001Hello. Traffic is bad. I only live in my summit. All right. Good evening. I'd like to officially call this work session uh to order. Um could I get a motion to adopt the agenda, please? >> I move to adopt the agenda as presented. >> We get a second. >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say, "I." Hi. All right, we are in session. Our first topic for tonight is the multi-tered system of supports. I think Dr. Kenny is here for that purpose. Thank you. >> Good evening. Tonight, um, thank you for having me. I get to talk I have the opportunity to talk about MTSS, which is the multi-tiered system of supports. Right. Just a quick kind of bring you up to speed, make sure you know
002where we're headed is that, you know, probably in 2012 2015ish, we implemented response to intervention, also known as response to instruction, sort of renamed it here in Lee Summit. And we were meeting with students in small groups um looking at some data and trying to help kids improve um on academic skills. I think it was around 2012, 2015, maybe a little bit before that. Um, the the kind of thought was out there, but we really hadn't moved forward on a lot of that work until some of those probably the teens, 2012ish. And then we know that um we had the process in place, but it maybe didn't have all the components that we have now. And we maybe weren't all doing it exactly the same way. And so we knew that we some changes to
003happen, but then COVID hit. And so then really we were trying to do small groups online and some of them were more effective than maybe other interventions we had or even instruction that we had. And although it was good, we knew that it could be better. And so once we returned from COVID and we had all students back in the classroom, we really kind of reignited this thought of MTSS. We had it going a little bit before CO um but really worked on this multi-tiered system of supports where we every kid would go through the same exact supports so that we could find out who really needed more help and maybe um who didn't need as much. All right, we're going to take a little quiz just to get you started. All right, so just
004use a piece of paper there at your station and I won't make anyone share their results. So if you and you can even change your answers as we move on through tonight. Okay. So the first question I just want you to think about is why do we use why do we utilize MTSS? Like what's the benefit? Number two is, do schools have both an ELA intervention block and a math intervention block? Number three is, do classroom teachers provide interventions? Number four is what percentile do we use to decide if we need to look deeper like and then the fifth one is what's the weekly testing called which helps us decide over time if an intervention is working. All right, we'll talk about the answers at the end but again you can change your answers. Okay,
005this is just sort of a kind of a visual for you. These are the six steps that we have in our MTSS process. Universal screening, core instruction, screening for additional or intensive supports, set progress monitoring goals, determine frequency and duration, communicate with parents and begin interventions, and our last step is reviewing student progress. Okay, I'm going to break those down each one of those just a little bit more for you. So our first step is universal screening. So all students K5 are given the NWA in both ELA and in math. In just because of Senate Bill uh 681, K3 has a different assessment than our our kids in 345. And so the K3 test is called the MAP reading fluency, foundational skills with dyslexia screener and adaptive oral reading. And then our older students take
006the math map growth assessment. And then math, they all take the MAP growth. Okay, so that's kind of our first step. Every student takes these tests. So, it's really important to note it to note that through our MTSS system, one entire step is just devoted to core instruction. We know that students take these assessments and then we may need to dig deeper and see where where a deficit may be or skills that a student needs to acquire, but it's really important that all of our students continue to get great teaching and learning in their classrooms, whole group. Okay? So, if everyone's receiving UFly in our K2 classrooms, these students are also receiving all of that great teaching and learning full class, okay? Or however it's being delivered. So, we want to make sure they're getting
007all the instruction everyone else is getting. And then we're going to use some data to drive their personalized instruction. All right. Step three is once we've screened all of our students, we're going to review the results to determine who needs more support or maybe who do we need to look deeper at to see if it was just a bad testing day or maybe they might have some pieces that um that we may benefit from some intervention. So we use the benchmark of 40th percentile. So we look at any student who scores 40th percentile and below in both ELA and in math. And once we have determined those students, we're going to give them another screener to see if they really need the intervention. So in ELA, they're going to be given the SIPS placement assessment
008because SIPS is the intervention we use. And in grades three, five, if they pass the SIPs assessment, we sometimes will give them the UFly. So although we're using UFly for all students in K2, it can be an intervention for students in grades three. And then in math we give the numerousy consultant screener. Okay. Each screener provides a starting point for intervention for us. Based on a student's score on the screener, we can decide if they are a student candidate for intervention or if maybe something happened on the assessment or they they don't need intervention. And then additional support based on their score. Um if it is lower than what we would like to see in given their grade level, we may decide their additional support. If it's a lot lower than what we would like
009to see, it's called uh intensive support. And so our additional support students are given 60 plus minutes a week of intervention and our intensive are given 90 plus minutes a week of intervention. Our fourth step is setting progress monitoring goals, determining frequency, and then making decisions on duration. We set ambitious goals because we want to close the gap. We want to we want to show that we can have this these goals meet where we want students to be. So, if this is where they're at, we have to have ambitious goals to get them where we want them to be. Um, we also have to determine during this point in time who's the best person to provide the intervention. Typically, the student who is most at risk needs to have the most trained professional. So, sometimes
010students might um have a deficit in reading and we think it's important they meet with the reading teacher. All teachers are teachers of reading, but we have reading specialists and math specialists that have, you know, advanced training and more professional development and that might be the best provider for those students who are most most needing support. Okay. We also decide frequency. They going to receive the intervention two times a week, three times a week, or even sometimes five days a week. And how long how long are they going to receive the intervention? and we can look at results. Step five is we're going to communicate with families. We always want our parents to know when students are receiving intervention. We have both uh verbal conversations and letters that we send home so that they know
011what intervention they're on. And then in this step, we're going to start intervening. So, we're going to pull students to the tables. Maybe some students might um see the reading teacher or the math interventionist. And they're going to be in small groups. Some students based on intensity may in oneonone situations um in in a needed content area. We're going to intervene at least at least me. We're going to intervene at least six times before we start progress monitoring and checking on how they're doing in the intervention. Okay? So, we need them to get a lot of intervention during this time, a total of 120 minutes before we really can see if anything's really working. Step six is we're going to review student progress and mon uh student progress monitoring data. So each week we have
012students take after they receive the first six 120 minutes we're going to start giving them in a small assessment and it's pretty quick to see how they're doing. Not necessarily to see how they're doing in the intervention but to see how they're doing on these skills overall. Okay. We track all that data and then we make some decisions whether they're making adequate progress, inadequate progress or if it's uncertain. Sometimes we look at data and the data is just sort of hovering around the same points and we have to make some decisions. Do we keep student in the intervention? Should we switch interventions? Should we increase the frequency of interventions? Maybe we need to change the person who's providing the intervention. Um during this also it's just important to note that we do sometimes have some
013students who are in Wilson reading um and our tier threeish but our most intensive intervention called bridges in math. All right. Then we just hope kids make really great progress and they can come out of intervention. Okay. But that's pretty much MTSS. So I'm going to review our answers and then I'll take any questions you might have. Okay. So, why do we use MTSS? We use it so that we can help students all achieve at high levels. And if we need have we have someone who needs intervention that we're providing intervention to get them to be able to achieve, right? Uh do schools have both ELA intervention blocks and a math intervention block? They do. They have both. So, typically it's about 20 to 25 minutes every day. Sometimes some schools have scheduled 30 minutes,
014but sometimes a transition between classrooms and moving in and out we lose just a few minutes. So we try to maximize number of minutes we have. Do classroom teachers provide the interventions? They do. That's right. So a lot of our classrooms are providing SIPs. Um they're not providing Wilson reading. Wilson reading and bridges are really reserved for our specialists or reading and math specialists, but they're all providing SIP. Some of our grade three five teachers um some of them may be proficient in UFly most of those are going through rain teacher still but we have lots and lots of people doing numerous consultants in math in sips and reading. What percentile do we use to decide if we need to look deeper into student skills? The 40th percentile. And then the last one is what's
015the weekly testing call that helps decide over time if an intervention is working for a student? Progress monitoring. All right. What questions do you have? >> Oh, um I was going to ask about I I think I seen that there was a call to the parents about um possibly having a student evaluated. Um, and I'm just speaking because from experience, um, I through the parents, uh, of struggling readers attending one of their meetings, then I realized I should probably h have my son, you know, have the intervention uh, thing. So, I set that up, but I didn't know like what is the criteria that they would reach out to me to have that done. >> Okay. So, really all students are screened. So, we'll be looking at every student, but if any parent has any
016concerns about reading instruction or what their student may be or think their student needs more, they are always welcome to call principal um or let the teacher know because that's really the key is, you know, maybe we're not seeing something you're seeing at home when you read and we can provide like we can kind of, you know, layer that into our intervention program or ask those same questions during intervention. But if any parent has concerns or comes to you and wants their student looked at, we're looking at everyone. Um whether a parent advocates or not, but always welcome to have a conversation about what we're doing and and maybe what we're trying is not the best thing. Maybe you have a different idea, always willing to partner with parents if they have a concern. >>
017But they will the parents be um called is I think that's what they see. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. Yes. So that's pretty much in our step five. All of our all of our parents are communicated with um via telephone and then we follow up with a letter letting them know um who might even be doing the intervention, what intervention they're they're going to be in, and what we can expect. Thanks for the question. Not used to meeting. Um I'm wondering middle school if they continue to struggle in different areas, what is the sort of like equivalent process that would be used? Dr. Linkquist, I'm just kidding. Um, so MTSS is not yet really, um, we're still supporting students in very different ways. The middle level, their reading lab, um, trying to think there's other dream
018strategies, CWC, there's just some different ways. Um, the structure doesn't look the same. You know, in elementary we have students that are in the same classroom all day long and we have some students that switch. And so our structure is very different than the middle level, but we still have students in Wilson reading at the middle level. Um, and we're trying to kind of work through that currently. Dr. Anything you want to share or anything you want? That was okay. So my question would be uh does this just happen like at a certain time each semester that we would so I just can't call you up at Christmas and say hey I want to do this tomorrow like there's a there's a p when when do we do this in the fall and when we
019when do we do this in the spring semester >> okay so the rough timeline is that we start testing students on the NWA just about the first between the first and second week of school. So, we're kind of jumping back in um with both feet because we want to make sure that we grab students as soon as they need something. Um it's important for us to look at students right after the summer break. We've had a long time off school and so the first time we give the NDVA, it's in September. We'll give it again in December for se for most students. Um we have a few in January and then we finish again in May. So, three times a year students are looked at. Each one of those follows the same process looking at
020the students who are 40th percentile below. Sometimes in May we make those lists and then we know exactly who to intervene with when they come back to school in September. >> And that's a universal screener obviously in between those if kid moves in or we see a change in data. We do the UFly or other assessments. Um >> Dr. That's right. We have part of 681 and just great practice is that any student who moves into us, we test within the first 30 days of school of their enrollment period. So any student comes reading teacher will take the student provide the NWA and so that we can get a good baseline of where a student may be maybe at. Thanks for the question. Um thank you for the presentation. It was helpful. Uh my question
021is really about um do we communicate this information with parents like before before we start the testing before anything start do they know that this is being that that that kids are being screened and that what we're looking for? Is that typically what we how does that happen with communication? Not necessarily. I do feel like we have been using the same system for quite a while, but I feel like our families I mean I feel like they start asking like where are those scores? We know they're coming. Um the scores will be first time typically provide to parents at conferences just so they can have a conversation and explain them. Um but I we don't really send home a testing letter just because it's for all students and we know that's really important. Um but
022I feel like our parents know a lot of parents will mention that to me like I've seen their NWA scores. I've looked at the graphs. I understand this is how they're progressing or they're not progressing. And so we don't send a testing letter home. We might send one overall, but um I feel like families, you know, teachers usually communicate with our parents to say, "Hey, next week we're taking, you know, the reading assessment and the following week we'll take math or whatever." Okay. Thank you. And I think um so I'm wondering if um like how does a parent understand that and maybe it's through the teacher conference, right? or through um like how do they understand some of what you're sharing with us? Like we're te they're testing, we're going to look at their scores
023to determine if they're needing extra services or support. Does that make sense? >> It does. I think that classroom teachers, our classroom teachers, this presentation could have been given by any any general education teacher in our in our elementary. This process is so um it's part of what we do. it is those teachers. They know this process forwards and backwards. So, I do feel like our teachers know exactly where our students are and they're they're really the ones talking to parents, helping them understand this is where we're at or um I'm going to send home some graphs or you know, we plot them on graphs and so parents are um teachers are really good at explaining that. >> The NWA report itself is colorcoded and shows where you're at compared to what your target should
024be. Um, so it's very informative as far as if you have a child who scores below 40th percentile. Not everyone's going to get a call because it may be this child scored 30th percentile, but every other data point we have shows that they're excelling. Maybe it was just a bad test day for the kid. Um, you know, maybe something was going on home the night before. Maybe they maybe they're feeling ill. So there's but if you if they're going to get an intervention, they get an individual call and walk through it. So um that and that's quite a few kids. I don't remember how many hundreds of kids out of our 7,000 elementary kids, but um quite a few of our kids and they get an individual call and walk through that data. >> Thank
025you. >> Yeah, but if they have questions or you talk to people and they want to know, have them reach out to their teachers. Their teachers are tracking their data weekly to see if we're making gains or if we're um if something change needs to happen. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? Thank you, Dr. Kitty. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Oh, wait, wait, wait. Hang on. Dr. Johnson's up. >> Okay. I feel kind of bad because I came in late and maybe this was mentioned. Is the NWA um given in different languages? >> It's not. >> Okay. And then if the parents aren't English as a first language, can they get a copy of that letter in the language that they speak? >> I do believe they can. Yes. >> Okay. And
026also, if English not their first language as a child, do they get a are they graded on a curve? >> They're not. Um, we have some kind of some cut scores. So, if they're maybe a student who is new to our country or new to English based on the EL assessment called the WEDA, the WITA. Yes, I'm right. Yes. Um, we have some cut scores. So if they score a certain score um they have to excuse me they have to score a certain score on the WEDA for us to believe the NWA would be an appropriate assessment for the student. Always try to give the um the best we can do for kids not trying to give assessments to kids that aren't able to um read it. >> That would be the same for the
027state test. um it's only given in English but your first year of in uh being in country um you're not counted in in the district score for the state but after that you start you are um so that is that's why they triangulate data so if they get a score it's low but they think it's a language barrier because everything else they're seeing they're scoring high they wouldn't get an intervention but if they're seeing triangulation of all the data go across is low then they would >> that student may not be we also have a a cut score for to provide interventions knowing that English acquisition is first and then intervention. We've been we've worked really hard this year to make sure that once we hit that cut score, students are pushing interventions that we're
028giving as much as we possibly can. >> As far as communications, Germaine Wilson uh oversees our as a proprio. I'm saying it correctly right Dr. Wilson. Um so any of our communications, you asked about the letter going to parents or communication. We we do that in many many languages now. We this is our second year I think proprio and it has how many over 100 languages in it. Over 100 languages in it and we have currently 30 last time I checked 39 foreign languages spoken at home as as the main language in the home. That's up from 12 in 2018. It's now 39. >> Yeah, those are great questions. Thank you. >> So those are great questions, Dr. Johnson. And it led me to think about um does the NWA um allow for um the
029test to be read to the student? >> There are portions that we can provide accommodations on. >> And it's easier to do that in the math when you're when you're scoring reading. That's typically where you have less ability to accommodate because they're trying to see what you can do reading wise. >> Thank you. Anybody else? I think we're good. All right. Thank you so much. Uh, item 2.02, MSBA board policy updates. Dr. Carlson. >> Yes. Good afternoon. So, MSBA had a release and as they promised, I'll just as a reminder, um, MSBA shared with Linda and I that they're going to be sending out updates more frequently that aren't as large. So, they're holding to that. This is 25D that has been released. Um in there are several policies um most of these are due
030to Senate Bill 68 um that was passed and most of the changes are are related to that. So um you've had a chance to review if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer those or have the appropriate SLT person answered if I cannot satisfy your question. Board member Dawson. >> Hi. Um, uh, we met earlier this week. Thanks so much for going through all these in more detail in that committee meeting. Um, can you share with the board the reason that, uh, two of the policies that MSBA sent us are not on this list? Thank you. >> Certainly be happy to. So uh in 25D there were two policies EHBC and JCA that um SLT and then board policy committee supported not moving those forward. EHBC is actually related to AI and technology
031and this is a revision to a policy that was adopted about a year or so ago uh but recommended by MSBA. We as a school district chose not to adopt that AI policy. Um after review, our team felt like u our current EHB and E other board policies related to data and technology um served us well and with how fast AI is evolving. Um we felt like our general policies that cover things like software and data and technology usage met our needs and so we are choosing not to adopt that update or that policy. The other is JCA. JCA the Senate Bill 68 allows for contract employees in a school district if the school district allows district employees to bring their children to enroll. It was a provision that would allow contract employees to bring
032their children to enroll in the district. This was really specifically designed for those school districts that utilize contract services for things like transportation, nutrition services, custodial, and would allow them to give that same benefit to those full-time employees in those areas um that's afforded to their regular full-time employees. Since we do not utilize contract services for those big functions, those are all internal employees in in house. Um we do not see a need to adopt that revision as well. Thank you for the question, >> Vice President Bill. >> Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Carlson. Um, I had a question on policy JHDF. Um, so on page I guess it's page one under the crisis team, how will the crisis team, how are we determining who is on that crisis team? I know it lists a
033couple of people that it could be, but is there uh some specified like people that are going to be trained in like mental health first aid or something that are going to be the dedicated crisis team and how are those individuals determined >> specifically under the definition section of what is a crisis team >> is that the >> yes part >> yes >> or under the heading that better >> it just says quote unquote school officials she's asking how is that designated >> I didn't scroll down far enough yeah I think our leadership team, Dr. Barger, her her her directors, and her IoT folks would be the ones that would identify who are the those best folks. Being a former middle school principal, I would say um often those are our school counselors, assistant principles,
034those folks because those are your frontline people that through those situations are going to work with those kids and then when needed, they'll bring in the expertise of the SRO. >> Okay. And then so those individuals, I know it says they're going to rece for fashion. Um, is there is there going to be ongoing training to just kind of like PD or something on a yearly basis to ensure that people are aware of what they need to be um able to do in a situation if a situation arises? >> Counselors um who give the Colombia threat assessment are trained and counselors tend to be the leads of our buildings uh crisis teams. >> Okay. Um the other one that I was looking at is on page two the last section um number on number three.
035So it says can someone pro so my question is can someone provide a definition of appropriate time? Yeah, every situation is dynamic and unique and I think it depends on the severity or intensity of the situation and then um the pace of recovery from that mitigating risk. Um I think that's where we have those trained professionals, school counselors um that can can work with families with with kids and also know that typically if a crisis is at a very significant level then we are working with the the students or the employees if it's that case but the students u medical team would be advising and guiding them and then providing clearance that hey they're okay they've gotten the intervention or remedy they need. And I think they don't define it because the way title nine
036is right now um sometimes things get slowed down while you've worked the title nine process. Um also sometimes you have an older kid who might um be in a facility by family court or by juvenile court or something like that and you have to wait till they come back before you can fully process it. So that is vast majority of cases that's within the day but there's a few times where that may be very delayed because you don't have access or because another process is um superseding it. >> Thank you. I have one last question and this is just general. Um, have we as a district um provided information since Senate Bill 68 was passed to make um our families aware of the process and and what's what's all noted in here that we'll be
037following? >> Not that I'm aware of. It may have happened, but you know, we've not adopted the policy yet either. So once we this will come to November's board meeting and then December. So I can't speak to specifically Senate Bill 68 and and what they've done, but I know that once we've adopted the policy, then we would certainly >> The only thing with Senate Bill 68 associated with this board policy that's substantive difference is that if a child transfers, um >> we would do send a threat assessment as well because it's part of their record and prior it was not part of their record. Um, so that's that's the only substantial difference. Everything else is pretty much what we've already been doing. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Carlson. >> Member Dawson. >> Hello
038again. Um, just to follow up on that last discussion, um, the the change from Senate Bill 68, um, that says that it's going to be part of the record, that might be significant to some parents. So, I would I could totally see wanting to communicate that just as a parent. Um, but my other question um and um another discussion that we had uh back in the committee meeting that I was hoping you could share with the board is the difference between the updates to JFCA, the student dress code, and how that fits in with our current dress code policy and the fact that we reviewed it uh just last year. Yeah, certainly. And uh fortunately on that team, we do have a high school principal that was a part of that process. And this policy
039uh as you can see in the descriptor, this one was not actually driven by a change in legislation. Um they just wanted to make sure they adopted u this in the manual and just recommended some language changes. Um they also, as you notice there, they don't want dress codes specifically in policy. Those are in our handbooks. Um, and nothing that was done with the student dress code Pratt is changed or modified by changes in this policy that per the MSBA recommendation. >> Any other questions? Good. Thank you, Dr. Carlson. Appreciate it. All right, work session's over.