Kirkwood School District - Board of Education Work Session - January 5th, 2026

001do plan updates for the 2526 school year. Um, this one comes at a unique time given that we're about halfway through the year that really some celebrations about the work last year, but also the work that's been happening already first semester of this school year. Um, I will say I loved last month that the high school really celebrated and thanked the middle schools and I had an opportunity to share that with them a few weeks ago. But recognizing that a lot of the growth that they're having and the work their students are doing is credit to the work that you guys are doing and we know that that starts down to our early childhood and elementary program as well. But as a lifelong middle school educator, I also know that these are the most challenging

002three years in most students development. You think about their minds and their bodies are changing drastically and rapidly and you only have them for three years and um yet you work magic and so um we're excited to hear about the great things happening both at Knifer and North Kirkwood Middle tonight. So turn it over to Dr. Bailey to introduce the teams. >> It's almost like Dr. Rumpus saw my notes when he said that last piece. So I apologize first for my voice. It's been in and out. It's my pleasure to introduce our middle school teams. Uh, middle school, I'm going to just read what I wrote anyway. Middle school might be the most challenging time of a student's academic career. Uh, my wife is a middle school educator, so I hear about it all the

003time. Uh, where changes in expectations, homework, class changes, use of lockers, and all kinds of activities coupled with changes in physical stature and social stuff that comes along with middle school, uh, can create a challenging environment for all of our students. Our middle school teams focus on supporting students from before they even arrive at our middle school starting with elementary meetings and connections all the way through uh the end of middle school and in fact you saw human this evening all the way through high school providing support for our students as well. Our middle school teams work hard to make sure that all students achieve but also feel a sense of belonging and connection. Our middle schools are strong collaborators and maybe even friendly competitors in many many areas but always have a focus on

004student growth. I'm very proud to work closely with our middle school teams and happy to turn it over to our middle school administrators who will introduce themselves and jump right on in. >> Oh, I do I do a clicker. >> Mary, this is so fancy. >> There it is. You do good work, Mary. Mary, everybody, [applause] [cheering] >> the unsung heroes. Um, all right. Uh, I'll start off. So, we really throughout this presentation, we um want to talk about points of pride and a lot of things that are going really, really well. Uh, we happen to think you you say we have the most challenging group of kids. We happen to think we have really the best jobs. Um, we love what we do. We love working with each other and we love that we

005get to do it in Kirkwood and there's a lot of good stuff going on and a lot of things to celebrate and that really is going to be the emphasis of our um our talk with you and it really was our talk with our staff at the beginning of the year this year is there are there are times when I have felt like our our foot is on the pedal nonstop and then there's times where you just have to take it off and just look around and say, "Holy moly, we are we've done great things and great things for kids." Um, and just sit in the celebration for a little while. And that is hard for us to do. We are uh we're kind of we're we're sort of wired for always looking for how

006to be better. Um, but we've actually hit pause a little bit to our whole theme this year was celebrating where we've been to see where we need to go. But that that does it means that you have to sit in some celebration. Um both of the schools have really made a point of doing that and and and kind of on that that notion that what you look for you find. And so we've asked community members, teachers, uh other students, um staff members to fill out positive referrals for staff, for kids. Um and so just this year alone, we've had our bragging bulldog, which is kind of our biggest uh award that we can give. And the notable nights, 166 kids have been recognized. We've done positive referrals between both schools. 821 kids have been recognized

007already. This was in December when we did this. Uh staff shoutouts. Anybody in the community has an opportunity to do staff shoutouts and and there's a link in our newsletter. 230 have been done either by staff members to other staff members or by community members to staff members. And it just kind of keeps fuel in the tank to keep wanting to do really well when you feel good about what you're doing and celebrate. We even had a we had a faculty meeting this fall where we used a protocol that typically is called start, stop, continue. Um, but we decided to start with what we were going to continue and then say that if we're going to start anything, we also have to stop something because I think you can you can keep putting things on

008your plate and if you don't look to see what can come off, then the plate goes the plate runs over pretty quickly. Um, and you also have to say what's on the plate and what's going well. Um, so we looked at things that we were going to continue doing and and that was really fun and it just gave us a chance to really enjoy all of the celebrations that we have. And throughout this whole presentation, you guys are going to get a chance to see some of the real data and some of the celebrations um that we want we want to show you guys tonight. >> Laura, through that strength-based approach, we know it's very important that students feel seen and valued. And so both schools are um have relationships at the forefront of everything

009that we do. So that's why we love middle schoolers. You never know what you're going to get. Every day is a new day. Um so intentionally connecting with students is really important and we know some students may need a little bit more than others. And so we have put intentional connectors in place for students who may not be meeting benchmark yet um or students who maybe are meeting benchmark but they're not showing growth. Uh or students who maybe have some social emotional learning needs. And so an intentional connector is an adult who is truly committed to getting to know the student they're working with. They maybe attend their um outside of school activities or sports. Um they get to know what they enjoy. Um and they check in with them um even more than they

010do regular regularly. Um and so this year just a couple short stories to kind of give you a visual of this. Um we had a seventh grade student last month who was celebrating the fact that um her a reading data had grown so much that she no longer needed reading intervention. However, her intentional connector happened to be her reading teacher and um has been for the last two years and so she didn't want to leave reading intervention even though she had graduated out of reading intervention. Um but she was at the 90th percentile for growth in our school. And I truly believe it's because the teacher has um gotten to know the family, has um really worked to find her strengths, has built her confidence, and so she really used that relationship as the catalyst

011for growth. And the intervention is very very important, but we know if that relationship is not in place, then uh sometimes the intervention doesn't work. So that was one example. We had another sixth grade student who um her intentional connector was working with her on getting to class on time because during first quarter she was leading the grade level with tardies. Um not in a way she wanted to be, but we just checked in second quarter and she had zero tardies for second quarter. So just taking that time um again like we knew this was a kiddo who valued the social piece and so how could we give that to her in a positive way um so that we could keep learning at the forefront and get her to class on time. But these stories

012reflect what we see consistently that um the int intentional connections build accountability, confidence and motivation. And again, if we want um students to fully engage in the learning, then the relationships really are the catalyst to get get students there. Um outside of intentional connections, we also know that leadership opportunities are important for all of our students and different students find uh leadership in different ways. And so making sure that we're offering a variety of ways for students to kind of capitalize on what they can bring to the school is really important. So these are just two new ones for this school year. Obviously um building on other opportunities that we already have. So this year um when we started the um device um policy which really we already had in place at the middle school

013which was bellto bell no cell. uh we talked about ways to get the kids involved in this because we want them to feel like they're part of the learning process and it's not being done to them. So each morning we have a different um set of students who come down and they do the morning announcement to remind students to put their devices away and to focus on learning for the day. Um some of them get very excited to speak on the PA system. We might have to have some warnings before they get on there sometimes. Um and then another group that's new this year is our knifer step team. So the knifer steppers. So Latoya Jones, one of our coaches, is the sponsor and they have already um showcased their talents at our fall VIP

014breakfast. Um and then this semester they are going to visit KCC to talk about the history of STEP and perform for our youngest learners, which is really exciting for both the students at KCC and for our kids. >> Um speaking on points of pride again, um I wanted to touch base on our school of character. So last year, um, NIPER was recognized as a Missouri school of character. Um, and as we start the 2526 school year, um, in the second semester of that, we're looking for ways to continue to expand on our character program um, as well for our students. Um, we have a thorough home room structure that embeds several of our components of our character program, including our curriculum, second steps. This year, we added a quarterly choice void for students as well

015during home room. Um, it allows students to practice our three code words in action. compassion, perseverance, um, and learning. Learning p teamwork, perseverance, and compassion. Um, and throughout the quarter, students have a variety of ways that they can choose, um, to take their learning and to put it into action as well. We additionally incorporated a component in home room called home room and action. And so that we highlight various events throughout the quarter um, and activities that are directly linked to our second step curriculum. outside of just home room. Our character program, we look for ways to build upon this outside of home room and into our classrooms. So, our long-term goal for staff um has been to attend and the restorative training practices led by our coaches within our district um to help continue

016to to build upon that. Um, currently we have 29 staff members that have been trained and are bringing that work and their learning back to their PLC's as well um to incorporate into their daily practice in classrooms beyond just a home room setting. Um, we've also launched this year something called the Clash of the Castle. Um, teams and grade levels compete against each other through various activities and accomplishments throughout the school year. Um and this has really increased our student participation um for for various activities um within the team and among teams and grade levels as well. >> So a couple of years ago both schools did um the equity and justice academy of character education um through character plus and through that uh both schools were encouraged to do the school of character process

017and so north has undergone that this year uh we've had a lot of um staff involvement and so we'll find out in about two weeks if we're advancing in that process. So that's exciting. We'll keep you posted. Um but one thing we wanted to highlight uh with our kind of partnership is that um through our character learning community or CLC home room structure um one of our home rooms, one of our eighth grade home rooms has partnered with the Ronald McDonald House um for a a year-long service learning opportunity um to be able to learn alongside what that organization does and then run a schoolwide um pop tab, soda tab uh collection uh competition. And so that's happening right now. Um it's been super cool to see uh this kind of teacher initiated but really

018studentled um service learning project kind of take off. Uh we have a picture up there of our French teacher Mr. Boske giving blood. And we want to thank you the district and the board for supporting um our kind of initiative to run blood drives uh on district work days. It's been super successful and it's been really really cool. um kind of highlighting some of these things you'll see are really highlighting our commitment to giving back to our community, which is something both middle schools deeply believe in um and really want to instill in our kids is this idea of giving back. Um so you'll see that kind of uh throughout the rest of what Savannah and I are going to talk about. >> Um at at North or at Knifer this year, um our eighth

019grade art classes got to partner with the Magic House. Um they had an exhibit called Beyond the Box. Um and students were able to create and complete various challenges um through their cardboard design um through the beyond the beyond the box program and they were to bring their ideas um to life outside of the classroom. our new fax classes as well. We're able to partner with KECC and um Kirkwood High School and our fax classes partnered with a teacher at KC KCC to learn about development developmentally appropriate toys. And then both Nifer and North partnered with the high school to utilize their new space um for our cooking unit in fact as well. Um and then our Veterans Day um activities, each grade level took on a different activity this year. And so our eighth

020grade um led penny wars for knifer. Um and the funds that we raised for um Veterans Day went to the Wounded Warrior Project. And so our students were able to learn about uh the Wounded Warrior Project and then um participate within our building um to raise funds for that as well. So it's it's neat. This was our second year and we continue to see growth and excitement both from not just students but staff as well. >> And speaking of penny wars, uh we had a home room take on a service project of running a penny war across the school um to fund the Ruth Baldwin scholarship fund uh which is named in uh on behalf of a beloved science teacher at North Ker Middle School, Ruth Baldwin. And so it was really cool to see

021kids uh take that and run with it and then to see the money, the change in the dollar bills uh rolling in. And so they were that home room was able to spearhead a couple thousand dollars going into that scholarship fund which is really neat. Another opportunity to give back um the school spirit. Uh we wanted to highlight the grade level rallies and so I want to invite you as the board um at North. We've invited we've kind of brought this up a couple times but we have our next CLC rallies coming up next week. Uh so January 14th at 8:05 will be sixth grade. Uh January 15th at 1:45 will be seventh grade and then 2:25 will be eighth grade. And those are uh rallies where we celebrate kids living out care their commitment

022to character, learning, and community um day in and day out. And it's it's a super fun. It's awesome. Um and so we would just want to invite you to come and see that um energy. Uh so those rallies uh we just want to continue to highlight. Speaking of rallies, our um guidance team at Knifer heard about the rallies at North and they said we have to go visit and see what it's all about. So this past fall they went and visited a rally um here at North and they brought back their experience and learning to our care team at Nifer. Um and we decided we have to design something that's going to fit the needs of our students here at Nifer um and kind of model the rallies that that started at North. So um

023we developed as a team um something called nights of character rallies and we introduced that to students um today on their first day back so they kind of know what they are looking for um and working towards towards the end of third quarter. So we will have our first rally at the end of third quarter. Um and we're looking forward just um for the opportunity to celebrate collectively but also individually the success of students um and and as a team as well. Beyond just um the rallies at middle school um both of our um middle schools north and have partnered with MLDDS to serve as lab schools um and offer 30 second feedback opportunities for new administrators in the St. Louis areas. Um, so beyond just student learning and collaboration, there's several adult learning um,

024opportunities taking place as well. Um, and then I also wanted to touch on just our PLC's and the current process and um, the collaboration with Ed Plus that we've had. Um this year at Nifer we've rolled out um a six-w weekek learning cycle um that we have partnered with our ed plus coach Jessica Vwald on um and she has come in with um our department chairs for the first semester and has established a six-w weekek learning cycle. And so she meets with um administrators and PLC teams on weeks one, three, and six of the cycle. um and teachers are able to pick a new evidence-based strategy that they want to try to implement in the classroom and then collect data along the way. Um it's been really neat to see the growth within um student

025success, but also the the development of adult learning for our department chairs. Um and we are rolling out the second round of those learning cycles with um our ed plus coach um and our department chairs leading and coaching through the rest of their department for second semester. So we're excited to see um that work continue. I want to echo Savannah's gratitude on the like for [clears throat] the funding of the Ed Plus partnership. Um we have Sherry Culpa who works with us at North. She's a genius. Uh if you don't know her, but she um she's done really cool um kind of different iterations of PLC support throughout the years uh that she's been with us. Um she's done um kind of like really practical um training with different uh groups of teachers on high

026impact teaching strategies. she's done very um specific coaching for PLC uh PLC's and their kind of data cycles and stuff like that. Um and so we continue to really benefit from her expertise and that partnership and and uh she's also done a great job of coaching us up as leaders of PLC's in the building. And so um that partnership with Ed Plus is just I mean it's phenomenal. So thank you. Um, also I just want to highlight that uh Dana and I were able to go down and and to uh where was that? In it was the Lake of the Ozarks, right? It was in Colombia. Uh at the end of September and we were able to present at the Missouri Association for the Secondary uh School Principles Conference um all about school culture and

027just and really our our whole goal there was to to present tons of practical ideas about how to build school culture. Um, and it was really cool. We we were able to connect with a number of different administrators across the state of Missouri. Um, and just be able to say like, "Try this or try this or try this or try this or try this." Um, some of them really just small things you could do tomorrow and and other things that would take a little bit more investment. But, um, it was it was a really neat opportunity. >> Oh, this is also us. >> Do you want to take it, Savannah? >> Perfect. Yes. Um so these are just several different artifacts um kind of highlighting the things that we had already talked about. So um

028I wanted to highlight we talked about student positive referrals as well as staff shoutouts as well. So you'll see um a variety from both knifer and north of student positive referrals um and then the connection with sending that positive referral home to the family. um we started to we share share it via email um as one of the ways and then in that email chain we put the teacher that nominated the student but uh the family um and then the guidance counselor and the administrator for that grade level and so we started an email chain just chiming in to that student um and it's neat one of the things that we had a family member say was my goodness what an amazing thing to hear I'm crying to be honest helping the student navigate um

029the social aspects of middle school has been really hard lately and so um it was neat to you know, the student to see that and then for the family to see that as well. Um, and then the same teacher that nominated that student, um, we also just nominated for, um, their continual, um, example of building strong relationships with students and going above and beyond for that as well. >> I just want to highlight the Bragg and Bulldog award up there on the in the corner. Um, that's our seventh grade counselor, Michelle Frink, who who nominated a kid named Heights. Um, and you see in there she she points to his leadership ability. And I just want to um say like what an a like what an affirming thing to get as a parent and as

030a kid um to see that your your kids's counselor sees that in your kid. Um and and you know that just spreads and spreads and replicates. And so it's a it's naming all the good because there's a lot of good. Naming the good and celebrating that has a contagious effect and it just continues to spread. Yeah, the only other the other ones I would notice um we have a staff member who is saying something kind about another staff member. Again, one of those cool things um that just just having people put it out there, right? Like how often do you say like the nicest thing people ever say about other folks are at their funeral, you know, and it's like come on, like let's do it while they're alive. Let's tell them the stuff we

031love about them because when you tell them that stuff then they want to do more of it. Um, this seems like a good time to go on record as saying, "I thought our rallies were the worst idea I'd ever heard." [laughter] When Michelle Fank and Jordan came to me with all jazzed and said, "We're going to bring 240 kids into the gym and they're just going to scream and they're going to go crazy. We're going to draw names out of a bucket and they're going to come run down." I was like, "This is horrible." And I kept waiting for them to hear how horrible it sounded. Like, this is chaos. uh we are like inviting chaos and they never saw how horrible it was going to be and I thought well maybe I'm missing something

032so I thought well I will just do this. It is a blast. So when they say you guys should come it takes like 20 it is 20 minutes of like those energy drinks. I've never tried one but I can only imagine what they feel like. It's like that jolt times a hundred into your soul in 20 minutes. And it's just cool watching kids be excited and they're just excited about having their name drawn for having zero tardies or having their name drawn because they got a positive referral or because they didn't have they weren't on the the missing assignment list. It's like the the stuff you should do. Um they're in the bucket for it and they get called and they I don't know they you'd think they won the lottery. >> Um it's pretty

033cool. All right. So, um this is from last year's uh building plan. So, just some highlights um of things from our goals from last year. So, you can kind of see um where we are. So, the first one uh 100% of our students scored proficient or advanced on the algebra EOC, which is amazing. Um we talk a lot about how we're helping our students who are maybe struggling, but it's also important to acknowledge that we have um kids who continue to need that challenge and make sure that we're supporting all students um across all levels. And so that was great to see. 92.5% of them were advanced. So that's amazing. Um and then we had three reading goals, one for each grade level last year, uh for students, um meeting certain data points on the

034A- reading assessment, and all three grade levels met their goal. Um, and some of those were a little bit hard to meet because when you're getting to the point of more than 80% meeting, it gets harder and harder to capture, you know, that last percentage. And so, eighth grade had 85.3% meeting on their A- reading assessment in the spring, which is awesome. >> Uh, and then math, we only had one grade level that had fewer than 80% meeting benchmark, and that grade level made enough growth that they actually met their goal. So, um, even though they're still not quite at 80%, they still met their goal, which was a celebration. And then the last but not least, we increased 12 percentage points with females responding to the question, how interesting do you find the things

035you learn in science? So that was a also a nice highlight. >> And then a few things in North. We we talked a little bit at our last the last time that we met with you guys. We talked about um the fact that we were talking with our staff about how do you make transformative change versus mitigative change, right? like how do you how do you do the stuff that's going to going to last a long time as opposed to putting like a band-aid on one little issue? And I think committing to adult learning through that PLC process really has been the gamecher for us because when the adults are committed to becoming better then they are better for every kid they ever encounter. Um and I think it's and I think we then see

036these data points. So when that first one, all of our non-white, so kids that fell in the category of non-white, black or African-American, multi-racial, intensive tier three, and IEP students outperformed the all student category on a reading and making typical to aggressive growth. So those groups that sometimes we are not seeing amount of growth in, they outperformed the all student category in every single one of those groups um in our A- reading. That's unbelievable. um at least 80% of our students met or exceeded the benchmark on a reading and a math except for in one one place where we were at 77% which is pretty darn good. Um 97% of our kids score proficient or advance on the algebra EOC and 94% of those being advanced to to what Laura was saying before. Um, we

037do talk a lot about our struggling learners, but I think we are really working especially through that PLC process and that and that fourth question in there of like what do you do for the kids who already know it? Like how do you make sure that learning matters to them and that what they're learning is meaningful to them and you have to get there for those kids also. They deserve to grow just like everybody else. Um, and then 100% of our students who are proficient or advanced on the geometry EOC. So, I mean, our teachers are just they're hitting it out of the ballpark. And the kids are the the kids are coming to us at at all levels and with with all sorts of needs and and it really is through those intentional connections

038that our teachers make with kids and for kids that kids buy into the learning and and they want to learn from the people we're putting in front of them. Um, we really we have the best teachers. I mean, they're just unbelievable at what they do. >> Oh, hold on. I hit the wrong arrow. >> Large white arrow, Mary. The large the large arrow. Got it. >> So, we get Jen and I get to kind of round out a little bit in bragging on our climate survey because I think it comes down to what we're all talking about is making those connections and how those connections with kids impact their academics and their feelings of belonging at middle school. And as the people who love working at middle school, we know that middle school kids don't

039always tell us uh how they feel about things or they tell us too much about how they feel about things. And so that first point, this was for both of our schools. So I'm speaking on behalf of North and Knifer right now, but when you ask kids the questions, uh do you have a teacher or other adult from school who you can count on to help you no matter what? 89% of our students responded favorably to that. and the 10% that didn't, you know, that we're still striving for them, but that is a nationally normed statistic. And that puts us in the 99th percentile. It doesn't go higher. I've been told, I'm not a statistic person, but it does not go higher than that of all schools in the nation on that question. And that

040means a lot to both of our buildings because that's really that connecting piece that I believe drives some of those academics. The second part that we just wanted to point out is um talking about equity and advancing student equity for teachers, their responses on the survey question, how effective is your school administration in helping you advance student equity? That was up 20% in each of our buildings. So, that really has been a focus for us and we're really proud to see that showing in the way our teachers feel. Um, before Dana switches it over, this picture up here is from our opening hurrah wellness, go have fun, get to know each other day where we travel all around the district at different buildings and had different activities um for the the teams to do and

041that was our our winning team. Okay. Um, so more on the climate survey in these areas. This is all the So, the way the climate survey is set up, there are lots of questions and they're all each under a category. And so, these are different categories within the climate survey for the student section, for a teacher section, and for the family section. Um, some of those categories are nationally normed for our two buildings. These are the categories in which we hit above the 90th percentile of middle schools nationally um in those categories. So for students, supportive relationships, positive feelings, rigorous expectations, school safety and belonging for teachers, school climate, and for family school climate. Now, some things to note because it looks like there's a lot here and not a lot here. That's only because

042there's only so many nationally normed um categories for students. We have hit all five of those in the 90th percentile or about there's only five and for teachers there's three and each of us have hit twothirds just only one third was the same but each of us hit twothirds and then family school climate is the only one so um it says 90th or higher 90th percentile that's a typo but we this is awesome and a lot of those if we go back if I could find my notes when we were working on this a lot of them are in the 99th percentile for one or both of our buildings. Um, yeah, I was really proud of that. So, as we wrap up, um, I will say one of the questions you guys often have asked

043us is like, what do you guys need? And I will tell you that you you met a need. Uh, you met a need a few years ago and I just want to say thank you to that. Um there was a time when you would have only seen four administrators on this slide and it wasn't too long ago and there was a commitment by the board to add a third administrator to each one of our middle schools. The difference that that has made um you won't see it in pan honestly I see it in every single one of those numbers. Um it has allowed us to embed in a grade level. It has allowed us to really connect with teachers and be the instructional leaders that we always wanted to be. and sometimes just we just

044couldn't get to it. Um what what three people can do versus what two people can do in a building has been a gamecher. So I want to say thank you to that. Thank you to our team. Um >> you know sometimes I I hope it looks like we we like each other and enjoy each other because we just do. Um we like what we do. We like where we work. We like the challenge of the middle school kids and the opportunity to enjoy coming to work every day is not apparently not everybody has that like I that's what I hear that not everybody has that and I I just feel very grateful. So thank you guys. >> Thank you. Well, Ben, do you have any questions or comments? Oh, Lisa, I'm sorry. We're sitting in

045new places. Figured I was still eating my So, let me pass. Um, yeah, that's okay. Um, thank you all first of all for the wonderful presentation. Love to hear and see the enthusiasm from all of you in what you do. And as the mom of two middle schoolers, I especially appreciate the extra time and energy that you all put. Um, I really applaud the um, effort that you've put toward creating those intentional connections. I definitely can see firsthand how that does impact the engagement of students and feeling not only that they have a place of belonging but also feeling like they have that confidence to move through the world um in a different way than they would have otherwise. So, thanks so much for the effort that you all put in there. Um Dr. Rumpus

046in kind of the opening alluded to the important role that middle school plays not only in that kind of interesting time in individuals lives but also in preparation for the future knowing that are preparing themselves for their life in high school and preparing themselves beyond. Um we heard last month some of the amazing things that Kirkwood High School is doing to prepare students for what's happening beyond high school. Um I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about the efforts that you all have in connecting with the high school. Um not just from the um connection points at a broad level but also maybe from an individual student perspective. um how what what steps are you taking to prepare those students for thinking about high school and also thinking about beyond? >> I was

047gonna say just today actually Jen and I were on the phone because we were talking about um transition to high school. So um obviously kids are getting ready to plan their coursework for um next year. But earlier in the slides, we had talked about those community partnerships and um I was fortunate to go to the initial success ready schools network um meetings that were offered in Parkway. And I think that's a piece at the middle school level that we can capture a little bit more um to set students up for their future and um what to be ready for. And so the partnership with Magic House actually happened just because I we had a parent who uh works at the Magic House and she reached out and she's like, "Hey, you guys are right next

048door. Come take advantage of all of these, you know, things that we have to offer." And so that kind of opened a door. And so I think we need to continue to look for ways to get kids those real world experiences because that's what gets them excited about their learning. And not that every middle schooler needs to know exactly what they're going to do, but we do want them to start thinking about opportunities that are out there and that then drives kind of their coursework and and next steps. So, it's a tricky age because they go from like when they walk in as sixth graders, they're not anywhere near thinking about this is what I want to do or where I want to go to college. And we really try to get them there by

049the time they walk out in eighth grade that they're at least thinking about that. and we set them up for success for opportunities. So >> Yeah, just to echo um I have the eighth graders to what Laura said that is probably an area where we can improve working more like with individual students or that but I do feel really really good about sending kids there in that process. We have very organized set how, you know, how do as a kid qualify for this class? The high school and um the high school administration team and myself and our eighth grade counselor work very closely to make sure kids are getting into the right place, that no one's going to get left behind. We have very long meetings just talking about individual students and what they're going

050to need. Um so I feel really good about that. Could there be more like less in the let's just move you from eighth grade to high school opportunities? Sure, absolutely. And I'm open to hear some ideas for that. >> And I and I want to add because we we intentionally beefed this up a few years ago, the transition teaming between 8th grade and nth grade specifically and the the counselor and the grade level principal coming and connecting with both middle schools and spending hours and hours and hours going over each student, not just what classes they're looking at, but what what [clears throat] challenges have they had? What are some tips or tricks working with them? you have siblings that we might know. And a great example, as I was standing next to Stephanie Owens

051just upstairs, just asking her, "Hey, you got freshman class this year. How's it going?" She's like, "They're great." In fact, Justin Jansen, who had eighth graders last year, said, "If I could work with them forever, I would." You know, just those connections and and they're calling the middle school all the time just to, you know, ask about a student in the middle school getting to come up to the high school for some awards ceremonies or some other pieces. You're always finding students that you've had before. And sometimes they're surprised. are like, "Wow, you're doing really, really well." And I think you attribute that to our our grade level principles at the ninth grade are not surprised by any students that are coming in because of the time that the middle school team puts in and

052making that connection uh for them and letting them know about each individual student as they go up. It's a pretty complex spreadsheet that they go through and they go through hot topics and social emotional pieces, um courses they may talk about, any discipline issues, any students that shouldn't be in class together that could be in class together. I mean, just a run of the just a gamut of stuff that they go through and we intentionally did that probably four years. I'm trying to think about four years ago. We really uh pushed that a lot harder and they've been doing great with that. >> That That's awesome. That's huge. I'm sorry. Do you have something else? >> I was just going to add that Kirkwood High School is like is so committed to um finding a

053pathway to graduation for every single kid um and um being creative in whatever that needs to look like, right? And so, um, the I know that the team up there has met with our counselors to explore what all those avenues possibly look like so that when a kid goes from 8th grade to 9th grade, they can already start progressing how they need to progress towards graduation. Um, and that's been super cool to see, especially in the in the past just year >> on an individual student basis because you ask about individuals as part of your question. Um, last year myself, I was with eighth grade last year and our SSD coordinator, we had a student, we weren't really sure what the high school would look like for them. They were an eighth grader in our

054building, but we didn't know how to best prepare them for high school. And so, we actually partnered with Colleen Card and the administrators and went over to KHS and did a tour and looked at the building and the layout and the way classes were structured and we tried to figure out what we thought might be the best fit at KHS for the student coming in. And then we completely changed their second semester schedule at knifer to look what it might look like at KHS to help them be prepared to moving on to KHS. And we are doing really well so far this year. That's great. >> And I can say that student passed every class first semester actually >> because I know exactly who she's talking about. So >> well that that's fantastic. And in

055a large district like Kirkwood, it's amazing to hear that our administrators and our staff are really putting in the effort to get to know students because I think being known and knowing that you're known is a key to success because you not only feel like you belong, but people are are caring about you and rooting for you. So, thanks for putting in that extra effort. I'm glad to hear that it's progressing and that we've seen success stories with that extra effort that you're putting in. So, thanks so much. Um, I also love seeing the statistics as much as the individual anecdotes and stories are critically important. It's also critically important for us to continue to look at um kind of at a a larger scale um so that we can measure the outcomes of our

056investments that we're making whether it's in time or resources. So really appreciate seeing those statistics that are reflected um throughout throughout the document. Um I'm interested to hear where there are places. sounds like we have a ton of success. Um, but that always encourages me to say, "Okay, and what next and what next?" And it's probably something with my own brain, but um, I'm curious if you all have started thinking about that for the areas where you maybe hadn't achieved the goal that you set out for or that you may look at a goal differently, especially as we're going into a new set of strategic planning initiatives. Um, are there what is your what are your kind of next steps in thinking about those goals that we haven't achieved? For us right now, the PLC

057process is really at like the core of trying to move every student. Um, so I think like the work with learning cycles is really helping staff come together, look at their student data, make sure we're like, again, we're not just looking at the students who maybe aren't mastering the standards yet, but where are all of our kids, how are they all growing? um increasing formative assessment checks and making sure that we have like in time instructional changes that are happening and not waiting until after a summit of assessment happens. Um those are pieces that we've really been focused on this year. >> Yeah. And I would say we noticed we noticed last year around this time last year that the amount of discipline referrals for our boys was like astronomically like 10 to one to

058our girls. Um and so when we hit about this point in the year, we were like, we've got to do something about that. Uh it is not, we are still not even in our building, but we are so much better. But we leaned in on what is some professional development that obviouss issue. This isn't this isn't an issue with our boys, right? Like we are inheriting boys that are needing something different than we are providing them. And the evidence we have is discipline referrals that were majority hands-on. Um, so it was like, how do we get them up and moving? How do we create opportunities for them to actually be hands-on and touch things that aren't each other and getting them in trouble? But that that that comes in that is instructional design. That literally

059is an instructional design. We we aren't going to put seat belts on kids and have them put their hands in their pockets. It was like, how do you design lessons differently to meet what your boys are telling you they need? And so we leaned in on that and and you'll see it in our building. Um the majority of our teachers in our classrooms will even have like ABC and D on corners and walls and you'll see them like they'll notice they need to move and instead of raising their hand on something it's like get up, go to go to that corner for this answer, that corner to this one. I mean and they're sending them around the room and getting them up and out of their seats. Um and having intentional movement be something that

060is part of the design in your lesson. Like kids cannot sit for 50 minutes. you know this, the discipline data shows us this and just because our girls are compliant in general doesn't mean that's best instruction, right? Our boys data is showing us we need that. So, it's that sort of thing that we're looking at all the time. Um, this year we are noticing a higher percentage of kids on the autism spectrum than we have had in the past and we're realizing that that is something we need to lean into and provide more professional development teachers for our teachers with that. Um, and so I've reached out to Colleen Card who used to be the autism expert for all of SSD before she got her current job and just said, "Who's the person?" Like, that's

061somebody that we need to come in um and talk to our staff. So, it's constantly looking at that, but it change it changes all the time based on the kids that come in. Um, you know, when a third of the kids are new every single year, you sort of wait to see what the environment's like um and what they bring to the table and then you go, "Okay, that's that's what we have to work on and then we figure it out." >> Yeah, that's great. So continuously pushing ourselves to go on to the next onto the next to meet the evolving needs. That's wonderful. >> Um so just two quick things. I know I've taken a lot of time here. Um one I want to just um unders underscore the importance of connecting with families.

062So really appreciate that you all have taken the effort to between the teachers and staff and others connect with family because it's so important in ensuring kids see that we're a united front between the parents and the teachers and the staff and everybody that were in it to support them and together um as opposed to in any kind of conflict. So that's that's awesome. Um and then second, thanks for the invitation to the grade level rallies. It sounds like something >> needs to happen. Okay, good. [laughter] Thanks again. >> Yeah, two quick points. I'll be brief first though. Thank you for all the work that you and your teams do. Please take that back to your schools and share it with with all your teams. Um I really like seeing one the successes but also

063seeing you guys using the national normed kind of reference points for context. Um that might have taken place in the past but I think it's the first time I have heard it and I know that's one of the advantages of using um a tool like panorama. So, just want to call attention to that and know that, you know, we support you guys in using that context for not only when you want to show that you're you can't go above 99th, but when [laughter] you're above 90, but also like some of our our goals have us sitting and I don't have it in front of me, um, but like in the 60th percentile. And what does that mean? You know, you can be achieving >> 60% favorable marks and be in the 99th percentile. You can

064also be in the 10th percentile, >> right? >> So, where are we at? And I think that's an important piece there. So, I wanted to call attention to that because I really like seeing that. The second thing I wanted to congratulate you on your your outcome, your academic outcome points that you called attention to and specifically, Dr. Libertton, yours, um I'm going to try to find it here. Um the first point that you made about those those cohorts and >> really push you to you know, well, I'll ask you the question and you can answer, but what do you attribute that to? just our standard systems that we have in place with like MTSS and interventionists and everything that we've got or is there something that you would really dive into and if you have

065thoughts please share them but I would really encourage you you know success leaves clues and it's something that this board is talking a lot about is what can we do to close that academic outcome gap with some cohorts so if you see something there what is that and if it's just you know leaning into our current systems great but if it's something else that you really could tie it to and then have the data that maybe really illustrates that. We'd be really interested in I would be and I'm sure the rest of the teams would be interested in hearing that. I appreciate that and I and I'll think on it further, but my my initial thought really is that when teachers buy into that collective efficacy, that fact that when when ELA teachers can sit

066together and and look at formative data and and and look at when our kids perform so well in general that when you then have to ask the question of who doesn't get it yet and who's already gotten it, those buckets aren't huge, right? You can look at individual kids and drill down and start figuring out um who those kids are because then there's there's a point where you're doing it and it's reactive and then you start realizing who the kids are over and over and then you start do being proactive in your in your planning and and coming up with new ways of doing things that you think are going to work for that kid and then suddenly you have like the eureka moment where you're like oh my god it worked right like now

067that kid's been on my list for not getting it for four times in a row we tried something new and they're not on the list anymore. Now I know what works for that kid. And those are the conversations that our PLC's are having when they meet. Um it is no longer um just talking about what we're going to do next week, which is important. It's a piece of it, but it's what are we going to do, why are we going to do that, and how am how are we going to tweak that to make sure that we get this kid who we know that doesn't work for. Um, it's that kind of stuff. But it really is it's through that it's through the teachers working differently with each other that than I did when I

068taught. Um, it's it's a new it's it's a new expectation. It really is collective efficacy. >> And I would add to that, Elizabeth, a shout out to you. I think the work that you have done to push us to keep data at the forefront. I know it's >> more than just the data, but I do think awareness is a big piece of it. knowing [snorts] um where our students are and what we need to do to move them. The second piece in reading intervention, I've seen a huge improvement over I would say the last 10 years of looking at our benchmark data as a piece to identify students who may need intervention, but not stopping there and just holistically like giving every kid comprehension help or every kid decoding help. We're much better now at

069breaking it down and saying, "Okay, this kid has a deficit in decoding. That's what we're going to spend our time on." And that is moving kids much better than just sticking them in a reading class and teaching general reading strategies. >> Yeah. Like we're literally grouping kids in a class who just need the same skill, >> right? When they when they are struggling that that that broadly where we used to say you're struggling in reading, you have it this hour. It's like no, this hour is for kids that need this skill. And it's it's working. One other thing I'd point out because we had a school district come visit and this really stood out to them and the feedback that they gave us and and Dana touched on it at the beginning as well is

070[clears throat] that when you've got a grade level principal, a grade level counselor who follows the students who we also have the social emotional supports and the team structure and everything that all those other non-academic things that are set up for success that really stood out to the other district. They're like, "Wow, you've got this and this and this in place so that these folks can really focus on supporting that whole child approach." And so I do want to say that the investment the district has made in those areas as well has paid off at the middle school and other districts that have visited us have noticed that right away. That's like we don't have that and you do and you're having success. I mean, when you think about a kid has to be in

071the classroom to learn from the teacher, which means you reduce discipline, you reduce social emotional concerns. You really address those things with the families and and I think, you know, you have to give credit to the the counselors that have been at both middle schools for a long time and work very closely with each other and work closely with the families along with having the additional administrative support. It really does uh show up. >> It's great. I love hearing that. I I you know and I think other board members share my thoughts that you know as you look at these smaller cohorts these are very manageable numbers kids um I don't know how to teach I don't pretend to be one I have no idea but just you know in my role just see like

072I like hearing how you guys now are in position where you can break it down into smaller parts >> that's one of the best ways to solve a problem so anything that you under um discover in that please share uh because that absolutely needs to be celebrated congrats Um, I was going to start with something else, but Dr. Bailey, what you just said that other school another school district was coming in to see what we were doing here in our middle schools because we're having success, I think says a lot about everything that you've accomplished. Um, and I think that to me is something that we have never really thought about how we measure, but that other school districts have wanted to come and see what you all doing. That's that's something that wasn't on

073my radar. So, that's just really cool. Um, I love when our middle schools come in. I love seeing you guys and your dynamic. Like, just how you speak to each other and how you build on each other and how you work together. Like, you are all integrated and it shows and we are just really lucky to have the six of you in our district and I I just can't. This was exciting tonight. Um, I really loved the service learning. I think that was something when I first started on the board that we talked about and it wasn't really in our district and we've hit on it a little bit over the years, but to to like hear more about what you're doing for middle schoolers, I think that's going to be really impactful. Um, so

074looking forward to seeing where some of that goes. I did have uh two questions and it's kind of building on um what Ben was just talking about. You know, how are you sharing some of these lessons learned from the learning and those achievements and those growth with K5? So sharing it down and then up to the high school. I mean nobody else is having the success that you are. So like how are we sharing those small changes data like you had just mentioned or like you were talking about Laura and just you know um the PLC's is that happening? I would say to some degree there's been a renewed effort to when our when it our administrators get together um there's been a renewed effort to us talking with each other and and around topics

075like PLC work and Liz is leading us through some book studies right now um and that that's been a renewed effort of of really having the moments where we are together where it is not just um things that could be sent to us in an email but really capitalizing on opportunities to collaborate. So, I do think that is happening um at a level this year and maybe last couple um more so than we've had at other times. The other thing is um we try to take advantage of making sure that we're also going to observe at the other level. So, uh later this month I'm going with our art teacher to go observe fifth grade art classrooms at Tilman Robinson um in North Glendale. So that as kids, we've noticed that sometimes in sixth grade,

076especially going through so many elective classes that kids can sometimes struggle with u moving through those elective classes so quickly and being kind of at an off team class. Um and so we're going to go kind of look at what their structures and routines look like in fifth grade so we can piggyback on that moving up. So um and I will say elementary is ahead of us in the reading piece and you know I think at middle school was a little bit always taught as a reading class and it was just a little bit different. So, you know, we're kind of capitalizing on their work that's, you know, being done. And just like the high school said that about us, I can't emphasize enough. I mean, kids come to us at such high levels that

077um we really have our work cut out for us just trying to keep the growth going. So, I just I would love in the future if we could capture some of what again it may be small changes like you've all mentioned, but like capture some of that that we could share those ideas up and down in the district. Uh because you're having so much I'm going to say more success, more moving the needle. Um and that's just really exciting. Um and then I have another question and super easy one, but can you email us the times on January 14th for the rallies? >> Gotcha. >> Okay, perfect. because I couldn't type as fast as you talked. All right. Thank you so much for everything you're doing. >> I would say you guys are doing a

078great job. One of the questions that I do have is around the EOCC's. Um I know that there's been some change about um you know, kids taking algebra in 8th grade versus and that kind of thing. Um, can you just walk us through where we are with that? >> So, um, all seventh graders are given the opportunity to take a placement test and that placement test is over eighth grade math standards. And so, essentially, we're looking for mastery of eighth grade math before students move on to algebra. And uh so they take the first one in February and then we give them specific feedback on the areas that they have mastered or haven't mastered yet. And uh both schools offer opportunities during the school day and um after school for math tutoring essentially on those

079standards if they need support and then they get an opportunity to take it a second time either late April, early May in that time frame. um they don't have to if they are we always emphasize the fact that math 8 is the next course in the um progression and so um they can choose to opt out of those assessments in that second time if they still want the opportunity to take algebra and they still haven't shown mastery then they can sign up for the summer math 8 course at that time and um or again they don't have to so >> and the only thing I would add is philosophically what was different for that is that we are now requiring that kids follow a progression. You have to take you have to take sixth grade

080math and then seventh and then eighth and then algebra. Um in the past we provided kids something called an algebra prognosis test. And so at around this point in seventh grade, we were giving them a test that if they did decently enough on that test, we thought they could do decently enough in algebra. Um which was somewhat and somewhat not successful. we were guessing and so really that there's been a change to say no there is a progression of math standards that you have to you have to master these things and then the next thing after eighth grade math is algebra so we're not guessing or doing a prognosis on whether or not you're going to be successful. It really is the next class in the progression. And there was a a change that was

081made statewide at um some point that the standards shifted. And that's what I think is kind of confusing for some people, especially if they had an older student who was under the old way. Um so when I taught algebra 1 at the high school, some of the things that we were teaching in algebra 1 are now in that math 8 course. And so if students haven't mastered those, they're really skipping out on some key concepts if they're going into algebra one without that. >> Um, and I I don't remember, Laura, if it was you and I or a c a few of us. Maybe we looked back at some kids who were in the summer course over the summer and who have done did eighth grade or I'm sorry, algebra in eighth grade and checked

082out their algebra 2 scores and they were doing great. they were doing really well. So, it made us feel like, okay, I think we found the secret sauce of of making it work. So, are kids feeling pressure um in the in seventh grade to take algebra? >> I would say it's probably kid by kid. I feel grateful that the percentage of of course of uh sections of eighth grade math are now larger than the number of sections we used to have. There was a time at which we had very very few sections of eighth grade math and so the kids who were there really felt like inferior. >> Um now it's almost a 50-50 split. Are they feeling pressured to get into algebra? Sure. I mean I have have a current eighth grader. Sure. he

083felt pressured um because you have we have we have a lot of kids who feel like if there is a if there is an option that they deem to be better than another option then yeah they feel they feel stressed and they feel pressure to get in it. I think we have um and and I think I think that varies. I think some kids put pressure on themselves. I think some kids come from families that put pressure on them um and and sometimes they just want to be with their friends. So they're they feel pressure to just get where my friends are. But I do think that we've done a pretty good job of creating a system that makes sure that that the kids are where they need to be. We've had very little movement

084once a school year starts. Um the kids who are in eighth grade stay in eighth grade and they are perfectly content there and the kids who are in algebra are not ducking out of it. Um and then you look at the success rate of kids and how they're doing for the kids that are in it and it's they're they're doing really really well. and I work with seventh grade and so I've sat in on um I just want to shout out uh Mrs. Nicolleti and Dr. Boyd our math interventionists. They're the ones who present early on in seventh grade the path like the various paths in math and they say no matter what you take in eighth grade you can get wherever you want to get in high school. there are pathways and they they

085very much kind of release that that's that that valve that steam valve of pressure um and are very much like eighth grade math is the next class. It is totally okay to take eighth grade math. It's the next class and they do a great job. Um so just want to shout out that that messaging is very clearly shared with kids. >> Okay, great. Um and then um just making sure that with um you know since it's you know can be something that gets parents kind of um riled up, upset, kind of like what, you know, it really can draw parents attention to um if they're talking to friends at different middle schools. Well, at my middle school I get this or at my and so just making sure that at both middle schools um having

086you know consistency and I know that you guys are doing a great job with that because it's it's amazing how much parents do talk and share um and then what happens is they're like wait I didn't get you know so um and just keep up the good work. I think we have uh we have come to realize I think in our time working together that it benefits us all when we are all rising together and when we find something that works we share it with the other we share it across town because it's like okay this is working how about we all do it and then if there's some reason the other one can't then we actually kind of pull back because it it benefits us all when when we are as aligned as it

087makes sense to be while recognizing that we serve different populations also there are times makes sense not to be aligned. [snorts] >> But yes, with the math one, >> you step in tandem. >> Thank you. >> Hey, um echo what everyone has said. Um love to see the collaboration and kind of to your point, Dana, when you just what you just mentioned, I have written down like I love that you guys are learning from each other like you mentioned um going and or was that going and looking at the rally and then like how can we make this our own and so to that point of >> being you know aligned yet true to your the climate of your school. So kudos for that and then love to see the growth in the reading and

088math. I do have a clarifying question. Um because you mentioned with math that the um the prerequisites for algebra 1 is sixth, seventh and eighth grade math. So how does that work? When are they taking algebra? Like how how does that work? >> Laura, do you want >> So they can basically test out of math 8 if they show mastery of the math 8 standards. So, at the beginning of seventh grade, all of EP schools, it's communicated to the kids that they know what the math eight standards are, and then they work through those standards throughout the year if they want. Um, they don't have to, but they can work throughout the year. Um, we have like a list that basically pairs the exact standard with the EXL lesson, so they can do it on

089there. Offers some videos that they can watch there. they can attend the afterchool support sessions or during the day support sessions if they can't stay after school. Um, and then they take that placement test to see if they have shown mastery of those standards. If they don't, they get feedback. They can try again a second time before the end of the year. If they still haven't shown mastery, they can take the summer course. >> So that's what it's been, right? Well, those last four years. >> Okay. >> Prior to that, there was no mastery that had to be shown correct of math eight standards. >> It was just based on >> Yes. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Or scores, benchmark scores, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Well, thank you. Keep up the great work. >>

090Okay. I'm going to try to be as quick as I can even though I have a handful of comments and a couple questions. Um, but luckily Jennifer took mine about emailing me the rally information. Um, just one comment just one of the things that strikes me today as we were all talking about this. I I really want to call out how much I appreciate the character building aspect. So that encompasses um all the character building that you guys were talking about, the individual focus, the um you know, showing kids that they matter, the volunteer work, all of that stuff because um I know something that came up a lot when we were building our last strategic plan and something that, you know, when that comes up in conversation a lot that this community wants is

091that our students graduate um and can go out into the world and be good citizens and things like that. But something that I think is really unique to middle school is that they are becoming independent young humans, you know, they're kind of out of that child era, but they're still sort of under the safety net and umbrella of, you know, your guys care and um, you know, they're still really into learning life lessons from you all. And so I just think it's such a uniquely wonderful time to build all that character work and do all that. And so I just want to say how much I recognize how important that is in this district and that for those three years that you guys are focusing on that. I I think that's tremendous. And I think

092um you know in the scope of you know K through 12 here in Kirkwood um that is a huge service to our students and so thank you so much for that. Um, I also want to give a shout out to Dana only because for the second time tonight when after Judy and I toured the school and you were talking about the swings and how when people brought up the swings and you were like swings are stupid. We should not have swings. It's the worst idea ever. >> Say stupid. >> Well, you were like >> I was surprised. >> You were you were like this is you were like I I was against the swings idea. Why would we have swings? This is so silly for middle school. And then you you again tonight you're talking

093about these rallies. You're like, I thought this idea was crazy. I just think it is a testament to such good leadership that somebody would listen to ideas that other people bring and it might not make sense to you, but that you take that leap and that you are open to it and then it pans out. And I I just want to call that out in the spirit of all these bulldog bragging and everything else that we're talking about. So, shout out to Dana for that. >> Appreciate the positive on me. [laughter] I just, you know what, I think we live in a day and age where not enough leaders are willing to stand up and be like, I was super wrong about something that turned out great. So, I just wanted to um call attention

094to that. >> I love to be wrong. >> Um so then, uh just a couple other quick comments. one was I'm I'm very interested in this conference that you guys went to um with all the idea sharing specifically about building culture and things like that >> and um I'm sure you brought a bunch of ideas back. I just wanted to make a comment sort of in the same vein of how we're always asking if there's anything you need. If there were any ideas that you heard that are something that would be like a board support kind of idea, something that the board should be aware of of an idea that you heard that would benefit the district that the, you know, that the board would like to hear about. Um, please share that with us.

095Um, and then piggybacking off of that and and also uh Jennifer what she said about sharing best practices. It's something I'm really really passionate about. I love hearing that there's kind of a reinvigoration happening right now amongst the admins of sharing best practices. I know that we champion a lot of autonomy amongst all of our different schools and that we want everyone to have their own identity and things like that, but um every time we have schools come and present and admins come and present, we hear such incredible ideas and different programs and different successes and um I just always wonder if there are some successes that are not reaching people that could benefit from them. So I am just I I just wanted to call that out too. So, two hopefully quick questions. One,

096um, the 20% bump in equity perception from the staff. I I I love seeing that. I was just going to ask tease that out a little bit of do you think that is that based on new initiatives this year, like new things that are happening or um, and is that stuff that you think will see effects on the students down the road? If you could just tease that out just a tiny bit. >> Sure. Um yeah, so I think last yearish we were talking about um the difference between mitigative and transformative equity work. And so it's the difference between the upstream thinking of solving the problem that's leading to people drowning in a river versus the like saving starfish. That's super quick, but we talked about that last year. I could go into more detail

097if we need to. The point is we could try to make we could try to do things that sort of just like make it easier for kids to survive in a toxic environment or we could make the environment better. And so we're we could either continue to try to like help kids just navigate this like broken system or we could fix the system so it's not broken anymore. And we'll do this one forever. we'll just continue to just try to like help kids along in a broken system or if we fix the system that's like a more transformative approach. So we've tried to over the past few years have a very aligned approach to our equity learning uh when it comes to adult learning that is centering equity and justice in our daily work that

098everything we do has to have that that lens um all the way through it. Whether that's instruction, whether that's discipline, whether that's social emotional, whether that's how you talk to a at 8 a.m. when they walk in the door. Like everything is equity work. And so, um, our curriculum, like all of those things are all aligned. And so, uh, I really, I think I can't speak obviously for NER. I think they'll share theirs, but like in in our building, I can credit that to an aligned, um, overtime emphasis of like this is what equity is and this is how it shows up. And it's not on just trying to make things easier. for kids to navigate, but instead to change the system. >> And I think it shows up in a survey because we're also

099naming what we're doing and why we're doing it. >> Um otherwise sometimes things don't show up in a survey, right? Like we I remember we had um there was a there was a question on the on the family survey at one point of like does does your school offer like activities for kids? And we had like a super low rating. I was like are you kidding me? We have like a million different things we offer kids. And I remember uh being asked actually one of the like well where do you tell parents what's being asked and I was like oh perhaps we do not like maybe we need to put those in the weekly in the newsletter and like we changed that and we had to do that for staff also where it was like

100okay >> we we need to make it natural in what we're doing and we have to remind you that this is actually about the equity work. Um, and so like when we when we did our work with boys for boys specifically, we like showed it, we named it, we talked about it, and we were like, and that is equity work. >> Like that literally is equity work. That is a group of kids that we are not servicing, and we need to do systemic changes to work to make that work. So I think it shows in the numbers when you help name what it is that you're doing the work for. >> That's a really good point. So, it sounds like with North, it's kind of something you've been working on for a few years. It's

101built into your culture and you're building it in throughout your kind of staff culture and also maybe a a emphasis on naming it and calling it what it is. >> And like Savannah said, when we send kids to restorative practices uh training with Jeremy and coaches, like the point is you don't just go learn a little learn for a day and then just like go about your business. you come back and you bring that learning with you to your team, to your department, to your PLC, like you are now an arbiter of that of that knowledge, right? Um, so you get trained on this and then now you're going to be be someone who speaks in that, you know, in that way. So [laughter] >> thank you. >> Yeah, thank you for sharing that. I

102just that was a that was a really great statistic just knowing that that's um part of our strategic plan and I know it's important to a lot of people in the community. So, I just wanted to flesh it out a little bit. Um, and then I just wanted to build a little bit on what Lisa asked, um, but get a little bit more specific in terms of the bridge between 8th and 9th. And then I also wanted to expand to the bridge between fifth and sixth. So, um, I I'm currently a parent of a fifth grader who's going into sixth grade. So, I know you guys were talking a little bit about um, you know, 8th to 9th and kind of the coursework and kind of helping them find who they are and kind of

103figure their path and things like that. But one of the things that I'm curious about is if there's any matching up between the elementary and middle school and between the middle school and the high school in terms of preparing the kids for the workloads, the type of homework like that piece of it because as a parent I think that's where a lot of anxiety lies like are they familiar with what to expect on workload like you know is there preparation A couple years ago, we had a committee that included fifth grade teachers, sixth grade teachers, admin counselors to kind of talk about some of those common themes that like we were seeing on our end and then how that we could bridge. So, um, but I will say we had a big focus on the

104fifth to six transition within the last couple years. I mean, we make sure our fifth grade parent nights are the same nights. Um, both schools send counselors to go meet the kids in their elementarymentaries. Um we have transition meetings with the counselors and admin team with every feeder school. Um we try to send out all of our registration course selection stuff at the same time. Um so we really have tried to like make sure that our process mirrors at Tilman. Dana and I typically go together so that um they see both of us >> there. [laughter] The only other thing I would add is there is like I I was the eighth grade principal for a really really long time and I would sometimes get frustrated that we would be asked to to always think

105about our eighth graders as future high schoolers. They're eighth graders. Like I want them to be eighth graders and I want to like and I am okay with our fifth graders being fifth graders. Like when they arrive to us if they are lacking some skills, we're going to build those. like they're not supposed to be fully middle school in August of sixth grade. Like that's our job, right? Like they come in and we we we meet them and then we we fill the gaps and we figure out what's not working and if they're not ready for the workload, we teach into that. And if they don't know how to do homework because they didn't write it down and we teach them how to use a planner. Like we do all of those things. And I

106I loved when we met with our fifth grade teachers because I think there was were some aha moments of like, do you guys recognize that you use Schooly but you don't? And so, you know, are there some systems that we could all agree to use so that then when the kids come there there's like some some uniformity there. That helped tremendously. >> Um or for us to learn that like in the elementaryaries they really don't use Infinite Campus except for parents at grade time. And it was like, oh well, that's an aha for us because that's where we want parents to go see if kids are missing work. So, we had to teach into that. It didn't make sense for the fifth grade teachers to teach into that. >> Yeah. >> That system didn't work

107for them. So, I guess I say that all to say there's probably more we could do. And as much as I just I want they're they're fifth graders. Like, it's okay. And like we'll we'll teach them. I promise your kid is going to be so fine. >> They are going to be so fine. >> I was [laughter] just also thinking about tonight and just not sure, you know, how different I don't and I truly don't know because I'm not there yet, but the, you know, how different it is to go from, you know, >> I don't I don't even know what things are like these days because I haven't been in high school in quite some time, but like, you know, do do the homework assignments are they similar? you know, do you guys do

108the ninth grade teachers kind of tell you these are the type like this is kind of we read books and then this is how we write essays and like you know are they prepared >> you know do they have that right expectation you know what I mean um I was so I was more just on the academic side yeah >> on both bridges is there some amount of preparation you know on that piece of it versus the other pieces but >> I hear you so back Yeah, >> it's [laughter] okay. >> We we went over before we started planning or helping students plan their schedules for high school. We of course use data points. Don't worry, it was with these data points to help make the decisions as to the high school placements. But we

109also sent a group of our teachers over to the high school and they actually observed what is an honors English class versus what is a non-honors English class and what's the workload and what do the students do in those spaces because I think it is about you know the data matters but it also the kid matters and who these kids are that we're sending there and so we really tried to make this like collective decision in our recommendations. Now obviously it ends up being the parents and the student to decide where they place. But our students when we went back and looked at the data to see how they were doing in the classes that we had recommended for them to go into, it was it was beautiful. The kids were doing very well in

110where they were placed. And I think a lot of that goes to the efforts our teachers put in. >> Not only getting to know the kids when they're with us, but also getting to know what the high school expectation for those courses looked like to make sure that they're aligned. And as a former eighth grade teacher, I was one of the teachers that had the opportunity to go over there and it made a world of difference. So, I appreciate that you guys were willing to give me a sub for the day so that I could go over [laughter] there and learn. >> Yeah. No, that's that's great. >> And that's all. >> Well, once again, you guys take all my good points. [laughter] Um, >> I do want to know when the rallies are. I

111only wrote down the January 14th one. We're probably not sending ours till next year. We have to make sure we survive. That's okay. [laughter] >> And you know, I love >> Some people say it's a bad idea, >> just like the swings. Um, I love your examples of how you are responding to challenges in real time. You know, when you talked about the boys as a I only have sons, I only have grandsons. It's all I know. And they're nuts. and [laughter] especially when they're in middle school, but you know that you see this and you're not just like, "Oh, you know, we really got to work on our referrals." You're saying, "What's what what's missing? How aren't we helping them?" And I saw that in so many examples that you all gave. And that's

112so so important. Um, so thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you for what you do every single day for our kids. We are very lucky. Thank you. Uh future events, our next board meeting is January 26th. Um we have a district wellness committee meeting on January 12th and all district offices are closed on January 19th and we're done. Thank you.