07/09/2024 Educational Services Committee Meeting

001recording in progress. Thank you. Okay, welcome all. Uh this is the uh July Ed services committee meeting. Um all committee members here are present along with other distinguished guests. So let's just uh kick it off with the presentation. Uh agenda item A, elementary literacy research study proposal. Normally I've started sharing my screen already and I have not done that. So let me um rearrange that. Uh the elementary literacy research study was um mentioned as we talked about the act 20 um changes in the law. So we are pulling together a team. You can see we don't have every specific person named, but we're going to working this summer with the elementary principles to determine who will be attending the um the meetings as it relates to selecting and reviewing our current curriculum and potentially selecting

002a new reading curriculum. Um I will tell you that our elementary teams have already started engaging in their um their ACT 20 training and I'm grateful because I attended um the first part of the face-to-face portion of it and our coaches are asking our staff to take the learning that they've done and think about our current curriculum and what our strengths and weaknesses are with our current curriculum with the learning that they're doing. So I think it further reinforces our approach of wanting to make sure our teachers had the training before we embark on a new review of curriculum. Um our intent is to uh take a look at um the materials that have been selected by the state of Wisconsin. There are four sets of materials that were approved for up to 50% reimbursement

003um by the legislature. DPI also selected some additional materials and so we will talk as a team as to whether or not we'll expand our search into those additional materials or not. Um the coaches and I and Ashley did get an opportunity to go to a presentation on the four sets of materials that were approved um for up to 50% reimbursement. So we have a pretty good knowledge base of what's out there at this point. Our plan would be to uh take a look at the different materials, potentially do a pilot late fall into winter. Um and then in March or April come with a recommendation to the school board starting with the ed services team of course and then hopefully um if all goes as planned order materials um and map out our PD

004plan in the spring and then potentially begin professional development um staff in June. So, it's an aggressive timeline. Um, and in light of the intensive training that our teachers are already doing, um, I think that we have a good plan that will give us good information and next steps forward. We of course will be bringing information to that services team as we go um either through a director report or um, a report from the team. In the past, I know we've uh, appointed a board member. I don't know if there's anyone who might be interested in participating um or not, but that there is a spot there for that. Also, in the past, I know we have not necessarily made this a board resolution to move forward, but I just wanted to make you aware

005of where we are at with the process and see if there were any questions at this point. Okay, I'm going to start. Um, and this is uh Jenny going to apply both to this one as well as the next topic as well. Um, I've seen this document now a couple different times. One for I think math. Uh, I forget also one for maybe science and or social studies. I can't quite remember which ones they apply to. Um, as far as the team makeup, 20 people, uh, roughly uh, including a board member, uh, the timeline, sometimes we knock it out of the park, sometimes we find that the timeline is challenging. Um, is there anything that you tweaked on this compared to the ones we've implemented in the past? And what were the most two most

006recent ones? Was math and science. Math and science both at the middle school and one was math was K12. Math was that we were aggressive as it related to the high school portion of it, but it was a pretty well timed activity for elementary. Diana, I know you were involved with that. Um, science was aggressive as well. the middle school was, I think, in a spot that needed to move forward more quickly necessarily than the high school did. And so we were able to move forward with the science piece of it um as well. I do think a year is a nice amount of time to be able to consider it. Science the middle school um you know, we were more around six months before we came up with a recommendation. Sometimes there are just

007fewer options as well in different curricular areas. Um, so I would say it's aggressive but doable would be my take on it. And we do have the need to take a look at our materials because of the changes of act 20. So that's my urgency and of course obviously the urgency to do right by our kids too. Dian, I see you have your hand raised. Uh, two other questions. uh as far as the budget goes or the if we pick one that's both state and or the legislatively approved as well as DPI approved you get 50% reimbursement on the materials they say up to 50% depending on how many districts put forward claims okay and this is more of a question I'll uh Mike's not here but just for fiscal I assume that we are

008going to put something in the budget next year to purchase this material and goes of course for the second item as well uh for the that next item for the the same same situation. But is there any budget concerns as far as going through this at this point and purchasing new items next year? So for social studies, we had those essay dollars that were sort of uh um putting off until next year. We had had those in the budget and I will work with Sarah Duncan about the cost of it as well. um curriculum for literacy can be kind of pricey and so we'll work through it and it's hard to come up with an estimate of what you're going to need until you know what you want. Um and it's so you're kind of

009walking this balancing line between like what are your costs, what are your ongoing costs. That's something that Sarah Duncan and I have worked on as we set aside a curriculum instruction budget. A lot of our materials have switched from one-time purchase the books to ongoing uh software costs if you will. Right. When does she need a placeholder for this? Um Dr. B when she create the uh Okay. So, we'll need to have a placeholder. So, between now and October, the team should at least start getting a budget of what the options are so that they can put a placeholder. It it doesn't you don't have to pick a curriculum. You just have to make sure you get a placeholder for something. Exactly. Okay. And then uh last question and uh Ashley, this actually kind of

010goes during your presentation at the last board meeting. I text Jenny and I said, "How does Act 20 affect English language learners as far as phonics?" Uh I'm trying to do Dolingo on my phone and I can tell you my phonics suck. Okay. uh how does if if everybody's supposed to learn phonetically, how does Act 20 and Jenny said, "Yeah, that's got a lot of people scratching their heads." I think as her response I I didn't want to slow down the board meeting for that question, but since you're here and we're talking Act 20 and and Jenny's here as well, how is there clear guidance from anybody on how Act 20 applies to non-English language learners? No, there really isn't. um a bunch of districts in the state have kind of um formed a group

011and we've been meeting um every other month or so to talk about how districts are going to be tackling this um specifically with uh what things look like within a dual language program and how do you a lot time for both um phonics programs if you will. Um, and also then with screening children, making sure that even though they might be flagged as um, at risk in English, it might just be because they're learning that language. Um, and so we're not the only ones kind of grappling with this. Um, now Tanya from DPI is joining our meetings as well, just to provide us with a little more guidance, but it still isn't very clear as to what that will look like or Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, that's that's the answer that Jenny gave me via

012text. I just wanted you to say it aloud, too. And I was checking to make sure she was accurate in case anything changed in the last three weeks. Okay. Uh, I have three. First of all, timeline. I've never done a pilot that's taken more than a year. So, I don't see this as totally aggressive. It's just you have to keep doing, you know, you've got to stay on it. So, just to ease board members minds that, you know, some of them have taken longer than others. I think that'd be very doable. Um, secondly, if you meet a board member and no one else volunteers, that'll be volunt. Um, I would volunteer for that if nobody else wants that. And then third, um, I'm just going to throw it out there. I'm concerned about timing. We

013have new math curriculum that we'll be adopting. We have new science curriculum that we'll be working on. We're now looking at a science a social studies. We're looking at reading. Not only for the kids, but for the teachers, too. Is this within our bandwidth? I understand this with act 20, but maybe something else. I'm not saying we have to put it aside, but we really need to be cognizant of what we're asking our teachers, what we're asking our families, what holes and gaps are we creating in doing this because when you pilot, it's not cohesive as you you do as best as you can. What about our special ed kids, our EL kids? There's so many other facets there. We have so many moving pieces right now. I'm concerned as a parent. I'm concerned as

014a board member. I'm concerned for the teachers. I'm concerned for the students just I don't know where that goes but I'm just throwing it out there that there was a major neon sign that came up and said whoa I would 100% agree with you Diana and that is something that we are trying to be cognizant of for our teachers um at the elementary level you'll remember with the science and we'll see with the social studies um we just are having some teacher elementary teacher reps be a part of the process but it's not that I anticipate that we are going to be adopting a full science or social studies curriculum. The materials that we have looked at so far are what they consider knowledge building materials, meaning they use social studies and science topics through

015literacy to get to the literacy pieces. So my intent would be for us to determine what direction we're going with literacy. implement that well and then take a look at where do the science and social studies standards that we have meet what's in our literacy curriculum and then look for holes there and then determine how we're going to move forward with social studies and science at the elementary level because it would be completely absurd and unfair to think that we're implementing like four new sets of materials at the elementary level within like two years. that would be completely overwhelming and I love our teachers and I don't want them to twist. Um, and so I appreciate that. Um, and you know, we had a lot of discussions along the way when Act 20 came out

016like do we put pause on implementing our bridges math curriculum and try to focus on just literacy and it was pretty overwhelming from our teachers that they loved the the Bridges materials and they wanted to move forward with those as well. So, we're trying to be super mindful. Um, we're trying to make sure that our teachers have the reason why behind the change because I think that helps with implementing any change too. And it's very early. It was a group of 40 elementary teachers at that training um at the end of June and it was clear that they were seeing that there were some pieces in our current curriculum that weren't necessarily meeting the needs of our students. And so I think that they will feel like yes, this makes sense for us to move

017forward. But I agree with you that we have to be cognizant about the social studies and the science piece for them as well. So what's the I mean Diana brings up a great point. So what's our process check? Act 20. We may have to do it just because we have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. Um the next agenda item, which we're kind of blending the two together, which I assume they probably would be anyway because even some of my questions were blended in the way that they uh were tackling this, but social studies. Is there anything in that one that gives us an opportunity to pause and say we don't have the bandwidth or we don't have the finances? Maybe it's not in the budget. Uh I

018I I don't I don't know. I mean, I I appreciate the fact that we want to be I don't want to say pushing the needle on on being current with our curriculum, but as Diana perfectly articulated, how much is overwhelming for the teachers to learn this, especially the ones in the the K5 who have to teach multiple subjects? Maybe it's not too difficult at the high school or middle school where they just a math teacher or just a social studies teacher, but how is the central office going to gauge that? Is it going to be this team that's going to look at that or is that going to be Jared, you're going to talk to your staff and your staff is going to talk to their staff and their staff is going to say, "Listen,

019that's as fast as we can go." when I mean I don't have a problem with the process but overlapping them is a question that I'm not sure that ed services committee is here to answer. It's more of a question for the staff that says how how much is too much and and I'm not the one to judge that. I just want to make sure you guys are being sensitive to that question. So I can tell you that I know Jenny's doing a great job being sensitive to that question and when she speaks to that we should lean into what her needs are. Okay. Right. And as far as budget goes, uh for those identified changes that we're making, we have already uh put some key budgetary pieces in hold. Um and I want to remind

020you that the dollars that we had earmarked, we used other uh supported dollars that we I mean supported purchases and then we're earmarking that. and you will see um the finance office come to you and say we want to make sure this is earmarked for these things. Okay? And we're going to assign those in fund balance. So that way there's no question as to the future use of that money. It'll be earmarked for those things that we asked it to be earmarked for, science and social studies replacements and so on. Uh and move forward. But I would say just lean into Jenny and if she says we got to slow down or speed up, then let's do what she needs. Okay. Um, so and certainly the floor is still open for additional questions. Do we

021want to hear about the social studies research study proposal or are there board members who want to specifically talk about literacy or is there a benefit to talk about both of them in conjunction? We've already done that a little bit. But I assume that what you're going to tell me on the next slide is going to be more or less what you already told me on the first slide uh or the first topic. But uh so go ahead Jenny if there's additional items on item number B and uh board members present we can circle back and talk more about A again um if if need be or we can talk about A and B together. So, yeah, the only comments that I'll make about social studies is it does say K12, but you'll note that

022I've made a point of saying we'll just probably have one elementary or two elementary reps on who will most likely not attend all of the meetings. Um, to Diana's point of I can't overwhelm them. And we did something similar when we talked about science as well. Um, because we can't overwhelm them. Now, middle school and high school is a little different because as you said, they're just so they're just social studies teachers. I don't mean it that way. That's what I said. It didn't sound right when I said it either, but I I did say that they focus on that area and that area alone. How about that? Um and I think it'll be important for us to take a look at where we're at and if there are changes we might need to make

023um to make sure that we're hitting all of the standards and the state requirements. So, um this one is really focused 612. Um, and as Jared mentioned, we did set aside those curriculum or those esser dollars um for this purpose um to make any updates or not. So, I appreciate the concern. I echo the concern. Um, and I think we're doing our best to try to balance that as well. Okay. Um as far as uh well first of all any additional discussion on uh topics A and B questions from anybody in the room on one u board members you want you didn't want to come any other discussion items on those two? Okay. Then uh one last uh part of business on that um precedence. I'm trying to remember if we did have resolutions when

024we kicked off uh curriculum reviews. I don't recall if we did, but I'm not I just want to see what the precedence was. I don't know if you can verify that, Jenny. I think that there's general consensus here that we would uh we're we're as much as we can approve it or authorize it, we acknowledge you're moving forward on this. But if we've used resolutions in the past, then I think that we should have a resolution going forward. Uh if we haven't used resolutions in the past, then then ed services consensus is sufficient to move forward with the studies if that makes sense. So I think you can probably find those situations uh for the math and the science. We did with literacy and math. We did not with science and I think Tony Arnett

025at the time was concerned that that wouldn't make it seem it was a committee of the board and that we would have to publicly notice those necessarily was my understanding at the time. So Jared and I can do some digging. Okay. Well, I I see Fred's on. Jared, you and Fred can discuss it. Look look at it with Lynn and figure out if we need resolutions. I'm on the fence. I don't need to discuss it. We have two pathways. um we can uh go the route of taking a more formal approach, but that would mean that we would have to notice every meeting or you can understand that um the work is being directed by the administration that we're reporting that work back out to you. Okay. Um and that doesn't take formal posted meetings

026and all of that stuff. So, we can go either way. Um if we go the route of the administration's moving forward with this, we'll just denote that in our minutes today. Okay? And if any board or anybody else further on wants to know well why are we why are you why are you looking at new science or social studies here's where it was discussed at this meeting okay everybody comfortable with that answer no resolution just uh be it in the minutes as such we we will do whatever it is uh you guys would like us okay so go ahead question would be um that that this this would just go move forward without a resolution. Then as far as the the charge for the study and then uh with the understanding the administration is going

027to direct the um the cor basically the curriculum selection um and how is that going to be reported back out to the board? same way it would be even if you did it the other way which is the information would go back to head services. Ed services would have their say in in what goes forward or not to the board. Uh and if services is okay with it, it will go to the board for final approval. So it's like the other three other piece. Okay. Okay. Um thanks Greg. Uh only other thing to put in the note is that we have one tenative volunteer. Uh, sorry arm was being twisted over there. Uh, but there's two there's there's two curriculum here uh that we're reviewing and each one uh could benefit from a board uh

028position and and just one I mean I'm not saying you can't take two but then you don't want to start posting them because there's more than so many board members present. Uh if that's if I understood you correctly on that. That's correct. Um, so, uh, just, uh, if you could put that in the meeting minutes as well that we're still looking for board volunteers as well as other volunteers by the looks of it. Okay. Appreciate that. Okay. Anything else on item A and B? Okay, very good. Uh, item C is the English learner handbook and the WHS course review. So, um, two years ago when we had a program review, it was recommended by DPI that we have a handbook put together, um, just to kind of unify all of our resources that we had.

029Um, and so Jenny and I attended a training in January as to what should be included in a handbook and um, things of that nature. And so this is the first draft of that handbook um with the items that were recommended both by DPI and um CISA in order to demonstrate not only compliance but also um to use as a resource or a tool for staff, administration, um parents if necessary to show what sort of programming is offered in our district and how we're meeting the needs. um and legal rights of our multilingual learners. So that is the first item that's linked. Um and within the document, there are other um items that are linked such as letters that go home um what our screener questions look like, things like that. And then the second

030um document that's linked are two or three three different um specialized courses that would only be offered for our multilingual learners. The first two would be geared for newcomers and those courses would serve as English credits for newcomers because what we're seeing and other districts in the state are seeing is we are receiving newcomers at the high school level. They've maybe missed two or three years of high school. They're learning English. And so when we're putting them in a regular English classroom, they are not being su successful. And so, um, in networking with other districts, what they have done is set up these, um, specialized classes for where they're covering that English content, but they're maybe using a graphic novel of Romeo and Juliet instead of the novel. Um, and so they're still hitting on

031those standards and receiving English credit, but it's outside of like an English nine setting. any for these courses would be specifically for um students within their first year or second year um in in the country. Um so as a um complement to the English course and we would have an English licensed teacher teaching the courses as well. So she's familiar with the standards um in um and what is taught at the high school as well. Yes, she's dual certified English language learner and English teacher. And then that third class would be um an elective credit um for multilingual learners mainly. We were um thinking that would be for like nth grade students and to focus on academic skills um to make sure that their transition to high school is really successful. and that they have

032what they need. Um, and even if they weren't in the AVID elective, that we were implementing things like AVID strategies for them to make sure that they um started off on on a good note at high school. Okay. Questions? Many members, I have one. Um, and just helping wrap my brain around this So the beginning and emerging newcomers would start in the beginning and then move to emerging. Is that correct? So that ultimately then would occupy three of the four high school English classes. Is that correct? Two. Um so ideally they would take the beginning English skills their first year and then move into emerging their second year. But there's one, two, and three. So isn't that one and a half? Um each one is a trimester. So u beginning English one is one trimester.

033Yeah. So that would be a year's a year-long course. One, two, and three, right? But school credits. So they one and a half for that. They would earn one and a half for emerging. So they're at three of the four. So my big overarching question is going into that fourth that one regular I'll say US credit will they be successful in that is my my main concern. Three out of the four I get it if it's it's noted there when you talk that they're they're struggling I'll use the word struggling if I may. They're struggling in regular high school courses. These have the graphic novels and things. Now we're putting them one year of regular high school US English. because then yeah like it's a great question but then with um with all the skills

034that they would have gained and all the tools that they would have gained from the beginning English skills and then the emerging English skills like the the whole point is like to hopefully exit them from the EL program right so like they would be in a spot then where the student has the skills you know and then we're up with all the EL support with our teachers also to be able to support that class no and I get it and and I love this progression I know that it's new I'm just thinking here they are a senior going into senior your English as they've had I'll use the words accommodations made throughout just ensuring that they're successful and maybe there's something down the road. I love this secret question. Is it freshman? We may not

035go into true. They may not want to sing or it might be right. Okay, got it. And I think, you know, with the addition of new staff at the high school, new EL staff, we would work to create a plan so that, you know, there would be scaffolded support once they're in that mainstream English class. Um, so that it's not like, okay, you've completed these two courses, now apply. Um, so yeah. Okay. Lori, Sam, any questions? Can you just when it says teacher recommendation is that along with the already other services I don't know what you would call it when you guys so that I think we have that because it wouldn't be open to anybody to just select that course it would just be we know these um five students are newcomers and so

036we're recommending that this course would be a good fit for that. I think that's where I was confused because if they're a newcomer how would a teacher be you know what I'm saying? Okay, makes sense. And and Ashley as well, um if if a student shows that they can demonstrate proficiency at any time, so maybe they just lie and then they're good, then we would just transition them to, you know, back to the regular core area. Yes, we're going to have uh the beginning and emerging field like back toback so that there can be some fluidity um with scheduling students. So if somebody is progressing a little bit faster in trimester 2, they could bump up into that next class. Okay. I'd just like to share one more thing too along the lines of this

037that um this kind of support would not be available if uh Jenny and Ashley weren't really working hard to track numbers and knew coming in and out. So using transfer service dollars to help that can't be understated enough. I mean there there are many school districts who don't even understand that that's a method to gain uh some revenue uh and understanding that and utilizing that tool is really the next and I will give a giant shout out to Tresa Snail because I know she did a ton of work uh networking with other high schools to determine best um the best course forward for our students. Um, and she put in a ton of work to this this last year and is eager and excited to start implementing it, too. So, do one more question. Do

038we have an idea how many students would be in this class? I mean, are we going to could we get to a point where it's too many and we only have one teacher? Like, what is that going to look like? I I I have no idea if you even have a clue a good question. how many students would be in each and sometimes it's unpredictable the students come to us but I think actually we were probably thinking somewhere five to eight potentially um in each course so it would be small um and now if we have a huge influx of students you know midy year that could definitely change and then I think that has to be a conversation with the e department up at the high school about how we would best be able

039to support them um you know this is not probably a class where 35 five kids could be successful at one time. So, I think it just you have to play it by year, but I think looking at historically we'd be somewhere between five and 10ish students potentially. Yeah. Okay. And that's why I said the importance of that new to country student being a transfer of service dollars which gives us more dollars to year one helps with that support. So, it's not taking away from our our tab, our regular uh student population dollars that we have been using. This is additional dollars that over the last couple of years, Jenny has worked hard on trying to pull in from our district for services for these students. Absolutely. I was just more concerned of not every teacher

040can jump in and Exactly. you know. Okay. Uh great questions. Uh Sam, anything? Um uh what what is the what's the actual goal? I see in the WUSD vision uh it says um multi-ingual learners will be able to access content and develop language in an integrated setting. Students will have a sense of belonging in all classrooms. But what's the actual end goal of this program of e programming in our district? It's to um get our students to be as proficient in English as their monilingual peers and to be just successful as any other student in any other classroom. So the end goal is Greg, you had a question. Mine was just it's an overarching one. You mentioned that the um intended audience staff administration appearance if necessary. Where is this located? Where is this housed?

041So, right now it's not housed anywhere other than Google. Um, but my thought would be once it was approved um by the school board that it would be linked somewhere on our district page for everybody to access. And I'm going to build on that because this presentation, okay, it looks great. And I'm going to look at Melissa on this one and say we have other handbooks, we have policies, we have other formats. This is fine with me. So are some of the other ones. Let's get them all to be the same and then put them where everybody can find them. So, I don't care if it's the handbook for, you know, uh how to how to participate at recess. I don't care if it's the handbook about how to get on a bus. I don't

042care if it's a handbook for English lane. Let's let's same font, same color, same title block, same location on the website and let's get them there. Just from a that's a tangent, but no, that was my Yeah, this looks good. Let's just make sure it's the same as every other one and and we know where to find it. Uh that's the key is knowing where to get these handbooks. That that that was going to be my comment. Good. Greg, uh so these extra um English language um credits. So I understand like a regular um regular English language speaking student would have a requirement to have four credits in ELA before they graduate. Is that correct? So is this taking some of those credits and just saying well um in lie of that requirement we have

043this requirement. So, is there any concern that like later on when when they end up taking the ACT that they're going to be behind in their their um level of English knowledge that um we would expect any graduate to have from from our district. So Craig, I think what the answer is is we're trying to put them on an expedited course that meets their needs to actually get them higher than they would have been should they have been in the other courses with less support, right? You know, and so the answer is we're hoping that they're actually going to do better than they had been doing, which would increase that. I think another piece that's important as Ashley spoke to is that the standards are the same. the route to get to the standard will

044be different. Okay. Well, I guess my my biggest concern is that um we're helping these students to be successful later on in life and um and that we we don't want to lower a particular bar or standard to try to um get people to that level of of English knowledge that that everybody else has. So that's my concern. Yeah. And I think Jason answered that for you which is like the standard the same route they get there is going to be different. Okay. Can I add a question? And this isn't if we have a student that comes maybe at an 11th grade, do we start them at like a nth grade if they haven't been in high school? Like what? I'm just curious like if you start them at 11th grade and they haven't let's

045say had a successful high school yet. What is that? Is that really just obviously student by student? I I get that. I just don't want us I I don't know what that looks like. I'm more curious. Yeah, it's it's it's a great question. It talk about like the review process we use to review credits and other things and how Yeah. So as part of the unfunding process, we evaluate your transcript. Um and then when the counselor meets with the family and the student, you know, they start making decisions from Yeah. what makes right. Yeah. Because sometimes to put put an 11th grader in a ninth grade class, you know, further make them feel, you know, left out or or disengaged. Um so, you know, they they really try to troubleshoot what's the best course constellation

046also based upon what courses that they have. Sometimes it gets interesting because the transcripts we get from other places might look very different. Um or some cases not even exist. Um you know and so like we're then then that triggers a communication with with like the institution that they were at in you know whichever country that might be. So I I I appreciate obviously English classes but what does that look like in a math class or I mean is that where we're heading? I don't I don't know what Yeah. Yeah. and they they have a lot of discussions about all the courses that you know that they need. But that it also helps when they can take something like the access test, right? Um be able to understand, you know, where where they're at. Um

047you know, and and sometimes even through, you know, process of elimination, you know, like we'll we'll start in a course and then the teacher will provide some feedback, you know, when working with the student that, hey, like this this is not a a good fit, like let's make an adjustment. So, that's why I'm really I'm just so appreciative that we have the additional EL support through transfer of services because now we have extra hands- on deck to be able to to really troubleshoot this and include them in the process as well, make sure we're making the right decision. And it's actually super important, especially as we move to more literacy based curricula because they need so much more support. So having them not only in the classroom but the actual English things, you know, a

048level one and a level two kid function very differently than a four and a five. So fours and fives are actually able to function quite well in a regular classroom. The ones and struggle. So this I'm very excited um to give them that baseline support so they can be successful in the other. So thank you for all your work. Right. So, and I guess one final so implementation, how does this make what we do look differently than what is this just formalizing what we've always been doing or does this actually change the game for new enrolles or transfers or or people who are coming up from the middle school or entering at K? I mean, does is there anything functionally major difference in how we're going to identify and treat these aside from the the

049coursework which you lay out here? It it I mean, yeah, not not not an identification. Um, but but now it's it's it's basically a new course sequence that we tailor to like the individual student needs. Okay. Um, yeah. So, so nothing like the the process doesn't change. It's just the options that we have now. Now we have them. Okay. And and I I knew you said Ashley at the very beginning you said we didn't have handbook now we do which I presume the handbook just memorializes what we've likely been doing and then augments it with the additional coursework. Okay. So there's no major besides the coursework no major functional way in that we're treating these families and students. No and this this also provides some really much needed clarity for our staff as well you

050know and our school to understand what that and I assume this document's available in uh Spanish as well. Not yet. intent would be to put forward resentment on the July board meeting to accept the um yell handbook um if that's what the ed services committee would like us to do. Okay. I'm I'm I'm fine with that if uh unless it handbooks don't go through policy. Correct. That's the policy goes through policy. We don't need anything reviewed by policy on this. This comes through ed services and it resides in a book of business on the website that you all manage. policy will review like student handbooks but not necessarily programmatic handbooks like this. Got it. And I will go through that and services. Okay. Okay. Can I ask one other question because I've asked it multiple

051times and I don't think I've asked the right people. Do we typically review handbooks at this committee? You know, whether it be the ad advanced learner handbook or Yeah. whatever like the middle school or the high school, you know, you know, those is that something that typically comes here? Is that something that that doesn't? I don't know. I just It's not specifically our charge. And even when I had this one in the 22 pages that it was, I wasn't about to read through every single line of it, right? But policy, we do uh we we will read through an entire policy. Handbooks, I don't. So, do we approve handbooks? But we well Jenny says we're going to okay so this is gonna give requested that we run this through the schoolorn and so we figured

052services was the one that makes the most sense right just this one or all handbook uh any handbook related to ed service or education education education any programmatic programmatic if if it is um like a student handbook that outlines like uh code of conduct those kind of things that would be through policy. Okay. Go through a policy, but if it's like programmatic events or advanced learning intend to bring the advanced learning handbook here next month, so get some practice. Okay. Okay. So, a resolution will appear. Uh any additional discussion on this topic before I move on to the next one. Is there a resolution also for just the two additional classes? Uh we do have to add the course book, but that may come up at a different time. Uh because we approve course additions

053when we have the full docket of what it entails inside. That's what I was going to ask. Yeah. So that may be a separate That's a good question, Lori. And it may be a separate resolution because this is just the course. This is the handbook. That would be the resolution unless you have the paperwork to go along with it. I just assume that the coursework be or uh introduced at the next ed services and or lumped in with any other course changes you're making Josh in this situation because it is a teacher recommended course and it's not available to any student in the past. We have not run that through the course proposal process like we do with the full course proposal process that we have done. So, it would be our intent to move

054forward with these um given the fact that we discussed here and okay um the team was and I'm I'm okay with that. Just make sure that the resolution specifically states that there is additional the additional courses. So, you're not just approving the handbook, but you're also approving the additional courses that complement that handbook. That way, it's all captured in the resolution. Unless somebody's sees differently on that. I just don't want it to I've never ever seen a new course that hasn't been approved. I'm I'm in agreement with you. So I I'm not saying it's yes or no. I'm just I get a little gray on that. I'm not sure. Similar course handbook. You have to put it in in this kind of perspective. when you have handbooks to manage how we provide services, those handbooks

055go through the respective uh committee that they need to go through. Sure. Most of the time it's ed services. If you have a handbook that manages people and how they react to and and work within policy, those go through policy. No, I'm more we're talking about the course the courses. It's a new course that we're offering. A teacher is teaching. I'm not sure how we don't have to have a board approval on that. It's it's a valid question. I I don't know. I understand that the finance show isn't coming out of our right. I understand all that, but I I guess I'm just not sure. I just want to be sure. Maybe that's something and and I I both the handbook and the courses should go through approval of the board. Well, then we need

056the we need the documents that have the coursework, how it adds, what does it replace, what how does it complement, what I mean, there's a it's a page and a half document that associates with all three of these just like when we added welding to or you know any of the other courses that we've changed. So, is that something I'm just trying to be honoring time being that we're already in the middle of July. Um, is that something that we we see a large portion of what would be on that form described here? Are we okay if that form just gets filled out and be brought to the board meeting? We we certainly can do that. We've done that with certain policies. We've done that with some HR resolutions with an asterisk next to it

057because we approve we we're filled in on the hirings, the terminations, and the firings. And then we always know that there's going to be a oneweek gap between what HR approves and what ultimately gets presented to the board. So if those documents can be put together within the next 10 days, Ashley or Josh, then I think that we'd be okay with that. Well, I think for transparency, if there's any cost, right, for anybody that wants to see Yeah. You know, typically a new course has a cost. You know what I mean? So we don't want to cause any assumptions that we're if we know we're going this route otherwise we approve it at the August board meeting but registration is already occurring. You know it just gets really Can we can we have that then

058two resolutions Jenny? Sure. One for the handbook and then one for the course book Ashley and Josh. Yeah. And in past practice, my understanding from Josh was that any course that wasn't just open to every student, we have not necessarily run through the course proposal process. And that's why we did not do that in this case. This wouldn't be open to just any student. This would only be like by teacher recommendation as a part of a student's individualized English language learner plan. And so that's why we and we talked about whether or not we should go through that process, but that has been the past practice. Um, and if we want to change that, that's fine. we can get that taken care of. I guess I'm not familiar with that practice. I I was under

059the assumption that all course work had to go through studies through all that. Good point. Those are worked out at the level with with administrative approval, right? Okay. So, committee and other board members, you want to see this course paperwork put for the full board? Yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, there's a there's a fine line of between where where it's an independent study and then where it becomes kind of a more of a a programmatic change that we're making. And this clearly appears as though that it's that this is this is it. So, yeah, I would that's why I suggest Okay. So, how about two two resolutions? One for the handbook, one for the course uh paperwork. And we'll assume that the course paperwork is looks good by without review today. But

060then, of course, there could be discussion and and no vote uh come the whatever the 18th or the whatever date that is 22nd. Thank you. Yeah, it comes back with a million dollar can I ask one more overarching handbook type question? So, we've got new handbooks and we've got major this the yellow advanced learner. I'm going to say that one's basically new because what's been done to it total overhaul, but other handbooks and I understand the difference between programs and policy and things like that. So is this on a cycle of some sort where you know revision would go through process and things to do we you know we're starting we're starting structures and we're looking at curriculum structures and things like that. Do we have is this even a need? Is it something that

061gets done where handbooks go through every two years there's a revision process? Um I just I've been noticing that there have been things that haven't been touched for five years, seven years, 10 years. Do we have or do we need to get some kind of process in place um for handbooks as well? I'm only focusing on handbooks right now. We're going to just start with um we have to get things in place that have then we'll get on a track of putting them on but then they will eventually come through revision and things that way. Okay. I I wasn't expecting a plan right now. Just it's up to the plan is we've got to get things in place process and then Okay. Thank you. Yeah. This is ancillary, but do we have any dual language

062speaking volunteers? And are we recruiting? Not that I'm aware of. No. Um, other than our bilingual pair professionals, they would be the only ones um who are working with students who are bilingual. Yeah. Okay. Um, very good. Uh, next topic. um broadly um called uh WSD social emotional learning curriculum review. And I wanted to just give a very brief backstory on this. Um whether it was uh uh call it behavior, call it bullying, call it restorative or uh classrooms, um uh panorama's up for review. And uh then we also know that SEAL can be a buzzword uh with uh very strong opinions on what it means to the district and what it means to our families, what it means to our kids. So, uh, as opposed to trying to tackle bullying or restorative classrooms or

063panorama all separately, I kept on taking, uh, suggestions from, uh, committee members, uh, and then funneling those into a one meeting with, uh, Jenny and Jared that said, let's let's have a one sitdown. Let's figure out what it is to us. So, you know, every single possible question that I could come up with as to what is seal, why uh does the DPI and the state push it, why are some people against it, what does it mean to the teachers, what does it mean to the students, uh what does it mean to our program, what does it mean to our budget? And so, uh, this is, uh, it's going to be a can be a lengthy discussion, but the the main goal was to make sure we're all on the same page so that I

064don't think it's something different than Josh thinks it is, and that we all understand what it is and what it is not and where it affects our teachers, where it affects our kids, where it affects our pocketbook, uh, where it affects our curriculum. And so, uh, that's the reason why it's on the agenda. I'd encourage us to let Jenny and whoever else is going to speak on the topic to get through the information that they've uh that they've put in here. Um, and then at the end uh we can ask questions after they've done the the full presentation. And of course, this has all been at your uh fingertips for at least a week or two. So, Jenny, know you don't have to read through every single item on the entire rubric. Uh but if

065you wanted to hit the highlights of each row uh or each uh uh initiative or program that'd be great as well as uh then um I guess the discuss the two differences in the the panorama projects. Uh we can do that at a later time. Uh if we folks want to talk about the the overview or if you see a convenient time to lump in the the panorama renewals, please do that as well. Perfect. Thank you so much. Um, and like you said, the intent today is to sort of review where we're at for the different uh pieces for social emotional learning and our mental health within the district. Um, the intent would be to walk away today understanding our data collection system. Um, and where the school board would like us to go as

066it relates to Panorama. We do have an administrative recommendation for you as it relates to Panorama. Um, and we'll get an opportunity to discuss that. Um, Dr. Brook um and I sat with David to determine what information might be a nice overview. Um we were sort of using the idea. To be clear, I intended this to print on 11 by7 paperwork. So I apologize if yours printed like mine because it's I need my glasses and I don't have them. So um just an intent to do a quick overview. What is the programming? What levels are we using it at? How and when is it taught? um what professional development has been provided for our staff and what additional funding sources have we used to support that and then what data sources are we currently using

067to evaluate the effectiveness of it. Um and so we can just kind of briefly go line by line. Um pyramid model is something that we use in our 4K classrooms. Uh social emotional learning is a huge piece with our youngest learners in particular. Um, it is something that the Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation has been incredibly supportive of over the years. Um, and we use a a tool called the TEAP, which is a coaching tool. Um, and then also use a something called the benchmark of quality to kind of review where we're at program programmatically hoping to make growth. Um I have shared with the board on several occasions um how we're using that and and why we're using that and our teachers are working in conjunction with families to implement that both in school

068and at home. I think that's a big piece of our 4K program is ensuring that we have the kids at home. Jenny, uh I'm going to just stop you briefly and I just wanted to if you could just read the first paragraph for what is or you want my glasses? Did you just see that? Yeah, I I did see that. Yeah. Yeah. Your arms your arms aren't long enough. Yeah. Uh I have to admit that I'm at that age now. I I just want to I I just I mean, yes. Uh it's it's appropriate that we go through the the grid that you put together. I just want to make sure that we're setting a baseline for what is and I think you did a good job and I just want to read it for

069those who may not be looking at it at home or online. Uh so if you could just go ahead and read that first paragraph, I appreciate it. So responsive DPI defines social emotional learning as a process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for each other. U establish and maintain positive relationship and make responsible decisions. And so, um, the idea is, and I probably should have started here, um, is ensuring that our students, um, have the skills to be successful, um, with in managing their own emotions and working with others. Um, goal setting are some of the pieces that we work on throughout our 4K through 12 programming. when it comes to social

070emotional learning um you'll note that there is a lot of uh repetition of the skills in the different programs over the years and I you know make a comparison to math and when you think about like multiplication and how you're talking about groups in kindergarten all the way through applications of that through calculus um the same type of thing is happening with our social emotional learning talking about it in very basic ways with our youngest learners and increasing the complexity as students get older. Um, and I tried to put this in as a group it as age level as possible, but then I realized that we have play works at the end, which is an elementary piece as well. So, I may skip to that one at the end. Um, second step is a program

071that we are using in our elementary classrooms. Um, there's the digital curriculum that our classroom teachers are using. Um, there's a bullying prevention unit that our student services staff is teaching in the classrooms and then there's a protective behavior unit that is being taught by your student services staff as well. Um, you can see how many lessons are taught at each grade level. We did do a pretty um intensive training in August of 2023 on the new digital curriculum. I believe Emily was pretty involved with that as well as Chris Wedig, our social worker. Um we have used again greater water community health foundation funding as well as a DPI grant that we got that was um board approved and we track that with office office discipline referrals the panorama survey and then the stu

072student experience survey also at the elementary level we're using a program called responsive classrooms um responsive classroom is integrated in the K5 settings you'll notice that most of our K5 classrooms all of our K5 classrooms have time for what's called a morning meeting. Um the staff completed a very intensive training during the 2122 school year. Um and then we had 25 elementary staff that did more advanced training with that and then do the new staff orientation in summer of 23. again uh funding sources included and I should say additional funding sources included the greater water community health foundation and the uh schoolbased mental health grant and you can see our data sources there we'll flip to the next page I'll scroll to the next page um I'll jump to the bottom playworks um is a

073program that um was also funded through the greater water community health foundation um you can see school PTO's are supporting as well. And it is a program through which uh like recess um is um structured so that kids have a opportunity to participate in active play. Um and then there's also leadership opportunities through the junior coach program. Um, we had not only the training for teachers, but we did have coaching through Playworks and that was paid for by the Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation and we have been supported by them um for several years with this program as well. If we flip to the top of that page, um, Restorative Practices is more of a middle school and high school program um that uh we did we trained three staff trainers. Um there are opportunities

074at the middle school and high school during home room time for some relationship and building um opportunities that align with uh AVID and it is also used as a process through um what may be replacing more traditional uh discipline processes as well. the middle school and high school. PBIS or positive behavioral interventions and supports is something that has been uh implemented in this district for a long time uh 10 to 15 years. Um this is really just outlining positive behaviors and expectations in the building and walking through uh training of students, if you will, teaching them um what the different expectations are. There's a lot of conversation in PBIS about the fact that um if a student doesn't know how to read, we give them more intense reading instruction. We don't punish them for not

075being able to read. And the same goes for positive behavior interventions and sports. If the student doesn't necessarily know how to behave in a certain situation, providing some additional instruction on what they need to do in those settings rather than just punishing that behavior. Um, I'm going to skip down to student services support. As you know, we've got amazing uh counselors and social workers as well as school psychologists in each one of our buildings. Um, they provide what we consider tier 2 or tier three support in a lot of cases um for students who may need some additional support. They use a variety of curriculum and materials as well as their own expertise in supporting students in that way. And then school-based mental health, if I bump up one, um, is that is when the

076school district works directly in collaboration with outside agencies to provide individual counseling for students, um, with parent support and permission. Um, at the elementary level, we've been working through the Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation. They have provided some funds. Um, in the past we have worked with a couple of different agencies including Fort Healthcare and an agency out of Middleton which I'm not remembering the name of. Um, and we intend to uh move forward with a agency um out of Wanuki for next year. This um is paid for through private student um insurance or funds through the Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation. Um the only thing that the district is providing is space in our buildings to provide the counseling. So this is done in conjunction with families with parental uh support um at the

077secondary level and actually at the elementary Jefferson County or Dodge County will provide counselors um and we also have other online providers where a student will log in. will provide a space in the middle school or high school for that student to meet confidentially with their counselor. Again, that is uh paid for through the family's health insurance or pay for privately through the family with that. Um that is a very brief overview of, you know, the main pieces that you may hear and I'm hoping that you're able to use this as a resource. Um today you do see on the agenda two different quotes um for Panorama. It's something that we've uh had a lot of discussion about at this uh committee for the past year and along with this whole school board with our

078data meetings. You can see in the data sources we have Panorama listed several times. Um, Panorama as a reminder is a SEAL survey and so it provides us the opportunity to track how we are um doing in the different areas. Um there is a spot on our district website that shares um where this survey data what survey data results we have gotten as well as copies of the um parent letters that we sent out and then the surveys that we used um as well with that. So, if anyone is interested in examining exactly what survey was given to the students or the letter that was sent to families, that's right here on our district web page. And I'd encourage folks to take a look at that if you have specific questions about what was asked.

079Um the administrative recommendation at this point is that we feel like we had the opportunity to dabble in our first year with Panorama and perhaps were not able to um implement it so that we could see every benefit of that. Um administratively we are recommending that we would move forward with a second year of Panorama for kindergarten through 8th grade. Um the reason being that um we have been able to uh use the data most effectively at those two levels. Um as you remember there's also a playbook within that that provides strategies to be using um when you see areas that you would like for growth. We did also include a K12 quote because I know this is the K8 quote. This is the K12 quote. Uh last year when we did consider this the

080um ed services committee was um a proponent of ensuring that we were doing this K12 versus just focusing it at one level. So, I did include both of those, but the administrative recommendation would be to move forward for one year K8 to determine um how we can continue to utilize the tool to track our data and our implementation of our social emotional learning tools within the district. I probably talked to myself for 20 minutes there and I had that much amount of time on the agenda. I told you weren't going to do it in 20 minutes. That wasn't a surprise. That's fine. So, I will stop now. Yeah. No, that was No questions or comments. First of all, Jenny, that was perfect. Um, I'd like to first open the floor for questions only. Let's not

081uh How about no statements? Let's just get questions out. So, uh, first of all, committee members, Diana, Lori, Sam. Uh, questions for Jenny or anybody else in the room. Um, is it on anything or do you want to start with in general and panorama? Second, anything. Anything that Jenny just attempted. So my question or one of my questions, how is data driving the decision making? So I love this and not that one. The one where you have the percentages, whatever. This was my first time seeing this. Oh, on the website. On the website. Yeah. But I look at emotional regulation 3 five 612. You know, you're hovering around the 50% or self-efficacy. Those are things that are huge. And when we talked about Panorama um in the past, one of the selling points was that

082there were skills to help um grow with that that the teachers didn't have to create. And I'm just curious without going into specific details. I love that Emily's here for the elementary, but I'm more concerned middle and high school, how how are we using Panorama to address those specific needs? because if you can't you can't teach someone that's not regulated for whatever it is. And so how are we using this data and how are we using Panorama to meet those needs to help us get to better learning? Um I'll go ahead and you guys can jump in. I know um at the elementary level um the data was reviewed with our student services team and with our full staff. um staff were encouraged to take a look at their individual results and um it's top

083of mind because when you search our website for panorama there is one example of a third grade team at Douglas who noticed um there were they were low in a particular area they went into uh playbook found a strategy and then as a full third grade team um worked through that lesson um at the middle school I know Alexander Agar Pratt shared the example of as it related to forward testing. Um they I believe looked at the self-efficacy results and students who scored low in self-efficacy. Um they matched uh their um who they took their Ford exam with a teacher that they had a good relationship with. Um so someone who felt that they could encourage them to do their very best on that uh forward exam. Um I believe that the conversation at the

084high school is a bit more challenging when our teachers are seeing um dozens and dozens and dozens of students throughout the day. Um I believe that there were teachers, individual teachers at the high school level who had the opportunity to look at the data um and use strategies from the playbook based on the classes that they saw. But it was a larger challenge at the high school because they see so many students throughout the day as well as uh the fact that they change students at the trimester. So three times throughout the year. And so that is um why the administrative recommendation is that we move forward K8 to continue to explore and then find something that potentially would be a better fit at the high school level. Is Alexandria isn't she in the STEM

085program? Yes. So, can you give me a middle school example that's not specialized? Um, just as we look at panorama being, you know, more secondary versus more elementary, you know, is it being utilized across or just, you know, I'm calling STEM more specialized because it's a smaller group. It's a different being. I think Alex was on a committee, schoolwide committee. He was on like achievement like at risk. All right. So just not that it's just talking within the STEM program because it's a different looking beast. Yeah. Thank you. And I know like um Chris Malloy has it's been really exciting having her in her role and just kind of helping having her kind of think through how we can bring in more of this data to our like working with our student services teams in

086our buildings. and um she's worked to connect the wise local pieces because you know it's nice to have one place to go dig into information. We have a our student services team has some great I think thoughts about how we can work together to be correct. Is this part of the data discussion? You know you have data meetings within your PLC's within your Wednesdays within whatever. I'm assuming but I don't want to assume this is yeah we do we did have specific data meetings about the panorama data and like behavior referrals and things. So thank you. Okay Lori. Okay. So you know I had a lot so I tried to kind of put them in an order. So I will just start um whi how long exactly how when did we start seal in water

087town answer that a little bit I mean first of all I I know I wasn't here for the impetus of this here but I want to give a broader context to that question instead of why here is why in schools is a bigger context. Well, I'm more focused here. I understand, but I also want to give a bigger context to what's happening and how schools are trying to respond. We know that there is some correlative data around things like uh social media and the internet and their uses that have brought kids out of where they were interacting more and more with each other to interacting more and more with screens or interacting with each other through screens, right? that has impacted a lot of social skills um and other self-regulation skills that has been unseen

088before in history. And we're trying to figure out how as educators we can try to interact and try to get those skills to students that they normally would have have learned with the interactions that they had that were normalized interactions what I call normalized from before, right? So that's the why behind we're doing it. And I know that sometimes that why gets corrupted by some districts and other things, you know, some schools. What we're trying to do is we're trying to utilize the information to get at how can we give them the skills that they are lacking. You can see on the screen that there are certain things that um self-reportedly, right, they are doing. And and I will say that hacking on a couple of points of data, right, are are ridiculous, right? But

089but trying to understand it, trying to get something that gives us data and panoramic may not be the tool, right, is is what we're trying to do. We're trying to understand how they're missing this kind of information and why that's leading to things like um you know behavior that uh is is different and and probably more disregulated than we've seen in in the past, right? And and we're trying to come up with solutions to that. So that's our that's the why of what we're doing now. when that came into the school system, right? You it goes back to um like Jenny said, PBIS PBIS started way back in, you know, the early 2000s within school districts because we thought it was just a behavior issue that we were dealing with and different new behaviors. But

090we we now know more now that it's not it wasn't just behavior. That's what was manifesting was the behavior, right? why the behavior was manifesting was a lack of skills that we weren't understanding that that students were now missing out on. Right? And so over the past decade, decade and a half, we've learned also what skills have been missing. And the, you know, co response has highlighted, especially just like in reading and math where we've missed out or where we've been missing out over the last decade or decade and it certainly has helped us with the understanding of act 20 and what we need to do with reading, right? Because it highlighted what we were missing, right? And so that is a flashlight onto the the social skills um that that that students are missing

091or self-regulation skills or executive functioning skills that have been missed. That's what we're trying to understand. Sure. Okay. If you go back to like how was that codified in our school district's board? Um I can go back to around 2018 um and then 2021 where school board had not only talked about but refined what it is we were looking to do. Right. And uh Jenny has more of that information and documents and she can go over that with you. But I just wanted to again start with the bigger. No, and I appreciate I think what I what I'm all I'm trying to get to is what like you said, what are we trying to get out of this? So, if we don't have a plan or goals like we do with everything else in our

092district, then it's really just feel good. I'm just going to say what you know, I'm not trying to get off. I know you just want us to ask questions, but that is why I'm asking the questions is what are our goals? What what what are we doing with the information we're getting? I think like what Diana was asking. So that's why I asked the question when did we start this? What what we know the need Darren you did very good job explaining the need and I think we all agreed that we have that need. I wanted to know what what did what were our goals? What were what were we trying to get when we started this? Or do we need to re-evaluate that? I guess that's the question I'm having. Fair question. Yeah. And

093and I think some school districts are not taking this kind of approach, right? They're using it for other means or other issues. And again, that's not that's not where our our I'm not making any assumptions on any of that. But I mean, it gives us worry. Lori, it's a great question. And uh I'll say uh Jenny if you could I mean there being more of a historical reference not to say you're here longer than Jared. Uh but here I said historical reference but if you one of the things that did catch my eye on this law and I'm not going to I don't want to answer your question because I'm sure I don't know it but uh they did say that the positive behavior intervention and supports has been in around godzling feathers had been

094around for 16 years. So it might was probably called you got it. Yeah, it was it was already there. It was already there to reinforce good behavior, right? Yeah. Exactly. Especially at the elementary level. Yeah. So, the terminology seal may be what Jared just said, which is it just only recently came to the forefront as a a definition or a buzzword, but there have been components of it that have been around for a while. But I'll let Jenny answer the question which if restate it which is is it working or or is that I mean there's financial attachments there's research attachments there's staff attachments. So so I think in the short in the like to your point I think that there are certainly these types of lessons that have happened in schools for a long

095time. I remember being a kid and Mr. boardman, my school counselor, right? Um, in our our school district most recent history, I just kind of did a a look back at some of our board uh meetings and notes because I remember those because I've been around for a while. Um, in uh 2021, we did do with a school with the school board a strategic planning work session. Um and we uh identified um social emotional learning under uh school success or student success. Um and that became a part of our uh strategic plan. So it became a portion of our student success outcomes and you asked like how are we measuring it at that time? We um placed that under the area of like academic su success. you know, like Diana said, if a student isn't

096regulated, it's impossible to teach them. Um, and so we put that under the student success outcomes. Um, and we use that as one of the strategies. So, right here from that October 25th, 2021 schoolboard meeting. Um, one of the strategies was to implement two fidelity responsive classroom at the elementary level and restorative practices at the secondary level in order to significantly improve all students social emotional learning skills as well as positively impact um, academic outcome. Um, and the work for this came from a full board meeting where it was administration with the school board and then it was kind of kicked to a work session with the planning committee and then was presented to the school board by one of our former school board members. Um, and then that was kind of uh codified into

097our practice. Um, and I can share with you the specific documents if you're interested in that. So in our very recent history um that is sort of where this has uh lied in our strategic planning process. And I think as um administrative team not only do we look at it with the data sources that I had outlined on the piece but also with the idea that um that impacts our academic learning as well. And in that specific version of the strategic plan, that measure was outlined with the idea that it would be through the academic outcomes. I think more recently, we have wanted to look specifically at those skills to see how we can target them. And I think that's where something like Panorama came along or where we're looking at things like office discipline

098referrals or different uh pieces of data as well. Okay, Jenny, can you take just 30 seconds? I use the word disregulated. Jared used it twice. You used it once. 30 second 30 second definition. What does it mean for a student to be disregulated? Sure. I think I think we all have experienced situations in which we are disregulated um where you are not necessarily using your cognitive thinking brain but you're uh a bit more agitated or upset and it's harder to focus. And so some of our students we see that externally um and acting out the behaviors is typically what we call it. Um, sometimes students internalize that. So, you would never look at a student and think, "Boy, that student was disregulated, but internally they may be overwhelmed by the size of the group, uh,

099or something that another student had just said to them." Um, and so in those situations, I think we've been in those situations ourselves. I think I was in that situation while driving in Boston last week. um where you're not necessarily uh thinking in your rational brain um but instead you're uh like maybe hyperfocused on something else that's happening where you're not able to pay attention to the uh the instruction that's given could be a dead fish a dead family member a loss many of us have experienced it some it heightens more than others so thank you for I I apologize I use that word and then we've used it more often appreciate that Lori um that I'll and I'm going to get through your entire list of questions, but to to that first one I

100I do know that in I'll say September of 21. I knew it was somewhere around there. I was just curious. Yeah, it was I I know that that's the first time I saw SEAL as a acronym as three words together show up at a board meeting was in September of 21. Now, whether it took on different forms or different names prior to that, we do know that the board and the administration worked together to put that into the quote unquote the nient strategic plan or at least an interim strategic plan around September of 21. Thank you for that. I just couldn't I didn't want to go back and board. I tried I tried myself. I was like, I'll just have them. And I appreciate you sending your questions ahead of time. Keep going. Does anybody

101have any more questions on that? Uh, I'd say get through your list. Okay. Yeah, just jump in. Yep. Keep going. Um I'm going to kind of So you said like goals were more academic at that time. They were placed under um the academic goals as a part of the strategic plan, but then using some of these data pieces as sort of like indicators towards that. Okay. So we have do we have any more current goals around SEAL or we just you know I mean we're doing a lot of different things at the elementary stuff. So I I guess pertaining like what is our goal with panorama? Yep. And I think panorama in it of itself is the seal uh survey and so using that data to drive some of the instruction in some of the

102other areas. So a goal around panorama in and of itself I don't think that we are quite there yet. As I said I think our first year you know we gave the first uh survey in November. So, you know, did not have a ton of time to work with the data. I also know and I'm going to piggy back on what you said and uh Jason if you have anything to add. Chris Mallaloy and Jason um have been working very diligently on all of our data systems including um looking at tracking and how are we tracking things like behavior and are we ensuring like Sarah found in her uh people non-discrimination report are we ensuring that we're reporting things the same across the district and so um it is definitely and we will always be

103a work in progress um but it is definitely a work in progress us as we are learning our systems and better uh refining our data pieces. So like I said previously it was all based on the academic pieces but I think we are as an administrative team trying to determine what are our best ways. Another great example is attendance tracking attendance that the student engagement piece if kids are not excited and not wanting to be at school they're not attending school. So really trying to determine how can we use the data that we have in the best way to make the decisions for our students. I think specifically your question of around goals and right at this very moment in time I think our district does not have goals. Uh that would come from our

104strategic planning process. So that's part of it. I would also just say that at a building level, we've asked our building leaders and their leadership teams to really identify six goals. Uh we have three studentbased goals. One in math, literacy, and student engagement. And then three professional practice goals around the adult behaviors that match that math, literacy, and student engagement. And we've left that student engagement goal pretty wide open. And examples would be the high school said, "We want to increase participation in co-curricular uh activities." And so they're measuring and taking action to increase involvement co-curriculars. That looks different at the middle school, but different at many of our elementary. So we have building goals. Our district goals be coming from that strategic process. Okay. I just didn't know before our new stream what was

105if there were goals aligned with that um some of this I'm trying to go through just because I don't want to ask this twice and if you want to take a pause we take other questions so I'm not saying you have to do every single one I know I saw ahead so um these surveys I only received a sample so I wasn't able to look at all of the questions but are these surveys objective or are they subjective? Um, so I know that it's labeled on here sample survey and it is marked sample. Those are the surveys that were given. So there is nothing that was given that's not right here on this website. So I know if I go ahead and click on it, it says like sample form. That's just how it spits

106out when we um ask for it from Panorama. These were the surveys um that were given um to our students. Um I believe I guess I don't understand your question about are they subjective? The information that you're receiving from them is it subjective information or objective information because so to give you some context when I read the surveys what I'm seeing is the question is how do you feel about this? What do you think about this? What's your estimation? Can we trust students to accurately gauge their own adequacy, their own feelings, their the accuracy of the reality of the situation? Or are we receiving student subjective experiences that may or may not be accurate? The reason I'm concerned about that is because I think we all know how easy it is for data to become

107manipulated or for data to be skewed just by the personal inputs of the people who are providing the data. Um that's why they institute things like a double blind in a scientific uh process, right? It's because we don't want to skew data through the personal input of the participants. And my concern with not just Panorama, but all SEAL surveys is that they're based on subjective emotionally based self-evaluation. Oh, thank you for the question. I think it's important um that we point out that we anytime we're looking at data, we try to what we say is triangulate the data. So look at multiple data sources to paint the picture or help us make decisions um about how our next steps are. Um and in many of the cases with the data, you'll notice that there's more

108than one data source. So we're not just using one data source to be making those decisions. Um, I think what Panorama is able to do for us is give us a student perspective, which would be one piece of the data picture that we're looking at. And what is the data that you're receiving from the student? You're receiving data on how they feel about the situation. Is that is that the data you're receiving? Uh, the data we're receiving based off the survey is better. It's supposed to be a liker scale mostly on one to five. Yeah. I mean that's it's a but and the students answer is it's how how capable do you feel in your classes? I feel I feel not capable at all. I feel somewhat capable. And so again, the reason I'm asking

109is because a student's feelings are not necessarily reflective of how capable they are in the class. It's only reflective of how they feel about their capability. How um how how belonging how much belonging do you feel in your class? I don't feel very much belonging at all. a student could answer that way, but the reality is that the student may be completely welcome and it may be something that's completely separate from their circumstances and their environment. And my concern again with surveys like this is that they don't actually provide meaningful data. They provide extremely subjective data that grows out of far too many variables for the data to actually be useful outside of potential abuse. Not that that's what's going on, but I'm concerned about future abuse of data. Can I jump in, please? Yeah,

110please. I'm going to speak on behalf of a teacher and this information for me would have been valuable. I taught math at the middle school level and kids would come in. They hated math or they and getting to know that piece. Where are their thoughts? Where are their feelings? What's that around? So, I can wrap around that piece. I had kids go from D's and Fs in math to A's and B's just because I got past I helped them get past that hurdle of I don't feel good about this. I don't feel good about myself. I don't like this. I still taught the curriculum. I taught 100% of the curriculum at my grade level. But if I didn't address those needs, I mean, they got to eighth grade without having it addressed in many of

111their classes because math was their hangup. And then all of a sudden, and and many of them came and told me that I didn't have a panorama panorama survey. I made my own because if you don't have that emotional piece regulated or in check, their brain is off somewhere else. How do you get them totally focused? Now, I'm not saying all of these questions. I mean, I understand what you're getting at with that, but we also have to understand that if kids aren't if we're not getting past the root cause of why they're not able to learn, not every kid has a learning disability. For some of them, I know that, oh man, you know, if you can't pay the rent, if we don't have food, if my mom just, you know, got laid off

112from her job or my brother's homesick and how do I take care of them? If you don't address those needs within the classroom, the curriculum doesn't matter. Well, and again, that really is Oh, yeah. Completely. And that's perfectly in keeping with the concerns that I'm raising here because these surveys are not on a childby child basis. They're taken anonymously. They're they're not Oh, these are non access to that. That's where they can then say within the classroom, okay, I have these kids that need this level of support at this. I suppose what I'm speaking has the ability to go and ask one-on-one. So, this at least gives them a check in a checkpoint that is more standardized. You know, you're not this is an emotional piece. So, they so they take the surveys and then

113you as a teacher are you have the information about each individual child in your class. You have the information about how they enter that because I didn't give you get information about your class as a whole. So you can see trends um and also individual students. So it's really interesting and this talks about the triangulation too because the suitor or student experience survey was similar. And so part of what we learned about how to dig into that to get to more useful information was to like ask the kids, okay, this is what our data showed like okay so this is this is whatever one of our bottom three was this like tell us more. What do you mean by that? like what do you like where is this happening or how what can we do

114together and then helping them know like we're going to work on this together so that they can like build their efficacy you know and their belief about themselves as a learner um so okay and I'm just just a brief process that that touched the toe over the other side the line from questions to statements not yours just the the dialogue here so I'm not I'm not trying to kibash that we're going to set that up at the end I wanted to make sure that once again we're all on the same page and and it started off as a question and I just want to make sure that we stick so that we're all on the same page understanding what SEAL is or what this program is. Uh mine is going to be in this entire

115rubric that you put together when we talk about math curriculum, we talk about science or we talk about social studies, we try to have a a continuum of curriculum from K through 12 and we approve it as curriculum K through 12. Um this there is no one class you go to. you don't go to seal 101. You you don't go you know that we don't set aside a trimester for it. So I see it as underpinning or or or integrated into a lot of these other curriculum. From your perspective all the the tools that we have, the programs that we have, do they marry? Do they fit up? Are they congruent? Are there gaps? Are there overlaps? Is there too many? Are there too few? Uh, does everybody understand how they work together? Is there

116a rationalization of these programs that say I didn't my my screen went blank. I can't call one up off the top of my head, but you understand that there you had 10 of them listed, Jenny. And my question is, is the pyramid model uh independent or should it be kept with second step? Is there a rationalization like we would do with any other curriculum? When a curriculum team reviews, we say this is how bridges dovetales into this. This is how reading corner dovetales into that. Is do we review this in the same um perspective that we do other curriculum or and andor should we is my question. It's a good question and I think um basing it off the standards um and what the Wisconsin DPI has put together for our competencies is what helps

117drive that continuation between the levels. Um if you use the example of pyramid model that specifically is aimed at basically birth through age five but it is something that um the pyramid model uh organization is looking to extend into um elementary levels and if it gets to that point then you would have that conversation. Um I do believe that it never hurts to review that and to ensure that there aren't holes or overlap. Um I believe that we are like I said in our first year of implementation of the second step digital curriculum but we had used the like it's not paper and pencil it's like a card system that we had used previously. Um and I think that that is always something that we need to make sure and particularly the transition from fifth

118to sixth. I know that they are using restorative practices and I know that has been a conversation amongst our elementary and our middle school um admin team about how they're approaching discipline um as it relates to restorative practices. But something like PBIS is something that has been traditionally a K12 uh program if you will. Um so yes, I believe that that's something that we should always be reviewing ensuring that the transition between levels and that's largely I'll say you Mhm. I mean, now that you have the document, now that it's in front of you and and we can treat it like curriculum and review it as regularly as well, a course book or or as as Diana said, how often does curriculum get reviewed? But this document now that it exists and we recognize how

119one flows to the other. I'd like to think that we can evaluate these things on individually or together and say does this still make sense in the spectrum of our offerings or how we treat this subject. question that I have around um is for um you know parents and or board members um or teachers um who have worries about like terminology of FCL andor where the programming is going. What things do I need to know and be cognizant of and aware of so that it doesn't go into the scary spot for them? Okay, I'm gonna table that question, Jared, to to But that's that's a big question and I understand that Jared wants direction on that from both the committee as well as from the board as do all the administration and staff. Okay? Because

120we we don't want them operating in a gray area or we're in again, now we're out, now we're back in, now we're out. Do this, but don't do that. So, uh, we that that will be I don't want to say the the punctuation point on today's meeting, Jared, but one that we owe you. Um, correct. I had this question written down before you even mentioned that. So help me help me to um just help me under help help me to understand some of these categories like um the learning strategies, self efficacy, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making. Do they have more specific definitions somewhere? Because everything that I'm seeing on here is a very very uh vague word salad. I'm not really understanding what th those particular intentions or or objectives of those

121particular areas are and it kind of concerns me. So you're asking for more specific definitions areas looking at right for all of those particular categories like for instance we we talk about um uh let's see here social awareness or um you know self-management and uh and one of one of them talks about emotions um what what what how are they able to regulate their emotions? Are we intending not for kids to have emotions? It's confusing. Kids are not supposed to have any emotion, period. I I don't I don't get it. Um, it's confusing and and I uh and I'll I'll either echo or or build on that Craig and say is there a I mean the handbook that the playbook as you call it with with Panorama it does does the when a playbook says

122if you've graded below a 49% in emotional regulation here are your strategies. Uh I mean Emily you said that that's what you you have available strategies and it's also but does it also does it also give a definition for I mean how it's what what that is. I mean I with Craig two words don't necessarily explain it especially with there's a lot of overlap with other other ones. So I'm I'm just wondering is there a better definition for these if that's what you're looking for Craig that's what I understood your question to be. The general definition is on the on that chart on the website that has like the right underneath the words it has like the I think she's asking for Yeah. More than that. More than that. Exactly. I'm wondering if it would

123be kind of like we've done in other things where it's a grin. Here's learning emotional regulation. What does that look like for K2? What does that look like for, you know, what are just some some different, you know, key points? What are focal areas? which things like that or which questions roll up into which percentages so that we can understand which questions rate that and cause that percentage. Yeah. And I think if you see the um if you look at the survey it has them grouped by category. Okay. So you can see like the question it does. Y and these are the questions that relate to your whatever. But I guess it's not okay. It's not specific but valid valid question. I'm not sure we can answer it today, but valid question and Jenny or

124andor hopefully wrote that down. And to be clear, we're not asking students not to have emotions. We're talking about students uh ways to regulate their emotions so that they don't become disregulated, the word that we use, so that they are able to in my case drive successfully and boss them. But I but I understand without punking my heart. point hit that um you know when we talk about um you know what's in a reading test right um we can we can get to some of the specific skill levels that we're looking for right and then we talk about how we want to use that data to improve their learning and that's what we're trying to get to with some of this data um and I will tell you that education in general um just like

125um you know medicine and working on mental health. Uh that's an area that has been very hard to really do scientifically well. Uh you can repair a knee pretty easily. I mean that's you know they've gotten really good at that. Um and we can do math and and reading pretty pretty good and we understand and and we still are trying to get better at that. But the things that also impact the healing process of that need or the you know acquisition of the learning of reading and math that that deals with this area and we're not we're not really great at that yet but we're trying to and we're trying to get better at that without having people go you know and I don't want to use uh data in a way that makes people

126feel uncomfortable right parents or whatever and I also don't want to use in a way where people think we're trying to inculturate or do something different, right? We're just trying to get better at our craft. I I I think I think you're hitting upon something that people want to try at. They want to see the end the end use, right? How it's being used and um Yeah, I don't want to deviate. No, that's fine. No, I trying to keep small checks of the process. Okay. Uh Lori and Sam, you both had your hands up. Laura, let me just elaborate a little bit more then maybe end the panorama. So what does this look like? I know it was 3.5 or higher to be have a strength or however it was worded. I may not be

127wording it right. So if a student, no matter what grade, elementary all the way through high school that have been doing this, if they get a two, are they getting these results? So the individual student isn't necessarily shared the individual result with them. Um, and what it's used for is the teacher to take a look and determine like Emily said, like as a class we probably need to work on this area or if there is a, you know, a concern that perhaps one of our student services staff is working individually with that student. We have not necessarily shared the exact results with the students K12. um parents are able to ask for the results as well um and see the exact answers that their children have uh placed um right with uh with the surveys.

128So, as a parent, if I requested this, I have a high school student, he didn't take it, and I saw that he scored very orderly, let's say, in one survey, like that. And what if I asked my child and they're doing really good in school and they don't really have any of those issues on a regular basis? Like, I guess my question is is what are we doing with it? It's kind of giving them a score for that one moment in that time. And I don't know if that's a very accurate presentation, especially if we're putting it out on the website that, you know, I don't know, like 49% favorable learning strategies at 6 through 12. That's based on two moments that whole high school year. in that moment like is that I I guess

129that's where I'm quite question like is that very accurate and I think it goes back to and I know folks have made reference to like uh lit literacy or math and that's why um you know for instance if we have a student who you know we know from classroom observation we know from uh teacher assessment we know from a font and panel uh reading assessment that the student is way above grade level in reading, right? And then we get back their star score and it's in the first percentile. We're like, hm, that's exactly and that's why I'm asking why are we then why are we spending money on something that we know is not giving us but it could be it could be in a situation where a student um is not successful in a

130font and panel uh reading assessment or and we uh you know are concerned because they don't say much in class but then they take the STAR assessment and they're in the 95th percentile in literacy then we're going to say to ourselves Gosh, we must be missing something in those other two sets of data because this kid did phenomenally on the STAR reading assessment. Um, perhaps this is an opportunity for us to get our advanced learning coordinator involved and understanding why we're not seeing this level of skill in our classroom work. Um, and so that's that's why we look at more than one data point when it comes to some of these things because it can tell a different story. You know, we take it forward exams, for example, and sometimes students will will be like,

131"Holy smokes, that kid totally rocked the forward exam. Why are we not seeing that in the classroom or we might say, "Holy smokes, that student, you know, didn't show us on the forward exam what we're seeing in classroom work and in STAR work and why is that happening?" So, that's why you look at like a variety of pieces. I think you used the term before, Jenny, which was triangulate. So this is just another data point to look at along with other test scores and say does this make sense for the student who's in front of us? And I'm paraphrasing, but you use the term triangulate and you mentioned a bunch of different tests. This is just another one that gets wrapped in and say does this make sense for the child that we're trying to

132educate. That's the way that I paraphrase Sam. So to build off of that and off of the first question I asked that's I understand the value of having individual having having the opportunity to check in with your students individually as a teacher but what exactly is the data the unique data that's being brought to the data pool with things like panorama and surveys. So I understand what the star evaluations bring. I understand what something like an ACT would bring. what the periodic tests like in the class for competency bring but these which are how confident are you uh or how carefully do you listen to other people's points of view which is really how carefully do you think you listen to other people's points of view what kind of data is being brought through this

133subjective lens really what's being tested it seems to me is the students self-awareness their view of self which ties in with the the little circle that they have self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, etc. It doesn't seem like it's really tied into academics, right? It's tied into social emotional things, deals with things like empathy and values. And that's the question I'm asking is as far as academics go, what is this bringing to the table as in the information and data pool? And I'm I'm the I'm not the expert to answer that, but I will say that I think 10 years ago, I mean, you go to the doctor's office for a knee pain, and you went to the doctor's office for a knee pain. Now, the first thing you do is you get asked, "Do you

134feel safe at home? Do you have feelings of hurting yourself?" And the doctor sitting in front of me was trained as a medical doctor to work on my knee and he's asking me psychological questions. And I think that in the medical field and I is because they start re realizing how one ties to the other. Their ability to fix your knee is also tied to how you're feeling that day. I'm not that this is just my I'm not a doctor. Don't even play one on TV. I'm just saying we've all been asked those questions. Do you feel safe at home? And do you have feelings of, you know, do you have feelings of hurting yourself? And those are really weird questions to ask an adult who's coming in for a knee pain. Yeah. So I

135I just give this as as an example and then I'll let somebody else answer your question which is how does this information relate to a it's subjective b it's it could vary drastically over the course of two different periods and how does it inform a teacher to make better decisions on educating the student if I'm paraphrasing that properly. How how does it inform the school district as well? I understand that very so if you look at you know prior research that's been done um and you know Maslo's study on the hierarchy of needs and self actualization and that's where you need to get through to really be in the learning pattern is long is research that's been around for a very long time right so if we're starting to see cumulative data on each student

136and it's coming back and more students students than not are sharing with us that they don't feel like they are in a safe place or a place of belonging within the school. Right? That gives us at least some indication of we need to do something better to work at this becoming a place an environment that's a place where they feel safe because in order to even get to learning they got to feel safe, right? they can't learn in a place that they don't feel safe in or that they don't feel like they're part of the community. So, we can use the the data that come back and yes, it's self-reported and I understand that um that uh that difference between that and something else and we're very cognizant of that but looking at that and

137correlating with other data sets that we're getting right from other interactions that we're having with students and parents and other things. um the steward uh survey that comes back. If we're seeing that as a feat, we know some work that we can work on and we can set some goals around and we can try to get to a place where that distraction and the learning process is removed so that we can get to the learning. Does that help? Sort of. Yeah. I still don't understand how you can draw reliable conclusions from that uh from the results of these surveys without at least the follow-up question why after each one of them. I agree with you. Do you feel a sense of belonging? No. Why? Because I don't like being at school and I don't like

138reading. That's a huge difference from because people are mean to me. Yeah, I agree with you totally. And I started with the science um in this area is still not great in that. Yeah. But we're we're trying to make efforts toward that and we're trying to do that in a way where um parents understand at least what we're trying to do. Board members understand at least uh from the educational standpoint the value and why we're trying to get there. Much like I don't understand why my doctor is asking my child about those kinds of questions and my child says, "Yeah, I feel frustrated a lot." And I and I go, he's not talking about your sibling, you know, he's talking in general like overall like I know you're frustrated a lot right now because your

139sibling and it's summer, right? Is that what you mean? Or you mean it gives us the chance to ask the other questions to try to get to where we are because the science isn't great, right? But we need to try to go into this area to understand the learning process in general, especially as it relates to other skills that we know a great amount of how to, you know, put sounds together to make it work. Well, so how long has seal been around as a as a method and as a practice? So it depends on what you um want to talk about the science of versus um things that we saw a long time ago like for decades right we've been using SEAL in the form of the um um the youth risk behavior assessment

140survey right and that's a general population trends what's impacting kids and and how is that impact um ending up in schools or not ending up in Well, so like in context of like like Castle, right? Because Castle is an actual organization. So like how long has Castle been around? Are they the ones that started SEAL? Where does SEAL the concept of it actually come from? Because I think SEAL is very distinct in the fact that it kind of combines values education, worldview education, psychological assessment. um and then it kind of in the school in the school setting at least and then it wraps in academic qualities. So that's a very unique blend of things and that seems that seems very unique. So where does that come from specifically? I think um where the the really

141the move into that was more around the late 60s early 70s where you just started really start to see some of the the focus on what that piece right the social emotional part then they didn't call it social emotional but we started to look at things like social skills development and executive functioning skills how to get in line how to react to a how to, you know, uh, calm yourself, those kind of things. We started understanding skills and that when you develop those tools, they actually lead to better performance in other areas. Yeah. Right. That's that's where we really started getting into that discussion point. But really what has highlighted it again are two main things because um as we get into the idea of cell phones and social media, right, and the more loose

142nature of a of a child that started highlighting some of the things that they weren't getting in a natural environment, right? And and we started seeing that and we had to focus on the book. Um and then often co that made a a really flashlight on those things because um it it it made some more exclusion um and and thoughts and feeling of um you know um not not being safe, not having a structure, right? Like even today we talk about like the number of subs that come in on a daily basis, right? and dis disrupt the learning pattern and lack of subs and pulling teachers from other like we still haven't gotten back to a normal structured process uh for students to feel like like that I can come and I can understand that

143today is going to be reliable right and that like fifth hour instead of my my teacher helping somebody else's class like they're going to be there that I can go get help for on a regular basis not are they going to be there if they are not okay those are the kinds of things so Are you saying that the castle framework like with the five self-awareness, social awareness, etc. those things emerged in like the 2020s or when did those things actually come about? Again, I I would say what and I found I apologize. I found um a really great historical context article in historical context of edgetopia.org. I'd love to email it to you. Goes into the 1960s and the Gale and the Ruckers. Sure. What is your email? Uh you I thought you have

144my email, don't you? I do not. Gotcha. Sorry. It's it's just uh last name first initial atmywusd.org. Yeah, that's what I was saying. The origins of really started in the late60s early. Okay. So, I'm going to pause there just briefly just from a process check. Okay. I don't have anything going on until an 11:30 lunch date. Okay. Other people may have to be places. It's 9:30. Yeah. And it's 9:30 and that's fine. and I knew it was going to go to at least 9:30. So, I'm not surprised that we're here. Uh, but before anybody else a has to leave or b we don't get to the resolution, uh, we can talk about for the next two to three to four hours to two to three to four weeks. Okay. So, it's it's certainly possible. Um,

145uh, Dan, you're here. I haven't heard from you yet. I did want to get your input if you had anything you were thinking or wanting to ask. And then we do have to get to the resolution. But if nobody has to be anywhere, it's it's still I mean yeah, I was going to say that we're still here and we can still have the discussion. So I'm just trying to be mindful of everybody's time. So if we have to get to the resolution, we have to get to the resolution before business ends. And that means I still need the three core board members here to have that resolution, plus myself uh for that. But anybody else, I just wanted to make sure that you know where we are. And if you have to if you have

146to be gone by 9:45, please raise your hand. Jared needs to be gone. We have a question that he asked that you said you'd get back. Yeah, I do. Yep. Okay. So, Dan, did you have anything to I'll just throw a couple of uh concerns and um how the parents are involved in this. I'm concerned about that. uh I I look at as the parents are primary in their child's education and welfare and we've heard terms at various meetings the whole child um and I'm also concerned about this trying to take away responsibilities from the parents and it seems like there's no privacy anymore. It's it's almost like um the kids share and then the counselors come in and try to solve what problem they perceive and um it seems to be a lack of

147privacy that anything goes. So those are my concerns. Right. Okay. Appreciate you bringing those up. Um I do have like one or two more questions about panorama and I just don't want that to be missed because that's something that may go for resolution. Okay. It's very it go who picked the questions. There are a lot of questions that you could have used. So, giant bank um and through our work with ED services a year ago, we um narrowed down the categories and then our social emotional learning coaches um determined the actual questions from the categories that we brought to ED services last I believe it was last August. Right. Those are like all the questions in that bank. We picked the five categories um based on that like the curriculum that we use too um

148and the social emotional learning framework and then those questions are from Panorama, right? Yeah. So we selected the categories and those are the questions that are pan and they generate the survey with their questions and those are the only questions that are generated on those topics. Mhm. You probably saw there's a gajillion categories there. Yeah. And that's the only use we use for Okay. I didn't know I knew there were groups, but I didn't know if it gave you only certain questions or if you were able to pick, you know what I mean? take some out, put some we probably could have, but we used the one they generated the survey just because I know that there are a lot of questions that are asking beyond just what the child is feeling. So if we're

149looking at culture, environment, maybe other things that are impacting not just other students, but maybe in a classroom or in a building or, you know, I'm not saying that I know we have amazing teachers. Don't think I'm trying, but maybe there is a fit problem going on or something going on. So there I just didn't know if that was ever considered to ask more of those questions. In you know, when you buy Panorama, you have access to as many surveys as you want to get. We got board approval for these. So there are other opportunities for other questions if we would you know we do give out a student climate survey. Right. Right. Which is which is anonymous. Yes. Okay. So I do want to circle back to the one I put in the parking

150lot and that was for Jared and and we have six of well technically seven with Fred online if he's still there uh board members here. That doesn't mean it's a vote. It just means that if Jared to rephrase your question, I I maybe I don't even know if I can. You wanted make sure somewhat definitive guidance as to how you were supposed to tiptoe around the subject. Yeah. Well, and it's not tiptoeing that right now. I think there's a feeling of having to tiptoe. Um, but like like Dan said, um, you know, having us focus on parental involvement, um, and and bring to the forefront things like privacy concerns, right? Yeah. Um, stuff like Lori said about I'd rather us also have some questions on like our our environment like them the student in our

151environment and how they're feeling, right? not not focus it towards like uh other privacy indications like home or relationships with parents or anything like that because those are the things that um some school districts are getting into that I I also think it's like that's not that's not where I think we I don't want to I wasn't saying that we should I was just asking the why I just wanted I didn't want that to what I hear and I'm I'm parap I'm going to paraphrase quickly here I really like Dan's questions because there's a lot of information out there, good, bad, or otherwise that labels seal as being either bad or being good, being necessary, being unnecessary. And it's only three letters. That doesn't mean a lot to everybody. But when you ask the question

152specifically, Dan, now you can have a specific answer. Yes, this is good. This is the answer to that very specific question. This is an answer to your very specific question. SEAL as a whole just it has a very very big umbrella with a lot of small components underneath it that we can do better at and we can use differently and I just want to make sure that we're on the same page that when we ask Jared a question or anybody on the staff about SEAL or direction on what we're really saying is I would rather see more privacy regarding the results or or however you'd want you know not not abolish or or throw panorama in the crash. Let's tune it for what we want out of it. Okay? That's what I want you all

153to reinforce to either me as the chair, but also to the staff who's here today so that they're on the same page because what we don't want is we don't want nine different directions or or people beating the drum that says SEAL doesn't have any place in our district. I I'm I'm I'm hoping for that. I may not get that in the next five minutes. I'm just saying is that I feel that that pressure is being put upon each of us as well as it is being put upon the staff and the administration. Uh Diane, I'm going to blow this up. Sorry. Okay. Um conversation over the past five years a worry that has um brainwashing for our kids. When you talk a number of parents out on the street, whatever, I'm not even talking

154have reached out as a board member. I'm talking just in general. I don't want because they're brainwashing our kids in the classroom. And when they give the reasons behind it, if you listen to some of the videos and things and you go to and you watch some and you listen through that lens, oh, I can understand where they're coming from. And so, I think we just need to be very careful and cognizant. This presentation was very good today because this is what we're doing within our district. It may look different in Milwaukee. It may look different and pick another big city somewhere, inner city, whatever. This is what it looks like here. And we use that terms multiple times today. Very big umbrella approach very differently across different districts. But I just wanted people to

155know that it's not just right here, right now because this is a topic. This is what I've heard for the past five years, you know, be aware. And so I'm gonna get one comment and then we're going to go to the panorama vote if that's good. Craig. Um I I'm sorry. I appreciate the presentation, but um really we're we're in two different planets. We really are. We're not even in the same ballpark. We're on two different planets when it comes to what this means and what the the devil's in the details behind the implementation of it all. That's really what it comes down to. um you know uh when when we allow things like Panorama or surveys like it to define the character attributes that the district is going to instill through character education that

156that that throws up a big red flag for a lot of people and um we need to try to get closer to the center closer together on some of these things. We need the support of the whole community. We don't just need a specific area. So that's why I value um Jared's perspective on getting closer, digging closer to the root intent behind what we're trying to accomplish. Um until we get to that point, we are in two different worlds. There's a there's more discussion to be had. Sam, yeah, I agree. I think that um because of the highly controversial nature of SEAL and people's different opinions about it and like Craig very well articulated the issue being the devil in the details that are not readily apparent. I don't think that I in good confidence

157can say that I would that that this should move forward and I know that certainly my constituents would not want that to be the case either. The issue is that people do not want values education being taught to their kids through things like surveys and social emotional learning being integrated in the various classrooms. They don't want that at all. They want classes to be a neutral place where academics are the focus and they want that to be the they want that to be the orientation of the schools not uh not emotional psychology and things of that nature. for just commenting. Um I I agree and thank you Diana for pointing because I I have done extensive looks not on the web but on DPI and on is that queso? Is that how you say it?

158Yeah. Castle. So if parents are doing that there are alarms and there are things that make me go oh and I'm not going to get into it but it's definitely out there. So this isn't assumptions. This isn't political. They're they're there and I I I understand that there's value in but whatever happened to engagement teacher engagement with these children. That's what we had as kids and we grew up fine. I don't think we need a I I don't I don't think I think we're going too far. I think teacher engagement and working with the families, we we can we can help those kids that need the help. Leave the other ones alone. Sorry. Okay. Um, thank you for the discussion. I think those who in attendance have heard what the board has weighed in on.

159It was only for discussion and that's what we did. We do have one resolution that we have to uh discuss and or put forth and it would be my suggestion given that we're not a voting forum regardless and even if we did or did not put forth the resolution as recommended by administration uh I would prefer that it go to the board meeting as Jenny had originally presented which was K through8. The administrative recommendation would be moving forward uh with the pan panorama renewal for one year for kindergarten through 8th grade. Okay. And my rationale for pushing that forward even though that we don't have consensus here is that we still won't have consensus at the board even if we did push it forward. Okay. Which means that the full board is going to have

160to vote on it one way or the other. So whether we we submarine it today and don't push it forward would be an injustice to the rest of the board because there's two other members who aren't here or three other members who would get to vote on it. So it's really not our position as this subcommittee uh Lori, Sam, myself, and Diana to not recommend it to go forward because then we'd be subverting our ability for the rest of the board to vote on it. When would we not recommend something to go to the board? That's my point. So I what my saying I believe that sometimes that we don't recommend it does happen in fiscal not so much in ed services uh I mean there's there's times where things don't go to the full

161board I mean that we say no go back to the drawing board and represent us something I guess my comment is is that in the interest of time and the fact that this is all going to be rehashed out again in uh two weeks I'd rather go forward with the resolution and make sure that uh Mike Tina and Fred can weigh in on it at that time uh as opposed to it just being the six of us is my thought process on rec going ahead and writing the resolution as recommended by the administration. We can have some discussion on it but and I'm more than welcome to do that. It's just that the still outcome is going to be we have to let the full board vote on it. So I agree but my concern

162on that is when a resolution goes to the board it's under the assumption that the committee has agreed that it should go to the board and I don't know that we've agreed on that as a committee. Okay. Okay. So, if we because let me just say there are a lot of board members that trust committees. Well, the committee did all the work. Okay. So, I'm humoring you on this one. Committee members. Yeah. Committee members, please. And only committee members, please vote if you want to push it forward to the full board, the panorama. Okay. So, it's two two. Okay. The ones who don't. Can I make Can I make a can I can I make a split the baby proposal maybe? So, what about putting forward a discussion to the board that will then be

163revisited in August for a final vote? What if we put it forward to the board as a discussion item, not as a uh resolution to vote? Uh, I don't have a specific issue with that. Timeline is one of it. And then number two, most resolutions come along with the discussion anyway. So, by putting it on for the resolution, you might get the discussion you're asking for. And if it time allows, Sam, I would agree with you. We could do that. you could have the discussion and then the I think this is going against policy how we work as a board. I'm I'm I'm sorry. I'm just saying I just struggling with that a little bit. I can capture this. I think our minutes need to really outline or the board that right this was a

164topic that was split and that it's going to the board for full discussion and to because here I think it has to be discussed. I guess that's what I was advocating. I thought you were just asking for a vote. I was asking to put as a resolution and then have it discussed at the time of the vote, which would have naturally resulted in a discussion. No, well, yeah, I'm putting it to the board for a vote, but they all come with discussions. At least what the administration needs is we need clear direction, right? That's not going to come from continued discussion. I mean, I if if we're not in a place where the board can make a decision, I'm going to make a decision. So, please have the discussion, make a decision, and we will

165follow it. Otherwise, you're giving me room to make the decision I need to make. And the reason that the reason that I proposed sending it forward as a discussion point, not as a resolution, is because the utility uh similar to what you would have like on the federal level with the Senate, the utility is if you don't pass it right away, you give people to think it over, you give people time to digest the concept, the different options. And I think that taking a little bit slower, especially because this is something that has many members of the community with very strong opinions coming towards the board and saying, "Hey, I want to consider this." I mean, I think that it would be best to have it just be a discussion item and then have that

166vote be in August because a vote in August, unless I'm wrong, would still be a decision made to give you direction. Is that correct? Clear that the discussion would be specifically about the purchase of Panorama at the board level, not the full discussion about the the uh curriculum that we've outlined. Is that is that my understanding that the discussion was specifically about the purchase of That's what the reference. So my followup question that we were in a similar situation last year I think it was July or August if we suspend this. Do we get in the same situation where then we don't have enough runway to do all three pan if if this does prove unsafe that we don't have time to do all three surveys. That's where some buildings only did two of the

167surveys because it got here too late. Do we still have access to the surveys with our old lensure as opposed to this one? So, I'm just thinking timeline. Timeline. I think we'd be okay. I think logistically it was like the setting up of the survey that's connecting. I mean, I would prefer I would never want to like drag later. Yeah, it was the setup last year as like our new staff and I can work with the rep to say here's where we're at with it and we can see what he has to say and I can come with that information for the full board discussion. I have a quick solution and uh maybe we can do this at the next meeting. um we change opt out to opt in and that way the parents are

168involved and um then the people who want to take the survey can take it and that's a I really I like that idea fantastic idea and we can either push forth that resolution that use Panorama as an opt-in we can do it right now or we can still put Panorama on the board agenda in two weeks with that same statement attached to it and and all we do is lose is is a month. Um, so I I'm if if you think that that's enough to push it over the top to turn it into a resolution to stay on time and kind of split the baby, Sam, I don't know. But I I think that's even more split than I had. So, I mean, honestly, I don't I think that's a pretty good idea, Dan. [Music]

169Does staff have an issue with optin versus opt out? Does it change the the the value that you're only sampling the people who want to be sampled which is by the way another comp that's another bias in I mean I think that I don't think that's a huge that's the biggest bias in gambling is opting so my concern about opting is that just becomes a logistical challenge opting in to be clear is a a bit of a logistical challenge for our teachers and collecting it um but if that is the direction the board wants us to go one and we can implement that. I would say if we're going to do it, let's go for a year and then revisit because I'm just saying opt in. If you have a class that has six kids

170that opt in and a class that has 26 kids opt in, what do you do? You know, do we have the staffing and six maybe better number, you know, whatever. Well, I I think that um that gives us the community's value, right? The parental value of doing that, right? And if the parental value isn't there, then there's other things we can work on. I agree with that. It's there are a number of things that are not read or boxed in also, you know. Yeah, but those just a communicative piece and that's a different topic. That's a different topic. Yeah. I I'm going to say for my I don't know enough about the process or the likelihood or the tainting of the results or the possible impact to give a educated answer on whether that's the

171way to go or not. I I wouldn't want to artificially raise and or lower the results or or inconvenience a teacher one way or the other. So I too many too many moving parts for me to know on an educated basis if that was a good idea or a bad idea. work with the Panorama rep for two things. One, timeline. Two, opt in versus opt out and what experiences districts have had with that. Okay. To give us a little more information. I am just weighing in on this without giving it much thought at all. That's what and that's I'd want to have more information. I can I'm certainly happy to work with Panorama Rep, bring that information to a discussion at the board. The question is, do we want a resolution in July or do

172we want to just have it as a discussion in July? It sounds like the resolution, the preference of this committee is to push it to August, right? If that's still okay with your timeline, then I think we should do that. Um, as far as 10 days from now or whatever it is. Um, as far as a discussion on Panorama, um, Jared, if Fred's still on, do the Dave, I just I want to gonna weigh in just quick. I wasn't able to raise my hand in in the thing. Um, just from a privacy perspective, opt in is the direction people are going. So, I think that is a good split. Uh, and I'll just leave it at that and save reserve the rest of my comments for when the full board meets. Okay. So, with that

173then, Fred, sounds like you're okay with as an agenda item uh for the full board in 10 days to discuss the the more or less just the excuse me, the uh panorama component of today's meeting and then give direction to ed services for a resolution in August. I agree. Okay. Thanks for participating, Fred. I'm sorry if it's your hand up. You got there. Okay. Um All right. Anything else? Okay. Appreciate the comments all good discussion. Um we'll work on the air conditioning in this room next year. Meeting adjourn. And I never ever feel I don't. And I'm always running like I usually without having a meeting after the meeting, but I'm going to try to have a meeting after the meeting just briefly.