Kirkwood School District - Board of Education Work Session - August 4, 2025

001Okay, we're gonna call this meeting to order. Um, can you lead us in the flag of the United States of America to the standy andice for all. I love this setup for our work sessions. Um, and before we begin, I we have a little person to recognize here. Um, our own Nicole Shern was one of the 2025 recipients of the Educator Impact Award Nicole [Applause] from the Titus 2 Foundation, which is a nonprofit, which was created to help students form from non-traditional families navigate their high school careers and make informed decisions regarding their postsecary options. And you were one of the recipients in Got so we are very lucky to have you. >> Okay. Um now moving on we need a motion for 1.02 to approve the agenda for August 4th 2025. >> So moved

002Andrews second. Penguin. All those in favor say I. >> Motion passes. zip through all of that. Okay, now we're number three, 3.01, the work session. Ken, you want to lead us there? >> Sure. I will just get us started and then turn things over um on this first item to Dr. Bailey. So, last spring board, you'll recall that Dr. Bailey presented to the board of education the work of the wellness committee that was taking place in the district around cell phone expectations in the district and a lot of great work was done by that team last year. At the time, Dr. Bailey alluded to drafts of legislation that were working through uh the House and the Senate that had more restrictive um requirements being put in place and ultimately Senate Bill 68 was signed this

003summer which requires all districts to have a policy on personal electronics in place for the start of the 2526 school year. Um as Dr. Dr. Bailey will explain their definition of personal electronics actually includes more um items than we might have done and it's a little bit or definitely is more restrictive than where we would have been. Um but at the end of the day um it is in law and it's been signed into law and so fortunately that work took place last year and we were able to honor a lot of that work that took place and tie it into the policy that um was brought to you for a first reading at last week's business meeting. Um tonight Dr. Dr. Bailey will share the presentation talking through again some of the information from

004the legislation um and then the pieces of the policy that we have some control or say over which are really around the consequences and then Miss Dedric will share a little bit about the communications plan we have for our students and staff. We're also fortunate that Dr. Herrell is with us here this evening from Kirkwood High School. Um they have also been engaging this conversation and Dr. Dr. Harold brought together some parents and staff to talk about the requirement and how that might impact our students and our families. And so we wanted to have that voice represented tonight as well. So I will turn things over to Dr. Bailey. >> Yep. And thank you. I wanted to acknowledge Dr. Harold for being here as well. We figured that the biggest change in terms of implementation

005will be at the high school. Um and so Dr. Herrell has done a very good job of bringing various groups together and getting input from as you can probably imagine it's been a hot topic with high school principles in the area as well and what that might look like. So wanted to walk the board through just some background information and some of the work that's already been done as we lead into some of the policy pieces. So we'll go over a quick introduction to Senate Bill 68 which among many things included new statute regarding personal electronic communication devices um along with other areas. We'll talk about what the current practices have been, some instructional challenges because we really wanted to explore all of the different components of this particular policy, um, behavioral consequences that are

006being proposed, and then just talk about what exceptions might look like, and then just next steps, and then certainly open it up for questions and discussion. So, Senate Bill 68 included language in it. We thought this wasn't going to go into effect until 2627. There was an amendment on the floor of the passage of it that sped that up to 2526. So if it feels like everybody's kind of scrambling, it's literally because we are. Um we we thought we had a little bit more time. Um but in that Senate Bill 68, the language is pretty specific. It says for the 2526 school year in all subsequent years, and I apologize for reading the slide, but it's it's got to read this piece, but uh each school district shall adopt a written policy governing a student's

007possession or use of an electronic personal communications device. And the statute goes on to define that as a portable device that is used to initiate, receive, store, or view communication, information, images, or data electronically. So, it's a broad spectrum that most districts um are are interpreting that to mean smartphones and cell phones. I separate those two because there are some that still use just a flip phone or other types of phones, smartwatches, and even earbuds because those earbuds are connected to the cell phone to transmit data um information via Bluetooth. Um, this wouldn't necessarily include wired headphones because we can see the wire that's connected to the device and that device could be a school device. And in fact, I know that our elementary schools and middle schools, that's a school supply request is to

008have wired headphones uh for the students. But the language also goes a little bit further and when Dr. Rumpus was talking about probably further than we would have gone, this is probably an example of that. Um, the policy itself must state that uh that we must prohibit a student from displaying or using an electronic personal communications device from the beginning of the school day until the end of the school day, including but not limited to instructional time, meal times, breaks, times between classes, and during study hall. essentially from the first bell to the last bell or from the first time instruction begins to the end of the day. These devices cannot be used or even displayed visible in many of those cases. To give a little bit of uh additional information, there are um some

009exceptions that can be made for students if it's written specifically in their IEP plan, which that is very rare for us to have a cell phone um specific situation. A lot of times if students need assist of technology that comes through their IEP through different things like iPads or other schoolisssued devices, uh there are medical needs and I know that will be something that we're keeping a close eye on. We have many students who have diabetic uh action plans or diabetic medical management plans and they have a Dexcom device or another device that's connected to their cell phones uh that allow our nurses and parents and the students to keep track of insulin levels and carb counts and lots of different data that's there. Um, our nurses actually have tablets and devices in the offices

010there that they've got track of all the students. Uh, and I just happened to be at the high school one day when one nurse noticed and saw an alert and quickly called a classroom and said, "How's this student doing? Her levels are low. Can you send her to me?" Um, and so they they went ahead and kept an eye from that as well. Uh, 504 plans, which could be as a result of some of those medical needs, uh, could have something in there as well. And then the law did state that there could be a case of emergency which it defined as a serious unexpected and dangerous situation such as fires, tornado, active shooter, medical emergency, something to that effect. Uh however, those exceptions would need to be a part of some formal plans which

011could include our policy work. Uh and then there may be a second type of exception called an educational purpose exception. U we'll talk a little bit about that this evening, but that could be where a school says that we would allow use for this particular purpose, for example. So, we'll go through some examples of what that could be. Just to reiterate, we we've gone over this before, reiterate what the current practice is before this law was in place. Um, and I can't guarantee this happens with 100% fidelity, but this is what the expectation was is that at the elementary level, no phones allowed during school. They could be kept in backpacks. Uh, especially for bike riders and walkers. Um, Smartwatches haven't been something that we were addressing at the elementary, but they have been a

012challenge um with principles noting that kids send and receive text through those devices sometimes. Middle school phones are supposed to be off and away during the day, either in a backpack or a locker. And again, watches have been a challenge. And at the high school, it was supposed to be not during use during instructional time. However, we know that many teachers would allow, and you'll hear about some of that tonight. Dr. Herold may mention that some teachers might allow a student to listen to music during independent work time or we heard We'll go over that in a moment. We heard many times where teachers u were using the the phone as an instructional support in a very appropriate way. Um but there are workarounds that we can look at. So So through this time and

013and starting this work last school year, we had many different meetings. So I just want to make sure the community and the board's aware that this wasn't just something we saw in a statute and said, "Let's go." Uh we've been working all year with different parents and students um and staff through our wellness committee. The board saw that presentation. We looked at limiting cell phone usage, especially in classes. There's a lot of research and background uh information regarding mental health and well-being. Uh that was the basis of a lot of that work. We also at the end of the school year, Dr. Herrell sent out a survey to his high school staff. Over a hundred responses, I think just in a couple days that we got just asking different information um and feedback using those

014phones. And then they gave their email address if they were willing to create a a work group. And so we called them in uh in June I think. Um yeah, June 30th. Called them in and we had about 30 people in there and we just talked through the different repercussions, different instructional pieces, different consequences. I had a lot of great feedback from the teachers during that time. And then Dr. Herold recently convened a representative group of students and parents across the different grade levels to talk about this as well. Um, and I would say that that was a pretty diverse group um, through there and just talking about what those consequences might be. Um, really talking about what ways we can communicate this, what are some of the unforeseen challenges, what are some of the

015unintended consequences, just a lot of great discussion. Um, and then, uh, just last week, Dr. Herrell had gotten some additional feedback from teachers because there may be teachers having a need to adjust lesson plans now or adjust, uh, classroom activities or different things they have going on. So, we're just continuing to engage and and look around problem solving and work with our technology team as well. So, some of the instructional challenges that teachers brought up. So, it's it's challenges with not having phone access. So, it's kind of backwards from what you would think. You would think that the challenges are if kids are on their phones all the time um that it makes a huge huge u impact in the classroom. Well, we can tell you and having been in those classrooms and Dr. Carol

016has as well. We didn't get a ton of complaints about kids just non-stop being on their phones. Now, that could be because teachers just said, "That's not the battle I'm fighting today, or it could be that there wasn't a ton of kids doing that." I will tell you in the hallways is a different story and at lunch is a very different story. But in terms of instructional time, our kids were pretty appropriate based on the observations we had and Dr. Herrell's walkthroughs. Um, the teachers did mention some specific examples that that where phones were helpful. Many teachers allowed kids to take uh pictures of the notes or pictures of projects or labs um or different uh things that they were doing. Some kids had note-taking apps on their phones they had open to to take

017notes and to have things available to them. Uh, many teachers I asked technology to cover their ears on this one, but many teachers mentioned that if there was a website that it's not inappropriate, but for some reason our filter was blocking it that they would just tell their kid to pull the phone out and go ahead and and look up that to not slow down their research or to slow down their projects. Um, there was also times when the internet was down and so they would just say, "Pull your phones out." And and that way instruction didn't have to slow down. Uh many of them also use pictures for art projects for example to submit during their portfolios or working on their AP projects and then recording video for science labs especially things like velocity

018and acceleration where they could slow things down to a frame by frame uh situation. So very good purposes and very good uses. And so we also sent the most recent survey and a lot of those same concerns came back. teachers talked about, well, I use QR codes or I have this available to just make things more uh accessible and and faster for students. So, we've already had our technology team and Dr. Herold's working with his team at the high school to do some workarounds on that, which would include allocating some iPads to the high school that that are typically on laptops. So, the tech team is on this as as ways to keep working. Um, and the high school team is aware that they may need to provide teachers some opportunities to u adjust lesson

019plans and to make some tweaks. So, there are some unintended consequences. The goal obviously of the law is to have engagement in the classroom, phones put away. What may not have been realized is that there's some very appropriate uses for those devices that kids were doing. And that's not even considering um, you know, independent work time when kids are just popping in music and just using that to calm down or even if they were feeling an anxious moment using that to access things um that help them with that as well. Just to give the board an example of of consequences, I'm apologize for the tiny tiny font. Um but this is an example from Parkway. So Parkway was one of the first that passed their policy. They did a passage of of an update in

020December before the law passed. Once the law passed, they had to circle back and completely adjust what they had just put together for their community. Um and so their their policy the language of of the policy itself is fairly similar to what our proposal is. Uh but you can see their consequences are very generic meaning first offense it goes from conference confiscation or detention and then subsequent offenses all the way up to which still shocks me all the way up to 180 days out of school suspension. Um that I will tell you is not uncommon for a lot of districts with their discipline. they just give a wide menu of options and choices to not limit anything. Basically saying we're going to put every possible option on there. Um but I know that our board

021is is interested in our student discipline and and maintaining um kids in class and not looking at exclusionary discipline as much as possible. So we did MSBA has been surprisingly not quick in getting us example policies for this which is not typical. uh but they did say that if you have their current discipline policy then that would meet the bare minimum requirements for the statute. We happen to have a very modified version of that and and customized. So in looking at something we could make a case that our current standard 10 uh could meet that but it doesn't specifically call out electronic devices. It's more about you were given a directive by an adult and you didn't follow that directive. So, we felt like it was better to go ahead and have a very separate

022um uh discipline standard for use of electronic personal communication devices. In a similar vein, because I know there is one other one we're not talking about as much tonight on there about tardies and skipping, but for the same reason that we're doing the cell phone one, we're asking to add a tardies and skipping one on there because that has been put under three or four different discipline standards. And this will allow us to call that out specifically to have consequences for that specifically and for us to have a better idea of data tracking and and pieces. Nothing has changed from the process of what we do with the tardy piece. we're just having a very specific standard with that. So, I didn't want uh community to see two standards being added and think we didn't

023discuss that one there. So, when it comes to exceptions, there are two types of exceptions. Like I mentioned before, individual student exceptions and those are going to be for health needs, medical needs, individual plans, 504 plans, potentially IEPs. These are the type of exceptions that we would want more of a formal process. So either a doctor's note that we then develop an individual action plan for 504, whatever that might be. We just don't want teachers uh saying you're not feeling good today. Sure, you can use your phone. You know that we we want to avoid that. We want to have a little bit more formalized process for this. Um and then on the teacher requested exceptions, we talked to administrators last week. This is when a teacher says they have an instructional need for phones

024in their classroom. That's going to have to flow through the building administrator um because may have the best idea of whether or not that would be a valid use of those phones. But I will say our technology team is looking at every alternative to not have to have the phones out. Um, including using iPads uh and and allocating iPads at the high school, opening up resources on the on the student laptops and and continuing to look at technology training uh for our teams throughout there. Some of the next steps um obviously we want to provide this information to you all as a board. uh this work session here, the board will have to pass the policy. Um we would love to have that in place before school starts so that we can have that communication

025out to all of our families. One of the things that we asked the families and the students and the staff is put yourself in parent shoes. What would you need? What communication would you need? So we got great feedback and Miss Dedric has compiled that and a lot of FAQs. Um and then we obviously need to communicate with all of our staff PK through 12 and then with implementation starting at the beginning of the school year. So the proposed policy language the board already has seen uh this policy language but this is literally from the the statute the law itself. Um the last line I do want to make uh point to point out that it says exceptions must be authorized in advance by school personnel except in emergency situations. Uh the rest of that

026is almost verbatim from the statute. Uh that's there. And then where the real kind of bread meets the butter on this one is when we talk about consequences. Um I've already adjusted Miss Neman noticed that there were semicolons and commas. Sorry Judy. I know you were AP English. So I tweaked all that to put all semicolons. And so so these are again a menu of choices. So this isn't necessarily progressive. Um but I will say and Dr. Herold's here and he'll be able to talk about what he's talked with his team about at the high school. you know, our our our principles are not interested in kicking kids out of school for a cell phone violation. Now, if it's the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth time you've told somebody, that turns more into insubordination and it's

027not really a cell phone issue, or if you're just absolutely refusing, which we know is going to happen. There's going to be a kid that's like, I'm not turning this over to you, or I'm not doing that. That now is a different issue. That's not displaying the cell phone. That's not that's not following an adult directive. Um, the proposed consequences for just a cell phone and just cell phone violations. Uh Dr. Herald's gotten feedback from lots of various uh principles and quite frankly some of them are going so far as to say it's going to be a warning uh multiple times. Some of them have said, "Hey, by the fifth or sixth offense, we're going 10 days out of school." Which is still kind of shocking. Um, and so it's just looking at what goals

028we have and at the end of the day, if the goal is to say we're going to continue to minimize distractions during the uh, instructional period, um, then we're looking at what this may look like. So, the offenses uh, are the same across the board and really it's warnings, parent contacts, um, confiscation is always a tricky one because the last thing we want is for somebody ripping a phone out of a kid's hands. In fact, we'll actively coach people not to do that. And at the high school, I think Dr. I'll give him a chance to talk about what that'll look like. Um, but likely that'll be something in the office, not not a teacher situation. Um, we want parents to be contacted and that may be via email or or through other means, but

029we don't want the last thing we want is for us to call a parent and say, "Your kids got a detention for their 10th cell phone violation." And that parent goes, "What? I didn't know about the other nine." Um, we want to make sure they're aware of that as well. Um, and again, these are a menu of choices that are on here. So, I know there was a question about is this a teacher imposed consequence or a principal imposed consequence. It could be a mixture of both. In some cases, a loss of privilege might be from a teacher, excuse me. But the majority of these are coming from our administrators. Um, but we wouldn't put it aside from a parent, from a teacher to reach out to a parent, just say, "Hey, I just want

030you to know the kids got their phone out a lot." Um, I will also say that this is probably going to be the most difficult for us to monitor during passing period at the high school and during lunch at the high school in particular. Um, and the challenges behind that, Dr. Harold will be able to explain that a little bit more. Uh, but you may be in the hallway seeing hundreds of kids that you haven't had in class. So, you don't know their names and so it's hard to, you know, stop them and and and point their name out or write them up. So, there's probably going to be a lot of, "Hey, put that away. Hey, put that away. Hey, put that away." And at lunch across a 43 acre campus that's an open

031campus for two grade levels with traffic in and out and with kids, you know, outside on benches or around the corner in hallways, it's likely that we're just not going to have 100% um ability to to prevent a kid from having a phone out um during that time because we don't have eyes on every student at every moment during that time. Um because typically we're drawn to the loud noises or, you know, big kuffles that are happening during those times. And so there's likely a student that's going to have that. And then I said this before, we're likely going to have more students that need bathroom breaks um or other breaks during that time. Um so we wanted to make sure we had this information out there. I wanted to give Dr. Harold a moment

032and then we certainly want to turn it over to you all, but Dr. Harold a moment to kind of just walk through a little bit about the work the high school's done and some of the challenges that the high school is looking to tackle and then just what implementation may look like there as well. So Dr. Arrol if you don't mind. >> Thank you Dr. Bailey. And he Dr. Bailey pretty much covered the nuts and bolts of uh the work we've been doing. Um without getting too specific I'm happy to do so on questions. I mean, obviously, this is a significant change uh to to high school campus uh just because cell phones have become pretty prevalent in in in our students lives. Um in the spring when we finished out school, I I just

033wanted to get a feel for how much cell phones are actually maybe used for educational purposes. So, out of the 109 responses, we had 38 and a half that of teachers, 38 and a half% that do use it for educational reasons and only and a half% um don't and then 11% didn't necessarily apply to them. So, that was good. And then some of the feedback on on how they use cell phones. That way when we went into the summer, we're starting to think about how do we fill those gaps? Um and then, you know, it was good to bring in those teachers and staff uh in June just to really um talk through what challenges do they anticipate? what are some things that we need to be thinking about as as knowing that this is

034probably going to come about. And then once it did pass, we already were scheduled to uh bring in roughly um we looked at about anywhere from two to four uh three to four to five representatives from each grade level, both parents and students. And we were able to to bring a group in on July 16th to just kind of uh go through the same work. And so we started by projecting uh the the actual law itself and then I just had some simple prompts of you know what challenges do you feel this could uh present to to your family to your child what what issues do you see and I think the biggest message we wanted is are there things that we're not thinking about um and just hearing it from a student and parent

035perspective and so really um just trying to gather as much information we can to see what is going to be the impact of just automatically removing something Um I I've been really blessed to connect with a lot of uh principles, administrators uh and surrounding school districts and other high schools that are doing this exact same work. There's been a lot of text messaging back and forth, a lot of emails. Actually had a meeting uh that was put together among principles uh just to get them together and everybody we used a shared document to start talking about what is our policy, what are we thinking, what are we going to do about consequences. Um, and so that's been very beneficial just to kind of hear from the other schools and kind of how they're managing that.

036And as one principal said, you know, it's unfortunate because, you know, we're putting this in place, you know, outside of our students. You know, our students go on summer break and then we're all working through this process and when they show back up on August 19th, now it's going to be quite a shock to uh because it's a quick turnaround and a quick change. And so, um, you know, without getting into the nuts and bolts, that's pretty much a gist of where we're at. >> And then I did want to have Miss Dre quickly go over the communication piece. Then obviously we want to open it up. I'm sure there are lots of questions and so we'll do our best to answer as many as we can and then obviously any edits that may come

037through. So, Miss D. >> Yes. So, um, we wanted to give a little bit of perspective on the communications plan, uh, that we're working in order to, uh, take a proactive approach to getting the word out about the updated policy. Um, we did want to wait clearly until the policy was passed before we shared a lot of details, but just to kind of draw some community attention to it and awareness, we included some wording um, in our back to school guide to make sure that folks were aware that this was a matter under discussion. if they want to tune in, maybe they are tuning in now um to hear a little bit more about this work. Um so that has already happened and um is underway. We do have a detailed communication that we're looking

038at sharing from the district perspective. That detailed communication um would be a standalone communication. Oftentimes you'll hear me advocate for making sure that we're using some of our routine communication models. Um, but this is as much of a shift that uh in conversation with Dr. Bailey and the other folks that have been so engaged in this work, we really thought that it should be a standalone communication uh to our families. We'll follow our inside out protocol on that, which means that we make sure that our internal folks, our staff are seeing that communication before it goes to families um just so that they have a second to process it. We know that f a lot of folks aren't on their email yet, but it does give that opportunity um if they would like. Um that

039detailed communication also does include uh frequently asked questions and I definitely want to acknowledge Dr. Bea and all the folks that he's been working with because the content of that communication is very much the result of those conversations um especially those FAQs. And then the other thing that has come up all way already in conversation today is that because so many districts are doing this work right now or even districts from other areas have done this work previously, we were able to admire and acquire some of that language and learn from what's been effective in other districts. So for example, um we heard from other districts and other states that using the word ban was not a very effective communication model. Right? You say cell phone ban, that's not that really helps people understand some

040of the reasoning um on it. So, cell phone free, however, is much more effective um and takes a little bit more of a positive angle to what we're trying to do and what the legislation has asked us to do. Um some other elements of our communication, so the FAQs that we'll include in the district-wide communication will also echo on our website and will be easily accessible to folks. We also are working with the high school to make sure that we have a specific communication that they can follow up with because we know a couple things. One, that sometimes families need to see things a couple times in order to process them. And two, um I don't take offense, but sometimes families take what their school has to say a little they they look at it

041more closely than necessarily what the district has to say. So, we want to make sure that we're um echoing the wording, not repeating everything, but making sure that it really gets um in front of folks. Additionally, um we recently met with our administrative team and heard from our elementary and middle schools that it would really be helpful to have some specific language for them, particularly around smartwatches. So, we took that feedback and we'll be incorporating that as well and making sure that they have that language um that's a little bit more specific to smart watches. It's not um doesn't go into the cell phones as much but helps uh there be more understanding there. Um we did we do have updated posters for our secondary teams that off and away wins the day is something

042that may be familiar to you because we did have it in our schools last year. Um I in full disclosure do believe that was also admired and acquired from another district but it's a good one so we went with it. Um and so that was in our schools last year even at high school. It's just that the language around it was a little bit more of hey this is a really good way to make sure you're focused in class whereas um now we have to be a little bit more direct and say that we are cell phone free and all personal devices need to be off and away during the school day. Um so we have already made sure that those posters are in the hands of our secondary schools and then we will be

043looking at what kind of um posters should maybe be at our elementary level specific to those smart watches uh and working with um elementary level team so that it's age appropriate and makes sense for our elementary kiddos. Um and then additionally we also have developed some talking points for our key communicators. We know that uh parents may be parents, families, others might be calling the school asking questions and wanting to understand a little bit more about this when they get the emails. So we want to empower our school communities to be able to answer those questions. So, um especially our front office staff, we have some talking points for them to help them answer those calls in a way that um will be supportive of the district's message that will be consistent. Um we'll also

044hopefully help them bring some understanding to some of those frequent questions. >> I do want to say that we're probably expecting some of our families to have a little bit more of a wait, I didn't know this included watches kind of reaction. uh because a lot of the news if you're watching it is like cell phone ban, cell phone ban and the reports are saying that. So we do uh recognize that we may need to have some emphasis on that. And I do want to publicly say as well this does not include time on a bus or riding a bike or walking to and from school. So, if a student is walking to school and a parent uses that smartwatch to make sure they arrived, they can still do that. And then they just need

045to put the watch away and then the student can get it right back out at the end of school um and and check in and say, "I'm walking home or all those things." So, that's not that time is not restricted. Um after school, we talked about like activities and stuff. If the kids at a club, that's after school, so they would be able to have access. Adventure Club, they don't really use them during that time. The kids are too busy playing as it is. Uh but the walkers and and bikers especially, we we do want parents to know that there's still those same things that are available to them that have been available that you can do that check-in um when they arrive at school and you can do um you know checkin when they

046arrive home. Um they can still have those phones and cell phones and everything or smartwatches and things out. We did have one principal ask, well, what if the watch is on their wrist but not being used as a smartwatch? And the challenge is that the law itself requires us to say the use or display of things. And so, it being on a wrist is considered displaying and that would be not something that's allowed within the law. So, a lot of a lot of stuff there. I want to make sure that I turn it over to you all for for questions and clarification and then um obviously any edits that we need to make to the policy itself. Like I mentioned, I've tweaked some grammatical changes. Uh I was not good at English whenever I was

047in and then um there was a question about um the policy originally says one two three four the second line where it talks about through the beginning of school through dismissal bell. We realize that maybe not every school has a dismissal bell. So the language there changed from the beginning of the school day through the end of the school day. Um and then those are the two grammatical changes on there. that seem to clarify some pieces, turn it over to you to facilitate. >> Okay. Before um we all start chatting, can you share with us in an email the talking points because we may be continuing to get calls from people too and so that would be helpful if we had those as well. >> No problem. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks so much

048for putting all this together. I know it's a lot of work to think through all of the different aspects, not just the drafting of the policy. Um, but as you have already kind of pointed out, there are um ways to interpret language very differently. So, appreciate your patience with some of the grammatical changes that I do think. >> I know I need all the help I can get on that. >> You know, sometimes it's a lawyer and me can't can't put it away. Um, so I do have other a couple other specific questions. Um, one, there is language that's still included that identifies that the um any of the material should be stored in backpacks or other designated locations. I'm curious if you think that we will the schools be required to identify what those

049other designated locations are or is that kind of at the discretion of the administrators or teachers? >> Great question. I I think we left it in there to give the opportunity for it to be in a pocket. We just didn't want to say pocket. Um or there are some teachers that have talked about would it be beneficial to have a sleeve. We didn't want to limit or minimize that uh for the future. Um kind of like let's put them all back here for the students kind of a a old calculator pouch piece. So designated location is probably very broad broad language meaning that um if it's not in your backpack. There was some talk about lockers. So North Kirkwood Middle uses lockers. We didn't want to put that specifically because >> if you have a

050high school student that uses their locker then please tell us who they are because that hardly ever happens. But um and then at Knifer as well. So we just try to give some broad um broad opportunity for administrators to be able to say that. Um also on things like field trips one school is like whoa we don't allow it on field trips but we might say you know we don't have a challenge with that if the high school for example wanted to say field trips makes sense just go ahead and access phones because of how spread out kids could get. So, we just wanted to give a little bit of opportunity for the administrators uh to still fit within the policy uh but have some individualized decisions that that help their schools. >> Yeah, that's

051helpful. I think that makes perfect sense. And um you may I'm anticipating you may get questions from families or um you know the teachers may want some additional guidance on what that looks like because I know sometimes it can get a little sticky as you mentioned earlier where you don't want to get the impression that we're ripping is for a power struggle to happen between teachers and students over something that doesn't need to be a power struggle. >> Great. Thank you. Um I wanted to turn also to the communication. Really glad to hear that there's a lot of work being done on the communication. I think that's going to be really important. I think it'll also be important for us to think about the level of specificity that's needed. That that's a difficult challenge to

052make sure that we're covering the gamut but also being really clear. Um, so things like the earbud, the consideration as to whether or not earbuds will be allowed. Um, I think those are the types of examples that will be really um, if we don't specify, it'll be difficult for parents to kind of understand what's the right way to, you know, what's allowed and what's not allowed. So, I do think it'd be good to be as clear as we can with the parents or the families. >> We did based on that, we actually adjusted our FAQ a little bit to specifically say wireless earbud and headphone is not allowed, but wired headphone would be um allowed because that's again that's a school supply, right? And we've talked at the high school about that being one of

053those workarounds to where if a kid's like, "But I need to listen to music." Great. We've got a solution for you. So um I think we were specific in that >> just made that update about an hour. >> That's great. So that's the FAQs then. That's awesome. Um also, you know, Dr. Har, you mentioned that the use of cell phones has become so prevalent in our students lives. Um that it will important it's going to take us all as a community to help kind of break some of those habits for our students. So, I do think it's important for our parents to be our families to be armed with the ability to support the school environment to say, "Okay, here's how it's going. You know, when you go to school that you have to put

054it away and make sure that our families are preparing our students, too, and it's not just a something that's enforced at school. It also has to be reinforced in in home." So I think the more we can equip our families with that type of information will be really valuable. >> And we do in our communication uh our draft communication include um kind of the why. And the why is is twofold, right? The why is because um electronic usage can be distracting and can make it difficult to focus in the classroom. And then the other why is because it's the law and we're following the law. So we have sort of both of those components as a part of it. And then we also um tell our families how they can help us, right? Have a

055conversation with your student, help them understand that this is a change. Um, and that um, while it is a change, it's something that, you know, we'll be working on together to follow and implement. >> And then the the discipline aspect is obviously going to be complex as you mentioned Dr. Bailey. Um, there's a range intentionally a range um, based on kind of situational you kind of can't dictate every situation that might possibly happen. So, you kind of want that range. Um, situational. Um, do you envision that the policy may evolve or have more specificity as things unfold and we see how this plays out in real life? >> I do think that we will need to revisit and at least look at our data and get feedback and talk to the principles and parents and

056students probably at the end of first semester and see what's going well, what's not going well, what did we not think about kind of what Dr. Herold's facilitated with his team at the high school already. So I would assume that at the very least we're taking at least one more look at this policy and potential consequences to see if the end goal is to say phones away when destruction is happening. That's the big picture piece. Then are we accomplishing that? And if not then what do we need to tweak? So I I do think we'll have to revisit this is not just a check the boxes move on situation. >> That's great. And I imagine the FAQs and the communications may evolve as well even if the policy doesn't Yes. >> have updates. Great. Thanks

057so much. >> Sorry. Um Steph who's sitting right next to me. Um are we going to have and I know we try to have a lot more like positive upbeat stuff on our social media, but this does feel to me like something that the social media would be the right avenue to get it in front of people. Do we have any for a social media post that's like a infographic with maybe a link to the website or something because I do feel like that is a space that people pay attention to for stuff like this. >> So we don't at this time. Oftentimes when I'm approaching social media I'm looking at that being more of a community resource knowing that our families are a part of our community. Um but when we have information that's

058very specific to individual school communities, we use that direct communication um to that's what we lean on more. Um with the also the understanding that um with social media we have a little bit less room to explain, you know, even when even though Facebook post might not have as much um it might be able to have a lot of text, you know, you typically only kind of see the beginning of it. So um knowing that is going to be a little bit more complex conversation. Um, we didn't find social media to be the first place to go as far as uh information. >> Okay. I do feel like this is one where people would really engage with that and and even if there was a link to the website FAQs or something like that, I

059speaking from my experience as a parent, I actually pay more attention to the district social media than I do to any of the emails I get from my school because it's just so much stuff. you know, and this is um a change that affects all the schools in the district and it I think the piece of it being the law and all this stuff. I I I think it's worth considering. I of course this is um your realm, but this is one that I do see people sharing it and doing some of the work of getting the word out. Um so I'm just going to throw that out there. Um I don't have much policy verbage or um and I know you know in the policy committee meeting we talked through a lot of this

060stuff and I I would echo what Lisa was saying and we talked about this in that meeting too. We're we're all expecting that we're going to need to revisit this through the lens of experience and all the learning that we do. And um yeah, I guess the last thing I'll say is that I wish that we we were able to develop our own policy without the uh restrictions of being told exactly, you know, all the specifics. Um, but I understand, you know, why we need to be compliant. So, thank you. >> I agree with you, >> Nicole. Um, I like what you just said, Laura, as far as the social media piece because I feel like it can we can be a little more creative possibly. Um, I know When this policy was introduced, um

061my job like they gave um statistics on like how many times kids touch their phone a day. It was like oh even adults how much time we actually use. And I think if we put that type of information in front of parents, it may even help curb to your point to some of those uh behaviors at home as well. Um, so something to think about. Um, as far as the policy goes, I did have a question with say, okay, so theenses like a order thing, one, two, three. So one is warning, then we do a parent contact. >> I would say typically we're going to have warning, warning, warning, warning, especially early on. And parent contact to me is is sometimes tied into that warning as well. I I don't know that we're going to

062get Dr. Harold has talked a lot about this as well. Um, similar to the tardy piece that we're going to have to give a lot of runway because for some kids they may not even realize they're taking that thing out. Um, and so warnings have to be there. So it doesn't necessarily have to go one like progressive all the way up. But given the situation, we also didn't want to, you know, limit the the opportunities you have when it comes to those potential consequences. So I my guess is especially early, it's going to be a lot of warning. Um, I will We have had some teachers very much express bring that hammer down on the first day and and and but at the same time those same teachers were like well maybe we could do

063it like we do with the tardy where they've got a certain amount of runway before we have consequences that come in. So I know Dr. Her's working with his team a lot on what that's going to look like knowing that the hallways and the lunch room are probably going to be warnings all year. Um, unless obviously there are some kids that that they know very well that'll be like, "Listen, I know that's like the 20th time I've told you to do this, so come see me after lunch." But for the most part, it's going to be a lot of warnings. Um, I do think we just give our principles that runway um to make those choices. Most of our principles are going to be doing a lot of warnings because they they even kind of

064asked me the question at the principal meeting like, "So, we have to put this in the discipline record now." Like, so I think they're going to want to do a lot of warnings and a lot of, "Hey, come on. Let's get this let's get this going." Um, really in my opinion, we probably won't see some of the more um restrictive offenses until we start getting to kids that are just like refusing or kids that are just on a huge number of warnings or times or it's a level of frustration that's reached for certain folks. So, but it's it's this is going to be a difficult manage. I mean, if you think of the size of each of our campuses, even this one, kids at lunch are are all over the place and and um high

065school alone, I think kids go off campus, you know, half the half the lunch goes off campus and we age if they've got that off campus or not. Um but but sometimes kids will just be outside tossing a football back and forth being 100% appropriate and they may be taking a phone out without even realizing it. So that's I think it's going to be reflexive for a lot of these kids and a lot of our you know absolute best no discipline record kids that have never caused an issue. I was talking to Dr. Her in the hallway and nine kids that walk by all nine of them had their phones out because it's just that's their life. That's what they've grown up with. So, it's just going to be, I think, a lot of a

066lot of warnings. I don't know if you want to add anything. >> The consequences was something I was intrigued to hear what our parents, students, and teachers um felt. And so, that was a specific question that I asked teachers as far as what do they feel is the most appropriate consequence because I wanted their input because they're the ones that ultimately we want to change behavior with their consequences and and getting our teachers input. Uh they strongly that that administration should be on the front line of management and I could not agree more. So our our focus is trying to take as much of this off of our teachers as possible. Um so trying to be very very clear as far as far as like the protocol in in in the sense that they have

067somebody that's that's has a cell phone violation so to speak. Um and then also teachers I think um feel like that and it was kind of mentioned in parents when we met with the parents like you know this is something you got to be strict right out of the gate versus this is something can we manage it like tardies um and that's a little bit of my concern because if we're not um if we're given too many chances then I think we're going to get to the point where our teachers may feel like we're not doing much about and or students may feel that well, you know, you get a couple opportunities. Uh so, one of the things that we'll do before we um truly finalize like what we're how we're going to manage this

068at the high school is work with with Dr. Bailey and Dr. Rump is just to make sure what we're doing is is appropriate. I also think it's to Lisa, I think almost to your point, I think parents and students need to know what are those consequences like in the event that you do this. This is what it's going to be. we leave it vague then from my experience then they're going to test you to see what that vagueness is. >> Uh but I think if it's very clear and we say upfront and and I know from teacher feedback this is one thing that they prefer is that make it very very clear on what the consequence might be. So that's pushed out there students know it everybody's on the same page. So in the event

069that we have a cell phone misuse uh there's no secrets >> to what that consequence is. So um you know that's one thing that we just need to trying to find a balance of we do not want to be in conflict battles with our students. We don't want to damage relationships. Uh we want to continue to maintain a positive school culture, but also implements implement this in a way that we can get back to teaching and learning. >> I think it's important we need to continue to remind the adults this is not just a choice. This is physiological. It's an addiction for many of us. I mean the adults in this room right now, how many of you are monitoring the board meeting on a computer and on your phone? Um, so to expect students

070to just come in on the first day and not do it because that's the rule isn't realistic. And I appreciate that our administrators and our building leaders are talking through that. It really is how do we support our students in this behavior change. Yes, we need to enforce these expectations, but understand that if they're making the effort and we're moving that direction, that's what we're looking for. Um, at the end of the day, none of us want to be suspending students or sending them home over this. Um, and as Dr. said, "At the point we're at that in that situation, we're talking about insubordination at a whole another level. It's not just a student who forgot or accidentally pulled their phone out to take a look at it." >> And that's what I was going

071to say, like I feel like the education behind it, letting you know punishment per se, but it is, you know, we're trying to help you healthier habits. And with that, um, just wondering if the the teachers, the adults are being held to the same standard because sometimes when the students see, well, I have to have mine out, but then my teacher is there scrolling or what have you, um that kind of creates that double standard and can create that um power struggle as well. Um another question that I had, oh, what about ML learners? I know that a lot of them use their devices sometimes to translate. Has that been considered? Yeah. So that would be one of those exceptions that we can build into individual plan for a student. So you're correct that we

072have some our English language learners that have translator devices or use their phone for the phones have gotten so good at the translating. We have purchase devices that can do that for our students as well, but sometimes it may not have that specific language um on their database. But that's one of those individualized plans that we would uh put together for that. >> Okay. And then just lastly, I know you mentioned something about allocating iPads to the high school. Um would these be like within the classroom? Is this an additional cost? Like what does that look like or would >> So some details on that one are still be worked out, but it's basically what we're thinking is there's a there's um many iPads that would be allocated. And so in a science a science

073teacher may need almost like the old school checking out a cart, you may need to take a few of them for a Yeah. Like a like a project. We don't think it would need to be onetoone because um if all you're using it for is to take a picture of a lab, you can quickly do that and pass it to another student. But our our technology team is actively >> working on that as well. And I did want to make one more point because of the communication piece. I forgot to say this earlier. We've also engaged with West County Psychological Associates and in September they have a presenter who will come and do a parent night on the anxious generation and so a two-hour presentation that she does um around that um research in that

074book. that'll we'll advertise that as we get get that out. But um we we have her coming out for actually three different parent evenings um throughout the school year over anxious generation around suicide and anxiety and then over stress situations for students as well. So kind of all tied together but not just saying again like Dr. Herold mentioned we're not just saying boom here's new policy go. We're trying to also give some learning opportunities. >> Thank you. Um, thank you for all your work on this. I, you know, I think that this is um been a lot and I know that it's been um kind of sped up. Um, but as you just said, I think that this all kind of started with that book, The Anxious Generation. And so I appreciate you um setting

075that up, Dr. Bailey. Um, one of the things I know Michon talked about having stats for the parents, but I think that sometimes with kids, if you give them the the background and the why, sometimes that it makes more sense. Um, and so I didn't know if there was kind of a plan for for that. And I don't need to know. I'm just And so then my next question was um so I think that I heard you guys say that a teacher could request to have students use their phones for an academic reason is did I okay you just >> yes but it's something that we've talked about this a lot that we really want to make sure that that is extremely rare because the last thing we need is for cool teacher and not

076cool teacher in those situations So those would all run through. But if for some reason the art teacher came and said, "Listen, I really need these kids on their AP art project, their portfolio, they have to submit, they've got to do pictures." Okay? And and to me, Dr. Harold would say, "Okay, you know, we're gonna one time we're going to allow and be very very explicit about that." But in our opinion, and we've gone, we've had months of this discussion now. We're kind of ready for it to be done. But but because I was a high school principal, too, he and I have had a lot of discussions about, man, this is going to be hard. Um but it it uh it's one of those where we want to have start off very small and

077basically say listen there's we're trying to find all the workarounds possible for you which would include uh you know trying to work with our technology team speed up approval of sites that they think they need access to you know working with we boosted the the um >> working with our to open up maybe like Spotify or other music stations for kids to listen to on their devices making sure they have external email coming through lots of workounds our team working got a whole list of things that they're looking at and again this is one of those that we probably are not thinking about something that we're we're going to encounter in October and have to go oh no like what do we do >> but the teachers have a a channel to go through >>

078we'll have the principles communicate that they have to go through their principal that yeah >> um okay and then you know when it comes to the discipline I I just want to make sure with when you have a range of kind of consequences and that kind of thing. Um what I really think about is ensuring that it is applied um consistently across across the board because if not, you know, we all know. Yeah. And so I just kind of want to hear some thoughts around that to ensure that that it will be Yeah, one thing and I'll speak from the lens at the district level and Dr. Herrell if you have anything to add at the building level please. I can say that having this as a standalone discipline standard allows us to drill down

079on that data pretty easily um to look at all of the different u factors that go into that when it comes to time of day teacher um location the the demographics of the student from gender race grade level. So we can drill down. Now, obviously that's after the fact, but in talking with our principles and um looking back at some of our other equity work, I have great, you know, trust in our our administrators to be able to apply that as um equally and evenly as possible. However, I know that sometimes that becomes a challenge because it may have started off as a cell phone issue and has now transitioned into an insubordination issue uh for for a particular student who may or may not have the best relationship with a teacher administrator. Um But

080we can drill down on the data for sure on all those things. But I know you look at that stuff with your team on all the different discipline pieces all the time. >> Yeah. Um and discipline's never fun, nor is it easy. Um but again, I go back to hopefully once we finalize our approach is we're a little bit more specific on what a consequence might be. Uh, I'll say that, um, I feel like we got pretty good feedback from our teachers that they don't want students to lose instructional time >> over something like this. >> Um, and and many voiced that uh, confiscation, cell phone confiscation may be the best route, not necessarily from them, but from from that administrator standpoint. >> Okay. Uh, I think there is some concern that you have an

081issue in first or second period, as long as that student still has access with that phone, there could be potential issues with third, fourth, and fifth period. >> And so that's one thing we're trying to work through is um trying to, you know, find a fine balance where where there there might be consequences. Confiscation's an option. Obviously, parent contact, having a conference with that student, at the end of the day, it may it may result in detentions. uh repetitive offenses may may result in ISS. Um you know, again, that's that's the last resort on something like this. But at the same time, I I truly feel that if if we don't if students don't see a result of getting having misuse, I have a feeling that we're going to be chasing this all year long.

082>> Um or it's something that just never really, you know, never really took off the right way. And so I I I would almost start at a certain point and and then start working our way back, >> you know, as as opposed to trying to play catch-up, if that makes sense. >> Yeah. So Okay. Um so I guess teachers will have some training around this. >> Yes. We'll try to give them as much guidance as possible. We've tried to narrow it down um to basically two specific ways to report this. >> Okay? >> Either the student needs to be sent to the grade level office, >> okay? >> Or we need to be notified and and through a walking counselor or another staff or admin will come remove that student. So, just trying to make

083it as clear as possible. Hey, these are the two ways that we feel are probably most appropriate for you to address it in a in a way that doesn't create a bigger classroom discretion disruption. Maybe it's done in in more of a discreet way. Um and and that would align with how we've kind of done that in the past. Uh we're really trying to and to be honest with you, giving a little bit autonomy to the teachers on what what is a warning to them. That's >> some some some are are are are very much to the where they will they feel okay with with having to tell you a couple different times and and I and I can get you to where I need you to be. I'm going to tell you a couple

084different times and move on. Others quite frankly and some feedback have said, "Well, the law itself's a warning already." >> Yeah. >> You know, that's it's they've already been, you know, the communication that goes out. We've already told students that you can't do it. So, so some may be and that's what you're going to get. You're going to see it on both different sides where they feel, hey, we're already communicating a lot out. the students already know. So the first time I see a cell phone, I I should be able to to already refer them to the office. So we'll try to have a a fine balance with with what that looks like. But I want to be very clear as far as training. >> Ultimately, it goes back to classroom management, which is like

085when we asked, hey, what are some things that you may need in August to help for this? Uh classroom management, maybe some instructional strategy work was a feedback we got. So next week, uh we will do some of that with them. will have a specific a couple specific sessions with our teachers where it's going to be a cell phone discussion. It's going to be Q&A. It's going to be scenario based so we can talk it through. You know, if you're walking down the hallway and you see a student on their phone and you don't know that student what what's a good approach and um I hope I don't get in front too far ahead of myself, but you know having talking points like >> in this situation here's a couple talking points that you can

086say to a student. >> Absolutely. Um, and so try to try to give them as much as they can so whenever a situation occurs, they're a little bit more prepared, >> right? Because I think the unique part about this is this is a student's property, right? And so it's it um students have an ownership over their property and that can already kind of lead to an escalated situation. And so, um, I'm glad to hear that those things are in place and guidance is going to be given and that the the staff will not ever be directed to take a a a student's cell phone. >> No st that's very very clear that they are not going to be asked to do that. I will say that that um in the past that's what some's been

087able to do is say, "Hey, will you just go put that on my desk?" And the student does it and it's no big deal. It's not a discipline referral. on office referral. That's just how it's managed. The teacher's not taking it, but there's been times where students have turned it over to a teacher and they just get it right back at the end of the class. So, I feel comfortable >> in the sense that we can manage at the office level with confiscation and we want to avoid teachers from being in any kind of conflict. >> That's exactly >> but communication is still important. So, we also want them to communicate and say, "Hey, unfortunately, I've told you a couple times or I've told you once about this. now I have to take it to

088the next step because hopefully they'll be able to use it. You know, the administrators are holding them accountable for this. People are holding us accountable and we're all kind of working together. >> Yeah. Okay, that's great. Um, and I appreciate the the the check-in that you're going to do in the, um, and then just the last thing, um, kind of along with the check-in, I know that we have Let's Talk and I, um, know that like you can do us, we've had like specific channels for Let's Talk. Um, you know, I is there a way that we could, you know, direct parents and students like if they have questions or they want to give feedback or constructive ideas or that kind of thing. Like is there a way that we could or do you feel

089like this would be helpful to kind of like have a channel? I don't even know if it's called a channel to be honest. >> It's okay. It's a topic. Okay. >> In the system. Um and uh we can certainly create a topic in let's talk. I do think that a lot of the conversation around this is going to happen at our school levels and um at the moment we don't use let's talk on a school basis because we know that our families have such a close relationship with the individual administrators, teachers, those sorts of things. Um so I I like that suggestion. That's certainly something that we can do and um we can make sure that those questions get to the right place when folks um want some clarification around uh cell phone use sort

090of as from a policy perspective. Um but then also encourage folks to have that conversation on the school level as well. >> Well, thanks. I know that this um is a big one. Um and I just appreciate all the the thought and time that's gone into this. All right, bear with me. Um, I have a lot of questions and I had added more during the presentation which I think is good. Um, and I understand that we're in between a rock and a hard place with this because we were mandated by the state uh with minimal opportunity, right, for any changes that fit our district, our students needs, which is really unfortunate in my opinion. Um, I'm very frustrated with this polic law. Personally, I will be voting no against it. I don't want anybody to

091think that I'm taking my questions or frustrations out on any of you after all of your work. So, I just wanted to say that right up front. Um, I also think it's really important to note that everything that we shared at the elementary and middle school levels doesn't change, right? That's already what we've been doing as a district for the most part. And I think that's really important for our parents to know as well. Um, what we're really talking about and most of my comments here are related to at the high school. So, Dr. Harold, I'm really glad you're here. Um, I'm sure I'm going to sound frustrated. Um, I've heard from multiple different high school parents, many students gathered at my house asking questions. What does this mean? We're frustrated. We're concerned. Is this

092going to impact our college applications? Um, and I had a lot of teachers reach out who were not feeling safe that they could ask their concerns about what this meant for them at some of the meetings. So, I'm just sharing that outright. Um, so my first question is, um, you said that earbuds are going to be included. Some students use earbuds with their computers at the high school. Um, so are we banning wireless earbuds for computer use now? >> That's been a discussion even today because one of the challenges I think and again I'm hearing this from some of our teachers, the wireless earbuds one, they're hard to see, and two, they're always connected to a cell phone. Uh, and some will tell you that those are almost as problematic as anything because they can't

093hear you. Um, and so I feel like if we have wireless headphones, they're going to be connected to the cell phone and they're not going to be able to disconnect from that, especially if they have it. We hope it's not on their person, at least it's in their backpack, but they still could be connected to it. Uh, whereas if it's wired, then now it's one, it's a little bit easier to manage. Two, uh, we know that they're potentially using that for their u their laptop. And so that is one that's really challenging and and trying to reach out to other schools and how they're managing that. Most everyone, if not everyone I've talked to are are banning wireless headphones because the specific use for those are for the cell phone. And and I feel like

094uh again where we kind of landed in some of our discussions today. I feel like if we're trying to enforce a safe uh a cell phone free environment that having wireless headphones that are connected to a cell phone may not be helping us with that. Well, if our so if our students use earbuds to connect to their computers, we're going to require them to have another pair of headsets >> potentially. Yes. >> Okay. All right. So, an additional expense for our students um and their families. Okay. Was the parent group that you put together um from a standpoint, were they all for or against this policy? You said they were really diverse, but you didn't >> clarify what diverse meant. >> Yeah. Um I I think we had one representatives from each grade levels. We

095had some students there on their own, some parents there on their own, and some some, you know, mom and daughter or dad and daughter there from the same family. Um, from from a a ethnicity makeup, I felt like it was it was diverse. Um, again, different ages. Um, and I felt like they're very much in support of it. Uh, and totally understand the instructional uh the classroom piece of it. where we got questions is the the hall time passing periods, the lunch and um some of the feedback was, you know, we totally support in the classroom. We just don't understand why this now applies, you know, across the board from start to finish in their school day. Um, and so, you know, again, sometimes when you're trying to put this stuff together unless you have

096multiple meetings with the same people, uh, you may only get that perspective once or within that hour and a half or two hour meeting. Um, you know, everybody was encouraged that any follow-up feedback, anything that they come in contact with as they start reading more of the language as I've seen stuff in the news, please reach out to a grade level office, reach out to us. I tried to I told that group kind of at the end of this is kind of a group that we we looked at like if we need to share more feedback with you guys or get feedback uh presented to us, please feel free to do that. Um I don't try to just see their thoughts and what they thought about it. >> Okay. But just to clarify, the group

097that was brought together was very pro the policy, not pushing back on >> or representative of people that are struggling with this state law in general. I we didn't Yeah, we had no idea where they stood on this. It it was just trying to gather some people that that when we said, "What is the presential potential challenges you see?" No one said no one came out and said, "I don't support this um or I I highly support this." It was really more so a discussion. The very first comment on what challenges you see was the transportation. A parent spoke up and I said, "This is going to be a huge challenge for transportation and and and for my kids at carpool. I got kids at multiple buildings like trying something changes in our plan, how

098are we going to communicate that? So, there's no doubt that there was comments that were made that are just trying to explore the challenges it's going to present. Uh, at least in that group, I didn't have anybody that was adamantly saying my child's not going to follow this. I will say from a confiscation standpoint, um, they weren't heavily in support of that only in the sense of they did not feel teachers, it wasn't so much the confiscation piece as one of them said like I don't think that should be in the business of having to do that work and and and and I think it just kind some others just kind of agreed uh with that statement. Um as it relates to what does that look like in the office? One parent mentioned, you know,

099maybe that's something that if the student's not willing to to uh hand over that cell phone, let's say for the remainder of the day, maybe that could be a phone call the parent and and then have the parent on the phone and say, "Hey, unfortunately we do need to take this phone." Either the student can can just turn it over my desk or the So that was kind of a suggestion that was offered from the parent as it relates to the confiscation piece. >> Okay. I wish that I wish the answer was that there was more representation about people that were frustrated with with this policy or law in general. But that's my opinion. Um my next question did we get additional funds from the state to accommodate this policy and some of the additional

100needs like extra iPads or Spotify licenses or anything? >> No. Okay, I knew the answer. I just had to ask. Um I again I think it's really important as we continue down this path to recognize or even somehow document the amount of hours and time that are going to be dedicated to trying to um I don't know what the right word is, but this law that I mean this is taking time away from our students needs. Um this is taking money and funds from our district uh with zero support from the state. So, just pointing that out. Um, and then for the communications, uh, and and I I liked the flyer, um, Miss Dedric that you showed, but are we afraid to say that this is a state law in the flyer? I understand if

101we're trying to be positive, but nowhere on there does it say that? >> No, we didn't put it as a part of the flyer um for a couple reasons. One, because um, we were going off of some language that we already had. And um we really wanted to be measured about saying, "Hey, it's a good thing to not have distractions." The flyer is more for a student focus as opposed to the family focus. Although we do make sure in our communications with families to say this is the why, right? The why is because one, cell phones can be distracting and there are some um issues with cell phones and student mental health, something Dr. Bailey has talked about, but then also the law. >> Well, and I guess my question is on other things that

102we have posted in our buildings where it's a state statue at the bottom of it or in some way, shape or form, we've said this is a Missouri statute. This is a state law and I feel that we should that should be included. That's my again my opinion. Um I don't know why we wouldn't include it when we include it on other things. Um and I do agree with Miss Hepern and saying that using social media again or even with Miss Shern and sharing out um the information. It's one other touch point and like you said, people need to see it three, four or five times. Um even linking it back to the district website with the FAQs could be a really great way to, you know, we're not trying to engage here for a

103discussion. Here's more information, but I think this is going to require to everybody's point multiple touch points. Um, I wanted to ask a couple questions about, and I appreciate the discussion about the discipline and that we're not trying to suspend kids, but we've acknowledged that we may go there. Um, and so I guess my question is again there could be lots of situations and a student may have already had multiple warnings and then they're having a situation in one day and let's say their parent is sick or to your point Dr. Bailey, right? They're trying to coordinate with their family about picking them up or something and that's their 20th time. that say, are we really going to be suspending kids because we're going to put it into our policy or say we have to

104be hardwired about, you know, 20 times we're going to get a suspension. I think, and I'm speaking for the principles here, that almost all of the discipline situations that we have, we seek to understand the why. And so, just having come from my perspective, if a student were to come in and kind of give that exact explanation like my mom is sick, my dad is here, I think that's a different approach than it's non-negotiable. We're going to have this there. But with any discipline situation, we want to understand the why behind there. What we don't want is for a student to consistently go to that same, you know, reason and not have some of those other pieces that are there as well. So, we'll have to do like we do with almost every other discipline

105situation, which is to do investigative work on the principal's part and and to talk to the students again about, well, here's some workarounds. If that's really a situation, come to my office and we can make that call from my phone. we can do what we need to do to provide some of those solutions as well. But we will have some students because these guys are very smart. So they'll figure out like, you know, if I just tell Dr. Herrell that I needed to call my mom, he's not going to do anything. And um it'll always be, you know, like, hey, put your phone and call my mom. Oh, wait. You know, so we want to make sure that there's a balance there. But obviously with anything, we want to talk to the students about it

106as well and at least help to understand the why. My hope is that if it's the 20th time that we've already talked to them, talked to the students about emergency situations. Um there are avenues for you to use which would include ABCD or whatever those are. So, but it's a great it's a great question and I know that um you know a lot of times our students are quickly texting like no practice or this or that and getting that to the parents um as well and so it's going to be a shift for for everybody that that lack of availability. It will also probably be still somewhat available to those juniors and seniors who go off campus during lunch, but they'll probably still have to have some of that communication available to them. But at

107the same time, the freshman who may not be driving is probably the one who most needs to know what mom or dad's schedule might look like. And so we'll have to have our principles and our teams talk about workarounds for that. So this is going to be a work in progress for sure. And and so we'll have to keep digging in and work with our principles on it. But I know that He'll call me and say, "Hey, I got this kid 20 times and this last one was this." He's probably not calling me about that. It's probably like we're going to work with with a kid on it, but shouldn't have taken 20 times for us to get to that. But I understand the example. >> I appreciate that we want to be stringent so

108that there is no I'm going to say discrimination or lack of consistency to Miss Andrew's point. But I do really worry about that and I worry about the students that are going to be negatively impacted there. Um I I'll come back to that point. Um I have I wanted to just point out and we it says 504 plans, it says IEP plans, it says medical plans in there. Um and students with diabetes. I have a student with diabetes in middle school. He was afraid to take his phone out even though it was in his 504 plan because it singles him out in the classroom. Other students would know again once again that he has a disability. He was so happy to get to high school because now they wasn't singling him out. He looked like

109every other student. So now once again we are he's going to be required to be singled out. And I think that's ridiculous. Um and I just wanted to point that out that that's going to be another negative trauma of how this of this this law is written and how our policy is stating it. Um I did have some students ask about our open campus and wanting and and we talked a little bit about it but you know monitoring you know if we go off campus for lunch or in between classes and it sounds like you know that's all going to be up in lots of discussion and more to come. Um, but I will say that, you know, students are asking questions about that as well. Um, and not happy. Um, I did have some

110questions about, and you highlighted that teachers will not be confiscating devices, but that's not written in our policy. So, is that something that to again reinforce to our teachers that this will not be on their shoulder should be in our policy? >> I think it's a good question. I haven't thought about it from that perspective. I think that almost everything that's in our discipline policy is a consequence that's typically administered by an administrator. Um, so taking that approach. However, warnings obviously can come from teachers all the time. Um, but I I I honestly haven't thought about if we would put that specifically in the policy limiting sort of situation because that um the more limits you put in there, then the less opportunity you have to meet the student need at the individual setting and

111and provide like Dr. Herald mentioned, he may have some teachers that are like, hey, just put that on my desk. We wouldn't want to limit that relationship that is clearly positive that the kid trusts that by by putting a limiter in there. But at the same time, I I recognize that, you know, I will say having done this at the high school level, the last thing I would want to see is a teacher walk yanking it, right? >> I know coaching people against that. Um, and at the middle and elementary, it shouldn't be a challenge because that's not something that's out there. And so I think putting that in there may create a limit unnecessarily. >> Okay. >> I think it's something that we should track because what I heard from some teachers is it's

112unclear right now. And again, if we're going to give out guidance, that's great. But there could be some value in adding it to the policy in the future. So maybe just something >> we'll keep an eye on it with the data and see what in a parking lot. Um I am glad that Miss Sharon brought up uh students seeing teachers using their phones because that was some other questions that I got. um again and to um you know previous comments that you know if we're really going to have to do this, how do we do this across the board? So I do think that we will hear some things there. Um and I want to go back to Sorry, I'm all over the map. Um I want to go back to the suspension. Um I

113really don't support that at all. I don't support it being in our policy. Um, this goes against everything that in my eight years on the board that we have discussed from keeping kids in the classrooms. We're going to see here in a little bit that our strategic plan that our discipline referrals went up greatly in the last year and now we you know I I think that this is going to drastically increase that. I don't think that we should be removing kids from classrooms over this. I think we need to be more creative and look for other ways to address this gray area related to phones. Um to the point of, you know, anything that goes on a college application like a suspension or detentions, think about what that means for that child's future over

114something that was mandated to us or that we're not supporting students in figuring out how to how to work through, you know, the using devices. uh supportedly or in the right way. So anyways, I'm just pointing that out. I am completely against that. I think it looks really bad. It goes against everything that we've been working for as a district. Um and then uh President Motika, can I just read what I wanted to read since I will be voting no and I wanted to put my thoughts out there? Um I I'll keep it shorter. Okay. Um, I'm just really saddened that the state uh of Missouri passed this law and prohibited um personal electronic devices in our schools. When I ran for school board, I took an oath to support the education and growth of

115our students students, which in this century includes teaching students how to use their devices, specifically phones to the best of their abilities and safe, respectful, and creative ways to maximize their power. Technology is a power. By removing cell phones, we are now letting our students down. We have found ways to prevent them from being distractions that align with each teacher's personal desire and even incorporating them into classrooms and curriculums in ways that allow all students to be included. Mandating by law that they cannot have access to them does nothing to prepare them for graduation. What comes after school and most likely their careers? We are even now additionally singling out students who need access to their phones for disabilities. Why must we make it harder for them to fit in? I wish our state gave

116us the benefit of the doubt uh to do what was best for us. While I realize this is a growing concern about social emotional context and anxiety related to cell phones, student wellness in this case, I believe that our job in public education is to teach students and work with them on how to manage and work through this. I have to vote no on this policy. I realize it's state law. Um, but I've come to learn that there are many laws that are not in the best interest of our students and humanity and I can't support this. Just one thing like I just in talking or hearing everyone talk you know there are lots of situations that we can think through that kids just use their cell phones and they probably don't have the knowledge

117of how to to you know do something else like go to the office to make a phone call. I mean I don't think kids have done that. They don't go to the office and make phone calls. So, I think just some of those things to kind of work through for kids and and explicitly teach them how, you know, how to navigate that. So, thank you for all this. I just have a couple things because everybody else touched on all my points. Um, one question kind of going backwards. When a teacher in the past has used has his or her kids use phones instructional purpose. What does the kid who doesn't have a phone do? >> Great question. To be honest, I don't know because I don't know how many I mean, right? >> Quite frankly,

118mo most students, you know, eight years ago, you would run into this more. But now, I mean, that's something that most students have one. So, >> I'm not 100% sure. I mean, in essence, you know, a couple different areas where they're using it. they're doing group projects, scavenger hunts around campus, science labs where they're working with groups, uh whether journalism where they're typically working as a team. So oftentimes I think there's access somewhere. >> Okay. Thanks. It just occurred to me. Um are there still landlines in every classroom? >> Yes. Um, so because I know back in the day when I was teaching there weren't cell phones and um I'm old and um you know so a kid would come up and say, "Oh, my practice just got changed." And they'd have to call home.

119One of the tricks is going to be kids don't know phone numbers these days. So, we might want them to have a little note of this is mom's phone number. Um, >> well, and and a workaround and and I 100% agree with you, but the teacher can look it up in the system, >> but the student may not be able to know that something changed because our coaches won't be able to send out the text about practice changing in the middle of the day. And so, it's going to be this is definitely going to be a paradigm shift in a lot of ways. But, uh, yeah, all our classrooms do have the the phones over here. Um, and you're correct that I I you have me thinking about my own 12-year-old now, whether or not

120she knows dance. And those are the things that because it was mentioned when we had students and parents about how they don't may not even people may not even know um family members selfish, you know, and and and I do want to clarify one, I appreciate your questions because it's very thoughtprovoking. Um when when we arranged to get the teachers together, I I probably had more that were in favor of uh not having using cell phones. However, every every teacher and both surveys we did were anonymous. So, we weren't collecting email addresses so they could put whatever feedback and they've given some great feedback. Um we we tried to give them that avenue that anonymous so they can put what they felt is appropriate. I know some may not feel comfortable and that's totally fine.

121always try to have an open door policy on this stuff, but everybody had an opportunity to ask if they wanted to come back and do some work over the summer and and those that put their name down all got an invite to attend. U again, knowing probably some that really are in support of this are going to be the ones may may be leaving their names, those that may not be in support. You it is what it is. When it when it came to the student parents, I again I don't know who supports who. I know that there was several comments being made about what if my child my my was an athlete that was there um forgets her stuff at home like how how would we get their stuff which it's daily in the

122welcome center I mean kids forget stuff daily so we know that challenge of it uh and so a lot of the comments are very much like what you're hearing in here so I I feel like that we we you know again without strategically trying to send out a survey and say who's not in agreement of this I I felt like we tried to hear as many perspectives as we can there was actually uh you know an AP had mentioned like hey I'm thinking about you know this person be good and I to invite and I said absolutely unfortunately that person couldn't make it but I do know that person would be very honest very clear and tell us how they feel about something and so to I just wanted to clarify like I surely wasn't

123trying to put together a group that's just going to you know it's going to be group think and they're going to agree with everything we say we surely tried to get multiple perspectives and this is the stuff that came up if we got to get a message to our child the ortho appointment got moved up or got cancelled email may not be the best route you you know, we're talking about like, you know, you got to call the call the the grade level office. And then we talked about with our support support staff, like you if they get inundated with with phone calls now coming in for parents, how do we get that? We talked about that just today. How does with support staff, how do we get that to the teacher when it's 2:30

124in the afternoon and the kids, you know, and so it's it's those things that I felt like we're getting some good uh insight on, but how we manage that. I mean, in essence, we are truly going back in time on on some of this. >> I I just want to also highlight if any of you have gotten a call from school when you're at work or you're like in something personal. It's nerve-wracking to parents. >> So, this is going to also be very impactful to our parents. And I think we have to be thinking that if there's any oper I don't know if this is even possible with our phone system, but so that it doesn't show up like >> I don't know. I'm just like think about Yeah. serious and that's a good point

125and I made a note to that because one thing I do when I call is I tell them right as soon as I answer I introduce myself and say hey this is a good thing this no thing to be alarmed with and so as principles we'll do that and that would be the guidance to the staff next week is is if by chance we have to make some phone calls like that just making sure on the front end if it's not anything negative that we're we're making that clear as much as possible >> and one last thing and this ties in a number of of people um number of board members talked about the concern about the suspension and you guys said that if it got to that point it would move into insubordination. So

126that would be another thank you category of the discipline. So, can we take it off of here? Because if it gets to that point, they're in another Thank you. No, I needed that word. Um, so that the consequences don't include in school suspension or anything like that because if it comes to that, we've got bigger problems than than that. They're pulling the cell phone out. I think we could consider that. What I will point out though is that this is not inconsistent with the rest of our code of conduct. So we have disruptive language, disruptive behavior, verbal aggression that have a wide range as well um that we hope that teachers through classroom management, through a relationship, through restorative practices can mitigate those behaviors and not get to the extreme level of consequence. Um and

127so while this is at top of our mind and we all know there are going to be challenges in rolling this out, it's not going to be easy. um th this is modeled along with the rest of ours that just providing that wide range of consequences. Um you know and so here it does go to inschool. It doesn't limit the number of times of in school. It doesn't say out of school. Um so I just I'll point that out. Also, you know, Dr. Bailey said that we could capture the data, review it, and always come back to make further edits. Um, I I think there's a lot of language actually in this policy and sometimes the more you have in there, the more restrictive it is, the harder it is to be responsive and make

128changes down the road because we have to come back for further policy committee, board action, board discussion. >> But to that point, because I had the same thought, Judy, about the lights on. Hello. Um I had the same thought with hearing about that it moves about going in insural coordination and I hear you Dr. Rumpus I understand that it jives with our other like a lot of our other things but I think the difference here that like Jennifer was speaking to is for one thing we did not identify cell phones as a school district as a major problem and disruption. It's not abusive language. It's not disruptive behavior. It's something that we're being told we have to have a policy and consequence for. And so, and I'm I mean maybe this is I know we

129have to vote on this. I know that like we have to move forward, but I would just say that personally I would consider taking out the inschool suspension because I do see if it's getting to that point where we've probably moved into more of a behavior in subordination issue. Um because I can't think of a circumstance where we would do inschool substantion just because somebody got caught checking Facebook or whatever. Do you know what I mean? Um, so I just wanted to point out that it is it it is different, I think, than other things in our code of conduct, but I also recognize that we're just trying to get this off the ground and be compliant and that we will come back and make edits and track things. And so I I respect the

130process as well, but just wanted to say like this is different. Sorry. So is it Is this something that's easier to keep on versus um add on later? >> I I would say yes to Dr. Harold's point earlier that it's easier for us to >> look at that data later and say, "Hey, we're not landing there." And for us to pull back for us to say, you know what, we've got a major problem. We want to increase consequences >> um for that. Looking at our standards that are in here, standard 17 is engaging in other misconduct that could lead to out of school. I mean, there are lots of different things that could to it. Um, and so again, it may be one that we circle back and look at that data. Again, I'm I'm

131still thinking about the example you gave of like gosh, if it's the 20th time and it's because I'm texting mom, is that really resulting in an in school? I just know our principles and I know that my hope is that's not that's where that's landing. At the same time, I also recognize that if the teachers like telling every single day, we got to have this put away, have this put away that that becomes disruptive in the setting because what we know is that it's likely for some students to turn into you can't make me I'm not doing it and then it becomes power struggle as opposed to just you know most of our kids oops you know those kids that does create that disruption and they'll be going to the office or being through there

132so it's yeah it's a crossover but I would say to your question it's easier to pull back later than to try to add it in there and say gosh we noticed this even harsher. I I will say we're somewhat unique in that not including an out of school option on here is is my opinion at least leaning towards the board philosophical approach. It's not 100% but it's also minimizing exclusionary opportunities. >> Do we not have like a I might be dating myself and I spent some time in this after school detention. >> Yes. >> So >> and we utilize that. Okay. So, >> and and that would be like one of the first Okay. Yeah, that would be one of the first ones. The one thing I will say about ISS and OSS, we just

133need to make sure from administrator standpoint that if student if a student does something severe with a cell phone that that consequence like recording, cheating, whatever the case may be, we just have to figure out like because if we remove, you know, sometimes you can have a serious infraction with a cell phone more more than just pulling out check Facebook. And so we would just if it comes out of here as an admin, we would just need to know like then what would that if if we if we have other policies that that that do, but if it's tied specifically to that cell phone, can we tie that under of technology if we could tie that to that? >> Okay. Thank you for a robust discussion. We'll be voting on this in a little bit.

134>> We are excited to have an opportunity this evening to provide a review of the 2425 strategic plan with the board of education. As I shared with you last week, in an attempt to shorten the presentation time overall, yes, it was we knew that we would be having a robust discussion around the policy. Um, but also wanting to allow time for discussion and questions related specifically to the strategic plan. We've modified it from how it's been shared with you in prior years. The full slide deck, which is 84 slides that you are used to, is posted and will be under board docs. It's listed as strategic plan data. Um you know we have 13 priority objectives under our four pillars within this plan and with upward of 50 action steps under those areas. Um there

135is a lot of data that is being monitored, collected and being shared with you. And so tonight's presentation which will also be posted includes only the priority objective slides and then the highlight focus slides for each area. Um the data slides are included in the report but not in the presentation. So as we work through this, each presenter is going to highlight the areas of focus or the highlights of the year, speak to a couple of the data points that were positive and then also speak to areas of opportunity we have as we look toward the strategic plan for this year. And then after each of the areas, we will pause and answer any questions board members still have. Um there still are 42 slides. Um but we do believe this will allow us to

136be a little bit more um efficient in sharing the important information. Um, and last before we start, in case it's 10:30 and nobody is watching, um, I do want to thank cabinet for their incredible work on this, um, especially the five of them who were here last year. It's really been an opportunity for myself, Mr. Cook, Dr. Rich to learn from them and more about the district. All of this work is incredibly important and I don't want anybody to think we're minimizing any of anybody's work by not having it included tonight. But again, we're just trying to streamline things. So, I will start by turning things over to Dr. and Dr. Bailey to get us started. >> Sure. I think Dr. Bailey has the um clicker. Yes. So, everything is aligned to our strategic plan.

137Uh and we are going to talk about priority objectives 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3. So, I am excited to share um some highlights and momentum that we've built together this year. Uh thanks to the dedication and collaboration of our teachers and teams. We met our benchmark goals in seven out of nine grade levels. And for the first time, we saw consistent growth in kindergarten data. This is a testament to our incredible teachers. We all know that an early early literacy foundation is critical, and it's so encouraging to see that our youngest readers um are having success. So, when we look specifically at typical to aggressive growth in reading, we saw success at the middle school level across all student groups. A major factor behind this success is the strength of our professional learning communities and the

138power of teacher collective efficacy. As I've shared before, Hadtie's research tells us that we can improve student student learning up to three times more than the rate of a typical year's growth. By staying grounded in our four guiding PLC questions, we um continually asking what do we want our students to know and be able to do? How will we know they've learned it? What will we do if they have? And what will we do if they haven't? We are committed to the science of reading as well and using those high impact instructional practices to ensure that every student is supported in the five key components of literacy phmic awareness phonics fluency vocabulary and comprehension. We've aligned on universal expectations as well strengthening um or strengthened by the resources that we have our Sunday and our

139UFly phonics resources and integrity for phmic awareness. Our commitment to letters training job embedded coaching and continued work in PLC's is making a measurable impact. We currently have 63 teachers who have completed or are in their second year of letters training and we have 20 more who are starting their first year uh this year. So we've also focused on instruction through our work with the center for educational leadership uh which has really helped us to collaborate uh around um observations, problems of practice and really using uh this consultancy protocol to help provide meaningful evidence-based feedback. Uh and lastly, we've ensured transparency and consistency thanks to Dr. Dickinson um as well with uniform curriculum documents. To date, every curriculum document is available on our district website for our teachers, our families and the broader community supporting

140a shared understanding of what our students are learning. And so as we look to 2526, which is only a couple of weeks away, um our direction is clear and it's grounded in data. After closely reviewing our benchmark results and digging into that typical to aggressive growth data, particularly at the elementary level, we've identified some key areas of focus that will help us move forward with purpose. We're going to continue to deepen our PLC work in the 2526 school year. Every building will continue to be supported by a dedicated PLC ed plus coach. Uh and our leadership team uh senior leadership team is going to focus on the handbook for highly effective teams and a PLC at work to continue strengthening our professional learning communities and our learning as well. We've also seen how our universal

141expectations have provided much needed clarity across classrooms and grade levels. That consistency is really foundational and we are building on it. This year we're shifting from job embedded coaching um from the link to a broader model of literacy learning labs and these will also be led by the link. But these labs will support whole grade teams of teachers fostering collective learning and practice across all classrooms. So here's what that will look like. In kindergarten, first and second, our focus will be on strengthening foundational skills aligned to the science of reading and ensuring that our students are really developing those building blocks um that they need to become strong readers. In grades three, four, and five, we'll emphasize vocabulary development and grammar and structure uh instruction um both of which are critical u for comprehension and

142effective communication. We'll continue using Marzano's sixstep vocabulary process where students explain, restate, show, discuss, reflect, and then apply their vocabulary knowledge through engaging activities and games. So, when it comes to grammar, Miss Motica, we're approaching it as more than a rules and a mechanics approach. Grammar provides our students with the structure they need to communicate clearly both in speech and in writing. And we've heard from our curriculum writing teams, our teachers, grammar is a needed area of focus at the middle and high school levels, especially in helping prepare our students to take and be successful on the ACT. So, we're also taking a critical look at our middle school ELA curriculum as well. And we want to assure that there is seamless alignment, not only kindergarten through 12th grade, but specifically fifth to sixth grade

143and then 8th to 9th grade. So this alignment will help us with um a cohesive experience for our students. All of these focus areas are grounded in our data um and what our teachers are also telling us and they reflect a continued commitment to high quality instruction collaboration collaboration and supporting every learner on their journey. So, we're really proud of the work that our teachers um have done around all of this. Uh our district leaders with our PLC's and we're really looking forward to the focus that we have for the 2526 school year. Moving on to math as well. Um our PLC's looking at those highlights from this year continue to be the heart of our collaboration bringing our teachers together uh to focus on what students are learning, how we're measuring that progress, and

144how we're supporting each learner. The shared learning culture is creating consistency and deeper professional growth across all of our buildings. So in math, we've partnered with uh Wu Math 314 to provide coaching and feedback that was particularly at the middle school level. This partnership has really helped to sharpen our instructional practice and expand mathematical thinking in ways that are rigorous, equity based, and student centered. As a senior leadership team, we have also invested deeply in the book study clarity for learning, which centers around three simple questions, but they're powerful um that every student should be able to answer when we walk into the classroom. What are you learning? Why are you learning it? How will you know uh when you've learned it? And the answers that we get are overwhelmingly strong and positive. another testament

145to the instruction that's happening in the classroom with our teachers. So, this work is really growing our principles as instructional leaders and supporting them and driving strong teaching and learning in every classroom. Uh, in elementary math, we piloted, as you all know, Amplify Desmos math with 70 of our teachers participating in that pilot and we are going into full adoption of that resource this year. We are continuing or we have continued this past year our work with the center for educational leadership. Um and their tools have again helped us to calibrate our classroom observations uh provide evidence-based feedback and create stronger alignment between instructional practices and student outcomes. So looking at the 2526 school year, our uh our focus and our data uh for this year, we're seeing some momentum across six out of our

146nine grade levels. We were within just 5% of meeting our benchmark goals and eight out of nine grade levels are now or above 75% on their spring benchmark data. That's a strong um position for us to build on. Uh and it's a direct result of the dedication, collaboration, and again the focus of our incredible teachers. As with other areas, our PLC work um continues to be foundational, giving our teachers the space and structure to collaborate, analyze data, make informed instructional decisions, and it really keeps our work aligned and student centered. This year, our focus will be on the implementation of the Amplify Desmos math resource while also providing that support that our teachers will need to use the resource effectively. So, to do that, we've built in um seven in-person uh days of job embedded

147coaching. Uh and we've structured that time to include teacher collaboration and then also the ability to reflect and build their design uh build and design their lessons around um the learning. So, it's about learning in real time. It's about learning together and really seeing that impact immediately and it and it to be meaningful as well. So, I also want to highlight the incredible um progress that our teachers and curriculum writing teams have made with vertically aligning all of our math curriculum kindergarten through 12th grade. And I've shared with you all before, but every single math course um now has been rewritten and aligned to the state standards and vertically across our district over the past five years. So this means that our mathematicians are moving through a cohesive connected journey, one that sets them up

148for success in every stage of their learning. >> All of that work in prek through 8 gets the kids up to the high school level. And the board noticed that our graduation rate um for all of our students, we look at are they on track for graduation? So on track at the end of nth grade is do they have six credits? At the end of 10th grade, do they have 12 credits? At the end of 11th grade, do they have 18 credits? Obviously 24 are required to graduate. Um I'm happy to say that 97% of all of our grade levels are at on track for graduation and many of those students actually catch up. They may be only a half credit short. They catch up over summer school um and and have different opportunities. And

149so what has worked really well for us, we have an early warning system that is built in through our educ system that looks at different factors that are weighted and there are weekly emails that are automated to our administrators and uh Sarah Gibbs, our intensive support counselor to provide direct student support based on a variety of factors that are built in. Uh we do have second semester credit recovery. So what that is is if students fail the class first semester, we do offer options before summer school uh happens for them to recover some of those credits. And a lot of times for credit recovery, we may have students who are just a test or two away from being able to recover. So we don't make them go back and repeat the entire course. We have

150them just make up some of those areas. Our pioneer pathways and Dr. Shrigggin takes great pride in the work that her students have done and her teachers as well with our different pathways between the discovery and innovations programs. For those that don't know, the innovations program is housed above the library on the second floor and the discovery program is housed behind the journalism lab. that all the students are on campus. They have access to all the campus resources um and and the access to those dedicated social emotional supports that are there as well. Summer school is an opportunity for our students and we have a ton of kids that take summer school for extension courses. So, they get out of the way a personal finance or a health class because they have such a heavy

151schedule with AP courses or they have sports or they have other options that they want to explore. Uh we've continued to be a high user of Launch. However, we've increased our use called. So those that don't know, that's our Pioneer E-Learning Academy. Those are inhouse created uh courses and we've increased the use of that. One benefit is that we can have kids move more fluidly in and out of that. If they're in a short-term hospitalization, for example, broken leg or mental health hospitalization, they can float into our own course and then as they come back in person, float back out versus launch where they're kind of either in or out. There's no floating in between. Has provided extension options for that. Moving forward, continue to look at that early warning system. We're constantly looking at

152the weights and measures and whether it's identifying the students we need to look at. We're always looking at our credit uh recovery systems and enhancement options for our students and looking at different providers and different pathways. In fact, this year we've got a few students that are signed up for an online American Sign Language class because of the options that are out there and then um just exploring those opportunities that are there. As part of our success ready student network work, we're continuing to look at the market value asset and extension options. We've had students that have worked with internships, mentorships, programs throughout. You may have seen an article, one of my favorite places to eat, salt and smoke, and students work closely with them. I love their ribs. Um, work very closely with them

153on menu design and opportunities and how to get engaged in the community. And then there is a program, Mr. I, I don't know if your students take part in some of the school flex programming or not, but school flex program does allow students to pursue work options and get school credit. It's elective credit, and it's capped based on the number of hours that they work. But it is an opportunity for our students who may need different pathways uh to achieve some of that credit towards graduation as well. And ACT uh the ACT test while it's given at the high school level is certainly a culmination of the work the students have done from you know early early ages all the way through. The ACT has changed a little and I'll talk about that for a

154second. We do still see a gap. We want to be very honest about our data. we do still see about an eight point gap between our black students and our white students on our cumulative test and that is comparable to what we had last year uh as well. And so while we're still above the state and national averages well above that that particular student group um it does have that gap that we're continuing to work on through some of the specific things that we've done at the high school. Um and then all the work that Dr. Brana just described about reading and math will all contribute to those future growth opportunities as well. But we do have an ACT prep class. We've continued to develop and align that curriculum. Got a little bit of a

155change coming up for this upcoming school year. We'll talk about in a second. We've added additional practice tests at the high school. We'll be using the official practice test that the state has or that the ACT has created based on the new test that is coming out. And then our teachers at the high school do do use those practice test results and other curricular documents to align that. You saw Dr. Brand mention that before. Um we're going to continue the ACT prep course. We have a new teacher that's in there. She's very excited about the work that she's doing. Um there are new changes to the ACT and we'll talk about that on the next slide. And then professional development options on the new ACT. So just publicly for the board to see and for

156everyone the ACT itself what's changed reduced number of questions. I don't know if you knew but there were sometimes in reading for example 60 minutes to do 60 questions and 35 minutes to do 30 questions. So it was a very high pace uh for our students. So Reduced number of questions, a little bit shortened test time, so some students did fatigue by the end of that. More time per question is there. Reduce the answer choices on math from five to four, which may hurt some kids if they're just randomly guessing, but from five to four. Uh, and now the science test is optional. So, the science reasoning was a part of that. It's an optional test that's now out there as well. You can see some of the things that are unchanged. Prior test scores

157won't get revised based on any of these pieces. Both paper and online tests are still offered. However, we're looking at making a shift more uh lot shaking her head. So, we've looked at the online option, but we haven't gotten there yet. So, uh but we are offering some of the official practice tests for our students on the ACT. With that, that wraps up the red section, the curriculum and instruction piece. We want to open it up for any questions. >> Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Uh yeah, just a couple quick questions. Um in reading specifically, and again I'm looking more at the long PowerPoint um and better understanding. Are we doing anything more specific or differently or like pinpointing in on the fourth and fifth graders that had a significantly lower um you know meeting our goals

158rate or improvements? Yeah, we looked at that data as well and again we will rely on that PLC process and the MTSS process to really help us dive into the instructional practices um the skills and the gaps that are existent there and then really at the building level and then the classroom level and then the teacher level of really identifying where those gaps are for those students. >> Okay. Um and and what about the students that were in fifth grade last year? And that this is kind of related to ma my math question too, but going from fifth grade to middle school and I understand we're using PLC's, but >> since those two grades were very like much they were lower, right? They some of them even went down um in their percentages. So I

159I guess I was just really curious how how we're making sure to address that and continue that work. >> It it will be just that wraparound with our teacher support that PLC and really at that classroom teacher level of really looking at those skills and those gaps. >> Okay. >> And using the MTSS process as well. >> Yeah. I I would and I guess for our next strategic plan, I think it would be really great to see if there's opportunities to dive even deeper into this data and not just throw it all on the PLC's but more at a district level if we're seeing that issue. Um and then and uh Dr. Rumpus, I had emailed about this earlier and I know that we got an email with it, but I do think it would

160be really interesting and important to cross reference the district data and percentages of where we met our goals or where we still have needs at the building level um to make sure that if we have resources that are needed in different buildings, we can dive deeper into that. So, that was just one of my other comments. Um and then my last question is um for the ACT changes um is this being communicated out to parents? >> I believe so. Yes, it's been discussed previously, but I know that we're going to have to put that out to our parents, especially when we ACT for all at that junior level. Um, so we we'll be working with the high school to communicate. >> Okay. Yeah. Because what was there was really clear and it was great. >>

161Stole it right from ACT's website. >> Um, but just thinking uh Miss Dietrich to something you said earlier and again if there's opportunities to share that or through the Kirkwood, you know, high school social media like hitting people with that multiple times because those are some bigger changes that um I I was surprised to see. I was like, "Oh, wow. Okay." Thank you. Um, thank you so much, Dr. for I think I've said this before, your bold leadership in um around literacy. I I think that it seeing the the results really has to um make make us all feel it it makes me like emotional in a way um because it is having an impact. And so on those hard days, remind yourself of that because that's what you know at the end of the

162day that's what we're here for, right? Student student success. And um I know it hasn't always been But I want to thank you um for all of that. Um I also want to just make sure sometimes when when you are looking at the data and I know I've talked about like oh 80% like should we be our goal be 80%. I just want to make sure that um that whatever however we're measuring it is a a clear way. Um and I know that you have done a lot of work on that. Um, but I just want to make sure that that because there are sometimes where I still look at it and I'm like, well, but this is, you know, um, so again, I don't want that to negate that the huge success, but I

163also want to just keep keep on um on pushing. So, and then the other thing that I just wanted to ensure is I We're moving from lit link to then um lit I forget the term sorry um >> literacy learning labs. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Led by the link as well. >> Okay. Lots of else. Um I just want to ensure that we have a plan for um whatever happened and whatever teachers were taught from lit link that that's being carried over to like our new teachers and that kind of thing. So just ensuring that we have >> they are the it's the same thing the literacy link and then they have moved to the link. So I probably should have been clear with my language there as well. It is the same individuals leading

164that work. >> Okay. So are what is I guess changing then? We're moving from lit lab. >> So the job embedded coaching was more one-on-one and so that was happening in classrooms maybe in silos or in isolation. This is going to allow all of our teachers on that grade level team to meet at the same time have the same learning and even potentially see it modeled for them as well and feedback provided. So the learning will stretch further is the goal. >> Okay. Perfect. Okay. So that the the new teachers will still kind of receive that training. It'll just be a group. >> Yes. And the new teachers have one individual from the link who is focused specifically on transitioning all of our new teachers into the district to make sure they have that foundational

165learning in our upche. Dr. um so again thank you so much for for all your hard work and um this is really Um, not too much. That was kind of what I was going to I was going to ask um around the uh lit link. And I've asked this before, but like how are we empowering our own talent to be able to do the coaching um inhouse and kind of phase them? I mean, they're doing great things, I guess, but I mean, not I guess I see. Uh I did not mean to say that that they are doing great things. We're seeing great results, but like how are we empowering our teachers in house to do that work? >> Yes. And I think the goal really is looking at different resources potentially as well. Um

166the link is has been an incredible resource for us, but to grow our own teachers and also to provide the resources that they would need um to do that is something that we continue to look at. And Michern, I know you've pushed me to really think about that. Um, and I I have thought about that quite a bit. I haven't had a chance to discuss that with uh Dr. Rumpus, but um that's always on the forefront. What's the what's the big plan in helping our teachers transition >> um to leadership because everybody doesn't want to be necessarily a building principal or you know um at the cabinet level, but how can we empower them to you know share their expertise and growth? Yeah, >> thank you for the question. Um, so back to me. Sorry,

167Dr. Um, and this isn't necessarily I I don't I don't you don't have to answer this, but I just want to really put this out there that, you know, we have continually year after year had an achievement gap in in our academic. Um, and I just want to um push and say, you know, like I think that, you know, I know we're doing a lot, right? And I I think that um I guess I just want to make sure that this is at our the forefront because um I don't know if there are other things that we can do to impact our achievement gap um or other resources that need to to be put in place. Um but I think that that's something that we do need to really make sure that we're being intentional

168and focused on. Thanks, Dr. And this is then president. Um, thank you. I really appreciate the I think it's really important for the community to see some of these slides and see all the effort that goes into these foundational learning principles, all the different efforts and programs and things that we're using to set kids up for success. Uh there are a lot of people in the community that are very interested in how our kids are learning the basics. And um you know when I toured the school buildings this year and especially at the high school, I just have to call out again the multitude of specific programs and tools that we are using to help students um getting to visit pioneer pathways getting especially as somebody who went through these schools to see all these

169things in place that weren't around back in my day is so inspiring to see how seriously we are taking you you know, our role to help students in every way possible. And I just um the work that both of you guys have done is is just um could make me cry if I think about it too much because I I just think it's such important work and um you probably don't get the kudos that you deserve all the time. So, I wanted to say that and um and honor the principle of what we're doing here. to uh Gene Marie's point and one of the things that I did want to call out is that sort of academic achievement gap and I know um and then specifically the ACT thing. I know I always every time

170I see this slide I have a little moment about it. Um it is something that as we're looking at the next strategic plan this year looking through the next five-year plan similar to what we discussed a little bit last week with discipline it is something that I can't help but wonder, do we need to take a step back and be creative and think about our methodology? Think about, you know, I I know that this district cares a lot about equity. Um I know that this is a huge focus for us. I don't think that's going anywhere. I don't believe, you know, that's changing. I know it's something our community supports. Um, so looking at those things, I I would just love for us to start getting in the headsp space of what new out of

171the box thing we can do because it's been in here for this past five-year plan and um just not sure we have, you know, moved the dial as much as we wanted to. And so this next strategic plan, I think, is a real opportunity. And so that was just my two cents I was going to throw in there with that. But largely, great job. and I think you guys are wonderful and we're lucky to have you. >> Great. Thank you. Um yeah, this is it is wonderful to see the progress that's been made especially looking over kind of year-over-year. Um I also agree with Jennifer and the point that she's calling out around you know in some places things may have dipped. Um and we see specific areas where it's really important to make sure

172that we have the right foundation for learning. as you mentioned earlier with both math and reading, those are really skills that obviously are critical, but also that our students need to build. They need to have good foundation because it builds on each other over time. So, it's really hard to kind of come back from if you're already behind to come back from that. So totally agree with Jennifer on um really incorporating that into our strategic plan and um really saying that with the spirit of knowing that as a district we have such a great foundation and you all are a huge part of that and and are kind of fundamental to all of that. Not just a big part of it but fundamental to having a good foundation and that I'm excited to see how

173we continue to challenge ourselves to keep being better and better and better. Um not wanting to kind of rest in our la. So thanks for all your work. Um I did want to ask one specific question. Um following up on the PLC's and this might be kind of a larger discussion as it relates to the strategic plan. Um but wondering if we have specific outcomes for our PLC's to make sure that they're meeting their intended purpose. >> So part of our work this year is to um the senior leadership team. We are calibrating a rubric around high quality PLC's. So that will be the work of our uh senior leadership team this year. that gives us um the ability to have clarity with our teachers when we go into the the rooms and we see

174the PLC's what we're really looking for and what we what what we want to see. Um the other piece is self-evaluation. Um so our teachers have regularly filled out um their own assessment of how their PLC is functioning and we have seen that data um improve over time. I know Dr. Dickson actually has those numbers and I can get those. But we have seen that data improve as well with the training in the PLC's being implemented over time. >> That's great. I think that's really important especially as um we're putting a lot of um expectations on those PLC's being foundational to making these changes. Um really giving that clarity is important to the teachers, those who are part of it and knowing what they're getting out of it what they're putting into it. So thank

175you for that. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. all great questions and make great points. Um, I think the one thing I want to add, thank you guys, um, is I love the continued collaboration, you know, to pull all the fifth grade teachers together because what they're doing at Westchester, they might not have thought of it and then they're going to say, "Let's try that." So that kind of collaboration across the district. Thank you. We're not even wearing ties and so you know it uh we'll have several of us tag teaming the the next section uh that falls under equity, diversity and inclusion. So we've got priority objective 2.1 that's centered around office referrals. And I will say that what was pointed out earlier is correct. As the board saw at the last meeting, we did

176increase in our office referrals. Um, specifically on this, we were measuring the office referrals for our black students and we missed our goal by about 200 on each uh on that and and about the same for students with IEP. So, obviously that number went up. I will say that our exclusionary discipline, meaning the out of school suspension, as the board saw last time, did go down um and our inschool number did go up and so again there have been some increases in those areas. In looking at what we did during the school year, we've had continued emphasis on restorative practices. Uh restorative practice training for our counselors and administrators and actually that started expanding to other staff members as well. Uh chaos stands for Dr. M. Can you remember the acronym >> keep healing and

177overcoming struggles? >> Dr. Candace Cox comes and has worked with our students at the high school specifically. Um and she also provided training to the entire staff around trauma informed approaches and her different characters that are in her system and providing that not just to our teachers but to our support staff, our maintenance, everybody that was present for that. This also continues to give us a chance to look at our early warning systems and professional development on trauma this past school year. Looking into next school year and mentioning new teachers, they're actually already getting some of this discussion as of today, but expand those RP training offerings. There's going to be four half day offerings and then two full day offerings uh during this school year as well. Our coaches along with Dr. M do

178a great job in that training for our staff. Um we're going to continue to expand those trauma opportunities. And then because of the way that some funding works through special school district, we have an opportunity to access what's called CIS, coordinated early intervention funds. Um and those funds have to be dedicated towards reducing the disproportionality gap. And so not every district in St. county gets to access those funds, but as Kirkwood, we do. Um, and so looking at what those funds could be allocated towards, there's some PD sessions that we would take multiple team members to uh specifically around innovative school sessions or school discipline or alternative school programming. So, I've talked to Dr. Gens as well about bringing some team uh to these trainings. And then Dr. M and I have explored this and

179and I've talked to a couple other folks about looking at ways that we can utilize successful community graduates, mentors, you know, folks that have come through the Kirkwood system as as mentors for our students and looking at ways that we can get some high school kids in front of elementary kids, especially maybe a football player, too, kids like, whoa, it's really cool to see you and having some opportunities to expand those mentoring options for our younger students. There is a lot of research that will on the high school student as well providing that but really tapping into some of those resources utilizing that funding and providing a gateway for our students and then like I said we have created our coaches have created what's called a universal classroom checklist. So universals in a classroom are

180those things like do you have your rules routines expectations kids know how to turn in papers? Do they know how to line up? Do they know how to come to the carpet? Those are universals because we want all the kids to know that. So we've got some expanded And the teachers actually saw that today. They were working through a lot of their new teacher orientation with what that could look like. You may take it for granted just how important it is and people may forget that how important it is for us to teach a kindergarter how to come from their table or their desk to the carpet and then go back without a problem and and to minimize those behavior pieces. So the office referrals we hope to continue to go down. I will say

181we started this question came up last time. The measurement of office referrals is kind of that natural way to look at the outcome data of an office referral which is suspension or in school or out of school or detention or things like that. Um but the teachers have the primary control over those office referrals whereas the consequence side is primarily our administrators and so again thinking about ahead strategic plan are we measuring the right thing? Obviously we never want kids out of class we want to reduce that. So we've made success in one respect with reducing out of school suspension but we did increase in both referrals and in school suspension. >> Uh in terms of our families, our black families, uh in terms of looking at belonging, this is something that was important to

182the board uh and important to our work with our since our uh task force report of 2016 um is just a continuing to see that discrepancy, continuing to see a difference between how people feel based on race within our district. And so, um, some of the things we talked about last year, you might recall looking at our G policies, those being our staff, our personnel, our staff policies, um, from the perspective of equity. We had an audit with Beloved. Um, had our student focus groups that I worked with both at the middle schools and at the high school level. Um, and even with some elementary students at one of our buildings that, uh, they had done some work with with focus groups as well. Um and so continuing to also push with our administrators and

183teachers really starting the expansion of restorative practices. Um our work with restorative practice really being focused on how we continue to create that environment and culture uh both for our students but also for our staff. Um we talk about in our restorative practice training that is not just a stu teacher to student but also staff to staff and student to student. And so making sure that those understanding of what all restorative practice is. Um we talked about it today with new teachers that proactive 80% that 20% reactive trying to build that community and that collaboration and community. Um so that you can avoid the need for as much restorative and and um reactive uh response to discipline. Um and so and then finally our fifth grade affinity celebration. We did have that this year. actually

184just had it last week um for our students going off from fifth grade on to uh middle school. Um we did have it planned for the day that everyone decided to have water main breaks here in Kirkwood and so we rescheduled that uh and we had about about 10 students or so that were able to join us last week for that and so I was very glad to be able to do that. Um and then in terms of the numbers we really kind of really specifically focus on and have our our uh climate survey as our only measure for that. Um and so we did have some areas where we had a need for continuing to grow um that we look we're looking specifically at students and then our families in terms of um belonging

185particularly within our black population. Um and we have areas to grow. We we have uh a need to make sure that we continue to prioritize that and that's why we continue to do that. Um some of the things that we already have in place to continue this year um is our racial allyship meetings for our staff. Uh we had the opportunity to do that last school year for the first time and really want to continue to make sure that people who are interested in continuing to have that conversation and not just people of color but everyone uh being able to push for the conversation and then with the conversation then what comes with that? Um what actions do we do? What are the things that we take as next steps um to continue to improve

186the things that we do come out of those conversations? Um and then adding also an allyship meeting opportunity for our community. And so that would be a piece I would like to see implemented throughout this year is continuing to continue expand that uh and make for more opportunities for that to happen. Uh continuing those uh student focus groups um for our students to be able to continue to let us know the things that we can continue to do more and better um to continue to have that representation across our organization. Um continuing the affinity group celebration as we have have over the last few years. Uh and we did have a um big group of our administrators um probably about 20 or so including myself that attended the leadership institute this year. Um and so

187really pushing to make sure that we have an understanding of the historical significance of all the things that have happened prior to today uh that make us the situation that we are in. And so how then does that inform what our next steps are? And so continuing to work with Dr. Rumpus and with our administrators over this next year to continue to reflect on that experience and how it continues to inform the work that we do each and every day. >> Speak to the math gap where we looked at male versus female um data as well. So this past year some of our highlights were the implementation of um our Desmos pilot and then the purposeful data review within that PLC process. Um, and then our focus again will be on the implementation of the

188resource, looking at how that impacts the work that we're doing, continuing those conversations within the PLC's, really looking at that data, having intentional conversations around that, and looking to close that gap even better. And then science interest as well. Um, our idea lab um was expanded to all five buildings this past school year. Um, Idea Lab stands for innovation, discovery, uh, exploration, and adventure. And so we've had some real world learning opportunities this past year that we were able to see. Our students are building robots in the class. They are um removing waste materials from specific landscapes and projects. There are teams that are competing against each other. And then as you all may know, there is a project behind Westchester that a group of students are working on as well around erosion and how

189they can use plants and trees that are native to Missouri to fix the problem. um they put together a whole proposal um I think that you all were um given and shared as well. I think we're continuing to use the K5 MYAI resource um through WashU and also to date we uh had 223 students participate in the robotics program last year and that was the first year that we have um expanded it to um kindergarten through 12th grade um excuse me fourth through 12th grade. So that's great. It's the the excitement and the teachers working around that is really just incredible and to see the students eat. Um, and the excitement is um, it's just wonderful. Um, so looking at this year, we're going to continue to expand those real world learning opportunities kind of

190in alignment with um, our SRSN work. Um, we're looking at our middle school science curriculum as well that is highly aligned to the state standards and also the next generation science standards or NGSS as some of you have probably heard. Um, it's also phenomenon based. A perfect example of that is recently there was an earthquake um in Russia and it caused for um warnings on the um west coast for tsunamis. So that would be a phenomena that students could potentially bring into the classroom and learn about and apply these real world um uh happenings or going on and and really apply it apply it to their learning through through science. We're going to continue to expand our robotics programming. Um our our coaches are super excited about the year ahead and something interesting to know

191is that the World Robotics Tournament will take place here in St. Louis at the America Center. So they have already started brainstorming ways um to get students uh to to the World's Robotics Tournament to see. So we're excited about that as well. expanding opportunity program. So what this is our students taking advantage of the high school tech value assets is what that is. We saw a great increase in that for our students as well. So contining those what we focused on looking at the success student network and and zeroing in on some of those post-secondary outcomes and looking at market value asset pieces the continued review of our course options so we're always looking at are the courses that we are offering the right ones we need to adjust you know Dr. and and Kevin

192Rich Miller presented something on AI. Obviously, that will probably take more and more uh emphasis with coursework as we move through the next several years. Uh the stop day at the high school is something that that all the teachers kind of get a chance to talk about their classes. They they kind of stop instruction for a day, talk about the classes they offer, do a little bit of recruiting into classes and reaching out to students and trying to look at those appropriate students that are coming in. And I will say the amount of data that we have available to us to help make those decisions starts at the elementary level all the way through when we look at our reading data and our math data um and a lot of our state testing data along

193with these additional practice tests in the ACT. Um it provides that. I I will say however the reason why we lump all those together is we are having more students that see that the dual credit and dual enrollment is a more viable pathway for them than an AP course. Uh because they aren't relying on one test to get the credit or the college credit. They're going through an entire course. Um, and just so the board is aware and the community is aware, we do have several students up close to 30 students who take part in the early college program. So, they're completing their junior and senior years of high school at St. Louis Community College Marramac and getting not only a high school diploma, but an associates degree at the same time. Um, and our

194students are on the deans list in those courses and doing very well um with with that. And so many students can get two years of college taken care of while they're in high school through those programming pieces. And we talked about Pella and online expansion options. And we continue to look at vendors that are approved to provide additional opportunities for students. We'll continue to use a stop day and refine that and do our curricular reviews. We talked about the ACT changes and what that may look like. Uh we'll work with the high school team, but press this down to the middle school and elementary at career and college exploration programs. We're working on a pilot program at the high school uh program that kind of take the place of NAVA which does transcript submissions but

195also greatly expands our college exploration and career exploration opportunities. Uh there are getting to be more and more careers, more and more uh companies that are deciding whether or not college is a necessary prerequisite for their job or they just want to do the in-house training. U on the Kansas City side, Honeywell is one of those examples that they revised a lot of jobs based on the training they're just going to provide anyway. Um and so that ties right into the success ready student network and the market value asset work that will continue to expand. Um we do want to talk about our early childhood events and Dr. M works with KCC on this as well, but we have increased our PAT visits and I will save that celebration for when the early childhood does

196their u strategic plan presentation. Penny is very proud of that. Um, yes, there it's we've we've seen a great increase. So, the weight list is basically down to to zero on that. Uh, increased attendance the early years event, if you were able to come to the most recent one that we had at Turner, we had a full parking lot um, full of folks and Bobaloo was there shooting his toilet paper gun at everybody and having a great time. Um, continue to increase those community connections through our uh, social work team, our parents' teachers team, and then increased social work time at KCC. So, we added nine hours a week uh, specific person to grow that role at KCC uh to provide those connections with early childhood for this upcoming school year. Continue to look at

197ways that we can share information with families about uh events parents as teachers can start with in utero all the way through kindergarten age. And so we want to keep growing those opportunities and really tie that in. The the board has seen in the past some clear data that indicates that an early childhood experience is beneficial for our students even if it's just one year. Um And so looking at ways that we can keep expanding those opportunities and then connecting with parents as teachers to really look at are we reaching everybody and are we reaching them at a critical time and what information do they need? We did see uh an increase in the number of referrals for early childhood special ed based on that increase in the number of visits with PAT. So we're

198getting some kids at an earlier uh age than we had in the past as well. We did talk a little bit about kindergarten readiness as well. This is one that we look at in the fall. Um and and this, you know, the expansion of the summer programming, jump start programming. Uh Elizabeth Lock has worked very hard with her team on looking at the numbers and the students that are working on that for the upcoming school year. That focus will continue to look at those jump start programs and the impact that it has on our students. This again ties back into increasing opportunities at KCC, connecting with those community resources through Kirkwood Every Child Promise or other organizations to ensure that kids have access to an early childhood program or parents at least have a choice

199if they want to make regarding early childhood. And then parents as teachers just continuing to look at that um expansion opportunity. Uh the hours for that can sometimes be challenging. So we've got a great team on our parent as teachers educators. They've moved several over to the Huff building, opened up a closet, um like a clothing closet supply setting that if you go there, it lines the entire hallway. Um got some donations. Penny is very proud of the work that her team has done. Um and we're seeing that with an increase in Cano's connections and visits for our parents' teachers program. >> Looking at the final one, uh 2.3 talking about our intentional programming around recruitment of diverse uh staff. Um we did have an increase in our certified staff of color um slight increase

200but definitely still an increase um that we would always want to make sure we celebrate. And again that when we talk about retention and recruitment it really starts with retention. Um and so we've been very intentional around having opportunities for and connecting with diverse hiring opportunities. um very grateful for our coordinator within the HR department um to be able to really focus on making sure that not only are we having principles but also even our HR department be able to lead the work around uh diverse diverse hiring and being part of the people who get to be a part of those events. And so um continuing to have as the again a recognition of this board and its support of our building liaison within Kes um continuing to have opportunities for our staff of color

201again that goes really was intentional to go beyond just certified teachers. Um and so having people who are connected to and supporting the belonging within our staff of color throughout the buildings as well. Um continuing to have those stay interviews that our principles were able to do with our staff. Um, again making both an intentionality of having PE uh staff of color as well as um all staff be able to participate and let us know reasons around why they would stay and how that continues to be a focus for them. Um and finally again that that back to the administrators attending that leadership institute as we talked about it before. Um, continuing with that, moving forward, um, one of the things that we as an organization do is we have partnered for the last two

202years, uh, with Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Riverview, or excuse me, um, Webster Groves, um, and Lindberg Schools for our collaborative recruitment event. And so, continuing that moving forward, um, to make sure that we have an opportunity to make sure we get as close as we can to getting more um, applicants within our organization. and then continuing to have that focus again and reflection upon that exper experience of SCCL leadership institute um and that get again those connections to stay interviews and those building liaison um continuing to make sure that they are being able to be as impactful as they can uh within our organization and within their buildings and that work that they get to do. Um and so connected to that really the other ones kind of pretty much follow along with that. Uh we

203did in terms of numbers as we focus again specifically on our uh teachers and staff. So teachers and certified and staff of color. Um we did have the increases that we were looking for in terms of our goals for teachers of color and not so much in terms of our staff. Um and so really looking at how do we continue to make sure that that's a priority. Um I think that that's something that we always have as an organization. And it's a difficult thing because it's not just even not even just staff of color, but I would say our um all staff. Um if you're not certified, it's a different experience maybe than if you are certified. And so continuing to be mindful of that and continuing to make sure that we put all the

204things in place that we can to support that we are improving and making sure that there are things around um having more opportunities for people to be supported in terms of feeling that belonging and that connection throughout our organization. So I think again the last two are both really continuing those same things. The only main thing I would point out again is as Dr. Bailey said, we do have multiple opportunities for restorative practices for our teachers throughout this year. Um actually I met and talked with coaches today about making sure that we continue to have opportunities even for our administrators again to go back to have that training as well. New administrators that haven't been a part of it yet. um we really do believe that there is an opportunity um within what our coaches

205and myself have put together in terms of that um for it to be very impactful if we really can start continuing to change culture um through the work that we do with restorative practice. So and again yeah again those are all the same from what we talked about before. So again in terms of teachers um and then I think the next one even more going on staff. But again, the same focus is there. Um, in terms of how we will continue to move that uh move that in that work within our buildings, the other thing that I will add that you see there both we did last year and we'll continue um is our HRDI quarterly meetings and working with and meeting with our administrators. Um myself and Candace usually were the ones that went

206and did that. uh but continuing to make sure that we prioritize again that uh conversation um in terms of understanding what's happening within our buildings and then responding to that uh to continue to improve that belonging for our staff and for our teachers as well. >> And that wraps up our equity, diversity, and inclusion section. And we will turn it over for questions. >> Lisa, thank you. Honestly, I'm always so amazed and impressed with how much program is being offered um to meet both our students varied needs and their interests and make sure that they're prepared for the future and ready to kind of tackle whatever areas of interest that they discover um as students at Kirkwood. Um I think it also really is important to contribute to our place of belonging that they people

207feel seen and heard and ready to to take on new challenges. Um it's also important environment. What I can imagine is that it's difficult to always stay on top of that because it's a changing landscape, right? What's of interest, you know, even five years from now might be very different than now. Um, so I imagine it's difficult to always stay on top of that. My question is, how do you what do you do to stay on top of those opportunities and what are some of the ways that you get feedback from students and families on how to meet their varying needs? >> Yeah, I think that you're correct that it seems like it's ever changing throughout. I mean, five years ago, nobody would have dreamt all of the AI chat GPT things that are out

208there now that are automating many things. I think that a lot of our students have sought out opportunities that we may not even be aware of. Like I didn't even know there was an online uh American Sign Language class and one of the students asked a counselor about it and and I I love part of my job that I get to say yes a lot. And so um in some ways it was like yeah, we can do that. Yeah, we can do that. And so a lot of it comes from that student experience and the feedback through our counselors and our counselors having those meetings with the ste with the students and and looking at um kind of that long-term planning. What we want to do is stretch that down even to that elementary level

209to just start getting people thinking about just what things are they interested in, what are you good at, what do you want to explore. Um because you tend to get three or four of the same things. I want to be a doctor. I want to be a baseball player. I want to be something. I don't know that somebody might say I want to be, you know, entering prompt commands for an AI generator. That's just they don't think about it. Um but so just talking through and then quite frankly I think that St. Louis Community College puts on a state of the St. Louis workforce and what the expansions are looking at. So we get information from that every year. I go to several different trainings for that. So a lot of it is kind of

210organically through the different meetings and different uh trainings that we're going with. And then again we just listen to our students sometimes and if they're interested in and we can meet that need, uh, then we we can usually do it pretty immediately. We even have some students that take an advanced calculus 3 class at WashU because we just don't offer it and they they found that they're like, can we do it? Yeah, we can work that out. Um, and so I think being able to at least look at how does that fit into our long-term plan, but more importantly, does it meet a student need while still meeting graduation requirements is kind of where a lot of that starts along with just state of the workforce and state of the economy trainings that we get

211throughout from St. community college and and other organizations. >> That's that's amazing. Thank you so much for sharing and keep that up. I again I think it's so extremely important for our students to feel like their interests matter. They can explore. They can kind of flourish here at Kirkwood and um be able to set themselves up for the future. >> Um speaking of future, just one other quick question more specific around uh the preparedness of our students to come into school. I like that you kind of talked about the need for us to uh ensure students are ready for learning. Um I'm curious on with all of the increased participation we've seen with parents as teachers and at KCC not having that weight list which is amazing. Um are we seeing then a decrease is

212that um equating to a decrease in the percentage of students kindergarten students scoring at the high risk for reading and math benchmarks? So I know that's part of the larger packet. Um, and I was curious if we are seeing the academic impact of that quite yet. >> I think there's a it's a combination of a lot of factors. One, the increased emphasis on phonics and phenemic awareness and that literacy instruction at that level has a huge impact. Um, two, and and Elizabeth has worked very hard with our early childhood center to look at the it's a test called my IGDS, which is kind of a standardized way to look at some instruction um, and get some additional information for our students to be able to program. And then the connections that our parents as teachers

213can make just around early intervention and working with parents. Um our parents want their students to be very successful and a lot of ways they can seek out um support and resources for that, but they may not know where to go. So we're we're we're just at the beginning of seeing some of those things happen at our kindergarten level, but I certainly want to acknowledge that our kindergarten teachers are a huge huge part of that and the work that they've done um around the the letters training and the use of UFly and Sunday and our really structured literacy program. So it's a it's a yes and there's a lot of wraparound for that. >> Yeah, that's great. I'd love to see us kind of track that and see how the what are the results or

214outcomes of the fact that we're able to kind of increase that early education. So great. Thank you so much for all your work. I'll >> try to run through this as quickly as possible. Um >> discipline I think I offered enough feedback on that last week. Um on the measures of belonging, I'll just address both students, families, and then also the staff. I want to just state, you know, my enthusiastic support for affinity groups. I'm just going to be very put that out there. I also love the allyship groups. I think that's really wonderful. Um, obviously, as you mentioned, the the staff um survey responses um, you know, bums me out and I'd love to see I don't know what tangible things we are doing to help our students of color, families of color, staff

215of color feel more included. I don't I don't know what those tangible measures are. Um, and I don't you know, it's something that I would like us to look at, you know, in the future because obviously I want Kirkwood to be a place where everyone feels welcome and that they belong because I think that that's a key part of succeeding academically and in life. Um, let's see. Uh, I'm excited about the Desmos. Um, on the science, I I love the idea labs. I absolutely love the idea labs. My kids love them. touring them was so exciting and wonderful. Um that said, in the bigger packet, when you look at the um students responding favorably to how interesting you find the things you learn in science, the third through fifth graders, it's went down for girls,

216for students with IEPs, and for our black students, which is the opposite of what we hoped to happen. What Yeah, I don't know. May and maybe maybe that's the question. Maybe it's you know are are they making that connection? Does ideal lab is it going to take longer to catch on? Is it something about the structure of how they only do those few weeks and then they're off for a long time? Um because I just know my kids loved their rotation in the idea labs. They were thrilled with it. Um my son participated in the erosion project. You know, I I don't know. I just I this bums me out just in general because I'd love to see these numbers change. It bums me out because I think the idea lab is such an awesome

217initiative and I'd love to be able to point to something that shows, you know, that it's successful. Um, so I'm just calling that out. I'm not saying this is the end all be all definitive anything. It's one year. I think it usually takes some time for a program to go and maybe, like I said, maybe it's a tweak of of how they rotate through. Maybe it's the language connection. Maybe it's making a stronger connection with them about that this is science. Um maybe it needs to tie into the classroom. I don't know what it is. Um but I just that hurts my heart to see those numbers go down. >> Um when I know we're working there for a second. I just want to recognize Dr. Grana because she came into a meeting was it

218end of last week I guess. What is the beginning of this week? Um with that exact thought talking about the idea lab and concerned about that data point but you know what are we measuring? How do we know if it's having the impact or not? Because I think to President Otica's point, if we were to ask the question, do you enjoy the idea lab? Well, it might be 100% yes, but I don't know that that was the goal of the program to enjoy idea lab. If it was to expand interest and um aptitude in the science, especially for girls, for students of color um and so I think just being intentional as we put those programs in place, how are we going to measure and then what are the leading and lagging indicators? So, it

219might be over time some of the academic um achievement scores begin to increase where we see an increase of the number of girls or students of color in higher science classes at the high school level, but just knowing what are we looking for as immediate changes and longer or later on. Um, and I know last week there was questions about some of the survey data that we're using. It's a great tool and it's important to have that, but qualitative feedback can't be the only measurement we use. You know, there need to be other pieces. Um but also acknowledging sometimes you do something because it's it's just a good experience for students and we may not be able to measure that but given we have finite resources both people and financial we need to be thinking

220about all those things on the front end. >> Yeah. I mean I think the idea labs are great for students period. Like I think they're wonderful you know if you I have no problem with I love that. Um and I agree with with what you're saying. I believe one of the measurements we have thrown out is And maybe we're not there yet because some of these students maybe need to have idea lab for a few years because one of the things we were looking at is them going into middle school with an interest in taking some classes because there was a pretty big disparity and so there are some other metrics but I think what we were hoping to do was to there's a mental attitude a me documented case of you know girls and

221students of color saying I'm not good at science I don't like science and it's like an internal conditioning and to try to bridge that gap a little bit. And so I just wanted to call it out. I don't fault anybody. I think we're working on it. I just um it's something I'd love to see different. Um what's next? And then uh I'm really impressed with the parents as teacher program. Um, I started attending the advisory board for parents as teachers and they really are doing just amazing work. The enthusiasm, the level of care that those people have, I I just think they're um they're just a treasure and I I can't help but believe that they are helping our students, you know, as they travel through the educational system. So, I just wanted to shout

222those out. Um, and Yeah, I think I kind of hit on all the points and I don't want to I don't want to take too much time. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I just want to preface what I'm about to say that it's coming from a place of love and passion for education um Kirkwood and equity work and all of that. But the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. And I'm speaking from the discipline and just those things. Even if we look from our highlights to our focus, it's the same thing. Um, yes, we have wonderful teachers who are doing great things by kids, but we also have teachers who are harming students in the classroom every day. Maybe in not int like

223not on purpose, right? But they just don't know because it's this we continuously see this data and it's not getting better. Um, and our population of black students is declining. Um, I'm not sure of the number of students we have in this d black students in this district. Do we know that off hand? No, I know. Do we know how many students we have? And so you you can get back, but that's one of the things too that should be top of mind for everyone, especially where we are with this opportunity gap. I know for a fact it's less than one of our elementary schools. So if every adult like could take several students and just kind of see what the issue is, like we need to get creative. It's 2025 going into 2026 that

224um what is that the the education task force from like what we need to get creative um and it's we have to have courageous conversations and it's not a blame game it's just where we are and what we need to do to move the needle forward. Um, and even with the like the um staff and the retention KSD staff and color, there was one black new teacher to at today's lunching. So, if that is in our strategic plan and that's what we're about, there was one black teacher. Um, yes, we've made some strides in our admin as far as our uh building leadership and that's not taken away from that, but we have to have courageous come. We've got to call the state and and get to the bottom of what it is. That's the

225only way we're going to see the needle move. So, that's it. I mean, I'm the education piece like because my kid is represented in these numbers. Um, and the conversations that I have with parents that come to me that may not come to some of you, um, is totally different from what's on that screen. Um, so it's just like getting down to the root of it. How do we get creative with our family engagement? How do, you know, we provide the training? We keep saying restorative practice, but to your point, what are these tangible items that are going to move the needle? So, I just hope we can start like having those real conversations. I know Dr. Roberts, we've talked about stuff before as well, and it's just like there's too little of a population

226to not be making strides. So, that's it. >> Um, thank you. because I think that um like you said this we have time and time again we continue to look at at the numbers and they're not changing and so um I do think it I I'm hopeful that we can really do some things to to make an impact. Um in fact I you know one of my questions was maybe a little bit getting in the weeds but in terms of discipline data um I kind of want to ask if we have a process to look at our data um at a specific level at a teacher level. Um and this is not to call a teacher out. It's not to um you know blame a teacher but it is I want to ensure that we

227have a process and you to identify if if there is a teacher that needs support in the area of discipline um so that we can identify them and then and get them then the support thatvious they need. >> Yeah. when you're looking at referrals, obviously that is is what you're trending towards. I will say that just the straight discipline input in an infinite campus typically will have the person inputting it, which is usually either a secretary or principal. Um, but sometimes it's, you know, who was the referer for that. Um, at the secondary level, that more looks like the principal putting their own name in there because they're going through, but at the elementary level, we tend to have the the teachers, but the principles can drill that down. And I know that they have

228their um weekly data meetings and they review that data frequently and I think that it's one of those I think we're all batting the same fly by the way. It's one of those >> there are two of them. There are two of them. >> It's one of those points when they're looking at their teacher evaluation piece as well that that is a part of of that um discussion during that time. So we can drill that down >> um with that for the building level. Yes. >> Okay. I I think that again um I am hopeful that we can have um I know I've talked to to Miss Shern about this just some specifics um some real specific things to to move the needle um with with our opportunity. Yeah. Um my my next um area

229of question is around the idea lab. Um, one of the things that, you know, we have obviously standards and curriculum and all of that. Is there a a standard for idea lab from school to school on what is kind of being yeah there is a very clear scope and sequence for all all K5 science with the myai resource and then also the idea lab and the standards have been really parsed out to manage the load of teaching in the regular classroom with the classroom teacher and also the load for the idea lab teacher but covering all of the state standards that align to that grade level. >> Okay. And then this is going to be kind of one of the things that I have really struggled with is that when you have sections of classes

230that are more than four sections, um the kids in that grade level don't receive the same amount of specials as everyone else. So, for example, if I have two children at a school, um, and one of my children has four sections, but then one of my children have five sections, they're not going to receive the same number of PE, art, and music hours. Um, because there's that fifth rotation. Um, and I just want to kind of push us in in the direction of making sure we can kind of solve that problem. Um, and you know, because I think what what's happening is each building is also handling that at a different, you know, in a different way. Um, and so I would just push us to there's a way to deal with that and um

231because that's important. Um and then also I wanted to ask is there do we have um I know like my kids have been asked specific questions about idea lab. Um so are there is there other data um that you all have gotten around idea lab from >> I know that the idea lab teachers themselves are collecting some additional data through surveys. >> Okay. >> At the building level. >> Okay. Are you do you I don't need to see that but I just want to make sure that you're seeing >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Oh, one more. Sorry. I sorry. I know. I know. Um is I know it's okay. It's okay. Is the expectation that all of our teachers are trained in restorative practices? >> I I don't personally believe

232that it is good to do something that is just a overall mandate. Um so I personally >> let me repeat the question. I said is the expectation that all of our staff are trained in restorative practices. >> It's not it's not my personal expectation. It's an opportunity that we have for our staff to be able to sign up for that, but it's not my personal expectation that everybody is doing that necessarily. No. >> So, but the expectation is that we expect our staff to use restorative practices I think that the goal is that our staff is aware of what restorative practices are. Um, and that we have staff that is interested and that takes the time to participate in the training. Um, but that's not I I I I don't personally believe that um pushing

233something specific on people is the best way if they don't want to. That's just my personal opinion, but that's not something that I would say is anything more than that. >> Okay. I think it's an opportunity for us to discuss. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Okay. Um I just wanted to add on to what Laura was mentioning about the science question because my first reaction to this was um do the kids even know what science is? Because if people had asked me in school if I wanted to be an engineer, I would have said no because I had no idea what an engineer actually meant. So I would just love for us to explore. Again, this is really good qualitative data, but how are we asking the question so that students actually know what they're

234being asked? Um, and if they're being asked about idea lab, maybe that's where we go. And then, wow, that is science. Um, I don't know. I'm just saying personally, uh, as an engineer, I didn't want to be an engineer. Um I also for the discipline um with our referrals going up far exceeding where we wanted to be. Um I find it super interesting that in another statistic which is coming up that we have multiple multiple referrals going down which means that we are having more students come into you know being referred to the office having discipline uh you know or being disciplined. I find that really interesting and I would love to better understand the number of reasons especially now as we're going to likely have to pass a cell phone policy that is going

235to add on to those those referrals. And so I would love to see us in the future be able to dive into that data more. If our numbers are going up, what are what is making them go up? Because so far I've not seen that. And what has been shared. So, just a thought. We don't need to go in that to that tonight. Um, for the belonging data, and I think um, this was mentioned previously. I think it's really sad to see that there's still a number a large percentage of our families, our staff, our students that don't feel that they belong. Um, are we asking people like are we point blank in those surveys asking people why they don't belong? Is there a situation? Is there like are we being direct enough to get

236good data? >> I there's not a specific why to that specific question. There's opportunity for people to add in more qualitative data, but that's not a part of that question. Do you belong and then why or do you not and why? That's not how it's set up currently. >> Okay. Is that an opportunity for the future? And I understand we could get a hundred different responses, but Miss Sharon's point, if we're going to be creative and if we get, you know, we can move the needle for one family because they're like, well, I didn't English is my second language and it wasn't comm, you know, I couldn't understand this. Or for one student, it's like, I just don't connect with my math teacher, but there's this great TA that could support. TA might be an

237old name or like old school. I'm old, but like is there an opportunity to expand how we're collecting the data and the data that we could find ways to make small gains and wins? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Would love to explore that opportunity. Um and then um in the participation in programs for underrepresented demographics, I love that we saw a larger increase than we had hoped to. That's great, right? like we're getting the word out there. Um, so I guess I would I would love to exploit that and say how do we market that even more. Uh, that would be something I would I think we could be doing more of and that may even help some of our other numbers as well. So, thank you. >> Couple real quick ones here. Um, Dr. Matt,

238I'm very excited that the racial allyship meetings are going to to the community. I know that's something that I've talked to you about before and I assume that will be information we'll all get. Um, and then is the jump start open to any rising kindergartener that wants to come? Historically, it's the the last couple years, not that historic, but it's been for kiddos who don't have much preschool experience. Um, but there have been kids every year that have come that do have some preschool experience, especially if um there's concerns maybe about the transition or someone's um you know, just needs a little extra support to make that be a better transition. I I had a parent reach out to me this spring and said, you know, a kid was shy and they wanted to do

239the jump start, but they weren't sure they could because she had so there's that opportunity. The way we've handled it in the past has been more of like a waiting list and to see what kids need it um need it in terms of less preschool experience. But of course, we're always looking at ways we can expand that and would be open to having more opportunities for kids. For sure. >> Thank I would love to see that. All right. Uh moving into the green. Uh we're talking about overall climate across our buildings. Um and so in thinking about um our buildings and climate um our students definitely we're much closer in terms of our teachers, staff, and families um as far as the overall climate throughout the the district. And so, um, again, thinking about how

240we've gotten there and then ways to continue to improve that. Um, you you'll see there some of the things that we've done in the past, which is again that work with our policies, our student focus groups, uh, continuing to have the opportunity for practices for administrators and teachers. We did try to do we added uh information to try to start clarifying some of those questions like, you know, is ideal lab science those questions of is um, you know, what does it really mean? and ask me if someone helps or hurts my learning. We tried to have a little video to help explain that climate survey a little bit more. Um we are continuing to focus on honoring dignity um particularly within our LGBTQIA plus communities um having opportunities with our parent equity groups and also

241with our um student groups to continue to have that be a part of the work and then again the collaborative recruitment event that we have as well. And so, uh, for this year, continuing to focus on those climate and culture surveys. And so, continuing to make sure that our, uh, those surveys continue to yield the data we want. And that is again back to that question of are we getting the answers we need in terms of how to move us forward? Is there something we can ask a different way to be able to get us the information to help us move? And so, um, definitely a good, uh, suggestion. We appreciate that to continue to think about how we can do that. Um, continuing to use our family exit surveys. Dr. Bailey reported out on

242those and continuing to help use the data from those to help inform us of how we continue to do better as an organization. Um, continuing to have restorative practice and deescalation training. um our coaches will be continuing to train our administrators as we do every year and our crisis teams in terms of supporting um deescalation, but also having that opportunity for our support staff, particularly our people who work with our recesses and being able to try to avoid um some of those opportunities where we might have a referral. Um can we have some of those deescalation strategies in place as well? Um, and then having those training opportunities for our support staff. Again, continuing to develop their skill set to be able to have the tools to be able to support and deal with those

243situations proactively. Um, and then continuing again that dignity honoring survey participation, continuing to be a focus. Um, and again, uh, continuing to lead the work around the diverse hiring events moving forward. In terms of connection, um, I would say again, we look specifically at how we've done in the past. Um again that looks specifically in terms of belonging. Um we do have uh questions that are there in terms of our teachers and staff. Um our teachers uh measure was really was pretty good headed towards our goal. Our staff one was um a little bit further away. Um and then in terms of a specific question around um how how you feel you belong at your school. Um again our students 35 that's where our biggest growth area is but our sit student 612 teachers and

244our staff um are pretty well on target. Um and so in terms of that again our our continuing to have our student focus groups be a measure for us to pay attention to what our students have to say the stay interviews for what our staff has to say and then continuing those other measures. Again I'm repeating what's there um related to what we are doing in the areas of connection um because it is the things that we're doing in relation to that. And so, um, in terms of our focus moving forward, um, continuing to focus and have support within our, um, student focus groups and that connection there, um, the stay interviews and continuing to make sure that we are paying attention to our staff, um, and connected to what they are doing and what

245they need. Um, and then also again that restorative practices, uh, being able to continue to use it as a measure to continue to address and support each student. Um, and to address those areas of bias and equity for our students and our staff as well. Um, through the PLC, we're continuing to make sure that we are centering equity in those that work in that conversation as well. Um, continuing to have make sure that there's a connection both with the staff but also with how they're connecting to the student achievement and work in that way. And then continuing those work, the affinity groups again, yes, specifically the fifth grade celebration, uh, but continuing to have those opportunities throughout our work in our organization. Um, as we do see the power and the value in that work

246as well. Zeroing in on the next section, uh, we'll go quickly with decreasing office referrals, decreasing the number of students considered at risk, and then increasing student indicators of safety. I can say that we did see a decrease in the number of students who were self-reporting to be at risk through our Sabers. Um, I will say that even though we list these highlights of continued uh growth and restoative practice, trauma informed training and and the early warning systems, I have to shout out our people as well that aren't on here. Um, our the board made a commitment to increase the number of counselors at the elementary school to have an embedded clinician at the high school. We work with Chad's coalition to have another embedded therapeutic clinician. Uh, we partner with BJC to have educational

247support counselors available. uh the rework of our social workers and being able to expand their opportunities. There are a lot of things that we've done that aren't necessarily a one-year action step that I think have a significant impact on our students um with the the resources that are available to them. Um and what we hear from our students especially is that they they have had decreased wait time meaning that they can get some of that help earlier than they would have if they had to wait for an outside um outside resource. So, just keep growing in those areas. Uh, looking at those expanded trauma-informed opportunities, the early warning system, and then what I mentioned earlier, looking at how we're using those early intervention funds uh to be able to provide support for our counselors. And

248something I forgot to put on here is uh working again with West County Psychological Associates to provide some targeted training for our counselors, social emotional uh staff, and our social workers around uh some of those more therapeutic topics like anxiety, depression um in some areas that as a school counselor that's not their forefront of their training um to be able to recognize that. And we did rework our suicide risk assessment uh document as well to provide a little bit more of an enhanced opportunity for our staff to take a look at student risk factors as well. Uh as Miss Pangor mentioned, we did see a decrease actually in the number of multiple office referrals. So you're correct and and without having a chance to take a deeper dive, what the data is telling us is

249that we have more students who get a single office referral and fewer students who are coming back repeat offenders. So in some ways that's positive step um but in other ways it'd be interesting to go back and look at so why did we have an increase in just single offenses and is it specific to a certain standard or is it falling across the spectrum so looking into those areas but we continue to use the early warning system uh in these programmatic pieces the universals like we mentioned before um restorative practices and our collaboration we don't mention this enough but our collaboration with the special school district and the work that those teachers do and the administrators do it's very strong connection that we have. We have some of the best outcome data for our students

250with IEPs across St. Louis County. Um, and so our special education team works very hard in these areas as well. And as you can imagine, sometimes the number of students that are getting referred, our students that have IEPs and so working through that disproportionality is huge for us. We'll keep looking at our discipline procedures. Administrators get trained on what that process looks like. We just went over that last week. Um, and then again talking about the early intervention funds, looking at that mentoring piece. Um really again tapping into some community resources and and having those uh meetings and and connections for our students to make uh to see some folks that have been very successful and can can talk to them about challenges that they faced while they were going through. >> In terms of

251safety, um continuing to have our students continue to participate in safety drills and connections to our SRO's and our our local police department. um very fortunate to be able to continue to have that relationship where we can uh have them as part of our drills and part of the work that happens each and every day. I know that many of our principles talk about their connections to our SRO and the support they provide to their campuses. Um and so we're grateful for the opportunity to continue to partner with them um to improve student safety um and also the same for our staff as well. Um and so looking at the um work that we do with students, definitely continue to have them as uh have work continue to have safety be a part part of

252our recess protocols and helping students get ready as they start the year. Um knowing how that implies in terms of getting the start on being on the playground um and having our teaching assistants and others being a part of how to continue to make sure that we have a safe environment around our campuses um is a big part of what we do with our students. And then for our staff, um, continuing to have an increase in that area as well. Um, our staff does participate in opportunities to have emergency plans and work with our, um, director of safety and security in terms of getting the year started. Um, and having opportunities for that to be a focus for them. Um, and continuing to make sure that they have again that understanding of who the SRO's

253are and them being part of the drills to work with them throughout the program as well. um continuing to focus on and have a focus for our SRO program um in terms of how we vision and where we go forward with it. Um and then also I'll have Dr. Bailey speak a little bit more specifically to it. Um but continuing to increase our opportunities for training for CPR, SAP to bleed and project Adam I know was a piece that the high school specifically had some work with. >> Yeah. So CPR is obvious and that part of Senate Bill 68 actually requires at least some learning around CPR. Stop the bleed is if there's a traumatic event regarding bleeding, how do you stop it? Project Adam is centered around cardiac emergency response and it's a certification

254that our high school recently received. Um it's do we have appropriate plans in place. Do we have appropriate responses? Do we coordinate with our um response teams? and they actually before they even got the certification, some board members may be aware now, we did have an actual cardiac emergency um that required the use of the AED to revive somebody and and our team at the high school had they not been able to step right in, our nurses and our SRO and and some of our teachers had they not been able to step right in, I hate to think about what could have happened for that particular person. Um but but our team was able to jump in. So when we talk sometimes about the things that you don't necessarily learn in college about being a

255teacher or an educator and things that are added to our plates, these are things that make a lot of sense because we want to provide a safe opportunity but um do take some training times away. So we do have a goal to get the rest of our um our middle schools and our elementary schools project atom certified as well and that is an outside observer has to come in and watch the process and we work closely with our first responders on that. So, we're excited that the high school has that. Got a nice banner. Julie Tadros is extremely proud of it, as she should be. Um, and so we're we're stretching that out to the elementaryaries and middle schools as well. And the last couple things, obviously, we want students at school. It's hard to

256teach them if they're not at school. So, we want to decrease u the attendance challenges. I think I skipped a slide. There we go. Decrease uh the attendance. Our attendance numbers, sorry. Bam, bam, bam. Um, but we had very good attendance. However, we want 100% of our kids at a school 100% of the time. And so, looking at the why uh and so moving into this current school year, we've uh looked at our guidance curriculum. The state finally after 15 plus years provided some updates. So, we'll work with our counselors on that. We did um look at the wellness the last couple years and we'll continue to reach out about what topics we need to do regarding our our wellness plan. looking at some of our attendance procedures. We've added some attendance meetings at school

257to look at uh significant absenteeism. And then our social workers have put together a home visit protocol when we have students that need those visits and and working what that will look like. So increasing the use of home visits and increasing the use of those attendance meetings while the students are at school. So you almost got it. And then we talked before about the at risk. Again, we saw a decrease in our number of students at risk. We never want to take that lightly. We always want to have a hard push and this board has been extremely supportive of the things that we've done to move our students in a good direction. But we recognize that there are always challenges that are out there. So that is all of the green and we're happy to

258pause for any questions that you may have before we turn it over to Miss Dedric. She's been waiting. >> We should start with communications next time, right? >> I tried this. He suggests that he's always like I think we should start with the yellow. >> Oh my gosh, that was so funny. Uh, okay. I just have two questions, comments. So, on safety, I'm really glad that we focus on this at our district and again, I have our safety committee who meets and they're having so many great conversations. Um, I do feel that if we can continue to improve our safety, uh, even though this is qualitative and you know this question that students are going to be able to learn math, they belong, read, participate and everything. So I don't think we can underestimate uh

259the the safety. I would love to see if there's more creative ways to mash point about even, you know, our discipline and belonging, but are there other creative ways to dive deeper into what makes students feel safe? So just for future conversation. Um and then another question, and Dr. Rumpus, this is something that just kind of hit me as we were talking about the discipline issues and referrals and then classrooms. Is there a way to dive into our data to see where we have this growing uh diversity of people going uh you know being referred to the office or discipline issues with classroom sizes. So where we may have a lower studenttoteer ratio compared to where we may have lower discipline issues to if we have higher student to teacher ratio. Um I think that

260might be really interesting data. Just a fun. >> I know. Okay. Um, with regards to the shockers, um, Dr. Bailing, do we h do we have enough shockers where like you know what I'm talking about, right? Yeah. Okay. Um, you know, for example, like I know in certain schools like we We rent out our gyms and sometimes the doors to certain areas are locked. Do we make sure that like we've thought through all of that and there are >> Yes. >> The AED. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. >> So part of the project, Adam, just for awareness is that an AED has to be within three minutes of a round trip, meaning any location in the building. And so that if we don't have enough, we're going to start doing an inventory of that. But we

261the high school obviously passed and we do have some of those high traffic areas like the stadium or the gyms where we've got extra in my opinion you can never have enough but they are not cheap um and at the same time there used to be grants that had that availability that have been reduced at the state level and at the national level but it's something that we are more than happy to budget for so part of that project Adam is kind of an inventory of do we have that within a three minute uh radius >> okay and then the Last one. I'm gonna ask it and you don't have to answer it, but maybe we can have this information provided. Um, just what actions or decisions are being um being guided by the in

262in um person or the state interviews or what insight is being gained from those interviews? Um, I I love everything we're seeing with the wellness piece, the at risk decreases. That's huge to me. I'm super super excited to see that. Um, the only other thing I would say is kind of calling back to some of our previous feedback around um the feelings of belonging and the panorama surveys and just again I feel like we see these things and and just wondering if we're actually going about it the right way, if we're getting the right measurements back, what tangible things we're doing just as we're looking ahead to the next strategic plan. And then the last thing I was going to say, which is actually from the last section, but I'm sneaking it in now, is

263that I love the mentoring program. And I forgot to say it before, but that you were talking about Dr. Bailey with the mentoring. I love that. That's it. Thanks. Um, so I will say I'm a little disheartened to see the overall school climate numbers decreasing over time. Um, and frankly it really makes me sad to see that so many of our students in particular and um, some of our staff feel like they don't feel positive about the overall school climate. To me, like that's the kind of foundation and I'm curious as to why that is because when you look at some of the other metrics that maybe break more specific questions. It appears that things like safety and place of belonging and other metrics might indicate that um people are feeling good and especially our

264students, right? Like the feel you want the students to feel really good and feel like we have a good school climate. So um I don't know if there's so much of a a question, but I would be curious to see why that is like what it what drives that overall school climate metric. Um so I don't know if it's a suggestion of about qualitative insights to that question or if there maybe there's a breakdown of specific questions that kind of build to that overall is that is that a specific question that's asked is what is your sense on the overall school climate? >> It's a yeah it's a section within the like there's a mult there's a number of questions that then come to a grouping number for us right okay >> and that is

265actually one that's actually been norm normed nationally um so that's the hard thing about when you do or add to something. It does change how we're able to get the national norms of that. Um, but that's something that certainly we could add more to get that context, but it might change our norming measures. >> Yeah. And I would just be curious as to like what what were our scores that led us to here. Not because obviously we've been doing it over time, which is important, but I think we really have a red flag. To me, it looks like a red flag that while we're obviously continuously trying to go up and our goal is set well above um where we are at this my perspective well above and so I want to make sure that

266we're not trending we are trending in the wrong direction but how do we make sure that we catch that and reverse the direction that we're going we really need to pay strong attention to that because our students have to feel like they have a good school climate whether it's belonging or safety or you know connection with teachers or whatever it is we really need to understand that um one other quick question is just to learn a little bit more and we can maybe talk offline. This is a question for email is um what deescalation training is offered and how widespread that we expect that to be for teachers and staffs. I think Gene Marine made a really good point earlier around restorative practices being maybe not an expectation that teachers receive it but potentially that

267they use it. And so if we're looking to deescalation practices, which I think sounds good, um how do we make sure that it's appropriately offered and used? Is that best to address offline or ask? >> I would say that um there's a very specific training that comes along with deescalation that has set time requirements. Um but our coaches, we're looking at how can we do a light version of that that that brings that down because every teacher is going to see some sort of escalation of behaviors. And one of the things that ourCCL coaches focus on with teachers, we've created calming corners, calming kids, our social emotional curriculum. So some of those pieces are in there. But I do agree it's We talked about how can we spread that specific deescalation training and the tools

268that are provided in that from not just the crisis team but just to the general way about doing business. So it is a topic we're exploring. Yes. >> So I think that's a great lesson for students to learn as well you know as you're going through life to learn how to deescalate a situation because you were >> you know experienced that. I think that's a really important skill to learn. So thank you. real quick. And this ties back to the science idea labdong in school. I don't know what that meant. Just want to clarify. Um and so before they give these to you know we're not coaching them. We're not saying this is what you want to say but to say hey um when you think of the ideience just to get it on their

269radar and especially kids, younger kids. What would it mean? What would what are some of the words? What would it mean to feel like you belong at school, you know, because maybe it's like, well, I don't want to be here, but it's not that they don't belong, but they forgot their lunch that day. Um, so I'm just wondering if, and I'm not trying to answer these numbers, but I'm wondering if questions that we're asking, they don't know how to answer. So, that's just >> and we started some of that. I did we did have an introductory video this past year that we hadn't had in years past. And so, now we have a little bit more context that we could consider adding to that video um that we can certainly look into. >> Miss Cedric,

270you are up. It's really >> I'm happy to follow my colleagues, answer all the questions that you have. Yes. Um, okay. So, 4.1. Um, I do have to, um, say that when we look at our favorable family feedback analytics, um, which is the measure that we use actually for both 4.1 and 4 um we we saw some really good data in the spring, but in full disclosure, we took a little bit of different approach when it came to surveying in the fall to in the spring. So, in the fall, we really focused on our um rate of return and pushed very very hard to get as many surveys filled out as possible. You might remember that in past years, we did not administer a spring survey because our folks felt a little surveyed out. Um

271in conversation with our committee, which is a fantastic resource. Um, we got the feedback back that still ask the questions in the spring, maybe take a little bit more of a qualitative approach, get a little bit more of that um anecdotalesque feedback um and don't focus quite as much on asking all the questions. And we did that. And we also didn't push as hard just to get the numbers. We just wanted the feedback for folks that wanted to feedback. So, we did see an increase in our numbers, but our response rate was lower. So, full disclosure on that, but it was a little bit by design um that we didn't push quite as hard to to get those numbers, send it out via text, all of those things that we worked harder with in the

272fall. Um so our 2425 highlights um our alumni halls of fame out athletic and outstanding. Um those I can't understate what big events those are. Um they're big events in this fact that a lot of work goes into them. We do them once every five years. So we're really able to pull out all the stops. But they also have a huge impact and we get a lot of positive feedback from students, staff and alumni based on all the effort that we make uh to really make sure that our alumni um feel good about coming back to their alma mo and being honored. And then one part and we really appreciate the high school's um partnership and engagement is especially when we look at our outstanding alumni, we work to connect students with those alumni and

273um We have uh students who act as liaison for the day. We have alumni that go into the classroom. So those events are great events, but the leadup to those events and getting to interact with the alumni and give them those experiences and connect them with our students are really um a key part of the events. I still would only like to do them once every five years though. Um and when we look at social media engagement, our social media posts around talking about those alumni, um engaging with those alumni, talking about the weekend, but then also just telling their stories are certainly a component, I think, of why we had increased engagement analytics. looking at this year specifically. Um, we also work with our schools on new social media management tools to help make

274it simpler and easier for them to share out good news with their community and that work is ongoing as reason as our back to school meetings. We were having conversations to really empower our schools to be proactive with their social media presence. For some folks that comes really easy and for others it's a little bit harder to work that into just their natural flow. And so we um try to meet folks where they are and give them the tools that they need to do that as simply as possible. As we look at next year, um again, I will talk about the wonders of the communications committee, but we had some really great discussions about messaging around let's talk based on community feedback and um hope you may have noticed some of that messaging and wording

275uh in effect already as recently as in our back to school guide. We've updated some of the things on our website and um our measures related to let's talk are right where we want them as far as our CX score and um our return rate processing time, but we also are looking um we would like to see increased usage too. So, we'll be looking at ways to make sure that the tool is effective um and that community can connect with us in the way that the tool is designed to. Um and I appreciate what Andrew's suggesting another way today. So, um uh also looking forward uh into the 2526 focus, we'll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the natiatorium this year. Um, so that is an important resource for the students who utilize it um

276for athletics, for physical education, for so much more. And um, we're partnering really closely with the Kirkwood School District Foundation as they continue their efforts to fully fund the Legacy Fund, which is an ongoing goal for the foundation. So this over the summer, we met with a small committee to begin planning and hope to have more information soon, but it should be lots of fun. So hopefully I can be telling you when to save the date any day now. Um we are also focused on supporting the superintendent and the board of education with in-person engagement opportunities. Having those this board certainly embraces the fact that having those open opportunities for discussion are important part of establishing a strong connection with our community. But I think that's even more important this year. one because we have

277a new superintendent and we're introducing Dr. us to our community and also because we'll be engaging in the next strategic plan effort and so having those sort of natural feedback moments will be really important I'm going through to all of the okay yes yes I will um so uh 2425 we implemented the second year of the standalone digital back to school guide that's something that we do every year at the beginning of the year we typically get really good feedback back um and then it kind of slips out of mind but it's probably top of mind for this group because we just released our back to school guide for the next year. So um again we get really good engagement on that positive feedback. It's something that our schools use in their level of communication.

278Um so we're happy to continue doing that and then continuing to improve it as we go along. um awards and honors is a great opportunity to share and celebrate the outstanding achievements in our schools. And um we're hoping to codify some of those details in the communications plan next year. Um might last year was the first year where we did it consistently throughout the whole year. Um additionally, you might remember that we launched a new website last summer. Um so we've continued to focus on improving and streamlining that site and then um focusing on specific topics when different departments have something for the easy example um I was thinking of as we were putting this together is um our uh enrollment page our um Dr. Bailey's team came to us and said hey we really

279want to make some changes and update this page and we were able to sit down and work with them and and make um some streamlined changes. So one of the ways that we judge how well doing when it comes to the website is our bounce rate. Um, as a reminder, a very high bounce rate would indicate that the user like unintentionally visits the site or finds it so frustrating that they just leave very quickly. Um, and then a low bounce rate would indicate that it it's difficult to find information that they're sitting on the page for a long time, they're scrolling a lot and not moving on. So, um, industry standard is to look at about 30 to 50% bounce rate. And so we were happy to have that bounce rate right at the 30%

280mark. Um it tells us that we took what we were doing well with the past website and incorporated it in the next one. Um as we look to the next year, we will be launching an updated app. Um hopefully we will have information on that very soon. it more closely aligns with our website um and integrates with it and then just kind of has a maybe um easier look and feel um and navigation. We'll also be zeroing in. There's been some updated guidance related to ADA accessibility and our tools are a lot of the tools we use are ADA accessibility accessible already, but it a lot of it is about um making sure our folks are aware of best practices when they're posting or sharing information and utilizing that when you put information on the

281website, making sure that's accessible. So, that will be a big part of our work um this year and into the next year as we meet those ADA um guidelines. I will turn it over to Mr. Cook for this final slide. >> So So I have the last two slides which I'm suspicious is a form of hazing by the group. I'm not I'm not sure. >> I said Mr. Cook. No, Mr. Rome always did the slide. I promise. >> So I I appreciate your attention here at the end. So, we're we're wrapping up our communication aspect of financial information for this year and and looking towards next year. So, uh an addition of a tax rate calculator on the district website really helpful tool to to gain uh to gauge that financial impact to households. But

282I think there's another benefit to that as well. I think it also brings to mind the importance of property taxes for the district and especially this one. It plays such a vital role inh of the planning that we've talked about tonight comes back to uh to that contribution that comes. So, we're continuing to hope to drive folks towards towards that and promoting that over the course of this year. Another piece of highlight from this year is is kind of concluding that facility plan study and really I I think and I hope for the next steps to be more more purposeful and strategic uh conversations around maintenance of our buildings uh moving forward. I think it's missing from our past fiveyear strategic plan. Would love to see that be more of a vital part of that.

283Uh I think that we have some work to do. And toward that end, I think the second bullet point on our focus piece there, uh there are certain challenges that come with maintaining older facilities. And that's one of the things that struck me over this first month here on the job of this ongoing maintenance that's both predicted uh that's that's planned for and then the things that pop up all of a sudden and they come inherently with olding older aging facilities. And so I think there's a value that comes from the communication piece that we can do with our community to let them know uh the scope of that and the toll that that takes both uh in human resources but also financial resources that our older buildings especially many of our elementaryaries that we

284are engaged in that work and that it is ongoing but it isn't easy and that we need to be planning for that in a way that our taxpayers understand and that that they know that that's not something that that pops up all at once when a proposition comes forward that there's that work that's going on all the time. And uh so so Steph and I talked about making that purposeful effort to celebrate the achievement of our maintenance folks as they are working on a daily basis and making sure that our community is aware that that that doesn't just happen when a prop happens that happens every single day and uh it's ongoing and we want to c those achievements and also educate when it comes to just how difficult and widespread that is. So >>

285great. Thank you. Um communications even though it's uh the last it's definitely extremely important and I'm glad that we um are spending some time with it. Um, we you mentioned rightfully so that engagement has been a significant priority for the board and I'm excited for us as a board to continue to engage with the community and find new and interesting ways to uh reach out and get feedback. Um I think that we see the drive for transparency and communication that desire from our community in our metrics around the um from the family feedback where that's really the one space where we can see opportunity for improvement is um the question related to how Kirkwood School District is doing in regards to decision- making transparently. So I think that's something we should really take to heart

286and continue to challenge ourselves as a board and as a cabinet and as you know the school the district community is to engage with our families engage with our communities and I know we're doing a lot to do that. So just wanted to kind of state that um that that that's something that is going to be a priority continue priority for us. Um I also want to applaud Dr. Rumpus for jumping right in and engaging with our community. You hit the the ground running and reaching out to our schools and going to different spaces. I know you um took lead in doing a lot of that. Um I also wanted to call out in particular Dr. Rumpus' great picture on the slide here. You look fabulous engaging with the community. Um and then I also

287want to thank you um >> Steph and your team for you called out some of the really great community and alumni events. I was had the opportunity to attend one um and participate very highly in it and it was incredible. Um all the feedback that I got firsthand from those who were part of the program were just thrilled with it. So love to love to see us continue to do more and more more and more of those engagement and celebration of our communities. Thank you. >> My team's amazing. That's why that happens. >> Um I will save a lot of my communication feedback for the communication committee. I would just say in general I I would love to see us have a very um customer service mindset with our community. information that's helpful and usable

288for our community. Um, you know, I I just I think that's not always pretty or happy information, but I want I think it goes a long way when you have that out there. And um so I I'm looking forward to that and I just um I appreciate everything that's been done and I love being on the communication committee. Um, and then I I also just wanted to say I I love this idea of promoting the maintenance and really calling attention to that. I think that's so insightful and it is it's a issue that we deal with like ongoing all the time and it's true as somebody that's worked on a proposition campaign to, you know, specifically for our elementary school buildings. I've done I've created the little infographics on, you know, the last time we

289built a new school, you know, no one had walked on the moon yet or whatever. You know what I mean? So, it's it's and I know that that communication was effective. But I think keeping that top of mind instead of waiting until we're asking for something is such a wonderful idea and I just I think that's insightful and great and you two are gonna be great team. Um so with to kind of piggyback on what Miss Leman was saying about decision making and and that kind of thing um you know we do have the eight steps to flow decision making model and um that is part of our communication plan and so um I just want to kind of bring that up and you answer it. But, you know, with new leadership, it might be

290um you know, a time that we kind of ensure that we're looking at that and um and making sure that we do have like a decision making model that was left and too late. Time to go. Uh yeah, I'm really happy that we are doing the inerson engagement again. Uh uh Miss Dietrich, that makes me really excited. I do personally feel that it's important that these inperson engagements are not that they're not necessarily associated with our strategic plan that we're just people can come to us at these times because I don't want it to always be that our engagement is when we're asking asking asking people. So that is again my personal opinion, but really happy that that's made that doing that. Um, have we received any official feedback on the awards and honors like

291like officially >> Yeah, we re on awards and honors. Okay. I was thinking my brain >> it's late the awards and honors ceremonies and what we did differently. >> We get anecdotal feedback, right? So we we hear from families who come up afterwards and man this was great like this was nice and you know in some ways I'm really glad to hear that because we're kind of repeating sometimes things that have always already been celebrated. So you know we're asking our families to come out again at a different time and in an evening and you know watch their kid get a get get an award. But it seems like they really like that. They really like that the board is taking that time to honor their student even if it's only for a minute and

292then they have a photo and that photo goes on social media and so um I haven't heard anything negative. We've gotten good anecdotal feedback where people come up to us afterwards and go that was really nice. I like >> perfect. No, I I've heard the same thing and that's where I'm glad that we have the opportunity to do it again and if there's opportunities for improvement. The only thing I heard is if it could be less awkward for how we bring board members up and down and um just maybe again we could streamline that, but that was maybe more joke on on us. Uh but again, I I've heard really great things about that and that's not that doesn't show up in our strategic plan, right? So I just think it's it's important to recognize.

293Um and then I Dr. Bailey knows this. I am an avid app user. I love our Kirkwood app. So, as we are changing it and improving it, please don't remove the calendar and the quick access to everything because I use it almost daily. Like, it is that is so great. Yeah. >> Honestly, Miss Pengorn, I always think of you when I'm looking at the app because I've heard you say it before. Make sure it's on the app or >> Oh my gosh, it's so helpful. And I've told parents, "Oh, it's on the app. Just go look." Like, oh, I didn't even know that. So, >> it shouldn't change any of the features that are there. It may look a little bit more like our website. It'll just be more connected. Um, and then also makes

294easier for my team to update it. Like it's more top of mind. It's right there on our dashboard. We manage the website. >> Yeah, we should do app training for us adults that maybe maybe don't even know what's all there. Anyways, some parents don't. No, I've had to show them. >> It is amazing >> with the update. Uh we'll do a big push, right? Like I mean I think I think our our thought was okay, we haven't, you know, it was getting a little dated and um so we hadn't pushed it as much. We in our information, but um we'll do a much bigger push once we have it updated. Hey, make sure a you run your updates on your phone, right? >> Um so that the new app will upload and b if you

295have if you don't have the app, you should try it. It's >> and you can download events on your calendar right from the app. Like that's amazing. Yeah. Anyways, uh love it. Um I also I know I also love that we're doing the celebration and achievements um around our finances. We've never really done that. That's always been like we do a great job. We have a great finance committee, you know, we've met met all of our marks, we've lowered our tax rate multiple times. We've never really celebrated it. So, I really like that approach. Um, I also really appreciate the idea of like really maybe it's more education, like you said, of maintaining older buildings. It's a great idea. Again, we haven't done that. We're very reactionary. Our parents know, you know, when we have

296pipe leaks or or other things, but better educate. I think it's great. Um I think it'll go a long way. And I just wanted to also note that I gave a lot of comments and ideas today. Uh please take those with a grain of salt, use them or not. Uh lots of opinions, but I think this is all really great work. So thank you. >> All I can say is thank you. Um this was I know a lot of work. It helps all of us see what great things are happening and the So, thank you all. You guys are amazing. So moved Andrews second. Penguin