001Jillian, we did a sound check earlier. Just want to double check you can hear us. Okay, >> we are good. >> All right. It's almost 30 seconds from the meeting. 7:30, huh? Good morning. It's 7:30 on February 10th and this is uh our version of the ED services committee meeting. I see no one for public comment. So, we'll get right into uh our first topic. Are we keeping them in order? >> Yeah, let's I don't have I intentionally plan to try to get folks back to the building as good. >> Saved myself for last. >> So, we're going to hear about the RMS trip to Puerto Rico. >> Yes. Good morning. Um, for those of you who don't know me, I am Katie Ditzurn. I teach four languages at the middle school and um, work
002with our multilingual learners as well. So, kind of a dual role. As you know, or maybe you don't know, the high school uses EAP Explore America for their trips to um, study abroad with Airline uh, their Spanish study abroad trips. EAP uh, Explore America also does travel experiences for middle school students. and I was presented an opportunity to see if there was any interest at the middle school to expand the program from the high school to the middle school. And me being a world traveler that I am and have had great experiences in my younger years um in my school days um jumped at the opportunity. So I first talked to Eric Klein, asked him what he thought has, you know, how was the company, what is your experience? He says great things about it.
003So then I approached our and school administrators and got the go-ahad to present to all of you. So I'm just going to start with um some information about the company in case you're not aware of what that what they do. Um so just also Mr. Klein has gone on six trips using Explore America um himself with the middle school, the high school, excuse me. Um so this company is internationally recognized and the largest student travel company in the world. They have 507 worldwide um locations in 100 cities and 54 countries. They're very professional according to Mr. Klein and have knowledge and context. The quality food and lodging and tour experiences are bar namic according to him as well. Um, so the thing that I love about this opportunity is the advantage that we would be
004giving our middle school students. So typically they use a middle school Puerto Rico because it is accessible for everyone. And that's what I love about it. No ID required, no social security number. Anyone literally is eligible. Whereas at the high school level in age rise, you're looking at a couple other different things that you would need. But at this level, you just need parent. So really for that accessibility and equity, that's something that I think is very important from an equity standpoint. So all of our students in middle school would be eligible. Of course, I would want our dual language students to have first priority and our multilingual learners to have first priority as well, opening up to the Spanish students and then the rest of the school as well. So a little bit different
005requirements than the Washington DC trip that you're used to where it's more grade and behavior based. This would be literally for students who could afford to pay to have this experience. Um, so I'm proposing that I would shop along the trip and once you have 10, you get a free shar. Anything about that? Mr. Cunningham expressed an interest, our other bilingual teacher in the middle school as well. Um, just because she's bilingual, I think that would be an advantage for her. So, what would students get from this? They would expand their knowledge of the world around them. They would grow more confident and independent, understand new people, places, and cultures, and discover more about themselves. And it is just a great opportunity to leave smalltown, Watertown, Wisconsin, and see the world around you in an
006accessible way. Um, so I have provided the whole document that I was given. It has the travel itinerary. At first, I was thinking 2027 with Eric Klein to kind of piggyback off of that and grow their numbers. Um, but then we were thinking maybe it would be best if we did it off off years from then. So then push it out to 2028. So I think the uh the itinerary I shared with you was for 2027. If you and I could go either way. I could go with them. Um or I could go opposite years of them. And then if I go opposite views of them, they are going to take Puerto Rico off of their trip itinerary and just explore some other countries so that students wouldn't get a double dip experience like it
007wouldn't be fair when those schools students went and then by the time they qualified in high school like Puerto Rico again. So we don't want to do that for them. >> That was a lot. Um a lot of your questions might be answered in there. I do want to say this, there is always a tour guide. So it is never one chapo. You are always with the tour guide during the day and you are always with the security team in the evening. That is very important to the company as it would be for me as well. Parent safety parents can communicate with you 247. They have a hotline 247. They have an emergency line. I mean they have been doing this for decades. So they they have all of those safety features covered. Um what
008questions might you have for them? So Katie, as I understand right now, you're determining if you would join the high school team in 2027 with middle schoolers or you would go on alternate years in 2028. >> Correct. >> If you went >> in 2030, >> even >> and then the high school would choose a different location to take a trip uh eventually. >> Correct. >> And you're looking for feedback from the the committee on that? >> Yeah. >> Okay. thoughts or questions? >> Um, as you have you bounced this off of any parents at this point? >> I have not. That's a great question. >> I was just wondering what feedback there might be. >> I asked my students and they said, "I can start saving up $100 a month to make this work. I
009think this could work." So, they're excited. They would I have student interest for sure. >> What's the ratio of adults to students? 1 to 10. >> And two to 10 if you count the the tour guide. >> How long? How long is it once you get there? Again, >> how many days? >> Yeah. How many days? >> Yeah. So, the proposed itinerary is the 23rd to the 29th. So, just a quick five day trip. I know that high school goes long, but this would be five days. Uh I I don't have any uh particular objections to to that. I I would say that alternating years might be good for families, you know, that way they're not uh they're not doing two trips a year to two separate locations. So that's uh that's my only thought,
010but I would say uh move it forward to the full board for discussion and and approval. I mean 2027 is a ways out, but we'll look forward to the full board for discussion at least. >> Okay. >> Yeah, let's do that. >> Okay. Thanks Katie. >> And you want to move on to securely? >> Securely it is. So um we invited the middle school and high school uh admin reps here today. Um, as you remember, we had discussed securely at the middle school, I believe in August or there's a um a program that they started using at the middle schools to start the school year where students are checking in and out um when they need to use the hall for some reason. The middle school did or the high school, I'm sorry, did um
011adopt it and implement it after winter break. And so that that they would like to share and I know the board had asked for a revisit of this after we discuss it. So I will >> I realize maybe should we introduce everyone go ahead. >> So Mike Pennside worker high school principal >> Justin associate principal of the high school. >> I'm Justin Krale athletic director and assistant. Um, so last week Jenny and I were talking. She said, "Hey, we're gonna have present on securely." And the first thing I thought of was I was like, "Okay, yeah, we can do that." Um, I think it's become part of our culture, right? And then I started thinking about it is I'm going to date myself a little bit. But when I first started teaching, your grade book
012was on paper like in a grade book, right? Or you added up the scores and here's your grade. And then now like part of your culture is you have Skyward and you have grades in Skyward and it's just like become the electronic version of it. To me um when I when she first said we're gonna present I was like I think it's part of our culture, right? Like instead of having a pass hanging by the door that kids used to grab and ask through. Now it's just this is the pass system. This is how it works. I think it's become part of our culture. Um so late last week we did send out a survey and got some feedback from teachers. The first question was just on a scale of one to five. How user
013friendly is securely? um for managing student requests and we have like a little over 83% of people are either a four or five on like friendly. So 16 four 11% of them are neutral and two of our teachers are just at the two. None of them were at a one. So I think on user friendly they feel like it's pretty good. Another question we asked of them was how is it uh affected your ability to keep the class focused? Um 50% of our teachers answered it has reduced interruptions and 44% said it has no noticeable change and then that would leave you with 6% to probably two of them feel like it's maybe done the opposite right so I think pretty high percentage feel like it's it's doing what it needed to do um and
014then we asked the question have you noticed a change in the number of students who've taken a p change want a pass and 63% no change so it's just changed how we're doing it and um 19% and 16% are more or less. So, it's really like they just feel like the kids are still taking the pass. It's just the operation how we're doing it, right? So, to me, it's just like skyward. This is how you used to get grades was on piece of paper. We add up the numbers and now we do it electronically. And I think that's um how the passes were. Couple things. We asked for some general feedback and it was super positive. Uh the one suggestion for improvement was setting a limit on the number of students uh to prevent excessive
015use which is funny because that was something we talked about last week when we were presenting this is uh I don't know if you noticed but in the news I think it was Arrowhead that got like showed up at school board big time because people were super mad that they had limited kids passes to three. And so when we saw that this fall, we purposely were like, we don't want to turn that. We don't want to do that, right? We don't want to be arrowhead in this regard and have 70 people here mad because the kids only have three passes a day. We haven't currently limited that six passes a day. Mind you, we have five hours in a in a day, right? So the kids have plenty of opportunities to use the bathroom. We
016haven't heard a complaint about the six limit, which means a kid could go twice first hour and once the rest of the day. I think that's all the time being allowed to leave. Um the other thing we do have it limited where kids sometimes um are like oh it's limited because we have a location set so a kid that wants to go to the bathroom downstairs is downstairs in class and you know does the the security part of it and it will not allow them to go if the bathroom's full. So we limit it to how many stalls there are. So there's five stalls. We can only have five kids in the whole basement how because we don't need somebody just standing there waiting wandering and it keeps track of it. So as soon as
017another kid signs in then you're allowed to go. But there's no reason to let them go and sit there and wait in line in the middle of the class when they can just wait till the stalls open. So that's the only big limit that we have that kids are kind of like, "Oh, I can't go yet." Well, no, it's full anyway. You wouldn't be able to go. Uh the other piece we limit is we do have a couple kids that have issues with each other. So if one of them's out of the bathroom and the other one goes to sign out, they can't go to that bathroom. It'll also limit them until the other one's back. Um so that's the only real limits we can put on kids insecurely. But overall to me it's just
018become part of the culture part of the no different than Skyward for grading. It's now securely leave class >> questions. >> I think that's uh I think that's really cool. I think that is a great system. I will say, and this will probably apply across the board, um, with any of these kind of unusual situations you're talking about, like the bathrooms being full or the, you know, two students can't in the same area can't use the pass at the same time. When some when there's an exception like that, communicating very clearly with the student and with the parent whenever possible, like what's going on in that case might be helpful to them because I know I've heard from a couple of people that that's happening and they're not entirely clear on why it's happening. So,
019I wanted to wait until I heard about it this month. So, I'm happy to get a little bit more. >> Yeah. And I don't I mean, it's hard to communicate like you don't know when you go to go to the bathroom and there's five people already in the bathroom. You just are going to have to wait 45 seconds, two minutes, whatever. >> So, that that's on a case by case basis. You just don't know when the bathrooms are full. And really, when I always they're normally not full. It's not like we have five kids out that often, >> for example. >> Looks like Craig's got his hand up. Sorry, >> Craig. Go ahead. >> Yes. Um, I was curious about um whether disciplinary issues in the bathrooms were also noticeably down as a result of
020more of that controlled environment. >> Uh, I don't have any data for you. Uh, I would say that I don't know. We don't have a ton of discipline issues usually during class time. the more issues tend to happen during passing periods which there's not a limit, right? So the the three minute passing time, you still could have 60 kids wander into the bathroom because it's their passing time. So to me, that's when bigger issues happen. And I I guess I don't know how to limit >> the amount of kids in the bathroom during passing time because that's their time to >> Yeah. >> go to the bathroom slash move to the next question about that. Okay. So like I know you guys thing there was a hot like a like a hot area, right? Yeah,
021that's a great question. So, there's a bathroom, if you're familiar with the middle school, there's a a boys and a girls bathroom up by the gym slashteers lounge in that hallway. And we have closed those bathrooms, locked them um throughout the school day except for during lunch. Reason for that is according to the kids are the nicest bathroom in school. That's why everybody wants to use them. I think that there's probably some fact to that, but there's also, hey, if I'm in another part of the building and I want to take a walk and that's the least supervised bathroom because there's no teachers there, right? We have the gym, but there's no other classrooms in that hallway. Whereas like every other one at least has a classroom within six feet, another door, right? There's door
022social studies door or whatever. And so we've limited that to only during lunch. So, I think in the past we had a lot of kids wanting to wander there. Like you raise your hand, I need to go to the bathroom and you should go to the closest bathroom, but you would choose to wander up to that one. Well, with that being closed this year, they can't do that. The other advantage security, they have to ask what specific bathroom they're going to. They come downstairs, you're only allowed to go to the downstairs bathroom. You can't sign out to go to a bathroom up above. So, it keeps them on the same floor. It keeps them in the right area of the school. And with that being locked during the day except for during lunch, it's really
023cut down on hallway wandering number one. And I think securely has a little part to that. But I also think just locking that bathroom that was completely unnecessary to use other than during lunch and after school activities when it's open. So I think those are two pieces that have helped. >> Is that good, Craig? >> Um I did have a question about the truency issues with uh during you know during class time. It sounds like it's made an improvement, but do we have any any uh data to suggest that those uh truencies are improving? >> I don't have any data off the top of my head for anything on truency related things. Um I mean our attendance data in general is up and better in a better spot >> and that does reflect on. >>
024Yeah. So, but I I don't have the numbers exactly in front of me, but I know when we did our data dig and I got the trophy months ago, it was in a good spot with like beating, you know, being where we're at. >> But like, uh, classroom absences during the day, that's all improved. >> I I don't have the data to say like 100% in front of me. Like, I know it dig a little bit. Um, but I think it's improved for sure. like and if nothing else, you know where they're at, right? Like you can track like, hey, they were in the bathroom for 16 minutes and I think our teachers um even even doing that when like system benefits um like I can read some of the AI stuff for you like
025the top response from the teachers. It says the system is valued for providing data to track student movement, duration out of class, frequency of passes, which is helpful for student accountability, analyzing factors, influencing achievement, having data driven conversations. as many respondents see value in leveraging the so that's like from our teacher survey that's uh Google putting together that and AI is the the first response and then like I said I just read the suggestion for improvement to you guys but um another thing it says accountability and consistency consistency and teacher enforcement staff usage across the building is highlighted as key to the system success holding both the students and teachers accountable and preventing issues like bathroom overflow during passing time which I don't think that's accurate because it's not during passing time that was AI
026thought process on it, but it's really during class. >> Like, do you ever have like individual conversations with families? Like, if you see that a student is out for >> Yeah. >> 15 minutes in all five classes just to say, "Hey, what's going on? How can we better?" >> We tend to do that when a kid is struggling somewhere. So, if a if a kid truly is like getting straight A's or B's, I don't know if we necessarily have to do that, but a kid that's struggling, um I'm in charge of the eighth grade, like I I do the eighth grade leing, I do the eighth grade team meeting. So, I tend to be with the eighth grade. Uh but what we tend to do in eighth grade is we go have a team meeting
027and it's like, hey, this kid's struggling. We will then use that data when we one of the parents come in for a meeting. So, we'll do that during their time is we'll have a parent come in and we'll say, hey, here's where they're struggling. here's some things we notice like they're out of class or they're in class it might be just an effort thing right reasons that they're not doing well but we do mention it in that when we're having a specific meeting with a plant a kid we do have some data that is from around January 1st and at RMS the attendance rate at that time was 94.1% which is at that moment in time uh the highest uh in five year four Yeah. >> And then um chronic absenteeism at that time again
028was at RMS 11% which again was the lowest it's been in four years. >> Yeah. >> I I would imagine that it would be easier to track vandalism in the bathrooms as well then, wouldn't it? >> It is right. Tell who was out with the >> Okay. high school experience. >> Yeah. So, like I'm gonna quickly over be told it's going really well at the high school and that's 99.9999% Justin Beer's doing. Um, so I don't want to take any credit or any shine away from Justin on that. He's got all the data in the results. I'm happy to answer questions. >> So, this is before this your first time here, Justin's, right? >> This is correct. Uh, you didn't get the memo that you're supposed to bring donuts. >> I had them on the
029way. So, >> thank you. Go ahead. >> All right. So, obviously, we've been running it much at a much shorter time period. We started this in December with kind of the trial run, see um kind of getting the feel for what the system was going to look like in the high school with full implementation in January. Uh, so we've only been having it for about a month now. Um, so there was some getting used to, right? some growing pains within the building. One of it because our pass system prior to that was very kind of inconsistent and informal. It was just kind of a paper pass. If the teacher remembered to give it and then the kid to go to the bathroom, a lot of times it was just, hey, I need to go to
030the bathroom. Okay, go ahead. Then there's no way of knowing, how long they're out for, um, and what they're doing while they're out there. Um, so yes, as as Mike said, right, the system allows us to be able to keep an eye on where these kids are going, how long they're going out for. Um, so just getting used to that habit of putting it on through this securely pass system has definitely been um an adjustment for students and for teachers. Um, the auto pass system is nice where the teacher can set up an auto pass for specific bathrooms that the students are allowed to go to in their class. Um, so they'll give two or three options within maybe the floor they're at. So if they're like in the South 100s and they go like
031bathroom 105 or back by bathroom 139 um something along those lines and then so that if S105 is full they can request the other one. Um so with the auto pass system and teacher that's their goal the whole time to approve the pass. As long as no one else is out they generally allow one or two passes at a time. So as long as no one else is out and the bathroom is available the student can start the pass themselves and then when they come back they have the pass when they come back. Um, but then the student has or the teacher has it on their dashboard so they can see, okay, this pass has now turned yellow, which means the student's out for over 10 minutes. Um, and then if it turns to red,
032that means they're out for over 20 minutes. And so then that's where questions start coming up like, okay, why are we out so long? It's built that conversation between the student and the teacher as to, you know, what the expectation is with the path, um, how long we're expecting to be out if we're going to the bathroom and things of that nature. Um, so now we're starting to have conversations at team lead meetings as to um, now that we've done this for a month, we kind of see what the trends are looking like. What are we going to do moving forward if we start seeing more of these 10 minute or longer passes? Um, and so that's where conversations with the student um, and then bringing administration in to have conversations with the student and
033getting parents involved will help just understand that the expectation is that we're in in class and we're not wandering with halls. along with that as well with being able to have them put which restroom they're going to. We've seen a lot more interactions in the halls of like understanding, okay, you are you requested master bathroom 105 and we're down here in the west wing. Why are we down in the west? Right? So, we're able to kind of manage that a little bit more. We don't have kids wandering the halls as much as they used to. Um they're able to have that conversation, get back to where they're supposed to be, um and then get back into class. Um, so that was one of the things that I noticed when I walked in kind of in
034August and September or September, October was there's just a lot of kids kind of wandering without knowing where they're supposed to be and where they're supposed to go. You can ask them, "Hey, where are you supposed to be?" And they'd be like, "Oh, I'm down in welding." When really they're down in English class, right? So now we can tell for sure where are they supposed to be? Where are they supposed to be doing? Um, and we can kind of keep that a little bit uh more clean. Along with that, we also just started the uh appointment system with student services. So, uh, student services will send out appointments a few days in advance to a student, say, "Hey, do you have an appointment with your counselor?" Um, and that'll go to the student as well
035as to the teacher that they're in the class for. And so then they will know, hey, I have to go to student services in five minutes. They'll put down that they're going. The teacher will approve that pass at the time. And then student services will register when they arrive. And then they will then register when they leave to go back to class and then the teacher will then end the path when they So that's been in effect for about a week and a half now. So, there's some growing pains there. I wanted to check see how that was going. Um, obviously, one thing we realized if the student doesn't have securely pass out as a tab, then it's not going to notify them of the pass coming. So, we're training our students how to keep
036securely pass up as a tab on their computer. So, then it'll push that uh notification to them uh with five minutes before the pass is going to be in effect so that they are realizing that they have to go. Um, she said that they're getting better at that. Again, it's just growing pains, kind of learning how the system works and making sure that, um, everyone's kind of on the same page. So, um, for those senses for us, um, we're seeing good improvement in just kind of keeping the communication cleaner, more consistent, and again, we're able to document kind of what's going on. >> And something about the high school different than a middle school is that I mean, a middle school has historically had like an agenda log system. You you fill it out, walk
037up to the teacher, the teacher signs it. I guess that's your pass. The pass is the agenda log. And when you run out of an agenda log space or you lose it as a sixth grader or whatever, like it leads to some other conversations. The high school historically they haven't had that, right? There's no agenda log to fill out. Hey, I'm going to go to the bathroom. It's right down the hall. Teacher might have a wood block pass. Might just say, "Okay, like we'll see you in five minutes kind of a thing." So, it's really kind of like like clarifying like getting data developed around that. and we're having to train teachers and kids a little bit more like there's going to be accountability to like how long you're going to be out for and
038like working within the system. So it's it's kind of retraining the older kids where the middle school has had that experience all along, right? >> Yeah. >> Um so yeah, I just wanted to add that to it. >> I will say as well like I was expecting a lot of responses from students early on like why are we doing this? I don't like this. This is and I only got about three emails from students just kind of questioning why are we doing this? assistant, not saying they didn't like it, just kind of questioning what's the purpose. Um, so once I was able to clarify to them kind of what the expectations were and why we're moving this direction, um, they there were no other policies with that. So I was really pleased to see that.
039Um, we did the same three questions that they did at the middle school. We had 70% of of teachers saying four or five with ease of use. We only had one teacher say it was a one. Um, when it came to comparing it to the previous method, uh, how effective uh, how's the past affected your ability to keep the class focused? 46% say there's no change and then 26% say it's increased inter interruptions and 26% say refused. I'm guessing the increase is probably because it's new and they're trying to figure it out. They're like I don't I've been observing classes and kids like I don't know how to do this. I I I can't figure it out. Um so the teacher to jump in and help them or I'll jump in and help them if
040I'm in that room. Um since securely pass, have you noticed a change in the number of students who have taken a pass? 53% say no change and 31% say there's less people taking passes with only 14% saying more. Um so it's the teacher and the students feel more aware of how often they're reading classroom. Um and some kids just don't want to go through the process of having to put it on the computer and those extra steps are just not necessary. I have this question. When you just said if I'm in that class, I'll jump in throughout the day, are you going to different classes and sitting in or >> Oh, so yeah. So that's part of obviously part of my responsibilities is doing classroom observations, right? And observing teachers and observing classroom environments and
041um so periodically a securely passed issue will come up while I'm in the classroom. And so since I help enroll it or bring it in the building, I figured I could jump in my file. So >> thank you. Yeah. >> Dave, >> have you heard from parents uh one way or the other on this yet? >> Um so have not heard back from parents too much. I know that um we do have conversations like when if I have a student in my room and person or my office and we're having a conversation, we bring parents involved. Securely pass data will be brought up as opposed to like how often are they out in the hallways, how much time they're missing in class, um things like that which can contribute to obviously some disciplinary concerns as
042well as academic concerns. So, we've also had some of these conversations during IEP meetings and things like that just to kind of um reinforce the idea that we have this system with the goal of trying to help students um meet their goals and achieve what they want to do in the building. So, um I've had good feedback from teach parents regards to those conversations. Is there a is there a parent facing feature of >> I have like if I want like a parent I want to log on to see his grades I could do that right I could try to nip that is there a similar feature for this to nip my kids I'm always out of four hours not that I'm aware of and I will say when somebody asked about like we I
043haven't heard from a parent about this all year like I haven't like somebody's called and been like hey what's going I have not heard >> that's really a good sign >> not one that I that I can remember. So that I've forgotten, but I don't remember one conversation where somebody called like, "Hey, why you doing?" Like I think it's in this day and age, I think it's probably pretty normal like to have something technology wise. >> It's working. Go ahead, Greg. So, uh, the one one thing I'm kind of curious about is like, uh, does securely allow us to track like is it is it our attendance tracking tool? >> Skyward is. Yeah. >> Okay. So, does it have the capabilities of tracking attendance? So they they just came out with a new advanced reporting
044system and one of the categories is like tardian branch and >> so I'm guessing that you probably could but we don't use it for that system. >> Yeah. See to me that it's a it's a little bit concerning because if if the if the program is intended to kind of track where students are once they get here that's that's great. But if we don't have a better system by which um teachers uh don't have to dedicate as much of their time tracking attendance in a classroom. Um I still think that there's a gap there right uh where okay if we're using Skyward and a child doesn't you know they report to school in the morning but then they don't start showing up to the next class period. There's a gap there. There's there's going to
045be a spot where you you're not going to know that that child the next teacher might not know that that child is in attendance that day. >> They take attendance to childhood skyward, >> right? So So then the office you're looking at a differenti uh system then potentially in the office that says, "Okay, this child didn't show up to this particular class." Whereas if it was all kind of neatly packaged in one particular system for tracking those students, the student safety factor would be enhanced in my opinion. Could be wrong. >> So are you just basically it would be more ideal to bring security in as our attendance feature as well. >> Well, yeah. Um because if cuz I' I've heard situations where where sometimes the attendance isn't being tracked as closely as it should
046um through through Skyward and it sometimes becomes uh a task of the of the teacher to contact the office and say that this particular child isn't up the class. what's the story, you know, and that can kind of take a lot of extra resources from the classroom to to handle that those particular situations. I could be wrong. I thought there was more of an advanced uh version of Skyward that would allow more of those uh attendance tracking features, but I don't know. >> I can look at the security guys if you'd like and see if they have that. >> Yeah. Yeah, it would make sense to attendance would be tracked in the same >> I guess like to me like I don't know if it matters where you so like if a teacher takes attendance
047in security let's just say you're going to run into the exact same issues right like like if a teacher is going to choose let's say Johnny comes the first hour no issues doesn't show up the second hour teacher marks him absent whether it's securely or skyward the way it works at the middle school is Sherry when she gets time like we'll check second hour attendance I think teachers would love to her to be on it within the first 30 seconds but the realistic part is it's there's 500 65 kids and she has to go through second hour attendance and maybe a half an hour into it, she'll give myself or Carax a buzz and be like, "Hey, so and so hasn't shown up the second hour." Um >> I just whether she's checking securely or
048whether she's checking whatever. It's going to take her a little bit of time to notify one of us to go check it out. Like that's the way I look at it. And I could be wrong, but I would think we would have to use Skyward for state data reporting like we're going to have to do it anyway. So teachers are going to end up taking attendance in two spots. I think securely started their platform was around um like database security or like monitoring uh what uh sites students go to and live monitoring in the classroom. >> Okay. >> Securely continues to add different modules that securely pass through module that they've added. I don't believe that securely offers Skyward like attendance taking options and as Michael said the state requires us to use Skyward or
049infant campus for certain things and attendance is one of them and I don't believe today that Skyward has secured past interactions right they're separate entities >> right no I I I'm just more concerned about having a platform that's being able to be utilized to the best of its ability within our uh for our ease of use for our staff and and you know administration to be able to um make sure our kids are safe. >> I'll say along with that a feature that securely test or it's included in it is that visitor entrance where visitor has to register take their picture. So that's embedded in security pass already. >> Okay. So um this is the we could potentially we have like a contract that the people are currently using. So we could run those side
050by side and see how they work with the equivalent. >> What have I heard is that our contract with visitor is a certain amount of time and then at some point when that ends I think we can go securely and use the securely aware part of that too. Like I said which is already embedded into that security feature already something we have access to. Cool. Go ahead, Dave. >> Uh, I think the high school has some locked bathrooms as well as the junior high. Is that right? Same purpose. Yeah. >> Yeah. We don't we don't have permanently locked bathrooms. If you know, we have to call and say, you know, we got a problem with the bathroom, then we'll lock it down. And then I just taught um people how to put that in the
051system so that it doesn't then we don't have kids come to that bathroom and it's not available. So, it'll immediately shut down that bathroom until it's opened up again. I only say that because I have an inside source. No. Um, I talked to a custodian when I was over there passing out things and there the bathroom inside the door there was locked and he told me it was locked because they didn't want the students using that the wrong tank or something. >> Oh, about the one by the auditorium. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Those stay locked throughout the whole day. >> Has this been uh intimidating to subs? remember anything? >> I haven't heard anything either. I assume no because we have a classroom kiosk that the kids will just go to and the kids don't
052want to use it. >> Generally like left that in the subs like this will be a new thing for some to walk in and so like teachers have been really good around. >> Okay. >> We have the same few subs every day and now now that it's February I'd say it's pretty norm for them. >> And with our auto pass system, even if the teacher's not there, the system still works. So they're still regulated. So they're one to two passes. >> 10% of our kids in the high school are honest every day. So >> just hope so. >> Good work. Okay. Anybody else? >> Good sister. >> Yeah. Okay. Well, then we uh get to something new. the captain's club and Justin Dedrick our ad is gonna >> Justin gets confused about five times a
053day. So >> uh so I'm going to talk a little bit about the captain's club. It's something that Dan and I have talked about a couple times and met about and it's kind of a vision that we'd like to maybe see uh put into place here by the end of the year. So it's called the captain's club. In reality, what I would call it is it's a leadership development type class. Um, and what we would do is is be intentional about um the leadership and how we teach our kids to lead not only on the court, on the field, in their in their sport, but that goes into the classroom as well. So, leaders, hopefully more athletics, and in the classroom as well. And just kind of formalizing what it looks like for those students
054to be a captain or be a leader and all those different expectations that are put on them. think sometimes in athletics and in sports, you know, you're you're made a team captain, but what does that mean? Like what what's what entails that? What do I have to do? What's special? How do I talk to people? All those different things. So, we can use athletics as kind of a a vehicle to reinforce our schoolwide expectations. Uh something that we were looking at for the program structure. Uh so, right now we currently have trimesters and we'd like to run one class per trimester and I'm calling it a class. Um, what we would do is we'd run it during our ELT period. So, our ELT period is 35 minutes a day. Uh, and most days a week,
055sometimes they're in the home room. Um, but that's kind of few and far between. So, we' run it during those ELT types and it's a 35 minute session. And what we would do is is we kind of rotate who is there to kind of teach and and run the program. I think it'd be cool to have um guest speakers, whether it be, you know, we rotate who our head coaches are and they come in. We can just bring in business leaders, community members, whoever, and just get a wide range of people that have their voice and have something to give our students in regards to leadership experience. I think, you know, we all we all get, you know, we tune out a little bit if we hear the same person over and over and over
056and over. Um, I know my kids tell me that all the time, but I think if we can rotate who comes in, it's kind of that fresh voice and different perspectives. So, we would do that during those ELT times. Um, and what that ELT time is is really an academic time where if students need help in other areas, they can go request. So if I need help with math, I can request an ELT or that teacher can request that student. And we still have the flexibility where they do have those academic needs, they can go deal with those and we can can deal with it that way. I think initially we'd probably look at three to four days a week for the ELT and then over a six week period. So the nice thing about
057this structure is we're not adding any time outside of school. Right now we have we have a leadership type class that I'm not going to call it a class. We we have a group that Alex Kroger and a couple of our other staff lead in the mornings. They actually have a meeting tomorrow. Um they're doing a book study. So what we're doing is very similar, but we're going to try to reach more people by having it during the school day when they're there and kind of have a little bit more control over that. Um in terms of what we're teaching, you know, we're looking at the district's core values and and we're aligning with that, right? there's, you know, empathy, honesty, integrity, perseverance, respect. Those are all going to be the building blocks of what
058we're talking about in this leadership class and and we're going to try to relate how that looks for athletics. But then we're also going to talk about how does that look in the classroom, how does that look in the lunchroom, how does that look after school, right? Just trying to get our our students to be intentional in thinking about how they act and how they treat others. Um, who's going to participate this? Uh, it's called a captain's club. You know, initially, you know, when Dan and I were meeting, our our our greatest idea and thought would be like, we get so many people that want to be a part of it. There's an application process. That would be great. But as I was thinking about it, you know, we're going to have to get this
059kickstarted somehow. So, you know, we have 17 18 or so programs. If we each ask each program to give us one of their student leaders, we're talking 18 to 36 kids to start, right? We we pilot this in the spring and and we do it right before we let out for the school year. Hopefully we can get enough buzz and generate enough interest where we can get to that point for people want to sign up or the application process for the next year. So that's kind of the initial thought. U but obviously I don't think we would ever limit this to just student athletes, right? You can't have enough leaders in a building. I mean we have a lot of leaders in our building that we have leaders by example. We have leaders that are
060for good and we have some that lead in the bad way. Right? So I don't think we can ever, you know, we're never going to cap that. So that kind of gives us the option for that hybrid. Uh in terms of the selection, I think we will keep GPA and those things in mind because like I said, that ELT pro or uh program is for academic needs and if they need those extra research, we'll make sure that the students that we have are in good, you know, good standing academically and they're not going to be missing out on a lot of academic needs that they would have outside of that. So, um, excuse me. Terms of what I was talking about earlier, the instruction and the format, like I said, we'd rotate who it is.
061Uh, we we'd get those guest speakers, we'd get the coaches, we'd get, uh, whoever else would be interested in helping. I don't think we'd be short on having people that would be interested in that. Um, and then hopefully we can just kind of get that nice group of people and rotate who that is because if it's a six week program, you know, we have the flexibility of having one person for a whole week or maybe, you know, two pe two people could teach that during a week or, you know, we have that flexibility. So, I think we'll have a good option and and you know, base for who we bring in for that. In terms of the uh curriculum focus like we talked about earlier in regards to the district core values um leadership you
062know identity and expectations. What are we looking for? Um you know I think the biggest thing that I always teach or talk to our programs about is you know when you leave a venue when you leave a school what are they going to say about Water Tower High School? What are they going to say about our athletics? What are they going to say about our students? I want them to be mindful of that. Right? So, I think making that intentional and making sure they understand that communication and conflict resolution to me is really big right now because the farther along we get in this tech period and kids are on their phones all the times. I feel like our students and I know my own kids do this, they don't know how to talk to
063each other. Like I think we have to we have to get them comfortable having some of those uncomfortable conversations. And in athletics, it might be me tell, hey, I really need you to get in the weight room so we can, you know, we can have a good season or uh Mr. Whitaker, you're coming late to practice every day. That's that's showing the other kids that that, you know, it's not it's not a major issue. So, just getting that communication, conflict resolution, and all those things out there what we're looking for. Um, and then sportsmanship and like I said, representing the school, just doing those things in a way that we can be proud of as adults and leaders. So, um, another component that Dan and I talked about, and I think this would be might
064not be for the whole group, but I think it would be really, uh, something students would like is we would have the the component of having an official and referee training. Um, one thing that WIA, our governing body in the state is pushing is younger younger students um, getting involved in in the athletics and the refereeing and the officiating. So, if we could maybe take a class here or a class there and kind of use that as training, I would love to put some of our high school students down at the middle school and kind of train and work with our officials down there. You know, I think of basketball and we have, you know, Benji Camrath and Joel and they're they're rep basketball. Well, we could have one of those students kind of shadow
065them and get used to it. And then when we have the, you know, the Gazling Shootout and all these other programs that are up here, they could ref those and make some side money and and and kind of be um a visual for those younger kids, right? You know, you you're a fifth and a sixth grader and you see that high school varsity basketball player repping your games, that means a lot to you. So now those kids are going to come to our games at the high school and and be more involved. It's just a whole it's an all-encompassing thought, right? So, um some of the benefits obviously stronger leadership across our teams. Um, I think the school culture will hopefully improve and be a little bit more consistent. Um, and then just, you know,
066supporting what our district goals and values are. So, um, that's kind of the general outline. Like I talked about, it would be a six week program, but I think the way Dan and I have talked, I'd really like to do something before we get to the end of the school year, um, and just pilot it and see what it looks like. So, those are the general thoughts. Um, Dan, did I miss anything? Uh well, I like the your idea of starting it before the year ends because there would be um you know, summer component. You may be able to have them read more books and such and and so forth so they come back in the fall and set the tone for the rest of the seasonings. Right. >> Yeah. Once once they go through
067a program or a um is there a need for them to go through? >> My thought is I want to be I want to be thoughtful about when we select them. Right? So in my head I prefer we have our seniors start out the school year thinking, "Hey, this is how I want you to be as a senior throughout the course of the year." Right? But another group that I'd like to get early is freshmen, right? Because you want to teach them how to assimilate into the programs into the school and kind of be, you know, part of the process. So those are two groups that I'd like to have early, but I think if you had it your your freshman year, would I say no to you as a junior? Absolutely not. Right? Because
068because of the idea of guest speakers and rotating instructors, every single class is going to different, right? like you might get something out of your first trimester, take it the next year and you get something completely out of it. So, I don't think we would cap necessarily doing it once, but I don't I don't think I'd have somebody doing it five, six times. But, you know, I don't think we can push too much leadership. >> Linda, >> um I attended that eighth grade going to be fresh and there's that L word liked points or wait, what is it? >> Okay. Mau points. Is that something that could be offered too? Because it sounds to me like that point system could be helpful to those graduates then when they're applying for scholarships and stuff because what
069you're describing as a character development program is really what it is. >> Yeah. We'll be talking a little bit more about LA on Wednesday a week and Wednesday at our curriculum committee meeting. I think LA is specifically reserved for like challenging academic courses. Okay. >> Um but certainly review that to get a better sense of what LA is and the purpose behind that. Um I don't know that we have considered that necessarily for >> even if it's even if it be able to put like like make sure I get the the title right the captain's clever leadership program on a resume as well. should be a nice thing to like enhance somebody's >> Yeah. >> application for sure. >> Absolutely. >> Um you probably have some people in mind already that could be kind of
070opening speakers for you, right? >> Sure. Yeah. >> And I have somebody in mind as well probably let you know. >> Okay. >> And he's written a book. Ben Peterson. >> Okay. >> You know Ben? >> I do not know Ben. >> Okay. >> He's local. >> Yeah. He's local. Gold and silver medalist at the Olympics 1972 1976. world champion and champion. >> He's written a book, Road to Gold. I've read the book. He'd be great. He does this kind of thing. >> Yeah. And involved right now involved in the wrestling program. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> Is looking for weight. >> He knows Bob Logan well. So anyway, that's a great name for you. Great person to have. >> Absolutely. That'd be fantastic. And honestly, anybody if you think of other names that hey, that's
071one that sticks out. You know, in my head being new to the district and the area, I'm thinking about our coaches and just the, you know, the couple community members I've maybe met. But if you have somebody like that that you can give me their contact info, I'd be more than willing and help grateful for that. >> Justin, hold up that book. Would you >> The author of that book has volunteered to come in and speak to the group as well. So, um, so we've got we've got some people, but, uh, former captains who are still in the Watertown area or whatever. Um, we're going to be talking about volunteers. You know, much of this is going to be volunteers helping and so forth. Do you see any cost factor that the board needs to
072consider or >> you know I I think the only the only item that I would think of you know off the top of my head is if we did a book study if we wanted to get a group of books um I have a large collection of one book that our leadership group is reading right now. That would be the only thing I would think of if we you know get 20 to 30 set of something but I don't think it should entail a lot of cost with it right now. But one thing we would need from, you know, as many people around could get is exactly what you said. You got to contact Ben, >> right? >> You know, so you give us >> I've actually already talked to Ben about something like this.
073>> Oh, that's great. >> And uh he like I said, he does this >> and he'll get you as many books as you need. >> Awesome. >> That sounds like a great resource. >> Craig, um let's go to Julian first. >> Okay. >> Good morning. Um, maybe this goes without saying, but please make sure our women athletes are well represented in this. Um, as a former woman, well, not a former woman, but a former athlete. Um, um, I'm sorry. Um, but I I'm I'm very sensitive to that and I'm sure we have some wonderful representatives that we can find to come in and speak to our to our gals and and guys about this. Ben is uh is very very good with young people in general. Um speaks a lot especially to young wrestlers and
074and high schools, but he's he's good for both guys and gals. But just just a plug to not forget us. >> No, we'll absolutely be having several females on the group. And uh on a side note, we actually have a female leadership uh um how would I call it kind of presentation that we're sending uh several groups of or several girls to uh this week. So um we're looking for as many of those leadership opportunities for them as well. So >> good. Thank you, Jason. Justin Y. Um, one of the one of the thoughts I had was, you know, as as a some sort of a program like this develops to possibly happen to include some of those uh student and cap leaders in u you know uh some of the committee discussion around uh
075the uh athletic ethics and athletic policies that we have in you So that there's some input as far as where what they can see as an advantage to um to those student uh to those athletic uh ethics as well. I don't know. I just allow, you know, like if there's an area that they happen to see as a a student athlete that they feel uh needs to be tightened up. um you know whether or not there's a you know an eligibility um topic that they want to discuss those types of things. I I think to hear from the students is a great thing in my opinion. >> Yeah, that's kind of been brought up with one of the conversations we had is looking at the grading policy and making that a little bit more >>
076a little more difficult and and having a little bit higher standard for a student. So I agree. I think getting their input would be pretty valuable >> and I don't know if it's specifically to to policy or curriculum or ed services. I but I mean >> yeah at some point I think including having you know some of our higher uh achieving a athletic uh leaders um being part of discussion would be a good thing. Okay, Linda, >> if Jane wasn't going to bring it up too, I was going to bring up this incorporating um the young women as well. But uh the other thing was since this would be a six week semester class, perhaps devoting one day to volunteerism and then actually one additional day then to actually incorporating volunteering. Uh because that does
077is what polit leadership is about serving. >> Yep. And I think there's so many different avenues we could go with that, right? Um but even within our own building, there's opportunities um you know at at our own events, right? We're struggling to get adult helpers to to work our games and our contests, whether it be booster club or love to incorporate students more often, right? And I think the thought is we'd like to use, you know, if you're in season, you're in season and you're doing that. But we have so many athletes that don't necessarily do two, three seasons, we can bring them in. If it's a fall season's athlete, use them in the winter when in theory they don't have a lot going on and hopefully we can incorporate that into that. So there's
078definitely a lot of different ways we can we can use that volunteerism and and those are a couple ideas that we've had so far. So >> obviously this is uh our vision and this is our initial meeting with this. There's going to be a lot of tweaking along the way but we would like the timeline to be before the end of the year. Um what would be our action item do you think? >> I was just thinking through the action item piece. in my opinion, I wonder if we asked Justin to move forth with this and then have him revisit perhaps um at the end of the school year to just kind of let us know how things were working versus like a formal board adoption. >> Um Julian, did you put your hand up
079again? >> Yeah, I did. And I'm sorry I didn't take it down, Jenny. just um >> I just had a thought that you know um I remember in high school I was part of a varsity letter letterman club and we had we had pens and we had you know we were and I'm assuming that this the letter idea is still part of the athletic program at Watertown. I see the jackets with the letter and that kind of thing. But it might be interesting to see if some kind of distinctive pen or insignia or something was developed for this that would identify them similar to what you do with that National Honor Society that this is something that is um I'm part of. I'm proud of it and um gives that message to the rest of
080the school that I'm I will remove my hand now. Thank you. >> Thanks Jo. >> Okay. So, do we need a vote of some kind or >> Well, we wouldn't be able to do that here at committee. If we wanted to move it to the full board for a resolution, we could certainly do that. Um, if that's what the committee would like us to do. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Very good. >> For sure. For a pilot program is what we're talking about for the last semester. >> Okay. And then perhaps a read of it um over the summer and then >> um All right. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Jeff. I appreciate you. >> All right, we're going to be uh moving on to our discussion about uh volunteer opportunities. And
081again, this is kind of our initial talk about this and and uh our vision and Linda and I have talked about this a bit. And um Sam, if you could share one of those with Craig. The the whole idea with volunteers is that um we had more volunteering during co and when that stopped a lot of people didn't come back on board. And so we lost some some of those grandmas who were reading to kids at the elementary schools and so forth. And uh we'd like to return to uh having uh volunteer opportunities for people at each school. And uh there's some roadblocks to people saying yes. And uh Jenny has met with the the elementary teachers and it may be less intimidating for people to volunteer at the elementary level because of the age
082of the kids and at the middle school and high school. Um, we need to allay the fears of those people that these kids are nice kids and and uh we have the AVID program and uh my wife Kathy and I have volunteered there um last year and it's it's great for the adults as well as the kids. And you get to see those kids later downtown or wherever and they're recognizing you and smiling and it's it's a nice opportunity. So I want to talk about that a little bit a little bit and get some ideas from people here and um especially be thinking about how we can recruit people. So I want to open it up for discussion. >> Sure. And I added as a supporting document I worked with the elementary principles to create
083a volunteer like inquiry form that I could put on as a button on the website. Um, I asked them just to um brainstorm what that might look like. Um, I did add Riverside Middle School to it. Um, Josh Barnett was in the meeting with the elementary principal. He's like, "We want this for the middle school, too." So, you'll know that Riverside Middle School is on there as well, and we can tweak this however um we would like to do that. Um, what I asked them to do is just um brainstorm some ideas of places we would use volunteers. And so, it was a little description of what that might look like. And so this was what they had come up with. Um, reading buddy, homework helper, classroom assistant, art helper, library helper, math games coach,
084lunchroom, special events, teacher prep, uh, lunch mentor or PE helper, and then just a spot where if folks were interested in kind of sharing at the end, then just when availability might be. Um, and then just a reminder that we do uh background check all of our our volunteers um through our HR department too. And so just a reminder to folks that we would be completing that um and that they must follow school and district policies and procedures while they're volunteering in the classroom. The idea behind this is it would just be a Google form when someone would fill it out um somewhere in the uh district would be notified and we would be able to look in, you know, if they said, "I really want to volunteer at Webster," I'd pass that on to
085the Webster principal. Um and then Webster principal would be to connect with the volunteer to kind of determine when, where, and how that would make the most sense for them. So certainly open to suggestions or ideas or places where we could distribute this where um we might be able to increase the number of volunteers that we have in our buildings. I would add on here if we're including the middle school, absolutely the AVID tutor. And we do use the AVID tutors at the high school as well. I will tell you, Dan, I appreciate you uh speaking to it, but you know, folks can sometimes be intimidated about the middle school and high school, and I think at the end of the day, they just absolutely love their experience there. And >> um AVID volunteering in
086particular is just a great way to get to know some students to help support their um classroom work. You don't have to you don't have to know how to do geometry, but you just facilitate the discussion with them. And um so that is another really uh powerful way for folks to get involved in the community if they're interested. >> And if you could just add how kids qualify for AVID because they're not just random. >> Yeah, there's a students who are out in the AVID elective are selected um through an application process. Um actually we'll be starting shortly at the middle school um for our incoming seventh grade class for sixth graders this year. um and they look at a number of uh factors and there is also like an interview. So they come in
087and they interview with like I think Ashley's been a part of the interview in the past. I think our AVID elective teacher has been a part of the interview in the past. So it um it is certainly a popular program. We aren't not every student who applies is able to be in the AVID program. Um but it it is really looking at um students who are really invested in being successful academically. um they don't necessarily have to have straight A's, but they have to be invested in wanting to um be college and career ready by the end of high school. So, it is a yeah, it is a rigorous program. Um and I know that Leanne has spent a lot of time um perfecting that process so that we get the right students in the
088elected classroom. So, thank you for reminding me of that. >> Okay, >> one thing. I love this form. I I thought Dan did it, so I was complimenting I don't know. I didn't say this. >> But when I saw that, I was like I got very very excited because you can see there's a lot of input uh that and thought that went into that. >> I think on the top if you put elementary, you're eliminating a lot of people. I I think if you just put school >> uh there, I think that that might be um that might draw more. And when I was starting to think of where to distribute this tool, I had the opportunity again to be with Melissa Lamp last week to be part of Wake Up Watertown. I think the
089chamber a presentation at Wake Up Watertown would go very far there because you have you have this whole group that's like yeah, you know, I want to be involved and they want to do it kind of to represent their um business or organization, which is that's fine, you know, but I think that might be um just the starting point because they have so many people in their offices and businesses then that are represented there that they could take that back to. >> Good suggestion. Thank you. >> Yeah. And uh I'm just looking at a couple of these and you're actually just helping the teacher get ready for things. So you you wouldn't have to worry about student contact even if that were the case. But uh since you had talked to me about this uh
090I heard of another opportunity that somebody might be willing to do that we used to have a an elementary principal who would supervise outdoor uh recess in the winter and somebody might be willing to do that as a volunteer so the kids can get outside during the winter which is a good thing. So, there's specific things that we could uh recruit people. And I guess where we're at now would be the same as we were with the captain's club is taking it to the full board and um getting the blessing from them. Greg, >> my comment would be this is brilliant because uh many times anybody that would be interested in volunteering with the school district uh might approach somebody and people aren't really familiar with areas of need. This kind of spells that out.
091You know, as a as a volunteer, I can do that. I can visualize myself doing it that in that particular area. And it also for um the decision makers in this case to uh to know what areas are available for somebody to help. So great. Uh I appreciate moving forward with something like this. >> Yeah, I think >> Go ahead. >> I think it's great too. And uh my only thought, this isn't a negative thought, it's just a thought. Are there any uh insurance or legal issues with with somebody coming in doing that? >> I think the key piece is understanding that they are background checked before they start. And as you well know, any like student teacher or anything like that, we do a background check with um and then important that they know
092that they are responsible for following the district's policies and procedures as well. And so ensuring that they know about that um I think is is a key piece of that and I wanted that to be upfront not necessarily for the volunteers but also for the community that they not but there is a process to to become a volunteer within the schools >> because you might not want every person who wants to do it doing that particular thing >> screen. >> So would they go and interview them? they would work with the principal I think in the building to just determine where the best place is and then the principal um they our principal is well know the process to get the volunteer background check done and so ensuring that that happens before they come into
093the classroom and as we had previously mentioned there also is the um aware that they would be scanning them every time they're coming in as well. So >> there in the past there have been some students from from Maratha who wanted to do this or we were actually asked I remember years ago before I retired the third time that uh that um I think when he started the EV program or something we got a call and the students would love to do that. It doesn't always work with their classes. >> Yeah. >> And that's the issue but I know that there might be some interest in that as well. We also had a really strong program. This was years ago now through Big Brothers Big Sisters. And I know that we used uh students from
094Marina as well. They came in and they were lunch mentors uh for students and we had a lot of students from Marinatha come to do that. It was a wonderful wonderful program. And so that's where the idea of the lunch mentor came up which is matching someone and it you know just come eat lunch play a game >> you know that positive contact I think um is uh something that we would like to revisit as well. So I don't think the big brothers big sisters programs offering that particular program anymore in our area. Um and so fulfilling that and I agree a lot of times the issue would become the students schedules at Marinatha because they're busy. >> Yeah. But we still could throw this out to to the >> Sure. Good point. >> Uh
095I did pass out these green sheets. We used to have these in the district when we were um in our English department where we were using the six traits trying to streamline the uh uh grading of papers and so forth. And anything that would help English teachers get more writing in their classrooms uh would be great. So, it'd be less intimidating for someone who may not be an English major to look at a an essay and uh rate it with the six traits and make comments on that. And I I found in my classes what the kids like most were the comments. I mean, they knew they were going to get an A. They were good writers. Um but the comments sort of set it apart. So if we could have somebody giving them positive
096comments uh would be terrific and and help the teachers out in in doing that. That was the original colonel that we had talked about uh the first my first year on the board. So anything that we can do to get these people in the building would be good. And um we've we've looked at the uh population of Watertown as being an elderly population and frame that as a negative. In this case, it's a positive because we have people who don't they have time, they have money, they need something to do. At least you I'm talking from my perspective. Um, and this would be giving them something to leave the house for. So, let's tap into that great resource we have here in Watertown. Luna, >> I think um I was just made aware that for
097the Y program that just opened um 26% between uh increase in membership uh between November and I guess last week or the week before a lot of that is older people who like myself that have um the inclusion of there's a Medicare benefit to obtain the services uh the exercising machines and stuff like that at no cost. Kind of piggybacking that at the why with you're getting this opportunity here um a as an older person, why not you give back, pay it forward for young people volunteering because you don't have to be at the Y five days a week or seven days a week. you can use one of those days or a couple of those days to be able to give back. So somehow contacting the Y to see if there would be because
098they put out a newsletter as well um you know to offer that as an opportunity that goes that emailed and mailed as well. So >> yeah very good. Okay. All right, >> then we are going to the professional development. >> I just want to follow up on action item. Do you want me to bring that to the full board or shall I just revise the um revise the uh the Google form and put out on our website or do you want us to bring it to the full board before I would do that? >> Uh I would just put it on as one of the action items to vote on if the board wants to talk about it more. I think that's the uh >> I don't even know if that's a actionable item to
099vote on. We we've had volunteers in our buildings for quite some time and it's not you know >> it's part of an ongoing process. >> If we want to have a strategic discussion about it just so that we we build some awareness among the board members. I'm fine to >> Yeah, I I like that because we can get their input as well. >> So thanks to do that. >> All right. So there's >> discussion >> strategic discussion in one of our upcoming meetings. >> Okay. >> Right. >> And our last item and we will actually thank many of you because I know you were there yesterday. We had our um uh February staff development day which was for our K12 spam and many of you were able to join for breakfast yesterday. Just a couple
100of pieces that I wanted to highlight. Um the first is uh make it make it happen which is our second opportunity and much thank you to the teachy department and I put in board docs just an overview of some of the sessions that were offered from 8 to 9 at the high school. Um I just was able to kind of float around and just see student or teachers engaged with uh many different topics. Um and very appreciative to the presenters for that. I was supposed to attend the Canva basics, but I did not quite make it. So, maybe I'll have to uh meet with Mr. Bill Green, learn what I didn't learn yesterday, but we've had a variety of speakers there. I know we had some student helpers as well because some of our uh
101presenters were virtual, so it was fun to see them there on staff development day helping get set up. Um, and I think overall it was very very well received. So, I appreciate the work that was put into that. So, that was for all of our teachers, the K um our secondary staff had an opportunity to do a career connections um roundt and so this was middle school and high school staff only and again I put the the documentation in for docs as well if you wanted to take a look at that but just as an opportunity for our teachers to learn about what the career opportunities are in the area for our students um they were able to sign up for a um a session that they were able to sit in ask questions and
102um the only feed back I've heard so far is it was great but not always enough time for these pieces which I understand uh there never seems to be enough time. Um in addition to those opportunities in the morning um our K5 staff had a uh HMH into reading and professional development training on reading comprehension and then our 612 staff um had additional opportunities to engage in uh finishing curriculum course guide. Um, as you know, our first uh batch of secondary curriculum course guides will come to us at the curriculum committee meeting in in February, so on a week from tomorrow, we'll be taking a look at the math and the science curriculum course guide from the high school. Um, so overall, I think uh it was a a nice day for teachers to uh
103sharpen their skills and um work work a bit more on that curriculum as well. So, one more staff development day coming up in March. I will update you at the March and Services meeting as well. Um, that really is going to be u middle school focus. The elementary staff, if you remember, swapped out that day, I should rephrase, elementary classroom teachers and special education teachers swapped out the March professional development day to be able to frontload them in August for H&H into reading. And then our high school um they had their staff development day in January and in March it's their teacher work day because of the way the trimester falls. So I'll be able to give you a little bit of a little school update in in March. >> Okay. >> Any questions about
104that? >> Sounds good. >> Yeah. >> All right. Action items. I have two action items. One is a resolution for the pilot of the captain's club at the February uh board meeting. And then the second action item is just a strategic discussion around volunteering um at a future board meeting. Um did anybody catch any other action items I might have missed? Oh, and revisit uh also I want to make sure I make a note of revisit captain's club this summer potentially to understand how the pilot went. Um, okay. >> Was there with Katie and the Puerto Rican trip was Oh, I missed that. Good catch. >> I would have caught that as I was doing, but I appreciate that I I got that now. >> All right. Well, then we can uh close this meeting
105out at 8:46. I have comment about next meeting. >> Yes. >> Uh Jason and Chris and I met concerning standardized testing and assessment. >> Yep. >> And they're going to present at >> that fits into the calendar. We're happy to join. Yep. Absolutely. >> Yep. So looking at potential future March uh date. I have a inter reading update and I thought a nice time to do an act 20 data update as well. We just finished the winter assessment window. Um I have a summer school update. Um so Jason Whitaker will be lucky to join us again. Um and then I did have the assessment calendar on as well. So those are the ideas for potential March obviously up for discussion as well as we get closer to that date. >> Okay, let's change that to
1068:47. >> 847. Got it. >> Good. Thank you very much.