Apr 13, 2026 - Board of Education - Regular Meeting

001I call this meeting of the South Board of Education at 6:36. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance 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. >> Next item on the agenda is the class. Yes. Anthony Johnson, >> present. >> Amanda Flesher, >> present. >> Joe Flesher, >> present. >> Lorie Hicks, absent. Misha, Misha Early, >> present. >> Daniel Winston, >> present. >> Shirley Tyler, >> present. Next item on the agenda is the approval of agenda. Are there any corrections to the agenda? There are none. The agenda will be as written. Next item on the agenda is superintendent communications. Mr. B. >> Thank you, Madam President. Well, good evening everyone. We appreciate everyone coming out

002this evening. Um, we're looking forward to tonight's agenda. Um, I do have a couple communications this evening uh in advance of uh the other agenda topics tonight. And so, uh, congratulations are in order once again to the Pierce Middle School cheer team. So, congratulations as the Pierce Middle School of Cheer team have secured back-toback championship titles. So, congratulations to our student athletes of the Pierce Middle School a cheer team as well as to coach Sterling who also happens to be a Thirstston High School alumni uh for their outstanding efforts as they secured their back-to-back championship most recently at Cast Tech uh leading up to spring break. So, we are just extremely proud of uh the accomplishments of that team and of our student athletes as well as Coach Sterling. So, hats off to them. And

003that concludes my communications this evening, Madam President. >> Thank you. >> Next item on the agenda is board communications. Do I have >> Yes, surely. In front of um board members um seats, you have the trustee scholarship copies for you guys to go over. Um, Chris copied them all for you and I need you just to go over them and let Chris know by email or hard copy before April 20th your choices. Um, the money will be deducted out of each one's um, account on the 24th. So, the next paycheck, it still sits at the same amount, but I would like us to consider raising it. So, I will be bringing that back for us to talk about to raise it just a little bit more, you know, to get that done. And um Chris

004came up with some good ideas when we're talking. It's really outdated and how this is done about going electronically where they can fill it out and it'll be clear. Like you'll notice the copies are really hard to read and some of the questions need to be updated. So, if the board could start thinking, you know, as you read it over, um, what you might want to update or change or what questions you might want to ask our kids, um, let Chris or I know because we'll be working on that over the next couple of months. Um, that's all I have to report. >> Okay. Anyone else >> to the chair? >> Yes. I did a class on Thursday and it was about board vacancy and we got a shout out for being innovative because we

005use we use MASB certificates as part of our pay and no one had ever done that before. So they might be reaching out to you for like an interview or something because we're the only ones that have done that. But as far as having a plan in place if there's ever a vacancy and we have to appoint somebody, that was the main topic and it's something that I think the board should look into because I don't think it's been updated since before Steve left. >> No, it has. >> Um, anyone else? I have one. Um, the Wayne County Association of School Board members will present a award ceremony on April the 30th and it's going to be at William D. Ford Center and yours truly will be getting an award, the leadership award. >> All

006right. So, I'd like to see some of our other board members get some of those awards. Okay. She looking at you. >> Yeah, I'm looking at everybody. Okay. Next item on the agenda is comments from the audience. Topics related to the agenda. There are none. Next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. Do I have a board member willing to adopt the >> to the chair? >> Yes. >> I'd like to move the adoption of the following resolution, please. Do I have a support? >> Support. >> It's been moved by Mrs. Flesher and supported by Y Amanda. All in favor? >> I six eyes and zero nay. Oh, no. Any nays? Zero nays. Resolution adopted. Next item on the agenda is presentation. Vandenberg Elementary School annual presentation. >> Okay, you guys ready? Thank you,

007Madam President. Uh so, as I mentioned in uh my communications that very much looking forward to tonight's agenda and again, we are grateful to have all of you here with us this evening. And so, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to the Vandenberg staff and Principal Hughes to talk about all the wonderful things taking place at Vandenberg. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bobsky and uh board. We appreciate it. Uh first of all, I want to honor everybody that is here today. Uh so thank you all. Like uh Mr. Robert Batsky said, I appreciate each and every one of you. So like kind of just you can stand up or you can just give a little wave. So uh we are going to start with uh Mr. D, Mr. Dylan Duchain. Give a

008little wave. He is our uh on loan through Jefferson and we are so excited to have you at team Vandy. So uh teaching third grade. Uh we have Joy Burks right here. first grade and getting ready for summer discovery. So, thanks so much for taking it on. We have Ashley Cowell who uh is a jack of all trades. She is our district floater and right now she's covering one of our fourth grade classes. We have Star Edison, our social worker. >> Alumni. >> Oh, and alumni. Sorry. Okay, feel free chime in. Okay, anyone. Uh we have Star Edison who has a senior. How about that, Jason? Okay. Oh. Oh, mama. I'm sorry. Our social worker, we have Marcia Harrison who is our district floater uh and has numerous uh extended family uh throughout all of

009South Redford. How am I doing better, Jason? Okay. We have Betsy Leapac who we all need to pray for her because it's MSTEP tomorrow. So, thank you so much, Miss Lee, for all you do with our LLC. Sarah Magguire, she is here on her birthday. Um fourth grade teacher. Yay. I had to give you a little shout out, special shout out. Aaron Ministry. Um, also, we need to pray for her going into MSTEP. She also created our beautiful presentation, the montage that we started. So, thank you, Aaron, so much. She is our technology coach, not only at Vandy, um, but also throughout other elementary schools. So, thanks so much. Uh, we have Paige Nicholson, who is here, our first grade teacher. So, thanks so much. She's going to be presenting a little bit later on.

010We have Jamie Peterson, alumni and okay and our second grade uh teacher at Vandenberg. We have Lisa Jordan who is new to us. She lives in the community. So, South Redford community member came to us and interviewed and is now our kindergarten parah with Miss. So, welcome Lisa. >> Yep. And literally she could walk to school. >> I know. Um, right, Lee? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> An alumni parent. >> Oh, an alumni parent. Okay, feel free. Yep. Yep. Awesome. It's a team approach. Thank you. You guys know. Uh, so we have Amy Shelby who is our reading interventionist. So, she'll also be presenting a little bit later on today. Angela Sloan, our fifth grade teacher. I think most of you guys have met her, but she is new this year. Um, so welcome to the

011team. We have Katie, our instructional coach. She has some awesome news to share. That's the teaser, right Katie? >> Yes. Yes. Okay. We have Erica Wilson, uh, who is our administrative assistant and wears many hats within Vanderberg. I couldn't do my job without all of you, but she is so professional and so kind when she answers the phone. and when I have to pretend to cover her, I am not effective. So, I think I'm a much better principal. Um, but Erica, thanks for coming. Uh, we have Camille, who moved from fourth grade now to third grade. Camille, how you feeling about that? >> Feeling pretty good. >> Okay. She has a great teammate in Dylan. Um, and we also have Miss Virginia and Otis, her grandson, who's in fourth grade. Uh, Miss Virginia works with

012our GSRP. So, um, thank you so much for being here, guys. >> So, all right. >> All right. Any questions from our audience or team before we get started? This we've kind of seen, but I know some of you might not have. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. So, just a little bit of who we are in the life of >> us at Vandenberg. Right guys? Okay. So, a lot of fun, exciting things. Um, every year we do a a picture, we do a a team third, a shirt, excuse me, it's we believe in you. That was our whole like big theme for for the year. Um, so we're going to get it started. So, of course, uh, we always look at the three rocks. uh relationships, responsiveness, safety, including our learning environment. Um

013and then also curriculum, instruction, and assessment. And then of course, all of this is aligned to our MYIP strategies and what that looks like and sounds like in our building. And not only in our building, but in all of our schools. And really, I mean, Jason and our our district, um, you know, team really has us as principles, um, and also as leaders, and we are all leaders, keep that in the forefront of our mind to make sure that we're grounded in who we are and what we believe. So, we're going to talk a little bit about this today. So, our MSTEP and all of our board, thank you, Chris, for hooking us up. you have color copies. So, um you can feel free to um just kind of work along. Nadia per uh set

014up this slide. It's basically the different levels and the scale scores on our uh 2025 MSTEP. And tomorrow, fingers crossed, pray, we are moving forward. Mhm. >> Um so this is our elementary proficiency and if you look at uh just grade three you can see uh we increased. So in 2023 we were at 20% we moved up and we stayed. So that is a great thing. So thank you all teachers. preschool all the way through fifth grade is showing that consistency and that trend of stability and that's what we want. Do we want to move higher? Yes, we do. Will we team? >> Yes, we will. Okay, good. Um and then you can also see in grade four again 20 23 26% um 30% and 38% again moving up in fifth grade obviously it gets

015harder and I'm not going to lie because I mean you guys all know me and you guys know me the most. We have work to do, but we are committed and we will do the hard work and we can do hard things and so can our kids. So we see it move from 2023 30% to 40% to 19. And I also want to state and I mean you guys already know this feel free you know pitch in if you want but we meet regularly within our professional learning um you know grade level meetings and we facilitate it Katie Amy Schily and myself along with the teachers and these are some of the things that we are targeted uh we look at our IR data which is done in the beginning of the year the middle

016of the year and the end of the year and That trajectory shows our data moving forward in a positive piece. However, the skills are more difficult, the questions are more difficult. You guys know, right? Um, and the writing, I know that for a fact, is more difficult. So, we need to get our kids to build that stamina. So, this is not what we want to see. I'm not going to lie, but it is what it is. So now we are going to move forward and we're going to do better and our kids know that too. Um so we look at our math again moving up. So you can see that trajectory. Um in grade four we had 13% then we moved up to 21 and 19. I'm going to just say that because this is

017me being hopeful, right? That's kind of close to 21, right? Okay. That's probably one kid. Um, and I mean we laugh, but you guys know who I am. But is it what we want to see? Not really. But are we moving in our preschool, kindergarten, first and second grade? Yes, that data is showing us that. And again, in our fifth grade. So I, you know, know we know, hi, Miss Paige. um that we need to move forward in working with our grade five. So there's some things that we are doing and some of our staff is going to speak on our science and social studies again, you know, took a dip here for our science. It was kind of stable there and took a dip. However, we regained, we rallied. So I'm going to take

018that as a success. Um, so those are proficiency scores uh with our 2025 MSTEP. But let's talk about what we're doing. We knew this. We actually knew this when it was embargoed. Um, so we made a plan. Um, this goes back to Mary Ruth if anybody knows remembers her back in the day. Here's what, so what, and now what. So we have already been meeting within our PLC's discussing grade level standards, proficiencies, what do we need to work on at each grade level. We've identified the claims and the targets and literally it shows trends within those data. So what are we going to do better? Um we identified students that are right there, we call them bubble, right? Right there on the cusp. What are we going to do? The students that need to build

019more skills. Well, how are we going to help them? So, that was our here's what. So, what we've identified the proficiencies again. We looked at specific students. We even in the beginning of this year looked at their I Ready data and that was new data, right guys? And we had to work that out. We had to figure it out. But we did. We did. not only as Vandenberg, but we leaned on our partners at Fiser, at Jefferson, and at Adams to help us understand that data. Um, and then we decided, all right, hey, let's get some tutoring together. So, Amy Davidson, thank you, Amy, got all of us at every elementary um tutoring. We call it high impact tutoring. So, if you worked on our tutoring squad, can you just raise your hand? Yep. Milka,

020you can raise it. Even though Yep. Go ahead. Uh cuz Mila worked for Adam and she was a part of it. So, uh we just finished tutoring after how many weeks, guys? >> Eight. >> Thank you. Good job, Dylan. Okay, so um we also did a pre-assessment and a post assessment in reading and in math. And we're still kind of getting those scores back because Katie, I did some of my fluency today. Um I put them on your desk. So, we'll see how that goes. Um, but like I said, I Ready is trending in a positive direction. Um, attendance, you're going to hear about this from Joy a little bit and what her team has been doing to really impact attendance because we know if our kids come to school, they will perform. And that's

021something that I mean, we've been talking about for a while. So, we're doing some out of the box thinking on what we can do to get our kids here every day. We are thankful even if they show up at 9:30, but really we need them here at 8:30, right? Um, so we're going to talk about like what our attendance team did, but our attendance is improving. Erica puts it out on our door and our window every day. So if you come to Vandenberg you will see on our window our attendance for the day for the week. So thank you Erica because it shows what we were I think we were at 92 something today. Um, we are also working with our interventionists and our instructional coaches to plan a individualized, I don't know, study for

022reading and for math for all of our kids. Not some of our kids, but all of our kids. Today we had a fifth grade win meeting where the teachers uh came, Miss Loan, Miss Gardner, myself, Amy, Katie, and our win team, which is our small group intervention. Amy's going to talk on that, but like what's our plan for each child? Should we move them to this group? What do they need? So, we're going to talk about that a little bit. We have ongoing professional development from our district along with instructional routes where pretty much everybody right guys uh got to thank you go in to each other's classroom uh we had an instructional focus that we focused on best practices engagement and we were in and out of classroom like I am able to go

023in and out of classrooms you you know, throughout the day. That's why Miss Flesher said, "You're never really in your office." No, because I'm in your rooms. Um, but you you know how to find me. But with that said, we all got to experience that and see the awesome teachers that we have in South Redford. Our kids are engaged. They're actively participating, taking risks, um, and learning in a calm setting, which is great. So, we got to do that. That's new for us this year. Thank you, Katie, for giving me homework over last summer. Um, and reading about it and understanding it. So, I appreciate that. I mean, my team makes me better as a leader and as a learner. So thank you guys so much. Um we already talked about PLC's. We have a

024fluency focus because in the hierarchy of reading we have to build upon before we just jump to comprehension. So everybody is working on fluency. We have that as a spotlight within our staff meeting time where everybody preschool all the way through fifth grade is working on that. And in fact, our first grade, Paige and Joy, you'll be on the spotlight uh next time. So, thanks. Um after school tutoring we talked about and also our steam lab and demo lesson and lesson planning. Well, we have Katie here who is a science rockstar. Um and she has been working with our teachers and our students on really utilizing and Aaron, sorry. um utilizing sorry Erin and organizing our steam lab literally the steam lab thank god these guys are organized with all these boxes of all tools

025and manipulatives and it is well organized so stop by anytime but if you have gone to our STEM lab um and had your science lesson in that area can you raise your hands I know fifth grade did second grade did thanks uh fourth grade did Well, this is Katie. This is exciting news. Drum roll, please. Katie, that was just for you. >> No, it's for us from here. >> What? >> You're welcome. >> Come on up, girl. I'll I'll run the tech. Wish me luck. >> Oh, nervous. >> Okay. Sorry. >> All right. Um, so this is a study that's called Beating the Odds and it is specifically looking at 42,000 schools across the nation that serve roughly 3 million students. And it was looking at the area that the school serves. So what is

026their population makeup and then what are they achieving in reading? and they highlighted the third grade scores from spring 24, so the end of the year just about two years ago. And um the schools that were highlighted are called bright spots. And to get this bright spot achievement, you had to exceed your expected growth based on the population you serve. So Vandenberg was recognized as one of these bright spots. We were expected to get 29% and the actual score from the data they looked at was just under 37%. So um we were mentioned in this article as being one of the schools that achieved this honor. Um, and yeah, that's where we are. And I think it's just a testament to all of the work that's done, not only in tier one instruction every day,

027but also during win time with our after school tutoring, um, and all the support that we give. So, this is our bright spot. Thank you. Here's your notes. Um, and also, uh, board, you do have the article that you can click on. It was not as printer printer friendly, so sorry we didn't print it out for you guys, but our staff knew about this when it first came out, and I got to give props to where they go because that's just how I am. Um, I was literally sitting in an admin team meeting and I was not on my phone at all. However, Matt Dailyaly did text me and I did look at it for a second and I was like, "Beating the odds." And he's like, "Your school just beat the odds." And I'm

028like, "What?" Because I mean, most of you guys know this and you guys know this. Like, this is one of my personal things. Like, not that I'm retiring anytime soon. I am not team. But like, I want to be the bright spot, but I wanted to be here. And I think we all do, right? So, that's one of my goals. uh just personally I guess and professionally. So, but I got to give the props to Matt Dailyaly who searched about it and found about it. I'm like, "What?" And then I got excited. So, yeah. And we're excited, right guys? Cool. >> All right. So, we're going to move forward. Star. >> Good evening. So um we do have um Lincoln behavior in the schools where they come and do therapy for students who um have

029social emotional services. Growth works um that is where Linda is from. That'd be the other social worker. We do have Rachel and Holly who are like my savior sometimes and help with behaviors and um FBAs and BIPS. I call Rachel all the time. I think she thinks that you know I'm stalking her, but whatever. Um, we have restorative circles. Um, le Linda and I work really well together. I absolutely love her. Um, the reset room mentor monitor is coach. Um, I call us the big three. Uh, coach like I love to send kids to coach because they listen and he's like 7 foot tall. Um, we have the mindful moments where um, we decided to do it in a PD that we were going to after lunch a lot of kids are rambunctious and all

030over the place and they're coming from this NBA game or this NFL game they've just played outside. So, it's a lot of emotions and so trying to get them back into the room and to see reset so that no, it's time for learning, not argue about your things. Um, everyone is CPI trained. Um, fun Fridays, which thank goodness Joy stopped winning every Friday. Um, where you get to leave early, but you have to um guess the title and the song, the title of the song and the artist, and you could either be one to six callers depending on whichever one the person that won the week before. Um, mailbox treats, Lisa or someone leaves the treats in our box. Um, the staff of the me staff member of the month, we vote for that monthly.

031Um, the online safety courses do on time. They are usually done. Uh, girls group, Linda has started you doing girls group with is it third grade? Third grade. There's a bunch of cattiness and drama going on in third grade. So, Linda decided to do the third grade group. um the AKA's which is um national panh helinic organization they come and bring backpacks with food on Fridays um and they give them to students in need and they pick different grades every month which is my sorority we did they have adopted our school and one of the programs that we enter due to this year was an etiquette class so we were able to take we had a lot of kids sign up however coming in on a Saturday was a little rough so we're going redo

032it for next year that it's after school so parents don't have to worry about bringing their kid in on Saturday because it was a little confusing of what time and what time you should pick up your child. So, we're doing um we're going to do it next year where we do after school, but they learn just how to um use utensils, how to greet each other, and just how to fix each other's crowns. Um and then I created a peer conflict resolution meeting because the kids are getting on my last nerve with their drama. So, I have been creating meetings where they find a solution to their problem. I don't step in until I absolutely have to. But I want you to talk it out. You to speak the names, be positive to each other,

033and find out a resolution before I have to step in because especially I'm doing it with fifth grade because at this point, you're going to middle school. You're going to go to college. You're going to be adults. You have to be able to resolve your own conflict. Mom, social worker, teachers can't always step in. So, I've been working with them to know figure out how to resolve it without me first. Then you learn that you can resolve things without the adults sometimes and just being able to take care of their business. So that's all we have in um we're going to have some of our members come on up. So parent involvement, attendance, cooperative culture and intervention, come on up. >> Yeah, it's fine. Come on up. So um this is part of our solution

034work that happens uh within our staff anytime and just I don't know with life advantage. So uh parent involvement you guys want to go first? >> Sure. Um so this has developed a lot over the past few years. We were kind of tracking just how many parents would come to events you know that we had throughout the year like trunk or treat or black history night or spring picnic. And then we decided to focus a little bit more on getting them into our school to see what's going on at a different time. So we kind of got them in at lunch to have lunch with their kids. And then we did that for about a year. And then we decided to extend it a little bit more. We wanted them in the classrooms a little

035bit. So they come now and they'll eat with their they'll go to the classroom for a half hour and then they go to lunch and then they they have the option to go to recess. So that's been huge. I mean, I think our um percentages have like doubled in this event and parents are always like, "Oh, is it closed? Is it closed?" So, they really look forward to it. Um we changed it up this year, too. We used to have like all grades and now we've split it. So, it's like uh K2 and then 35. And that gives uh families opportunities with multiple students to to do both if they want to. Um and it's been it's been really awesome. I think they look forward to it. And this is something we'll definitely continue to

036do. Just bringing more of that academic end into it, I think, is important. Not just how many parents are coming to events, but you know, we want them in the classroom seeing what we're doing as well. >> Paige, thank you. And I'm going to give a shout out to Otis's dad. I realize, Otis, your dad is not even here, but do you remember when your dad was like, "Hey, can we grab a football?" And he came to lunch with a loved one. Right, Otis? Yeah. and he was like, "Hey, can I have a ball? Like, I'll play with kids." And we're like, "Yes, please, please." So, shout out to your dad. Tell him I said that. All right. Attendance. Uh, Joy, you're going to speak on that one. >> Okay. So, yeah. So, the attendance

037committee, our goal is to increase um well, decrease excessive absences, tardies, and early dismissals. Um, and just have like that family buyin. Um, we know that students um academic achievement is high when they are here present. Um, so what we've been doing, um, are some quarterly rewards and then I think in the first quarter I did like some little, um, sneak awards like where we just pulled a name and if they were present, they got some kind of prize. Um, our first one was during our half day. Is that correct? Yeah, our half day. And I just advertised it for myself as like a surp Oh, we missed one. Okay. The magic show was one, but then we also had the animal that was um presented as a surprise in school field trip. Um so

038students on that half day, like a lot of students maybe nag their parents to make sure they were here. Um which helped us. Um quarter two, we also had an ice cream social just in our um lunchroom. Um that was really nice. We had different stations set up with toppings and everything and a lot of help. Quarter three is going to be the Kona ice um ice cream truck. um they'll be coming in and then we're going to round out uh quarter 4 with the gang truck. We go back and forth with these absences. Um we have it set at four or less. I would like it to be three or less, but we're going to settle at four or less, but we do include the early dismissals and the tardies as part of it.

039So, just, you know, getting students to understand that piece as well. Um, and then every once in a while, Lisa gets um some phone numbers that she can reach out to parents and just talk about, you know, hey, we've been missing you. And I know our teachers are great at sending a dojo message to just, hey, I've been missing such and such this week or for past couple days. And just to get our students to come in and they get really um excited about some of the incentives that we offer. >> That's it for me. >> Thanks, Joy. Okay. the cooperative culture. Sarah, thank you. Um, and I am here as a representative of even sporting some cooperative culture sportware um that I'm about to talk about. So, on our team, we look at uh

040classwide and schoolwide goals. And the way that we find these goals to work on each month is staff, they submit um needs they see in their classroom, trends, and we look for trends. And then based on those trends, we set something that kids can achieve that would help them feel successful. So um our key point right now is we are looking for because we saw through these trends that hallway transitions were a difficulty. They were a bit of a challenge. So um we came up the with the idea of a soaring eagle which not that we want students soaring down the hallway but walking neatly and soaring means you're achieving you know high things, high goals. So, um, to receive this award, uh, two students are chosen by a classroom teacher each month and at

041town hall they are announced. So, it's it's not just a random bracelet. Not that any bracelet of course that we give is random, but that um, it's well earned and it's given to two students. So, when they wear this bracelet that just says Soaring Eagles, um, they've achieved something that particular month. So, then that's given to that student at that town hall. So, that's our current focus. But again, cooperative culture, we're working on really bringing students and school together and looking at that data weekly. We look at this every week and then make adjustments accordingly. And that's how we are moving through our year. >> Awesome. Thanks, Sarah. And then also, all of you guys have our our new bracelet. So now you can become soaring eagles. >> Yes. Nice, Amy. Thank you for the

042display. And when you're in our hallways, make sure that you, you know, walk on the right. We used to have squares, but now they're triangles. So now we call them >> triangle trek. I stole that from Amy Shelby. So Amy Shelby uh is going to talk with us about intervention and win perhaps. >> Okay. >> Perhaps go ahead. Well, um the team is myself and myself again and Kate. Um so the intervention um solutions team is really geared towards finding um ways to help the students becomes more successful in the classroom environment. So the um request for assistance is called the RFA and there's a Google form. So if the teachers are noticing that a student is um struggling academically um behaviorally then they can fill out a form which is um on the drive

043and after that form is filled out I will have a discussion with the teacher and we kind of navigate through what is already being done to help the student. what are some other possibilities um that could be done before coming to a formal meeting? Because sometimes just having those conversations with teachers unlocks ideas just having a conversation um and then they'll try whatever we talk about for a little bit and if that's not working out or the student is not showing um success, then we come to a formal meeting and that meeting would include um myself, the classroom teacher, um Mrs. um if it's a like a social emotional or a behavioral situation, then we would invite Star or Linda Pototts and or Linda Pototts. Um the parents would be contacted and invited to come

044with us, come meet with us as well, so that they can see that we're really trying to create this wraparound type of environment. Um because they're their first they're they're the first teachers of their of their their children. So their input is is meaningful and very important because oftent times they know tricks of the trade that we don't and sometimes there um are things that we can start implementing in the school that transfer from the home and they can the student then can see that we're all on the same page and we're on the same team if you will. Um our goal is to have every classroom teacher participate in the RFA process, the formal RFA process at least one time per quarter. we have not reached that goal. And I was kind of bouncing

045ideas off Lisa and um Katie like why why aren't we utilizing this process um as much as we have in the past and I I have a wondering about it and I am wondering if because we already are doing so many things to kind of negate those formal meetings. Um, I feel like that might be why. I'm not for sure, but I feel like we're doing a really a really good job at finding those pinpointing those needs of the students and meeting those needs more quickly um through our win time. Each and every day we meet for 40 minutes. Every student um is getting their their what they need um 40 minutes each day. We also have like a much more targeted PLC time uh twice per month and in those conversations we're able to

046kind of bounce ideas off and and we talk about specific students sometimes and I I think that I think we're just doing better um in our daily routines and our daily um thought behind uh helping the students achieve much more. So that's kind of what I think our intervention process has morphed into a much stronger system than it than it ever has been. So not just intervention and intervening academically, but I mean as a whole as a whole child um process. So it's pretty neat. Any questions? >> Anybody have any questions? >> I have a question. the intervention, the request for assistance, how is that coming? >> How is that? >> Um, >> like the process >> like how like what? >> No, >> how is it coming along? >> Yeah. Are any are you

047getting a lot of kids that need assistance? >> Not formally. um because we're able so the RFA process is kind of like the last ditch effort. We've tried everything. We don't really have any more. We need more ideas. So, we need more of a team to to bounce ideas off of and and kind of unlock, okay, we've tried this, we've tried this, we've tried this. Why isn't this student moving forward in whatever the issue is? Um, and this this year we haven't had very many. We've had I do believe our total is nine for the entire school year. Um, so that is disappointing. I can see you're like um but I don't I don't feel like we're missing out on reaching the students >> because we have so many processes in place prior to that

048big aha meeting. So I think that might be Mrs. You tell me. >> Oh yeah. Well, I'm as you guys are thinking and I mean it's a great question, but it's interesting because we had a teacher come up to me really and us um like maybe just a week ago saying like, "Hey, I've collected some data and you know, this student needs a little more help with being here." So, the teacher was like, "Hey, here's the attendance. Hey, will you go ahead meeting me um and call this family?" And I'm like, "Oh, yeah, sure." like I know the family um for years so let me go ahead and see what's up. So I mean literally it's just yes the teacher has made numerous phone calls but sometimes they like to hear it I don't know

049from a different person me um so you know just making that phone call and saying like hey what can I help you with like we need to make sure that your students here every day um and like what are some barriers and lo and behold there were barriers so then like we were like okay maybe there's some barriers maybe we can get some extra supports from our federal government to help that child and um we did. Um so that literally was like I don't know last week. Um so there's things that like teachers just informally come up to us or just hey do you have a minute to touch base or whether even if it's a behavior uh issue like we have the tier one our PBIS right which is basically our tier one system

050for the whole district but maybe that student might need more redirections or follow through at home we put that student on check-in checkout. So those are other strategies that we just I don't know do in everyday life as we're troubleshooting throughout our day. So it's not so much uh >> and I think formal >> I think too I this year are I attend the PLC meetings which are the 45 minute meetings um every morning it seems like >> it's us >> um but within that PLC time my team also joins those meetings uh once per month >> and so we're able to talk about ways to academically support the students in that capacity as well like in that meeting and then we take that information about those students and we go and we we use

051that information in our win groups. So now like if Miss Miss Kim's group has so and so in their group, we've talked about the needs of this child. Now Miss Kim knows the need. So that is another layer of support that wasn't there before. So, >> okay. A little bit about the attendance. >> Attendance. >> I mean, our attendance right now is about 92. I mean, I'm looking at Erica, too. 90 92% on a daily. >> And and that has improved. Am I right, guys? Okay. Um, but by offering some of the incentives, and we're not the only school that does this. I mean, Adams does it, Jefferson does it, you know, Fiser does it, the middle school and the high school, I'm sure, too. I just know more about the elementary world. But, you

052know, offering special incentives on half days like we have a half day coming up, right, on Wednesday. And, you know, I went around and talked to some classes about like be here every day or doing uh, you know, some of our fun incentives on those half days. And then, you know, we also have a communications coordinator because again, I'm not the best at technology. So, the communication coordinator does all of our dojo shoutouts and all of our, you know, post on our social media that each um family has. And then teachers do that, too. Aaron does a huge job with it, but about explaining that, hey, we got school. We need you here. this is what we're offering, you know, and then teachers step up to the plate and organize some of these fun activities,

053in-house field trips or what have you to really entice the kids to come to school. So, I think our attendance has gotten better over the years. Um we also have uh at the elementary level not only for Vandenberg but all elementaryaries uh Kyla Miner who is with Lincoln Behavioral like Star and she works on contacting some of the families in a different way that I might contact them and offering support and also resources um to those families that are maybe more troub Um, and we call that like a tier three or tier two. So there there's multiple um pieces of our puzzle that makes things I don't know work well and get better so that you know eventually like you know our presenters say said to affect our academics. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah.

054Anything to add? I don't know if >> I just think our win time is a little more fine-tuned than it has been. Also, >> I like the way it's structured structured and then how I mean like the students are placed just perfectly to me. So, um yeah, I think that win time piece has really grown this this year. >> Cool. >> And I think that was our missing piece for many. >> Yes. And really, I mean, strategically >> very intentional this year. I know. >> Yeah. Yeah, that is it. >> Strategically placing kids in where they need to be in reading and where they need to be in math. And then with teacher input and our support team, that's the wind paras that help us Amy's team, right? Our team, Amy's team. but and then

055having their input, but we're coming to the table in our PLC's once a month in reading at every grade level, once a month in math at every grade level, and then our win team is there as well on certain dates. So, it's more um systematic >> and strategic >> and data driven ever been. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. not only I ready data but also real life I'm going to say teacher data anecdotal data program data um using our curricular tools any other questions >> she's done when you're done I have a question >> yes I do have a I do have a link um that is next and I'm just going to let the board and you know our district team peruse it. Um, we shared some of these reviews. I don't know if

056you guys remember at one of our staff meetings um on reviews of just from parents and our community. So, I'll let you go through that. So, any questions or comments for us? >> Sure. >> Yes. >> So, hello everybody. >> Hi. >> Hello. >> I love y'all and I appreciate what y'all do. >> Uh, I'm Daniel. I'm on the school board here in case you have a little plaque here. I'm in the schools and I come visit the schools just to see because I like to know what's going on and I appreciate what you do. Um I have two kids in the district. So have a fourth grader who's on a spectrum and I have a first grader who struggles to read and to write. So, I understand the challenges within the school. I get

057it 100%. Um, my college basketball coach had this phrase, don't mistake activity for achievement. And it's something that I live by. And I appreciate all the things that you're doing. But from my school board seat, I'm concerned when I see these fifth grade numbers >> because these kids are going to Pierce. And we already know there's a there's a social thing that happens from elementary to middle school. >> And when I see that they're behind academically, that's just another layer of challenge at this point. And from a parent perspective, take the schoolboard hat off. Um, and I mean this in love. I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way. I don't care what you're doing. I just want my kid to learn. And I know Miss Paige was here. I don't know if

058she's still here. >> I'm still here. I'm here. >> Still here. >> Yeah. >> My children are at Jefferson. And I don't care what Miss Paige is doing. I want my son to enjoy reading and know how to read. And over the last month, he wants to read books every night. He's he's smiling when we're reading. I don't care what she did. I just know that my son likes to read now every night. So, I appreciate all of this that you're doing. the wind time. But from a parents perspective, I need my kid to be learning. I don't care about the activities. I need my son to be achieving something. So whatever that takes, patty cake, duck duck goose, whatever that thing may be, when I see these scores, it concerns me because we're talking

059about children. We're not talking about M&M's, pencil, pens. These are people's kids. And so I want us to stop getting into the world of I'm an educator and start thinking how can I help this kid learn because I don't care what they're doing at Jefferson. I need my my young daughter on the spectrum to be learning. So win time trickor treat time. Let's educate our kids please and thank you. Whatever it takes. Conventional, unconventional. Y'all don't never have to come present. Just give me some numbers saying our kids doing well. Let's go. I appreciate y'all. But let's educate our kids. I don't need the fluff. That's all I have to say. >> Thank you. >> Hey, chair. >> Yes. Listen, my my >> Don't you start nothing. >> My perspective is somewhat similar. But I

060will say this, you are more than educators when you walk into that building. You know what I mean? You are sometimes the only rational adult >> that these children see, right? >> It's true. >> So I don't want you take and I don't think Daniel was saying anything wrong. You know what I'm saying? But it is a struggle to educate kids right now. Big struggle, right? Because then you all have lives and your own children and your own families that you have to also pour into when you leave, you know, our district. So, I'm going to say thank you because like him, I'm watching. You know what I mean? And I have yet to see like it's I can just tell by everybody that's here, you know? I've yet to see Well, no, I'm I'm

061lying cuz I've seen it. But in this room I've yet to see someone that doesn't have an ounce of care for our community. I'm speaking about our community specifically because you're here. You know, we have some struggles. We do. And the attendance piece, it's not the children. It's not. It's not. It's their parents. >> It's how they get here. It's them being scared to walk in the dark. It's them being scared to not have anybody when they go home, you know, from school. It's so many more factors. You know, I am not a standardized testing person. I hate standardized testing. I get the the why of it, but I don't think that that moves the total education of a child. I understand that we need it. We need the data. We need that. I get

062it. But he's right. You all are much more than just that teacher that that child sees every day. And I hope you know that. And I hope you know that we appreciate it. We're very passionate about it because we appreciate you all know how hard it is. Know what the struggle is. We see the kids every day. I stand on my corner every day and I've been doing that since I've been here. Yo, get in the car. I don't wait for the bus. Bus gone. let's get in the car, you know, or you walking the opposite way. Get in the car. So now it's so funny. They just wait. They're like, "Okay, she's here. Let's go." You know, cuz to me, there's no other option. But for you, this is your job. This is what

063you're supposed to be doing. We have to move forward. We have to get out of something. How do you do that? Education. Somebody got to care >> about you enough to put you in a an environment of learning. >> So we applaud. >> We're just, you know, >> yeah, >> true. >> Yes. And I don't I just want to pick I I've sat in the seat of educator. I've taught in the classroom before, so there's no I'm just telling y'all that we I want our kids to be educated. That's right. whatever it takes. You know, I I have a bachelor's and a masters. I know sometimes education, you're like, I'm educated. I'm new to the educator stuff. I don't care if you got to finger wrestle with the kids to get them to learn. Let's

064get outside the box and educate our kids because this is all they got. >> Yeah. >> They don't have other options. They can't go here or there. You know, just getting them to school is a challenge. So, whatever it takes, y'all. And I know it's not easy. Miss Paige would tell you it's just like we be like, "Look, what you going to do with our kids?" cuz they getting on our nerves at home. So, I get it and these my kids and I appreciate what y'all do 100%. I just want us to do all we can, not what's comfortable, not what may look good, to just educate our kids. I'm not here because I was I'm the smartest guy. My education got me here. my education. I'm not the smartest kid. I wouldn't kumada or

065nothing. >> I wasn't. >> But teachers cared enough about me getting me through. >> Mhm. >> That's all I'm going to try to do. >> And may I I don't know if I'm breaking protocol. >> You are, but go ahead. >> I did raise my hand. But I I can tell you that our team at Vandenberg, I mean, I've been here for 18 years in South Redford, and I can tell you hands down, this team is committed to our kids, is dedicated to our kids, and just like all of you said, cares for our kids in more ways than than one. And to reach our kids, yes, I agree. We have to think out of the box. And little by little, like we try stuff, right guys? And sometimes it works, sometimes it sticks, sometimes

066it doesn't. Then you hang out with it for a minute. You marinate it for a minute and then you change it up. But I can tell you wholeheartedly from my own Lisa Hughes just person, not even as a person that works in South Redford, our staff cares about our kids like they're our own children. And that's why like parents and families and grandparents and just our community keeps coming back and wants to be there with us. And for that I am eternally like grateful to all of you guys. That is it. Getting emotional and passionate. Sorry. Sorry. But thank you. I'm sorry if I broke protocol. Well, I'm glad I am so glad that this all of the teachers here, I happen to know that they do love South. And you want to know something?

067I I mean, when I moved here, my grandkids were in the district. And I'm telling you, I get so many um complaints about people they can't go come to South Reference District and I tell them, "Oh, now we have K through5 now. You can come." So, but when when I looked at the numbers, I said, "Okay." And I tell Jason this all the time. Yes, we the teachers want it raised and they have to do their part, too. So, that's all I got to say. Okay. All right. Anybody else have any questions? Okay. I want to move on now. Next item on the agenda is presentation K5 English language art. right after this. >> Thank you, Madam President. At this time, I will turn it over to a number of elementary staff, inclusive of teachers

068and administrators, as well as our curriculum instruction and assessment director to speak with the board tonight about some of the exciting things that we are considering when it comes to elementary literacy. um given some of the most recent legislative changes. And so with that, I will turn it over to Mrs. Davidson and to the team that's here tonight and to connect it to some of my opening communications as I shared uh very much >> you guys to go. Yeah. >> Very much looking forward to uh the agenda item. So, some of the staff that's here this evening was here for Vandenberg and then some of the staff that are here uh tonight are here for this agenda item. And so very much looking forward >> um to hearing from the group tonight about the exciting

069work that they've been doing. And so with that, I will turn it over to Mrs. Davidson and the team. >> Well, good evening everybody and thanks so much for um doing some more listening and processing tonight. Um I can't think of a better time actually Mr. Winston after what you had to say that uh we talk about our own children's right to read and uh to write and to achieve. Um so tonight what uh some of us want to share with you is our recommendation for uh K5 English language arts tier one curriculum and we'll explain why >> that's okay. They've got it. You also have this in front of you. Um so uh we'll be brief tonight but our certainly our objectives for you tonight are not only just to hear the recommendation but

070to understand what is meant by the science of reading or otherwise sor like you might see and certainly what you may have heard of as the Michigan literacy law or the dyslexia law PA 146. Um, we also really want you to have the opportunity to understand the connection of years of research, not that this is just a new thing, um, to how we learn to read, how our brains work for us to learn to read and again to the law. And then to review the curriculum recommendation, um, that we would like to make for um, amplify core knowledge language arts or CKLA. >> Yeah, no problem. So there are many many many one of the things that I just noticed tonight from the moment we started to people walked in the room and things that

071were stated that is I can't help but link to our strategic plan which is uh focus area 4 right of us lifting leaders and connecting leaders and that's everybody who's here in the room um I just happen to be the one talking right now and I couldn't do any of the work that I do without the the lifting the leadership from where teachers stand um teachers coaches etc. So, all of these elementary educators um are those that have been involved in this process in one way or another and there's a couple who are here with us that I wanted to highlight. Um certainly want to start with Michelle Chase who's going to be sharing with you in just a moment. Um and I'll explain to you what she's uh been doing. And then uh Tara

072Emmenfer from Fiser um in first grade, Joy Burks from first grade who's also going to be set that down. I think you just clicked. >> I just clicked it. Don't touch it. Don't touch it. Um, as well as let me see who else is with us tonight. Um, Katie Stevenson and Stephanie, where are Stephanie Smith? Stephanie Smith. >> Yes, I was I'm looking her for her name. I don't care. No, she's back there. Stephanie Smith from Adams who's also leading some of the work in fourth grade mil or other coaches um and so on. If I forgot anybody that's here, I thank you. But all of these people have been involved in one way when you hear about tonight's process and continue to be after today. It is that's what came through. >> Um so

073with that uh I want to get ready to turn over the first portion about learning the science of reading and the law of PA46 um and the connection to what our brains do to Michelle Chase. Um Michelle Michelle has been an elementary leader as long as I can be have honored work to work with her. Um she's serving as our coach on special assignment. Um really getting the state level and the county level work related to reading as it's current and um bringing it back and helping lead the work on the core things that we're working on together as we look forward to reading writing. So you know I'm gonna stand behind you if you want me to roll. I'll roll. Okay. Okay. Yeah, >> perfect. >> Well, good evening everyone. It's nice to see

074you here tonight and I'm excited to talk to you about literacy, which is kind of the world I live in. Um, as Amy said, I'm Michelle Chase. I'm the ISD literacy coach that works on assignment and self effort. I don't think I've met all of you, but most of you I know. Um, and we're going to start talking uh about the science of reading. That's a big buzzword right now in education. Um but let's just talk about what it really is. So it's science of reading is a vast interdisciplinary body of research and it's not news research. It's been around for years. Um and it's not just reading research, it's cognitive science, it's neuroscience, linguistics, education and more. So what they have done in the science of reading movement is they've done research across the

075spectrum of how people learn and how people learn to read and they put it together. Sometimes there is a misunderstanding that the science of reading is just phonics work but that that is a misunderstanding. um over 50 years of research. It's we've had a delay from research to practice and it's starting to catch up of research. But the key idea is science of reading is not a philosophy. It's accumulated scientific evidence of how we can best support our students to learn to read. So one of the things that I want to lift is that um a human brain is not pre-wired to read. So when I went to college like a century ago, um we were told then that people would learn to read just as naturally as they learn to talk. And that's just

076simply not true. We would not have a reading problem if that was the case. Um and you'll see two brains over here, two images of brains. The one on the left to your left is the brain of a student with dyslexia or a person with dyslexia because it doesn't go away. And the one on the right is a typical learning brain. And then you can see that there are different parts of the brain that are lighting up in different sizes. And we know that um how we teach students to read can rewire the brain and strengthen the pathways to be more typical looking. Now, dyslexia is never going to go away, but we can use teaching methods that can help students have greater success and strengthen these other pathways that you see here. Um, so

077that the the brain is rewired through how we approach our instruction. So, immersion and literacy alone is not going to do the trick. It's it's how we um teach students to process the language. Um so um there's all those pieces. So we'll go on to the next sorry. So I want to first start talking about the simple view of reading. So the science right now the simple view of reading doesn't reflect a simple process. The simple view of greeting starts with word recognition multiplicate multiplied by language comprehension. That's not reading comprehension. And the outcome is reading comprehension. So we're not going to have reading comprehension unless we have the strength of both of those. So if you see if you have word recognition and language comprehension, you're going to have reading comprehension. If the word

078recognition is weak, the decoding is weak. Even if you have good language comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, background knowledge, you are still going to struggle to read and comprehend. And the opposite is true is if you can decode great, but you have no background knowledge or vocabulary knowledge, you're still going to struggle with reading comprehension. And if you even have a little bit of one of those, the your your reading comprehension is compromised. So um both sides of the equation are necessary for us to teach for students to be successful in literacy. Now each of those sides of the reading row can be teased out into separate strands. So again it's not simple even though they call it the simple view of reading. And the top of this this is scar bro's reading roof. came out. Um,

079Hollis Scarboro designed it in two 2000, so it's been a minute ago. Um, and the top strands connect to language comprehension and the bottom strands connect to word recognition. And you see that those strands get woven together leading to skilled readers, but they start out kind of separately. And you're going to see that in the curricula that Amy's going to talk to you about that strands really start out separately and we move them together. Now, one of the things that's really important to understand is that um the language comprehension strand is really a lot about knowledge and the reading comprehension is about decoding. And there was a study um that's really kind of in the whole breeding world circuit right now. They took students, strong decoders and struggling decoders, and they had a group of

080struggling decoders that were super knowledgeable about baseball and they had a group of great readers that had like no background knowledge about baseball. And they gave them an assessment. And while the weaker readers still struggled to decode the passage because they had the vocabulary for the topic and they had background knowledge on the topic, they still were able to outperform the stronger decoders with no background knowledge. Does that make sense? Um, so, so while we can't technically compensate for no decoding skills, background knowledge and vocabulary knowledge can help students be more successful with decoding. If you've heard the word and in spoken language. So, the key takeaway is that topic knowledge can help compensate for decoding difficulty. It cannot completely replace that. the decoding skills cannot replace a lack of knowledge. So both both chunks

081of that um simple view are important. That being said, there is also an equation for the simple view of writing. Um and there's a writing rope too. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about this, but this is also going to be an important piece of the curricula we look at. So transcription skills are like word recognition. It's about can I take the sounds I hear when I say a word and turn those into letters and write them on a page. It's the spelling. It's the letter formation. It's the fine motor skills. And then there's the composition skills. Can I write sentences in a structure? Can I make it a meaningful sequence? Can I use interesting words in my writing? And those are all needed to make a skilled uh be

082skilled in written expression. So these pieces of both the simple view of reading and the simple view of writing are embedded and are a foundation of the curricula that our our team looked at. So why an EL a curricular tool now? Well, um, no matter how much training we give our staff, and we've given them lots of training, we have exceptional staff. Um, using fragmented materials to try to get to all of these things on the reading rope just don't create a cohesive experience for our students, and we want that for our kids. Um, the topics are critical and important. We want to give them the the knowledge that they need to be successful as they go through their learning trajectory. um text that we only read for a strategy versus also focusing on building

083background knowledge and vocabulary acquisition. We're missing the mark if we only do one. We need to do both. Um and everything needs to be built systematically across the year. So, um, I was working with a teacher earlier today and she was working on a unit that I know later several other grades are going to piggy back on that and add layers of knowledge and understanding. Um, so the instructional materials that students encounter every day are important for helping our teachers be the best that they can be and they're not trying to piece meal it all together. Um, our teachers truly are experts in their delivery of instruction. Um, they know their students. You've heard Vandenberg staff talk today about how they have meetings about their students and their skills and their plans for instruction. They're

084experts. The curriculum's job is to provide a coherent path for helping our teachers get there. And it takes that research to practice. It gets it in our hands faster. Um, and the impact helps our teachers, our teachers bring that curriculum to life for our students every day. Um, so any questions about that? That was fast and I felt randomly sorry. Just a connection too for the board based on what Michelle just shared. It wasn't that long ago, I guess. Well, it was longer than I realized, a couple years now, but the middle school team came in front of you about their ELA adoption. And since the math department and so forth, and one of the phrases that's shared there is that, you know, teachers aren't intended to be curricular tool creators. >> Um, if we

085spend so much time, they they spend so much time. Like, I know you all want, I don't blame, it's long days. Um, but if we're spending all the energy doing that, then to Michelle's point, they can't get faster to really being what we've recently rephrased and heard as students of our students, right? Making sure they can really plan, deliver how, and adjust. And um, that's just one of many reasons this adoption now. So, thanks. Thank you for bearing with us as we go through the uh, PDF to the slide deck. today. Um there's some other reasons why a K5 adoption. Now, I know I've had conversations with board members and others have asked um what's going on and certainly it's connected to the science of reading and public act 146. Um and the expectations of

086what a tier one or beginning for everyone curriculum should have in English language arts for our students. Um, of course it has to be evidence-based, but very specific evidence as it relates to the science of reading. Um, and needs to be systematic. Um, we also based on the law that's out there, based on both public act 146 and the grant funds connected to it, the two are kind of uh related but not exactly the same. Um, we are required, as you kind of heard some of it now, to screen and identify students with, in this case, characteristics of dyslexia. want to be clear in saying I said this to the teachers when I came on to teaching dyslexia was like this rare special education visual problem that kind of thing that's not what we're talking

087about here and we could go on and on about that tonight but if you have more questions certainly Michelle could speak to you about that or any of the teachers learning more about the law that's attached and how our brains work. It's really looking for characteristics of what kids need and reading. We do that now. We do screening now. The Amy Shelbies and the Milkas and the others and the Katies and the teachers do that now as we look at early reading. It's just a matter of um the tools that we're going to use. Um and then of course uh we certainly have to have professional learning that aligns with reading research and an approved approved tier one tool. When you see this electronically board, you can click on that green phrase and it'll show

088you the approved programs. That is part of public act 146. The state said they would come up with an approved list of tier one curricula. And to be perfectly blunt, success for all, specifically roots, wings, and kinder were not. And um there's certain sequential things they just quite couldn't get to. So why why else now? Um there's a certain fiscal responsibility we have in making this recommendation now and kind of fasttracking it. Um the money tied to the law is um se what's called section 35mm. We had some 35 monies before that where we were trying to do some of those peace meal things. And 35mm is otherwise known as the committee committee for literacy achievement and there was a recommended committee that would then decide what pupil funding would go towards either tier tier

089one curriculum or professional development or an approved assessment system. right now. Um, we knew it's been since 2016 that we had adopted a success for all and we knew we would need a review anyway. Um, and so that is part of the reason we're here. Um, the funds are limited. Um, they're they actually uh need to be expensed by the end of this calendar year. Then there may be more funding that comes afterwards. Um, and certainly it's aligned to the science of breeding and then to the law we're expected to enact. So, what have we done up to this point? Like, why why all of this stuff? Well, we had to there was a list certainly from one piece in in June of last year. Then there was some revisions to the list as recently

090as January of this year. Um, so we really wanted to be thoughtful in what we were considering implementing. Um, we reviewed the Michigan Department of Ed tier 1 list, which again is connected to that green link on the previous slide, um, to meet PA 146. Um, then in the January to February time, we took some time to vet really um, the eight approved that were on that list at that time. And, you know, there were certain things we did to weed that out. It's very hard to go to a group of teachers with eight things to review, right? Let alone try out or those kinds of things. Typically, you really narrow it down. We had already done a lot of training and other work in some of the uh other pieces of the reading rope

091or the simple view of reading. And so, one of the things we considered was looking at just the knowledge portion and developing that better because we had started to make some changes on the word recognition side. Um that said, we would have been left really with just one to review after we met with some vendors. We also looked at um the consensus scoring. So when you go in each of those, not like you go in each of those things, each of those proved programs, they were scored. They all met, but they all scored, right? If you know like a group of students in the classroom, I may we may all be proficient, but my level of proficiency versus yours may be different. And we took a look at that, too. Um and that helped us

092narrow down. Uh then we kindly brought in many of these staff members and many that couldn't be here um in pairs. So two kindergarten teachers, two first grade teachers and so on and conducted a review of two programs. Um one was amplify CKLA, the other was the knowledge portion of Witten Wisdom from Great Minds. Um they then compared that to the reading lead rubric, which I'll talk about in a little bit, as well as just readiness, like do you think you can do this? to the point Michelle made like how much am I going to be a creator versus how much faster can I do the how really well and study and move forward. Um so then they you know they marked their rubrics and they move forward. Um then we fast forward to just

093a little before now and based on the data we got back the recommendation was amplify core knowledge language arts or CKLA. Um, we ask the teachers, hey, do you want to try a unit? You know, here we are. We're at the end of the calendar year. We don't have time to pilot for a whole time period, but are you willing to do that? Then you can give us some feedback. We can ask talk to the vendors and continue to move forward. Um, so that training was as recently as last week. Um, and as a matter of fact, I know Stephanie, I'm still getting your stuff in your car. Um, so the teachers, many teachers, and actually more teachers than were on the review were raising their hand. can I try? Can I try? And certainly

094we wanted to be able to give them the background um to do so. Um but that was really great to see that leadership and willingness um and their interest in trying the unit. So we have a group of teachers that are going to work in a unit of instruction with their students and then uh provide the feedback to us and then so that we can plan ultimately for full implementation in the fall. No need to see this. Now you got Michelle's education on simple view of reading, simple view of writing. This comes from Amplify Cala. Now, I'm going to say no tool is perfect. I've been here in the district. Michelle's been here a while. We've been through a few of them, haven't we? They're not perfect. They're never perfect. It's this is the perfect

095the efficacy of the teachers and what they can do and how. But they also need to be the best we can have at the time and certainly in this case need to meet the law. Um, Amplify CKLA has a great approach. As a matter of fact, the boxes behind Mr. Kinsey and Mr. Bob Rabbitzky are some of the materials and they have very very carefully thought out with those large boxes the word recognition, the knowledge get the outcome. So they have various pieces and these are the components essentially of each of those equations. Um, I have to have the phonics and word recognition and the language comprehension in order to be a skilled reader. amplifies thought of that they fully have vetted uh the writing portion as well which which to the point of um

096principal Hughes you know and fifth grade we haven't really I take personal responsibility it's not because the teachers haven't been working on it but really uh developed the genre writing the early writing the response it's not just response to reading and writing just because that's what's on the state test so that whole blue area of the simple view of writing being able to not only write and encode but compose and compose a variety of things um can be potentially really beneficial. Here's how Amplify takes a look. Now you've seen the rope. Takes a look at what they offer in terms of uh the reading rope. Um in kindergarten, first and second grade, there's a uh word recognition if you will or um language or word recognition portion in the blue. And that uh is about

097an hour a day. uh the way it's broken down. Teachers of course would have slide decks available to them but manuals and other tools that they have to be ready to prepare and um that takes time just in thinking how to execute. And then the knowledge portion um in the orange part of the rope which then provides really great cross um curricular connections across grade levels across content. So you have a large sheet in front of you demonstrating that as well. Um and bringing that uh language comprehension and all the pieces related to it, vocabulary, background knowledge and so forth to bring them to skilled reading. Just as a further extension, this really just demonstrates what's in each kind of grade level. The 60 minutes, the 60 minutes. Third grade is a critical year. You

098know, we've had the read by grade three law. Some of the things in PA46 aren't very different. students are going to have to have reading intervention plans. We're going to have to do the screening. Um, and there's a lot to it. Uh, so as you can see, third grade, it's demanding grade has a lot of minutes and an option for uh to back up with some skills if we need it for intervention. And then in fourth and fifth grade, um, 90 minutes um, to get to skill reading. Last couple things I wanted to share about the the curricula that um they just do a nice job of breaking down are these are the variety of skills that are part of word recognition from FMIC awareness all the way to what I would say is morphology

099understanding chunks and pieces of words as our our teachers have been studying and then of course grammar and writing and that varies based on the grade level all of the pieces in the skills section um there are skills books that's so the four does not represent fourth grade I know that could be confusing. That's like the skills for book. Um, and that's primarily for the younger grades, but there are for older based on support. And that's think of it like a consumable resource rather than printing and saying in front of kids. Also, on the word recognition or skills portion, there are decodable readers. And we've had that before with success for all and others, but they've usually typically been paper consumable readers that go home. These are actually I know first grade was excited. they're

100they're readers. They almost look like chapter books, right? Um and there's some of those again um behind their superintendent. So that the students have to progress with what they're reading on each page. And of course, they're connected very tightly with the sound sequence that they're taught. There's a lot. So the knowledge portion of amplified core language uh core knowledge language arts rather um has everything I think you would imagine and maybe a bit more. Um so the the biggest thing will be the teachers really reviewing and knowing how um building knowledge across grade levels that large sheet at your place demonstrates some of the connections with uh themes and science and social studies. Um interactive readalouds that's included even as we move up the grade. the research on literacy essentials and students being read aloud

101and their background knowledge and their language comprehension is critical. Um so we really need to make sure we're getting to that and really connect it to the themes. Um and then all the other things that are stated there um including some authentic text opportunities and then the writing I mentioned um as well as research. So also offered for our students in third, fourth and fifth grade. that's part of the proposal um is a novel study and some of those are also uh displayed there as well. And uh the the the grade level really I think the grade level we'll talk about that um has a choice. So there's uh traditional novels, some of those you might recognize like Charlotte's Web and the Phantom Tolken for example that have been around a minute and um then

102there's contemporary options also. So that students in that grade would be doing a novel study. So lastly, I just wanted to share that with the guidance of coach on special assignment and our coaches and our teacher. I can't tell you how many teachers I'm sure there's many in here who have done um language essentials training, letters training. Not how many of you have done it or doing it like yeah a chunk of you and we've had teachers across that's voluntary. We haven't even asked them to do it. Hugely intense. It's like taking a college course in language essentials. Um but all of that making a better teacher of reading and writing. Um and really part of what's what's becoming part of the law. So we certainly believe as part of our larger district vision and

103mission that in literacy um we must be and we know we need to be rooted in the science of reading and science of learning if you will. What our brain what we learn about brain research um that we have to have explicit and systematic word reading. We've had some of that. We have um and the teachers have learned even more. But it's time for it to all be be connected and tied up well for them in addition to the other tools they have. And then of course developing the knowledge building and just being systematic and building among the grades um which will be a wonderful opportunity for our students. And then really well integrating all types of writing, all genres and all ways students need to write and respond to the writing and spelling and

104handwriting. Um and some of the things that you know just have been hard to connect all together. So by together we'll be better off. So lastly, I just wanted to mention Amplify CQLA. You've heard of Amplify. Middle school has Amplify ELA. Certainly different in terms of its approach. It's not as tightly connected to science reading. Doesn't need to be. The students are older. Um and yet, uh there are many similarities to how things work. All three of those circles represent studies. And if you want more study information or background information, I will be happy to send it to you that uh Amplify has met in addition to being on the recommended list. Uh the reading league is a very um critical organization to the science of reading learning. Achieve the core you've heard about before.

105Um I think other adoptions have mentioned that as part of the IMAT rubric. And then I thought this one was interesting. the the knowledge matters campaign really focusing on background knowledge and knowledge for students and CKLA's really been behind that um and that's some of the reason they adjusted this version which is its third edition. So we wish to ask you to consider our adoption of the tool um beginning next year that we provide ongoing professional learning as we have done before and in new ways as well based on feedback from the teachers and that we are able to fund um amplify CQLA with the 35mm grant funds um including online access core resources even the consumables um for the next three years um and so that's The gist of that, I guess I would

106wonder what questions you might have. You might have questions for the teachers who are getting ready to implement the unit or questions for the principles or Michelle or myself. >> Yes to chair. Um to the teachers, how satisfied are you with amplify CK CKLA and how confident are you in teaching it to the students? Um, for me, I just noticed how it the scaffolds that it provides it it's something that we can use um for lower level learners, our English language learners, our more advanced learners, and our learners that are just right at grade level. Um, the comprehension checks are built in. So, it's not just like a something you're going to look at the end of end of the quarter, but there it's a lot of progress monitoring built into it um for comprehension.

107And you know, I just I I think also for the students like success for all like we haven't really I mean you had to like group your students according to like the levels and this you you're able to like teach to your whole group. Um like I said with those different pieces built in for different types of learners. >> I agree. I think the scope and sequence makes a lot more sense than what we're currently doing. Um, and I really like how it's it's phonics. It has your decodable. It has your writing. So, you're not just grabbing from all these different curriculums at different levels at different places. And you're just kind of it's very comprehensive. So, as a teacher, I like that I know the students. It helps the students better. But, um, it

108is Michelle and I just went through some lessons today and it's very it's very clear. It's I'm I'm excited. Y >> chair, can I piggy I want to piggy back off of Misha's question, but ask how did the students like it that were testing it like pilot? >> We we were just like trained on it last week coming back off break. So Tara and I are going to start it on Monday on the 20th just that the unit of where they would be if we had it as a curriculum. >> So we're just in the prep right now. Next week we'll get started. We have some hopefully we'll meet and kind of figure it all out as we go and answer a lot of questions so that if we do this next year that we

109kind of already have a head start on some of those questions that might come up. At this year, we have five um five teachers uh doing the pilot and uh the only grade that we're missing is 30. >> So, kindergarten, first, second >> and we have all grades involved. We can try it throughout the district. >> I know my fourth grade teacher isn't here, but she was so excited. She goes, "Oh my god, this is going to be so much fun." And you know, Mr. um Dave Bun is also a great way to learn. So I'm excited that she's so excited about the program that um and it was it's the revolutionary >> right >> revolutionary war. So to be excited about teaching, you know, history in ELA, it just it just was exciting to

110just, you know, see her excitement in everything she's doing. So she's highlighting it this week. >> So we have another question. >> So amplify maybe for elementary, amplify maybe for middle. How normal is it in other districts for you to have like just one curriculum throughout? >> You mean from the same vendor? >> From the same vendor. >> Very unlikely. >> Okay. >> Especially going through 9th and through 12th grade. It's just different what's out there and what's offered. There's open source, meaning there's, you know, free pieces that are pulled online and those kinds of things. >> It's interesting. I mean, Amplify certainly has made their presence known. They have a science curriculum. They're attached to the screening assessment now. So, you know, proceed with caution, right? All things are good. But, um, it's, you

111know, I think the board had asked years ago, is there a success for all piece, you know, for middle school or whatever? And and there was there's this edge piece, but the the the evidence base behind it wasn't great. Um, and even before that, when I think about like open court, you might be tried in middle school. So, it's rare. It's kind of rare because um depending on what the vendor uh creates and what they offer um and their scope too, right? They they almost want to be solid and good at one thing. It just happens to be um that this is kind of where where it went. We looked at core knowledge language arts, I almost forgot that part, in 2016, but it was a different addition and version and it it it several

112people were drawn to it, but the rigor was was high. Um and you know at that time go ahead say >> it was incredibly workbook heavy versus you know really engaging with text at at that time in that edition >> and they've made it >> probably their first edition I think >> I think it was too >> can I just clarify please I don't believe what we're do while amplify is a program the middle school in the elementary is proposing the curricula are different right so CKLA is what elementary does. I'm not familiar what middle school does, but it's somehow different. It's not the same program, >> right? Couldn't be. >> What other questions? >> Does this goes to middle school, right? >> So, CKLA is the K5 curriculum. >> Okay. The other the middle

113school curricula is an ELA curricula from Amplify. They're different. They just happen to have the same parent company. >> So, how I describe it to people is like you can buy a Ford, but you could buy an F-150 truck or you could buy a Mustang. They're not the same thing, but they're still both. We're getting Mustang in elementary. >> That's a good analogy. analogies are helpful. >> Any other questions? What's the cost? >> So, the cost of three years of the program is um it was in your uh information as well. It is, let me make sure I get the number exactly right. It's listed there in the board packet underneath number 11 for the board at the very end. Thanks. I appreciate that. >> $175,000. >> Yep. So, it's it is just rounding a

114few hundred $275,000 for three years of the curriculum. Um meaning the like I mentioned before the online access certainly many of the books we have we hope we would keep. The decodables are meant to be reused and well cared for and those kinds of things. And then the consumable materials as well. Um so uh that is the cost and then the grant funding is $277,000 which would give us an opportunity to fund it for three years as well as um purchase assuming we could do that like at least one round of professional development. Um, but the rest of that may need to come out of general funding. And again, that's all K5 teachers, all classrooms, etc. at all the buildings. >> Any other questions? >> I have other questions, but not about the this amplify

115curriculum. >> Okay. >> So, that could be part of our discussion, I guess. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Y over there. >> Uh 818. >> Yes, ma'am. All you Okay. Yes. Okay. Do we discuss that? >> Next item on the agenda is discuss K5 English language arts curriculum. What is he doing? >> So, who wants to discuss that? Anybody have anything to say? >> I have a lot of questions. >> I know you do. Didn't you see me look at you? >> Well, this is my first time being on the board since we've changed this or gotten to this point of the curriculum. So, I have a question about the process. >> Okay. >> So, I know success for all is what we had, right? >> Correct. And

116that was you said that was put in place in 2016. >> 2017 the adoption process. >> Yeah. >> So that's almost 10 years ago. >> Correct. >> Wow. Now I will say if I may offer >> law >> um based on the section 35 literacy law not 35M specifically that's one particular section um 35J guidance for example which was the last few years um we did some training on additional pieces both of success for all its latest edition um which for wings for example which was wings five we started with four we provided uh youly training in uh word recognition skills which can be used for intervention and or tier one and would still be used for intervention um to all our teachers. So, we've continued to evolve the parts and there's more like morphology

117and so forth. The parts all those think of all those separate pieces of the rope Michelle was talking about. There have been many pieces we've grown and developed. It just has not been a purchase of an entire tier one building. >> Does that make sense? >> So, it's been tweaked over the last 10 years. >> Probably more the last five, I would say. >> So, five to six. >> Five years. Yeah. Has it been brought back to the board before though for a discussion or to check in and see how things were going? >> We've shared data connected to the practices of employment. >> Is that normal for the board? Because I know curriculum is one of our duties is to decide the curriculum. So I'm just wondering is that a normal way of handling

118things? Is that the way we're supposed to be handling things? Not really. No. To the chair. I'll back you up on that one. No, Amanda. It's not. It's just what happened with all the transition and stuff. We we usually do. That's why we keep, you know, we plus delta and stuff and we believe in cycles. It should have come back at the end of three years, four years for the board to have a presentation to review what's working, what's not, >> which was co. >> Yeah. which >> which did hit co so it was strange but no it's not normal normally it rotates and every few years it comes back to the board and we get an update you know so we're more on top of it I mean going 10 years is a very

119long time because I know we were torn when we approved it 10 years ago the ones that were on the board then if it would be the right fit because of what we were hearing from employees and and and people just on the side but we had no formal meeting or discussion or anything. So, this is this is big what you present it to, >> you know, it's almost a little overwhelming as I look around at some board members and stuff because it is a major step >> and um >> we're going to have to like toss the dice and and make a decision before we know how it went in the classroom and how the kids responded. you're going to need because of deadlines and different things a decision from this board which kind

120of >> puts our backs against the wall a little bit because how do we know? I mean Chris Cous came up and was very nice and said we could come in watch the classroom see I actually have a granddaughter whose teacher will be you know doing that where I'm sure this my granddaughter won't hesitate to tell me how it's working but she's a first grader but it would be nice do you know what I mean but I'm sure you need a you're going to need a decision because of the law and >> it's not the first time that's happened but that's the way law and education is at times. >> Yeah. Th Well, this has been a very um the adjective I'm looking for uh aggressive timeline of adoption and law and implementation from the

121state. Um and I think other districts are feeling it as well. >> Um some adopted new curricula with 35J money. Some of those were approved curricula for the science of reading and others were not. And every one thing I didn't get to tonight. So just with timing, every school district is going to have to say what they've chosen for the 2728 school year. And if it is not on the approved list, you must verify why, >> right? >> And pay for it >> and pay for we preschool is available at that time. >> You know, we didn't like that. And the change would kind of meant force with laws and stuff. It's for funding and that we have to be fiscally responsible too, even though we're not comfortable. >> Sure. >> But it it seems

122like the staff is excited about it. I would just like because of our challenges and our scores and stuff and and Daniel and Misha voiced their concerns, which we're all thinking about that those fifth grade things, >> it it's not acceptable. But how do you relate? It's not acceptable. And what more can we do when it It's it's kind of it's over, you know, it's overwhelming me as a seasoned board member for a newer board member to even comprehend that maybe it would ease some of our pain if we had more communication. Do you know what I mean? What what's going on? because a lot we we don't know that you're doing all of this, >> you know, and have been >> under all these deadlines unless it's communicated to us and just a email

123or a text doesn't always work. Maybe it's something that could be fit into our agenda or something where we're updated what's going on in our district for our kids and what are we actually doing for all the worries that we have, you know? So, I know you're not asking me for a response. >> No, I'm I'm just kind of trying to answer Amanda to kind of re reassure No, this is not normal. It's something that we're being forced to do. Whether we're comfortable, we're going to have to make a call. >> We're going to have to decide >> even though we don't know a lot about it. So, >> so is there a policy or procedure in place on how we handle curriculum changes? >> It's that it has to come to the board of

124education >> that it's two meetings typically that things are reviewed, right? >> That's it. >> And that it's done reported backly. >> I think the rest is under administrative guidelines. It's not policy driven. It's it's how the superintendent and the staff chooses to enforce that. Yes, we say two meetings, but what we get before along the way is under administrative guidelines. >> I think that's what you're struggling with. >> Part of our job is to oversee curriculum. We're not privy to more than two meetings of worth of information. >> That doesn't seem right. >> You certainly could be privy to whatever you Yeah, but we have to by >> what' you say September? >> I'm sorry. >> You said that we got to know >> we material must be it would be started in September.

125>> Correct. >> I understand that part of picking the curriculum, but once it's picked, what is our involvement as a board? Are we reviewing it? Are is it being brought back to us? Are we following up to see what's working? What's not working? >> Well, we should be it should come back to us to we probably the principles come bringing back to us to let us know if it's working for us. >> Is that something we need to be asking for? Is that something you guys are supposed to be doing? I mean, just going off of the example of the preschool, we voted on it and I've heard absolutely nothing since then on how it's doing or anything, how the kids are doing. >> I mean, we we certainly can work that into future agendas

126if that's the board. The board is also the board is also welcome to go and engage and visit schools at any point in time even before >> the board would you know take up a consideration. I know a number of you um have recently been in the buildings and or are regularly in the buildings. So um you know we could provide a list if if you want to go into those classrooms prior to the board voting but we could certainly work it into future agendas as well. So, >> AJ, can you add something? >> Yes. Um, >> okay. >> I kind of leaning more towards uh our curriculum director over here that we vote on million dollar projects from total strangers based on what they say they're going to do, with a 10% contingency. and

127they mess up. This is in house. These are This is family. I That's what she's getting paid for. That's what they get paid for. If they come in here and say that they think based on what they data and all their stuff that this is the best curriculum at this time for the children, lean towards what they're saying, right? Because they're the experts >> and they're the people that's in the house. These are the people we see every day. But we can sit here and let total strangers come in here and give them billions of dollars to fix something based on their word and we don't even know them. So if they come to us with their ideas and their views and their expertise, I'm more apt to listen to them. that I you know

128just like Fisher had the thing and I asked about the cameras they had no plan to put the architects didn't have any plan of where the cameras would go. So they don't have a third party coming and cut holes in these million-dollar projects to put cameras. >> And that's what I'm saying. We get them millions of dollars to do that. But these ladies and gentlemen here, they it's what they do. They're educators. It's what they do. It's what they supposed to. They fail at this job and they'll be held accountable. But we still got to afford them that opportunity to do that first and say, "Hey, this is what they came up with as a collective staff and say, okay, let's do this." >> Yeah. >> Yes. The answer is yes. That's it. to your

129question, but Billy Beverly, I don't know who remembers her, >> told me years ago, before I even thought of getting on the boy, it wasn't a thought. She told me to inform myself. So, wherever my children are, whatever the law is statewide and national, whatever it is in your city, in your district, learn it. That way, you will be in the know. you know, you won't have to rely on anybody else to tell you anything. And I didn't even think about that until SFA came, you know, and I'm like, h, you know, and I've been paying attention to everything education since then. It's it is it is we are doing ourselves a disservice if we don't look into stuff, you know, cuz there are some things that we do not have jurisdiction over. This is

130one of them. As far as >> No, that's not right. >> I didn't say it was right. I'm just saying what it is. >> We do have the responsibility as a >> respons. But I don't think that we're sitting here reading the curriculum before the children get it or that's what I'm saying. >> No, but I would expect more information to be brought forth. And that's why my question isn't geared towards this specific curriculum. It's what is the process we have in place when we change curriculum, when we review things to see if it's working for the kids. We shouldn't be just voting on things and then never bringing it back. >> Well, I think that this very thing in itself is because SFA isn't working anymore. You know what I mean? >> But shouldn't

131we have known that sooner if there was a process in place where it was brought back to the board and discussed? We look at their test scores all the time, but we didn't look at the curriculum and how it affected the test scores. >> I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying >> I'm confused about it. At the point of >> can I call point of order because she just had some questions for discussion, not for us to debate that and force. She just wanted to get some answers. >> Yeah. >> Can Can we go back that way? If >> can we just let her ask her questions like she asked like any of us without interrupting? >> So I guess can I just ask a question to Amanda then? You just want them to

132come back 6 months from now and say hey boy this what's going on. >> I just wanted to know like what our process is like do they come back in 6 months process it's not a we can ask Jason whatever we want operationally to do anything. That's what I'm saying. So would you want to every six months come back and tell us what's going on? What would make you feel comfortable? Still the board has to decide that as a group, not just like me wanting to know that. >> No, I'm just asking you cuz you had the question. Is that was your mind? You just want them to come back and update. >> It's kind of like how we had for a while Jason was coming back to us and updating us about of the

133information to go along with just them bringing it for us to vote on. Then I just don't feel like that's enough. >> So I'm sorry to chair. Oh >> yes, go ahead. >> I'm sorry. So it's just a ask, not really a policy that we need. We just need to ask whenever we need something. So we feel like we need to know if basically hey you know Jason can you come back in three months and give us an update is what it seems like need to be. So we need to probably just figure out how often we would need to know information cuz I think that's really what the concern is things are happening and we don't know. So what we can do is say after if we could we have to start it in

134September and let's say by March we need we need an update And Jason, I will I will tell Jason or whoever is the president, we need an update on >> to to >> the the C the FC K >> to the kind of what I mean it's kind of what I'm saying. I I think that I mean just it probably needs to be a conversation probably with Amy and her team to find out what's the best time because we don't want them to come back and say we're just getting started. It's just like well okay that's not helpful. I think we probably need to get a timeline together of when something's been implemented, they can have some real information >> and what kind of data can they bring to us, you know, like maybe after

135some testing's been done after we gotten feedback from teachers and students and we've looked at test scores again, not just the once a year from the schools, but seeing like if it's really improving the reading and writing and everything cuz that's the stuff I want to see and that's the stuff I would want to see if I was a parent, too. >> Saying what you want to see. So what like I said whoever is sitting in this seat and Jason or who we we just have to say okay this is what we need to do Amy Jason and make sure it's done and I understand what you said. >> I did too. No, no, no, no. I understood what you were saying, too. I just I don't always word things the right way. Daniel knew

136what I was trying to say, though. So, it's just like um working together, like teamwork. Like, yes, they have their job, we have our job, but it's just kind of >> success for all. We didn't know because of co >> I didn't know anything about success for all cuz that was before my day. So, I was always asking questions like, "What is this that you guys are talking about?" because >> well you know like when we first but when we first discussed it I mean everybody wasn't didn't say yeah we want to do this >> did they? >> No they didn't >> but we were we we had we were backed up against the walls we didn't have technically we didn't really have a choice. >> Yeah. I mean I don't have a problem with

137this amplify at all. I think it sounds great. It was more so like how does this process work being a new board member who's never seen it happen before >> to the chair? >> Yes. Al also um just prior history it's cycles even we asked for a report back in March I think it would just be a five minute report of communication this is how it's going until we complete the cycle like Amy said it's like a three-year cycle you don't know until you complete the whole thing >> um there's nothing's perfect you got to reach so it's it's it's just being in comm you know feeling that you're a part part of the process and communicating I think that's the big >> big thing is just it's not a formal presentation you know because

138you haven't completed a cycle how can you give really an informed decision kind of just a like a plus delta I guess if you brought back a plus delta this is what's working this isn't working that's fine I don't need a slideshow >> so um to chair I'm sorry what We discuss after you all do the one unit or before will we consider I'm sorry >> the goal would be at the end of the month >> and just be >> okay >> good >> so we go next time we go next meeting it is weird >> but once it's implemented then we'll revisit it >> we will get feedback Yeah, because I know myself and the rest of you all want to see the reading and writing scores go up. So, watching this one, >>

139we do want to see this go up. Yes. >> Madam President, can I ask the board for a point of clarification whether it be now or later to discuss and that would be regarding other adoptions that we have recently done. >> Um the middle school ELA curriculum, the middle school the high school math. >> Yeah. um you know some other things are piloting longer. I guess I would want to know and I don't need to know now is there a particular process or interval that you want for those short less formal reporting back because you know we've done that same process >> we have done that we we have you know voted on like we did the math thing at at high school we did the ELA for the middle school but theirs were longer

140Right. >> They were. >> Yeah, it it was. >> But have we checked in since we voted? >> That's what I'm saying. We really haven't. >> I think that's what I'm just putting. >> I think it would be nice to have a check in every once in a while like, "Hey, this new curriculum is awesome. XYZ or hey, this is something we're going to do >> or how is it doing?" >> Yeah. Is it is it helping us or is it doing nothing or Yeah, I understand what you're saying. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, you write that down. question. >> I got it. >> I'll handle it. I will talk. >> Okay. All right. >> Okay. So, it'll be back in uh at Jason. >> Yes. >> Okay. Are we done with this? >>

141Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Next item on the agenda is considered technology e-ate project. Do I have a board member that is willing to adopt the rate project >> to the chair? >> Yes, >> I adopt it. >> Second. >> Okay. It's been adopted by Mr. Winston and it has been >> supported by Mr. Johnson. >> All in favor? I >> any nays? Zero naz, six eyes. Resolution not. Next item on the agenda, comments from the audience. >> We have one. Nicholas, come on up. >> Yes. Yes. So long. >> I know. >> He He He got a nice neck. He good. >> I know. >> All right. Perfect. So, >> like a model. >> I'm going to make this quick cuz I all know we want to go home now. Quite a long meeting, but

142um I'm glad I stayed. And I also want to thank you guys for uh letting me speak right now. um giving me the time to express the accomplishments some of the students have been doing at the high school and the level of involvement that the students have been doing as well and I've been observing. Um for people that don't know me, I am Nicholas Hopson. I am a I am the senior student council president this year. I'm also multiple president roles in other clubs like NHS president and um I'm an active leader in link crew as well. Um, and I'm just going to start off here, but also I want to just say that I'm going to be talking about extracurriculars that involve students that take advantage of the resources um that the board provides

143and the board of education provides. And um it is super important that you guys know that too because it may look like it that all students might not appreciate as much, but the students that are in the students that are in these clubs and that accomplish these things really do support it as well and um take advantage of that and then go really far for it in their careers and after high school as well. First thing I want to talk about is student council talent show auditions. So, student council is doing a talent show this year and um doing new events and promoting new ideas has been my goal for becoming or having the presidency this year. Um I've been told multiple times that student council has really excelled in leadership and involvement. I excelled

144last year and it just shoots this year in changing thing and revolutionizing its team and what we do. Um, and that'll be my goal for this year and to promote it next year as well. And just to like just change and not just, oh, student council is doing this every year, here's this again, but to give a difference, you know, and something new that students can look forward to every day that they come to school. And so that has been one of my biggest goals in student council as well. But we're working on a talent show this year and it's going great. It's going wonderful. We just finished up auditions the week. Uh yeah, actually just last week we just finished up auditions and honestly this talent show has been bringing a really positive vibe

145throughout the school. Everyone's been asking, "Oh, are you auditioning for the talent show? Are you doing the talent show? Oh my gosh, I can't wait." And so, but for your information, it's going to be on May 6th at 6 o'clock. Mhm. Yep. There we go. Uh it's going to be on May 6th. It's going to be a wonderful night. Wonderful, wonderful. Um, it's been talked about a whole bunch this year starting in January and um I've been mostly taking the lead on it, but most of my council has been giving support and ideas into this uh idea as well. That is becoming real fast. >> Is it an auditorium? >> Yeah. Um the talent show has been carefully thought about prioritizing entertainment and order of that kind of stuff and talents and like which way

146and how long the talents get as well. Um like I said positive impact on the student community at in the building as well. Another another club I'm going to talk about is NHS. NHS has accomplished quite the amount this year in um student involvement and veteran student like academics as well during the last uh finals and semester 1. So we had this thing uh like cookies and cra and we had it right before finals and you would go in the uh media center and you would buy cookies but then also like study and then tutors would also be there as well to help you and then you would have your finals the week after. And so I've heard from a lot of students that had that has had a positive impact on their um finals

147and have seen better grades actually than uh years before. Um and then also NHS helped out at uh Vandenberg's Black History event. That was also really good turnout. We loved it. It was super fun. But NHS is also like partaking in things as well. we have partake in the Christmas event at other elementary schools as well and look forward to doing that in the year after. So I also push for that so students can keep doing that in clubs. Um another thing Link is doing uh I don't know if many of you like seen the mural at the high school but the sports mural and stuff like that. That's a project that Link is working on right now. It's currently being finished but it will be finished very soon. Uh it's been a thing since

148December, but a lot of the students that are in link are also in other clubs and so it's kind of hard to meet after school, especially if you're in sports and stuff like that. But um it'll get done and it's been pretty fun partaking in all these activities as well. And I just I love seeing the involvement as well. And I've also noticed that before like around sophomore year, I noticed that there wasn't a lot of male participation in extracurriculars at the high school. And I do or I like I try my hardest in all these extracurriculars to lead by example and not by explanation to show that guys don't have to be embarrassed to be on student council or in link and stuff like that and they can actually show their passion about what

149they're doing in school and what they want to do for a career or something like that. And so I will I will wake up every day and go to school representing that kind of leader and that's showing other males that they don't have to be embarrassed to join drama club and do a show that you want to do so badly or have watched before. >> And so I lead by that. And then I also continue to revolutionize student council as well. I don't want student council to be a club where you just join and don't do anything and just say you're part of student council because you're technically in the club. Um, I want everyone on student council to participate and push forward as well. But that is my activities and accomplishment for report for

150the students at thirst. So, thank you so much. Thank you so much. That was great. Okay. Next item on the agenda, bus Delta plan format. Madam President's work this evening >> to the chair. >> Yes. >> Uh my plus today is um that I appreciated all of the information from the presentations and I appreciated the board's patience with my questions and thank you for staying till late, Nick. That was a good presentation, too. So that's my plus. anymore. I always enjoy when the schools come in and give presentations, but you know, I always say, and the board says the same thing, we just have to keep working harder and harder to get our scores. Anybody else? >> Oh, I have a question. >> Yes. When is the scholarship stuff do? >> It says right there

151at the 20th. By the 20th. >> This is for us to have it turned into him. >> For him to have it completed. >> No. Turn it into him. And you can send him an email or whatever. >> When is the date that it will be decided by the board to get the get the scholarship to the student? So once that comes into me, I calculate everything. I push it back out and then um in the next board meeting, she would announce whoever that winner is. It's based off the calculation and not really an ultimate decision by the board. It's >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So it doesn't necessarily have to be if we end up having to push time, but then it pushes the possibility cut in time. So do it sooner than later. >>

152I guess I'm just wondering like will the student know prior to um honors night or graduation for the scholarship? Usually we use we usually >> is it usually honest night >> you present it but >> Chris will know and can let them know >> ahead of time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Opportunities for what processes would help the board's work in the future. I don't think there are any. >> Okay. There are no deltas. >> If there's nothing further that come before Oh, I want to say one thing. >> Uh Jason, would you please tell Mandy happy birthday? >> No, no, sir. Yes. If there's nothing further that comes before this board, I adjourn the meeting at >> 9:07.