001Um it is 6:32. So I'll bring us back to working mode. >> Um and we'll call the uh student achievement committee meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. First item is approval of our April 30th meeting minutes. >> I'll make a motion to approve the April 30th meeting minutes. >> Second. >> Any corrections? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I >> passes. Um, and then we have approval of our May 21st meeting minutes. Uh, I'll make a motion to approve. >> You made the motion. >> Yep. >> Okay, I'll second. >> Any discussion, corrections? >> I'm abstaining.
002>> Um, hearing none. All those in favor? I >> I motion passes. That brings us to public comment. Have we received any inerson or online public comment? >> No public. >> Um and no public comment to number five is a decision item marketing revision presented by Laura L. All right. So we got a few more STEM courses um finished up over the summer which was great. Um so the marketing one curriculum is part of our marketing pathway. Um it's sandwiched between intro business and marketing 2. Um entrepreneurship is the suggested final course in the pathway. We use the marketing um research standards um from NBA research standards. We also um we did marketing two first before we did marketing one. So, back in December of 2024, I worked backwards from that course. Um, one of
003our teachers took a deep dive into really what should be the difference between the two courses and then backwards. Um, so this course, marketing one, um, really is the foundational skills that students will need to be successful uh, when they get to marketing two and they're learning how to run a school-based enterprise. We are investigating the use of a spirit box vending machine at both high schools. um where we could sell um school merchandise or even just school supplies, travel deodorant things that students might need. And so the marketing course um students would be the ones to mainly run that. And um marketing one would be how to promote it, how to market it, what are what are students interested in buying and then marketing to even more advanced. Um so we are investigating that.
004We have a meeting this week. So I'm hoping that that will be a good solution to the school store. Um >> yeah, >> um that the units are set up like this. So we have unit one which is the marketing environment. Um I really like how the teachers approach this curriculum with thinking about the vision of the graduate and how um I put in bold a little bit of how the curriculum kind of not just teaches marketing but also skills that are transferable. Um, so in unit one, the marketing environment is all about decision making and making decisions that connect to target audiences. In unit two, they do a lot of analysis and analyzing the market and determining which specific audiences are the target and how to reach them. Unit three is deeper into analysis
005and decision- making, but then how that affects profit and brand reputation. In unit four, they hone their communication skills through the lens of promoting products, uh, gathering and responding to feedback for customers. And then in unit five, they focus on relationship building, not only with customers, but sales people and suppliers. Um, we have a lot of suggestions for teachers for differentiation using UDL. Um, so this is a snippet from unit three about how to engage, represent, um, focus on action and expressions. so that more students have um accessibility to the curriculum. So there's things in there like gamifying learning um real world relevance, how to provide interactive things for students um and these are just suggestions for teachers. Um at least they're in there to help guide them. So every unit has that. And then
006every unit also has um suggestions for teachers on how to reach our learners um based on the health standards. So this is a snippet from unit four. Um we have emerging multilingual learners. We have expanding and we have bridging. So the bridging column is really what we would expect of all learners in the course and it's just kind of along that progression or meet them where they're at so that they're able to demonstrate that they so Heather Sweeney was our former business teacher at Bristol Central. Um she was the one that outlined the progression from marketing one to marketing two that we were able to follow. Um and then Britney pick that up at Crystal Eastern and finish off. >> Thank you so much. >> I have questions on your end. >> Nope. I like
007the interactive pieces of our curriculum as always. And actually I'm looking at this and thinking, you know, maybe course three is um you know, Shark Tank Showdown, you know, with two panels at the high school. >> Well, I think entrepreneurship lends itself. >> Yeah. I mean, I don't watch that show religiously, but the few times I have watched it, I'm like, "These are really interesting." They get, you know, they're on the they're in the hot seat, right? And that that happens and they're trying to, you know, get investors. But no, I I I really like the interactive pieces. I love the the vending concept, too. I hope that I hope that takes off. Yeah. >> And you'll probably get a lot of feedback about, you know, what to put in the vending, I'm sure. So,
008they'll be able to do their marketing research just with their clientele in the building, right? So real life implementation I think is um sometimes the best teacher. Thank you very much. >> Maria, anything on your end? >> No, I like um Commissioner De Antonio said, I I really love the hands-on approach. Um the the the school spirit machine or that idea is I think amazing. It gives kids that real world experience. And um no I as usual I I think the approach um that we're taking with our curricula is really effective. >> Okay like to make a motion to move marketing revision to the full board. >> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I I um that brings us to accounting revision. Y so accounting is not quite
009as exciting as marketing. It's a lot of worksheets and numbers and um but again we took the same approach of how do how do you reach out in course. So normally students would take short of business followed by accounting one advanced personal finance. So an introductory course this course is articulated um with state community college. So students can get that dual concurrently with credit. Um this is students first exposure to what an accounting workbook is, the purpose and functions of a general ledger and an overview of the full accounting cycle. Um so again we looked at all the courses in the pathway made sure there was vertical alignment but also had to attempt to meet the um fun. So we have eight units in this in this course. Um, in the past, students began the
010course with a general ledger and accounting worksheet without really having a true understanding of debits, credits, checking accounts, reconciliation, bank statements, and match. So, we built in some foundational units there to hopefully get all students kind of on the same page before delving into the general ledger um workbooks. So, this revision builds on the foundational pieces that are needed in three. Um, we also added some flex time into the piecing to address some lagging math skills for the needs of the di um again we follow the same approach as marketing one. So this is a sample from unit six of um a little bit different of a way of organizing it that this these teachers took. So they did by lesson um how we could use the universal design for learning to teach all of
011our students. So suggestions there again for representation of student expression and engagement um real world scenario suggestions, simulations, um how students collaborate on things to communicate with each other and learn from each other, visual guides or videos, things for teachers. And then same idea with the kelp standard. So we have our emerging um learners expanding and bridging progression there. Um I really like how we're starting to put the sentence stems into our curricula for teachers to see. Um so that way you know really they can give those to students to assess their knowledge if they're just working there. um really trying to get all students um language proficiency. >> So Lori River and Sharon Jakes worked on this curriculum. They actually worked into June and um I think funding to finish it up. They were
012really intentional in planning um this and aligning either end of it. Um so I really appreciated them taking that whole scope and Yeah, thank you for working a little bit over. >> Yeah, we have some really dedicated teachers that are >> I'll make a motion to move accounting provision to the full board. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Looks good to me. >> Hearing none. All those in favor? I >> I >> motion passes. >> Grade six math. >> Okay. So, we're continuing with our revisions to align to the IM version 360 curriculum. So, grade six math is the kickoff for middle school curricula. I had um presented the algebra 1 curriculum which is the for high school curriculum previously. Um, so to refresh everybody's memory, we have a little bit of a different assessment
013structure now. So there are still quick cool downs at the end of every lesson, but we also now have checkpoints um at the end of certain groups of um lessons. So they formalized their formative assessments, which is good. Um, so the teachers worked on this curriculum. They looked at the IM assessments, worked backwards, made sure there was the right amount of emphasis on specific lessons or parts of lessons. Um, and then we made some notes about slight adjustments that could be made um to assessments in the future, just um things that we want the team to look out for as they're working through the course. Um, it's aligned to common core. We are using units one through seven from e version six and grade six math. Um, unit get covered in a future course. So,
014we slow down the piecing just a little bit um based on the feedback from teachers, but we make sure that content course. Um so, there's a stronger formative initative assessment cycle. Um we explicitly name the instructional strategies in IM that support all learners document. So, the the IM website is really dense. The teacher materials are really dense. So, we put as much as we could write in the curriculum document so that teachers can see um oh these are the instructional routines. I like this the idea of this one. Let me find that manual instead of trying to teach. This ended up being like a 54 page document just because we wanted as much as possible for teachers to be here. Um so this is an example of our differentiation um through UDL for unit 4
015and this is actually right mostly right from the IM materials and what I like about what they do is they really help to help teachers to understand the the purpose of of the different resources that they're using. Um so at the bottom there you'll see a note about diagrams. Um they they really want you just to understand why it's important not to skip those things. That is really building a vational understanding or conceptual understanding. Um they also provide um based on the whole scope and sequence of their K12 curriculum receptive vocabulary. So new vocabulary that students should be learning and then the productive vocabulary. So at this point, what vocabulary they should be using in their conversation with their peers or demonstrating their learning um and we pulled out the align unit materials um for
016technology pieces that they also have online for teachers. So different applets um and and how those outlets support the learning goals. So um understanding equations and expressions working with properties of operations representing relationships between quantities that helps teachers to really see what the main ideas are and how those apps and tools are helping to um the kelp standards we use the progression of disciplinary language from the IM materials. Um so they use interpret, explain and compare and they actually tell teachers in which lessons um certain things will be happening that get to that interate, explain compare. Um they you know tell teachers that what they can anticipate of students in each unit. Um, so that way teachers know what to kind of formatively assess, what to look out for, what language is still okay to
017be informal versus what language needs formalized. Um, and then this is an example of the lesson sequence. So you'll see the checkpoint there after section A, which is lessons one through four, we have our learning targets and our success criteria. But what's also nice is for the checkpoints um we put in how teachers should respond to student thinking after each of those checkpoints. So it's not just give the checkpoint grade and move on. It's now that students have responded in a certain way. How should you how should you respond back? Um it also gives teachers suggestions of which grade levels and which units they may want to revisit with students. So, we had our former math coaches working on this curriculum as well as all of our grade six math teachers. So, um we met
018four or five times throughout the year. Um rotated people in and out. Um and we really made good progress. I was very happy with the detail that they got into looking at all the resources. I'll make a motion to move the grade six map provision to the full board. >> Second. >> Any discussion, questions? >> I have I have a quick question. I think it's very comprehensive. Um, and my question was actually going to be how uh do you anticipate this um new curriculum to be rolled out to the math teachers? But I see that all of the sixth grade math teachers were actually engaged in the process. Is additional PD necessary or do you think that because they were all sort of actively engaged that that covers the need for um you know PD
019or or a roll out. >> So part of our curriculum cycle includes an implementation year after the year that we write the curriculum. So grade six will be in its implementation year. Um, so we will use some Wednesday afternoon time, um, and potentially some time after school as well. Um, paid time to meet the teachers to make sure that they really understand the curriculum. Um, unit plan with them. Um, unpack some more things because just because all the teachers worked on the curriculum, maybe they worked on only three of the unit else worked on another, right? So, um, that is part of our curriculum implementation plan to support them throughout the year. Would that have normally been done with coaches on Wednesdays? What was the model for doing that before? >> Um, so I think
020the model was more that coaches would meet with teachers during the day during their their planning time um or during huddle time. So without that support, um we're just the best that we can with Wednesday afternoons or um we had the idea too of maybe picking having asking somebody that could be like the the grade level lead for the district and having a touch point with us so that we have some different things to try this year. >> And part of um we you know when we when we were using coaches we were also using some planning time. So now it seems some of the results of the decisions that were made um allow for planning time back in, but I just heard we might have to pay teachers after school to do this. So,
021you know, we lost coaches to save money, but now we're going to pay teachers to stay after school. they need to keep a close eye on that strategy going forward and whether it's going to be productive or impact >> um you know student achievement in that >> sixth grade is a critical year. I don't need to say that to anybody else. Um so um thank you for the information and I think that's something we have to keep an eye on. >> We'll talk a little bit more about that too when we get to the department updates and how we're thinking about different ways to support the student Perfect. >> Uh, curriculum specifically, I did have a couple of questions. Um, my standard question for IM math is, are all students getting a workbook? >> Yes.
022>> And, um, I appreciate the teachers are getting the supportive material right within the curriculum. In the past, you know, we've made sure that parents have materials to support students at home. That's still ongoing with this. Yep. >> Does that include the vocabulary? because parents might could probably use the new vocabulary as well so that they're saying the same thing while they're spring. I do have to double check the family materials, but I believe the family materials as well for vocabulary along with videos or um and it holds in English and Spanish. Um, last question. The assessment the changes to the assessment schedule. Um, I'm assuming that's going to help inform teachers more frequently, right? Or they're more frequent. >> Yes. >> And gives and which means that you have better means of um reinforcing
023scaffolding or maybe changing face, right? Getting supporting maybe that class needs extra in the um the lessons to refer back to for refreshment. Y and um also expect that that will assist with improving um math uh student achievement performance. >> I think so. I think there's also a really good opportunity here for the reach structure during the day as well. Um we'll have a little bit more information about before and end of unit assessment where students might support. >> Yeah, >> perfect. Thank you very much. >> Any other questions, discussion? I do have one other question sort of pursuant to what Commissioner Jantonio was mentioning um about the support namely coaches and and you know in kind of analyzing the methods that our teachers are going to be supported. So whether it's after school and
024um rather than during the school day, um what is this a is this a major change in practice for middle school teachers, for sixth grade teachers to have um this support with coaches after school? >> I think uh I appreciate the question now. I think um but I'm going to get into more details about what we're thinking about in terms of the times that we have available and the supports that we have for teachers for curriculum and for instruction and maybe that's a good place where I could highlight some of the differences differences between what we have done in the past and what we're planning to do in the future just so that Laura is not put on the spot just to answer it solely from >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. My question was not just
025to Laura it was kind of global. I know that you're in the room as well. Um, you I just think most importantly probably for most of us is ensuring that teachers still have the same high level of support and that it's being done in a way that's budget smart. Um, but also mindful of teachers time and you know aligning with the sort of contractual language. Um, but I know we're going to be deferring to that part of the agenda so we'll kind of wait there I guess. >> Yep. I'll be happy to hopefully I'll be able to answer your question then if not. >> Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Perfect. Thanks so much. >> Okay. Um so we will take a vote. All those in favor >> I civics re revision. >> All right. Good afternoon everybody.
026So the first course that we're going to talk about in uh the humanities side of things today is civics. This is a required course for graduation. So it's a revision, not a new course. It's semester long course. It was last revised in 2013. So the goals for these revisions are really just to update the course um and make sure it's aligned to the revised social studies standards that were released last year. Um we wanted the teachers really wanted to increase opportunities for real life connections, current events and civic participation. So we looked for opportunities in the new standards to do that. You'll see one of the examples of try to work. Uh we wanted to commit to shared expectations regarding pacing and assessment while leaving room for along the way and build meaningful um culminating
027projects into the course where we could. So those how we try to try to do those things. Uh there's four units now in the civ class. There used to be five. So we kind of collapsed the what three of the units kind of got collapsed into unit two there. The structure of the federal government uh to make room for the fourth unit which is policy case studies. Um so like I said it's required course for graduation and students kind of first learn about the ideas that that form the foundational hypothesis then look at the three different branches of government. the legislator branch the publication um and how that's impacted the political process and different policies. The one of the ways that we one of the reasons we organized the course that way things kind of
028ended up working nicely with each other is that we revised uh the culminating project. So the course now culminates in a policy paper that students write over the course of the semester. What you're actually seeing these are actually the student instruction. So over the course of the semester, students research an issue that matters to them that individually or in small groups or as a class decide how to best organize that. And then their final project is a policy paper that explains how both the government and private citizens impacted that issue on a local, state, national level. And they work on that paper in stages over the course of the semester. So you see that there's four parts to that paper. That's because the culminating project for each unit is to add to that paper. So
029they're going to build it over the course of the semester. Um we that align with one of the goals I just mentioned which is which was to try to ensure unable projects but of course so that way not only is the unit kind of meaning the pieces of larger um the whole unit the whole course is actually kind of built around this idea of tracing and seeing any student um structuring the project this way also has a benefit of um like I said making the course more cohesive for students but also provides has the most opportunity for revision that because they're working on the small paper stages um if they they write the draft of the background but they can also then revise that when they come back to the paper again. So um that's
030one of the reasons why we organize kind of this project that way. So that's one of the one of the bigger changes. Um and then another example of the kind of change that was tied both to standards and teachers interest in current events in civic participation um was that fourth unit on public policies. Um so unit 4 is now a case study of public policy. That unit was added to address standards like the one bolded above which explicitly calls for students to examine and evaluate policy decision. So you can see here this standard has students evaluate United States trade policy. So this policy in terms of costs and benefits. And then students examine at least three policies that's seen at display. They all follow the same pattern that's here. So there's three learning targets um
031in each case study. They first look at any necessary historical context and relevant terminology so they can understand um the policy why it was written what it was seeking to do. Then they scrutinize the policy specific provisions or details, look at potentially data related outcomes and evaluate different perspectives about people um and then come to a judgment overall about what they think about that policy. So like I said that's we saw that as a good opportunity to kind of weave in more current events and real world protections and it also ties in really nicely to the final stage of that semester on policy that I just explained as a last step of that students proposing policy solutions. So in the last unit they take a look at what kinds of policies and decisions had what
032kinds of impacts they had on on issues US history um and then they have proposed one of their own so they have thought through the process and studied how that's played out they do their best to propose a policy solution of their own I really want to thank Sarah Benty Ray and Jeff Fern who really worked to reshape this course and they were super flexible in terms of looking at new standards, really thinking about what they want keep the best way each of them approach the course while also being flexible and change things and try something different improve the course. So questions I want like to make a motion this revision to the full >> second. any discussion questions? >> Just a comment. I It's um even more robust than I remember the last uh
033civics course. So, I'm I'm impressed by the amount of content um we're getting in here. And my favorite part is the change to the project. I like the students choice. I like that it's not going to be overwhelming to them because it's staged and it's applicable with the point in the instruction where they're at. And I think it's probably um I think it would have a substantial impact on how they think about things because they'll have the time to do it. They're not rushing to research and try to complete the project at the end. You know what I mean? Um it'll be interesting to see if positions change along the way too, right? As a teacher, I that that's probably one of the fun parts of teaching a class like this is, you know, watching
034kids be like, you know, have the epiphany in the middle of an issue and be like, "Oh, we didn't even think of that." you know, um, so I I I like I like the project and I like that it's their choice. Thanks. >> The choice provides some opportunities to to differentiate. So it's different. A teacher can provide a different level of support if, for example, a whole class or a couple groups choose two issues, right? It's easier to find resources or point in the right direction or they can leave individuals up and it's a little bit harder to like collect things yourself for students, but up more choice. That's something that we're teaching support to come with those decisions as well. >> Sure. Student doesn't have to work in a group. They don't want to.
035Right. Right. >> Thank you. >> Maria, any other questions, discussions on your end? >> No, I I think it looks good. >> All those in favor? I >> I passes >> model United Nations is next. This is a brand new course. Um it's open to grades 10 through 12. Um it's a semester long elective credit. And the goal really for this course, the reason we wanted to add it and create it is that we're looking to expand um exposure to the model user experience and to try to generate interest participation. So there students who may be interested or maybe curious but maybe don't have the time schedule after school. They just don't have the opportunity for sports not not feel they can handle after school on top of what they're already doing. So this can
036give them a taste or a flavor of that during the day. Um or likewise kids that maybe aren't really sure if they're interested in joining the club, they can take the class during the day. They are interested go on school as well. And we were also looking to build additional introductory electives in international relations pathway. So that's the next slide. Um we had planned to add model United Nations. We have an existing global course. Um and we wanted to add a capstone course about quarter states um to be offered in partnership with CCSU. We pause the development of that one for now um due to low enrollment student now. So we'll consider either coming back that one or look for other potential potential courses that those students that pathway but we're looking for something out
037pathway is still in development but we do have a breaking course that we added as a result of that. There's three units in this course. The first is really just after that it really gets pretty usually that is one of the main pieces that you bring with And there's a lot of productive research and work that goes into understanding what that paper is and how to do the research to write it. So students get are guided through that process during unit two. Um and then in unit three they really get guided through what a committee um what what it looks like to participate committee at model. So, you know, one is really historical and kind of factual and then when we are really just prepping for conferences that we're going to the greatest extent possible
038within the school day during class and an example of that, this is a just a two lesson sequence from unit three. I just pulled out two of the days and they all kind of follow that unit follows a similar pattern. So, you can see that lesson three is really teaching what caucusing is. So students need to be able to describe the purpose of typical activities for both moderated and unmoderated caucuses. Explain relevant motions used to propose and manage caucuses including the office type top. So they're really explaining and learning what that is on the first day. Then day two is really practice. So they make formal motions to start manage types of caucuses to participate in caucus identify potential share ideas and it follows that structure. I want to teach you what happens at this
039stage of committee work and the next day it build simulated chunk of work the next day. So it's not exactly how um model typically goes because it's a little bit more broken up. teach you about it and then try it. >> And just a huge thanks to John St who has a ton of experience with model versus eastern. Um so he was really uh extremely helpful in helping those structures could be identify any discussion questions >> I just want to say it's a little bit it's been a little bit muffled um I don't know if something changed with the audio. Um, but I was a I was able to follow, but I probably, you know, missed a a little chunk of that time there. So, >> what's that? >> I think I probably just need
040to be louder. >> Oh, okay. No worries. Um, I was able to follow along visually, but I just couldn't hear some of the narration. >> Just a comment for me. I like the thought process behind taking out a low enrollment thing but giving a different opportunity of something that seems to be popular after school. It might gain popularity as a course. Um is it only going to be at B still the the class? >> Um it's it's offered at both schools. Whether or not they decide to run it is going to be based on how many students interest >> and right now the club is active only at BE right. >> The club I believe. >> Can BC students still join that club at BE? That's a very good question. >> Yeah, >> if you're
041going to market this as a class and then they find out there's a club and they could join. I don't know. Just a thought. Who knows? You >> a teacher who after experiencing the course and the professional learning support that's >> it is it is running essential. I actually believe it's not running is running essential this year. So like if there's a core group of students and a teacher who have good experience with it during school would want to start the club school that be >> so is the club running still at BE but not the course and the course is running at BC. Got it. Okay. Well you get coverage that way I guess. >> Um yeah so I I do like that and um uh I forgot what the other thing I was
042going to say. So I'm just going to move on. and come back and we can always ask later. >> Okay. Any other discussion? >> No. >> Um, all those in favor? >> I >> motion passes. Brings us to criminology. >> That's a new course that we're all really excited about. Um, so you may recall recently approving revisions for a law and justice elective which was redesigned as part of our efforts to create a criminal justice pathway. So um like we were trying to do with international relations we now have complete pathway in criminal justice. Um introduction to criminology is a capsule course math pathway. It's a dual enrollment course offered French SCSD. It's open to grades 11 through 12. Uh it's a half credit course. It's a semester long course for public schools, but students
043have the opportunity to earn three credits at Southern. Um the professor I do have to say the professor at Southern is fantastic. She's super helpful welcoming our teachers and supporting this course. So that's a really exciting partnership. She's expressed willingness to come visit classes um present them as well. So we're really capitalizing that over the course of the year. It's very popular. There's I think 75 students DC right now 152 at Eastern. So that one. So there's going to be a lot of students um with the opportunity to earn earn college credit this course. And our goals were really first and foremost to create a capstone enrollment course, the criminal justice pathway. Um and in the process really we're just working to align the SCS syllabus to the revised social study standards and to adjust
044it. um the syllabus and expectations the the high school schedule high school semester. So it really is very very close to the syllabus that we've got from Southern just the time that we have just so the course has uh four units research methods theories and theories of criminology types of crime and current issues and reforms. It's really there were some questions uh I believe when I present the law and justice about how those courses will be different. Um so I'll put that in the next couple slides but really it's that second uh unit especially the theories of criminality those are social theories and that's that's very law and justice that's the main difference between just do a sound check. >> Thank you. Take a breath. Can you hear us? Okay. >> I can it it
045maybe it was just the um how amplified it was. It's it's not going in and out like it was before. Um but if you are able to talk just a little bit louder that but I can hear you. You're not breaking up like before. >> Perfect. Um so >> Sure. So just another example some more concrete examples of how this course builds on law and justice and is a little bit different. You can see here that law and justice is a little bit more practical and procedural. So, unit three is the criminal justice process and that really just teaches students how the criminal justice system works. What are the steps? What are the stages from a police investigation to a trial and then unit four is an actual mock trial. So again, what they're learning
046is the procedure. What happens during a trial in what order? What are everyone's goals? And they're getting some hands-on practice and trying that. By contrast, criminology is different. It's really all about why. Why do we think people commit crimes? And students really explore a wide range of theories and ideas in response to that question. Um, some theories that suggest people make free choices to commit crimes. Others that look at social or biological explanations for why people might be uh that might influence their behavior. And they dive much more deeply into uh critiques of the system and potential reforms. and uh take a look at the system from multiple perspectives and then what that looks like in difference in in the targets between the two courses. You can see that law and justice on the left
047two um is really about classifying types of crime. So what makes homicide different from murder um or manslaughter based on the severity of the charges and classified non-fatal crimes against persons based on the defense mental state and severity of so that's really just how are how are the crimes classified what differentiates one other unit three is probably the most in criminology is the unit that is most similar but even in that unit you can see the difference so that first target is kind of a little bit review. I can define distinguish between various types of interpersonal violence. So if they have taken law and justice before that first target will be a little bit more of a review because they will have done that. But then the second target there is I can apply crimological
048theory to analyze the motivations behind a specific violent crime. So they'll get like a case study of a homicide and they'll practice applying the theories that they learn to that case study and try to explain why why did this person create homicide? was it biological factors but social factors environmental factors which are those theories that we looked at best explains this so uh that's that's the course and really big thanks to to Jandro and Nent this is brand new to both of them so we really didn't need help uh from the professor southern who's great um but this is a big lift for them because they're learning a lot of new content along the way um to make sure that the students have this opportunity So they they took on a lot of work to
049write the curriculum. They're taking on a lot of work to learn of course as they start to teach it. And we're super grateful to them for for giving kids the opportunity. >> Make a motion to move the terminology SCSU to the full board. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Is the credit only given to them if they go to SCSU or is that any state any state school? >> Uh no, I'm pretty sure they have if they have a transcript from Southern with credits on it. Um >> Oh, okay. So transfers. >> Yeah, that's I mean that's that's always going to be up to any individual university, right? which whose credits they accept for what >> I'm pretty certain that all of the states colleges including Yukon will accept credits earned at any of the universities
050east. Okay. >> Okay. All those in favor I I >> I pass it. That brings us to the criminology textbook. >> Y so we are hope we are moving the first reading of the criminology textbook into student achievement so that we can do the second reading for that meeting um and get that book out to to teachers as quickly as possible. Um this is uh effectively required textbook for the course. the syllabus and the course um that the syllabus we got from southern is built around this textbook the units are aligned the chapters in this textbook um and it's definitely going to be an important resource I mentioned earlier this is new content to both of our teachers to both them and our students uh will be leaning on the textbook uh as they learn
051the course um it's identified as a core resource in the curriculum we are using grant funds from the enrollment grant to pay for it so anticipating the district at this time. Um, and just wanted to give you the opportunity to ask any questions you might have about it before approval. >> I make a motion to move the criminology text from first reading. No, we don't have to make a motion, right? Because it uh to the full board for approval second reading. This is a little bit unusual because we typically have two full board um board meetings readings of the text because of the timeline and not having a meeting in June. We want to make sure that the teachers get the resource. So, we thought this would be a good chance potentially to hear about
052the book that's going to be presented. If you have you want to see a preview of the book, we can make available before the board or any other commissioner. But I don't I don't know that we need to vote to move it forward. It'll present be presented again at the September meeting. >> So that brings us to 12 uh Latin revision. >> Uh so this is Latin one. This is a course revision to the first course in the Latin sequence which was last revised in 2026. It's a full year accelerated course with one credit. And the main the main goals for these revisions were really just to update the curriculum, get fresh eyes on it, get two teachers together to talk about implementation and move it into a revised template. Um we wanted to review
053or align um to updated or anticipated changes to core resources and just foster continued collaboration alignment between two experienced L teachers. One of whom is relatively new to the district one has been session for a long time is an experienced L teacher joined few years ago. So we want to give them more time during the school day to really talk about things. Um there's there's four units um at home enroll community interactions and statement time um they really learn a lot there's two main goals which is to comprehend the Latin language um through the practice of reading while also developing students understanding of the social and political history of the moments and they really do that by following a single story line over the course of multiple years of patent. So um each of those
054units are aligned to that story line and appropriate source and the teachers really spend the bulk of their time talking throughation of that how approach it how we sequence it through a series of days and lesson try to get the case and expectations and these are just some for the next and these are just some two examples of how they did that. So they really try to map out like how much time do we spend with each of these things what do they look like lessons differentiate learning targets and success criteria. So in the open unit first target is the success to describe the members of familia and then they're going to do that by using English derivatives and images to discern Latin words by comparing structures. this was a really good practice for them
055um and for me to think about Latin which is a little bit different even in terms of what languages it's not a spoken language to think about how to keep the function of the language learning the primary goal and the learning target and then grammatical success so I think that was valuable learning even process of working for all three of us I'm grateful to Katy and Kelly for for entertaining my lack of knowledge in Latin, but helping them work through some of it. >> Did you get to make your own toga? >> I did not yet. I've not yet made my own toga. See if that see that. Um, yeah. So, just I wanted to really thank next slide for all their so >> I'm sorry through the chair. I I hate to um interrupt.
056If there are corresponding materials, I'm not seeing them projected. >> Do you see targets and success criteria right now? >> I don't. >> Was it working before? >> It was. >> Oh, Mrs. Mrs. Plesi sees it. Maybe it's something with my settings. Okay, let me see if I did something. No, I only see Mrs. Paglei and then y'all. [Music] Um, it's okay because I I'm I'm certain I have the attachments probably in the email. It just it was projecting. Oh, I apologize. It looks as though I somehow have it in a different screen. Okay. >> Okay. >> Apologize. Sorry about that, everyone. >> No worries. >> So, there there were the targets. Um and and all you're really all you're seeing now is just a big thank you to Katie and to Kelly. Unless there's
057questions, that's all I have to answer questions. >> Well, I think to have one revision of the full board. Second, >> I will say that I I have have had a student who did all four years and Mrs. MD is the OG of Latin. >> And I am so I can't tell you how grateful that students are in Bristol public schools to have this opportunity to take four years of Latin because there are very few. Last I checked with Mrs. MD, she had said there was only 19 certified Latin teachers in the entire state of Connecticut. and um that hopefully that's increasing but it also it also limits you know opportunities at the college level um too because they can't find teachers. So and I'm equally grateful with um Miss Reic for joining us so
058that we have a continuity of instruction and uh um I'm sure her and Mrs. MD are >> you know sharing their passion. So now Mrs. MD has somebody else to, you know, kind of register. I I I just have to say and because I was hoping Miss MD would be here um so I could give her all the accolades, but it honestly it we are lucky. We're lucky to have that and I'm so glad that we still are able to teach it. I really am. >> You're gonna have to go to some of the You got to do the Saturnalia ornament. You I mean this is a very hands-on class. I've seen seen it. >> I'm going to bring in for show and tell a couple Sarinia ornaments I still have in the Christmas. >>
059Okay. >> All those in favor? >> I motion passes. >> All right. Introducing the agenda item. >> Sure. >> On to number 13. Office of Teaching and Learning uh curriculum and instructional services department update. >> And this one I don't have a slide deck for, but I believe that Superintendent White had emailed us earlier. Commissioner, so you should have this same thing that I >> Thank you. >> I Mrs. Albert for Latin Eastern Latin. My daughters are taking Latin right now. Not going to die. is not a deadline. >> It is not a dead language. >> Are they pursuing medical? >> No, they're they'd be very interested in the international relations. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> Also taking Spanish. >> Okay, enough about my own kids. Before I really talk about some of the changes
060to the department, I do want to begin all of our presentations you saw ended with a thank you to the teachers. I have to begin this presentation with a thank you to the team. Um the summer for our office is the busiest time. Um most school principles are very very relieved on the last day of school and are looking forward to a summer break. Uh that is our busiest time because that's when teachers are available to work on curriculum when we're thinking about our professional learning for the upcoming year. All of the ordering to make sure that teachers have the resources that they need. So, I especially need to thank Laura and Leashik. They've been with me all summer really working through some of the new ways of thinking that we need to think about
061as we're approaching the school year. I don't want to forget to thank uh Caitlyn and Danielle, the other assistants in our office. They're certainly some more work as we're trying to sort through the electronic files of some of the supervisors, Catherine, Dylan, who left. Um and we have our encore office downstairs as well who have been certainly putting in a lot of time this summer working as a team to support not just the team itself but are the possibility that we can offer to administrators themselves. Finally, we have Karen who is an unsung hero. She calls herself a book lady books. There's a number of different titles that she likes to go by, but as an example of some on the list that she said we've received over 6,000 books this week that she >>
062Yeah. 35 pallets of books that need to get out to schools before the first day. So, she's here uh working with some student workers. It was at a great opportunity for us to get some student workers. Joey helped us make that happen very quickly. So, we appreciate that. So, it's a learning experience for students. we're we're seeing her and get the support, but she is certainly working. So, I need to say thank you to my team. So, the first way that I'm going to start is that we um have decided collectively that we're changing the name of our department. So, for I would say about the past 20 years, uh the we've been known as the office of teaching and learning. And the joke that I kind of say is there's nothing in a school
063district that doesn't have to do with teaching and learning. And so when people have a question they call teaching and learning. Uh so we felt like the title is really just becoming too broad and we needed to more narrowly define what our title or really show what our work was in the department by our title. So moving forward we're going be known as a known instructional services department. I think it's better reflections similar to what's happening the title of our personnel services department because it highlights the work that we do and the way in which we're acting in service to schools across the district. So the first kind of shift we're making is that we're going to be known as the curriculum and educational services. We do do a lot of work with assessment but
064the joke has been that we don't want to be the CIA. We are not spies. We don't have the implications that you're going to be the CIS CIS, not CSI. There's no crime here. So, uh, in recent conversations that we've had over the summer on, how can we better help people understand the work that we do, we have had a mission and vision for the district for the for our our specific department for the past say about eight years since I joined, but we haven't really been very public about that. And so we thought that we're going to take as many opportunities can to help share what our mission and vision is because it helps to define the work that we do. And so oftentimes when you're thinking about curriculum and instruction, you might be
065thinking solely about the impact on students. We certainly play a key role in supporting our students attainment of the vision that we have for their graduation for our vision. And that's what you'll see under that mission box. How are supporting all students really meet uh the goals that we have for them within that vision? But an important part of our work is also working with teachers and leaders in support of that. So our work is supporting teachers and their understanding of curriculum not just in the writing of new curriculum, development of new curriculum, but in the implementation as well. So we'll talk about how we're seeing that work, how we've done it in the past, how we're going to move forward with that. We also support leaders because we know school leaders while they are
066certainly important in the operations of their school. Students wouldn't be learning without their support. So we need uh we work closely with leaders on how do they look at student achievement? How do they look at what we're really um aiming for when we're talking about a new approach in mathematics instruction for example. So what should they be looking for in classrooms? How are they giving feedback to teachers on that? So you can see that we as a department work to support students teachers uh in the vision that we have for us are the members of the curriculum in instructional services team going be a mouthful all the way through uh is really that we are going to model collaborative leadership that we're going to be working together. You probably have noticed that at most meetings
067we're always here together. That's because we want to be a model for others about how important it is that we understand what each other's work is. That we really are setting the standard for what we want for students. So we are going to be very explicit in the curricular expectations that we have. We're going to hold students to high expectations. We're going to hold ourselves to high expectations as well. Again, modeling what that standard would be. We also want to be a model of those who work with a deep theory, a deep knowledge of theory and research. So we want to be current. And so that's a lot of our work together as we're building. Our background is spent on building our understanding of current theories, current research, current ideas that are going to support
068what we can do. That's why you're seeing some courses with very short revision cycles. That's because we're learning more and really want to put that in practice. And finally, um, we hope that people see that there is a constant reflection and refining of our practices. So you won't see us satisfied with any one way of working, you'll continue to see ways in which we so we hope that by working together as a department. Um, we can set that that as a vision for the way in which we work as a model for others as we work with students. That's a general overview of what we see in the department. But I think more specifically the areas that we have concentrated on this summer are those three primary areas of our work. And so I'll talk
069about those in brief. The first which I think student achievement is very well aware of is our curriculum support. Um what you might be less aware of you see mostly the product of the um writing process but we do do some work before curriculum's even approaching that design phase and we support curriculum afterward. We formalized it this summer at the acronym of idea. So thinking about each curriculum in a fouryear kind of stage. So investigation is when we really begin work as individual supervisors thinking about what is the current research in the area around this particular course. So you heard Les reference that a little bit when he was talking about the new course with Southern that required some learning both on his part and the part of the teachers. Um we're engaging in sometimes
070a year-long um investigation. So right now another example might be Lushik's work that he's done grade eight partnering with um the 4QM strategy bringing a huge resource to the district through the connections that he's built through some professional learning that he's done bringing it to the district to national presenters team and works with our middle school social studies teachers this summer at no cost to us all part of some of laying the groundwork to thinking about how are we going to approach the writing of curriculum that if I think about when that happened last year and previous years was really uh all after the school day paid opportunities likely mostly voluntary they're voluntary or paid after school depending on how many be involved you might think about that as a we have professional book discussions
071and so teachers are signing up to join to be part of a a professional book discussion so that they could read something and comment building classrooms would be an example learn about practice and then that lays is a foundation for readying teachers to write the curriculum. Writing the curriculum is what we would be now in the design phase thinking about how are we creating the documents that you're seeing here. And you could see that there's quite a lot now that you've seen likely some of you as the curriculum documents have changed how we're really seeking to provide additional resources and supports to teachers so that we can better support all of our students. That in itself is a learning experience. that most of that work has occurred on uh during the school day. We provide
072sub coverage in the teachers contract that they could be asked to come to work in a district purpose for two days out of the school year. And so we've been using those two days to have representation from all teachers on our curriculum. It does sometimes pres present challenges and so you know that sometimes we have to shift the curriculum that we're presenting to you. One of the most major challenges that we have is the availability of substitute coverage. And so there are moments when our supervisors will not be able to write their curriculum because they don't have the coverage that they needed. Uh one strategy that we're thinking about this year is we've prioritized really explicitly any tested any curriculum that has a test associated with it. So, we're prioritizing anything in the English lit
073English language arts, literacy, math, or science areas. And if we have to really think about some other priorities that they're going to fall into priority, too, we may not get to those. Those would be all non tested areas, elective based areas or oh um there have been times in the past one another major change I know some of the questions were around coach support um as we're thinking about curriculum development one opportunity that we had built in in prior years was on our Wednesday afternoons we had department specific departmentwide meetings that would allow teachers from both schools. If I'm thinking about high school curriculum or multiple school representation at the elementary level, another factor that might be uh impacting some of our curriculum work this year is the limitation of Wednesdays. Now, there are only
074two Wednesdays per month. Um, and so we've had to think strategically about how we're going to use that time. generally the third or fourth Wednesday when we could do it, but it might have been used for curriculum writing purposes or a department meeting where they would read. Um, so I'm going to get to that a little bit when I talk about the instructional pathway because some teachers might be two areas of work. So for after after a curriculum is approved by the board. Um, and it's great that we can see the grade six 54 page document grade six math curriculum. It's We don't want our curriculum just to sit and they used to say used to sit on the shelf but we don't have shelves anymore. Sit never touched electronically I guess in the internet.
075We really want teachers to be able to use that. So we have a series of routines that we're developing to better support teachers in their execution of that curriculum. And so we're looking towards time that might be built into the August professional learning where they could begin the school year for many of the priority courses. Really thinking about uh the curriculum, reviewing the key components of that curriculum and start the school year with at least the first few lessons planned using the curriculum document itself. Uh and then many of the teachers I and I'll be identified below under the execution phase. So just kindergarten literacy, three through five math, middle school math, high school civics, six through eight art, six through eight wellness, high school algebra, high school precal are all in this now execution
076support where Laura or other teacher leaders who are stepping up to support teachers on Wednesday afternoon supporting in that regular ongoing support of that what that means. So if I'm just going to take an example of high school precal on some Wednesdays there will be teachers in the school who will be working on an instructional objective purpose to improve their instructional practice. The pre-cal teachers may be missing that because they're going to need the support of Laura to help them really work through their precal get feedback on that curriculum. Think about the upcoming units reflect on students achievement and see what adaptations might need to be made. The benefit um is that the teachers will really have a strong foundational knowledge of what that curriculum is and the other factor that we've talked about is
077that Laura Allesic any member of our curriculum team will also know the instructional purpose that the schools are working at. So they can embed some of that within that there's some both opportunity for teachers there. The final phase is really we're thinking about um how we might need to adjust sort of thinking long term on so when when we're now revving up what questions do we still have what groups where are there gaps in achievement that we really need to delve more deeply into how can we take that second year of full implementation to really address some of those things. So, we're not putting any of the curriculum from last year into that page right now just because we need to try to manage our work a little bit in the upcoming year. Our focus
078is really on working with teachers. Everything that's under the u design phase at next student achievement uh next student achievement meeting. You'll have a calendar of curricular presentations as you go along. um our work during the school day will be focused on that and the support of curriculum in year one will be occurring on some Wednesday. If there are any questions about curricular support >> okay so then the next cycle that we're focused on and I think um this is where it's been a a very collaborative process really where we see the mission of services coming into play is how are be supporting our Bristol model of high quality instruction uh within the classroom within what teachers are learning and professional learning. This cycle in the upcoming year, so this framing is new. Uh you
079can see that we're calling it the focus cycle. Um it was uh primarily led the framing the focus helping principles figure out the observe and learn phase providing the research providing some of the reading creating the vision. And so last year we spent a lot of time as an example focused on how are we going to define discourse for the district whether that's like what does kindergarten discourse look like what does grade 12 discourse look like and how are we engaging in practice to support that work um is now going to be a shared endeavor between our department and school leaders and it's going to focus around some of the questions that you can see below. see our elementary focus questions and our secondary focus questions. Our professional learning planning committee which is a subcommittee
080of the required state required PD took teacher feedback what they really wanted to learn more about and took our model of high quality instruction to merge those two to to to arrive at these questions. So essentially each school is going to either on their own or with a network school based on their choice uh choose one or more of the questions to explore with their faculty this year. So for elementary questions we have in what ways can routines and norms from crew that's our um opportunity for students to really build a sense of a positive learning community be adapted to support productive academic discourse. So, how does um learning about how to listen to others improve play out when we're having a discussion with our partners about their M? The second question, what were the
081what are the most critical classroom physical arrangements and routines that support smooth inclusive discourse? And then the third, what adjustments to purpose, structure, or facilitation can ensure that all students participate respectfully in challenging conversations? So some of the um survey data from teachers were really focused on better supporting some of the students within classrooms that might be presenting some challenging behaviors. You can see that in red in those three questions. Certainly we want the one of our main focuses of last year was that through discourse we learned that everybody has something to contribute to each other's knowledge in the room. And so we want to make sure that all voices are heard. And so we'll work with teachers on how do we bridge that? How are we building scaffolds and routines and going back to
082things that we're talking about in terms of how we interact with one another at the beginning of the school day periodically throughout the school day to better support students in that environment. That does mean that teachers on those Wednesdays then are going to be doing some reading and research on their own. We have student voice as a main component, another way in which teachers are going to learn about how are students feeling. That is superintendent one of her goals this year. So, we can see that flowing really nicely here. We can ask students, well, what does make you feel safe when we're having a a conversation that might be challenging? what is your teacher doing to help you make sure that your students other students in the class are listening to what you said? Um,
083and then they're going after investigating and researching possible options to consider really figuring out what success would look like if they answered that question well, uh, they're going to work in teams to really describe some of the instructional practices that they could further work on in their collaborative teams to support all students. The secondary questions are a little bit different. They too had um some the teacher feedback that they wanted more support around supporting ML students, multilingual student students who may require accommodations or modifications. We have a lot of great additions into our curriculum documents, but then they also wanted some ideas on how to better support students while they're instructing. So, we're focusing on the physical environment, scaffolds, groupings for discourse that they could be thinking about to better support students who are ML
084learners and students who might require accommodations and modifications. They also had many, many questions about AI. And so they're going to begin in August uh with an overview of AI, the way in which they can think about using that as teachers, some things they need to be thinking about in terms of uh supporting students and their learning and why AI might interfere with learning or could be an asset. So they're going to have that learning in the August professional development and that could be followed up throughout the school year if a school selected that as their focus question as how can you use AI to better support student discourse providing students with opportunities to look at different concepts from different points. All of the instructional work is going to be occurring on Wednesday afternoons that
085are built into the school calendar. Principles will know when the curriculum track folks, the those who are working in that year one implementation will be out of their building. So, they're going to be working tomorrow on identifying and mapping out when will I have my full staff to be able to talk about some of these questions, to share the readings that they found, to share the student voices. Um, and then when they're they might not have their full staff because they'll be working at the curriculum. And so the they'll be able to shift between direct kind of instructional approaches um when they have their full faculty or sharing opportunities when they have their full faculty and providing teachers with more time to research, learn, think about the practices that they're going to be using when
086they might have some of their teachers pulled out. I I'll take this time to ask a question specifically in here because the AI um so do you envision having um an AI committee as part of um whatever structure makeup you have. reason why I asked um and and secondly our question if not are there state level resources for vetting AI tools because uh even working in IT department we are strictly looking at AI tools in a security standpoint but that also becomes something that districts need to be aware of as well understanding the tools themselves and their technical um prowess or not and where the vulnerability ilities could be. And so, um, even in our own state level departments, we're creating review committees before we commit >> to any of the AI tools. Um, we
087want to make sure that they're vetted >> to be safe even for the district to use, right? So, that that just set the flag right up in my thought. I just wanted to know how how are you going to handle that? >> It's so great because Joe's in the room. You're like, what? What does that have to do with the chief of town? Um, so I can give you a little history on how how we arrived at where we are and sharing this, but certainly feel free to chime in. >> Was this your idea, Joe? Is that what she's getting at? uh when I would say now about a year and a half ago, maybe maybe about two years ago when AI really first became available for individual users, we had begun as a district
088to do some professional learning just among our administrators about AI, some of the ways in which it could be used, some of the ways that we need to really consider deeply how it could be misused, some of the embedded biases, elements such as that um and we committed to spending a lot of time learning about AI before making any decisions about what would be allowed or not allowed. And so there were some districts that immediately were very open and allowed a lot of students and teacher access to AI where we took a more slow ruled approach. uh the approach that we did take after a few I would say we'd spent about 18 hours with our administrators 12 to 18 hours with our administrators on AI two years ago uh we established a an AI
089working group we really wanted teachers to be have a strong voice in AI and what we were thinking about in terms of uh both policy recommendations and recommendations for students profession professional learning for teachers teacher you use and student needs Joe was a leader of that AI working group and so he led a number of teachers throughout the years. He and Rosie Bossy Marie led a group of interested teachers, teachers who had experience with AI or even some teachers who didn't really want their students to be using AI were fearful of how it could be misused. They attended multiple professional learning sessions themselves throughout the year. last year. We've had some indist consultation with Matt Hervis who is one of the most well-known AI experts now in the state of Connecticut for educational purposes really
090weigh in on what our recommendations could be. uh at the end of last of the first year of work, Joe and his uh committee presented some recommendations to the central office cabinet and what could be communicated out to teachers and how we were going to think about it. Essentially at that point those recommendations of we really need to be clear in what the expectations are which was at that moment nothing was approved by the state for use with teachers or students. nothing had student data privacy clearance. We there didn't quite have that sandbox yet. People didn't know how their data was going to be used. So the recommendation at that point was no use whatsoever. And they did talk with teachers about the potential benefit why we want to think about that. They have a
091we have a belief statement about our use around AI. It probably deserves this whole item at an upcoming student achievement meeting uh where we could share what what those beliefs are. one pager this year's work uh this past year uh again Joe and Rosie led the work with teachers and then checked in with our department and we've worked collaboratively now to arrive at a point where we have a belief statement. We know that there are I think two perfect two confirmed uses. We're still checking on two more platforms that teachers can use um that are approved by the district for use of their own for instructional purposes. Uh those are Gemini and AI. So Gemini is the AI call it tool probably have more sophisticated vocabulary around this than I do tool that's built within
092Google. And so because we're a Google district, they've built it in a way that in a sandbox. No data is being shared outside of the sandbox and it is approved through the student data privacy clearing. Uh Brisk is the other. Brisk AI is a tool that helps teachers see how students have accessed AI. So essentially it plays if a teacher opens up a document it plays what the has been done in the document the little video. So it would show if the student just copies and pastes whole big chunk of text, teachers would know that that it was likely that the student is using AI. Um so around that topic uh we did have a lot of questions last year on whether you could use AI detectors in student work. We ran into some issues
093where teacher teachers were running uh student work through AI which is problematic for a number of reasons. one, it's the student's own work. You cannot be putting that out in a very public way without knowing how the data is going to be used. >> And then the other is that not many of the um AI checkers are accurate and so that could lead to some problems. So first AI was a great alternative that that committee has come up with that we could see what the students work like. Leic certainly because he's in humanities is working with teachers on really bringing more of students writing into class so that we can work with students on that writing process and support them in their development of learning how to write. Along with that part of the opening
094August professional learning is really around how do we have conversations with students if we suspect that they're using AI. So one is not to automatically assume that AI has been used. really thinking and talking with students about why they thought AI was going to be the solution to their challenge, where their challenges really uh began and how we can better support them as educators before we just leap to trying to punish. Um, and the policy that we're relying upon should a student not be presenting their own authentic ideas is our plagiarism policy because it does cover students not authentically presenting their own ideas. And so we have that board policy as it exists. We didn't think in review that committee along with our office think that the policy needed to be revised. Academic integrity is
095academic integrity whether you're looking at your partner's paper or whether you think that there's a lot but that probably addresses some of the questions and concerns that you had. I would answer them. I have to really applaud you, Carly, and you. I mean, because um to give that kind of thorough and you know, prepared response for something that, you know, I'm going to ask detailed questions about, you know, I I just I no, you really deserve the recognition of being able to play on your feet and answer things on your feet. And I I just need to tell you I appreciate you and you are a model of success for your own staff. So I have to say that but um the brisk tool is exactly what I was going to ask about. Um and
096my only piece that I will add because you were so thorough in everything that I was about to ask was are we also um as you're developing this workg group putting in a teaching model to students about expectations at the college level because the college level is already you know probably one step ahead right because they have you know, extreme plagiarism uh policies and all that. And so, you know, preparing kids now for the expectations that we have those expectations about plagiarism anyway, right? But, you know, this this adds a whole another level of complexity to what you have to do to monitor that. And you know there's there's this um right now the AI is further ahead than we've caught up to >> and uh you know it's going to be a challenge right
097it's going to be a continued challenge and I'm sure you recognize that but building that into preparing students for postsecary and even in the workplace right because some AI tools are built so that it provides enormous efficiency in the office so we don't want people to think that um AI use is just for plagiarism. AI use is to create huge amount of efficiencies when you get into an office environment, right? Do you want to spend the next five hours of your own time rewriting your uh meeting minutes or is it an acceptable use of AI to summarize meeting minutes because people just want to hear what was said in the meeting, right? So in that respect, AI is a is going to be an important understanding for students when they get in the work world,
098right? And so what is the difference between plagiarism and using a tool to be a really good employee, right? So there's a there's a there's a nuance there. There's a teaching about AI really, right? So um thank you. Thank you for establishing the committee in advance of even knowing that you did that and being you know >> anticipating it. Right. >> I will say as of right now um Gemini is a tool that could be available to our students with in our August professional learning we are saying that we are not allowing students to use AI yet. Uh the guiding belief statement certainly values the use of AI and how it can support efficiencies in the future. I think you and Allesia could have lots of conversations liking to talk about how AI could be
099used in the workforce, but we're an educational environment which is different, right? We already have something to learn and so we need to talk to students about you don't want AI to rob you of your learning. You have to engage in that to learn, but there's certainly other things that my weekly planning schedule that can help you be more efficient in that. So, we have to really be explicit in what we want students to learn and then when they can use it as a tool. We do have some foundational uh documents that talk about how we can communicate that to students. Are you using AI to do research? Are you using AI as a learning aid? Are you using AI to proof uh your work or provide you some feedback? Or is it not allowed
100because the purpose of the assignment is for you to really show your we are planning on continuing work with the AI working group. Joe's passed the time more formally, I think, to Rosie. uh who's been in this week twice to think about where what are our next steps as a group and that's our focus is how are we going to network with teachers and communicating students uh a critical piece and you'll see it um in our revisions for the upcoming years is when we're teaching our students to be solid digital citizens the tools that they have available to them currently that's taught in our library media specialist uh curricul It was just recently revised. We do need to go back and really think more deeply about how we can better support that through library media.
101You probably noticed that we have a big empty column uh as we talk about the third cycle of work which is on assessment, data support and implementation. I would say it's in this column. There's a couple of reasons why it's blank. Uh, Bristol has been known for having one of the strongest data team approaches, looking at how students are achieving, how we're responding to any needs or any opportunities to accelerate students. A lot of those structures were facilitated by coaches within the school day during huddles. And so, we've had to reinvision how we're going to approach that work. We do see that work still continuing to take place during huddle time which is a time when all teachers of the same grade workforce can meet together within the school day. Uh we just need to
102work with our school leaders on what's uh who in their school can help facilitate some of those conversations. It could fall to the more to the school leader. Other opportunities could be more of a collective conversation and that would mean we really need to go back to develop a data cycle for teachers that were teaching to teachers that they could follow on their own. That is going to take some more work and collaboration with teachers. So you'll see uh that there's nothing there yet. We anticipate being ready with the data cycle thinking about that more deeply by about midocctober. our huddles by contract by the teacher contract can't start until October 1. So that's one of the reasons why we dep prioritize that area. You'll also know because you know when you get our SBA
103results that a lot of the first month of school is really processing both our overall data from the assessments that were given at the end of last year and then looking at individual student performance from those assessments. So we felt like that was an area where we could take our time and really think through how we wanted to be working with both the school leaders and teachers on their question so well in their time. like a five minute presentation. I said I could do this in 15. >> That's always my fault. >> Well, I added I added quite a bit substantially. So, >> you weren't expecting such a long answer. >> Oh, I appreciate it. >> That way you didn't have to ask any more questions. Uh the last chart I thought it'd be helpful
104to get a sense of who is in our department. So I really outlined our curriculum our curriculum supervisors um and the work that has been done by them in the past and some changes. This isn't reflective of the whole department. and Sarah Lupa who's the director of adult education and secretary Teslaw is also considered part of the curriculum instructional services as well as Soro our director athletics but because I believe more of the questions are around curriculum and instruction uh support I wanted to show you these positions I don't want to read over everything you can see that they their work aligns with much of what I just went over whether it's curriculum instructional or professional learning their use of assessment data how they're processing that information. They also have responsibilities under budget, grant, and
105operations. So, you might not be aware that our department budgets and purchases, hence the 6,000 math workbooks that are out there, anything that is required for uh curriculum implementation. So, any textbook, any book, any consumable workbook, any consumables that might be used in science instruction, they're all purchased, ordered, um carried out through our office. The other areas I think because we've had conversations here in student achievement you're pretty familiar with. But I do want to point out some of the changes as we're looking forward to next year. So as you know right now we have our secondary uh groups firmly intact which is I'm so grateful for. We just had our new teacher academy started yesterday. All of the new teachers are at the secondary level. It's great because uh they've been able to support
106our new teachers who have arrived in the district and much more of meeting with them over the past two days really supporting their entry into the district. We don't currently have an elementary humanities and an elementary STEM supervisor. We've had conversations among our central office cabinet. Superintendent White has um helps us think through how we can re I don't want to say repurpose, but how we can think about the grant funding that we have available now to try to uh refill some of the vacant positions and restore them within our department. The elementary humanities position was one of the greatest losses that we've had for the for our department. Not only as I could speak about Azure as a person, but I am going to talk about the humanities role. uh the community's role is
107critical because that is one of the areas where he has the most requirement state legislated requirement for literacy. And so she had on top of uh curriculum revision and support and supporting our uh early scholars in their literacy development many other responsibilities that did have timely deadlines to the state the state. So, in thinking about um what position we might need to restore most, that was first on our list. You can see under the changes row um with the resignation of Jillian Roman, we have a alliance funds that are available. Alliance has funded the elementary STEM supervisory position. The alliance funds will now be used to fund the elementary humanities position. Um there were some things that were added to this position. Um and so we have added back school readiness and summer school responsibility.
108Um before we had an elementary STEM supervisor. Those responsibilities did fall under the humanities. It was a general K5 supervisor. One of the reasons why we added an elementary STEM supervisor was to try to better share the load. And so unfortunately now with some of the changes that we have in the district, she's going to have to pick up she whomever is uh in that role is going to have to take on some of the added responsibilities because our hope is to be able to add a 10-month position as an elementary STEM to again restore some of the support that was lost when the position was eliminated. The funds for the elementary STEM position are anticipated to come from title one. We don't have title one yet, so we can't create this position, but we
109do anticipate funds being available because we had shifted T-OL teachers that were funded in title one to Alliance. We knew that the number of students that we've had and that was in the budget presentations and approved all of last year. Um, I want to be careful of the language there because it could be a supplanting issue with that. not supplanting the T-L the T- cell teachers were moved to Alliance out of title because we knew that our ML population was growing we needed to ensure that that was a more solid funding was available to support the T- cell teacher title one can vary between year year to year last year we had um a dramatic cut in title one funds this year it's looking like it will be restored to what we have seen in
110the past but given that we did not want to put our TLE teachers at risk of not being able to be funded the following year. Uh, Superintendent White put our TEL teachers in alliance. That has left some room in title one where we are anticipating the possibility of bringing on a 10-month elementary STEM supervisor. Obviously, I can't have an elementary STEM supervisor working 10 months and a secondary STEM supervisor working 12 months and have exactly the same responsibilities. So that's why you're seeing a shift of some of the responsibilities that were done by our elementary STEM to our elementary community. It's another reason why Laura is seeing a shift in an addition to her work which is as the district testing coordinator and we are going to plan on being flexible with some of the
111testing coordinator responsibilities between our secondary teams we're trying to manage um in anticipation of where that work will be. think that is anything to add from I think that's the gist of where we >> can we discuss the changes in the arts and theater >> oh sure uh so that was a position if you recall from uh the I'm sure you the budget u the last budget approval I don't know the right terminology there uh there was a request to eliminate two of the supervisors from our department. So the one of the positions that was first eliminated was the elementary humanity supervisor primarily because there was a resignation in that area. We talked about how we're going to try to restore that through other grant funds with no impact on the general budget. The second
112position uh that we were eliminating was the fine art supervisor of fine art. Uh in convers that position was eliminated, Mr. Bagley. Um, actually I think I think I owe him uh saying that he volunteered to become a teacher so that our team get emotional about that. So that our team could stay intact. Sorry. >> Want to take five? >> No, I already five. I just need a breath. >> All good. All good. >> Really appreciate the members of our team. um he volunteered to take on a teaching position. So we reduced a music teaching position when he uh said you know this team really needs to stay in place. I could see myself teaching and still continuing to support in a department chair like role. In conversations with what the work was going to
113be for uh Mr. Bagley, Joe was working with uh the BFT and BAPS about that role. Uh it was decided that Mr. would still need to do some supervision of teachers. He would need to evaluate and the first approached I believe Joe you first approached the BMT to see if he could remain a teacher but evaluate and they felt that it was better for Mr. Bagley to move into continue in the back contract as an administrator teaching 50% of the time and then being evaluator department support for fine arts for 50% of the time. So um he's going to be working 50 50% capacity. So he'll be working under the conditions within the administrative >> and he agreed to that. >> Yes. I can I can see how emotional this all is. Thank you >>
114and thank you to everything. >> We certainly understand that there are some financial challenges, right? and we want to be part of a team to support and do the best that we can to support our students. You know, we'll do what we can. We have a hope that in the future uh the strong work will be recognized that some of the supports that have been there can be restored and I think the efforts by superintendent way Joe Mr. Kaskky speak formally to help us restore some of those positions has been a move in a positive direction in my opinion and I'm hopeful that that continue to move forward. So, I'm appreciative of the focus. That was one of my questions was about budget res uh budget restoration and how are the efforts going to be
115um prioritized right based on the numerous areas that were impacted by the budget cuts. So specifically, and this is um and I don't want to take away from the positive ending of your thing, but this this right here with the elimination uh this uh elementary STEM and uh humanities position only to then be able to recover the funds after we lost the people is in is like I've got about as much emotion on the anger spectrum as you just displayed, you know, um because what what impact that has now, you know, I I mean, I hope that my colleagues on the board understand what just happened and who they lost only to be able to restore the position because this wasn't thought out a little bit better during budget and that meant on our end,
116not in here. Okay? So, I'm being critical of >> Well, I can speak to that. Um, I certainly do understand. Um, and I and I'm very deeply saddened that we lost such high quality people. Um, unfortunately, this is a collateral consequence for not fully funding education. And we need to be sure that we look at the enduring impacts that it has not only this school year, but how this compounds itself over time. And we're certainly fortunate to have people sitting at the table tonight who are able to take >> the funds before the decision was made if we were able to find them again. So >> Oh, absolutely. >> No, I'm gonna respond. I'm gonna respond. Thank you. Um, >> I'm gonna I really want to keep this focused on student achievement. It sounds like
117we're really creeping over into more of a political conversation. Um, I think that we had great >> I don't think I don't think it's a political conversation at all. I think it speaks directly to student achievement and understanding the impacts that um budget deficits or funding education wherever you sit on that has on what happens in the classroom. Budgets are the lifeblood of uh a school district and we clearly see the impacts that it has on staff and we're lucky to have people that can work within that to create plans to respond to that. And I'm actually echoing Commissioner G Antonio's concern and emotion in where we are currently because we've lost great people and it has an impact on staff which has an impact on the way that we implement curriculum and services which
118has an impact on students and student learning. >> I agree with that. I just do not want to get into a back and forth. So, >> and I wanted to be really clear on that and I hope that we all can. >> I didn't think I didn't think we were, but thank you. I certainly don't want that either. >> Thank you. >> The the budget restoration piece though that I was um also getting into and and this would be more um directed towards Superintendent White. So as things uh reveal themselves as we move through the year, I would ask and I know you will but make it in intentional to bring budget restoration as its own topic to the board so that although you definitely have the um the the power as a superintendent to
119make your own decisions for your district, keeping the board very well informed about I did it this way because I saw this data to support this being a priority versus restoring something else that maybe somebody else doesn't like or whatever. Have the talking points there so that you empower us with the talking points >> when we deal with the community. >> Absolutely. >> Especially after the the size of the budget reduction that had to be taken. So I would just ask that of you going forward. In the past, I don't think we made it that formal when we've had to do because we, you know, rely on the superintendent and we still are. >> Um, but but enable the board to be able to communicate with the community that, you know, there's active information coming
120back to us about your plans for when we can restore and what the priorities were and what was behind those decisions by making those restorations. >> So, um, >> thank you for that. >> Yeah. Um, I just had two more things and there they'll switch back to positive. Um, and I wrote this before because I wanted this to be at the end. I have to applaud the former department name called OTL because I haven't gotten the the curriculum information. I see I'm already going to mess it up. So after this meeting I get I absolutely cannot end this meeting without giving my gratitude for your fortitude not only you but your entire department uh the changes that you've had to deal with for close partnerships and colleagues because of the budget um session and that
121you continue to drive forward through your entire summer to make sure that the work still got done with basically being decapitated, right? So, I don't mean to be so dramatic, but I mean, it really was traumatic what happened to your department. And I cannot end this meeting without recognizing that this student achievement meeting tonight uh um was so powerful about what you were able to change in a short amount of time and and keep the focus on the vision of the graduate and keep the focus on student achievement that I I'm just I'm blown away. I'm blown away. That's why I always, you know, I've been on this committee a long time since I've been on the board. You know, I've seen changes. I've seen where the vision was going with OTL. Although I had
122to support a budget that had to reduce our budget, it didn't mean that I supported every decision about the cuts that went on there. And I I felt like I was vocal enough, but in case I wasn't, I did not always agree to the drastic changes that were going to happen in this department. And maybe what I love even more was this tonight because if more people actually understood this, I'm not so sure that this department would have been um as impacted as much as it did. So I think keeping that current going forward as your department goes through changes over time is never going to be a bad thing not to keep. You know, the marketing piece I think is is brilliant. Um, you know, I I I just have to applaud that you
123and your department um and I would ask that um as you move forward with your changes, I already know you're going to have support from the top because she's involved that Superintendent White with the decisions that you're making, but this is going to be a lot of change for staff, too. And I think it'll be critical for you, Superintendent White to show the district that, you know, you're supporting the work that and the changes that um Carly is presenting as the best way to get through a tough issue and a tough set of problems and still endure and still be able to provide our district with um you know, just the what what the expectations have always been. So, um, I just wanted to reinforce that because you might need it. You know, you're going
124to be asking more teachers. You know, it's got to be the the leadership from the top has to say, "No, this these changes are going to be necessary and you are going to support them." You know, I think when the message comes from the top, it's easier to convince people that this is the way it's going to be. Um, I hope you don't anticipate resistance. I made this other little note, but I think that's the department where, you know, Superintendent White can help you with that. and the budget restoration was already answered. My only last question is can somebody explain to me what the two Wednesdays is? So there was four Wednesdays in a month. So um I must have missed along the way what we changed with Wednesdays. >> So now two are going
125to be for curriculum and two are admin PD. >> No. So uh it's I'm gonna have to refer to the contract. So >> you can you can answer me later. I don't need this tonight. Just afterwards it's a It was a contractual change on when to how many late Wednesdays there will be. Uh so I think we were at 32 and then it went to 28 and now it's 19 for the school year where teachers are going to stay for 100 minutes once students are dismant essentially two meetings per month. Um so that they're going to have one that is really school based all school faculty together and then one that will be more of a constru a curriculum track where they're going to be working supervisor. >> Okay. >> So it was 20 32
126when early release Wednesdays first began then it went I think it was 28 or 29. So are there some Wednesdays where staff isn't here and that at dismissal they're allowed to leave when students are >> I will I will send some follow questions. Thank you >> that um those questions might be more contract >> recognize that. Thank you. Thank you. >> Well, at 8:22, if there's nothing left, we will adjourn our meeting. >> We need a motion. >> I never thought we need a motion to adjourn, but I will entertain one just because I think we >> second. All those in favor? >> I I >> Did you have any extras of these so I can give them to those that couldn't?