001Tony, if you want to get us started. Tony, is it okay if we go ahead and get started? Yes. I guess Dave Smith is not joining us this morning. Nope. I see him in the room. I see Dave. Diane, there he is. Okay. Yes. Yes. Unmute. Got it. Okay. Yep. Go ahead. Yep. Perfect. All right. Good morning, everybody. Um, happy snow day and I'm glad you're all joining me virtually. Um, I was saying that the agenda isn't the most extensive agenda we've had, but I'm going to knock on wood with that. So, hopefully this will go smoothly while we are here uh virtually. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen um just with the agenda um so you can follow along with me. We'll start with our director update. Um, as promised, every
002month I'm going to do a little bit of an update on Act 20, which you know is the state law that was passed over the summer regarding early literacy instruction. I had updated the board a bit about our teacher training portion of it. I wanted to let you know that I have uh met with three different companies um that offer the training. Generally speaking, most of the companies offer a um like an online course with some level of facilitation either through a train the trainers model where we would train people in our own district to do the facilitation or they have someone from the outside come in and facilitate. At this point, um, we are leaning toward having a train the trainer model mainly so that in future years when we have new teachers join
003us, our, um, our literacy coaches, as it were, would be able to provide that training for them. Um, the cost of this is not inexpensive. Uh, so far we're looking at around $75,000 for the cost of that. Um, which will be bring me to my third point when we talk about additional ESSER dollars. Um we like I said are looking for that train the trainer model uh so that we can ensure that uh this is a big investment. Not only is it a big investment in uh just dollars but an investment in time with our teachers and we want to ensure that whatever that we select will be um implemented to the utmost uh ability of our teachers right in the classroom. And that's why we think the train the trainer model makes the most
004sense as well. Another piece that I wanted just to highlight with act 20 is as a part of that um we will be creating what is called student personalized reading plans. I had touched earlier on the assessment piece with uh act 20. Um there is a screener that will be selected by the state. Um and once um the student any student who scores in kindergarten through third grade below the 25th percentile, we will need to be doing a diagnostic assessment with that student. Um and from there, we'll be creating a um a personalized uh reading plan for that student. There are some family notification requirements with that as well. Um and we'll be setting goals and benchmarks for the student. um we'll be working closely uh because it does in some ways sound similar to
005what we're doing with our RTI process for students who are grow below grade level and certainly very similar to what we do in our special education um in our special education programming as well. So obviously a lot of work uh between departments with us as well. Um as promised later in the spring we will be doing a full update to the board. Um, but that's really what I wanted to highlight today about act 20. Um, I see Dr. Burke is joining us too. And I did want to share a little bit. Um, if you remember last August or July, uh, we had shared a bit about a potential sixth grade RMS elective. Um, there were some dollars that were gifted to the school district um, through the Benson family. Um, and Dr. Burke is pleased
006to share that we did accept a $470,000 gift from the Benson family with the goal of implementing the smart lab at the middle school. Um, at this point, we are planning on doing a sixth grade RMS elective. One of the pieces through the gift that's um very important to the Benson family would be the um fact that we're tying each uh unit that we're doing in that um sixth grade elective to a career pathway. So making it very clear to students, you know, if we're working on uh robotics, what does that look like in a career? If we're looking at uh biomed, what does that look like in a career? Um, a team will be doing a site visit in January 31st to Illinois and Loi as my understanding to see a smart lab in
007action to be able to get more uh questions answered about um implementation here at RMS. Um there's also uh in addition to the smart lab, there'll also be a media room with green screen technology, which sounds pretty cool as well. Um, we have uh completed the purchase order and planning for a spring break install. So, very excited about those possibilities. Dr. Burke, is there anything that you wanted to add or Mr. Whitaker, I know you're on as well. I think uh you covered uh most everything other than um you know besides this being a great resource for the sixth grade class uh the middle school has plans on expanding um on its resources into some seventh and eighth grade courses in the future. Uh at least that's where we're at at this beginning stage. Um,
008so the other thing that I I need to mention is not only do we have the smart lab, but we also have a media lab that comes with all the green screen technology and everything else set up for u running all sorts of uh TV or promo type things. Um, and that'll be a really good addition also to the middle school um as we as we move that piece forward and then look at connects to what the high school could offer past that. So how many students classes can this handle? I mean is a lab? You mean at one time? Yeah. How many are we going to serve? Basically will lab be able to serve you know every sixth grader for one period but no seventh graders eighth graders is it going to be able
009to I mean how is because you're saying it's a for an elective so it's not a requirement. So, if I can if I can jump in. Uh, so I it'll be a part of our sixth grade survey wheel or survey rotation minimally, right? So, it's going to every single sixth grader in the building is going to get uh 41 minutes uh for nine straight weeks in in the smart lab. Kind of like an introductory uh to like what this what this resource uh is designed for. Um there will be access to seventh and eighth grade as well. We just the site visit's going to be really uh important for us to be able to kind of find out where that fits. As an example, there's a just and again this may not ever come to
010pass, but there's like a like a a digital media um component, one of the eight like pathways that Smart Lab uh supports. And so that's a possibility that that could be a seventh or eighth grade like art elective that's not done in the art room. it's done in the smart lab. Um there's lots of different like tentacles to this that um we know sixth grade survey rotation elective is going to be it's going to happen, but that's that's 180 or two 40 minute periods over the course of the day. Our schedule is designed with um 10 41 minute period possibility. So there's the possibility of eight other uh options throughout the day that would access seventh and eighth graders as well. Uh, but confidently every sixth grader will come in and out of Riverside with
01141 minutes a day for nine weeks access to Smart Lab. The other thing I'll add, The other thing I'll add, Dave, is that um, all of the materials are kit based and modular. So, you don't have to do them just in the room that has the computer lab pieces set up, you know, with um, the 3D printers and all of those other things. um you don't have to do everything right there. Matter of fact, a lot of times the students can be working separately uh in, you know, either on their on their Chromebooks or other devices, save the files and then go do the um actual printing out and other things um in in the lab if they're using like the, you know, plasma uh cutters for the small stuff or the um 3D printers
012or or whatever else um to do what it is they need to do with those laser engravers and stuff. I just wanted to add a brief comment that this through the again through the very generous support of the the Benson Family Foundation and is one of those rare circumstances where the the donor has specified what they wanted their donation to go toward. So while in may perhaps in other settings we would have gone through a process of looking at multiple vendors and and similarly you know essentially bidding it out in this case it really was donor specified. Yeah. But in that it it is our job to make sure that we want what the donor is specifying. We don't, but we got to run through that due diligence. I say, "Oh, great. Donor, you know,
013oh, we're going to set up this lab for, you know, $400,000, but it also takes $400,000 a year to maintain." Okay, well, we need to step back then, you know, other comments. Not saying that's at all true. I'm not trying I'm just putting make Yep. Yeah, I was just bringing up Dave to address a potential future question of so did we did we bid this out over three vendors and the answer is no. In this particular case, we did not because of the origin of the funding. All right, go ahead, J. Thank you. And then the last piece I had in the director update is um we were asked as an ED services committee to uh weigh in on the additional $100,000 roughly of ESSER dollars that are remaining to be budgeted. Um I did
014um know the fiscal committee did categorize it in two areas for us. Um uh Sarah Duncan had done a calculation that we would have roughly 500 days of curriculum time to pay to our teachers. um if um if that was the direction we wanted to go, the other piece that they did recommend would be um the ACT 20 uh teacher training potentially as well. Um I, you know, did some preliminary, like I said, work with those uh companies that are offering the teacher training and I it's running somewhere in the around 75,000 plus range for that training. Um other ideas that I had thought about um we did budget when we did the math adoption for some teacher time for um implementation over the summer as well. What I'm hoping to do in the next
015month is to finalize our recommendation for the um teacher training and get a more finalized dollar amount for you. And then also we are in the process of ordering our math materials for next year as well as especially at the elementary level so that I'll have a better judge of the remaining dollars for the math esser um and then hope to bring to you a proposal uh in February for the act 20 uh teacher training um and have a better idea of what our finalized cost would with that would be. I just wanted to bring that to the committee, see if you had any additional suggestions or questions about that before I brought a more formalized proposal uh next month. Does it sound like I'm going down the right track with the teacher training as
016well as some additional uh curriculum time if necessary? Is there anything else that you want me to explore in the next month or so? Can I make a comment? Could we get could we get maybe um I know that it's been a little bit since we had a full update and I know that's maybe not on you Jenny maybe Jared at this next uh regular meeting but I think it would be nice to kind of get a I know there was wasn't there like 500,000 for the science social studies and if we're putting that on hold I just didn't know or you know if we're not going to be using all that. So, I just thought maybe we need to update a little bit on what we for sure are not using, what we still
017need. Does that make sense? Like full update on Lori. So, that is the, you know, one more update on where we're going to be before we start, you know, using it so we know where we're at. Yeah. So, Lori, that occurred through fiscal report through there. And this 100,000 we're talking about is all that remains. Okay. Okay. Yeah. There there's there's nothing else beyond that. Okay. So the the 500,000 that was on the social studies and science has already been allocated other places throughout the last couple. It's not just been allocated. We're it we are moving some money around in terms of what's being expended when. So, we're still doing we're still putting $500,000 toward the science and social studies curriculum imple uh selection. It was going to be in a different way, which I
018knew, but I just didn't know what the last final dollar amount, you know, it gets confusing when you're jumping around, especially if you're not always at fiscal. I just wanted to know how that But that makes sense now. Now that you Yeah. So, that that didn't free up $500,000. Moved it out of which bucket it was coming out of, frankly. So, Okay. Yeah. Consider consider all of that spent. Okay. Yeah, because it will be spent. Um, it may be spent on other things and then using those savings to put into a bucket for the real intended project later down the road, but spent. Got it. Thank you. One other question I have before we move forward. Um, I don't know if we necessarily have an answer, but as we move through the high school math
019adoption, do we have enough allocated for that or do we need to keep some a little bit um aside to make sure all of those bases are covered when the high school does formally adopt? Yeah. Uh and we had a good discussion yesterday at central office about uh curriculum budgets and ensuring that we're uh planning ahead for what those consumables might be with the math adoption as well. Um you know we're under that September 30th deadline which doesn't mean September 29th uh to spend these dollars making sure that we you know where know where these dollars are going um so that we're not left at the last minute with that too. But it certainly is something that we are working toward right now. Also ensuring that we have our PD planned into next year when
020it comes to the math adoption as well and any potential science adoption that we would be doing as well. All right. Any other any other questions or comments on that? So then Jenny, as an action item, we have that you will be bringing a formal recommendation at the next ed services meeting in February. Perfect. That's my plan. Excellent. Thank you so much. All right. Our next topic is the uh K12 science uh standards and uh curriculum materials adoption process. Um I have a very short proposal here uh from CISA 2 to help us work through this process. In our last meeting at ED services, the ED services team had specifically requested we look K12 at our science adoption. We've had some preliminary meetings um to look at what the process might look like and what
021do we want to include. again um working on a materials adoption as well as obviously looking at our uh science standards to ensure that K12 our students are having access to those standards as well. Um, we intend to look at data. I will say Chris Malloy has already been fabulous in pulling uh our data for us as it relates to science. Um, including standardized test scores, uh, enrollment in different courses that we have, uh, looking at, um, pass rates, etc. Um and then from there taking a look at um the continuum between kindergarten through 12th grade. Um and in particular in this case, you know, 6th grade through 12th grade to ensure that our students are having access to that and that our scope and sequence, if you will, or our our course patterns make
022sense moving forward. Along with that, we'll be looking at materials that would align to our standards um and help us uh reach those standards for our students. Again, we have when we're talking about purchasing that September 30th date is uh you know just right around the corner. We do believe that um even with uh materials adoption as we've seen with math, there will be some continued work on standards to make sure that we are aligned uh to make sure that our assessments make sense with it to make sure that um we're adhering to the the standards and and to the vision that the team creates. So this is our our basic outline. Like I said, we'll be working with CISA. Um, Latricia Johnson, um, Diana, I know you know her from the math adoption process,
023also has an expertise in science, and we'll be working pretty closely with her. Um, and we were able to get some additional days this year, um, to work with her for that. Does anybody have any questions about that process? Our plan would then to be bringing some recommendations to the board this spring. I don't have a specific date for you. Um, we'll also be doing some we'll be looking to uh do some site visits and do some um some pilots of some different materials as well. Questions or comments about that? I know last time with uh I'm sorry, last time with our uh so uh summer school, we did not make that a um official uh recommendation from the full board because that would make it a board uh committee. Um so I wasn't anticipating
024that we would do that here, but definitely bringing information back here to the ed services committee about where we're at and what direction that we're heading as we move through the spring and into the summer. Would would I be correct in assuming that while the DPI and others has some pretty detailed and high standards on reading and math, when it gets to science, it's a little bit uh grayer and more ambiguous of of standards that exist that we're trying to align to. Uh, no, that's a that's a really good question, actually. Wisconsin has their standards and then there's also something called the uh NGSS uh next generation science standards um and they are fairly detailed um and uh I would say rigorous and ambitious as well just like our uh math and ELA standards. So
025that is definitely a process to ensure that we are um the way the NGSS standards are is that it's like elementary then 68 and 912 and so making sure that how we're preparing kids as they approach high school makes sense for our high school scope and sequence as well. So that we haven't looked at this for I'm going to say a decade plus. we expect to be well behind where we need to be and having to make some significant shifts to meet the new the latest standards. So what I will say I appreciate your point and I do believe that we have some uh alignment work to be doing. Um I think that uh my takeaway from one of our first meetings that was strictly middle school high school was we have not uh given
026our teachers the opportunity to be working in alignment um on the secondary level and I think that that will be uh a bit more of a heavy lift um and I think that will be a longer process than just the curriculum adoption that needs to be you know completed for those esser dollars um And that's what we really wanted to push on with our team is not necessarily so much this is about the materials. This is about the standards and ensuring that we are um every student that graduates and you'll see some con you know some uh some um mention of like what is our vision for a graduate? Um every student that goes through the Watertown system when they graduate this is what we expect they should be able to do as it relates
027to science. So, I do appreciate your point, Dave. I do believe that this has been a long time coming. Um, and I will say our teachers were excited for the work. You know, they're a little, you know, they they believe strongly in what they're doing. Um, and they are open to uh exploring that K12 alignment too. So, we shall see what what it brings to us. And I'll say, sorry, go ahead, Tony. Just within the last few years, I've reviewed pretty much in detail that those state and NGSS standards and look forward to our alignment with them. I also though want to emphasize as a part of that the large importance of the programming occurring at the elementary level. if they go into the middle school without proper preparation, any work you do at the
028middle school is just severely undercut. And I really think that we need, even if we're looking at a delayed implementation of the elementary level, we really need to be looking very closely at the work we're doing at that level. Uh, in particular at grades four and five. Thank you. I would just put with with what Tony said, I'd agree completely. I mean, my experience of kids, the the elementary has some great teachers that focus on science and do a great job and then that we don't really have the process systems curriculum accountability for it. There's others that don't. So it's not, you know, we are not consistent at all on what we're delivering for elementary um materials and and education around it. So I think that's the foundation and you need that. Um so we
029need to have a focus there. I understand the bandwidth issue and so forth, but you know like like I said, it's been I think it's been a decade plus that we've kicked this down the road and said, "Yep, we should work on science. Yep, we should work on science." And have prioritized others over it for some time. Yeah. I appreciate that and I also appreciate the emphasis on you know the spark and excitement that science can bring uh to kids at all levels. You know it's something that was in my background very uh a fun time in my classroom no matter what grade level I was at too. So keeping that in mind as we go through the process as well. Diana, you were going to say or ask a question. Yeah, just a quick
030clarification. Um, in that document it referenced the use of other standards. Are the next generation science standards the only other standards that we're looking at? Correct. So it would be the state standards and the NGSS. Yeah. Just to clarify. Yep. Good. Any other comments or questions on that? All right. Thank you. All right. Our next topic is our open enrollment seats. In January of every year, we have to propose our uh open enrollment seats uh to at the full board meeting. Open enrollment does believe start I think it's February 5th this year. It's the first Monday. It's when we are opening our uh 4K and kindergarten enrollment. Um you can see from the attached document um as always that those regular education seats we are posting as unlimited. Um I appreciate Sarah Oenhovven who uh
031put this together for you in a very clear and understandable way. Um and then I'm going to turn it over to Sarah to talk through the special education seats unless there are questions about the reg regular education seats availability. No, this is all consistent with what we've been doing the last several years. But please, Sarah, go ahead. Sure. Thank you and good morning. Um, as we dive into our open enrollment seats, uh, our processes are becoming a little bit more systemized and in the past um, as this shows, in the past we were clumping them together, elementary, 6 through 8, and then high school. It's best that we do this by grade level. So it's very clear and it's very um it's very clean. As we go into special education, what we have noticed through
032our audits, through our grade level special education calculations, from our factoring of DPI special education um calculations, we are um pretty heavy within all of our grade levels for serving our friends who need the most support and services. That being said, um as DPI stated to me yesterday, we're bankrupting our system a little bit um by having the doors wide open. And so as we went through our calculations, and I did this by school, I did it by grade level, I did it by factor, I did it by program specific, I went through eCampus, I went through speech and language, um I went through OT, DHH, everything. We do not have the capacity at this time to have any open enrolled seats in special education. Um we will wait list and if we do have
033an opening um you know Cheryl is is going to keep that weight list um ready for us as along with Jen Harris um and we may shift a student you know first on first off the list into special education in our district. Our system has great phenomenal teachers who are able to serve um but we need to be able to serve our residents and serve our current student students to the best of our ability before opening the doors. Could you please clarify that state comment? What were they saying? What was the DPI? Sure. It was yesterday and it was a quote to me and she stated that we are bankrupting our system. She's not really talking about money. She's talking about services um and the ability to do our services. The number of students that
034we have um and their needs are large in certain areas and we do not have the staff available to be able to serve as we go into next year. We also know that we have some retirements that we are going to be filling both in speech and language and cross categorical and we may have some people that um you know choose to move on and that's great. you know, we will support them no matter what, but we also know it's a very difficult position to fill. And so Sarah Miller is going through and she is going to be posting um all of the known positions this week on weekend so we can start that process early to find the best people to put in front of our students. Our system right now um is maxed
035out in in special education. Okay, thank you. Any other questions about this calculation? And correct. If somebody is currently an openen enrolled student with special ed needs, next year they're still a a student. Once once accepted, always accepted until That's right. That's right. This is only for new um open enrolled applications. Um, if a student is already in our special education program and they are an open enrolled student, they stay. Any other comments or questions on this? No. All right. So, this one would be a formal uh resolution at the board meeting in January as Tony alluded to what we've done for years. Okay. All right. And then our last agenda item, we have two RMS course proposals. Um Jason, I know that you are on. We can go ahead and start um with the
036You'll notice that I used two we use two different forms as well. And we'll talk about that in a little bit too. Um but this one is an a a true elective class in the fact that students would be able to elect into it an introduction to hospitality and tourism um proposed by Lilana. Um Jason, do you want to kind of share a little bit more about that? Yeah, I can. I do expect that she's going to join us. I can I can do my best Lily Bowdin uh impression this morning, but otherwise um I I can go forward and if she logs in if you have questions specific to like her vision for this, that'd be great. Uh so this year as part of our survey rotation uh for sixth grade, we run a
037a world geography class. Uh Stephen Frank teaches it nine weeks, 41 minutes. Um, I believe that this may be the only opportunity that uh, secondary school students get. I know we're not talking about geography, but this connects. Um, so the only opportunity that our sixth through 12th grade students would get with uh, like a like a legitimate world geography class. uh in conversations, Lily Bodwin, who's a new family consumer science teacher who's right next door to geography, they've been talking about the possibility of some crosscurricular connections between u like a geography and culture class and what that would look like in a family and consumer science specific to tourism and hospitality, even cooking, um dishes that might be more connected to the areas of study in world geography that they get in sixth grade. So
038that led to a conversation around um uh an introductory at the middle school level of like what it would take to promote um market uh increased tourism and how that connects between those two uh disciplines. Um so it came uh forward through our process at Riverside. We had a conversation with the high school uh with their family and consumer science department where they have a more like and rightfully so. They have a more like detailed pathway once you get in to high school as far as like a a career path. This would be more like an introductory uh similar to what Ross Foley and a techheaded department might be proposing and then they would get a little bit more in depth with Jesse Domer at the high school. So, um, Lily wanted to talk about
039like student talked about this with the students that are in her classes right now. They were really excited about it. She was really excited about it um as another way to make uh learning um visible between uh multiple uh content areas. So, she would have done a a 300% better job of proposing uh explaining this course, but I'm happy to uh talk more, answer questions. And again, this would be an elective offered and based on enrollment, it may or may not happen. Correct. Correct. Correct. If if three kids take it, we don't run it. If 50 kids sign up for it, we possibly run two sections of it. And that would just uh change other courses that are offered in that department. It wouldn't necessarily additional staffing. Correct. It wouldn't be a situation where Lily
040would we would hire a 0.5 face teacher and we'd lay off a 0.5 uh art teacher. It wouldn't it would be with the 1.0 within that uh department, Family Science. I I don't have any comments, questions about this one specifically, but it seems uh that we're we're adding some um depth to our electives at the middle school and some complexity with that. I think in the next season or before the next one of these come, it would be good for us to kind of see a little bit of a master plan around the electives at the middle school. and you know, are we trying to fill holes or are we trying to just go off of, you know, the next idea? You know, how are we rounding them out so that they're they're a meaningful
041program? Um, versus not saying that they're not, but just I'm I'm losing track a little bit of like, okay, so what are we doing this and and why is it does it fit the bigger picture or is it just somebody's good idea? No, I appreciate that, Dave. I know that one of the things that we look at um is is there a path? Is there a path to the high school with what we're trying to propose? That that has not always been the case um with what has been proposed at Riverside. But I would say um that that's our that's our vision moving forward is is if kids express an interest in X Y or Z, what does that mean when they get to nth grade or 10th grade? Is it something that will be
042built upon as they get to the high school? I would say that in this case that this is that was a a really pretty big consideration. Um, students who take this maybe as an eighth grade will have a opportunity to cover it more in depth and less as like an intro or kind of like a survey experience at the middle school. They would be able to get into it more depth as a pathway at the high school. Any other comments or questions on this proposal? I have just a quick comment. Um, I like the at first I was wondering where is this going? Kind of what Dave was just getting at. Um, the other lens that I looked at it through though is as we look at helping students get some ideas of what I
043want to do beyond high school. Um, this is an area that we don't have anything within our 612 realm. And when you think hospitality and tourism, there are a lot of career pathways within that that kids could explore. Um, my only wondering, and it this is a proposal I get and I'm not being critical, is as this evolves, is it getting kids more into the culture like you had just described where there's the connection there, or is it more the tourism um, and hospitality piece? So, I saw a little bit of not confusion. wasn't quite clear on that direction there, but I also understand this is new and it's forthcoming. I'll be interested to see where this is going and where it where it ends up in the next five years, if that makes sense.
044Yeah, for sure. Thank you. And to be fair to Lily, I did tell her that there was zero chance that ED services was going to get to the last agenda item uh before 8:30. So, great confidence, my friend. Come on now, Jason. Based on I'm back at this one. So, we know it's all on Shraider. It could be virtual, too. Could be that. So, I would move forward with a formal resolution in the January board uh meeting if there's no objections or other questions. Jenny, can I just ask a clarifying question? Yes. So, so I know that this waits until the board approval at the end of January, the 22nd of January. Um, our our plan, I mean, we have students registering for classes. U, it'll be in our it'll be as an option in
045our uh registration process. If in the end the board does not approve it on end of January, we just wouldn't run it. But like you, our students are going to see this course and the other course as long as it it it uh has the support of ed services. And again, we just obviously have the opportunity to pull it back if we need to. Yep, that makes sense. Okay. All right. One other little comment on what Diana was saying um about knowing that this is a proposal and it kind of flushes out um I haven't looked at the RMS course book for some time but um I would suggest that you know a year two three especially into these that we really focus on going back and reading the course description and what we're saying
046and saying does this really represent what we did last year and what we're going to do next year um with it and make sure we're not just hitting oh yep same thing boom it's good and and focusing on that. So, especially on the ones that are a little bit newer. To that point, Dave, I want to say this. I really commend um our central office team, especially Jenny on her work um trying to align the high school course booklet and start doing real edits to it. Um as well as looking into the middle school and looking at editing those. um she and uh Jason Bull and and Sarah have been looking into all of these things and and how we're going to move that forward. So that work is already being done and started especially
047at the high school level. So thank you for your comments on that because you're right, it is needed. Yeah, I think somewhere in there there needs to be a you know how you determine what is a major edit and not. But obviously if you know if we approve this today or you know next week and then all of a sudden three years from now it doesn't look anything like this well that didn't go through the due diligence of the board. So yeah, I appreciate that point and Josh and his team at the high school have done great work with that. uh getting in and making some changes and analyzing whether or not we're offering the courses so that kids don't, you know, get excited about a course that's um not been offered in three years
048because there just hasn't been interest. So, I think all of those pieces really uh need to come together and I know Josh and his team lead up at the high school has done great work with that, too. So, all right. Should we move on to the ELA proposal then? Thank you. Um, you'll note that this is a different form. I know we have been talking about revising our form here uh for quite some time. Um, this was a form that Jason had used uh to flesh out his proposal for this uh 8th grade honors ELA course. Um, and I'm hoping it gets after some of the questions that you guys have been asking um from the uh less far less detailed uh two-pager that you had just seen. um as we analyze this course also
049feedback on this form would be appreciated because uh we'll be looking to bring forth a more finalized form that uh we'll be using in the future with that. Um with that being said, I will turn it right back to Jason if you want to kind of talk uh the team through this course. Yeah, for sure. And and I picked that form on purpose. It's it's uh there's a lot of information on it. Just really quickly, um, uh, a couple years ago, uh, with the support of the superintendent, I I embarked on a, um, coordinator of, of gifted and talented certification through W Whitewater as a cohort that other people um, from the from the southern Wisconsin had gone through as well. And the two-year process culminated in a final project. the final project had to
050be something that a coordinator of of gifted and talented education would do. And I'm like, I'd love to kill a bunch of birds with one stone. Um, and I think that I believe that it's been a long time coming to offer some um, uh, honors or more of an advanced pathway um, in a in a area besides math. Um, and so the idea of running a eighth grade honors ELA class uh came up. And so the the the form is what I turned into to W Whitewater as proof of a final project. But it was my intention throughout that entire process that this would lead to a proposal for the 2425 school year um to offer a leveled um honors class at the eighth grade level for starters at Riverside. So just uh a little
051bit of background, wit and wisdom has been really really awesome in our building. Last year was year one of implementation. Not that test scores are the beall endall. Uh but we saw really good growth um in cohort groups from sixth to 7th and seventh and eighth from the previous year. Um our teachers would I think to a to a person say that what the students are able to produce um daytoday um their thinking is deeper through wit and wisdom. It's just been it's been really really really good. That curriculum and I would never want to change that at all. That curriculum has been um designed for at least 90 minutes a day for 176 days like our our calendar um except we have 81 minute classes. So there are things that we have to do
052to modify what we do to keep with fidelity of wit and wisdom. Uh there's four modules. We tackle about one of those every quarter. And in order for us to get our sixth, seventh and eighth grade students from beginning to end, we are not able to go to the um depth in every single area that we would maybe have wanted to if we had a schedule that had 100 minutes in it uh per per class in ELA. So our kids are doing great. They are not getting 100% full uh the full like implementation of Witten Wisdom as far as every the depth of everything. And so the idea of proposing eighth grade honors ELA is that we are continuing to use Whiten Wisdom. We are able to implement Witten Wisdom to absolute fidelity. Um which
053you're going to see uh topics covered in greater depth. You're going to see students um with greater access to different materials as far as reading that all answer the same essential question and the end of module assessment. uh the Socratic seminars which are embedded into Whitten Wisdom are going to be something that we can spend lots more time with uh and get into greater conversation and discussion around. U it's still going to be rapid. It's still going to be rigorous. It's still going to be like engaging for 81 minutes every single day, but the that that group is going to be able to move forward as intended and get through all four modules um as Witten Wisdom would want you to do. Um, so I have a I have a little like talking point sheet
054on on the left side of my screen. Um, if there are individual questions, but we anticipate a process where students can sign up if they want challenge by choice. It is not a it's a Diane, I would consider this to be like a tier 2 uh advanced learner modification. It would be something that um we would be tapping students, seventh grade students on the shoulder and say this is something we really think that you should be um thinking about, interested in um and go from there. Um I have a lot of information on here. I'm happy to answer a lot of questions. I feel like I talk a lot. So board members, go ahead. Can I jump? Oh, can I just jump in? I have a few other questions but just this one right now
055where you mentioned this is a tier two by by nature. So then just generally speaking tier three is there because you said we currently in our regular class do about 80%. This is really looking at teaching our eighth grade standards at 100%. With more a little bit more rigor, more depth, whatever. Great. That's eighth grade standards. How are we going to then get tier two and tier three? Um, just generally, is there extension activities within Witten Wisdom that we're going to address? Because the way you kind of described it, it's we're doing eighth grade level standards yet looking forward, maybe not this year, but in a two years, three years, long-term speaking, is this really becoming an honors course, or is this just meeting all eighth grade standards? So I would say that there's a
056there's a certain within witten wisdom the the the volume of reading there are uh texts that are anchor texts within each of the modules in sixth seventh and eighth grade and so those are set at a certain lexile that are going to be kind of like that middle to upper middle of the road for accessing those eighth grade standards as they relate to uh how witten wisdom infuses that. I would say that there is choice at every level u for students to be able to pick a more challenging read still maintaining their connection to what the like anchor requirements are within Whitten Wisdom. But um if if if I can meet the end of module assessment, if I can meet the standards by reading um Bud Not Buddy, which is right at the level, and
057Tony can read by reading uh the Odyssey, which might be more challenging, or War in Peace, because that is something that is going to challenge him, but still maintain connection to the overall expectations within that end of module assessment and being being able to answer answer the role of the hero. um in literature like that's but but to answer your question I know there's not like a a track that that like tier three this is we're going to be offering like potentially nth or tth grade material to the eighth graders. We're still going to be offering wit and wisdom as it relates to eighth grade, but we're going to hopefully be able to infuse that opportunity for things to be more rigorous and challenging based on the um abilities of the students in that class.
058But that's where they're going to see it. we're going to see it by choice. That helps to clarify just there's going to be different and and you alluded to this in the um actual proposal, different Lexile level text, but it's not an open selection. There might be two or three texts within this. They're offered in English and in Spanish. Um and it might be three different levels per overall um learning target that they're looking at or whatever it was just called. I forgot. Sorry. And and yeah. No. And and I would say that if if uh if a student had a you know a student could propose to the to the teacher like listen I I feel like this meets with the overall theme of it and like we could secure certainly a a a
059you know oneoff if that makes sense. Like I feel like this connects to what the expectation is for that module. Um and and it it's something that I'm more interested in. It's something that's at a higher level and it still can allow me to stay tethered to what the expectation is for that unit for the class. I I could certainly see that there would be more. You're right though for the for the general like functioning of the class. There would likely be a couple different options for every module as far as what type of reading. This would be one that would be like, yeah, if you can make an argument that this would connect to the overall kind of like scope of that end of module assessment, go for it. I would like to make
060one other point and I'm not sure um within within our buildingwide AVID uh expectation at the end of the year there's something called a CCI which is kind of like a fidelity check for how the building is doing with AVID. And so one of the things that's a a a item on there is do you do your AVID students have access to slashtake um advanced courses and we get we get to set the criteria of what we believe an advanced course to be. But in reality if we have an AVID student that is not able to uh not not appropriately placed in an advanced math track they will not have before they will not have access to an advanced class. Um, and so this would also give an opportunity for students who would be involved
061in the AVID program and would be potentially challenging themselves in an honors ELA course. This would allow for us to move more with fidelity within AVID as well. I Jason amatic to see this. Um, it's been in my mind long long overdue. Um and and just ecstatic to see us pushing and raising the bar uh challenging uh our middle school kids. Um the only question that I would have is why just 8th grade? And I I guess well I appreciate Well, I appreciate that. I I have experienced uh with my own kids and seen it with many others that and we see it in our data that kids uh that are doing very well in elementary school from fifth grade and then they hit sixth grade and uh we have recovery that takes place until
062we get into the end of the high school that it seems even more important to me to be starting on the other end of the spectrum to uh being able to have that. I mean, I can I can almost guarantee you my uh fourth grader on this lovely snow day that that Jared blessed us with will be spending more time with his nose in a book than than he will be uh a nose on a screen. Uh and if he's not, he's going to be outside playing, you know, and those are the kids that need those opportunities from, you know, day one in your building um with it. So, I would say what what does it take us to get to take even a bit bigger chunk off of this? Yeah. No, I don't thank
063you for all of that. I don't I don't disagree at all. We just we wanted to give ourselves the best opportunity to have a a successful start and that's we have a we have an eighth grade team that is um I think pretty comfortable a veteran uh group or veteran pair pretty comfortable with their understanding of eighth grade learners and within within witten wisdom. And so, um, just to kind of work through the kinks, I I would say it's our intention that a successful start to this that we would 100% look at what you're talking about. We in the same way that incoming fifth to sixth grader um would have that opportunity within math, we would want to work our way toward potentially being able to do that with ELA, we just didn't want to
064necessarily um start that in mass uh for year one of implementation. But we're I mean we're hopeful that this will be something that just is obviously a good hopefully it looks like it'll be an obviously a good thing at the end of the year next year and then we could make make that determination. That's our plan. My family absolutely went to the library last night too. So, so why not so why not a I you're saying leave it as a small intimate group and then try to push it to a bigger group in subsequent years. It's not going to be that big of a group anyway. Why not why not have more peers around it and have a group of of six teachers diving in and making this happen across the building versus two at
065one grade level? help me help me understand that from a a management perspective. Yeah, I don't that that is not off the table. Um I I will just say that for the purposes of um us beginning to to take a different look at something, we wanted to start small. It's something that we um have have done in other ways uh previously. Um we want to get established something that's a good a good product and a good plan before we extend that out. Um, but you're you're right like this that's very possible that we that this could be something that is done uh is bigger. Um, I just I wanted to make sure that we are setting ourselves up in year one to have the best chance of uh success and being able to replicate that
066success um after year one. Um, so that was the that's the vision behind it. Again, that doesn't have to be what happens, but that's that's the reason why the proposal right now is only an eighth grade. piggybacking on what Dave was just asking. Um I I understand starting with just eighth grade, kind of working through that for a year and then maybe bringing seventh grade or sixth grade or both on board next year. My wonderment is looking at teacher recommendation, parent recommendation, student recommendation added. Um, is this really just going to be one class or is this more realistically going to involve two potential classes because you've got the twice um I just lost the word twice. Twice exceptional. Thank you. You've got a lot of others that are pooling in that we haven't always
067included before that this is supposed to help to pull up. So, I'm wondering is this even just one group of kids? Does this become two groups of eighth grade or two classes fulfilled in eighth grade? Yep. Um, so it's addressing kind of what Dave's saying, a bigger group within this. Y and then move on in a in a similar way to the conversations around the the elective in family consumer science like like if there are if there are students that sign up for it and we run two like it's totally on the table to run multiple sections of it. What I put on the proposal was 25 to 30 and I I didn't make that clear on there. 25 to 30 per class. Um if 50 kids sign up for it than two classes. Um
068if if 200 kids sign up for it, we probably want to have a conversation around um are things appropriately placed and supported there. Um but I I would totally envision that this could be a two section class for sure. um especially given that there's not necessarily like a 95% like cut score or benchmark to gain access into it. We may be bringing some kids in that teachers are like, "Listen, this kid might not be the best test taker, but this class will be a class that is appropriately suited for them in their learning. even if they're a 60th percentile on the star, they are going to uh they are going to uh really kind of expand their learning by being in a class like this. Um so yes, Diane, I would say like if if
069we if if they we will build it when they come. I don't know if that's the right term. The the other comment that I'd make is I I would argue that a fifth grade elementary school teacher that has had that child the entire year for the entire class is better positioned to tap them on the shoulder and recommend them than the sixth or seventh grade ELA teacher that has had them for maybe one semester for one class. Um, so I think the identification point being fifth grade is more beneficial. I I would be all for a recommendation that bites this off and puts it across the board in your school next year. Okay, Diana, did you have you mentioned you had other questions? Yeah, one other question. I don't know. Were you done going through
070your entire form, Jason? I don't My question is further down the form. Let me bring it up. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, feel free. I'm happy. I can just ask the question. I just didn't know if you were done. Okay. My question is later on it talks about grading and down in the grading portion. Um, it was where is it? Remind me of it. common formative common summitive um module tasks. Number one, is this a similar grading scheme if you will to what's being done across the middle school or is this something newly being imposed for just this group? And then um give me one example of what would be considered an end of module task which is 40% of their grade. I mean, that's almost half of what their grade would be. So, it's
071two-part question. Yeah. So, so yes to your first question. Um, this this is going to looks something that looks similar to our students. Um, as far as from a grading standpoint, the extension activities are something that would be obviously something would be expected as part of this uh class. I mean again feed feedback is the only like um result I guess of that outside of like awesome student learning is the teacher will give feedback on on the try versus like negatively impacting what their grade would be because they took a a big swing at something um because they're they're not that's not going to knock their score down at all. Um end of module assessment is something that the entire module is working towards. So like every module give or take is a nine-week unit
072of study. And so as it goes through um week to week to week there's opportunities for um more of your basic formative and summative assessments but it's working toward like an end of module essay uh narrative or persuasive or argumentative and it's something that is building up to the point where the student is producing what the overall goal of the unit was. Um, so think of it, I guess, in terms of like like your midterm and your final. Um, there's other opportunities, but like at the end, like your final for that quarter is going to be your end of module assessment, and that's going to be a a decent sized chunk of your grade. Okay. I don't mean to nitpick, but you're talking assessment and task. Did you mean end of module task? because you
073kind of described the end of module task like an essay, correct? And I I guess I can wrap my brain around that. Well, then there's assessments, but there's reading involved. So, the way it's being described, and maybe my brain's just pigeonholding it, is that the tests are more reading based and the task is more writing based, but you have kids that learn differently and you know, you're you're going off that that's not I can tell you living it with my son, that's not weighted at all. You're just you're you're you're reacting too much to the word task. Okay. I just I was just it is it is necess was more hands-on kinds of things, but the way it was described, I was just trying to wrap my brain around it. That's fine. And and I'd
074be happy to go back and change it to assessment as I'm looking at other things that I've prepared myself for this conversation. Every other thing I have written down here is assessment. So I should change that task to assessment because a task to me is more like project more project based you know thing. So I just wanted clarification. So thank you. No very fair. Yep. And the bottom line is it's consistent to what we're doing. It's no different between regular and honors. The the grading and assessment structure is Yep. parallel. and and and I would say that a student I so so Jared Burke signs up for this and as an eighth grader after quarter one he is he is struggling and it's it's just not working and like the night the the really nice
075part of this is that he could he could move himself back to ELA 8 for quarter two they're covering the same uh focus yeah they're covering the same module they're going to cover it at a slightly slower pace and not a greater depth, but like he's not going to go into a foreign kind of area by moving from an area of like really big challenge and rigor to a still pretty rigorous area, but not to the level of honors elite. So, we're encouraging people to take a chance on us. Okay, any other comments or questions? I did not hear any outright opposition to moving this forward. I did hear the comments of boy, we'd love to do more, but that to me is not a a a negative against doing what is proposed. So, position
076to be able to do more at at this point or is that something that we would need to come back at next months or next year's or where do you feel you're at with that or we as a board a committee? Like I'm happy to have a conversation with the ELA department. Um I I want to make sure that people are feeling good about I mean I'm going to be happy to explain that the ED services team seem to be uh unanimous. I love the concept. I love it so much. who are asking, can you do more? Right. Right. Uh and just just kind of see like what what they would need to what where they would need to be to feel really comfortable with this process. One of the other things, uh Shelley Deg
077Grant, who's one of the eighth grade ELA teachers, she's also involved in professional development within Wit and Wisdom itself as a part of the leaders program. So she's getting a little bit more of like a conceptual uh support. Uh so she's like she's well equipped to see things from a a little bit bigger picture. Um which is going to be helpful with something like this. Uh and so like that not not to say that we can't expand it at all. I'm not saying that by any means, but that would be something that Shelley would feel more confident in a way that maybe some other folks might not be able to do right away. Well, if we have almost two weeks till this would go to the board as it's such that we can leave it
078open-ended that we would gladly give this recommendation or we'd give the same recommendation if you change your your grade level to say sixth, seventh and eighth or seventh and eighth or whatever you want it to be. Yeah, I'm hand that way on a committee level. I'm happy to have a conversation and I'm happy to update um Jenny if that's if that makes sense. Committee members, is that okay? If they did came back, if this came back in J at the actual January meeting and said seventh and eighth, would you be okay with that as an example? Okay. All right. So, we'll have a formal proposal. Jason will work with his team to determine exact grade levels, definitely eighth grade, but potential um for additional grades as well. We definitely appreciate your support and uh I
079appreciate uh Jason wanting to loop back with his teachers as well for that too. So all right. All right. Thank you. That is the end of our agenda for this evening or this morning. So action items I have captured for the next ed services meeting. you are going to come back to us with the formal proposal for the remaining ESR funds. And then for the January board meeting, we have the open enrollment seats and we have the two course proposals. Correct. That's what I have too. Anything else people want to put out there for a future committee meeting? [Music] All right. Our goal was 70. We came in at 66. We're going to call this adjourned. 8:36. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a great snow day, everyone. Stay safe. Enjoy your day, everybody.
080Bye.