01/14/2025 Educational Services Committee Meeting

001Okay, 7:30. It's uh January. It's cold. The ed services meeting. Let's uh kick it in gear. What do you got, Jenny? All right. Uh we just wanted to start with a bit of a review of um where we're at with Act 20. uh specifically with our assessment and reading plan piece. As you recall from some of our updates, uh we are required by state law to be using the Aiden's Web Plus assessment for our um a three times a year assessment for our kindergarten through third grade students. We did not find out what that assessment would be until I think it was midsummer, mid July perhaps. And so we were given a reprieve on that first assessment window. So July or sorry January doesn't feel like July outside. January is our first assessment window. Uh

002we chose January um in that winter assessment window to do that. So we're assessing kindergarten through third grade. Um and with that assessment, any students who fall joined the meeting below the 25th percentile um will need to have a reading plan completed there. Um I did share with you some of our documents that we uh have been using for that assessment piece. to have Desa Kyle here who is one of our reading coaches and our district reading specialist who has been um hugely supportive as we look through these pieces because it is complex and there are very specific timelines on these pieces as well. So you can see if a student scores below the 25th percentile we have uh no matter what we have to notify a family of their screening scores within 15 days.

003We have diagnostic assessments that we need to complete for those students. We create a personalized reading plan. Um and then we monitor their progress for 10 weeks. The goal is to get those students above the 25th percentile at which point they can be exited from the plan. Um and if they are not then they continue on that personalized reading plan. Um we created our own personalized reading plan. Again, that was courtesy of our coaches, actually, DESHA. We tried to make it as simplified as possible. Um, with the information that is required by state law on there with the literacy data for the family to take a look at and then an analysis of uh what area they need additional um instruction in and then what that intervention plan would be. And then you do need

004to try to get a signature from the parent. However, we do not need permission to implement the plan. Um, and then weekly progress monitoring. We will be mostly using Ames web for that progress monitoring. Um, and then what is the students response to that plan. Um, we've had a lot of discussions. Our title one reading teachers are taking a lot of these students. We've worked very closely with Sarah and the special ed team because many of our students with IEPs also need reading plans. It's not enough that they would have an IEP. Um, and so our special ed teachers are implementing reading plans for our students mostly with IEPs. Our students who are English language learners. Um, our EL teachers are working with them on their reading plans as well. So, we are in the

005process of this heavy lift. Um, I think we are getting good information from the AS web plus. Um, we do plan on having Christian Lloyd present the AS web plus data in the February ed services meeting so that you get a sense of how we're doing. Um, just a brief overview and then if anyone has any questions about that as well. Um, I have two questions on this. Um, and you can answer them at the same time. um how much of this were we already doing in some shape or form? Uh i.e. how much more work is it for you to do it this way versus the the way that it was done? And then of these I'm going to say these three document well the first document is just kind of the flowchart but

006then you also have the reading plan and then you also have the uh uh diagnostic assessments guide and and the how much of it was dictated by the state as part of act 20 and how much of it was I'll say created on our own to meet the way that we want to implement it or how much flexibility did we have in it. So between what were we doing and and how much more now do we have to do by law and how much of this do we even have the opportunity to to to challenge edit or say we don't like that or so you can answer them both together. I think in terms of like what our title one teachers were doing, it's pretty similar. Um, we already were doing universal screeners and a

007little um probably not as um much depth of diagnostics, but we were doing some diagnostics to choose the right interventions for kids. Obviously, the documentation piece is kind of the paperworks where it's a little different than probably the process before. Um depending on how many students fall below that 25th percentile, that could also impact um who else has to provide services who maybe have not provided reading services before. Maybe like our classroom teacher or um some of the this diagnostic piece and the weekly progress monitoring is new to some of our special education teachers, our EL teachers. So there will be a slight learning curve there. Um so mostly what's different is the paperwork that's required. Um my second part of your question, the state has spelled out a lot of what we we have

008to use AI as web, we have to do 10 weeks of progress monitoring once an intervention starts. Um we have to have a reading plan. So those things are in place. Uh the pieces where there's a little flexibility are the diagnostics. The state approved five different sources for those diagnostics. uh the local CISAs came together and tried to support districts by saying within Ames web these are some of the diagnostics that are available to you. So they were really helpful saying like you don't have to go and purchase X Y and Z here's some resources within Ames web and then from there we're also supposed to have some local diagnostics um for the most part we have done that with zero cost that kind of drills down more into where specific deficits are. So um

009that that piece of that local diagnostic is really on our control. Um so we put some things in place that uh give us good data, do not cost us a lot of money. Um kind of more informal information. So um that's really the piece where we're flexible at. Um the interventions are a little flexible as well. That's up to district's decision. Obviously, they want them to be evidence-based, researchbased, highly effective um strategies, but we do have kind of the say of what do we have in house that we're already using? What do we see as something we may need through this process that we may need to purchase additional intervention materials, but that's on our two more questions and I've got to ask them first so I don't forget them. Um, sorry. Uh, is this

010all just going to be paper? Are you going to put this in a database so that Chris can mine information out of it? So, for example, if an intervention tool is whatever one of these is listed here and you find out that half of your kids went through a intervention uh requiring let's say I can't even say these words, phmic awareness versus fluency versus oral language. So if you check this box, does this just end up on a sheet of paper or can you then correlate that and and validate that that's the that's the that's the uh intervention that seemed to work the best because if this just all ends up in a piece of paper and then I guess is it in Skyward? Is it in is something that Chris gets that can be

011datized and and then uh or digitized I guess would be the right word for it so that it can then be analyzed to see how we're doing at it or is this just all going to end up on a bunch of sheets of paper? We're working with Chris on that creating that system. Okay. Um we already kind of currently do that on paper basis in each school with our title one rosters and looking at what interventions kids had, how successful were those interventions, did we have to change interventions? So we we do that inhouse, but as you said, more on paper basis of this is a great this is always like our go-to intervention for kids with a deficit or a deficit in obviously those things that can be discreetly entered. not not a lengthy

012paragraph as an assessment which you can't analy or Chris can't analyze but checking a box or putting an age group or putting you know putting a previous score in the next score would all be things that could be correlated and the state does ask for that information come July one and that would certainly speed up that that the time it takes to to produce things that they'll ask us is how many kids had reading plans how many kids exited reading plans so they'll be looking for some of that data as well Chris or somebody will have to be creating or sky word logic module in order to track all that. Okay. Sorry, Lori. Does this replace title one? No. I I mean, yeah. Right. I I just wondering like staff-wise, like what is this going

013to look like? Yeah. Right. Uh the more staff the better would be, you know. Um our title one staff is shrinking because that's connected to federal money, okay, and state money. Okay. Um it the the idea of title one is a little different than probably what it's been in the past is more of you know expert reading teachers providing services. Um in our four of our five elementary schools are schoolwide based. So that means they can basically serve the population in different um ways. They could be providing in classroom support with a classroom teacher. They can be doing small pullout groups. They could be using one-on-one interventions. Oh, no. It won't replace them. Yeah. Will it maybe pull some of those students that maybe would have been put in title one, maybe they won't be

014put in title one where this could be a supplement that maybe finding a little bit I'm trying to go off of what I remember from the elementary days. It could be it could it could look that way because um in our current practices, we look at kids who are reading below grade level and finding their best fit, right? And sometimes we're that may be someone who we'd actually score above the 25th percentile, right? And now we're probably going to really put those reading people, those expert reading people with that 24th percentile and below. So there'll probably be some students who will not receive services from a title one teacher, okay? but we'll have to maybe get PAR support or um a double dip with their classroom teacher to kind ofate skills. One comment I did

015want to make and I'm sorry I did not get the answer to that question is we are very lucky to have reading core in our schools. Um it's something that is very closely aligned with the science of reading and it has been sponsored with us through the greater the watertown community health foundation and they can they can't do the progress monitoring per se with this but they are able to do some of the services provided with it as well and I think the goal long term is to say that these interventions would get kids up and out. Um so that's the goal long term. Okay. a few piggybacking on David's question about where these are housed etc etc. Does this information ultimately go into the folder? Does it ultimately go into Skyward so parents have

016access to it? Because with a D for advanced learners or an IEP, you know, each of those plans parents have access to. So just, you know, wanting to make sure of that. um if parents well how does this get used from the teacher lens not just those that are servicing like as an interventionist or something like that um like typically you see Lexile level or reading level yet I don't really see that on here but that's how parents see if their child is making growth so is there a place to have that so at least parents get the regular language they have not the teacher speak language from Ames just So there's some they can see that. Um so I'm okay with Uhuh. I don't need the exact details. Just I figured you guys knew

017where it was, but those weren't things that were hit on here. So yes, it will be in Hume. I was addressed for a second. And then um Ames does provide us a report. We do from with our we do a variety of subtests and so they do present nice graphs about like um your kid or your child falls in the average range for or oral reading fluency but might be below in reading comprehension but is high in vocabulary. So there's a really easy graph for both teachers to understand. Teachers when they enter their data into the ASL website they get a plethora of um data about that student but then also their class. So they'll get like how o overall what's your class how is your class doing in reading comprehension versus fluency here is

018some skills that based on their score you may want to double check so they are getting additional information there and then obviously um working with the parents and talking with parents through that personal reading plan when we do have those chances at conferences um parents always have the opportunity to provide feedback on the reading plan so that would be a great them for their questions as well. Perfect. And my last question is very specific. It's in section one under additional supports. It talks about a talent development plan. Is that referencing like the advanced learner piece because that's no longer called talent development. So you might want to consider um changing that language that's old languages so it's consistent throughout. Got it. Sam um I did one other question and that's just um I'm gonna say

019are there any what's the expectation from the state? How do we get graded as a district that they they're below 25, they're above 25, we have 80% that what's I understand the goal is to make everybody better, but is there any teeth associated with act 20? Is there any what what what happens if we don't do well? What happens if we do really well? What anything? I mean, not specifically related to that yet. Does it show up on a state scorecard? Does it it does it do not at this point? It's not my understanding. It's not on the state report card. Um I think the piece that would be the most um the state involved with is more related to the curriculum. If there was a family who believed that there was an issue with

020the curriculum, they could file an issue with the state. We do have to report our our processes and our scores and things like that to the state, but there's no like specific teeth related to the assessment piece. Okay. Okay. All right. Good. Good. Good. Great. Thank you. Okay. The next topic I just wanted to revisit and we have it on our calendar to revisit annually is that working curriculum review cycle um draft document that um I put together last year. Um, as I had mentioned previously, um, I do view this as a working document and I'll note that there have been several updates to it. There was feedback from this group last year um, that I wanted to make sure to note on here. For instance, um, Diana had pointed out that we did not

021acknowledge necessarily 912 ELA on here. I had an opportunity uh, to work with them to note where historically we were at with this. I think we have talked a lot about the fact that this has not been a traditional cycle that we have done here in our district. Um, and so what I wanted to do was uh note where we've been um and aim for where we're going. I think we have benefited greatly from our ESSER dollars in the fact that we have been able to invest a lot in our curriculum materials um and a lot in professional development related around those curriculum materials um and then sort of forecast into the future where we're going. So I will always keep this probably watermarked as a as a draft as a working document. It's just

022the way I am. Um, you'll note as we get to the bottom, we move from like elementary or 912 or 612 that the goal is to move to this K12 ELA, K12 math, K12 science, K12 social studies. And in theory, I probably should be marking that as 4K12. um so that rather than having them be disjointed processes that we are moving through this and we're talking about this as um teams that represent across the grade levels. Um we were not able to do that just for a variety of reasons in the past. Um and so some things that I have updated, you'll note that um I did move up with conversations um our ELA to um 2728. Now, we are kneedeep right now at the elementary level in our uh curriculum review process and it

023is only 25 right now. And so, I would not necessarily anticipate in that year one that I believe that it's because we're going to like rehash exactly what we're doing at the elementary level, but I believe that it'll be timely for us to come together as a K12 team to analyze where are we at with literacy K12. There have been some major changes at the ele there will have be some major changes at the elementary level. There have been some major changes at the uh middle level with literacy and start having some conversations about where are we at with literacy. Um I sat with Chris Mallaloy and we started talking about what data pieces we want to track when it comes to implementation. um talking about sort of uh pre-implementation, what data we're looking at,

024and then um how we're breaking the data down um in year one of implementation of any uh um curriculum that we're adopting and how we're breaking that down. To me, it's important that we're looking at that data overall. We're looking specifically at our state assessment, not necessarily our local assessments, but our state assessments. We're breaking it down um at the elementary level by school as well as elementary, that we're breaking it down by subgroups, and that we're also breaking it down by standard so that we can compare and say, "Hey, our previous curriculum looks like it was really strong in this standard. our new curriculum looks like. Perhaps we're seeing growth, a dip, we're maintaining um so that we can make comparisons along the way and we can be looking at that uh with teams.

025Um I think it's also important to note that um as we talked about last night in policy uh when I look at the NEOLA policy, it is talks about a five-year cycle. This is a seven-year cycle. Um, and so that would be some conversation amongst the policy review committee as well as this committee if we want to shift this from a seven-year cycle to a fiveyear cycle. Um, there potentially could be some budget implications, but as we noted at the very top of this that we would never necessarily be committing budget dollars to this process. um that every year we need to be looking at the budget with the finance department with in this case Sarah Duncan to determine whether or not there are budget dollars to make those purchases of curriculum. Um so that's

026sort of an overview of some of the changes. Um, the other reason I felt like it was important to bump up the ELA piece is that our middle school has been deep in their implementation of what lives them and I didn't feel like it we could wait um to analyze where they had been at. I know they have been working with Chris and it's kind of where we pulled what sort of data we want to look at to make comparisons. They have seen some tremendous growth compared to the state average when they look at their wit and wisdom um implementation. And so I thought it was important that we come together with that. Um if we want to just look at very specific um where we're at in each area, I think we mentioned the

027fact elementary we're in that curriculum review. We're down to two sets of materials in the pilot. Middle is continuing that implementation of Whiten Wisdom. They are continuing with great minds uh coaching which is the company that publishes Whitten Wisdom. High school they can continue with their implementation. and they did do a standards review with support from CISA 2 um in that 2223 school year and then I bumped up that um initial year 1 from 2030 to 2027. Uh math again we're in year one of implementation of full bridges. If you remember correctly we're in we implemented number corner last year. We're continuing with our coaching support from CISA 2 middle school. We're in year two of illustrative math which is published through Kendall Hunt continuing with coaching support from CISA 2 and high school. We're

028technically in year one of open up with coaching support from CISA 2. If you remember correctly, we essentially piloted open up all last year from high school science. If you noted anything from this morning, um elementary is very busy right now with Axe 20. So we're maintaining our status quo with science. Um, middle school, we're using year one implementation of Amplify Science. High school, we're continuing, as we've mentioned, um, working on our standards implementation. We're looking at course sequencing and, um, we'll look to see a proposal from them in the spring. And I also bumped science up one year in the K12 uh, renewal. Again, social studies maintaining the status quo at the elementary level. Middle school and high school is continuing to work through their curriculum review cycle. Um, this is something that has

029not uh been work that that team has done 612 any time in the recent history. And so, it's something that I'm anticipate we will continue to focus on next year. I know at the middle school, we're really trying to take a an AVID focus um with those middle school teachers and we'll spend some time over the summer with them as they map out their specific curriculum and standards um in their curriculum. I also bumped the full K12 science social studies review up one year. as we look ahead to 2526 um that implementation of elementary literacy continued work with 612 social studies and then you can see continued refinement there. Um, one other comment that I do want to make is that I have started um, having conversations with Ashley and with our secondary coaches about

030working toward individual course guides um, and so that we have a very clear understanding of what's being taught in each course at um, each level. This is work that had started pre- pandemic um, and I'm sort of resurrecting some of those pieces as well. Um, but really having a very clear outline about what's being taught in each one of those courses as well. And I think that that lends itself nicely to some of the work that we're doing with policy as it relates to curriculum as well. So that is my update and I anticipate that we will have some questions about that. Fairway. I just have a clarifying question. Sure. you had mentioned um about being a seven-year plan and you feel that this is a fiveyear plan yet with the draft it does say

031seven years because years five, six and seven kind of are that implementation whatever stage. So is it really a fiveyear? Is it really a seven? Cuz I thought it was a seven-year plan. It is a seven-year plan. The Niola policy that we had proposed last night talks about it as a fiveyear plan. Okay. And so if we need to adjust it, I am happy to do that or I was think nope I agree with and on that same subject given that you've already stated that hey we're elementary science we're maintaining the status quo due to act 20. What do you think the bandwidth is and and how much does it change over five to seven years? Because when it becomes a policy question, if if best practice or our practice um and our bandwidth is

032seven years, then I'd just make a recommendation to policy that when that policy gets adopted, unless we see some pressing reason otherwise, let's make it sevenyear to because because policy doesn't policy as an entity doesn't care what ed services does. But if if they if they're responsible for the policies, then then head service better move back the policy. And and from what I understand, Jenny, you and your team believe that seven years is the way to go. In which case, that just be would have to go to policy because policy is not going to trump ed do we as a governing body want to ask policy to write it in a particular way? And that policy is on hold right now anyways. Correct. Um I don't know if it was that one that had the

033curriculum review, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just make sure that we when we do talk about it, I think the reason we wanted to move with seven years at this point is because I think there was a lot of work that needed to be done and I think that you know there are certain areas that aren't even represented on this curriculum review cycle like CTE, art, um music, world languages. Um and so I think that that was part of the reason we wanted to move those gaps here um is to sort of give us time to work through those pieces. Um um okay. So I would say make the recommendation of policy to change it from 5 to 7. Yeah. As an action item. I'll I'll get around to that policy. But at least it's the

034recommendation from ED service. You know, it just comes highly recommended when this body recommends that it's there. Then it's not a huge discussion there because it's already gone through that filter. And just hope that at least one or two of us who are on both committees remember. But if it's an action item, if you put it as an action item now, like we talked about, if it's an action item for uh policy, it's not an action item for ED services per se. Sure. because they're the ones who are going to be drafting and ratifying the policy. So, we'll note it. We'll circle back to that. I do have a question. Um I know you mentioned that like the individual course guides and um you know like up on top it says other areas on department

035determined as needed basis. Is that eventually going to get put into a cycle or I know that that covers a lot of courses but you know I know it's been a question I have had who is a pro approving a lot of this curriculum to begin with do you know what I'm saying there's a lot of curriculum out there that I don't think the board has maybe they've seen it we've approved a lot of new courses where does that curriculum come from if it's not coming. You know, I know teachers, but is it teacher written? Is it I'm just curious what that looks like. I think traditionally I think Craig had his hand up too, but it looks like it was now. I think traditionally how it worked is that there was a course proposal

036that was brought to ED services. I believe at some point this committee was called like the curriculum committee and then um it was approved at that point and then put into the course book at that point. But like for instance when we I know we have approved a lot of new courses we're who's writing the curriculum for those new courses per say like typically it's the teacher who proposes the core. Okay. I I just know that board is supposed to approve curriculum. So there's curriculum that's never been approved. I don't know what that looks like. That's the next two act uh agenda items that go into the next group. that well it's it's the next two agenda items as well as it touches on the the policy that didn't get uh pushed to first read

037last night. So they're all going to be lumped together, but let's put that on the side just for a second. Sounds good. Um my only other question related to this is that uh whether intentionally or unintentionally in the past uh you know K6 or K5 went at a different speed with math than middle school and then high school went at a different and it was staggered and it was unintentionally staggered or intentionally staggered. And then you find out well how does wit and wisdom but which which program does it better feed into? Does it better feed into this one? does it better feed into that one or math or social studies. Uh making sure there weren't gaps. We talked about that in social studies last week. Or, you know, if the one one teaches it

038in, you know, eighth or eighth or ninth grade and the other one teaches it in seventh grade and then you get a gap if the kids go through it in the wrong order and pretty soon they don't know where the, you know, the country of England is on a world on a globe because we just we missed it. So in what you now you have these as you pointed out 4K12. Okay. Is that in I assume that you've thought about that and and that that's going to be what you consider to be the most effective way to do it is so that you're not you know doing elementary school and then finding out what they get out of it for two or three years and then doing middle school staggered on top of that. You're

039going to do the whole thing top to bottom all at once. And I just wanted to understand the pros and cons of that methodology versus triing at the elementary school and making sure that it has all the dust off. You know, we got all the wrinkles worked out and now we know truly what we have to put into the middle school in order to get it lined up with the one in front of it. So, should we stagger from the bottom up or just do the whole thing in one big column at a time? That's my question for you, your team and how that you you anticipate that working. I think it's really really important that you're having uh conversations that span the full gamut. Um and so that you're bringing together like your elementary,

040middle, and high school teachers together to be having those conversations. I also think it's really incredibly important that wherever we're selecting is based on the standards um that are selected by the the state and the school district so that when you're working through the curriculum that they're standards based that um a child is growing in the standards. um as they move through the system. And so those pieces are important to me. And then of course there are going to be conversations within um grade spans, right, about what um you know what what do we need more at the elementary level? What do we need to transition from fifth to sixth? What do they need from 8th to 9th? Um and so I think all of those pieces play a role in it. I don't um

041I don't foresee a time where you're not sort of doing both of what you said. But the challenge is if if we're just in an elementary uh conversation and we're not having conversations with secondary folks, then we're never sort of bridging that gap. And what we're trying to do is sort of bridge that gap now. Okay, that makes sense. I just want to make sure that civil war doesn't just suddenly disappear or No, nobody gets earth science because they we we switched curriculum and well, you were supposed to get it in eighth grade and now you're supposed to get it in nth or you're supposed to get it in ninth and now you get it in eth and you just happen to metriculate from eighth to 9th and now you didn't get earth sciences. you

042have no no idea what an archipelago is because you you just whoops I I I I skipped it, you know, and and I don't know how you anytime you change curriculum that's going to be a risk is that one book or one provider puts it in a different grade year that you just you you've you moved out of and I don't know how you guard against that. This is more content based, not not outcome based, but I don't know how line up. pigging back into that and Jenny and I and I have had this conversation multiple times since the math adoption is using a continuum for standards and I don't know where we are in terms of trying to develop that if you have these are standards for this grade level this grade level this

043grade level it doesn't matter what textbook company you use book you use these are the standards that are supposed to be taught and frankly if this doesn't come here within the district you determine are you doing it beginning of the year middle of the year end of the year but we haven't had that for a while and there were those gaps. So now we are starting to look at standards but I would continue continue to encourage if we can continuum work is not easy. It'll take about 3 years probably to create and I don't know if we have the bandwidth right now to do that but at least bring that up again that that might be something to consider so that way you have that especially as we start moving to personalized plans. Personalized instruction

044individualized instruction isn't anything new. It's been around 15 years. We aren't really doing it, but at least it's, hey, this kid's really excelling here. Where does that go? Do you go further down this? Do you go depth? That's the next level we need to be at if we're going that. But we're here. That's here. So, just something to cons but it answers your question in terms of how do we make sure we're not doing it. If you have that continuum, there's never a question. Um, Craig had a stand up on the sound again. So, um, okay. Any other questions or comments on this one? Um, yeah, I just put my comments in the chat, that's all. Oh, there you go. Feel like I'm like Zoom basic today. All right, we're reading it now, Craig. Yeah.

045Yep. Agreed. I feel like that's a really good point. Thank you. Agreed. Okay. Um, anything else on that subject? In the outcome of this as far as uh action items, it's just a it's a living document. You know, maybe you uh you can take draft off of there, Jenny, and just put it on the top last edited. Okay. Yeah, I can do that. Can I still call it a working document? Well, you can call it a working document. You can call it a draft. I don't care. just what last editing. Um uh okay. Uh next up is course book approval procedure and then um a followup from last month which is or last board meeting which would be the RMS course book in in total. So that's items C and D. And um I think

046we're all generally aware of the backstory on course books and and I'll try to do my best job of summarizing for those who uh may not remember it the same that I do is that uh to our knowledge on the board, we've never approved the full course book. That just wasn't something that we were uh required to do. we would require uh we would approve course additions and subtractions or changes but if nothing was quote unquote changing then it existed could be forever without a technical review and uh Jared brought that to us as being hey somebody's got to approve this course book in it in its whole the whole body of the course book and so that you're not just approving additions and subtractions but that you're actually reviewing the book and Um we

047had uh six I think changes Jason at the last board meeting um to the RMS coursebook and all those changes were approved but then the course book itself was on the agenda and it passed the 62 or whatever it was. So the course book at the RMS has been approved. That was excuse me that was a high school course. My bad. High school course book. Yeah, I'm glad you corrected me. Um the the high school course book. Uh yet the RMS one is still up for review. So the question is is how did we want to address this? U to Lor's point earlier uh today as well as in policy last night there are I don't say competing policies. Let's just say that there's options for how we uh codify this review. Um what Jenny

048and I had discussed on this particular topic is that because of the length of time it would take to review a course and it's not so much the review it's to change one that it was our initial starting point to lock it down on January 1st and not January 1st of 25 for the beginning of the 25 school year. lock it down at January 1st at 25 for the beginning of the 26th school year such that you would have a calendar year to do the review, request changes, etc., etc., And then the year of the I mean so you you review the course book all this year. You make changes. You you bring up or on January 1st you bring up things you you're interested in digging deeper into making changes to and then we

049have the entire 2025 calendar year and then January 21st of 26 next year is we'll be approving the 2627 course book. uh that was the thought process and that also meant that those approvals would come with I'm not going to call them line item vetos that the approval would come with these are the courses that we want to look at in the calendar year 25. So if we take the entire RMS course book and we identify three or four uh items, we're not that late now. It's January 13th or 14th. So we're not going to be too rigid, but we don't want to be raising our hand in June and then giving everybody just six months to get a course book ready. So we really have to be diligent and committed to a January first

050cutoff under most circumstances uh to say, "Hey, here's the five courses that we would like a deeper dive into in 25." But when the RMS course book comes up for approval, um assuming we recommend that it moves forward to the full board that uh it's okay to have some I'll call it objections to it, but you have to teach the kids which means they need the book and it if there's going to be exceptions to it, then those need to be noted more or less today or at the next board meeting so that it can get approved for 2526. six, but that we know what we're going to be diving into in the calendar year 25. And I that that's what Jenny and I had discussed prior to this meeting and also prior to policy

051last night and prior to Lori your comments right now. So that's just a discussion and and that's kind of the template by which Jenny and I thought we'd lead off this part of the conversation and and that's the 20-minut discussion that's in front of us. So, uh, not knowing exactly what's in the the draft policies that we saw last night or how closely it aligns to that, we were just more or less setting off that the timeline uh to ensure that that the staff had adequate time to to review and that the parents and the kids had adequate time to know what that course was going to look like for the following year. and uh somewhat arbitrarily just picked January 1st for a calendar year cuto off. So that was Did I miss anything from

052our conversation? No. And I think the work that we're doing and I think it all sort of flows really nicely. Um as much as we probably all didn't want to be here last night and then turn around and be here right this morning again. What the Nola policy talked about last night was that the board and again I know we tabled that but the board would be given a list of the courses not necessarily the board would approve the courses and again we tabled that and that's fine but just as a point of discussion um I think the other work that I mentioned with the curriculum review cycle the idea that we would be working with um like course guides where we would get a little more meat into like what is being taught in

053every single class so that we would have that for like the board review so that we can see really what and like I said that work had started pre-COVID and I think you remember what happened with COVID and so just really getting back into the meat of that so that we have a better understanding of what's being taught in each course and I think that all of these things kind of flow really naturally um to to give you a better understanding as well um and I know Jason is going to bring up the point that like the course book that we're looking at today really truly is meant for like middle school kids to look at and say, "Hey, what is it that I'm going to pick or not pick?" Um, and so he wants

054you to have that caveat as you're taking a look at that, but this isn't necessarily like a full like this is exactly everything that's happening in all of these courses. And so I know that he has a tiny bit of tration about that. And Jason, I just saw you raise your hand too. So I want you to be able to say what you wanted to say. Yeah, just a quick clarifier for me. So Jenny, you used course you used course guide and you and course book is what we're talking about right now too. So like for my understanding like curriculum guide would that be a way for me to think about the deeper like this is what's being taught in ELA7. here's the curriculum guide and then the course book or course guide would be

055more of the like a pamphlet but it's like like a 19 page here's a two or three four sentence little descriptor of each of the classes am I understanding that right yep and that's how I'm envisioning it too um and I think we have a start of the work on some of that and truly honestly some of the curriculum adoption pieces that we've done have really helped that a lot of the curriculum is open source so really truly you could go in there and look at every single lesson Um, so just it's it's a work in progress. I can't say that we're there yet. Um, we'll get there. I appreciate patience. Okay. Comments or questions on that process. And then um Sam um I say if I if we want to pull up the the

056draft policy from last night and even review that now, we could do that. We it's not part of the ED service minutes per se. It's part of the policy last night, but it's available. It's public. It's not like it's it's not quote unquote new. Um, but if we don't do that now, um, what would be your, uh, I don't want to say timeline or appetite? We know that for we want to get the Inola book adopted and we want to get that done by May and the the curriculum policy per the the goings on from last night. Um, um, and I'm talking to Sam specifically because he and I are on policy. You're not even on policy, are you? No, that's right. I forget. You're not polic. You and I are on ed services together.

057Okay. Well, Craig's online. He can listen, too. So, maybe a better question for Craig. Um, is that what I I guess I'd like Ed services to be the champion, the sponsor for that policy because that's the most that that's where it makes the most sense. Policy shouldn't be its own champion for that policy. Policy is a it it just, you know, makes sure everything's in order. Mhm. So if we want to bring that draft back up through here um at in the near future and say, "Hey, we currently don't have a policy or or the policy we do have is in need of some uh changes." Um and we're going to delay the implementation of that policy change until after the Nola book is fully written, which is more or less a policy agreed last

058night. Um, but we'd like it to be consistent with the calendar that I just proposed, which is whatever that review looks like, here's the timeline of it, because we just don't want to be trying to review a course book in July and and we we'd like to make sure that the RMS course book next week gets brought forth, gets approved with noted courses that need a deep dive in 25. That's what I was hoping. And that's how that resolution would look. Um, and then any policy that gets generated would really be a just like the last one, uh, which the action item, which is the 5-year versus the seven-year. This would be a a document that services owns and and if it needs to make changes to it, then of course those first reads go

059through policy, but this would something that would lie with us. So, are you thinking of like a subcommittee of the ED services committee to look over? That'd be Yeah, I'm I'm I'm open to suggestions. No, it should be full committee. It'd be full. Yeah. Then then full committee would just have to spend some time taking what is the current curriculum policy and and whatever Neola is and then merging it with any changes that we'd want to make to it. And then what we would do from what we've learned from planning because we're doing the same thing with a different uh policy there is we then take it over in this committee where we have first read and then we go through with second read. So then it's out of policy's hands altogether. So it's not

060work committee looking and then kicking. I like that because yeah, we we try not to have two committees do the same job whether it be fiscal and HR or the head services. But that's why it becomes a full committee thing as opposed to take ownership of that policy and then we take ownership of it. Sure. Um and I'm good with that as chair and thanks for the suggestion Diana. I think that'd be the best spot to do it. And I don't think Craig's gonna, you know, lose any sleep over deferring it to us versus that there are other things that may not be what we're discussing right now that I think Craig wanted to suggest. Okay. That he'd come to an ad service meeting. Yes. Well, he does. He's doing both. I am for now.

061Okay. Depends on when this comes back. So, yeah. I get the the the goal of course is not just to understand the I'll call it the rules of engagement on this today, but if and by the way it was Jared who said you need to approve the course book. We're like well we've never approved a course book before. He well you should have. Okay well the course book is going to be on the agenda in two weeks and it's not to say that it can't get voted against. The question is if we all vote against it, then what happens? Then middle schoolers don't have a course book that they don't get to come to school next year and and it's not to back the board into a corner. It's more of a matter of let's

062let's work with the concept of line item. Yeah, we're approving it for the 2526, but we know that we're going to be working on these four courses and we'll note them in the in the in the resolution that these are the ones that Ed Service is going to do a deep dive in in the year in the calendar year 25 because the book has to go forward. Um, and I'm not suggesting pulling coursework. I'm just saying is that we need to do a deep dive and then we'll get in a cadence and we won't have to do this or we we'll understand it next year going into January which ones we wanted to review. I know we even talked about not necessarily even putting in the resolution exactly which the courses were but rather folks

063could email you and that you and I can kind of work through that process of which ones are ones that folks want to do a deeper dive in. And then when we talk about the course um the curriculum guides, we can ensure that those are the courses that we focus on first and then we're bringing those to you to take a look at so that we don't necessarily feel the pressure of we're writing that into the resolution right away. It gives us a tiny bit more flexibility with that. Yeah, I agree. I wouldn't want to rewrite the resolution uh real time. Um, but then we have to be really, really good with our action items such that if all four people in this room right now raise their hand and say, "I want uh introduction

064to Spanish 7 reviewed." Um, that's just what's on my page. Oh, the one below it is introduc introduction to tourism and hospitality. I like that one better. I want that one reviewed. Um, that's fine. the course book gets approved and that one goes directly to an action item for ed services and and cannot slip through the the cracks because that that board member likely gave their approval contingent on that one getting reviewed in 2025 and we can't we can't drop that ball. So um yeah I suppose I mean the reason that I ask I'll use an outlandish example. So, if there's an elective, either a middle school or a high school elective, and it's hegemonic power structures and underwater basket weaving, something like that, right? It's something bizarre. And I'm like, well, I don't know

065about that. I'm not sure if that's something that I would that I would want to approve. So, what you're proposing is then that that course gets set aside and it gets reviewed because it never gets set aside until it gets reviewed. Gotcha. It doesn't get it set aside on one board members or the vote of the board's distaste for it until it's been reviewed and then the review is going to take a year to do it. So if you bring it up now then that means we get 25 to do it but it doesn't come out of the 25 26 course book. It might come out of the 26 27 course book. Sure. Sure. But yes, absolutely. Okay. Is there a way that we can then uh keep a list or a running working document

066of the course book for that following year? Because I think that the issue then comes up that we look at the course book that's going to be implemented in six or seven months. It's already put together. There's courses on there that I've never seen a document about before and maybe those courses were previously implemented in my specific case, but I can see this happening a year from now. Now it's too late. I was not informed of those courses and I'm being asked okay either approve approve of the book or don't approve of the book and that becomes an issue because again you get the hedgeonic underwater basket weaving thing and well if I'm not comfortable approving that I'm left and I'm open to suggestions I I don't I don't know how we you know approve

067we all know that we need it it's a question of when does it officially become approved because it has to exist It's a matter of that there and I'm just proposing a January 1st cuto off and this is the first time we approved it and we may just have to have some seller you know swallow a bitter pill for the 2620 or the 25 26 year but we shouldn't have to for the 26 27 and so but and that's why I said we have to be thorough in where we document that and and ed services has to take it up and and treat that one maybe with greater um difference than any other action item that we have. Um or it goes on to Jenny's uh working document. We could have uh Yeah, go ahead

068Jared. I was say if I may really the only one that this is going to affect is this first one, right? Uh the the approval of it just moving forward uh without having review of those in detail. um any other ones you can put on the list for us to dive into for the following year. So really it's only going to affect this one and we've been operating that way for a long time. Right. So in the future that would all be done before the course book got approved. Yeah. But ideally whether whether they're brought up on the January board meeting or we give a grace period of let's say the first quarter that any requested review has to be made by no later than March 31st and and for those who own course books

069and curriculum how long would I mean what's the if you have to get one ready for the course book for 2627 what's the shortest duration I could possibly give you to have to do a review. You know, I'm thinking nine months or a year, but I I that would that would mean that the first quarter of every single year, the board has to get in their comments to ed services, but still know that they're going to be approving the course book as written, but those comments in the first quarter will affect something coming out a year later and being taught 18 months later. Just a small tweak. Yeah, I understand first quarter, but we'll have new board members potentially coming on at the end of April. That's the end of the first quarter into the

070second. So you might want That's why they don't get a comment. Well, but because that that they they but then they but then they're asked going to Sam's point, then they're asked to approve a course book that they had no input in. So, I'm just saying we might want to at least No, if they come the end of April, if they're approved the end of April, they would come to a vote in January, you know, but they have no but they have no real ability to ability to make any comments for all of those months. I'm just saying maybe we have it instead of by the end of April. Well, the comments they'd be able to make would be if I get elect if I'm on the board as of April 1st and I immediately

071take this up and I'm looking at the document I want. I said, "I need these five reviewed." Okay. Well, they're going to go into review in 26 and the course book is not going to change because of that request. Which means, yes, you're right. They would have to approve a course book. They may have been able to add five suggestions to it, but there's no way that that the the election and the course book and the starter school don't line up. No, I'm not disagreeing. I'm just saying that just kind of puts a little handcuff in a situation because realistically a board member comes on the end of April, they're not thinking, hey, I I've got all of this to do unless we're putting that into new member orientation, which that's a part of the

072planning committee that we're talking right now. And that's not something that should be new member orientation. So I don't think we need to have a, you know, a consensus today, but it just should be something that is continually thought about just so that way they're not a city or a lame duck situation in this particular area. You are getting exactly to my point and that's why I didn't vote in favor of the course book because there were several courses on there which if I had had the ability or the opportunity to, I would have said, "Hey, let's check this course out. Let's look a little bit at what this course does and and uh what we're teaching there." So, I like the plan that you're talking about, but I agree with Diana that you're going

073to have continuing issue of new board members coming on and new board members not being able to exercise that, which I think is important if they're going to be asked to vote for something, which is inherent to the kind of school year and election and the way that it's set up is there's a lot of stuff that people set in motion before you got on and now you're being asked to approve of those things. And then if you say, "Hey, I want to learn a little bit more about that." Now you're looked at as someone who's slowing down the process and we can't slow down the process because that's bad. I mean, I don't know. It is what it Yeah. I mean, I could immediately say, let's okay, let's take the entire calendar year I

074said, and let's move it to April to April. But now there's which means you have to be elected seated and immediately bring up a concern before the end of April. And then you're then the course book doesn't even go out to the kids until April 1st of the next year. And I don't think that that's that's not possible. Well, this is my point is that and then it becomes even more complex. It becomes something like a graduation requirement because you can't just change a graduation requirement when kids have been notified, right? So, it does become even more complex. I look at it as the idea that it there's oversight of the board. So, if I was elected in April, I mean, there's a lot of things that the board approved the year before and you

075know, you have to work with it. I think this is a good system to at least start to get better oversight of the board. So there's always going to be things that you may come on the timelines just don't work. Yeah. Timelines. That's just the reality. And obviously if that board member did have a big concern about a specific thing, then you know work with that. In mind you the the concern of one board member is still a question for us all as to how much can it redirect the resources of the district because if one board member can direct an entire course to be pulled we would never have then we're not operating well as a board. Well, I think the way that that would work, again, using my example, so I see basket

076weaving. I say, "Hey, can we please review this ends up getting discussed and if the ED services committee says, "Hey, let's bring it to a vote," then it gets brought to a vote, right? I mean, that's basically how it works. I think that as if we have a, like I said, a running document about what we're looking at for the next year. So like any like hey maybe we're going to implement Mayan culture studies uh next year that gets put into this document that's accessible by board members accessible to the administration. I think that's helpful because I think that provides transparency and it lets people kind of stay on the up and up instead of having something brought in front of them at the last minute which is always unpleasant regardless of who you are.

077I think that would be the biggest deal and I think that that in and of itself would help with new board members who are going to come on anyways because that's always something that they can uh request information on if they really if it's something they're passionate about, you know. I agree. As far as delineating Jason and Jenny between course book and what you call curriculum curriculum guide curriculum guide and course book um I can see where the course book doesn't change and the curriculum guide does. Exactly. Because that the content which feeds into a top English 7 is always going to be English seven but the the curriculum is going to change. So just make sure that when ed services we talk about it or when it's on a resolution or when we talk

078about okay what are we reviewing? Are we reviewing the course book? Are we reviewing the curriculum guide? Are we re reviewing them both jointly? that we we recognize that what we are approving when we're approving it just so that we're on the same page. Right. Well, I and I think it came up when one of the things that came up was like the human growth and development. We know we have to teach that. We're going to approve that in the course book, but I think the question was the curriculum. What is the curriculum? So, it may not even have anything to do with changing the course book. We just need a deeper dive. That's my point is that does this need to be a resolution next week is to approve the course book because that

079this is what the kids see and I don't have a problem putting it out there but recognize there's not a lot of meat on the boat. No. And I still think it should be done. I agree with Jared that it should be done to be sure that the courses being taught are what align with what's been approved. So, right. So, the curriculum guide is there one yet or or is it still in its infancy? Infancy. Yeah. Like just starting. Yeah. Exactly. Just restarted after a 5year hiatus. Okay. Um I I Go ahead, Lori. I'm assuming that there's like priorities like certain like human growth and development like there are state statutes that require a board. I I believe I haven't dug into it. That's just what I've heard that you know. So, I'm assuming those

080kind of things are going to be like your priorities. You're going to be able to obviously I don't think you know um some of the classes maybe like basket weaving art or basket weaving is necessarily statute related. So, yeah, that's what I would recommend. That's why I was talking about electives because it really is going to come down to an elective situation most of the time. And then, you know, if there's a parent or something like that and they're like, "Hey, what about this being taught in this class or that class?" that that's a different situation that kind of gets brought on a case by case basis. Okay. Y so that was the quote unquote procedure, but that was the first 20 minutes of this discussion. Um and I bring that up only because we're

081going to bring it back um to ourselves um when we take ownership of the policy which has been deferred until after the Neola book. So, we'll have to kind of memorialize that discussion into a policy sometime later this spring. Okay. So, um the discussion then is on the RMS course book itself. Now that we kind of discussed the rules of the game, um it would uh I'm not saying my recommendation this very second, but the goal of this is of course to have a resolution to move it to full board approval. Um would be the the outflow of this. Then it's just a matter of okay, um, based off of what we just discussed, is there any reason why we wouldn't just make that resolution as is and then start collecting comments from board members

082over the first quarter to make sure that we uh, log any course that needs to be reviewed? No, but I have a question on something in here before it gets approved. looking at honors geometry um because of the high school accreditation right now sometimes there's a copy paste situation so if you look at honors geometry 2 it's on page five at the bottom it looks like it was a copy paste so it references algebra so if we can clean up that language in there secondly in the past honors geometry received a high school math credit algebra was a high school credit, typically an elective credit, still needing to take three years. So, the verbiage under honors geometry 2 is not reflective of honors geometry 2 in my opinion based on my experiences with my kids.

083So, I I just like you to take a look at that um because that should be high school credit, not just a you know, it doesn't say elective credit. It's a little bit confusing in there. I think it's I dealt with the same thing as a parent. There was there is confusion there. So, we just want to make sure that they realize that it isn't a math credit, but it specifically says they still need to take three more years. Is it counted as a math credit or is it an elective credit? Does it matter? Like when I worked in Wakau, I specifically stated this would be an elective credit. very clear that you still need three math credits because then it's not the question of well if they already took this high school math class

084why do they still need three more. So if we simply put the verbiage in there that this is a high school elective credit for algebra but then for geometry this would be a high school math credit only two years of additional math are required but three or more are recommend something to that effect. Mhm. I agree. If that's truly the case, if I'm misaken in that misinformed in that, just kind of take a look there. My understanding, and don't this is not me with 100% confidence here, but I I think back when honor geometry before my time in Watertown was approved and that advanced math track was was planted, it was to try to get kids into the deepest of the math classes their junior and senior year. And so giving them still I mean

085still showing that that is three years expected after they get to high school versus like what they do at Riverside taking the place of one of the three years. Double check that. I don't know if you can because honors geometry at the middle school receives LA credit. I don't know if you can because it's considered a high school math credit. So it's encouraged but I don't know required. So, you just might want to check on that that verbiage. Um, the second one in here is kind of nitpicky, but when we use the words students are introduced to something, that implies they don't need to master it. And so, these are written by different people obviously, but if they're introduced to blah blah and blah, okay, so to me, I'm like, that's just something great. they

086might be introduced yet many of those things that have been referenced are actually mastery items at those grade levels where in other courses it says students will learn about. So maybe and that doesn't have to be for this booklet but as they move forward having some kind of continuity in what's there would be helpful. That's a minor one. The major one was the math one. Got it. Thank you. Y [Music] um and uh you will be making those changes. Okay, that's that's that's easy enough before noon today to Okay. get that taken care of for sure. Good. Thanks. I just want to make sure. Yeah. uh didn't didn't know where the document was or or what else needed to be. Okay. Uh any other discussion on that topic? I don't think so. Okay. Anybody online?

087Okay. So, move to resolution. Yep. Move to resolution. And um I'll this is one uh for those who were at the chair's meeting last night. Um I'll try to give some later to the procedure uh in a little bit longer explanation just so people are not not just approving it blind that they understand that they do have a voice. It's just that that voice is is 15 months of you know from being implemented if you will. You know that's just the the way that the the the cadence has to work. Um just ask a really quick followup um on your proposed timeline around course not challenges but like review um that would and so deep water basket weaving would come to a vote at the board. It would be for ed services to decide if

088we want to take it up. So if somebody at the full board says hey look into basket weaving at the very next meeting which in this case would be February we would discuss it and decide if okay let's do that in 2025 let's get the resources to look at it or or or provide the resources to that individual who questioned it if the if the ed service wants to bring it up. you know, if we're if we're looking in our in our schoolbased timeline, if we're looking to have a ready to roll course course guide for December, December of 26 for the 2728 school year. Yeah. So, December of 26, we're hoping to know what we are able to offer by December of 26 to throw into a course guide that kids can see in

089January of 27. All of that meshes. Yep. That's the goal. And so we're in the future this action item that this discussion this resolution ideally then Jason would be on the December docket not the January where and like WHS was but we didn't have the procedure then we get WHS through but we didn't have the and so WHS by the way still has the exact same provision that we just discussed here is that I will be or we should all be accepting uh input right now for the 262 27 book that we get to review in 25 and that applies both to WHS as well as RMS and we're just let's say a month behind this year Jason but hopefully we'll have all that input by the end of 25 for the 20 so that

090we can yeah get either change 26 or start collecting them on January 2nd for 27. Perfect. So what's the process you want to do from here? Um Like if I want or if Sam wanted to basket, what is the process? At this point, you bring it to an ed service member. Okay. But I I fully intend to memorialize this in the policy that we're going to work on between now and May so that we can get it a first read and second read after the Neola book is done. And we actually might because it doesn't per say affect Lynn and Jared in the same way that all those other policies do, right? We could work on it coherently. Mhm. Uh so if if Sam and I wanted to do a dive on it, I know

091that policy deferred it because of obviously they got a lot of books to to go through, but that doesn't mean they can't kick it to us and we do it parallel path, which means that we could get it ready for, you know, prime time faster independent of the policy committee because the policy only has the committee only has a certain bandwidth. So I have no problem with Sam and I picking that one up and running with it right now. And that's kind of what I meant by subcommittee. Okay. Yeah, subcommittee. Right. So we could start working on that. Yeah, we're sponsoring it and we're going to do it independent per what Diana said. Policy doesn't even have to see it because it's not a policy document. It would come back. It come back to ed

092services. So we can begin working on that now. Uh drafting that and and I and maybe even get it out within, you know, a month or two. Um so we'll just keep that as a standing action item for this group to evaluate that and see if we can't get it to line up with what we just discussed. Can I make an additional suggestion for process and procedure as we're looking we've had this discussion about courses to approve etc. It worked worked really really well with what policy has. Here's kind of all the policies are there and some commentary. If we have a spreadsheet started a Google doc, whatever. So these are the courses. If Sam says these three courses for the RMS book and Lori says these five and I say these two, we got

093all these floating around out there. You got elementary, you got middle school, you got high school. How do you keep that organized? And then how do you prioritize it? So that's where I was kind of that goes to us that goes to us and sometime in January or February we'll have to prioritize that list right but what I'm saying now is okay so we're starting this so we need to start having a document created so that way it's not just a all at once I want these 10 and then you're feeling overwhelmed because then you can knock off a couple each hey this is a shorter meeting we're going to talk about these three something let's assume that February we're going to go through a you know a list of six to 12 courses. I

094don't know what it's going to be. So that's going to be at the February meeting. That's what we're going to have to do to kick off the process. But this will be an ongoing kind of thing. I'm assuming it's not just going to be a one and done. So my only comment is some sort of spreadsheet something to help us organize and prioritize. Yeah, I was going to suggest that as an action. I feel like what we need our next step would be is to sit down and sort of understand where we're at and what our next steps need to be with it. I I completely understand that right now. Sending any concerns to you so that we can start prioritizing that. Creating a list if we want to take a look at where the

095mola policy is compared to the WSD current policy is. Our current policy is pretty silent on what happens with the course book. The Miola policy, like I said, says that the board is given a list of the courses that are taught each year. It's not given the course book. It's not given the curriculum guide. It's given a list. Um, and so I think starting there, I think the idea that in February, like in four weeks, that we would already be reviewing courses is like it's prioritizing courses. Okay? It's prioritizing the courses. So if there are 15 courses or 20 courses that get brought up and Ed services looks at it and say there's no way we're going to do 20 courses in 2025 priority then we got to prioritize them and and knock them down

096to two or three or four or whatever we think the bandwidth is. Okay. I do think that the best way to start would be to take the course books and the ones that we have now where we know this is going to be taught over the next year at least. Put those into a Google Docs document. You can share that with board members. make it comment only and board members can comment and say hey this is one and it'll leave a little like sticky note on the side of the I don't think you can do it with a Google doc because then it's a walking board meeting because addition comments are going from different members so yeah well yeah I tried that with something else and I was told that specifically so a good good

097idea suggestion but we have to think of a a system doesn't need to be decided right now yeah at some point and and action item I'll uh we talked about it last night from the chair's meeting. Uh a repository for action items. Uh this would be a a very very specific type of action item uh related to a very narrow topic, but one that we'd have couldn't capture. It's just still a m we'd have to have a running list to capture and then a running list that we prior that we've prioritized. Um I don't know and I'm not going to try to figure it out now. Send me an email. Yeah. Yeah. We'll figure it out. Okay, let's move on. All right, next one. Open enrollment seat determination. This is something that we do annually.

098Um, and there are, as I can tell, no changes. Uh, regular education seats. I will speak to briefly. We have left those open enrollment seats um um unlimited as far as I know as long as we've been here which just means that any student who would want to open enroll into our school district we would have seen available for that student. Um there are certain uh parameters or as far as likeions from other etc. Um and then Sarah, I'll turn it over to speak to you. You can speak to the special education seats. Yeah. And and nothing has changed from last year. Um so we are not accepting students that are not residents into our district um with active and current IEPs. Um as we do not have the services and supports um to expend

099to students that are not our residents. We do have a waiting list though if we were to ever have for special education seats. Yes. So, we do keep a waiting list. Um, students don't come off the waiting list at this time because we don't have the services and supports, right? We do have to have a resolution according to state law by the end of Yep. So, this month we'll do that resolution. Any questions on that? Same as last year. Well, I understand the special. Is there ever an exception to the rule? If we have zero, that means zero. That is correct. Okay. I was just there cannot be any exceptions made in any sort of cases. Gotcha. Not that I don't And how long has it been zero to anybody's knowledge? As far as last

100year was zero. Yep. I know last year was it was we had I want to say it's been limited in like 18 to 21 year old programming at one point. Um which we were not we are not going to have any openings next year either. But we do all the calculations as we have to every single year and has remained. So this is by no means arbitrary. This is or a business decision. is that this that we've done the math and the math supports these numbers and this is it is what it is. It is what it is and this follows suit with school districts across the state as well. I believe it was probably my first year. I know we had a pretty big open seat allowment and I was a little shocked by

101that and now I think Yeah. Yeah. So good. Okay. Okay. Um yeah. So for resolution Okay. All right. What do we come up with action items from today? So, the resolution for open enrollment seats. Uh the resolution on the RMS course book. Um we are going to uh work through the curriculum policy later this spring. Um we can talk through what those pieces look like. We're going to check on the RMS math credit verbiage. Um, I do believe there's specific board policy that relates to that. So, I'll bring that back as well. I am going to determine how we're going to keep a rain of courses to be reviewed and what that might look like. Um, and then I feel like those are the pieces that I came across. Okay. Anybody else? Lori, Sam, Craig,

102Lori, Sam, Diana, sorry, waiting for Craig to chime in. Diana, I do have one. Yeah, I know in the last Oh, probably couple years, but like specifically in the last couple months, we have back and forth gone back and forth to behaviorals and I just didn't know it's never come here. We've never taken it. We've talked about restorative practices. We talked about what that looks like and I don't know if that's just on the back wagon or if we need another update. Um, you know what I'm talking You know what I'm saying? Like yeah, I'm I'm not I'm not disagreeing with you. I think we did have restorative practices sometime in the past fall. The question is is when is the when is it done or when is it presented to the satisfaction? If it's

103always a work in progress, then I guess I'm not saying that I'm not always interested in an update. The question is is there ever not a time where we wouldn't want an update. I don't know if that's the nature of your question or are you looking for a a definitive answer on where we are or what what's changed or how it's going. Well, I think we just and I don't know if that's part of the I know it's been kind of confusing because we've changed some of our data and I know we've had it at data meetings. We're not doing data meetings if that's something that's going to go once we start digging into the strategic plan. I'm just trying to get a basis like I just don't you know we hear behaviors behaviors behaviors

104but we never do anything about here at least not that we're not doing it you guys are doing it at least not but is there anything is there more supports is there something new is there anything or do we just sit and they'll bring it to us if if needed does that good I I that's I guess what I'm asking like do we need or are we just going to I don't have an answer I guess I don't know what question to ask them to present to me on so I'm I'm leery to ask for an action item or an agenda item if I'm not even sure what I'm interested in. So, I guess can I jump in? Yeah, please do. Um, conversations with Lori and Tina, Tina was very big on the behavior thing

105her entire time on the board. Um, and I know that since my time started on the board, restorative practices has been kind of the answer that has been given for behavior issues. Yet we know that the restorative practices aren't the beall end all to everything. Um but this group has not received anything other than that. Right? Yet we also have seen data coming forward now because we're more data driven talking about expulsions up or down, suspensions up or down, blah blah blah up or down, problems in, you know, HR talks about problems in subretent due to behaviors. All of these things come back to this under and this is kind of what you're getting at. I know this underlying piece about behavior, but the only thing this group has heard has been regarding like the

106restorative practice type things which talks about this piece of it. There's somehat other stuff there. So, I think your question, correct me if I'm wrong, is does this group have an appetite or need to talk about some of the other stuff different than this piece? I would like if we're going to do that, I want it data driven. I don't want it out there and I don't know if we have that yet. Um, but I do know that Sarah has been working a lot with behavioral things. You did present something to us about the behavior plans um things going through that regarding some of the work that's been done. I know that's at the beginning stages this year and I think it might have an appetite for this group whether it be at the beginning

107of the school year, next year, at the end of something an update. How has that plan that you've implemented? How is that going? What have we seen in terms of suspensions, retentions, d um was it a policy I just read that states that I don't need even policy that you know we shouldn't be suspending out of school. So then okay, we have all been accustomed to this happens, it's an out of school suspension. This happens, it's an inschool suspension. But if that has changed, then I think this group would have an appetite to hear what's different. What does that look like? Did I kind of hit your nail? You did. And I know that there are pieces that are are happening. I just, you know, you don't want to just ignore it either. You know

108what I mean? like I I want to make sure that there isn't anything we should be discussing or an update or at least get it on a future calendar or cycle or whatever that looks like and just bringing it forth. You know, like Jenny and Chris and I sat down and went through, you know, data and I know that there's a lot of work being done because things aren't being reported correctly or, you know, in Skyward and it can make things look really mucky. So, we want to make sure that we are not getting lost in the muck. So, what I don't know what I'm asking. I'm asking for discussion and and I'm and I'm appreciative of that. I'm trying to keep us at the right level and that right level is governance, not management.

109And if they choose to change a system by which they want to code an incident, that's a discretion of the administration. It's not a discretion for the board. I'm not suggesting you go down that rabbit hole. I'm saying is that if they are continually improving and and and reviewing their or reviewing and improving their processes for them and and I and I say are you and they say we are and I'm like okay I'm happy. Mhm. Now, when we get cornered on the street or I bumped into a substitute teacher at uh Literatus last week and I got an earful about a kid that he had to teach at Lincoln that was unruly and prevented him from doing his job and he couldn't get a kid out of the classroom and had no what are

110you doing about it? I'm like I'm not doing anything. I'm a board member. You know what? I don't know what you guys are doing about it. I know what I'm not doing anything about. No. And I get that. But you know, even like the vaping, the the drugs, these things like is there something that we need to be doing different? Do we need to get you know, I'm not supposed I but this goes back there are some stuff that we have this is my earlier comment. It's ongoing in which case how often do we need an update on it or only it's not even necessarily an update. It's is there something we we need to do like not necessarily us but that we would have to approve. Um, so I just didn't know. Okay. Maybe

111it's just something you guys should talk about. By no means am I disagreeing with the sentiment. I'm just trying to understand the mechanism by which we Yeah, I don't we we would we we do review it occasionally and I'll say on an as needed basis when there's a new topic or a very specific question. Um, but that doesn't mean that we're always kept a breast of every development because it's more of a it's a pull strategy not a push. They don't. We ask them for information. They bring it to us. It's not, hey, we're going to bring you an update every single quarter. No, I know. But is it possible to get an update, whether it be once a year on a somewhat regular basis from Sarah, for example, about how that process is going,

112at least for the first three years, because what you do year 1 versus year two versus year three, is that an unreasonable ask or is that is there something different? I don't need to answer. I'm just I'm wondering, right? I don't know that that's an unreasonable ask. I don't think so. Um when I was a building level manager, I used to um report on different data, but you would be able to see where things were because um you would receive PBIS medals, right? You'd be notorized as this wonderful, wonderful building. What I will say is right now we are calibrating how we're reporting certain things. We did a lovely exercise at the last time that um the entire cabinet team was together and it was so interesting on how people would um report something in

113Skyward versus what somebody else would and we had some really fun but in-depth discussions on what would we categorize this behavior? What would we then do with this? So we are still working through um some of those calibration pieces because it looks different. the data does by building because of how it's being reported. And then in this Skyward system, which is not perfect by any means, um we can add things or we can take them away. And so we are still in that process. Um I will tell you that um without getting further down the rabbit hole, but the um the buildings have been doing a really really great job in creating those systems. Um that's not true. they've had systems enhancing the systems so that students are having more time learning and less time,

114you know, dealing with other things, which is our goal, right? Our goal is to educate, but our goal is to also educate on soft skills. And when one of our little friends is having a really, really tough time, we have to teach them just like when we have to teach them how to read. Um, and so those are all those multiaceted pieces. Um and just a reminder that um you know you're talking about about vapes and stuff very very interestingly um most of those vapes are coming from parents. So when we talk about what do we do it is a systemic issue of um our kids are getting them at home and they're bringing them on in. And so um not all of them but I would say a huge portion and we need to

115do something systemically um to educate. That was a great update. Yeah. I think that, you know, the thing is is we, you know, we were given the the access to, you know, the the wise dash, you know, which is amazing and I I I love the transparency, but that that can, you know, and without sitting down with Jenny and Chris, like I was losing my mind looking at it. I was like, what are you kidding me? So information is only so good unless we have some discussions on what that looks like and what we're doing with it, right? So that that I guess is where I was kind of like doing the check-in on that like Okay. Uh Craig and Sam first and then Craig question or comment. Um no I was I was going

116to agree with uh what both of you said. A yearly update is not unreasonable at all. I think it's only been about five or six months since we had our last update. However, I think that a periodic discussion by the board about those things, you know, more frequently than yearly is not a bad idea. I I would say not not the board, the committee, I'm sorry. I think that even a quarterly discussion like, hey, what are you guys hearing? What are you guys thinking? having that discussion on ad services would be worthwhile because I think it's something that deserves a little bit more attention from us than just us talking about it once a year and like being like oh well that's how it is because you guys are doing a lot of work but

117I think that we need to be keeping that at the top of our mind and I'll great uh Craig comment also go back to your Sam yeah yeah I um I I can understand the sentiment about governance versus management to an extent And um except for that when that extent reaches to the point where hey listen we put in certain things for governance and uh that is not exactly meeting its expected intention. So, for instance, if if um you know uh behaviors are out of control, at some point the board has to step in and say that this system is broken and that if we're not willing to have a discussion about looking at those things and seeing what we can fix as a board, what needs to change in order for that, then then

118we're not doing either of those jobs well. So, um I I really I really think that we do need to look at those numbers and if a particular uh administrator, for instance, doesn't even if they're not even entering the um information properly into uh Skyward or is even just trying to to dodge that information, uh that can be a problem also. Uh so there's there's more to it than just governance versus management. Uh so some of those things I I'm concerned about as well. To be clear, we do not have any administrators that are not entering information to Skyward. No one is dodging putting in any sort of information. Um we do not have unruly behavior that is overtaking any of our schools. Our students are genuinely um appropriate for their developmental age and capacity.

119Um we do have students that bring in extra they bring in um things that do impede their learning from time to time and so we work with our students through those extra pieces that they have to deal with um as young people. Another com another comment was made um about uh getting students uh as much learning time as possible and and here's the thing I'm not sure what that means really as a board member because does that mean that when when a child goes to the particular office uh they're buddy buddy with the administrator and then gets sent back with a bag of chips to the classroom to immediately when when they should be dismissed from that classroom because of the disruption behavior I don't know what that means. So, I I I would really

120pref appreciate a little bit more specifics behind some of that. Um, and and again, this is where I have I take issue with with some of these some of these comments. I make a suggestion this is not an agenda item and so we have gotten beyond an update and I apologize for contributing what I did to open whatever I might have opened but if this is something that we could put as a future agenda item at some point so we can take a a deep because a lot of great comments it's just and I'm going to that's kind of what all I was and my answer is exact uh Craig I'll agree with your first comment I won't agree with your second Um, as far as uh when it gets into how a principal or

121a building gets a child back into a classroom or back out, that is definitively not the board's uh purview. The success of that strategy is the board. That is the that the success of that strategy is the board's purview. So, um that's why I agree with your first comment, not your second. That being this stated, um Jenny, on a regular basis, you're putting act 20 on your director's report. You're putting other uh miscellaneous efforts on your director's report. Uh can um behaviors andor uh whatever you want to call it, be a standing item on your director's report. That way, it's a director's report. This is what we've done lately. This is what we're changing. This is how the implementation of Skyward is, you know, or changes to Skyward. This is when we might have a

122another wise-lo deep dive, uh, etc., etc., but that way we're revisiting it as necessary as part of a director's report. um not uh not as a full-blown discussion item, but we can certainly kick it to a full-blown discussion item if we have questions about Jenny and or what she's brought up at a director's report on a on a regular basis. And if there's nothing if there's no new current events, then there's no new current events and it doesn't end up on there just like act 20 wouldn't end up on there. And it can look very different K25 high school, you know, you may just need to be like, "Hey, at the high school this is what we're seeing." or hey at elementary this you know because I I don't think they all go into the

123same bowl. I think there can be very different you know right but they'll be at Jenny's discretion and we can ask your questions. Perfect. And we'll just put it in as a director's report. Thank you. I didn't mean to derail. You did but I let you. I was basically saying should it come maybe in the future? It came under future agenda planning. Yes. Thank you. Hi Jackie. Yeah I think. Yeah that's what I called that last night. Uh the um okay the other item I just wanted to follow up on from a past action item was uh summer school in Whitaker and a team we both Diana and Fred had volunteered to do that. We gave Jason really until roughly March 1st. It's January 13th. Um there's an email out about signing up two days.

124Yes. And so I had talked to Lynn briefly last night. Um, I had said I would volunteer if there was no I don't have a problem being there. Do we even need two board members? Do you want two board members there? I was just a suggestion from last month. I have no problem being there. I don't need to be there. I just wanted to make sure there was a board member present. So, we can talk about that outside, you know, right after this. We're working on scheduling those update. It's just that we had we're down to six, seven weeks to get it done by March 1st if that's what Jason felt he needed to do for to be ready for summer school and then report back to ED services in the month of March. But

125I purposefully checked out all of last week. Took my vac and we wondered if we'd hear from you. So I'll follow up with you and Jason. I did he texted me if he could leave after his course book and I asked. So that's why he left. So okay. Any additional future action items? Think we captured most of that. All right. Okay. Am I calling at 907? Yep. Class dismissed. 907.