07/08/2025 Educational Services Committee Meeting

001We are calling to order the uh July 8th meeting 2025 of ED services. So we are beginning with p public comment and um this is a something new we're doing at the committee level uh in order to um be more transparent. So apparently we have no one speaking this morning. We'll start with the director update. Great. Thank you so much. And again, I apologize. We're using new technology and doing things a little different this morning. So, um hopefully I'm going to we're going to do okay on this one. Um I just wanted to do a quick update. Um a little uh debrief from the work that we've done with our social studies department over the last year. Um uh we did have a consultant come in from CISA to work with our 612 social studies

002team. um they worked through the Wisconsin state standards and did a gap analysis of our current programming. So they were determining um are we meeting the standards that are written through the Wisconsin state standards um and then are taking this next year to um implement items that were less strong during that gap analysis. They did find that their uh strongest strand is through the history strand um and that there were pieces from the economic strand that they wanted to be ensure that they include in the financial literacy course. Um they also took a look um there are several Wisconsin state statutes and acts that uh require certain things be taught at certain ages so or at certain grade levels and so they did take a peek at that to ensure that um there is coverage

003for those as well. Um, our social studies team from the middle school is going to uh attend AVID training this summer. And I think it's nice that you're here, Mr. Cunningham. They're going to attend the academic language and literacy strand. And what they're going to do is make sure that they are integrating some additional AVID strategies and wicker strategies into their curriculum. Um, so at this point, Mr. Cunningham will likely be leading them through that process during our summer training at Evan. Um the high school team is going to continue to analyze their financial literacy course um to make sure that they're covering the additional econom a requirement for the state for graduation very recently. However, our district had already required that as a graduation requirement. Um and so that was not a big lift

004for the team. That's something that they have been doing. Um and then we'll continue with that gap analysis and um just folks the gap analysis and ensuring that we've got the coverage there. And then as a 612 team I know we've talked quite a bit about those curriculum course guides here um at ED services and also at policy. that will be another uh piece that they will be working on during the uh 2526 school year. Um so that we are ensured that um we have those curriculum prototypes brought here to ed services and our curriculum team as well. Any questions about that? Would you be able to uh provide us with a copy of the advent training for the middle school team? uh the materials for it, not like not necessarily a recording of the

005training itself, but the materials for the training. Are they going to Minnesota? Chicago. Yep, it's in Chicago this year. So, yep, we can make sure that we get a copy of that as well. Uh thank you. And then our next piece was the um update on the professional development for HMH into reading. Um we as a part of the curriculum purchase we did purchase um some additional um professional development training. Our teachers as you know went through the um training with keys to literacy with act 20 for the science of reading. Um our followup with um interreading is that we have one full day of training for our teachers August 7th or August 13th. So our teachers will be coming in over the summer to do a getting started with the inter reading. Um, and

006then we have a three-day training that will spread throughout the school year. August 27th, October 23rd, and February 9th on our professional development dates. They'll be covering topics um August 27th will be on phmic awareness. October 23rd will be on vocabulary instruction and February 9th will be on comprehension. Um, so the trainers will come to us on those days and then they have a one-hour followup after um the in-person training, a virtual follow-up about a month later to discuss um how it's being implemented. We also will be doing an in-person leadership coaching for our principles on November 5th. um they'll send trainers in and our principles will uh do a bit of a gallery walk and observe in different classrooms and kind of discuss what they're seeing with the trainer from um HMH and reading

007um so that our principles are uh able to provide good feedback to our classroom teachers. And then finally, our um literacy coaches and curriculum coord coordinator have access called something to something called coachly licenses where they can reach out directly to HMH uh coaches um and receive feedback about implementation. So those are pieces that we'll uh do to ensure that um we're implementing with integrity and um our classroom teachers are able to reach out for resources if they have questions as well. Any questions about that? Uh, similar to the last one, the keys to literacy training that we did for the teachers, would you be able to provide me with the uh not again not like a recording necessarily, but the resources that you would have used for that training? Yeah, and I maybe I

008did not send those out. I will double check. There's a book that goes with it and then there's like an outline of the course that I sent. I sent the outline of the course, but I do have probably an extra copy of the book if you'd be interested in taking a look at that. Sure. Absolutely. Um actually if you want to follow me to my office when we're done here I can get that. So Okay. Yeah. So and all of this training is done by HMH. That training is done yes by HMH. And what was between phenemic awareness and comprehension vocabulary and the dates on the last two vocabulary is what? Uh October 23rd which is our staff development date. Okay. And comprehension is on February 9th. Yeah. And my plan too throughout the year

009is before our staff development days um is to outline during ED services what the topics are that we're covering. Um I have that in our little outline for the year too. So I will I'll be sure to bring it up again. And where will they be trained? You know what? I don't have the where on those dates yet. August 7th and August 13th. They are at the high school um in two different spaces in the media center and then in the lecture hall. or like LGI lecture hall. I don't know what they call it. Lecture hall. So, okay. All right. I have a I have a quick question, please. Okay, Craig, go ahead. Um, was anything was there any particular update on the alignment with with the middle school on HMH? Um, at this point,

010not uh not nothing has been done in the last month over the summer with that. that is something that we intend to do with our literacy coaches, our coaches, um, K 12 throughout the school year. But thank you, Craig, for asking that. I'll be sure to make sure we update you on that um, in August or September. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And I guess are we ready to move? Uh, yeah. I don't think I have any further questions at this time. Okay. All right. So we have a presentation on 2526 assessment plan. Yeah, that would be me. Um, so you have in the supporting documents, the first document is the one I'm going to go through, the one that says assessment calendar 202526. The actual assessment calendar starts with the year the 2526. Just so

011that you know which document I'm looking at right now. So the supporting document is just time to tell you our why, our what, and our how. So, we really are looking for a balanced assessment that's going to help improve our student achievement. We have um data that comes at the end of the year when we do our summitive assessments, but we don't want that to be the only checkpoint for us. So, we want to be able to inform our instruction. We want to be able to support the learning and monitor progress of students that um have needs within our classrooms. So, we try to align with making decisions that are data driven through our um assessment and have formative assessments along the way that can help the teachers decide what they're going to do on

012a daily basis with their lessons. That's really our why for us. Um what we have our four different types of assessments that we do. We do our summit of which are really going to be for the most part the end of the year ones that the state requires us to take like the forward and the ACT. But then we want to have interims, which are more likely going to be like your district-wide formats, like everyone in the third grade is going to do this three times a year. Um, formative will be the ones the teachers do individually in their room to help them decide what they should be doing from lesson to lesson. And then diagnostics that are done with some students along the way. So, how did we come up with our assessment calendar?

013Jason had many, many, many drafts. He calls it his drafty draft draft. I think that's a Jenny Forest official term where he sends it out to all of us. We look for it, give him feedback and changes after um he has us look then he has the administrators then our coaches and get feedback from as many people as possible so that we make sure that we have a complete plan for what assessments should be given when and by whom and then also what are we going to do with the data when we have it. If you give the assessment and you're not doing anything with the information you receive then we're not doing things the right way. Um so that is kind of our why, what, how. The other um document gives you the days.

014I think it's really helpful. That is one document that tells you like the testing windows for each of the different tests. A lot of them um for like the Ames web, those are set by the state um forward ACT. We have to do them within a certain window 45 days before the end of the year or two weeks there. But just having one document for our coaches and administrators that they refer to when they are making their plans for that for the year. I know when you have 10 different especially at the elementary level, it's hard to keep track of what, where, when, how. So having a clear plan for them all in one place is really I think helpful to them. So that's really all I have. So is there any questions about the

015assessment calendar for anyone? Uh no, I don't think so. I don't think I have. It's very thorough. Thank you. Uh yeah. Do we have a tier 2 remedial um plan for the kids that don't reach grade level reading? Yeah. Well, the Ames Web already has us doing it, and I think Jenny can speak to this a little bit, but if they are the AS web has us doing that in the fall, winter, spring. So, in the fall, if they're at the um below the 25th percentile, they are automatically put in a reading um plan with a reading teacher or sometimes our coaches do it or the I can't think of the reading uh reading core. Yeah, work with them. Um they progress monitor. They meet with them. I believe it's three times a week. Depends

016on the kid. Reading course, they try five times a week as much as possible. So depending on the program that the kid gets put into, but all of them below the 25th percent are automatically put in there and they are doing that. Um and then they would be in that program until the winter if they get above or there is some where if they test above the 25th percentile for a certain amount of times they can exit out. But a lot of times in the buildings they don't have them leave. You know you get to that 25th percentile and you stop working with them every day then all of a sudden they fall back behind. So they make decisions based on those kids. And uh is it the same teachers that teach that or? No.

017Um we have our reading um teachers in our buildings at each of the buildings and those are doing a large part of them but they can't handle all of the load like the um other people like the instructional coaches will be meeting with some kids at times and then also the reading core does as well. Okay. All right. Uh where are we going now? Next is our academic and career planning update. And um so we have a team here. If you don't mind, we'll move along um here to present and share about our academic and career planning. Sarah Tarpy um is here from the high school, Laura Hans from the middle school, Jesse Leenhart from the middle school, and Mike Cunningham as well from the middle school. Um they have a why, what, and how

018and also a PowerPoint too. So Sarah, I'm not sure where you would like to start, but that was kind of my first question is how much time because I can be verbose and I love to share. We can be verbose here at ED services as well. So we can relate. Um we are running a little bit ahead of schedule. I did have 20 minutes on for this discussion. I will start this by saying um this has really truly been a team effort over the years in the district. You'll notice that um there is a lot happening at uh our middle and high school level with our academic and career planning. We do have to have a board resolution to accept um the academic and career plan. So um hope our hope would be that you

019would feel comfortable uh supporting us going to resolution in July to um accept the academic and career plan here for the school district. Um and hopefully we'll be able to answer any questions that you have now or get you that information by July. So I'll preface it that way. Um but I would say plan for about 20 minutes. Okay. All right. Um so the why button how is the document that is really brief. Uh and then the presentation is actually a uh a visual to our actual plan. Um so it depends on if you want a summary then the why not how. If you are a detailed oriented person you can look at the presentation. So yes, I am Sarah Tarpy. I'm our school to career coordinator. I wear different hats in the district. I'm

020the career and technical education coordinator. That's where I am licensed as well as family consumer sciences. Uh I've been with Watertown High School going on 14 years. Um and uh this role has kind of uh evolved and grown. Um it historically has been a position a full-time position as a CTC uh back in Sandy Sandberg days. Um and uh we're not full-time CTC, but um uh it allows me to I still teach in the classroom a little bit to see all angles, which is a pretty cool perspective. So that's a little bit about who I am. H and then academic career planning. Uh that is what it sounds like. We are trying to um it is uh from DPI a legislation that was moved in 2017 for all 612 grades to have an academic career

021plan. Uh so I put on there our mission is really we want to empower all our students to be able to travel that road to adulthood through their uh education and career uh career training within our schools. Um and then I put the definition there from DPI if you're like wait what is this? Uh essentially we're trying to ensure that we have a plan while our students are with us and then are uh helping them goal setting from when they're outside of school. So the what is uh the legislation it used to be called chapter PI26. We love acronyms and whatnot in education. Uh so essentially the purpose of this is we're preparing those elementary and secondary pupils for future employment. Then ensuring that we have uh technological literacy to promote lifelong literacy uh and

022learning uh promoting good citizenship. promoting cooperation among business, industry, labor, post-secondary schools, public schools, and then um to establish a role for us as public schools in the economic development of Wisconsin. That's where I get my nerd hat on and I'm like, "Oh, let's talk about this forever." Um, but how are we going to do this? Um, we do this through ACP. Um, or that PI26, which is E4E. So, that's where you might see some uh documentation that will say E4EACP. again, a way for us to just condense that language down. Uh, but what we're trying to do is align with that administrative rule um within the Wisconsin comprehensive school counseling model um where we're providing opportunities for students to uh have self-exloration, career exploration, and career planning and management activities. We utilize a um

023uh interface called Zello. It's a website for students that they have uh a student specific login with their student ID and as well as educators we have them too um where they have access to different um academic career planning activities and resources where they can do exploration and even setting up things like um uh job interviews or shadows uh to help students get to that next step. So that was like a condensed version of what we're doing. So if we're looking more specifically at what we have been doing, um you can switch over to that presentation. Um and I believe it looks like you saved it as a PDF, which is totally fine, but just for the audience, uh the PowerPoint will show you on our slide four where I try it's so important to

024give people recognition for all the work that they do. And there's so many people who serve on um our team. Um so the uh we have a team at the high school, we have a team at the middle school, we have a district-wide team, we have um different advisories. Um so we have our careerfare advisory, we have our manufacturing advisory that Jesse Domer heads, we have FFA alumni. We also have a really unique uh committee called building bridges which um includes our district, the the city and the chamber of commerce that work on tackling community um kind of careerbased knowledge and helping um with our economic development in our town. Um and then on slide five, I'd like to show how we align with our uh mission and vision as a district. So, when we're

025thinking about what is ACP in alignment to our current standards, um, we have that we're really preparing them. It's like a couple before there. I'm sorry. You're totally fine. Oh, okay. It's maybe download this. It's okay. Um, I I can get send you the different one. Okay. Um, but we are preparing them for the challenges of the future. We're really having that vision of excellence for all. We're doing this with all of our students. Um that helps us uh with our priorities with student success, fiscal responsibility, and enrollment growth. Um that fiscal responsibility ACP, we have um some different programming that actually um provides funding for our schools. Um and enrollment growth. Um and then that also aligns with our values of thinking of the whole child having rigorous relevant learning. uh really aligning to

026okay what are the job skills today that we need to prepare our fruit students for but more so for the future and that's that's an interesting piece of my job that I also really enjoy um and then connecting with the community and and being innovative um so we did a uh labor market analysis so if you are curious we are in um our uh Wisconsin the top three man uh excuse me industries are manufacturing healthcare and retail. And then our area, we're unique in which we have Dodge and Jefferson County. So I get just get more data to look at which is really fun. Um so we have manufacturing, retail, healthc care, and social assistance and education here in Watertown um are our highest um uh industries. Um and then I go into just like

027a little bit of a summary. Uh we have state approved regional career pathways. So this state um uh was given a grant through JP Morgan and uh other states in our nation and what that did was really help us create a system so when people like myself or Laura um are um retiring or moving on uh there's a system in place to continue this work. Um so what that means is we have uh as a district a regional career pathway. That means we have two or more classes in that pathway. We have uh career opportunities either uh like a youth apprenticeship cooperative skills. We have AP or dual credit so college credit opportunities in there. We have a student organization. They're called another acronym CTSO. career uh and technical student organizations. But we have this

028is a huge celebration for our district. We have state approved regional career pathways in manufacturing technology, agriculture, construction, education and training, healthcare, hospitality and information technology. So that means when we have other maybe families who are like what district should we go to? We are providing currently we are providing all of these opportunities for these students if they're wanting to be focused in those areas. And if you notice those are also aligned with not only our states lead uh industries but also our regions. Um and we have uh currently in our academic career planning um we have different ways that we're engaging students and families. So for parents um we provide ACP updates with our newsletters. Um we have different opportunities for families to engage whether it be orientations, open houses, uh meetings, uh individual

029meetings with students, uh career and college planning nights, registration, uh social media announcement, parent teacher conferences and the like. Um we also have websites for our uh district for ACP, our high school and our middle school. Um, elementary like uh Jenny was alluding to before uh the legislation is 612, but we want to be better. We want to do more and that is an area we want to also be engaging our students in. Right now at Lincoln and Lee, they do a career fair day at uh Webster. They do uh resumeumés in the fifth grade and career surveys and they have um uh different orientations for parents and students transitioning to the middle school. And at the middle school we have a lot of career exploration. So elementary we're trying to expose them to the

030many careers as possible. Middle school they're getting u more opportunities to explore. So we have our sixth grade uh CTE team. So CTE is career and technical education. they utilize cello within their uh classes. Um and then we as the seventh grade we are in cooperation with our building bridges team, the chamber of commerce assists us with a career aspiration day which is amazing. If you haven't had the opportunity to participate um it's uh typically in October um where seventh graders go and tour three different facilities and then we have a lot of guest speakers who come in. So half the day they're learning from um uh people in the community who have businesses um having conversations with them and then touring them so they can see okay these are the jobs that are actually

031out there right now. Um and then they also we have a ton of different activities that they can be involved in um as well as coming to the career fair and uh uh participating in those CTSOs. So CTSOs uh this is another huge celebration. Our district has all five CTSOs. So we have Skills USA um which also includes Super Mileage FFA um FCCLA which is Family Career and Community Leaders of America um and those are seen at the middle school and then I'll I'll um refer to the other CTSOs at the high school. Um and then we also have AVID throughout which helps with uh that uh career readiness uh whether that be you know college uh or apprenticeship military uh straight into the workforce. Uh so those strategies are also given throughout. And then

032at the high school we have Zello within our health and financial literacy classes. These are required classes. Man we have had a time figuring out how to embed this into our curriculum. um when we first started with home rooms and we found that there was kind of a detachedness uh with a relational capacity with the instructor and this has really helped us uh ensure that students are really meeting those goals that we have for academic career planning. As you may already know, we have one-on-one junior meetings with all families and students as well to help with their uh planning after high school. Um and again so many opportunities within um uh the high school for career planning and preparation. The state calls some tables so career-based learning experiences. So we have our um schoolto career

033program students can participate in. We have um u a ton of field trips or guest speakers that are coming in our classrooms um from industry explaining to students or teaching students different concepts. Um, what's really cool is when you see all of these things come together. So, when we're hosting our career fair, we have teachers and students walk throughout. And this year, for example, one of our financial literacy teachers connected with the bank and then they had the bank later, a couple weeks later, come in and speak to their students to show them some financial literacy tips uh, in regards to banking. So, this is just kind of all the things that give me goosebumps and excite me in education. The other CTSOs that we offer that I did not mention because they weren't offered

034at the middle school are FBA which is future business sutors of America, DECA which is for our marketing students, HOSA which is our health and um occupation student uh association um ABS uh which combines FBA and DECA. Um so we have a lot a lot of opportunities for our students. We also have different options like our discover academy for students who maybe are at risk creditwise that um but we still support. So um just wanted to let you know about that. Um so our goals in ACP for this is where the slides are different. Uh interesting uh but the it's okay. Uh districtwide we're wanting to update we have new career clusters. Our industries are changing because of just the world is changing right. So the names that we used to use some certain jobs

035don't even exist anymore that used to exist and now we have new jobs. So we just need to do like a restructure of what are the current uh clusters uh that students can start getting exposure to exploration and planning with them. Elementary level we're working more on consistency throughout uh the school since we're noticing there's like pockets of amazing things that we can learn from each other with them. And then at the middle school, we're hoping to incorporate more academic career planning activities within the advisories throughout the year, which are kind of like home rooms times for those students to really dig into um more of that career planning. And at the high school, our goal is to increase our non-traditional by occupation numbers and career pathways. That's a fancy way of saying there are

036certain people that maybe need a little encouragement that they're capable of getting into those careers but maybe don't see themselves for some reason fitting into that. Um so we are trying to get more students to see them um in careers that maybe traditionally they wouldn't choose. Uh and then our graduation requirements are the same. Um, I just put in the presentation all of the CTE, so career and technical education programming we offer. Like I mentioned, we offer every pathway that is available, which is rare and outstanding. We have a ton of AP course offerings as well as dual credit at the high school and project lead the way uh course offerings at the both at the middle school and the high school. And then we also have our schoolto career program. Because I'm also in

037charge of this, can't help myself. I have to do a plug. We need to celebrate. Our high school has the largest youth apprenticeship participation in our consortium. We had 133 registered youth apprentices. Last year um and we had out of the whole state, our consortium is number three. Okay, to give you perspective, I think Dne County had 45. Just to give you an idea. Now, the reason if you're like, "Wait a second, there's so many more people in Dane County versus Watertown. How come we have so many members? Because Watertown has been a proud participant in youth apprentichip since 1991, since it started. And we have had community partners in our community. We have values when it comes to um uh skills in regards to the workforce. So our our companies, our industry has been

038such a huge support. The amount of business partners whenever I have a teacher email me, hey, do you have an idea of a guest speaker? I'm like, hold on. I have like 400 contacts. Got to narrow it down. Um, and the another reason why we're able to do this is because our district is uh unique in the fact that we work on DUR, the workforce development of central Wisconsin. So, we have a really strong partnership with the workforce development board. And then we also offer dual enrollment, which uh uh me and Jenny, we're really we're we're learning a lot about that. And then also some equipment credit options at the high school. Uh so for instance, our environmental conservation class offers a science credit for those students who are make maybe more interested in that

039um type of science as well as AP computer science um for a math credit and art history as a social studies. And we have a lot of opportunities for career connections. I mentioned youth apprentichip, but we also offer a lot of industry recognized credentials. In other words, a piece of paper that can get you a job like a CNA, a certified nursing assistant. Um, and this offers our students not only college credit to get into a technical um, uh, or associates program, but also a certificate that can give them a job. Um, and we all have um, like I mentioned before, we have access for all students in our REACH program, our special ed students. Um, so all of our students um, have access to this. I have students um, in all of our programs

040um, that are represented. And then we do offer individualized ACP uh excuse me ACP support whether it be in home rooms, advisories, one-on- ones with their school counselors or myself. Um and we get them connected with um different people from that come in from colleges or from military uh to come uh have small group meetings with students so that they are prepared for that next step after high school. We also uh provide professional development for our staff. So we have um uh an e I I attend our uh career and technical education summit which provides uh ACP or academic career planning leadership. Um we have staff business tours this past year. It was so cool. We went to um the career uh excuse me the career technical education teachers 612 um we were granted so

041thank you directors uh permission for half of the day for professional development to work together rather than with everybody else because we noticed our professional development sometimes isn't directly aligned with other core teachers. So that allowed us to do tours and meetings with Moss Brothers, Clawson's Qualities Chocolates, which it was it's hard to get in there if you ever try. Um the Watertown Regional Medical uh Center and Fisher Barton. So we toured those facilities. We sat with them for an hour. We talked about, hey, what are these skills that we need to teach our students? um as well as providing um uh a visual of oh hey this is what it's like because it's really hard for teachers when they're teaching all day to know hey what is really going on in these kitchens or

042in these manufacturing companies. Um and then uh also building bridges has provided some opportunities for professional development. In February, we had a 612 professional development day where all teachers sat and had conversations with industry. So, um, and it was really, uh, to start a conversation and we're going to hopefully with approval, we're going to continue to have, um, I kind of like to think of it as a community advisory so that we are having conversations as educators with businesses um, and provide feedback to one another of how we can best prepare our students for life after high school. as well as like the stuff we have to do like uh Misello training and um uh teaching employability skills and things like that as well. I mentioned our community partners again, so I just provided another

043uh list for them as well. Um, so like I mentioned, our goals, what we're seeking approval for is for us to as a district realign with our career clusters. Um, and at the elementary school level, for us to get more consistency throughout and then middle school level, having more academic career planning activities within home rooms and at the high school level to try to expose students to jobs that maybe they weren't exposed to before. And so you did it. You did it exactly in 20 minutes. So 10:00. Wow. Um we need to extend the school day. I'm sure. I know. I'm sorry. That's true. Um so the specific plan um is shared in the um Oops, I got to switch. Shared in the why, what, and how um which reviews much of what uh Sarah

044reviewed. It's a six-page plan. Um, so we would be asking for formal approval for that in the July board meeting if the ED services committee would like to forward it there. Okay. Uh, yeah. So, I do have a couple of questions. Um, one, and this kind of goes for you as well, Sarah, and I might have even asked you about this like a year ago. uh for job development services, do you work with any service providers that are in the area and partner with any of those people? Have them come in, work on uh like soft skills classes or things like that with your uh That's exactly what I do. That is my life and that is like my passion. Yep. Yes. Okay. And we have a lot of different partnerships. So, I'm not sure

045if you're looking for specific, but yes. Just out of curiosity because I know that that can be a useful resource um Yes. for for helping students take that extra step because sometimes it's hard to get if you're inside the school, sometimes it's a little bit harder to get outside of the school and I know very much how hard it is to try to partner with businesses for those sorts of things. So, um just uh thanks for the clarification. And then when I'm looking over, by the way, thank you for the very thorough presentation. I really appreciate it. I love all of the detail that you're giving me here. Um it's exactly what I'm looking for. There's a couple of things when I'm looking at the uh state statutes and the DPI standards that go along

046with it. I'm looking at the language good citizenship and social goals. Can you tell me more about how we're working with students for on those two? I was hoping you're gonna have this so then I can say this because this is one of my personal goals for the district but I don't know when I go around Sam and speak to all these businesses which I love to do without having an opportunity to do the number one skill that they ask or say hey we need kids to know this is to be kind and what they mean when they say that is to be able to communicate respectfully to be able to handle things under pressure, to be able to collaborate in a team. So, those are the types of skills that we're looking for when

047regards to like citizenship and uh I forgot the other social something. Okay. Social So, employability skills essentially or soft skills. 100%. I think soft skills are super important. I always say those are the foundations. uh you can always learn a hard skill given enough time but it's the it's the soft skills that are really important and that's what all of the training that I have been uh attend attending has been echoing so you're right on track gotcha and then uh one more question for clarification on your uh on your one sheet the why what how there's a link to ACP connections which looks like it comes from the DPI Yes. And this is uh they provide some resources and some insight into those things. And they talk about two things that I think kind of

048connect to what I just asked about uh but are also relevant and they've come up a few times are they seem to define citizenship uh good citizenship as global citizenship. That seems to be what they focus on there. And when they talk about social goals, uh it seems like they're talking more about uh social emotional learning. Uh and then I did a little bit more reading there and I'm just curious as to how or whether or not these elements are incorporated. But when it talks about the guiding principles for social emotional learning, you kind of go on to the DPI website. It talks about making sure that there's a commitment to equity um and uh you know focusing on strengthening adult capacity as well. So is this something that we're incorporating on in in our

049schools or is that not something that we're incorporating as well as the global side of citizenship as well as local citizenship? One of those industry recognized credentials I was referring to is um that we had this year that was really exciting was the seal of bi literacy. So that is like an example of global but I also think those employability skills that you mentioned are also global or human right the human capacity yes culturally things might be different in other areas but being able to address those or employability skills um is a global uh is going to be needed throughout the world and the way that industries are moving forward I mean we already are with you know, zooming it in or what Google Meeting or whatever it is. Um, connecting locally. So, yes to

050that. And then, um, theCL question, what was that again? Sorry. Um, well, I think the, uh, the one that stood out to me the well, there were two that stood out to me the most. When you go on the DPI website, it gives you some resources. And they talk about having guiding principles for social emotional learning. And the two guiding principles that stood out to me were uh, commitment to equity. It says um it's uh competency development and a powerful tool to disrupt inequities. Uh and then it also talks about strengthening adult capacity. Uh it says focusing on the social and emotional competence of adults can improve adult well-being, create positive work environments. Um, and it seems like it's encouraging uh instruction of SEAL being administered to adults and parents in in in society as

051well as to students. So, I'm just wondering about how those things are. Okay, that helps. I know I know I'm I'm going a couple lines down, but I figure if we're working with DPI or if we're considering DPI, whether or not these things end up being incorporated in the district or how all that works together. So yeah, I'm so glad I am the person that is talking to you today because I actually oversee the Carl Perkins grant. Um uh that's part of my role as a career technical education coordinator. So when it comes to equity that is addressed within that grant. So for instance that um nontraditional by occupation is a gap that we're seeing. Uh only 16% of girls take tech classes for instance. Uh we're more than capable of being in STEM careers.

052How come that is? Um, so those are the pieces when we're talking about equity that we're yes that we are addressing in regards to like the adults in a way like when we're providing professional development for our staff, they're adults. Um, and then when we're updating parents of these resources like Zello, they also have access. So parents have access into Zello. We're right now as a state um they're determining if Bellow will still be our vendor. I don't know if there's other options. Me and Chris are looking at each other because that's where we get some of our data that we're like what's going to happen. Um so I don't see that changing. But what's really cool is I've sat in um student and parent meetings where I'm walking through the students like okay if

053you want this job this is the degree you need. This is and then I said look you can see the current job openings in Wisconsin. and the parents going where was this when I was in high school where I could have used this five weeks ago. So like in a way uh explicitly training non staff people incl skills is not something I do but maybe I do like on the low but okay um thank you. I think that answers my questions that I have at the moment. Okay. Um, my thought just off the top of my head is uh I I care a lot about career planning. I think it's probably the most important thing that we do in schools honestly. I think that getting kids ready for the practical world and giving them those

054hard and soft skills so they can get into the workplace and have that success is what keeps uh what keeps all the lights on keeps all the wheels turning. I would like to learn a little bit more about the process. Um, but I don't want to necessarily say, "Oh, let's push this all the way back to August." Because I understand the the timeline. I'm wondering if we could look at next week potentially and if we could look at maybe doing um I don't want to say not like a subcommittee per se, but a uh if if we could get together, Dan, I mean, absolutely. you'd be invited maybe in the afternoon and we could go over some of the details of the Carl Perkins grant and um if I could look over some some of

055the uh materials that you guys have for this job development or not job development, career readiness development, I would uh I'd appreciate that. And then if we do that next week, it won't it won't have to be held up into the next month. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Um what do you think of that, J? Yeah, I'm I'm on board with that. So, the only thing I would ask is if we make sure that we're prepared that we have the questions that you have or the pieces that you would like to see um as it relates to the process and or the current team's grant. Um and I'm always happy to gather those resources for you and answer any questions that you might have. I can send you a follow-up email after this meeting.

056I can give you the specifics and then we can uh we can organize a data meet next week, the week the 14th. since you will have that committee has to be noticed as a subcommittee. Yeah. Um and also in regards to the equity and the Carl Perkins grant, we do have good news. We don't have a program improvement plan this year. Um so when it comes to equity, we're doing great and we're just if you're curious about that. Thank you. Okay, Julene, do you have anything you want to ask? I'm all ears. Okay, Craig. Um, I love your passion. I think I think this is in such good hands right now. So, uh, the the big the big question I have and a concern of mine still is, um, I'm not I don't I'm unclear

057as far as the, uh, the interactions or the the one- on-one uh, engagements with the students. Um, I think that's probably an area that if anything that we could that that's an opportunity right now where where if we can uh have more interactions with uh with the students in their career planning perhaps maybe that equates to them being a little bit more engaged in the class because of you know because they're they're relating to uh subject matter. Um, do we have an like account of uh or a a goal for one-on-one interactions in ele uh elementary, middle school, and high school. Then at the high school, we do junior meetings. They are considering moving it to sophomore year. Um I'm not sure if there's been any change necessarily on that, but yes, it is up

058to Okay. So we have been where you um we have been um meeting with juniors every oneonone. The issue we run into is staffing and availability of students and parents uh because parents are invited to those junior meetings and most of them or some of them do attend. Um and when it comes to elementary ACP is 612 but that is an area uh that we're putting in our goals. And then we also um have individual four-year plan. So that is done, but it's not necessarily done individually. It could be done in a classroom with students and students together and the teacher just because of the staffing. It's so hard to have uh time to have a one-on-one with every single student. Um, however, that is done at the high school level. I mean, one of

059the things that I I think about uh is perhaps maybe that can be incorporated in in any type of uh um advisor type of meeting. Exactly. Or where Yeah, that's our goal. Your goal. Okay. um because it I think it's just so important just to look at where a kid wants to go and see how they're prepared and um encourage them to let's say uh get this grade up in this class or whatnot. And yes, you're absolutely right. That's not just a hunch. It's a fact that people are motivated when they have intrinsic value in something. Right. So, I agree with you and I I'm preaching the choir when it comes to school counselors, too. We all feel the same way. Um, and yes, that is something that we do and are trying to hone

060in on more and more. All right. Thank you. Of course. Joanne, um, just an anecdotal observation on this. I need to declare for the whole public I'm not on this committee officially, but I need to be here to learn. So, thank you. I agree with Craig. Appreciate your passion. I have a great niece who just graduated from here and she told me the other day that she shocked me. She said that she had a she was certified to work in a daycare as an assistant teacher. Oh, it's one of my students. This is the class I teach. Sorry, this is exciting. And I said, "What?" Cuz she works does not work in that industry. She works in the food service industry with her job. And I said, "How in the world did you get that?"

061She's on about it at school. And so now I know how. Um Dan made an observation about extending the hours of the school day. I know that's facitious, but um I'm assuming this is all crammed into some kind and and I'm not asking for a full explanation and I will spend more time with each of you as I can. Um my heart's desire is to get up to speed very quickly here, but um having worked in education, I know I mean there's only so much available time. Have you found that you have sufficient time or not? Well, you're not going to ever have to. Um, I understand what you're saying to you. I wish there was more time for active care planning. I mean, if I could write the curriculum for everyone, it taught me

062a little bit different. Uh, but I I understand what you're saying in regards to your great niece. Um, there I'm I try to be very mindful of time. So there are ways that um that is taken in consideration in regards to academic care planning. For instance, um dual credit. So dual credit was the class that she took uh through the assistant childcare teacher class which gives her six college credits through Madison College and also assuming and she did um just we're talking about an individual student. Can you talk in general? Oh, sure. Sure. Sure. Thank you for telling. Um so students who take that course they get an industry recognized credential as well as dual credit those are ACP components and there is a requirement within that credential for them to spend 10 hours working

063with ages from infants 12 years old and that is incorporated within the curriculum through field trips. Um and so we yes we try to be very mindful of that time. Some of these opportunities are not inside the school day. Um, for instance, our schoolto career program like youth apprenticeship and cooperative skills that is done um at the student's job site. Um, and yes, they could have an hour excuse from school um to be able to start their workday early or come into school late. Uh, but then those other hours are off of school hours, but they are earned credit um through that. Thank you. Yeah. And uh I was at the middle school with the avid kids after they came back from Rosie Lane. And they all want to go into some career in agriculture

064after they've been there. Kind of interesting. Uh and I didn't even know those careers existed, but some some were saying, but that works. But the complaint I've heard from um you know uh contractors in town is they get them an hour a day. at the end of the day and they're doing inventory or sweeping the floors and they're really not that's not an apprentichip hands on. Okay. So, when that happens, there are some students who find jobs on their own that are not in my program. So, that can happen and that could be a common issue just because of them being a student who's not within the school career program. Um, yes, I've seen that issue particularly in those types of trades like plumbing, electrical. And so what we do is we offer students release

065either at the beginning or the end of the day. Um and if uh so I do typically within conversations with those employers and families um they get a choice um and they make that decision amongst themselves. But yes, I've noticed a lot of them um uh choosing to have it at the beginning of the day because that is not a youth apprenticeship sweeping the floor. No, no, no. That is a entry level job which is great. Uh but what with apprentichip is we really want them to see like the inner workings of that job um and for them to have hands-on paid uh learning experience. Okay. And uh one of the teachers at the high school said the problem is they uh graduate early and can get 25 bucks an hour rather than you know

066going through that. So that may be a good problem to have because they're out there getting started with their career. I I always say to my students and my council, when education is free, you take advantage of it. Um so, uh I understand though that we have families in our community where our students are helping provide for their own family. Um so I respectfully respect whatever decision that family makes for um for themselves. Um but I I see what you're saying as well. Um so students um who are in the youth apprentichip program if they do graduate early um they are still within that program unless they receive their diploma in order to start something um in the post-secary realm like uh an apprenticeship or college uh things like that. So um we do have

067some students who graduate early but they're still in the apprentichip program helping them that stepping stone to um adulthood. Okay, Craig. Yeah, just uh piggy backing up with that particular question. Um and forgive me for trying to learn more about this, but um uh is there some is there some uh document that you provide uh providers for youth apprenticeship that indicate what the expectations are? Yes. Okay. A lot. Um well, not I mean we make it easy for people to read, but um yes. So for the uh employer and the mentor who is training the student, we have training for the mentor. Um uh but that is what I do as well as our county coordinator for youth apprentichip, Heather Josowski and Rich Dystra. They um go out to businesses as well. Um, and so

068we vet the business before the students are there to ensure that it's safe and it's actually teaching the skills that they um are wanting uh per their program, but then also that they can provide those hours um and um know what they're responsible for in regards to feedback and things like that. Um and then that is done as well as with families. So I every spring uh invite all families to join a meeting in which I discuss uh youth apprentichip and then in the fall I do as well um and just in our college and career planning night. Um and then I meet individually with I just had a mom email me yesterday and we set up a meeting for September because her sophomore she wants to be in the program later on but is

069a sophomore still. So um yes it's done in different ways. Um, but yes, the expectations are uh explicit. It's on our county youth apprentichip website, our district website, the state website. It's run through the department of work as well. I mean, in Dan's example, um, in the trades, it's it's very very typical that if you get a new person, they're starting up at the bottom of the totem pole. uh this is very uh a different experience that has to be conveyed to uh a trades person that hey listen uh the hope is that you're bringing this person alongside you know the functions that you uh carry out in your occupation or your trade so that they actually get some hands-on experience doing that not just sorting bins or or whatnot. Oh exactly. Now there are

070some uh jobs like that in um like sorting but if there is a student who wants to have that job within an apprenticeship um I do share with employers. Oh I would love for them to see other parts of it. So will spend time in other areas or other departments. Our state is a leader when it comes to education and in youth apprenticeship. We modeled after Germany our youth apprentichip program and um we have other states we've actually few years ago we had um people from Washington come to Watertown High School to see how we do our data program. We have invested a lot of money in what we call the on the job learning guides as a state which are not accessible online because they spend a lot of money on them but they

071articulate the specific hard and soft skill that we're looking for in that career pathway. So for agriculture for instance, we have like 11 or 12 different types of apprentichip within agriculture that a a student can be in. And um so like for instance uh animal basics, working with animals, that's just one pathway. And so that one pathway has very specific occupational competencies uh as well as um those employability skills. Would would you say that one of your biggest hurdles is uh getting parents there, finding time, free enough time for them or No, parents see the value in this. They make themselves available for it. Sure. Um I've actually had families meet with me outside of our district to come open enroll in here because of our apprentichip program. So the parents aren't necessarily the issue,

072but you did bring up a point that maybe in the future we could discuss time has been an issue for some trades and right now our policy is students um as a junior can only be excused for one class period. Seniors can be excused for two. But some of these trades are very a frustration that some students run into is I met all my graduation requirements. Why can't I spend more time at my job? and I get pigeonholed into the because you have to be a full-time student here. So, that could be maybe a discussion for a different day. Okay. Anybody else? Well, thank you. Yeah, thank you. Very good. I do I have a question. Is that allowed? Um, so I we'll meet next week. Awesome. I'm free. Um, but then uh what's the

073next step? How what does this look like? I haven't done this before. Sure. Um if the ed services committee is comfortable, then what we would do is move forward with the resolution in the July board meeting to accept the academic and career plan um that you have outlined here. And so there would be a board resolution in July with this attached to it. And then the board in July would vote on whether or not we accept that as our academic and career plan. I know per the state we are required to have the plan. Um so I scroll down to the bottom. It has to be um updated and approved by the school board. Um and so once we do that then we will be able to update the plan that way and that would

074be after the meeting next week. At the end of the meeting next week is when we would make that recommendation. So forward to the board. Okay. So at this point it sounds to me like a subcommittee meeting at some point next week to discuss some additional questions. You got it. Um and then at that point we would move forward um with that. Sarah, I have one quick question. Uh you mentioned that there were parents outside the district that has how did they find out about us? I don't know. Uh I am pretty loud though and I am very passionate about youth apprenticeship. So to me it's like I okay I was forced to be in um what do you call it? Girl Scouts and I hated it because I had to sell cookies. I'm not

075a good salesman. But when it comes to children and like our our community and what we're doing it's like I can't help but talk about it. So whenever I meet people like even they're grabbing a cup of coffee, it tends to come out in conversation. So I'm not surprised. And there are certain schools who have access to youth apprentichip and that all do in the state. Um so that could have been something those individual families were looking for um and saw nearby. True. And oh I think it's because when we moved to trimester we all had our own uh excuse me the career and technical education teachers we had 10 at that time had their own um youth apprentichips but it was an overload. And then when we switched to trimester, I happened to hold

076all of the workbased learning licenses because I have other lives I lived before this. And I just happened to be the person who could oversee all of them. And so it came to one person you're going to rather than what out of the 10. And a lot of schools don't have the capacity for that. So I think it just being one person helps as well because it's like, oh, I know who to contact. I Google it. It pops right up. So what you're saying is at a party people are saying don't ask her what she does. Very good. Well, thank you people. Appreciate it. And uh we'll get together next week. Perfect. Thank you. All right. We're going to move on to uh the discussion of the information from the uh SBAE convention. So, And

077I didn't have anything specifically prepared. Um, and I know Dan, you had asked me and Jared had asked me to add this one to the agenda. Um, and so it's your open opportunity to discuss um, the educational pieces from that that you're interested in. So, I think I'd like to start um, and then uh, the board members can join in with what they learned as they feel free to. But I want to address some concerns that I heard in the community about um the board going to a professional development opportunity. Uh and we we budget for that every year and sadly over the last number of years that I've been here uh we've had a hard time getting board members to go and the board now seems very interested in learning more. One of the

078other concerns I heard was that it was a right-leaning conference politically and although there were a number of vendors there that were right leaning um some of the highest build people from John Hopkins University which is not a right leaning university but is steep in educational research um were there to talk about a lot of different things and I can say this because I went to a recession that it was a very bipartisan uh very um focused on learning conference where we learned a lot about science, math, literacy, how a board can work better with their superintendent and it was just a really good opportunity for us and I know that there are some other opportunities here in the state of Wisconsin through WASB. Um, and we will we will continue to use WASB and

079we always have, but this one was focused specifically on learning. And that's really what the board keyed into. And we actually got five of the members to free up time to go. That's the most I've ever seen. We've offered the state convention. We've offered other WASB opportunities in the past. And maybe you'll get one here or one there. But I do want to say this and I think it's incumbent upon me to speak for the board because um I'm the outside entity of the board. I'm the superintendent. It was a very appropriate conference for um our strategic plan and where we're looking to go. And certainly there were some right-wing vendors there who uh did um you know uh help um support that conference just like there are are right and left leaning people who

080help support the state convention. Uh that was there and available if you wanted to go talk to one of the vendors. I'm sure you could get some some some of that. Um but but the learning sessions themselves, the sessions we went to were very bipartisan and matter of fact put on by some very left-leaning people um as they brought their research and information to us. So I just wanted to make sure that people in our community knew that um because I think sometimes fear or other unknowns can creep in uh to our community and I just think that was pretty unfair. um as our form was very appropriate and trying to find learning opportunities for them and I'll let them speak to the learning opportunities that they had available. Absolutely. Uh I completely agree. I

081thought it was a really interesting conference. uh the fellow from John's Hopkins who did the uh I believe it was math and literacy uh discussions very fascinating data um really gave me an in-depth understanding of exactly the challenges we're facing um that I think have been going on for quite a while and some resources to course correct there and I think that in Wisconsin we're already as a state we're already making moves uh away from some practices that probably didn't turn out the way that people were hoping they Um, but what I thought was some of the most interesting material was the discussion of incorporating uh classical education elements into uh into the curriculum and into uh the the way that we educate our students. And I think that that would really be something worthwhile

082to look into. Um I think that there's a lot of benefits to that. I think that you're working with primary source documents if you're talking about social studies and history. Uh, I think that it provides you with a wealth of um vocabulary if if we're talking about like hard skill literacy. Um, and also, you know, as a as a district that's looking at how are we budgeting for things, they talked we talked about how because you're working with older material, time- tested older material, you're not necessarily going to be paying uh some of those premium prices for uh for for newer curriculum. Um, and you're still going to be getting a high quality education. So, I thought that was interesting and that's definitely something I want to look into as we move forward on ed

083services. I think that would be worthwhile. And I know our neighbors walk have a charter school based on classical. Yeah. And uh it's just it would be more interesting to learn more about Yeah, definitely. Greg. Yeah. Um I really like Dr. Steiner's presentation. uh uh the gentleman from John Hopkins who I believe was Harvard educated as well. Um there there's a lot there when it came to um a discussion about specifically teachers creating instructional materials and why it was harmful. Um and some of the some of the reasons that he shared were actually quite quite interesting. One was uh the district the school district cannot support cannot support effective re remediation if there is no shared classroom content. How do you coach a teacher? How do you me mentor a teacher if the content isn't

084shared? Uh another piece of information the data from the United States indicates that 80% of what teachers select as instructional materials is below grade level. um pitching the ball where the the comments were like pitching the ball where a child can hit doesn't necessarily challenge the student to a level that's about grade level. So very fascinating stuff. Um also one of the pieces of information that he shared was based on France's uh France's previous uh model where they actually uh maintain lots of data to indicate uh a state-run curriculum program which we don't do. Thank goodness we don't. But uh they had a state run curriculum program that was knowledge based and uh across all categories of uh I guess student development whether it's at uh special ed or special education students all the way

085up to um gifted and talented what was formerly called gifted and talented uh when they shifted from a knowledgebased curriculum to a skills-based curriculum, every single category. Excellent. I thought that was fascinating information. Same thing with Louisiana. Uh Louisiana was the lowest in achievement when it came to uh curriculum and uh literacy specifically in fourth grade. Now they're one of the best. why you know it came to came down to switching to a knowledrier curriculum in Illinois. So uh as we we have had this discussion and I think that we're moving in this in that direction as a district uh especially when it comes to HM we discussed uh a little bit about uh today even how uh we are trying to capture some of those knowledgebased skills in HMH so that we can focus

086on the comprehension part of of ELA and literacy early on. Uh because the science of read reading and the the phmic awareness and all of all of the phonics parts of uh the the new science of reading sometimes has a gap in it when it comes to comprehension uh of the material. So, I like the fact that we're trying to incorporate more uh comprehension and knowledge skills into the into the curriculum. I think that's the right step. So, just a lot of great information. Uh and that was just one one of the sessions. So, yeah. Thank you. Uh yeah, I'm I'm not as uh quick as taking notes as my colleagues here, but I have some snippets that I found interesting and the the knowledge uh based learning is one of them. Um Dr. Steiner

087encouraged uh schools to read whole novels, not just excerpts, because you're missing nuance and and all of that. and um to read selections that ask deep questions. And he used The Great Gatsby as an example. Um what happens in Gatsby is the least important. It's how Daisy's voice reveals what's troubling her. So when you're done asking that question, you uh have a more broad-based idea of human nature and and motivation and that sort of thing. So, you know, as we talked before, um there's so much that you could teach each class period, each school year, and you have to pick and choose what's the most effective. Uh so, you might, you know, put aside a whole novel rather than, you know, to to lean towards an excerpt, but you're not getting all of the the

088uh the full benefit of that book. And the classical part of it was we have to read some of the um selections that we've lost over the years and uh teach those. So um everybody in the van was interested in that that we would uh um look at the classical part of teaching. um he made the statement that teachers in the US are underchallenging their students. I think we have to look at you know our district and see the same thing. Um do we have a tier 2 remedial teaching and you said yes we do. That was that was good. And we talked about freeing up teachers in in u professional development to see other teachers. I would have appreciated that when I was teaching because after I was done teaching, I subbed in some

089classes and I thought, "Oh, I wish I knew this 20 years ago." And so, you can really learn from from peers. And it's really hard to schedule that, but we should work on that part of professional development that uh that teachers get the opportunity to see colleagues teaching. Um, content is more important than skills. That's going back to knowledge base. Um we have to focus on the western heritage um the sins of omission in curriculum. And what he was talking about is we've added so many things that were we had to omit stuff. That was really good stuff. and getting back to paper and pen rather than so much screenbased teaching which is a good way to eliminate the um artificial intelligence coming in. So and um it's cheaper. So, and there was uh there

090was one part of a session that said we all need to teach and practice responsibility and so how we can incorporate that is Craig. Uh just want to clarify your comments about artificial intelligence. He was referring specific to uh students that that utilize artificial intelligence in in their um finishing like uh their test taking and and whatnot. Not necessarily teaching kids artificial intelligence is necessarily bad but rather right how they are utilizing it for uh assignment completion and things of that nature. Just wanted to clarif and to tie together both of your comments because I think both of you hit on probably for me what was the most important part of the conference regarding literacy. It's that knowledge and contentri uh stuff really the statement that one of the presenters made that you can only

091teach so much. You are by definition going to be excluding most content when you're when you're teaching because you only have so many hours and so many years with a student. And your goal should not be to uh necessarily do something that is reflective. Your goal should be to challenge students by teaching them the best of what has been said, done or thought. And I thought that was a really good way to sum it up. So if we're evaluating, what kind of curriculum are we using? Are we using the best of what has been said, done, or thought, or are we using other standards to evaluate? And I think that excellence in material is just as important as excellence and expectations. Very good. Julianne, any comments? Wish I'd go. No, having you've been on curriculum

092committees before. Um, any reactions to the classical idea? Well, I think the classic, look, I know the school you're referring to over in Milwaukee have people who friends who teach over there and and well familiar with it. Um, I think they do a lot of good. There's a lot of good in that. And I think this summary statement that you made, Sam, about the best of what has been said, done, and thought, I think we move way way away way from that. And too often, I think we get into inferior modern um documents um thought that um it may have some merit in some in some ways, but um this emphasis on western culture and our western heritage is foundational. absolutely foundational and that's where you get back to the classics. That's where you get

093back to to actually your original documents to the best of what's been said. So, um I think we have to go carefully. I think we have to um I don't think this is something that happens overnight. Yeah, this is a this is because it's I'm going to use the word seismic and that may be too big, but it it will be something of a seismic change. I know there are other public schools around the country that are moving in this direction. I did some research. The topic came up when I was questioned um last week and so I I wanted to see what public schools were doing and I I was encouraged I was encouraged quite frankly to see that there's a movement uh towards some of this and um I think that the key

094to this is all right. We sat here and listened to a wonder a wonderful presentation on making sure our young people are prepared for the workforce um and certainly for college um how that how that works together. Absolutely. I completely agree that they're not disparit. there's got to be a way that they work together because on if you just listen to the discussion it looks like that's here and classical's here and there's no middle ground and so the key will be um to bring that together and the other thing I would say is um I am just an absolute firm believer in one of the main things school has to do is teach young people to think to be able to think and apply and um hence that's you know, skills based versus knowledge based

095and the age-old conversations that we have around that. The disservice we do to students is um when we don't teach them to think, we don't give them the skills that enable them to pick up a document and old or new and read it with discernment and be able to and I'm not saying we do that. We don't do that here in at Watertown. I'm not not that's not my allegation but but we have to be sure we are it has to be intentional and everybody's got to buy in. So when you start talking about the classics you're talking about um I look at the age of the people who are involved in our school district now and and it's I love that um I love watching young people go into education. of a passion that

096I've seen, but it's new for them, too, because we've been so far from it. Most schools don't most schools don't even they don't even read the Declaration of Independence, you know, I mean, and and I that is not an allegation. Again, that's not an accusation or allegation about here. I don't know. But we got to make sure it happens because those are our founding documents. My diagram, thanks Julian. I think I just heard you volunteer for a subcommittee. So, well, the interestingly I got put on the two that I mean I love I mean curriculum is my passion and that's just where I live but or I would live if if I could but um I'm I'm also interested in figuring out how we run the finances and HR so it all Dan I I

097guess you know suffice to say um you know we can certainly have more of a review of this at the board meeting, but we'll attach um as many of the presentations as we can to today's minutes. Uh so that if people in the community want to see um what we saw uh certainly you can only get so much slideshow if you can see the presentation, but it might be uh worth it uh to see that and to go to some of the resource slides uh and read more. Uh but I just wanted to make sure that people understood like this was a learning trip focused on our our um strategic plan uh which heavily is is geared towards reading and math and our academics. Um and um that's really why we went you know WASB

098had a great summer institute up in Steven Point. Actually it's coming up. Yeah, it's coming up. Um and you know some may go to that. uh it's focused a lot more on on board uh governance stuff than it was academics. There are a couple academic things there but um this one was 100% uh geared towards academics. There was only one session that was more geared towards uh interactions of superintendency and board uh but it was also academically focused uh not not just um you know management focused or or whatever else. So um that was you know the real impetus for us to go. So, I just wanted to make sure that people in the community knew that because it they got some some pretty bad billing because of some of the sponsors. Sure. Uh from

099from some some areas out there. Um and I I realized that there's other people in our community who were like, "Yeah, great. Go to those kind of events put on by those kind of people." Um regardless, um it was really um not either one way or the other. Could I just get a quick Sure. for clarification on an acronym HMH. Uh, hold me. So, that's the reading program we've adopted here. The reading system we've adopted. Okay. That's what I thought it was, but make sure elementary level. Thank you. Okay. Um, Sam, no, go ahead. Go ahead. Um, I just want to add this uh before we go to action items. Um Sarah's presentation brought out something that I didn't know and I'd imagine most people in Watertown don't know is that uh we have other

100schools coming to study us in that area of career planning and we'd heard from the um um what's the acronym I'm thinking of for Spanish speaking what's it we we heard the same thing from him that other districts are coming to study what we're doing. So, we're doing some great things and it's out there, but maybe the people in Watertown don't know it. So, you know, let's celebrate what we do well. I know we hear a lot about our music program and how well it's doing because it's easier to see. But we're doing pretty good job in those classrooms as well. So, bravo. So, what do we have for action items? Um, action items. I was taking notes. Um, so a copy of the AVID training that we're going to for the social studies team,

101Sam will get you a copy of that keys to literacy book. Um, follow up on the alignment with RMS literacy with elementary literacy, the subcommittee meeting and the followup on the academic and career planning. Um, and then I just picked up Jared saying we'll attach the information to the board minutes about some of the presentations that the board had attended. Did I miss anything? Okay. I don't think so. All right. I try to grab them as we go, but when I go back and review my notes, too, for a minute, I'll see if there's anything else and uh future agenda items. I do have a one or two more questions there. Uh kind of bouncing off our last discussion about uh student outcomes and academic excellence. uh we talked a little bit about uh classical

102education primary sources and we are going through that social studies assessment process. I was wondering if there would be an opportunity uh again I'm not volunteering you for it or anything but um if there would be an opportunity at least for me to sit down with you sometime in the next couple of weeks and to look over the material that we have middle and high school level maybe even elementary um just to see where where we are at with that. uh not to make any fast changes or pile anything on. You're you're already very full plate, but to kind of see where we are so maybe we can start thinking about where we want to steer the ship or augment as needed in the future. I'm excited about the curriculum course guide process. I know

103I've said that a lot of times um because I do think it'll give you an insight into the pieces that our teachers are teaching at the high school and middle school at all levels because we'll be doing it at all levels but in particular when it relates to science and so or social studies at the middle and high school level. Um I think that will give us a nice glimpse. I know the challenge that I would face in the next couple of weeks is our teachers are on um on summer sure vacation. not that they wouldn't be willing to to work with me on that. Um, but it's certainly something that I think will come to fruition with that curriculum course guide process. Um, and I do hope to speak to that a little bit

104more on the August ed services, just what that process specifically will look like. Um, and I think that will give us a nice glimpse into the pieces that are being taught and the sources that are being used at the at the middle and high school level, too. So, um I did per conversation that Dan and I had had last week as we were planning for today have on here um classic curriculum um sort of as a discussion point definition. I appreciate your point about the charter school in Okana Walk. I know that they um definitely are um focused on that there and so perhaps reaching out and taking a look at what maybe they are doing to better understand what that might mean for us here um and what we're doing where it aligns and

105where it doesn't align. Yeah. And then my only other question and it falls in the same vein. So um it kind of the same answer from you I think in this case but then uh we had previously discussed how there were some questions about HMH and the material in HMH goes along with what we were just talking about with materials the best of what is said thought or done. Um we discussed when we agreed to move forward with HMH because we thought that the hard skills element was pretty solid there. We talked about doing a material assessment. Um, is that something that we can also set up uh in the future? I know that the books are probably at this point kind of spread throughout the schools. Is that something that we can kind of

106look over together? Sure. Um, the books arrived earlier than I thought they were going to. They arrived before the end of the school year. Um, so we can grab copies of those if you want to take a peek at that, too. Awesome. I'm happy to get copies of that for you. So, I'll add that. Thank you. I appreciate that, please. Absolutely. I just had a generic question. Sure. Years ago when I served on the S4 and it was a long time ago, so there's a very well fixed. I get it. Um, we had a curriculum committee and we were presented all the textbooks. I've had every opportunity to look at every textbook, every piece of material that came through. Do we not do that as a board anymore? We don't we don't we do approve

107textbooks and for every subject. And so this committee actually is known as the curriculum committee. Um, and I realize that curriculum has been subsumed. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yep. And so any new adoptions that we would do come through this committee um and come through that process here. So there still is there still is uh at at some level board approval of the of the various materials. Thank you. Absolutely. Good question. But you would like to see the physical textbook is what you're saying. Well, I don't even know that anybody uses a physical textbook anymore. I just jump online a little. Sure. We Yeah. And that's kind of where that material assessment question. All right. Um, but that's everything from Okay. And I was hoping that we could have a discussion about um making how we

108can make the district more attractive to great teachers. And and just what Sarah was talking about getting the parents um helping parents knowing about what we do well, how we can market that and so forth so that we can uh so is that legit you think? Yeah, I think you and I had talked about that earlier in the week too just and I had put it down with attracting staff and students to WSD. Um I know that you had mentioned um potentially having Melissa attend as well. Yes. Um and I can definitely work with her on um the pieces that we are doing currently. Um and if there were any suggestions for changes to that. I'm not sure that we'll be able to have it in by August. August is filling up really really quickly.

109Yeah, I know. So, uh but certainly a discussion at some point about the pieces that we're doing right now. Um, and I think you know with the staff piece too, can I offer a suggestion? I I think the staff piece is probably better suited to going through HR right and the the student piece and student learning um how to attract students certainly this committee would be great. Um, but how to continue to attract staff. You're going to get into not only the cultural things, but you're also going to get into like, you know, uh, contractual things, handbook things that would be attractive. That's really probably better for HR. Okay. But I I do believe that, you know, the students and student learning and the parent student experience. Absolutely. Great stuff here. Yeah. Good. Good. Okay.

110Um, I've got one. Uh I I do think that uh we should uh put Muhammad versus Taylor uh the Supreme Court ruling that just came down about parents um and uh their request for opt out uh and the implications on um you know our learning environment and our and our curriculum. Um we're going to get some updates coming soon from attorneys across the state um ours as well um as they interpret the ruling there and give advice. I think uh whether that's August or September whenever we start getting those updates um and they will come soon uh we should probably put that on the forefront of what we're talking about and what we're doing so that may we can make sure that we start getting into alignment with that decision. And I did request at

111the last policy meeting that we bring up the parent student right conversation and I think that would pair nicely with that. So, if we do hear more about that, I don't know if we currently have it on our list to be added to that agenda on the 24th, I believe, is that meeting. Um, but when we have that meeting on the 24th, we should have some discussion about that. If we have something by the 24th, you know, check that. Um, our problem is that we have to get that agenda out Thursday because um is be going to be um on vacation. So, you know, we we can maybe do like an emergency ad after, but you guys know how much I hate that taking an agenda that was already posted to the public and then

112making a change to it and and you know, last day or two before it's not really the public. So, try to not do revisions if we don't have to. Yeah, I feel you on that. I was thinking if we put the parental student rights policy back on there, it can be part of that discussion. So, I think that would be fair. Yeah, that's uh all right. So, this meeting is adjourned at 9:03. That's what I'm going to take. All right. Very good. Thank you. Very very much. Thank you. earlier.