tell us about the rationale for the switch so the when we put in our advisory classroom a number of years ago we went with developmental design designs um which and at that point in time responsive classroom only went to fifth grade I'm going to ask you just to be a little closer to the mic sorry we use developmental designs which because in RC at that point only went to fifth grade um this since then developmental designs and um the responsive classroom have kind of merged and there's no more developmental designs and now responsive classroom is you know up you know through the eighth grade as well uh with that so that part made it easy um and the kids are coming to us with
074that language and that approach you know from the K through five so it makes it easy as well with that and a lot of the um the ropes course we have uh we do a lot of our training through an organization called high five and the language and the approach lines up very well with them as well so like when I say responsive classroom like the Hi-Fi program that we do with our respon with um our ropes course you know lines up perfectly to that so we thought it was a an easy transition uh in especially where what K5 has done and invested in our district is this something that was on the docket to happen before coid because it's it's unusual for us to have a g like a because I know they rolled
075responsive classroom in the Durham Middle School out in like 1920 was it and but it's not uncommon for us to be a year or so off like like they'll pilot it one place and if it goes well they'll roll it out in other parts of the district was this something that was supposed to happen preco we' talked about it um you it was in it was actually in The Five-Year Plan and we've talked about it with it um and a lot of stuff we were doing was very responsive classroom like you know the things there and but what like when we did the developmental designs training and that um you know a lot of that staff you know has turned over like we were ready for a refresher Reen Reen Reen energization uh of it
076you know so like it was a good time for us to kind of bring in the formal training and get us all kind of back because we did a really good job with developmental designs and getting that in but then we kind of were splintering and going in different ways and it really helped us refocus and get us all back to kind of the same because you know we really want all kids you know in all advisories to have a similar experience in all classroom so like this was really a big goal of that or is a big goal to have a similar experience no matter which advisory you're placed in other questions for Ray thank you right thank you very much all right gave her a few minutes rest and now we will bring
077her back up for the uh Freeport High School update in gold riew the on off of the glasses this is new too so I'm working on it um I am actually going to pass out a um new document that's in green that's a version updated version of my goals because there was um some errors in the data U tied to NWA that I'll explain and go through so thought it might just be easier if um we had new new packet when Ray was talking about the ropes course I think it was this this is what he was talking about I was trying to pick a color that you didn't already have I did not succeed so um so I'm going to start my my goal is um my goal review from last year and the
078goals for this year are really kind of divided into two parts one is uh tied to the Strategic plan that we have at Freeport High School uh and the yearly action plan that we do tied to that uh strategic plan and then the other goal is tied to our nwaa data so I'm going to start with the um talking about the Strategic plan so um are as uh for new board members um just in a in a nutshell we started uh in 2015 creating our own strategic plan at Freeport High School from scratch and so we did a five-year plan we are now into uh a second U plan that we created after uh we got through the first five years um and each year uh we also create an action plan that goes with
079that fiveyear plan so it's B basically ensuring that the Strategic plan doesn't just become this document that lives somewhere um in a Google Drive that it is an active living document that guides the work that we do at the high school um our two faculty member teams that work on um this strategic plan is our academic leadership team which has nine faculty members and um both Charlie melon the assistant principal and I are on that team and then the department chair team that also o has nine faculty members and I am a member of that team as well and so both of those teams come together in the summertime they have two Retreat days um two full days when they work to um review the action steps from the previous year we solicit feedback from
080all of the staff members at our final faculty member about how they think we did on our strategic plan action steps where what we um what we worked on together in departments and faculty meetings and PLC me meetings and pl days and then what they think um we should be focused on for the following year the leadership team and the department chair teams uh Charlie and I take all that feedback from the staff and then work in the summer to create a um new action plan and so um what I did uh the actually and excuse me the Strategic plan is divided into five categories that we always stick with those five categories and the fiveyear plan does not change we don't touch that in the summer um because the goal is to keep that
081consistent only the action plan changes uh and then at the start of the school year the leadership team and the uh department chair teams present the action plan to the rest of the faculty at the first plld days so that everybody in the school uh knows what uh the Strategic plan is uh not just faculty but staff as well so what I did was um because this is a lengthy document the whole strategic plan and the action steps is that I chose just a few to um out to reflect on from last year and talk a little bit about our work and then pulled out a few from this year uh to talk about how we're moving forward for the action plan for this year um so I'm starting on page one um the first
082category uh that we have in our strategic plan is engaging instruction and so um the work that we have done over the course of quite a few years is the work on our year-long plans the goal is for every course in every Department to have a year-long plan that outlines the standards and the units in a timeline uh of how that class is going to progress throughout the year so that's a constant work in progress as um teachers teach multiple classes and so they spend some time um collaborating on one yearlong plan and then it might be later in the year that they're um continuing to work on another year-long plan so I think that that is a a piece of work that is never done as we add new classes those classes have a
083year-long plan as something like an AP class changes the curriculum U per the College Board then um then we adjust our year-long plans as well um differentiation is the next bullet that was on there that was a focus last year we did um workshops throughout the year uh either at um faculty meetings or our plld days or um also uh in PLC meetings with the hopes of um reaching um a wide range of students students that are uh across the classes and uh the different needs that they may have um a big piece of focus for us last year it's tied to our engaging engaging instruction action steps but also um our um work in the category of equity is thinking about um Equitable grading practices and last year we started um reading some texts
084as a u as a whole faculty about Equitable grading practices and decided to focus on habits of work and so um we saw the need of um seeing some inequities of where things were not consistent or things were not clear and so our goal was last year to have a new system and a new rubric for habits of work by June that would be implemented this year um and we were really proud of that work um and that has been implemented it was done at the end of last year and is implemented this year so we have shifted um to one to four grading for habits of work so it's something that the student students especially our nth graders are very familiar with uh it was on a 0 to 100 scale which there was
085um different challenges that that presented but it's more about that we have consistent timelines for grading we have consistent expectations across classes and across Departments of how often students should be getting feedback on habits of work we're also I know we keep talking about um some of the things that we're seeing as holes and student skills and we're really seeing them struggle with executive functioning and um their organization their task completion and so feeling like habits of work uh focusing on that in each and every class in the whole school is really our hope is that it's going to make a significant difference and and seeing improvements there um shifting to the next category which is purposeful assessment um we've been working in all departments on common assessments common Summit of Assessments uh we continue
086to build our um our our library of those assessments because then there's so much that we can do with those common assessments and data analysis and more collaboration and so um that's work that will continue that is continuing this year um the bullet below that is um about reflecting on data from at least one common assessment there's a huge percentage of the school that has gone beyond that in terms of the number of common assessments that they uh have created this is definitely still a work in progress because we have focused much more on the creation than we have of um having teachers sit together score the common assessments and then look at the data and talk about next steps some um departments are further ahead than that and uh and they have been able
087to um do that for some time some other classes that are newer for example um we used to only have one chemistry teacher and so that chemistry teacher did a great job of collaborating with herself um to analyze her data and then we shifted to having a second teacher teach chemistry so that's new for them to have common assessments and then look at the um at the data from there and they've really focused their time on building the the common assessments and I feel like this is a um a a great next step for us um shifting to equity and inclusion the action steps for that we have an equity team that's another faculty leadership team at the school that has five members on that and I'm a member of that team as well um
088that team is spent time last year reviewing data from the scorecard um and from other data sources looking at places where um how we can um uh analyze data and where where we are seeing um that there's greater need for support for um groups of students um particularly the data that jumps out is our low socioeconomic students um that we have seen low data points for them consistently and are trying to create action steps to address that um that Equity team was also looking at policies and procedures all across the school so an example of that would be they were looking at where are we charging for things and if we have to charge for things are we making it really clear how to get a waiver um and that we have funds available for
089a waiver which we do thank you to the board for that so an example of that would be the college field trips today um that there was a $8 charge because the most popular part of the college field trip um Michelle can attest to this is eating in the College cafeteria that is what care about the most and so we could of course prepare our school lunches they do not want them um they want the college lunch um and so we just made it really clear of how students could get a waiver so that everybody can experience eating in the um in the cafeteria we had at the college we had the W uh excuse me the waivers available um but found that we weren't advertising it enough and and it wasn't easy enough for
090um parents and students to request that so those are the things that we'll continue to look at and the Equity team creates their own action steps for where um where they're focused um switching to page two um another um step below This was um the board has heard a lot about this about the um curriculum review for the social studies Department um prek to 12 and so we were really proud of that work um they worked incredibly hard and I know they presented to the board in the spring and so it's been exciting to see them collaborate and Implement those plans that they worked so hard on last year um and then um opportunities for the student leadership I could stand here and talk all night about the student leadership team's work um I continue
091to work with that team and partner with Jennifer Chase who's from The Source School in Cordo and USM and Maggie Hughes who's at MIT um and the goal of the student leadership is to increase student voice um and take student voice in a meaningful way use the data and uh in order to um create action steps so this year the student leadership um did not present to the board as you may have noticed in the spring it was a busy spring what they did instead was the three subcommittees each found um a faculty leadership team at the high school that it made sense for them to uh present their data to so the microaggressions group presented to the equity team of Faculty members the mental health group presented to the department chairs and the um
092academic leadership team and then the group that was focused on AP costs um and the AP test presented to Cynthia Alexander and to the um guidance department and I was present at all of those meetings um and so the goal is to have um the student Voice come into um policy and decision- making um and to enhance communication and Trust building across the school um and I think I shared in the spring that we got to take a trip to MIT which was pretty awesome I I did go on that field trip um and then shifting to community connections um we continue to just try in every way we can um to get our students into the community increasing internships increasing guest speakers um I one of the things that I have really encouraged the
093the teachers to think about again this year is how do we take advantage of the virtual world there's so many ways that we can have a guest speaker come easily into a classroom um if we capitalize on using Zoom Google meets and things like that um and so that will be continued work um the bullet below that uh where it says the in school senior project and Senior seminar um this was something that um was exciting for us to do we wanted something meaningful for the students who were not participating in senior projects who decided not to do that and stay at school um and so there were four teachers who worked together um and created May term from scratch it was a little bit of flying the plane and building it at at the
094same time um but we implemented it um there is a lot for us to reflect on and and potentially revise um but these teachers took a lot of pride in the work they built great relationships in the last month of school with some seniors and they may have had or not have had these seniors ever before and they just had them in the last month and it was a combination of academics and Community involvement and community service um and really trying to have them have a meaningful last few weeks and so that will continue this year so all seniors will either participate in May term or they'll participate in um a senior project and then the middle ground is that some students had already established an internship and they continued with that internship and then
095uh lastly for um support for uh students and growth excuse me support for Learning and growth um I've spoken before about the targeted student support meetings those are our RTI intervention meetings that we host once a month uh and so teachers are the ones who nominate students that they're worried about uh and then we pull together um meeting a a meeting of all of the teachers for that particular student uh and it's facilitated by one of our SAT that's another leadership team um the SAT team members facilitate those small group um discussions about the students we had um we do uh one month is an initial meeting and the second month is a follow-up meeting we met about 48 students in total last year 77% of those 48 students that we focused on um had
096at least one grade that improved um 50% uh of those 48 students improved or two in two or more classes after these um TSS meetings and over 60% of those 48 students had better attendance in semester 2 than they did in semester 1 um so we're feeling proud of that work the goal of that is to try to put interventions in place before we decide that a student needs to go to the SAT team and potentially have some um testing or evaluation done for any learning gaps um and then our um our faculty and PLC meetings last year we spent a lot of time focused on um student connection and student mental health um and talked about small and large ways that we could uh connect with students and um I shared with the board
097that uh in the fall that we were um asking students about if they could name if they had one trusted adult in the building that is the goal for 100% of kids to be able to say that we did that with our freshman today it's early to do it um and we acknowledge that with them but say that in the first six weeks of school we're hoping that the vast majority of the freshmen can already identify at least one um trusted adult that they have in the building um and then um we continue with our Lin Lions work for the last bullet talking about supporting students with anxiety we continue to see students who are um battling anxiety and trying to help them um be able to uh find tools to manage that and obviously
098there's different levels of that and making sure that we're connecting them uh with Services both inside and outside of school we have our two social workers um we are um in positive news seeing more openings for counselors opening up um that it's not quite still challenging but not as hard as it was just coming out of the pandemic for um parents to be able to access outside counselors which is um great news so shifting to our action steps for this year um again I didn't um share the whole action plan because I know that it's a big document but if you shift to page four in the packet what I've done is um selected one action step to focus on for each of these C categories um so the first one for engaging instruction We
099are continuing we know that there's a lot to learn about Equitable grading practices looking at grading with a lens of equity and so what we've decided to focus on this year is two topics talking about reassessment um we have a a current reassessment policy here that students are able to earn um the opportunity to uh reassess on a summit of assessment um there are some things that are working very well about that system and some um that we um might consider uh revamping or revising and thinking about it through a lens of equity and same with the numeric grade scale and thinking about how um our numeric grade scale um supports our students um in purposeful assessment uh we're going to continue with the Common Assessment work that was um that's been a huge piece
100of what people worked on over the summer and um in the um first plld days that we've had throughout the year um and some teachers uh have made incredible progress on on the amount of common assessments that they're creating and the and the quality of those which is great um the equity team underneath equity and inclusion they will continue their work of reviewing policies and procedures and thinking about uh where we have gaps in um support for students and they are also working with the um student leadership team the students who are part of the microaggressions group last year to think about how we are building understanding students and with staff about what microaggressions or aggressions are um and how we combat those at school uh for Community connections the May term will continue so
101lots of um reflection and and uh potential revision there but excited to offer that to our seniors again uh in May and then the last one support for Learning and growth as I mentioned in the update um the Jed foundation will um provide us we are going to have strategic plan part two so we'll have a mental health strategic plan that will come from them um with very clear action steps so we're looking forward to um the work with them on that um so I I'll take questions on this part before I dive into NWA if that's sounds good Maddie Thanks Jen oh wait Maddie said she wasn't talking tonight yeah I I took it back sorry um um I want to go way back to the to page one I'm curious about the habits
102of work moving to a zero to 100 oh one to four it's oh God good I was like wait what okay great that answers that thank you um page two I just wanted a couple things I just had a couple thank yous um I really want to thank you for continuing to focus on student voice I know we didn't talk about it a lot in the last year but I'm I'm thrilled that the focus is still there and I love hearing the specificity with which that that's happening in all these different areas I I think that's super great um I also wanted to comment after Dana's presentation on valow it couldn't be a meeting with you and me here without me bringing up challenge day so one last but I mean the lens that the
103reason I love that so much is I have a background in small group facilitation and I know how healing um and culture building uh that can be um and that's one of the things about that challenge day that I really loved plus the aspect of bringing in people from the community I I personally love being a part of that as well um so I really I think that you bringing in Volo to do this work uh is filling that that needs I'm I'm I'm thrilled to see that and it's so simple um just to you know just to have the time and the space to to ask somebody how they're really doing and to hear it is just it's huge so I'm thrilled about that I wanted to say thank you for that um and
104then um about Community hold on did I have two more yeah um uh I have a question about the um community members are there other ways to engage community members maybe through the mentoring programs or because I know we always hear in like meeting house arts and and other community groups we have community members who want to be engaged with our students um are there are other ways for us to make that happen I I think that that's a great question there's always ways to make that happen we've done more partnership with meeting house Arts they've reached out to us a lot I think we have struggled in the last few years to have adult mentors um to to be able to recruit them so this could be my public plea for people who are
105interested in mentoring um that would be something that we would love to see more um students be able to access I was talking to a parent the other day about it's we don't have that many adult mentors and there definitely is a power to having someone who is completely outside of the school who has some training that we provide to be a mentor uh and support students but because it's a small number we really focus on the students who tend to be most at risk and this parent was asking about we have a lot of kids who could benefit from a mentor which I totally agree with um and and not necessarily at risk students and so I think it would be great and especially in that role to have more people in mentorship roles
106I promise I didn't set that up just to give you that but but it's not a bad idea so um we should do that every year um and then I did I wanted to ask you about the the numerical scale if you could elaborate a little bit more on the numeric grading scale and opportunities for um for a more Equitable lens so it's really looking at um for those of you who have been on the board for a long time know that when I started here we shifted to a one to four grading um system at the high school which was not supported by the community we lasted one year with that system um there's a lot of um so we we use standard we are not a standards based School a standards based school
107is is what uses the the um rubrics based and uses the one to four and that's the only grading that they get and it's um much more descriptive feedback than than a one to zero excuse me a zero to 100 scale tends to be but we are a standards reference school so we are using rubrics and then we're converting things into a zero to 100 and there is there are challenges with that there's mathematical challenges to that um it's looking at things um just in my own experience this is the only High School I've ever worked at where uh a 69 is failing in all of my other schools a 59 is failing and so it's looking at that and saying that we are competing with schools so our D minus is a c minus
108at another school um and what and what's the impact of that and so the the start of this both for reassessment and for the grading skill is doing reading and learning and talking and looking at what's working and not working last year with habits of work we were very very clear we need a new system this is not working and so right now it's more about reflecting on um our own practices and some reassessment came about in the land of Standards um and so I think it's it's definitely time for us to look at what's working and what's not working including that numeric scale what's the impact of zeros that is a Hot Topic in education it's a Hot Topic in our school um of what does that do with the math so all of
109these another um thing that you bring up is that this is hard to forget when you hear this is that in a 0 to 100 scale there are 30 points where a student can pass and 70 where they can fail and so because it's 0 to 69 all that whole range is failing and so mathematically when you look at that it's it's um that's where um people are questioning that and so and it's been that way for a long long time and so um we don't have clear action steps of what will come from this except that it's important for us to look at what how does that impact kids and especially transcript when this is the end of the road and and what is that mean for them in in and Grading practices if
110if one teacher is using a zero and another teacher doesn't give zeros and puts in a missing instead um so all of those conversations you know um are going to be part of this we are not looking to shift to a one to four scale though I'll say that we are I could say it again that was going to be my question I saw that oh no we are not we are not one to four for habits of work makes a lot more sense because we're giving holistic feedback on habits over time and and the staff is engaged in this when you say we're looking at this this is this is engaging a lot of your staff in this work the whole staff fantastic yep so we just started half half the staff was here
111on Friday for a plld the other half was out at workshops that on PD opportunities that were outside of the building and so at the November plld then they'll swap so then the other half of the um staff will have this conversation so we read um grading for Equity is the text that we use and then we're also using additional texts um to go along with that I just for my fellow board members who haven't been here as long I say fantastic because that was a big when when we had this big discussion however many years ago it was not just community and parents who had a lot of feedback about about the grading scale but also there was not widespread agreement so I'm I'm thrilled that you're taking this Equity approach uh to the
112work um and hopefully you'll have a lot more buy in for whatever changes are made thanks um I just had a question about um with the habits of work change um because that has typically been the guideline for extracurricular eligibility and I've had a couple parents me so I don't know if it's been really clearly communicated maybe it was buried in an email somewhere but I'm not sure so if you could maybe tell us where to find that or how it's been communicated sure I communicated that over the summer and then again in the uh at the start of the year so that um because one of the things that kids are definitely aware of is now have its work is tied to open campus so that caught their attention and um and the score
113that they need for um open campus is higher than for co-curricular activities they needed 2.0 to participate in co-curricular they needed 2.5 to be able to leave for open campus Because the idea is you should be here for a study hall if your habits are not up to par because study hall is when you use open campus so um so that's also in our student handbook and then there was a document that I sent out but I'm happy to send it out again so that everybody can access that's that's great I just thank you very much I had some questions so I just wanted to have that said thank you and I think it's also um for this for the uh extracurricular eligibility when you register them you go through that whole handbook and there
114was a like read agree section in there too that but it arguably it was before they started so they might not have quite understood the change from previous years to this year too anytime there's a change yeah and for the students we had a class assembly so they they I'm not sure how closely they listen to me but parts of it they do the fun Parts they like the car we actually karaoke so they like that part but um so we did explain it to them in that because U one of the concerns was that they had very few habits of work grades we have timing when all teachers are entering habits of grade habits of work grades it's every two weeks on the same day now and um they had very few before the
115first eligibility check so we were trying to warn them about how important habits of work was right from the start of the Year some kids heard us some some struggle with that so can we assume if we haven't heard anything everybody all set okay good all right uh Danielle I just have a question about how then the habits of work scores will relate to someone who gets on than the honor role right because there's essentially two honor roles in the high school so there's the standard grades and then the habits of work how will the one through four put the kids on honor rooll so the leadership team hasn't decided that yet but um Pro we'll probably look back to what we did before we call it habits of work recognition and so I believe
116that um what we did I I actually don't want to misquoted so we would look back to 2015 because we used to have that policy in place and so um we don't and we don't um submit that until the end of January so the leadership team will work on what that um what that actual number is if it's a 3.5 or a 3.75 or um some kids will have a 4.0 for for habits of work which would be wonderful solid habits other questions for Jen before you hop back to oh Colin thanks so much thanks so much for this Jen um I had a question well first I'm just I'm uh that's really wonderful that the um the students were did those presentations to the three different the three different entities I was just wondering
117if there's any way for the board to get sort of some high level not now but at some point get some high level um details around those um I mean I think on each of them the microaggressions the mental health and the AP fees I think that that information would be really helpful to us absolutely so I can share the action steps that they had um and um the things that they what they're doing right now is that and I promise I won't I won't spend the whole night talking about this but that um because I'm super proud of this group of students they we have half the team returning and then half the team is new and so what they'll do right now they have a really tight weekly schedule we meet every Friday
118and then they have some Workshop days um throughout the year where um it's like an in school field trip and so right now they're working on the action steps from the spring and then they'll host conversations they'll decide what they want the topics of the conversations to be they'll do those student L conversations again and then then they'll take action steps from there um they have it on their calendar to come to the board meeting um later in the spring um to present whatever they're working on this year um and I can certainly share their action steps from what they're working on right now I can do it in kind of a bulleted way great um my just my last question was just around um the on your four uh the community connections action steps
119from I guess from last year but also going forward I guess I'm just curious how um how does the wider Community I suppose the first the the parent body but also than just the wider Community um become aware of those those opportunities for for um for Community connections um such as the the guest speakers or the mentor mentorship opportunities or the showcasing of student work is there um yeah kind of how does that how does that happen and where is that sort of centralized so DD benell is our uh you know amazing de benell is the Outreach coordinator and so really all of that funnels through her she has um volunteer opportunities um and Community connections that she sends out to kids in a Google doc um and then she reaches out to different organizations
120some of the teachers Reach Out themselves especially for guest speakers and things like that um but um DD has has been um incredible in helping us to to um provide those opportunities and organize those things she's also and she's a part of the May term as well just as a followup to Colin's question I'm curious to know if you know anything about how much participation we typically get from the high schoolers when dd Bell sends out these volunteer opportunities is it a pretty pretty good participation or lower something else uh it depends on what the event is and so um you know the event that we had at the end of the year that I put in my graduation speech was just outstanding when the seniors had a field day for the kindergarteners at Mor
121Street then that was completely volunteer it was during their their Senior Week um and we had maybe a third of the senior class come which was just amazing um there's other events that are on the weekends and so some of them it's it's very specific like she might say uh We've partnered um quite a few times with main needs which is the organization that's Portland and M needs can't take a huge group of students at the same time and so she might say I need six people for this I need 10 people for this um so it's a it's a good range of um who participates but it really depends on what they're interested in and what um what the uh actual event is is going to be another example would be Furniture friends kids
122love doing that's an organization in Portland that helps um low-income families um furnish their apartments and our kids go and load theu trucks and unload the trucks and um that's one that uh a huge range of kids participate in but it's not that many at the same time it will be 10 go that particular day so it just depends okay I'm good to move on okay um so um before I start with uh talking about the nwaa data I asked um for Cynthia alexand ERS help in this because um we shifted last year to the main threeyear assessment but only for the 10th graders and so um the tests that we gave the ninth graders and the 10th graders for the NWA were two different tests with two different sets of data um and Cynthia
123is going to share what uh the implications of that for for our goals and day so I'm going to try to uncomplicate it but I'm not sure that I'll see succeed in one session um so we are going to have the scorecard uh presentation that we always do in January so you'll have another round of that um at that time so there have been a lot of changes and assessment in the last year um so um I wanted to just kind of give you like a framework to to work from for Jen tonight so that you can kind of wrap your head around it first of all I think um over the last couple of years when I've done the scorecard present present ation I've said uh a few times nwaa is the vendor it's
124not the name of the assessment they're the vendor that provides the assessment so it's helpful for tonight there's a map assessment and it's called map growth assessment that is the one that we had traditionally always given every student grades two through 10 um along with what we used to call the mea so the mea was a separate assessment mainstate assessment the map assessment which is the nwaa is nationally normed so it's based on students across the country at the same grade levels every three years they rorm them and the expectations about where kids should fall so that's that's going to be your ninth grade data tonight okay so that is the map assessment and um Jen's goals have been based or that you're seeing tonight were based on the growth data from that map assessment
125the map assessment gave two points of data always and in the scorecard both parts are in there there's the achievement data so what would you expect at the grade level and then there's growth data I'm still talking about just the map assessment there's growth data based on I come into seventh grade and I score a 200 a 200 on the RIT score I'm expected to grow don't quote those numbers I'm expected to grow eight eight RIT scor this year so I should be 208 at the end of the year that growth data tells whether the students met the expected growth no matter where they started they could be a third grade level in the seventh grade they're expected to grow Maybe 10 points they could be at the seventh grade level in the seventh grade
126and be expected to grow only eight points okay so they're two two separate things there's achievement where they're comparing to grade across National norms and growth based on where you come in and where you're expected to grow in a year's time so that's what Jen is going to um the ninth grade is that data okay this year the state of Maine made our um ass assessment we used the same vendor NWA they changed it to the to nwe as the vendor it's called main through year that is based on Main State Standards so cut scores were developed and I will say all this again in January and you'll have slides and all of that so cut scores were developed um and that's based on achievement based on grade level so there's there's lots of data
127to sift and sort through so Jen's quandry tonight is really about in 10th Grade they use the same uh they use the same format but what happens with growth the reason she can't report on growth in an accurate way is because it's not possible because in 10th Grade there most of them are sort of at the top tops or near the tops of their RIT score however if they're not they um they cannot the way it was set up as a state is you can only go up or down one grade level because it's an Adaptive test whereas before you could go up as high there's no ceiling there's now a ceiling so the percentage of growth in 10th Grade you're not going to see so I don't want you to panic our kids did
128really well on you know the state assessment but that's why Jen is going and I'm just framing this up and I'm going to exit right now that's why Jen when she shares her data I just wanted to kind of frame it up so that um and I will help you more later on so that you understood that um there's some differences with 10th grade and ninth grade and why my little head nods is it is it clear as mud a little bit did did the threeyear assessment replace the mea test yeah uh yes that is that is what they don't call it the mea she's saying no but they they don't call it the mea but that we're going to be adding a whole new section to the scorecard you're not going to see the
129growth for 10th grade when you get the scores this January you're going to see uh Paula and I are working on we're going to have a whole new section called main through year so grades three through eight uh took the main through year that's our state assessment and then they do it one year in high school and it's now 10th grade prior to this it used to be 11th grade they moved it to 10th so it's going to be a whole new section and we're going to start with the Baseline this year so the data came in and I don't think we've sent it to has it been sent you haven't received it okay so it will be sent sometime soon there's individual reports you'll get and it will tell you the scores are now
130the scale scores are, 1400 to 1600 for every grade level they used to put a number in front of it if you were fourth grade they had a four in front of it fifth grade was a five for the mea so um and then right in the middle, 1500 is at or above uh State Standards this the cut scores are different for every each grade level and that's a whole other topic we're not getting into that today um and um different for reading and for um math however 1500 is is uh at or above across the board so you will get a an individual student report like you have in the past that will come home with a with a narrative um I can't tell you when that will happen but it won't be too
131too too too too much longer you look like you have more of a question in your body Lang so are we still doing the map growth assessment to okay so we're doing map growth in grades two and nine um uh two to give us um so this year we did because they allowed it and they paid for it next year they're not paying for it so what we're going what I'm going to put in the budget for next year this is not a budget meeting but what I'm going to put in the budget is um two and nine so they have some data to look at from Fall to Spring and um for some gate identification I'm going to add it for third fth because those are the two places where we uh use that
132assessment we've used that assessment as one data point for identification okay we can talk about that in the budget because I know historically the NWA was never covered but we chose to pay to keep them to for consistency of data because the state has this tendency to change their test every three years exactly and so they have uh so they paid for it last year and we got both next year no this come this year right now no only second and Ninth Grade okay because they didn't you know they only paid for for it just for those of us who were transitioning so hopefully that didn't confuse you and it sets the tone for so we can't call it the nwas that's what I just heard from that so yeah so I've been trying to
133do that but it's so a baseline we can't call it that anymore because they're both NW they're both they're it's the vendor main through year in the measures of academic progress map that's the map yes measures of academic progress growth assessment that's the official title of that and there's an achievement and a growth section of that and so main through year is the more aligned with mea with the cut scores and the standards the new required test because the the map the map growth assessment is not required by the state that we just choose to do that it is not Pender tried to use that and the state pushed back and said it didn't meet the requirements they got a waiver they made some changes they worked with the vendor over the last three or
134four years and now what they've done it meets this the requirements for the the federal okay thank you think you took my papers okay so hopefully I can walk you through this um so basically last year um when I was creating my goals I was thinking that this was um a less of a change more um shifting to a digital version you may have heard today we gave the um uh PSAT the digital version of that today there were some bumps if you want to look at Twitter I heard there's some great comments I'm not on social media so I don't know but um I don't think people were very happy about that today we had some technical challenges our guidance team and our Tech Team um support was absolutely outstanding that we um got
135through the day today but so they made the point of the PSAT in the same way is that they didn't just take a test and put it online they actually changed um some portions of the test and so when I was making my my goals last year uh I was not aware of how different the um the data reports and the actual tests would be for the ninth and the 10th graders because we have used that map growth test um since I've been here um and so um that was a challenge in in repor in out some of the data so um if you um start on page three um that our goal last year um we have um tended to what I have done in the past is I reported out on achievement um
136and um but the goals that we have set has been on growth um and so hoping that even though our um students are kind of reaching the end of this testing line that they had started in second grade still hoping that they are making in incremental growth one of the things that Cynthia was talking about of both of these tests is when you get to 10th grade the amount of growth that you make starts to shrink because there's especially if you're in that kind of top portion um of the percentile because there's only so much more that you can go and so our achievement numbers do tend to be much higher we have a a a large number of students who are Achi achieving at or above the state level um and then our growth
137numbers tend to be smaller so last year the goal um was that for the math test that 59% of our ninth graders would show show growth um or meet or exceed their their growth Target and 56% of 10th graders um and then um for the reading test the goal was for 50% of nth graders um to meet that goal and 52% % meat or exceed and 52% of the 10th grade so if you look on page three and the column on the right um you'll see um first uh that there's um you'll see that there are not the growth scores for the 10th grade that's what Cynthia was explaining um because that's where my explanation would have been more like apples and oranges you know that that's what we were looking at that um hard
138to compare those two but we do have the data for the nth grade um that it uh 39% of our students met or exceeded the growth Target in math so we did not meet that goal by 20% um clearly that is something that uh we're continuing to look at we're expanding the interventions that we have for math we are seeing more and more struggles in math some people have theorized that that was one of those things um that middle and high school math was really challenging for the students who were um experiencing being out of school for the pandemic and that's one of the places where we're seeing larger gaps um but we are certainly trying to um increase uh the interventions that we have in place we used to have a 45 minute ma
139additional math block only for algebra um and so the students who we saw we kind of on that border of we could have put them in a pre-algebra class um but decided to put them in an algebra one class with some support um that started um maybe five years ago I think now um starting last year we expanded that support that we have it for algebra geometry and Algebra 2 and so they are um with a teacher for half a block in addition to their class and hoping that that is where their reteaching skills working on homework doing additional practice um and those classes are very small um those are those half block classes are um usually at about um the largest one is 11 students in that class the smallest is four uh and
140so hoping that that helps we're continuing with collaboration with the Math teachers um working on those common assessments constantly looking at their year-long plans um and looking at the curriculum resources um and doing um data analysis of the common assessments that they put into place um to see that we have more students in the ninth grade U reaching that growth Target in Reading uh we had 51% of the n9th grade students met or exceeded their growth Target um so that was 1% % above um the goal that we had set um and so um but the action steps for um for our Ela department and U for supporting kids in literacy are very similar to uh math uh that they uh teachers are working on common assessments scoring those together we still have our um
141literacy intervention blocks which are for n9th and 10th graders that is again same as math 45 minutes in addition to their Ela class so that they can um get support there we also are fortunate to have the Writing Center that any student can drop into but some students are assigned to The Writing Center if we feel that they need more support as well so then if you shift can I just ask one quick clarifying absolutely so from the last year's goals so when it says 9th and 10th those are the current 10th and 11th current 10th and 11th okay yes yep um so if you switch to the last page page five these are the goals um for the um current year and what you'll see the difference with this chart is that on the
142right hand side where it has Baseline data I put the achievement scores which is not on the previous that was not a part of my goal like I said I reported those out um in past years but they haven't been a part of the goal so in and um talking with the superintendent talking with Cynthia thinking about how we can continue to use these two tests um and and do so in a meaningful way that we can um look at at um how um students are progressing um that uh make we made the decision to focus on achievement goals for this year and look at at the growth um there and so um last if you look at the ninth grade in math last year 74% of our students um met or exceeded the achievement
143uh Target and that's on that map growth test so those are the National Norms um and so the goal for this coming year is that um we increase that to 77% of our students meeting or exceeding uh that that um National test uh for reading if you look over on the right hand column last year 84% of our students met or exceeded um the achievement Target and the goal this year um we're bumping that up to 87% of our students that we would like to see that growth then to the 10th grade this is where they will take the main threeyear assessment last year um the achievement for math uh for the 10th graders was 54.5% um and increasing that for our goal this year um to 59% of the students meeting or exceeding their
144uh Target in math for the 10th graders and then last year um the achievement was 75.7 um excuse me that's an error I'm sorry that should say reading um and we're bumping that increasing that goal to 78% of the students in 10th Grade meeting or exceeding um the growth Target on the main threeyear test so our our goal is always to look at these data points um and um both the main through year and um the map growth test have some um very helpful uh data reports that we can look at um Paula Roberts has done done an outstanding job of making them accessible for teachers so that they can find them quickly in power school um and so teachers spend time in plc's looking at these and interpreting the data and seeing where students
145are either for the ninth graders we look nationally at where they stand um and what their growth has looked like or for the 10th graders then we'll look at the data for um uh for the state standards and so I know I ask this every time so sorry um so when it says n9th grade 2022 2023 nwaa math achievement of 74% that was actually their eighth grade achievement because the same cohort of kids right we're not looking for last this year's nth graders to beat last year's ninth graders no so that's where you can't compare okay that's what I so the 2022 um data that's on the right hand column those are our current 10th graders now because we won't be able to follow that cohort because it's two different tests they're going to go
146from Main 3er back to m growth back to um ma back to main through year and it is a question I think that this comes up and we started to talk about this but haven't is it is optional for us for the ninth grade test um we we don't in ninth grade have any other state test that we give it's the older students who have plenty of tests that they take with PSAT sat and the um science mea and the AP tests and so it does give us data points that valuable data that we can see but it's going to be very different in how we've analyzed it in the past because it's not going to be where we're looking at um the eighth grade scores and and comparing them to our ninth grade scores
147we're going to be looking at those looking at how students have progressed say fifth through eth and when we're when they're coming to us and then we can look at eth and 10th if that makes sense they'll be the apples the ninth graders of the oranges I think and so that's a question for us about do we continue with that test the only other test that schools around us give is that the College Board uh has a pre satat it's like the 89 sat I've never worked in a school that's given that test some um some schools um really appreciate that test others have found that um the data was harder to use because they've never taken it before so there's nothing to compare it to before that it's not it's also not timely data
148you do not get that data quickly so so all those pretty cohort charts that we have in our our score cards are going away because we're not doing a consistent test year to Dear they they'll look really nice three through eight and then 10 I think that's where you'll be able to track overtime it will just take us a little time to do that because our current 10th graders now will have never taken the main through year when they are taking it now forgive me if I'm going through territory we've already addressed but so on jump to the 10th grade for a second so like on the right we have 10th grade which is our current 11th grade current 11th grade that's the current 11th grade so that th those those folks uh achieved 55
14954.5% that was what that the current 11th graders did so is the the T so the target for our current 10th graders is based on sort of what we saw happen with the last year's class and to sort of so it's it's based on kind of trying to um trying to in increase our achievement sort of by grade but sort of kind of irregardless of of who's in it or what their score anything we know about them from their nth grade testing right and so that so we can look at those individual scores and there's individual data reports and so that's what the teachers the teachers go down to that level and so they have these pretty amazing on the website at least I'm much more familiar with map growth because that's what I've been
150working on with the last eight years is that these really um and it's gotten better over time that individual data reports that teachers can access um to talk about really specific skills and it will say Jen is meeting this Jen's next thing to work on is this Jen has exceeded this so we'll still be able to do that but when we're looking at um grade wide data then we're looking at patterns of data more than the cohort of kids that are coming through and and that helps us look at instruction and the curriculum resources that we're using and if we're seeing gaps in a particular skill then we would go back to our curriculum and say where is that we saw that in science if for those of you on the board along long time
151ago was we saw that our kids were getting to the science mea and there were sections that we just didn't have in our curriculum we went back to our ninth grade curriculum in enhanced earth science because that's a huge part of that in the basis of other science classes and it just wasn't something we were focused on that so it's a little different than being able to follow the cohort of kids I'm curious what the board's thoughts are around um I would hate for us not to have the dat you need to make good timely decisions because it's no longer paid for by the state and I don't I don't know what the cost of it is I recall it wasn't ridiculously high when we used to have to fund it ourselves so that we
152could have consistent data um so so maybe we could you know I I don't know what the board's thoughts are on it but how do folks feel about giving Jean and Cynthia and and Jen and the other administrators the ability to you know come to us if they're if if they want to do and I don't know maybe they're happy not having one more test I don't know um but I don't know it just feels like a gap that's maybe where you don't ask for student voice yeah ask them yeah yeah I was I was sitting here wondering if we should weigh in on that also and um you know I'm not a huge fan of testing I you know I I would love to move I would love to be a standards-based school and
153I would I would love to give more qualitative and less quantitative feedback I I recognize the importance of the data for for the staff um um so personally I'm not a fan of testing that much but we live in a world that is a testing world and it doesn't seem to be changing and so um given that PSATs and as sats are upcoming it's probably important that these kids have a chance to to test and to understand how to take a not everybody has the resources to go take those fancy you know test prep classes that that some kids spend a lot of time and money on so um I don't know I I think I would probably defer to the expertise of our principles and our Administration um and then follow their guidance yeah
154I feel like if if you're seeing a gap like there's information you'd want to have if it not for it's not being funded by the state this year I would say don't let that keep you from reaching out for the resources you need I guess would be my suggestion I mean don't do it just because we like to have our boxes all filled in on our chart I I do like a filled in box but I'm not going to make kids take tests just for that Mora I'm I'm also wondering how like why why did they didn't include second and ninth grade in these tests and if there's a way for us to have that in the main threeyear test um I don't know I don't know if you know anything about that but maybe
155that's something that we could advocate for I think they don't offer the ninth grade are you nodding Cynthia the question is why we don't have main through year for ninth grade because it's not Avail the test is not available but I don't know I don't know why they didn't make the test not available so 2 through eight and 10 it used to be 2 through eight and 11 so now it's 2 through eight and 10 oh three through eight three through eight it's federally required for three grades three through eight across the country okay and one you're in high school and we do it in grade 10 okay so that's why the state has made the new test available for those grades and then is paying for it for those grades to meet the federal
156requirements yes thank you well I guess just to I guess just to ask like what is the were we to not fund it and were we therefore to remove that what is the like what are the what are three impacts of that like what's the like is the I mean um Maddie was suggesting that part partially it has to do with giving the students an opportunity to test before their other more quote unquote meaningful tests that they are taking um there also seems like there's questions of of understanding our overall resource apption and where we need to be targeting but yeah what are the impacts if we don't fund it that's a great question I mean I think that's one I think one is um this idea of um it is still a a testing
157environment that more more colleges are shifting to um test optional but not all um and so uh it gives them an opportunity to practice we use the data for things like our interventions so there are very clear scores for um it's only one data point though we consider other factors when we're looking at intervention classes like the math classes I was talking about or the literacy classes we also consider it as a data point for the honors classes um but the reality is is that some teachers use it much more than others so when we're looking at uh a pre-algebra class where you know that entire class is struggling in math because that's typically below grade level the ninth graders should in theory be at Algebra 1 if they have um progressed along and so
158that teacher is looking very closely it's a small group of students looking at exactly where their skill gaps and and strengths are whereas the honors Ela 9 Teacher will see that those great kids are all way far above um reading level and they had that was part of entering that class and that's data that they use less because they know that those are kids with strong reading skills so it depends on the content area and the teacher of how often you're using it all of the teachers look at it because literacy is everywhere but um some of the content areas like um Visual and Performing Arts use it a a lot less so the impact would be different in different grade levels um could could we move forward without it of course we could um
159I think that um they would be other than the seniors they would be then we would have two classes that don't don't have any kind of standardized test or data that we look at so then everything that they would have for data would be teacher created where there's subjectivity in that of course and then there's challenges I mean I think if you ask the teachers do they love NWA I you know it might be like asking the students um but so um but it's one of those things of of that when when they have challenges with it then they often can see what the benefits are for some of the students where we really do need to to use that data and see okay this is a student who has not made growth in the
160last three years that's a significant concern when they are not moving anywhere and we're moving them forward in in in their grade levels so I heard the SAT is still on paper it is yeah so they didn't have any of those technology issues they did not much to my child's dismay I think they might have been less patient I'm not sure but no our our kids were extremely patient today so and they did all test and they did all eventually get on but it was a college board error I'm supposed to say that it was a college board error not a not our tech department or our our faculty yeah when I asked him when he said it was really hard the SAT was really hard much harder than it was in the spring the
161CL the questions were hard I was like maybe it was an Adaptive test it was on paper Mom all right I guess it wasn't adaptive then great well thank you so much I appreciate it thank you Jen all right uh so we don't have committee reports or policy review this evening so we'll move on to to 12 which is um unfinished business so um A and B kind of go together um it's the discussion of the Maine school board association's 2023 proposed resolutions as well as just a reminder on the msma fall conference information so in your packets there's the information on the conference it is the 26th and the 27th of October uh Jenny needs to know by Friday of this week if you would like to attend she currently has Malik Danielle Cara
162Kelly Mara and myself as um looking to attend so if you would like to go and did not just hear your name let um Jenny know by Friday and she can get everybody um registered for that uh and these things always come up together because they used to be on the same day they are no longer on the same day the um the resolutions the de it's what's it called the delegate assembly uh the msba and I'm I'm trying to remember who our Del delates are is it you Mora it's Danielle I think is the delegate right no we did this last fall I mean last spring oh it's Cal sorry to put you on the spot dani's like did I volunteer for that was it 11 o' at night I paid I paid Mara
163$1 thousand dolls to try it's true I'm the backup okay thank you for clarifying sorry to scare you she just right well she's the backup because she has to be there anyway um on the board right yeah so uh so hopefully folks um have had an opportunity to um look through 12a in your packets which is the proposed um deletions revisions and additions um so I think similar to our policies they have a group that looks through every year um to see if they need to make any changes any adjustments they change some some language sometimes they completely delete it and replace it with a new one so um so I think B is uh the proposed deletions and if you look at the date that a lot of these were adopted it was like
164in some of them in the 80s oh some of them in the 70s I mean they have been updated but um so um so that's just kind of for information purposes the proposed um eliminations and then C is um basically Replacements so they were would strike the old resolution and in favor of a new one um and remind me Mara do we did did the delegates vote on these individually do they vote on them as a slate I think all the changes as a SL all the proposed revisions to existing resolutions and the deletions as a slate together okay um yeah so we don't need to have individual thoughts on each one unless there is folks have a concern on on any of them um are you on this committee that does this yeah okay
165so direct all questions tomorrow yeah I was on the Comm I was on the resolutions committee um this year and it was an interesting process and I'm excited to talk to about one of the one of the resolutions this year that came from some of our discussions so I'm really happy about that but I think I remembered I got a question from Danielle I think was my confusion about one of the deleted resolutions and it was related to teacher evaluation so I'll just share that with all of you too because I did ask about that it's the one at the top of the second page and that was taken out because there is a teacher evaluation process in law now so it's no longer necessary so a lot of the ones that were deleted were
166just things like you said Michelle that were outdated no longer relevant and so the committee a lot this year did a lot of cleaning up of those resolutions that wasn't necessarily always done in the past so that's why you're seeing more of it now and then in section c the ones that were revised were often combined like multiple different resolutions from the past were combined into ones just like to eliminate duplication and then just because we do have some new uh board members since we went through this process last year um do you want to give just a quick overview of what these resolutions mean and what we use them for yeah so the organization um that the board is a member of the main School boards Association which is putting on the fall conference
167as well um also lobbies in the legislature and this basically directs the work of their lobbying um the main school superintendent Association has their own um lobbyist I believe and their own resolution ions so this is a chance for school boards across the state to go to the delegate assembly and vote on what our priorities are for the legislative session so that then when the lobbyist goes there then on behalf of the msba we know that that person's representing the voice of the majority of school boards in the state when they testify on something before the legislature great um so did anyone have any thoughts concerns about sections B and C which were the deletions and then the proposed revisions can I ask a question for Mara that uh I feel like I should should
168know the answer to um but so you said said that the teacher valuation um resolution that was has been stricken that was struck because after since 1979 it being a res it being resolved d by the msba to have that uh become law it finally in 2022 became law I don't know the year but yes it's in law that there's now required to be a teacher evaluation system I'm sure Jee knows way more about that than I do but somebody but somebody has been but like the the what it says adopted 1979 that means that for quite a long time the msba was advocating that this become law and it it didn't for quite a while I feel like it was probably in the teens when it finally became law because that's when we had
169to go through the whole PE PG and I'll look to Candy because I know she was on that committee the PG right professional evaluation growth something um professional valuation professional growth um and and that was the Marshall rubric and I think we'll see that in the workplace evaluation reference to that right because there was a couple different ones that we could go with um and I feel like that was before 2021 so it's interesting that they've revised it since it was in law but maybe they realized that they don't need it anymore well I guess just to continue that so for the proposed revision for c 2 b1g um that seem that seems to be a consolidation of these other the Career and Technical education opportunities that seems to be a consolidation so is that
170basically just the M the msba saying we're no longer going to to have all the these separate resolutions that we're trying to get passed into law we're just going to have this one chunk of language am I understanding this correctly yes but I also think that these should proposals come up related to these then this will guide how they respond it's not necessarily saying these these are our advocacy priorities this year because clearly we keep these things on the books for a long time because there's so many of them in a Law related to all of these things like CTE I'm sure actually that comes up pretty often but Law related to each one of the resolutions um because there's more than than what is just here that exist we not necessarily come up all
171the time but when something does come up this was this is what would guide the opinion of the lobby so there's like a there's kind of like a book somewhere of all these resolutions that have been passed through the years that may sometimes they get deleted because they go into law maybe they get deleted because it doesn't make sense anymore but some of them just stay out there kind of just hang out perpetuity yeah I can send you that book for some like nice light bedtime reading and when you're done with that um Colin picked up a book on Robert's Rules so really put every everybody to sleep between the two oh and he even brought it um okay any other questions on B and C deletions and revisions no okay so um so if
172we move on to uh D which is on the last two pages um there's actually not a lot of new proposed ones for this year which is great um in terms of of time and discussion for all these things um both here and at the actual delegate assembly um but I'm gonna I'm gonna flip it tomorrow and see what she wants to share on these or yeah I think they're pretty straightforward this year actually Michelle I agree like there's not a lot of them and each of them the language of each of them seems pretty clear I think in its intent um although I was on the committee so if you have questions or something is vague now would be a good time to to ask about it I'm happy to go through them one
173by one and sort of the rationals but if there's like some language specifically that you would want to see changed or something that's confusing to you I can try to get clarity or coling can try to get clarity yeah and just I think and also if I'm remembering this correctly this is where uh you all are giving me uh language that I then get to share with on the super cool Zoom call that Danielle doesn't get to go to um so you're this is you're sort of telling me what to do as I'm recollect if I'm recollecting this correctly right so usually what we'll do is for the new proposed ones we will go through them one by one and and say whether we are in support of them or whether we are not and
174if we are not or if we are with changes then we would give that direction to Colin and um just just to be clear anyone can go to the delegate assembly only calling vote Danielle is welcome to join on Saturday morning the something or other of October um I think it's the Saturday before the uh the conference yeah so 21 something like that um okay so nonpartisan school board members uh so that's the first one on there um it's interesting that this has never come up before I mean it it must have come up at some point because it does say in the that the the statute that there's no party designation on the ballot so my question on this one is is this just sort of reinforcing that we want to keep that or
175Kelly yeah I was gonna say the same I was sort of wondering how this is intended to guide policy when we already have kind of a statute on the books related to this yeah the the language that I find the most pertinent probably because of what what we've been hearing recently is the last sentence about it it underscores what we all know to be true because we're board members which is that we're elected by by our communities but that our constituents are our students so it it's I think it seems to me that this is to ensure that school board members maintain their awareness of that fact because that is main law right yeah and I think it's a little the timing is a little difficult because tomorrow the msba is actually going to meet
176to consider whether to adopt a couple of changes from feedback from the regional meetings and the change that's so this change may or may not happen would just be striking that out and then the last sentence basically adding a last sentence basically that says what you just said Maddie um that the msba supports the position that Schoolboard members shall conduct Schoolboard business in a nonpartisan matter manner um without favoring or taking direction from a political party I guess it doesn't have the piece about the students in the community but so there was recommendation that to to change it and remove the part that our focus should be on the best interest of the students um no would you mind reading what the proposed change was sure so it strikes as the second sentence as determined
177by so basically it just says the recognizes and supports nonpartisan practice of the election of school board members yes and then school board members sorry it strikes part of the second sentence school board members are elected on a general ballot and once elected are to focus on what's in the best interest of the school district and all of its students sorry I apologize that's still in there um but I guess yes the without party designation phrase is removed from that sentence and I I'm sorry that I'm making this really confusing I thought I see that it says in the school district um so they strike the the reference to the the m MRSA the the legal yeah I think they just rephrased it Schoolboard members are elected on a general ballot and once elected are
178to focus on what's in the be best interest of the school district and all of its students I think they just flip-flopped that part and then they add the sentence msba supports the position that Schoolboard members shall conduct Schoolboard business in a nonpartisan matter manner without favoring or taking direction from a political party so they so they added a little more teeth to that sentence but they removed the the direct tie to the law yes was there any rationale well maybe you don't know yet because it came from a different region yeah I would I actually feel like it's pretty important to have that reference to the law in there because then it's not we're not just sort of saying randomly we just do this you know we're saying this is why we're doing it
179is because it's law so that would just be my own personal yeah I I would advocate keeping all of the second sentence in there um in terms of like content I don't care how they word it or you know the order of it um but I mean I don't mind the the added section where they they don't take pressure from political parties I don't mind that addition I'm okay with that one but thanks that's helpful because I can tell them that at the meeting tomorrow so I guess just based on how that meeting goes depending on whether or not that how that is altered um at the meeting I would then if for if for example the the committee that meets tomorrow chooses to take out the reference um at the meeting on the Saturday
180morning meeting I would then say I want to put it back in yeah true I would say so I mean is anyone does anyone have a a concern with the general sentiment of it that we shouldn't be supportive of it in I I prefer this version or a slightly stronger version than this um but even if they took out the the legal reference I would probably still support the resolution in whole but Colin's got to work to get him back on his it gives me something to do other than bake cookies just to oine for a second yeah I I think it's really important I I think the spirit of this is is super important I think school boards are one of the few places we see in governmental structures where we must work collaboratively
181um and respectfully regardless of differences or political affiliation um I think it works really well when it works well and we should strive to maintain that okay everyone feel good about the first one so Mora's got her marching orders for tomorrow and then so we won't meet again before the actual delegate assembly so um will they said they'll probably send out through the the email the updated resolutions in advance right yeah okay so we'll be able to see those and Colin can prepare his words of wisdom if necessary in that's what you all really enjoy there's no words for there's no room for words of wisdom you just have to say very directly what you want to add okay you don't give any rationale or anything make it happen man all right it's why we
182deposed Danielle and threw you in there she's like what the look on your face was fantastic you're like wait what all right so parental Guardian engagement in the education of their children um uh so everyone has has read this one I'm guessing I don't know where this one stemmed from which is the one that came from us was it this one no the next one uh the one about mental and Behavioral Health oh the last one okay last one yeah this one really came out of um a lot of advocacy from parents about um parental involvement in their kids education that we're seeing right now and so the goal was to lay out you know all the ways that Stu that parents can be involved and to encourage school districts to do that so I
183don't know that this necessarily will inform state law as much as it um sort of reinforcing that parents already have all of these rights over or ways to be involved with their child's education that they may not be aware of so I guess my question when I read through this is do we do all of these things if we're in favor of this one do we do these things all of these things that was my question too does this represent any kind of change no I believe the goal was to capture what is already happening yeah this would not be a change from what we our current practices here the only one that kind of popped up to me is one that I wasn't sure about was um no must be on the first page
184um I swear I saw something about public forums butes I guess maybe this qualifies as that I don't know what's that oh it's under rationale okay gotcha I will just add on this one I think it's also a response to some legislation that would have changed certain rights of parents over the education like or involvement there was some legislation last session maybe Jean you might have sent us some updates but um around I think greater parental involvement or say over um education and like and like giving the school the right to remove books and things like that and have a system for removing books and other things like that so I think that this is also intends to respond to those law like those proposed laws okay so basically saying parents also have the ability
185to opt their children out of program they do not feel as appropriate but then the last sentence that says that believes that parental opportunities for involvement in the education of their own children should not inhibit the education of other children so that's kind of the maybe the connecting right the removal of books for example yeah y anyone have any concerns with this one recommended adjustments were there any out of the regional meetings were there any proposed changes to this one no she's she's she's thinking something well the sentence about opting out of programming well I'm thinking back to a conversation with Cynthia like three years ago there's prog programming and there's curriculum they're two different things right so so that sentence the parents may have the ability to opt their children out of programming does
186that mean it would be only programming and not curriculum because I I worry if that distinction is not understood or defined that we could potentially be allowing for parents to opt their children out of Education which we're legally obligated to provide them does that make sense I'm I'm just wondering about the distinction is there a distinction between programming and curriculum and this does this is not curriculum per se it's programming or it could be particular I think there are particular um I'll give an example um in let's say biology if we were if we were doing a lab that had something to do with dissection that there would be a way that the parent could opt their their student out of this but there would but we would provide an alternative way to meet that
187ccul level that might be you know a simplistic example of how that might happen for example I I couldn't opt my children out of algebra no I'm just I'm just I'm trying to choose like like but like I I couldn't say I don't want my children to take Algebra I just could not do that but I mean I think what the the most likely scenario with this comes up is health class right like let's true like could it could it be social studies well they still have to learn the concept but it might be in a different way so they're not going to be they still have to meet the standards then um but they they're instead of perhaps seeing a video perhaps they're going to read something instead so it's the program they're changing
188but not the content of the curriculum so because that's vague uh that it it concerns me um I mean Maddie I think I think I I mean I think I I I hear you on that I guess my I guess my sense of it is currently that this couldn't alter this resolution couldn't alter any law right this current this resolution can't make a change to um on its own can't change um this would be sort of recom we would be a recommendation that for something that could be implemented um and it would be at that stage where then there would be I guess some sort of differentiation between what is meant by programming and what is meant by curriculum but does it open the door the way this reads is that they already have this
189it's not say doesn't say parents should have the ability to opt their children out it says they do they also have the ability so I don't I think that's sort of stating an existing fact yeah um as opposed to encouraging that that should be allowed does is is that sound right for do do parents have the ability to do that now they do or even or even thinking um you know classes I'm going to meet my science Credit in high school I'm not going to take this biology class but I'm going to take this other class instead and I think Morris bought on there was a lot of legislation last session um about books and also there's some ones um about curriculum as well that failed okay so if the intent is kind of how
190we're reading it now that it's just encouraging parental involvement and engagement um as partners in the education which I think we as a board have said and agree with um do we have any concerns with with a yes vote on this resolution any clarifying language or questions we want asked would it be worth just clarifying what programming really means I guess I'm not sure because it's not they're not recommending anything it's just the current state I mean it's good to know but I'm not sure they would necessarily have an answer above what Jean and and Cynthia know to be true in our district but I don't know I want to Colin to say like can you think of a question that might help understand that or I mean I think if I think if it
191is true that the the whole paragraph is saying this this is what is current currently this is what is currently per permitted this is uh parents have all of these opportunities currently then I guess I don't see anything I guess I guess I just see us affirming and clarifying as Mara said to make sure that that parents are aware of that so I think for the that sentence that we have been having questions about um if indeed that just that means this is this is what currently exists and we affirm that it does exist and we affirm that if parents and Guardians want to take advantage of that they can I think that's I think that's clear I don't think it's altering anything if parents are indeed the target audience for that particular piece of
192it should they know what programming means right exactly yeah that's a good question it's interesting because as I keep reading it I feel like the first part of it is saying like what the parents currently have in terms of opportunities and and rights and and abilities and but the the real point of it is um the second part which is saying like these these opportunities should be communicated clearly consistently you know in your policies on your website through the you know they should be easily accessible um you know the times to raise questions to Personnel about engagement should be offered to all the parents and Guardians it's more like these are the rights and and abilities they have now and we're Inc the shoulds in this resolution are about making sure everyone understands what those
193are and how to access them M I wonder if it would be helpful to insert a a sentence right after the sentence about programming that that simply says and school districts have an obligation to um to provide um curriculum to all students so it's sort of like a court like parents have the opportunity to opt their children out but schools have the obligation to provide curriculum in some other by by whatever means necessary so there's like yeah you can out out of programming but we also will provide curriculum I think that balances it a little I don't have the word smithing I me I suppose m m i I think that's a I think that's a good possibility I think my question I think is more um I just I I would I'm missing the
194footnotes for all for all of those initial sentences like where is that where is that from like where is that enshrined in in law in either state or federal law and I think if we if we knew that and if we knew like how close that is to the to the actual um state or federal law then I don't know I think I think without I guess I would um I think that's my I think that's my fundamental question about it and I I I guess I would not want to really add or even subtract anything from this without without understanding that better I'm not sure how we' do that given the structure of how this works because I can't ask that question at the delegate assembly um well I think one thing to clarify
195is that it also takes into account local control so in that first um paragraph it talks about federal and state laws but also School District policies handbooks and procedures and other guidance so I think reaffirming that there are already these opportunities within the existing laws but then it would you're right Colin it would be good to know what those are are but then at the local level there may be other things that are dictated by local control by your school school or school district and that that should be up to local those things should still be up to local control and communicated to parents and that all of those things working together would be better than you know a law trying to dictate a specific curriculum or a specific books not be taught or something
196like that yeah I mean for me it seems like they encouraging making sure everyone is really well versed and aware of where their opportunities are and then that last sentence for me is I think what's really important right like the choices you make for your child should not inhibit the education of all the other children yeah and I guess just pragmatically again this is not this resolution is not really intended to be viewed by parents right it's going to be hidden that it's going to be in that weird book of resolutions that just kicks around somewhere uh like it's not it's not really like this language is not intended to be put in front of parents like that's not who its target audience is its target audience is is the uh uh the MS uh
197The mba's Advocate to who goes to the legislature and talks to them about potential laws being created right so I think is yeah so I think the shs the shs are fine I think and I I might say we'd leave it as it is because I think this is probably one that everybody's going to fight about at the meeting anyway anyway uh and though I suppose given that given that it might be one that that uh because I will say if you do want to join Danielle the the the meeting is like it's very interesting just to see like how diverse the um the delegates are um from different parts of the state and just like the and the the wide array of different of different viewpoints and and perspectives and experiences um and and
198uh so that's just really Illuminating and and educational so I guess if this were to be altered in that in that session by some folks wanting to change it this way or that way I guess what do you want me to make sure is there or or what can I vote for and what can I not if that's an okay thing to ask I mean I think that final sentence that Michelle just referenced I it's very important that that remain so as long as the resolution by the time it gets voted on includes that sentence and does not um add any additional uh requirements um for things being added um Beyond these statements of um we it should be communicated clearly um time should uh for these engagement opportunities should be offered as long as
199those things are not altered I should vote yes I think so yeah uh the sentence we were talking about before with regard to opting out of programming I I think if there were additional language that strengthened that I would not be in favor of that I mean I think it's yeah I think and if curriculum became part of that sentence um that would be because that would be seem that would suggest that we are recommending a change to state law right because they don't currently have that ability right so if it it changes you know to also have the ability to opt their children out to should have the ability to opt their children out of curriculum then yeah that's probably it not a starter okay I if you guys remember we used to literally
200just not even vote on these the person got to the delegate assembly and it it was just good luck I know she got us all yeah it is fun though I I well I've never done the zoom one I've done it in person it's not fun it it it was fun in person because there's some interesting folks that get up and say some interesting things all right so that's two so yes on one yes on two with your marching orders um all right so three state funding to support students mental and Behavioral Health see this one you know starts with that they believe right that believe additional funding needs to be allocated I love that this one may have come from us because I I anything that changes the EPS formula to strengthen it is
201great I love that I will say that was that was not my idea but I'm glad that it got added um but the idea that there are weight lists and barriers to access and so students can't get the services they need to succeed in school um is one that I put forward and I'm happy that they made it into a resolution and including minimum receivers also a good call so any thoughts concerns I think of the three resolutions we have this one has the most potential to actually influence legislation and I like the way that you wrote it in a very specific way in terms of how it can potentially change legislation so I good job Mora and I really appreciate your work and I think it's great I also would kind of echo Kelly
202because I think it's fantastic we've obviously been talking about this since coid if not before then but that really is what brought it to everybody's attention I feel like and so it's really exciting Mora that you brought that along and that people agreed and so yeah I 100% support that one my concern is they love unfunded mandates right like yes you should do more good luck but never know maybe not but you know the answer is always know if you don't ask so this is a great way to ask so but isn't it they're saying they should provide funds so it's they're not saying it's not an unfunded mandate it's it's an unfunded recommendation no no these guys aren't about unfunded mandates the legislature is about unfunded mandates where they go yeah the leg if
203the if the sentence is the legislature needs to dedicate additional funding yeah well they skip that part and they go yeah you skip that part you should provide more services that doesn't impact our recommendation no it does not no absolutely not right and is there anything on in here that's like a if like is taken out I need to vote no or I I can't really see anything that jumps out at me if they added the word doesn't before believes this whole thing is a no 10 10 four all right so in favor of this one happy with the way it's written all right well done Mara all right so uh so that was our unfinished business 12 a andb reminder to let Jenny know by Friday if you want to go to the conference
204uh and if you would like to join Danielle and Colin on the delegate assembly I'm sure we can get you the zoom link um all right new business uh strategic Communications the workplace satisfaction survey executive summary okay over here okay um you'll see thank you to Jenny for all of this you'll see some charts at the end um the the survey went out in May and the committee looked at it and worked on it there are lots and lots of comments to read but we broke it down into overall strengths and opportunities for growth ba basically and um we'll look just here at the district ones and you'll see you can go through and look at each individual school we don't need necessarily need to look at all those right now but the overall strengths
205that were reported were the positive climate the supports for physical safety of students and staff and supports for students and those supports were mainly academic because it goes on to say that something we can do better at or grow on are the supports for social emotional kinds of stuff and just um to bring it to take it out a little more in the overall strengths um in each school they report what's the most influential Factor on their positive reply to the satisfaction survey and they included things like school School culture morale salary benefits colleagues leadership those were the kinds of things that the schools were reporting that were very influential then you go to opportunities for growth and the first one lit up professional development and um the the respondents were talking about wanting to
206have a voice in planning what was needed for professional development and a choice and and that uh more often that should be targeted to their role or their go goals sometimes they're very very broad PD kinds of opportunities and they don't necessarily apply to what everyone needs and um want valuable topics and and content and and the use of time it's all there and one of the other opportunities for growth was resources and this was Main looking at um because teachers are saying they're getting resources but needing some that are targeted for what they need for curriculum changes or students students needs that kind of thing and then another big one was meeting the social emotional and behavioral needs of students inclusive but not limited to special ed students and then the evaluation system teachers
207staff were not happy with the Marshall rub rubric excuse me that it's utilized differently in different schools and a different levels and that um time intensity on some of the the evaluations was more than they thought was necessary or appropriate and that they questioned Effectiveness that uh in the evaluation they might have said you know you need to improve on this and you know what happens kind of thing um if you look at page five in your report you can see um which are the following factors most influence your satisfaction in the workplace and I just would include the top the top four were pretty hefty and then it drops so talk about school culture colleag salary benefits and Leadership had the biggest influence and then if you look at the last two pages um
208um actually the just look at the last page it shows these six areas culture professional uh learning leadership evaluation supporting all students and resources and I just wanted to point out the last gray line across there there are some things to point out that one that very low is under professional learning B3 how useful are the professional development um opportunities offered to you districtwide and that was probably the lowest one out of all and then there are there's some that were fairly high that I wanted to point out too in the climate if you look at A2 well another one there well rather A1 and a a A3 I'm sorry overall how positive is the working environment in your school depart Department that was a positive one very positive and A3 would you recommend your
209school department as a workplace for someone seeking employment was also very positive and just a couple other very positive ones to point out under leadership C1 how positive is the influence of the school department leaders on the the quality of your school school department SL department and then two other very positive ones were under supporting all students um E2 and E3 how effective are the structures in your school department that support the academic learning needs of all students and how effective are the in in the structures in your school department the support physical safety of students and staff that was also on the very positive side and um that's pretty much it we there was a uh 51% response from all that was sent out and it was done in May um and you know
210the the options were one through five five being the best and being the the least that's pretty much it unless you have any other questions so I have a little bit of a data question and it was uh 51 overall and was that roughly the same for both Educators So based on the different groups that we had delineated was that that was total staff members yeah right the district total District so I don't have I don't have that data okay just a clarifying question what is Marshall rubric for those of us who are uninitiated that is part of our evaluation system and there are particular elements um that the teachers are are scored on by our administrative team when they do their evaluation um and it's it's there are different when the district had to
211adopt a particular um method for eval for an evaluation system that there were certain ones that would be sanctioned by the state the Marshall rubric is one of them and I do know um that's look at regular Cynthia has a team that looks at those every year just to say do we need to uh massage some of those rubrics a little bit so they're clearer um do they still meet our needs as well as um when we review them as an administrative team too so it's a it's um there are several elements on that and I think it's might even be is it online Cynthia as well if for it's on the website if you want to get more details about what each one of those those elements are that we're looking for so it
212looks like it sounds like you're already looking at this and thinking about how it might be improved I think I think for for sure that's that's done in um yearly um for in terms of the the evaluation tool and I think in terms of like how do we use this data how do our principes use it you'll see um some in their their schoolwide goals you may say you might sign find some link to some data they found here or even with a personal goals when they're working with me um certainly you know we know PD popped out there so that's certainly I know for sure Leo Cynthia and the team will be looking at um how do we best meet the needs because there when you look at professional development sometimes there are district
213PD that we need to do schoolwide PD or individual PD so we'll be looking to looking to see how we can meet the needs of all of those folks and one thing I'll just say about the um percentages um for um each school so the question the the question you had in the last survey was um folks are asked to complete the survey for each School you work in because as we know we have folks that work in multiple schools um this year said um complete the survey where you spend the majority of your time so it wasn't we weren't able to figure out for sure whether for example if I'm um one of the early intervention team folks that responded which school do we count them at because we don't know if that was
214someone that responded or which school they linked themselves to so that's why we didn't the survey wasn't designed to collect that data but certainly going forward I'm sure the Strategic communication team if if that's something that the um the board would like us to collect going forward we would make sure that we frontload that information in the survey question um just a sort of question around why or maybe candy do you know why it's one to five instead of 1 to four is that typical of surveys do we do one to five instead of one to four or I just was thinking it it you know would align more with our other things if we had it one to four I just wondered if there was any reason or I was wondering that too I
215mean I think most surveys are on a one to five like lyer kind of a scale um are you thinking one to four like like grading one to four yeah like the evaluation like how we self- evaluate and we give ourselves a one to four but I guess you know that is different than a survey so yeah but I would advocate for keeping one to five in this instance because you know if you have a question that's not applicable to you you just you give it a three or it looks like maybe a four in some cases look at some of the groups you're like interesting um I was curious if you guys had any more um uh detail or information around some of the resource questions around funding differences among schools is that perception
216I'm guessing it was said more than once if it made it onto the list so um do we know anything what folks were I I feel like we've tried to do a pretty um a pretty fair job of making sure we're consistent across resources between schools um um so I don't know in terms of you know being able to react and make sure we're we're we're not we don't have a blind spot somewhere I think um I'm just trying to remember I think there there were perceptions of different different budget allocations given to different schools um specifically around books um related to curriculum I think um I think the middle school and Durham there's that's where I think we saw those comments pop up the most Jean I don't know if you remember more detail
217than that and I think some of it's a combination of perception of of of that and sometimes there may be more funding going you know for example I think books last year there was a a chunk of money we found because for pel because their Library needed to expand so that might be a perception that pel might have received more than let's say Mass Landing um so there there were some around books for sure um and some just in terms of when the administrators are putting together their own budgets what their priorities are and it might be that there's a priority in one area and not in in another so maybe it's a maybe it's a um education or a transparency issue around why some choices were made versus others okay Kelly yeah I'm also
218curious to know if someone could clarify the differences or what was meant when it says a strength was support for students and Candy you mentioned that that was primarily in academic Realms versus in opportunities for growth or resources there's a sub bullet for support for students do you kind of clarify what what do you think that meant well the positive had to do with academic supports and the then it um opportunities for growth had to do with social emotional support and if I could jump into I think another area as well as if you remember last year we really struggled with edex for example those are people who support students so that was that was an area too that that people people actually mentioned that in some of their comments I just have a general
219question I'm curious um if the survey is done every year um and if the questions that are asked are pretty consistent if it is done every year every couple years excuse me it's every other year and um I guess we'd look at the survey to see if we needed to revise it at all but we pretty much and I will add that that a big piece that changed this year it was on the comment section because the committee wanted to add comments after each one of those big sub um titles whereas before it was just comments all at the end so that's why there was a lot more feedback for them to look at so um so that tells me that people took advantage of those opportunities and wrote more comments so that's good because
220it's that was your summer reading right Cara no okay not yeah just for newer newer members I mean it's tough because yeah you you want to be able to have colored boxes so you can see if things are red yellow or green so if you if you want that kind of data granularity uh and be able to look at something over time you would want to ask the same questions but the problem is like the world evolves and so we're curious about different different things but I I do just want to I do just want to say that I feel that this represents in the in the time that I've been on the board this represents a continuous evolution of um curiosity that this board has about how how happy our staff are um and
221um I'm you know I wish it was greater than 51% but as far as surveys go it's actually pretty darn good um so um I I think I think it's overall really positive and it's great to know where we have um opportunities for growth I they don't make me go we have terrible problems but what what it does for me as a board member is this would inform the kinds of questions that I ask every administrator when they come before us and give us sort of the state of the the state of the school you know how are you focusing on this with your staff you know what do you think is perception what do you think is really a problem you know can we address that in the budget somehow um it's it's a
222nice thing to look at at the top of the year to plan for the rest of the year and I guess I just say following up mie said it at the beginning that overall this was pretty positive pretty positive response from staff members and it went to teachers or Educators and secretaries and janitors that went to all staff which is good too yeah for me the the one that hopped out for me was that A3 right so you know there's some there are some things that people would like to change and you know how we're using our PD and you know the making sure we have the resources but for me at the end of the day would you recommend this as a a good place to work to someone you knew and you know
223four out of five is is quite good on that I think so you know I think what that tells me I don't know is that you know sometimes PD is not going to be super applicable to you and if you ask me I'll tell you but I understand that's the way of life and you know if we can help to improve those you know to make them more more uh useful to folks great but you know A3 for me is like how are we doing overall and and I think I'm I'm pleased with that I mean obviously room for improvement because there always is but um I I thought this was great and thank you guys I know that was a lot of work yeah I agree I do want to be careful about um
224appearing as though we don't take that feedback about professional development seriously though um I I think um I think that's a bear I think that's always a bear and I think the board can expect it to always be a challenge but I do think it's something we should continually strive to improve however possible um and provide um as much targeted PD as we as we possibly can I don't think it's ever it's possible to be perfect but I I just want to assure I know our staff watched this um and um I I want them to know that that's something that the board takes seriously and and we should continue to ask questions about yeah I'm not implying that that there's not work to be done I mean I think clearly there needs to be
225more conversation um because what our administrators think is important is not aligning clearly with what they think is important to their you know doing their job to the their best ability so there's there's clearly more communication to happen there and you know and I'm guessing that how they use this information is to help guide their goal creation for the year is that fair to say like the administrator and they do for individual administrators but in terms of PD um um that's really that plan is already made for this year but it will certainly inform py going forward and and I'm assuming that we use this information to guide excuse me bigger issues like our entire strategic plan when we get around to developing that and I think at that point we'll be getting new data
226because this will already be old I think that we will be collecting at that point when we engage in that process then we will be going back out to all these folks again in a different way to gather the data for that and do we see a lot of changes in these parameters from year to year or survey to survey or they stay fairly consistent do you know I think it's only the second one is that fair so I'm I don't I don't recall what the scores were before that might be that's a great question are we better or worse off than we were two years ago I'm not sure yeah I mean that was 2021 I don't know if we did it in yeah that was yeah that was a different survey so maybe
227we had done one in 2020 before coid hit I don't remember we'd have to look back it's a good question yeah that would be certainly interesting to compare them especially if you're looking at something that would influ form a master plan like are we consistently seeing problems in the same areas or a perception at least right yeah it was 2019 2019 yeah so it was four years ago okay wow yeah time time flies when you're having fun okay other question questions or comments on the executive summary no um all right so we already took care of 13B with the uh the vote for the for the change in the position FW uh we have no Personnel right no Personnel yep um did someone write your name down okay uh so Public public comment Maddie Venton
228hi I'm Maddie Venton I'm from Freeport um I um want to respond to a comment that was made earlier in this meeting at public comment referencing um one of us who talked about World War II and Nazis and that would be me um and I want to assure all of you that I did not make those comments lightly I read wrote and rewrote and edited what I said in the meeting uh because I didn't want to be taken out of context but this happens in this day and age and I feel that I was very much taken out of context so um I hope that you all see it differently than the person commenting earlier saw my comments but I wanted to um assure you that the reasons why I referenced um that particular point
229in history was for one reason was to explain um our assumptions as a policy the assumptions that we made um and defend why we made those assumptions and to say to explain that we did not make assumptions about groups of people and then I got rather personal when I specifically referenced World War to Germany because of my personal background feeling that I am the descendant of group of marginalized people I do personally apply the lens of being a descendant of marginalized people to my work and that was me weighing into the discussion personally in no way did I uh reference any commenters or any groups of people or what they were proposing uh we do with our policy I was simply referring to the work of the policy committee and weighing in with my point
230of view our discussion about that policy um I wanted to clarify that and make sure I I feel understood by my colleagues but I wanted to make sure to uh to clarify that for you thank you Maddie all right uh so I would take a motion to adjourn Mara Malik thank you all those in favor none opposed thank you