Board of Education Business Meeting – Aug 26, 2024

001it is 6:30 I'd like to call this meeting to order Miss Motika could you please lead us lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance all right 5.01 public comments um the school board has established a normal item to its order of business at each regular board meeting um during public comments any citizen of Kirkwood School District may make a statement or address the board concerning issues pertaining to Kirkwood School District at regular board meetings uh the period set period of time set aside for public participation shall not exceed 30 minutes any non-board member wishing to speak at a meeting must register their desire to do so and the matter they wish to present with the board clerk before the meeting is called to order no individual will be permitted to speak more than once during

002this period speakers are not to address the board concerning specific Personnel issues at a meeting such issues should be addressed using the district's established procedures for sharing concerns about school personnel and if necessary brought to the board's attention in private board members will not directly respond to a speaker during the meeting but if a response is required the appropriate individual will get in touch in the days following the meeting the board establishes a uniform time limit of 3 minutes for each speaker although the public has the right to attend regular meetings of the Board of Education no individual or group has the right to enter into the deliberations of the board I have one public comment and that is David all right David Pickersgill thank you you come on forward and make sure yes press

003that button where it says push and your time will weak in when you start my name is David Pickersgill and I've got two daughters in sixth grade and fourth grade and I want to say thank you very much Dr olich and the rest of the team for leading uh the cwood school district it's a really wonderful School District we're so happy with our daughters uh being in this District I want to talk about smartphones by which I mean devices that have got access to the internet particularly social media there's a growing body of evidence that smartphones and schools don't mix that when um children bring smartphones into school it distracts from learning um it is bad for children's mental health there's been a 50% upsurge in depression since 2011 when social media was introduced and

004it cuts children off from having normal relationships with their peers just playing uh with their peers and relating to them um this evidence is laid out um there's many research is working on it but it's spearheaded by the social scientist Jonathan height and uh he's written a book called the anxious generation you can also see all of the evidence is published on his substack from him and many other people um which is called after Babel um he encourages school boards to implement policies that ban smartphones in schools and you might say well couldn't this be just an issue for parents to decide well parents can decide not to get smartphones for their children but actually many parents would like uh to not give their children a smartphone phone but they feel the pressure they don't

005want their child to be the only person who doesn't have a smartphone so this kind of ban can serve parents and of course if other children bring smartphones in then the child that doesn't have a smartphone um is still able to see or access harmful content on other people's devices or negative content um and they could be the only one on the playground who's not scrolling social media during uh break time or lunchtime so um in order for this kind of uh band to uh to be effective it needs the support of administration it can't just be led left to individual teachers or even um head teachers that it needs to have the the full support of the whole District I think so I'd request um that the school board does two things first of

006all I'd really encourage the school board to look at the evidence yourselves du with whatever procedure is normal whether it's a subcommittee or something to to read the book The anxious generation and report back on it and secondly if you find the evidence convincing which I think you will to really consider this kind of schoolwide really clear policy really clear ban on smartphones in schools now I don't want to think uh people to think I'm against smartphones I have a SmartPhone I use it responsibly it adds to my well-being um but uh also I'm not against beer I buy beer I drink beer it adds to my well-being um I don't think that children should be using smartphones or drinking beer during the school day thank you very much thank you thank you can I

007just ask where you're from nowh um from England origin here about two years thank you thank you all right get myself together 5.02 approval of the agenda I need a motion in a second to approve the agenda for the August 26 2024 regular meeting as presented some Boo second MOA okay all those in favor please raise your right hand and say I I all those opposed motion passes I need a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda items 6.02 through 6.12 as presented some moo second motia all those in favor please raise your right hand and say I I all those opposed motion passes all right next up our financial statements for July 2024 good evening good evening our revenues in July were 1.5 million that consist of propy revenues state revenue and

008federal revenue expenditures operating expenditures were 3.1 milli milon uh that's about half of what our normal monthly expenditures are and that's because we didn't pay teachers in the month of July all their pay was processed in the month of June which is the last month of our U fiscal year in our self-funded insurance account our revenues uh for the month of July were 1.5 million this uh re the revenues are June deposits and it consists of premiums paid by teachers uh for the entire summer so um so the revenues in the month of July again it's it's deposits from June um were substantially higher than what is normal expenditures were 786,000 that's a pretty typical um in terms of expenditures or claims for the month um but overall we added 700,000 to the fund balance

009in our self-funded insurance but that really is just a temporary Spike uh because since we're not paying teachers in um July and then they only receive one pay in August those deposits will be lower and so that fund balance will dip again over the next U two months July and August so just wanted to make sure you were aware of that thank you I need a motion in a second to approve the financial statements for June 2024 as presented so move buo second heurn any questions all right all those in favor please raise your right hand and say I I all those opposed motion passes thank you on to new business 7.02 the Strategic plan for the 20242 school year all right um as a team uh comes up I want to make sure and

010say thank you to the whole team we are we are in year four starting year four of a five-year strategic plan it's very uh very exciting to be able to say that um and as the team gathers um I know that I shared this with the Board of Education uh a year ago uh I don't uh believe that I shared it with the community so I want to take the opportunity to share with this with the community before I get my team the op the the time to get started um here but I don't know how many of of I know the board knows this but our community know that we that we have to submit our strategic plan to uh desie every year to the state and that gets reviewed U by our regional

011uh our regional folks um the area supervisors uh here in St Louis review those before they go to the state and so I wanted to make sure um as uh again as as they prepared to get started that uh I read again for the board U and then for our community uh just how proud of this process you should be um this is a process that the board entered into now like I said four years ago which seems incredible to uh to think about um but at the time Dr Craig Larsson sent an email to uh Dr Bailey and I and it says um my my counterpart marine and I reviewed uh the Kirkwoods materials including the pre-planning guide it says quote yours are among some of the best complete and specific strategic planning materials

012we have seen this cycle we could find nothing that we felt needed changing or editing so you are good to go congratulations for all the work that I know you and your community put into crafting and implementing your planning process I want to take this opportunity because folks this is the group um that uh earned that and deserves that uh that praise from the state level uh to know that uh that our process and our plan itself are held up as exemplars across the state um is uh just another one of those ways uh that we just kind of get to say we're Kirkwood right um so with that and uh um with your permission Miss shern I'll turn it over to the team we will stop uh after each priority goal area each color

013um we will stop and uh answer any of the board's questions that you might have Dr Bailey thank you very much I am gonna see there we go it's like you're driving blind for a second or so well first we want to thank the administration um our teachers and our staff we're very excited to come and present this um next iteration of our strategic plan for this upcoming school year uh as you all know we reviewed data as we've gone through the school year last year saw some positive results know that there's still areas that we can improve in um but we know that we are doing some very good things for our students and so we thank our staff and our teachers for everything that they have done to help us with this um

014also for those that have been working very closely with our principles and our other administrators on development of these next areas of focus for us just as we go through the Strategic plan um our our priority goal areas have not changed so those four when we talk about the different colors the red blue green and yellow those areas have not changed over the course of this nor have our guiding principles what we see on each of these slides is a priority objective and then these are annual objectives these have also not changed during the um from last year at the very least until this year so the priority objectives have remained the same each year that's in the red kind of bar at the top and then the annual objectives from last year and this

015year the language of those has not changed minus a few error or edits for dates for example or a couple minor uh tweaks with the language pieces uh we may have removed a couple when it comes to things like prop R uh but for the most part all of these have been in place for the last couple years with the annual objectives what you'll also see on each of these areas is we have annual strategies these annual strategies uh are very language heavy when we look through these but these are things that we've presented data on to the board several times a year um as well so what we wanted to do was rather than go through each of these detail pieces we wanted to make sure one that the public can see that these

016are are there and that the each school is focusing on these as well as the district but move forward a little bit so we have 1.1 and 1.2 are centered around our curriculum andn instruction for our students same priority objectives 1.3 focuses on our post-secondary achievement for our students and on track U toward State performance but what we want to focus on for the board again and this is information we've shared previously we kind of took all of those annual strategies and organize them by topic so it's a little bit easier for us to zero in so you'll see things on reading on math on behavior on belonging so those are organized by topic and summarized in this and so this is where we'll spend the bulk of our time uh for you all but

017obviously any questions that you have or anything that you want to to know about we're happy to go through and answer so turn it over to Dr Grana who will go over the reading and math plans sure good evening to the board and to our community so um many of the areas of focus here that you'll see for 24 and 25 overlap um between reading and math so our PLC work um for this year is to focus on continuing to strengthen that collaboration in teacher learning in those professional learning communities and as I've shared previously we've created a PLC handbook to create those clear goals and examples for our teachers and building leaders we also want to have those Universal expectations um to ensure consistency across the district for all of our students um previously

018uh last two weeks ago we met with our pk5 teachers before the school year started and during the meetings we reviewed our board approved curriculum and set clear expectations for instruction and learning and additionally we met with our Middle School teachers to provide training and Clarity around the curriculum and also standards based grading we are also engag enging in letters training and we want to ensure that our teachers are equipped with the skills that they need to become literacy and language experts in the science of reading uh we want to encourage our teachers to enroll in letters training we are at 49 to date um letters training stands for language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling it's a two-year commitment and we are very fortunate to have the state um reimburse us for this

019training and also provides cens for our teachers as well we are also committed to creating uniform curriculum documents that clearly outline the curriculum and the priority standards for our teachers by the end of this school year for all 200 plus uh curricular areas and we are continuing to build um instructional leaders in the district as well with the support and help of the center uh for educational leadership as you can see there math has some of the same overlapping um focus areas in addition to developing our K5 math curriculum this year uh piloting a resource that we use at the middle school as well to help create that vertical alignment and then looking at that job embedded coaching um for our teachers as well and we've partnered with math 314 wasu and then the center

020for educational leadership to continue um to build that work with our um building leaders next couple areas that we zero our focus in on and before I say that too I want to remind the board and remind our our community that each of these goal areas do have data in terms of specific targets that we're looking at data that's either specific to a cohort by grade level or a subgroup or a group of of grade levels that are lumped together on some of our Improvement data so we do have data targets that that we are um setting for each of these areas as well graduation rate obviously we want all of our students to graduate at the high school level um we are going to continue to use our early warning system the board has

021heard about that program frequently we continue to refine that when we look at ways that we can tweak what um weights are added for different measures and ensure that we're meeting the students with the need needs that they have we're consistently looking at credit recovery and enhancement options and so at the high school level for example we've had students that are able to get second sem or sorry first semester credit during second semester if they were close to passing something sometimes with just finishing some assignments or retaking a test um some other students are able to access those things virtually our students at the high school have plenty of Pathways in order to gain that credit either through our our T our our alternative programming uh our online programming through either launch or our Pioneer

022e-learning Community um and then we want to continue to grow the use of Pella uh one of the benefits of our Pella program that's pioner e-learning is that the pace and sequencing still is similar to our courses in school so if we have a student who had to be out for a short term two or three weeks for a hospitalization for example uh they could still access their learning virtually and keep Pace with the class that they're enrolled in in person using our Pella system that is taught by Kirkwood teachers using Kirkwood curriculum as well ACT scores we've talked about this while we know there's work for us to do we've consistently done well on our ACT scores as compared to State and National averages the high school utilizes the ACT test information in their

023curriculum development looking at ways that the lessons can have the ACT Focus areas incorporated into that we're continuing to look at optional tests uh We've added a practice test at the sophomore level last school year for our students to take a full-blown uh ACT practice test that helps Drive some of our enrollment numbers for the the students and what courses they take that Junior and Senior year and also allows us to Target some support for students a couple other tests that we're looking at a work keys test is all um best way to say it is it's kind of a career aptitude test what areas would be the best Focus for you the accuplacer test is the uh entrance exam for our community colleges and students that take part in the early college program are

024also required to take the acup Placer that has multiple sections that look at reading level math level and some other language um instruction that may be needed and it helps the students get placed in the appropriate courses and then the ASVAB is a test that um students would take if they're interested in the military but they don't have to go into the military uh to utilize the ASVAB so we're looking at optional tests that'll keep giving students additional uh information about themselves and continue to open doors and then you'll hear these three letters a lot throughout our presentation but one of the strengths that we have in the Kirkwood school district is our plc's and our PLC processes and getting teachers together to work closely to look at what student needs are and how they

025can meet those needs is a huge priority area for us and you'll see that woven throughout many of our goal areas as well so that's a quick look at these red areas uh the academic uh information and we want to pause and take questions from the board during those specific areas awesome I'll start to my left Mr Cy we want to talk about the specific goals right now by section to kind of the right B B on what he's just presented yes okay so in looking at the academic goals specifically on the benchmarking one thing I've noticed I understand this is an annual plan but it's part of a a larger fiveyear plan we have certain um grade levels or subcohorts within some of the academic areas where the goal that we're setting for the

02624 25 school year is lower than where the those groups have per performed in recent history so my question is how does that previous performance inform our goal setting process because that stands out to me because I it's my personal belief but I'm open to discussion and hearing more is that we should at least set the target where recent performance has been from a benchmarking perspective especially if they're below the 80th 80% down so just looking for feedback and and discussion on that yeah so I think the way that the um it's written in the annual objectives is that there's the measurement off of that spring the previous year's spring Benchmark data um and so if U students are falling within that 70 to 80th percenti or I'm sorry below 70th percenti we're looking um

027for an increase of 5% and if they're 70 to eight um between 70 and 80% it's 3% and that 80 percentile is 1% so using that using that equation is what we have to calculate those goals and we've tried to keep them specific using that smart goal acronym specific measurable um attainable relevant and also time bound so they are those those annual performance goals um you are correct that based on previous spring data that that goal could change and potentially it could be lower um and ultimately we want all of our students to be at 80% or above that really is the ultimate goal so we we tried to keep it within that range within those percentages um what the thinking when we created the annual objectives originally um I do think that if there

028are opportunities for us to provide in addition to what we currently have more data we can certainly do that and look at that to determine that long longitudinal piece uh when we presented the um plan um the data from the spring we did share some of those longitudinal pieces and cohorts from 21 to 24 in an effort to do that um with the years of the Strategic plan so yeah I just I'll put my cards on the table I'm just I'm currently uncomfortable with setting a goal lower than where we've had the students performing recently too um and and again we're talking minor percentage points and I understand there's a methodology in the in the description of how we went about applying the percentage but could we consider that if we have instances like this

029and there's a few it's I don't want to portray the entire plan as being riddled with this I want be very clear there are certain areas where I've seen that and I guess my my question is can we take that into account as well in in alignment or in addition to the methodology for setting the goal with percentage increase but if we've had for instance the fourth graders where in Spring of 23 77% % of that cohort was at Benchmark and now our goal for 25 is only to have it at 74 so um I I guess I'm throwing that out there for consideration at this point I don't want to take up too much time so we can get through everybody else's questions but um throwing that out there for consideration that's all I

030got thank you Miss Andrews so um as I brought up last time um and talked about how having 80% having the goal at 80% because that's what we're saying we want all of our you know classrooms to be performing at um this would address what what Mr Cathy is sharing so I guess my question is help help me understand why um we're not setting it at 80% and we are still using a um percentage increase that then leads to as Mr Cathy said um a lower Benchmark or a lower goal from year to year as uh Dr Gran said one of the challenges is the language of those annual objectives is definitely an annual setting of those goals based on those sliding percentage pieces and so to change something in that effect we would essentially

031need to go back and change the language of those annual objectives that have been approved by the board uh throughout but it does you're correct that that would address both Mr Cy's concern about at least setting a threshold of an 80% you can always go higher than that but if we're lower than that we know kind of where that line is that we're shooting for um and then also align with some of the mtss processes but it the goals themselves are written on that annual data change piece as well yeah and I'll just I mean I want to push you a little further and just when you are not setting the goal at 80% and you're doing a percent of a percent um it leads to confusion it doesn't lead to an accurate picture of

032um our students academics and so then when you don't have an accurate picture of our students academics we're not making choice you know our the choices that we make then are impacted by that and I I just want to I want to make sure that I I say that the the clarity of these goal these goals could not be more clear um I understand the the desire to place them at 80 and and certainly understand that and can work with our team if that's the board's uh if that certainly is the will of the board um however uh the data that we have used and that is used by our teachers and our and our principles uh at the building level throughout the school year um uh they they are very clear with regard to

033uh the data where their kids are down to the individual student um and make decisions based on the data um and monitor that progress among those students um and so I just want to make sure that there's no confusion specifically we can set the goal at 80 that really really the goal is 100 right we want 100% of our kids to do that so we could set it there um but the long and the short of it is ultimately the goal and the work that our teachers do and the work um that our principles lead uh in our buildings uh there's no lack of clarity specifically with regard to that work let me be clear on what I'm speaking of with regards to Clarity um I'm speaking of it isn't very clear that last year

034fourth grade was performing at 77% and this year the goal is to be performing at 74% um so that's what I'm speaking of when I talk about Clarance my point with this is the the goal is is one thing what I really my main point with this is so that it drives the conversation back to what we can do as board members so that we don't lose sight so we've got a a subset of kids I don't want to call out that particular grade level there's a few examples but so that it leads to the conversation that we're not just looking at the end the one year but we see the bigger pictures how they've presented them themselves and performed throughout the The Five-Year Plan if applicable if they've been in the cycle that long

035so that that conversation gets raised is really my point so I just wanted to call that buo no I'm good I think that the um this is a great way of just measuring if the things that are happening in the classroom you know we have full confidence that every teacher the district and every administrators trying to get the best outcomes uh in the ways that we measure here in the ways that we don't measure uh and this is a you know to me a more than adequate way of measuring whether the things that we are trying to do are um need to be continued or need to be enhanced uh or are sufficient uh for what the children in the community deserve so thank you Miss motia thank you for this I have one really

036quick question and just a thumbnail answer is great but um you said something about and maybe I misunderstood PLC handbooks in order to make the plc's more useful more uni universally across the board similar how are how are you doing that I'm really excited about this and I think it's great so what is involved in the PLC handbook so the first thing we're meeting with the teachers on September 4th to confirm the goals that we've set for this year and to really collaborate around that as a guiding Coalition and then we will print the PLC handbooks so we want to make sure that all the teachers across the district who are leaders in these roles have an opportunity to look at it because we created over the summer and then it will go to print

037after September 4th cool thank you Miss Pangborn yep and can you hear me yes okay hear you hear me but there's a leg um I just want to say thank you um to the team for for all of the work I think we asked a lot of questions last time that I saw or like I feel that you really reflected on and provided some answers to so I just wanted to recognize that and ultimately when I look at all of the work that is being done and the granular information for different cohorts and groups I really appreciate the the focus that you have on how to really individualize growth for different students um I think that is where we've been trying to go for a number of years and that is really reflective in in

038the curriculum and instruction objectives here and then um to uh build on to what Miss Motika said I'm really appreciative of the plcs and the opportunities to bring our staff together uh you know we were hearing that desire and again putting it in the iic plan this way is actionable and tangible and um really again just appreciate that um so just wanted to highlight those two things after all of our discussions in our last work session so thank you thank you Miss Heburn hi thank you um as Miss pingor said I know we talked a lot about all of these things uh at our last meeting but I just wanted to say Obviously the academics are so important and there's so much we can focus on and we're all wanting to constantly strive to hit

039those goals and I think any things that we can do are great and I think we do do those things um I just want to say that personally I'm so invested in and excited about these things around um the 1.3 goals around helping ensure that students are getting set up for opportunities after they graduate high school um looking at these additional optional tests um um that is something that really excites me I um I know I'm jumping a little ahead to the Blue Zone but um you know I'm extremely interested in finding ways to better support some of our vulnerable student populations with increased ACT scores and other career Readiness options or post High School options I think we exist in a space where we're constantly up against you know State regulated goals for secondary

040education and this and that and the other thing but postsecondary education is such a way for us to serve students so deeply and sincerely Beyond you know regulated goals and things like that and so that's something that just really excites me to see us continue to work on and something I'm excited about with the student uh success student ready no student ready success Network did I say ready student Network I was close sorry I um I will continue to be excited about those letters um so thank you very much did out to what everyone has said please proceed thank you we'll continue the same pattern as we jump into our blue areas so it's okay to skip ahead a little it's all right um so obviously these areas fall under our Equity diversity and inclusion

041however we know that the things that we do for our students who are most vulnerable are also good for all of our students and so you'll see some of the things that are similar across some of our other academic areas as well um but these priority objectives again have not ch changed and then these annual objectives which is the the language of the goal not the uh data point I should have clarified that earlier the language of the goals themselves have not changed minus a few tweaks again for dates and maybe a couple adjustments uh based on some of our our responses from last school year again so these areas for 2.1 you can see focus on the referral areas one reason why we're not reading these is because they're so hard to read up

042there so uh with the font size act averages again SP spoke to that and then priority objective three intentional programming looking at Affinity groups so we we had a good discussion about this area last time and so we want to continue to reinforce with the board and with our our public with our teachers that we are very interested in exploring options and opportunities for decreasing the number of office referrals and the focus isn't just to get to a specific number but when students are out of the classroom in the office they're not able to access the the curriculum and our terrific instructors and so decreasing that leads to more student time in front of teachers in front of support getting interventions whatever that may be to meet the need so decreasing office referrals uh is

043one of those measures that we look at we want to look at those trauma informed training options it's been a while since we've had some opportunities to do that but Dr map and I have some contacts and some folks that we think would be a tremendous um program to tap into for our students that can bring some Aces adverse childhood experience training uh for our teachers and students that can speak about those as well so we'll be exploring those options and looking at what opportunities are available for us to tap into to to tap into those outside experts um the restorative practice training will continue there's an admin group that the coaches are developing the training for them as we speak a lot of acronyms you'll see a lot of letters so y m h

044fa is youth mental health first aid and then t on the other one is Teen Mental Health First Aid so what this is is what it sounds like a first aid option if you um see somebody who's experiencing potentially a mental struggle or social emotional struggle these are the signs and symptoms of something like that and much like first aid if you see someone with a cut you can put a Band-Aid on that until you get to someone who can handle more of a serious situation the te is Teen Mental Health First Aid and so we now qualify for that training you have to have a certain percentage of your adults that have the youth Mental Health First Aid training for us to then switch to looking at training our own students through the Teen

045Mental Health First Aid training um as well and so these can continue to build that network of students that support network uh for students to tap into we continue to focus on plc's they're not just for academics and we can look at what those office referral options are and have those discussions with our principles and then our professional development that will continue to focus on um bias and equity for each of our students and looking at those individualized plans that we can develop we also work closely in conjunction with Special School District to look at our students with IEPs who may be getting office referrals as well then looking at uh the area belonging and specifically for our black and African-American students and families uh we talked before about our G policy audit which would

046be the next step we looked at our J student policies last time our last school year um we will be specifically looking at the the recommendations and uh insights from beloved this year uh to make sure that we are able to can address those things within our staff policies um continuing to have a focus on student uh focus groups and better understanding our students uh from our students what they need and better understanding how we continue to support them to get them the things that they need to be able to be feel that sense of belonging um and connection within our buildings and then also for our administrators and teachers making sure that we have opportunities for them to continue to have restorative practice training um it is yes training additionally it is a constant

047thing restorative practices is a constant ongoing thing um and that's the important piece and why we feel like it is the right step um because it's something that we can continue to revisit and something that we continue to work on it's not something that we just have a oneandone um and then finally that fifth grade Affinity celebration being something that will this will be the third year continuing to make sure that we continue to uh validate the experiences of our kids and be able to help them see their opportunities to connect within their community and then looking at our KSD or that math Gap data we are focusing on again that Elementary pilot um in aligning vertically K8 our math resources again purposeful data review during our professional learning communities really looking at the segregated

048data and helping it to drive and inform our decisions we've adopted idea lab across the district Innovation Discovery exploration adventure for our students really focusing on coding and Engineering in those handson experiences and then K5 we have our mysai resource which again our elementary teachers are responsible for every single subject and to have kids that show up with real high quality Hands-On materials is a great experience for our students and also helps our teachers with time and preparation and then our robotics programming I'm excited to share that has continued to expand K12 across the district um students are really finding a place there um that feels like home and um our students are excited about coding and building robots for the very first time we also want to focus on participation in advanced programs and

049so this could be AP classes it could be dual credit dual enrollment it could be our tech school it could be um lots of different Pathways for students that are individualized the srsn success ready student Network we'll have a heavy focus on this for our for our students um to look at opportunities for things like it uh internships and clinical or sorry client connected projects and a lot of that will be uh centered in these Advanced programming options we continue to look at our course options that are available as well for our students what areas do we need to add what areas do we need to enhance uh the stop day that really is where the high school kind of just doesn't do instruction for the day instead just shares what the courses are that

050each teacher would be teaching they just kind of go in front of class and give a a a speech about this is what AP English will look like this is what another course will look like so that students can get excited about that and be informed about the options that they have we don't want to limit students to just inperson opportunities for these Advanced programs so we keep looking at Pella and ways that we can enhance those Pella options and then informational sessions um for example uh Dr Luke for the STL caps program will do a parent night to talk about things that students can access through that program um and those information sessions continue to educate uh not only our students but our parents on the opportunities that are available uh to them through

051our programming the good thing about this is that it sounds like it's a high school specific one but through our srsn work it really does stretch all the way down to the prek with looking at those 21st century skills and and what students will need to know and be able to do to be successful after high school and in the area of gifted we're excited to expand our Universal screening to include two full grade levels in elementary school um where I'll be piloting well not piloting pardon me we'll be using a new creativity assessment at the elementary and really continuing to focus and strengthen those Universal lessons to all kindergarteners in first grade really making sure that we're doing everything we can to find each kid that we need to find for our gifted program

052and sorry need progressive lenses sorry remembers from last one of the areas that we also want to continue to enhance in Dr map's office work closely with this as well as our participation in early childhood events we want to work very closely with KCC but also our parents as teachers as the board may recall our parents as teachers was able to expand the number of visits and the number of screenings that they were able to do last year to all-time highs uh that is a service that is available to our families from when a a Mom is pregnant all the way through uh entering kindergarten um and those are not just U Services about educational pieces but there are classes that student uh parents can take around discipline or other parental areas as well and

053so it's a great way to connect our families with not only KCC but our families with the Kirkwood school district and it's also our initial screener opportunity if a student may need some special education services at the Early Childhood level um there's a couple pictures the the uh event that Dr M and the KCC team organized with the foam bus and the dancing the kids absolutely loved it um and so it was a great opportunity for the students to come to the parking lot and and share a good time with some activities that were organized by our Pat and then we're always looking at how can we look at our P Staffing and other events to increase that visibility um for our families and continue to share information with our families to keep them connected

054to the Kirkwood school district and I'm excited uh as we collect our fall benchmarking data here this week and next to see how the effects of the uh jump start kindergarten program was this past summer and share that in my summer school update and then use that data to reflect and see how we can continue to expand and improve that program in terms of our staff of color uh being very intentional this the the district has been very intentional on this for a number of years now and so continuing uh to utilize opportunities with hiring events both of teachers and staff members across our entire organization um in including leading collaborative opportunities with that as well across with other districts um and then also our kak building Liaisons that we were very fortunate to have

055you all approved last year um to continue to see them in that role for a full year we really are continuing to think about how we continue to build our Ally opportunities within even our staff who are not staff of color to continue to be able to be supporting how we continue to pay attention to the experiences and how we continue to support our staff of color throughout our district um continuing to partner with our Human Resources office to be able to continue those stay interviews that really gleaned a lot of information for us um to really understand better from our staff again similar to that idea of those focus groups with students how do we continue to have that same idea through the state interviews with staff to be able to better understand how

056we can continue to improve in the areas of allowing for more retention and recruitment of all staff and it's particularly our staff of color and then finally uh our administrators will be having an opportunity to attend the Leadership resm Institute over uh big group will go this summer um and be able to reflect on their experiences uh both in schools but also their personal experiences and how it can impact what they do with our students each and every day as well and then also looking specifically again at teacher and staff belonging there's a number of things that uh my office was able to do again collaboratively with the Human Resources office being very reflective of how our staff is in is experiencing uh our schools and how they're experiencing their uh time in our buildings

057and so having the opportunity to continue to have those quarterly meetings again those quak building Liaisons and that intentional conversations um we talked before about the Restort to practice training continuing to have opportunities for understanding of bias and equity for students utilizing resources both that we have and some even outside of us um things like uh the uh Anti-Defamation League and opportunities like that to help us better understand how we will continue to address those things that happen throughout our community and how we can improve to help the betterment of our each of our students as well and that's all of the blue areas and so we're happy to take questions again from the board thank you start to my right Miss hebburn uh no questions I think we covered a lot last time and

058I will let other people use it thank you Miss Pangborn um and thank you again Dr map I think I asked this last time on that last slide our K is our Kirkwood staff of color correct that is correct data in the Strategic plan as shown here was really just our black staff is that correct that is also correct yes we did address that with Panorama and really what we came to a conclusion of because any other staff that is represented Beyond black is so limited it really isn't a whole lot of data to collect specifically nor can it be collected without being pretty personally identifiable um we can look at if we wanted to say staff of color instead of black in our demograph in in our demographic questions we could do that and

059we could just look at that number but that that would be our only option to be able to really kind of get that information because again the problem is our our numbers are just so small um that we wouldn't be able to glean that information specifically for a demographic other than black okay and I just and I appreciate that explanation um I just wanted to make sure that [Music] our uh some of our actions here are really to support the longing for um you know all of our teachers that you know feel are a part of kak absolutely and to be clear as far as quak that is truly all of our staff of color who identify as staff of color across our district we do not not say just black staff are at quo

060um that is truly for all staff um again unfortunately our professional development days that we do are specifically for our certified teachers they are not for all staff um we do try to make sure for example our opening lunch that we have we do invite all staff and teachers but it is just not possible for us uh to continue to operate as a full District um to have all of our staff for example custodian secretary all those different positions that we have across our district it would not be possible to have them for those those oppression development days so we do Focus specifically on our certified staff for that okay and I talked about that last time that's fine I have follow-up questions that but I'll I'll save it um I also just really appre

061appreciate the um focus on using some of the data to make adjustments for the growth um I I think I can't remember who mentioned that but I think that's something that as a board member I really again have appreciated um when you're sharing we're we're using this information we're using the data and how we move the needle then we're making those adjustments um I just think that's really great U especially when we're talking about the Strategic plan so thank you for that thank you Miss motia Mr boo yeah I guess I'll just piggy back on what Miss Peng said the Improvement and the amount of the data that we collect on specific specifically on this area um sometimes we over improve on data collection maybe but in this area in particular we've improved a lot

062over my tenure on the on the board and really appreciate the way uh we've been able to see it um actually influence decisions and and then subsequently move the data in favorable directions thanks thank you Miss Andrews Mr um Cathy I'm sorry Mr Cathy sorry fine hello um so on the the survey piece what I'm hearing are you tell me if I'm hearing this correctly because when you narrow a demographic it would be personally identifiable we won't be able to at the same time measure Panorama data for African-American staff and staff of color within the same survey because you would be able to tease out potentially and we do want to protect you know um confidentiality is that yes so the the other other identifi other groups other than black are so are not enough

063that they could be like the when you when I look at the report for example it would say confidentially protected and that's where all those groups would follow yeah so um it sounds like that might be something I had just strategically in terms of what we measure because we do want our actions to align with what we're measuring meur in Downstream and we have all you know got behind we're looking forward to seeing the the positive um that comes out of the the quak building liaison so we want to make sure that we're measuring things are in line with that but um just a point um you know back to our role with the Strategic plan and I learned this last year you know back to the goals um I just want to not to

064overemphasize but those academic goals also entwined with with section two as well and and one of those that again stands out to me is the benchmarking data for African-Americans um six to8 for math where our goal is you know it's not small in terms of the difference in terms of where it was in the past it's pretty significant if you look at that so just want to call attention to that I'll come back with some summary thoughts at the end but wanted to bring that just to make sure that everybody sees that those goals are not just in the the first section but they're entwined throughout the entire plan so thank you um I just had a couple of questions um and so KSD the office referrals I don't know which they're not numbered but

065the first bullet was review trauma informed training options um and you may mention that you guys will be looking at that I was just wondering if we could add review and adopt like can it not take an entire year to just review but we we can actually make some traction on that okay um and then the um Miss lo you in uh mentioned about the um different supports with mtss I was just wondering what I was kind of missing or didn't hear was any emphasis on our tier 2 and tier three supports for our students is right we'll continue to follow just refine our practices as I meet with different buildings and their teams to make sure that we're following practice and procedures and in light of some of this discussion I'm talking about are

066we not only looking at all kids but are there certain groups of kids that we need to be paying more attention to are those students growing not growing continuing to to help buildings follow those practices to look at specific groups of kids okay and so like we always say if there's something needed because those children need extra support academically socially emotionally like please let us know yes I I I Look to Dr Grana because that's been the subject of our of of the last two one-on-one meetings um specifically with regard to that uh we have definitely heard that from the board the the board has been very consistent in that we will not wait till next year's strategic plan um uh if and when we are working with our teachers uh and through all of

067our processes if we identify any we will bring it to the board and then just two more or just wondering what the restorative practices training for admin and teachers like what does that look like as well as like for the um Al admin attending the leadership and racism Institute like then what like what's the expectation once that is done and those were some of the things like within the plan right yeah yeah and so that plan um is is something that you all have as well and so I think that one of the things as far as what's been done and what will be done the um the restorative practice training uh our coaches already gave in February to our counselors and they have a a hand like I wouldn't call it a handbook but

068basically a pamphlet a pro a booklet um of all of the training itself um and so that's something that we will reference continually they are adjusting that to make sure that it matches and really is reflective specifically of Administrators and then we will do the same for our teachers as well well so having different versions of that of that handbook would be piece of that um and then for the leadership racism Institute um you know we we are fortunate at as an administrative team we get together bonly in our direct reports meetings uh we have days of Retreats over the Summers and those will be opportunities for us to revisit what they're learning from the leadership racism Institute um like you said it it can't be something that they just go and it doesn't become

069something that they reflect on again it's a opportunity that we have and that they get to go and do it together so then that they can reflect and continue to revisit it again together so I guess my question like what's the expectation that they're taking that back to their building like how do the teachers get this knowledge which then will trickle down to the kids for yes and the restorative practices the restorative practices that's the intention is that teachers then are the next step so it's not just that it's not just that we train administrators and that's done the idea is we would continue to have Co sorts of teachers need to be trained for sort of practice as well moving forward um as far as the leadership and racism Institute I would be happy

070to get back to you more specifically with that um I think that that's something that we can certainly make sure that again it is spelled out in terms of how that looks um we as leadership team had an opportunity to reflect when we came back this uh last year um and so again now those are those continued steps that certainly we can make sure that we outline specifically um for the board to know and M sh one additional outcome with I'm sorry with the RP training and then just the discipline side is we've heard from our principles as well that they want to have an opportunity in time to calibrate as to what should be an office manag versus a classroom managed uh sort of behavior um and what tools would the teachers need to

071then address those classroom managed behaviors and what should be office managed so there is an outcome uh that we should have U when we calibrate with that between the five elementary schools the two middle schools and then do some vertical alignment as well we learned from the middle school for example that the way that they were treating tardies doesn't necessarily align with the way that high school was treating those and are they teaching kids bad habits basically so we do have some of those outcomes that we intend to to put together and some of that is is that we still have our discipline code which embeds our restored practices in there but there's still a little bit of subjectivity as to what should be sent to an office versus what could could be managed in

072a classroom and then some of the responses as well so we'll continue to calibrate that with the middle school and the elementary um and then the high school team as well has has uh met with the group and then we'll build out their caliber ation across their grade levels as well and yeah thanks for that I um I appreciate the what was sent to us but that that's the type of like if we know what the timeline is and how it's going to move and groove so that way we can put a needle in it and start um you know making continues to make those gains sure with with regard to the leadership and racism Institute um M Shar I want to make sure you hear year um that expectation was uh shared before my

073news uh was shared and so that is over a year old where we're going to cycle and the expectation I hope continues uh that uh that all Administration will uh will attend that what I can tell you is a year from now um the this board U Can and frankly should expect uh strategies that emerge directly from our administrators we have a large group that is committed to going next year um that would be included in this presentation a year from from now all right going on to the green um again the annual objectives do not change fostering a climate of belonging and culture of dignity across all Kirkwood schools um continuing to make sure that we have uh opportunities within Panorama to show that and again we won't go too far deep into the

074strategies this 3.2 identifying developing and providing social emotional and mental Health Resources and learning for all students and then finally in 3.3 designing a program to discuss assess and improve social mental and emotional health for all staff um as we look or excuse me in 3.4 implementing a well comprehensive Wellness Plan I skipped that one because that's Dr Bailey's um in terms of our overall climate again looking at our policy review for our G policies thinking about our staff um and how they can continue to to uh have opportunity for Equity within those policies um our student focus groups to better understand again our student needs again looking at that really from that K12 lens um I think that we've had opportunities historically to have that through our superintendent student advisory Council and again uh

075Dr or has always been very clear with them that they are thinking not as Kirkwood High School students but as District students now having let's really take that a step further and really meeting with our middle school and elementary students to further understand understand that um and then better uh as we've already talked about with the training for administrators and teachers uh an opportunity for our students to better understand our Panorama uh survey through a video that we will create this fall as well um and then opportunities to really be very intentional and specific around honoring dignity I think that this is an Ever evolving thing um and so I guess I you know I I really do you know I pay attention to I think we have to pay attention to the things that

076uh and experiences that we hear where that's not happening and making sure that we're responding um to make sure that that dignity is honored for each of our students across our organization and then again as we talked about that collaborative planning uh event planning um I've been working even this year with the um Kirkwood Historical Society we had an opportunity to go and visit that uh them this Summer all the administrators went there um but really planning for the black history celebration for this year um has been part of what I've been doing but again being very intentional and having those opportunities across our entire organization to be collaborative um and then as far as connection and belonging again very spe similar things that you will see there in terms of our student focus groups

077our policy review um our stay interviews that we've discussed and restor to practice training I'm going to jump specifically to where are some new things and that one of those new things you see there is again that connection to plc's I think that we can't underestimate the value of being able to connect both with our colleagues and then also even with connecting with and paying attention to our students through things like our plc's and so that being a very big part of our connection and belonging there as well Dr Bailey couple other areas our board has been very very supportive of our students mental health and emotional well-being and over the years we have uh seen this area grow in terms of the support personnel and services that are available to our students so we

078have added and made the set up so that every elementary school has two counselors uh which has been a terrific use in terms of splitting up the grade levels for them we were able to add an additional uh intensive support counselor at our high school which increases our responsiveness decreases the amount of time a student may need to be out of school because they can get immediate support and immediate service from a trained clinician and then we've connected with and contracted with a couple organizations to provide very targeted emotional and mental health support around depression anxiety and suicidal ideation and so we've got an embedded clinician uh at our middle schools and High School from Chad's Coalition who specifically focuses on those areas and so what we have seen is we've seen the response to

079our students and the ability to provide that response quickly inhouse and with the supports that students can make connections with has definitely increased with the the growth that we've seen in that staff so thank you to the board who's always been supportive of that and that has in turn resulted in data so the Sabers is one of those that should go down actually and that number has gone down the students that have been considered at risk um as the board saw last time um those those numbers have gone down from double digits and that 10 percentage down to about eight% um which is is a tremendous movement especially coming out of a pandemic for our students so those resources are being put to very good use um and the data that we're seeing is showing

080an impact on our students it also impacts our student attendance and impacts our referrals office referrals as well we'll continue to uh look at the refinement of our early warning system that is one of those things that if a student is necessarily we don't want anybody to be under the radar in any way and so if there are some data points that we can gather on a daily basis that will inform those decisions uh we can utilize that at the high school for example our intensive support um support counselor who is a embedded clinician uh gets that report every day and and looks at the the students that are on there and makes those connections triage is the support of students need that looking at multiple office referrals this one zeros in on our students

081going to the office more than once during the school year we want to decrease that number we want to cut that down uh for our students because again that's time out of class uh and there is disproportionality in that we do have a higher percentage of our black African-American students and our students with IEPs as compared to our overall population so we'll work very closely with Special School District and our principles to review that at the back to school uh admin meetings that we had we were very targeted with principles to look at that data look at that list the edge of climber program that we have can drill that down so they can see names along with those numbers uh and reasons why for some students it may still be that there's a tardy

082issue for example for other students there may be behaviors that are coming up uh in the classroom that we can address or at least go into the school year being prepared for that with our students whoops we'll keep looking at our discipline procedures at principles are trained every year on what that can look like um and processes and protocols that they should follow and again as we've emphasized the data teams the mtss process and the PLC process is very useful for looking at students regarding office referrals uh because when we look at data for a student not just academic data but all that data tied together that helps us tell a story about a student and what struggles they may be having and what things we can address uh depending on where that performance is

083at it's very hard by the way to find pictures that align with office referrals without implying something so we just have a big assembly there so in terms of uh safety we've definitely been very uh fortunate to be able to pay attention to and collaborate with our Safety and Security office um they continue to make sure that as principles have started this year that they've been focused on their safety and utilization of um our protocols to make sure that our buildings can be safe and have those opportunities to practice um I actually happen to be in one of our buildings when they were having a drill the other day and again utilizing our tools like uh crisis go to be able to really be responsive and make sure that they are doing their best to

084make sure that people aren't just using it in an emergency but using it in opportunities to make sure that they're ready to use it appropriately in an emergency um and then connecting with our school resource officers again continuing to develop that opportunity that we have to have them within our buildings making sure that they are responsive again proactively to these things that we have happening every day um so that they can be able to respond as they need to reactively when necessary um and then finally that opportunity to connect with our our V program visioning committee um again uh our director myself and um our Mike Rome got to sit down last year and so really taking that now to our uh to a committee as well to really think about how that program continues

085to be intentional around supporting students in SA and staff and safety across our district as well and the last area in the green we want students at school it seems obvious but we want to make sure that we're removing barriers that may be in front of students regarding their attendance at school so we want to uh review and refine that early warning system can we look at attendance and look at patterns that may be arising and look at the reasons why that may come through our school counselor curriculum uh will be working on being updated that has the state has gone back and forth through about the last three years as to whether or not they going to update standards or not update standards so we've been kind of waiting to see what that looked

086like uh we just can't wait anymore so we're going to look at the national standards and the national approach or for what that can look like but we have the counseling staff in place to be able to do this and do it well and then some of you were able to attend some of our Wellness committee meetings last year where our students themselves expressed an area of focus for them as anxiety and what ways that we can work closely with our our teachers our staff and our principles on impacting that student anxiety um and and listening to the students very closely share their ideas and their thoughts about things uh we've got a lot of great ideas to take with the kids but the principles were given all of that feedback that the students gave

087in terms of action steps that could be taken uh for them to incorporate in their building level plans as well so we we recognize that the students are saying that I do want to emphasize our attendance as compared to national Trends is very good when you look at National Trends we've been in that our goal is 90% of our students are at school 90% of the time and that comes right from uh the state guideline and we were around 94% um with that or 93 it's it's very good numbers and in terms of an average daily attendance which is what percentage of our students are in the building each day we had a very good number for that as well so we want our kids at school we want our kids in our schools to

088get access to all the supports we touched on the social emotional risk uh pieces that we had before um with some of the other measures but to continue to emphasize that we have just great social emotional supports in place for our students there's you can never have enough when it comes to that but looking at ways that we can connect with parents and and provide them additional resources and information um and and shout out to our social workers who play a huge role in both attendance and addressing social emotional risk uh they do a lot of case management resource allocation and connection outside of school uh that's not always easy to measure but sometimes it makes a huge difference that they were able to get somebody a coat that they needed or able to get

089some food and security issues addressed for our families um so those areas are all the areas under the green quick question question how many social workers do we have in our district well I'm counting it yes I'm doing it in my head um one two three four five five but two of them split a position okay and so um one area that we are looking at is with some increases at KCC are we able to increase some hours at KCC with enrollment um increases there we added when we added the counselors at the elementary level we added a social worker specifically at Robinson so we have two social workers at the high school one who is overall social work and then one who works specifically with our um alternative programming Pioneer pathway we have one

090at Robinson and then we have three others three positions but um three other folks that split the other buildings and include KCC in that awesome all right um y Miss burn um I just wanted to say that I appreciate um mentioned both specifically in here but also thematically in here is uh the use of student focus groups um I'm sure that by the end of my term I'm going to get a reputation as somebody who keeps bringing up focus groups but I just think they're one of the most meaningful ways to get actionable information um and so I just love seeing us incorporate that and you know down the road I'm sure we'll incorporate it more and more into all all the color areas and um so thank you I really appreciate that Miss Pangborn

091Miss Hein kind of took some of my comments I was gonna say I really appreciate the bringing of student voices into this belonging goal and of course the objectives um I think we had been trying to find better ways to do that in the past and you've really again like um actionized it that's a word put it into action um in this strategic plan and I think that's really important um that we are including their voices here so huge shout out to that thank you thank you Miss Motika I just uh want to thank you and I appreciate how the continuous review and knowing that everything can be better and the the continuing work with trauma informed care and just constantly reviewing and looking at the numbers and seeing where we're making progress and where

092we still need to and I I just appreciate all the Care you put into that so thank you Mr boo M um Andrews Mr Cathy all right thank you for that and I think we're going to rotate out with the for we're very happy to be here we just haven't gotten a chance to talk to you in a while um so priority objective 4.1 um our goals are specific to social media analytics and family survey results and we'll go into those um a little bit more when we get to the strategies um and then these are our strategies specific to 4.1 in uh 4.2 our goals are again focused on family survey results um and then we are also looking at website analytics specifically and here are the strategies that align with those one note

093I'll make about um 4.3 is that the um prop our events are still on this um however we have updated the plan since we have celebrated all of our prop R events now we do continue to message and share about the um great things that are happening in our schools because of prop R but we're not having Live Events anymore yes also includes um keeping our oops sorry go back there we go um includes updating or keeping our financial dashboard up to date and maintaining a favorable rating on our uh school facility work and those are the strategies and then in terms of our Focus um so some of the strategies that we want to highlight for 2425 um as our team continues to engage as a part of srsn we work to we look

094to work collaboratively uh with those that are most closely engaged in that work to communicate our progress and share out the benefits of being a part of that um for example we recently participated in media coverage specific to the waiver process we're able to have some conversations with reporters to help them not only understand some of the processes and procedures we already have in Kirkwood schools but then how those uh work within srsn um we also plan to expand opportunities for social media media coverage um not just specific to District social media but on our school Pages we're looking to utilize a social media management tool that um will allow for more users to directly contribute to content at the school level and that tool actually has workflow to allow for oversight and planning at

095the building level but then also welcome more content uh we also have our Hall of Fame events we will be celebrating our athletic Hall of Fame indues very soon on September 6th and 7th so that has been a major Focus um but we're very excited to do it and then we are celebrating our outstanding Hall of Fame inductees on March 1 so those events are a highlight for our district and our community um it takes a great deal of coordination but we love to do it because we get to celebrate these alumni with our students families um and other alumni and those are every five years so that's one of the reasons why it has such a huge impact on us when it's a Hall of Fame year uh we've ALS o work to start

096the school year with clear and direct information for All Families uh to do that we utilized a back to school guide last year was our first year this is our second year for that and um we've worked to share it more widely this year thanks to some of the feedback that we received from our Communications committee after the first one so we're looking to continue to grow and expand um in that work uh We've also um are carrying over a strategy from the previous year specific to style guide and branding um our efforts are focused on ensuring consistent and easy to use brand guidelines we're going to continue exploring uh the opportunities that we have for that um and then uh finally as our while but not leastly uh while our website transition is complete

097um we are not done with the work we're going to continue to revise and improve um and we're also uh very engaged in training um as we continue to learn the system and expand what our web editors are able to to do we want to make sure that they can fully grasp the new system and utilize it to make sure that information is easily accessible on our website we definitely don't want to stop that work because we want to remain uh super responsive to the needs of our public even though the look and feel of the website hopefully will stay the same for at least a little while the communication of our financial information will include as I mentioned keeping our financial uh database um dashboard I mean up to dat and relevant so we'll

098continue to work on that but we'll also um create a new tax rate calculator on our website we used to have that um but with uh the transition we lost it so we have to uh come up with new software to be able to put that back out there that will enable our community members to um enter their assess value and then determine what their property School tax uh will be um lastly we'll conclude our comprehensive facility plan study and next steps so we have the study but what we need to bring to the board is some funding options uh for you to consider that will include some of the highest priorities that have been identified and how we will pay for those over the next few years if you recall that plan is a

09920-year plan there's information on there millions of dollars over next 20 years so we'll come up with some shorter term options for the board to consider website it's nice good things I hope it does okay I will start to my left with Mr Cathy do you have any um WP wrap it up yep sorry um okay we're good here yeah um thank you and Dr or to your earlier point about just the development of the plan and recognizing the level of detail and how it stands out I I do want to recognize that and that there's a lot of work that goes into this so I had comments about the the goals um and I just want to be clear where that's coming from is want to make sure that as a board member I'm

100doing our job because um I never taught a day in my life so when you talk about the strategies I've have you know the utmost confidence in you guys that you're you're doing what needs to be done the goal piece to me is really so that the areas that we can impact as a board and a team rise to the top and we can see those um so I've been sitting here going over and looking at last month's um presentation and saying like what's the most effective way to give some feedback and look at what we need going forward would that be in re redesigning goals u based on my maybe overly um obsessive diving into them or what I will say that was incredibly valuable was looking at the longitudinal that Trend over time

101and so this is you know open the feedback here from the board that's where my head's at right now in terms of where the value would be because um as long as and I'm not going to ask the question because I'm sure you put these goals forward because you feel confident that they'll put you in position to identify where we're doing great and where we need to to lend some attention I think the other detail there if I could make a request um with this is if you could apply that longitudinal kind of uh piece to all the other subcohorts and and all that um I know it's a lot of work and it's a lot of digging up data and I'm not not expecting it tomorrow um but over time being able to see

102that because I think one common bit of feedback that I've had since I joined the board is um this is a five-year plan this is one year of it but we need to make sure that we're looking at the entire progress of a cohort if they've been in the district uh for the entirety of the plan so that's where my heads space is at right now it's probably more information than you guys care to know but I figured I'd share it um go ahead yeah so so Mr Cappy just so I understand I want to make sure I meet the board's needs is um with regard to information that we report back to you uh what you found helpful was that grid that and thank you again to the team for putting it together that

103had that longitudinal data what you're asking from uh from the team is that we apply that to the other applicable data points is that correct and then and then and then give that information to the board that's correct because at the end of the day to me um that's where the rubber really meets the road you know setting the goals so we communicate what we want to do in terms of making progress from last year is important and understanding where we did end up the last year is important to kind of stamp that data point but just want to continue to make sure that we see the progress over time because I think again the point is not to dive into every single goal but it's really to use it as a tool so that

104those areas where we think we can make an impact um get elevated with ease if that makes sense all right so we have a regularly scheduled senior leadership team meeting tomorrow afternoon I'll have a conversation with them make sure we have complete a good idea about exactly what to provide and then I'll provide for the whole board a timeline for when they can expect that information that's my feedback so I'm kind of want to you know speak for the entire board but that's that's where I'm at I saw from that's where I'm at as an extension of just the themes that I've been bringing to these conversations so thank you very much thank you Miss Andrews um yeah so with regards to the communication I hear um the communication section of this like I hear

105um there's a lot that you guys are doing um which I appreciate and um the one thing that I didn't hear is just the communication plan and I know that that um has been something that um you know has been a guide and so can you just speak to that and kind of make sure we're yeah um one of the things we wanted to make sure to do here was really highlight some of our new work and the good news about the communication plan is it really is very much a part of our routine work um so every year we go through the communication plan we go through our content calendar and all of our processes make sure that's updated the board can expect to see um information about the communications plan and then ultimately

106uh we'll bring the plan for uh to you for approval I don't um foresee any significant Chang es uh to the plan um but that is part of our work every year so thanks for bringing it up very much yep and um I would just guess that to kind of echo what what Mr Cathy um said you know we are ultimately here for the education of students and um I just as a board member I take that um seriously and want to ensure that we're doing everything we can to support all students and um and so I think that it sounds like Dr olrick um is going to provide us with some more information and um I think that'll be good thank you Mr boo uh yeah two things on communication um one piece that

107I I think we could maybe do some more of and maybe we're already doing it just as a board we don't see is communication to the education Community as a whole about the things that we've done and been successful at whether it's the idea lab or something else um so that you know Statewide or even broader um sort of all students can benefit from things that we've tried here that have worked um and then the second piece uh on the tax calcul later uh my head went space went to the like Progressive commercials and maybe we could steal something from that by pointing out hey if you have a $300,000 house in Kirkwood this is what your taxes would be but by the way if that house was in a different School District your taxes

108would be this much higher than they are here yep we can consider that for [Laughter] sure uh Miss motia Miss Pangborn sorry I couldn't find the unmute button um I appreciate we didn't get a chance to really talk about Communications in our work session um so I didn't get to really share my thought here and I do think um that it's one of the harder goals for us to objectively evaluate um right and I appreciate some of the metrics that you're trying to bring in that are quantifiable um but I'm really interested and in seeing how you know some of it's in the communications plan that you talked about and some of it I believe is in here but like how are we proactively communicating um messaging you know uh and and getting information out

109to our families and Gathering feedback on it and then making adjustments and changes Etc um which I realize is again could be subjective if people think it's good or not but um that's just one thing that we Contin continuously or I have sorry I shouldn't speak from my eye voice I continuously have heard is that we can always improve on Communications um so uh I know that's kind of a lot and hard to measure but uh I just keep coming back to I would love to see us really push ourselves and how we can gather you know feedback on being more proactive about our Communications thank you I certainly do think it's something we can always improve on um and we want want to very much um so I do think that you know we

110have some of the systems in place to really partner with our team to make sure that we get the information and can work on it and hopefully put it in a way that brings Clarity um to our families and um to our staff as well um but definitely appreciate that there's always room for growth we want to continue to Garner feedback um one of the ways we do that is certainly through panoram but the other way that it's really helpful uh for me from my situation is through our Communications committee because they do in some ways serve as a focus group for us to hear from internal and external stakeholders and we go through and we'll discuss specific things and we'll um sometimes find out things that we hadn't heard even anecdotally until we sat

111down and really started talk about okay what does the back to school guide look like did this help you what are the things that would be better was it clear clear what it wasn't missing or um this past year I go back to the website but they were very very helpful in um helping us understand and process some of the information that families or staff are looking for and how we can better um meet those needs so I do think it's an ongoing uh conversation and I do think that there are multiple modes that we need to look at when uh processing how we can improve and do better um and I do appreciate too that sometimes the most easily measured are areas are not the ones that get us the feedback that we need

112in this particular topic thank you and so if I heard heard something that you said you said that there's a really good way for families to give feedback on Communications through our Panorama survey is that like something we need to be sharing and pushed out there so there are specific there is a specific question actually a couple one specific to transparency one specific to satisfaction which is more General um and one specific to Communications within the Panorama survey and those questions are some of the custom questions that we have uh that we added because they're consistent with questions that we've asked our community for some time so it actually extends past Panorama where we have some um level of feedback and understanding of how we're doing um but certainly as we partner with Dr map

113to message Panorama can highlight that as one of the areas that we're looking for um feedback from per thank you Miss uh heurn this is your Arena um yeah I'm I'm GNA kind of build on what Miss pingor had to say and hopefully it doesn't feel like a pile on um but when I look at priority objective 4.2 the you know enhance and improved communication and community relations to strengthen trust with constituents the list of things that we have there is a lot more of we're sharing positive news we're providing resources you know new website like these are all wonderful things um but I mean the feedback that I have certainly received from a lot of people um it sounds like I'm not the only one and I know a lot of it as feedback

114I've passed on to you um previously is just a desire to meet that you know to that improve trust point of having a really open line of communication being proactive about getting feedback not just on our Communications but feedback on anything and um I I think it sounds like that's something that might come through a lot more with the communications plan I mean I'm still learning the difference between this piece you know the Strategic plan the communications plan um but I think to really move towards that trust piece that is really important to me personally and I think to a lot of people is um making our community feel like their feedback is wanted that it's easy for them to give that we're responsive that they're really clear on the process um you know that

115sort of back and forth engagement piece that's not static information that's available to them as a resource um so that's just something that I hope to see and over time for us to you know work towards a little bit so I just wanted to give that feedback overall I mean all these are wonderful things the the website looks great I think streamlining or social media is a great move I think you're doing some really great work um I just had to pass on the feedback that I hear very consistently um and then I just wanted to say since this is wrapup time um I just wanted to you know Echo that what I think is the sentiment of what Mr Cathy has kind of pointed out to with the academics goals of just you know

116while we look at this one year at a time having that big picture look and making sure we're putting things into a certain context so if academics slide in a certain area one year or you know at a certain time or within a certain cohort you know and that that's on us too to ask a lot of questions to make sure we understand what's going on there so that we can you know stay on track for our students and so I I just wanted to you know Echo that part of his sentiment so thank you so much thank you and then I just have a couple of things one I I love the new look of the the website um but while like exploring I'm looking at the Kirkwood High School and I'm wondering and

117this is just from that alternative lens I don't see anything about like uh Pioneer Pathways or just because as a a parent it would be nice to if I went to the website I know that we're educating kids at all levels and I think that that's a great um thing to advertise and let them know or am I missing it oh no I can reach out to the high school tomorrow and talk to them about making sure that content's more prominent for sure unless I'm missing it oh I so what we do is very much work with our schools um to manage it but I can bring that to their attention you're right it's very likely that it's there and just isn't um prominent on the homepage so I'll just reach out and we'll uh

118figure it out teaching and learning yeah cuz I think when they know there's resources available some people don't know so I think that's great um secondly uh let's see I did kind of quietly um give kudos to Mr Scott with this last slides about the sro's and his the work his team's doing so I want to publicly um shout out M martiz and our SRO thank you so much for the work that you do within our district and the relationships that you have and you share with our students and our families um so thank you for that and then just overall thank you uh Dr or to your team for getting through this we know it's a long process a long um presentation um just looking forward to um the ask of uh that Mr

119Cathy um brought to us and then also appreciate the the um graphic or the the overall summary plan of the um deip piece but just looking for a little more um detailed into some of those things so we can look back after next year and say okay this is what we said we were going to do and this is what we did just so we can have those checks and balances but other than that thank you thank you thank you um oh that is correct sorry so yes and I sat that right here just so I wouldn't forget and I still forgot I need a motion in a second to approve the Strategic plan for 2024 2025 school year as presented some move Boco second okay all those in favor please raise your right hand

120and say I all those opposed motion passes um and just before I end tonight's meeting um I'd like to acknowledge that the board of education has received phone calls and emails over the past week from concerned families who are looking for Clarity on a situation at one of our schools and while we cannot comment on Personnel issues I can assure you that the Board of Education and the district is committed to diversity equity and inclusion as you saw tonight um that means taking concerns families bring to us seriously and working to ensure that our schools are safe spaces for students and staff if it also means empathizing with and recognizing the lived experiences of others it is our hope that the conversations that have been generated will lead to Opportunities For Education and healing throughout

121our district the Board of Education appreciate appreciate excuse me the engagement of those um who have offered resources to us and we expect that this work to continue for the days weeks and months ahead so with that being said I need a motion and a second to return to close session per section 610.021 subsection 3 and 13 so moved Andrews second Motika all right Mr caffy yes M Andrews yes Mr boo yes Miss Pangborn yes Miss Motika yes Miss heer yes and Miss sh yes thank you have a good evening e for