001If we could reconvene our meeting to open session. The board has been in executive session since 6 o'clock to discuss a legal matter, a student matter, and two personnel issues. Uh if we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all >> introductions. >> Good evening. John McFillips, >> Dave Hurst, >> John Walston, >> Catherine Natto, >> Merith Mayori, Holly Denbos, >> Jody Monroe, >> Lauren Graaso, Cla Lagayu, Rose Pastori, uh, and Bob Teen and Yan McN are unable to be here this evening. Um, do we have any Pig or SUA students visiting us tonight? Welcome. Thanks for coming. Um, you guys need to stay until
002the meeting is over or nine o'clock, whichever one comes first. And don't leave without coming up here and signing out on one of the four signout sheets that are up here. That way you get credit for being here. Uh first up is our approval of minutes. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the minutes from the April 1st, 2026 regular board meeting. >> Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Uh next are meeting reports and first is our superintendent report. >> Sure. Thanks. Uh just a quick reminder for uh UPK registration that is open and registration is open through May 1st. Um if we need to hold the lottery uh that will be held on May 13th and then parents will be notified after that.
003So we do have a good number of people who've registered so far but I know there's some who haven't yet. So May 1st is a deadline to be concluded as part of the lottery. And to provide an update to the board on the special ed analysis that Alliance Education Association has been doing. Uh they did complete the majority of the interviews uh with staff uh and families. I believe there's some that are still being conducted with related service providers. Uh they're also doing an analysis of some of our transportation and Medicaid analysis which they're working on currently. And there will be a um survey that's sent out to parents of students uh for in the next I think by the end of this week it should go out and I believe they have until around
004May 1st to complete that. It'll be open for a couple of weeks for everyone who wants to. So, uh, we anticipate that a final report will be done maybe by the end of the year, but the alliance group will be, uh, here in the fall in September to present to the board of education and a final report will be available to the public. So, that's all I have for this evening. >> Super. Uh, next is the board report. Um, and just very quickly, um, >> Oh, did you ask a question? >> Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, Jody, I' I've gotten some questions from uh parents who were curious about this coming year school calendar. Um, and I was just wondering if you could speak a
005little bit to the half days at the elementary school. Um, and how we kind of come to the decision of half days versus full days or how we do um I I believe these are for the parent teacher conferences, right? And how do we make those decisions and how's that all factored in? >> So, the parent teacher conferences are done in the fall. There's three half days scheduled. They are contractual. Uh they were reduced. We used to have them in the spring as well. Uh but part of the reason for doing the half days is we do need um in order to count days for state aid purposes, the uh students have to be in attendance for a certain amount of time. So if we had um days where students were not here at all,
006we couldn't count those days. in elementary generally is always shorter on days than the secondary schools because of the way their school year they actually end a little bit sooner because of the work the teachers have to do in their classroom. So um part of it is the half days are contractual and then also we need to have some of those days count as instructional days. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions uh for the board report? Um, I just wanted to uh just flag for everybody that NISBA sent around their resolutions toolkit. Um, if anyone is interested in taking a look through that um to see the results of the survey that they sent around um and just to see the sort of the process for that. Um, does anyone have
007anything else from the board that they wanted to share? >> Can I ask you a question on that? Is this the is this the time of year when NISPA starts appro does the massive meetings for position approval and like the all the various res kicking off that process. >> This is kicking off that process. So that meeting is usually in October, >> right? >> Um sort of mid-occtober and that's when they do they vote on all of the proposed resolutions. this is kicking off. What resolutions do different districts want to propose? Um and or which um are some uh positions that are expiring that might want to be extended. >> Thank you. >> Um for our student reports in the high school, >> senior scholarships and junior awards were recently due. There's still some outstanding
008senior scholarships being offered to the school that can be completed. So, current seniors should look at the scholarship website put together by Miss Westervelt. Seniors also have the opportunity to submit a speech for graduation and signatures need to be turned in by April 21st and then the speeches are due by May 3rd. Also, students at BCHS have started a fundraising effort to renovate the garden and courtyard and dedicated to Madame Matala, beloved French teacher who passed away last fall. The courtyard will be made next to the counseling center. And this project was organized by the peer helpers club, environmental club, and student senate as a way to honor her impact on the school community. The idea behind the courtyard also comes from Madame Matala's wish to see more trees planted and to create a space
009where people can come together. If you want to donate, you can do it online through my school bugs or through checks and all donations will go towards the courtyard renovation memorial bench for honor and any extra funds will support the Madame Tala Global Citizens Award Scholarship. A dedication ceremony will be held once everything is finished. Great. >> Is there a deadline to submit funds? I didn't see that >> is around like two weeks. >> Oh, okay. >> So, yeah. >> And is that that information has that gone out? >> Yeah, it was posted today. >> Okay. Um and also I'm just wondering if there's a way uh for it to reach some of our alumni families. >> It's on Facebook al so it went out okay the apparent square I believe and also is on
010Facebook. Okay. So that would probably be the best way for alumni if they're on the following Bethlehem schools. It's there. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um, do we have anybody from the middle school here tonight? >> Okay. Um, and then I think we have some friends from Hamigrail. And before they get started, I totally forgot to say at the very beginning, thank you to Hamigrail for having us here tonight. We're excited to host you. I'll be up here very briefly because the stars of the show are up here, but I know at the last board meeting uh there was a presentation on uh the bookworms ELA program we're using and I thought it'd be great to have some fifth graders come and talk about some experiences they've had with the program and show off the
011incredible work they're doing. So, I'll introduce Nina, Braden, and Sana and they're going to take it away. Project overview. Civil rights research paper. Over the past several weeks, fifth grade students completed accumulating research project on the civil rights movement. They explored important people, events, and issues connected to the fight for equality and justice. Through this work, students developed a deeper understanding of how these historical moments continue to shape our world today. What students did the writing process. Students followed a structured writing process beginning with selecting a topic and gathering information from multiple sources. They organized their ideas and drafted informative essays with clear introductions, supporting paragraphs, and conclusions. Throughout the process, they revised and edited their work to strengthen clarity, organization, and accuracy. With this research, students pretended to be reporters in the time periods
012of the civil rights movement. Skills and learning highlights. Through this project, students strengthen their ability to research, organize information, and write using evidence. We learned how to clearly communicate ideas while developing a deeper understanding of civil rights and its impact. This works help build independence, critical thinking, and confidence as writers. My essay was about um the Montgomery bus boycott and Martin Luther King Jr. Here's an excerpt. African-Ameans in the South know that they are dealing with discrimination and segregation. Black people and white people are separated because of their race. Black people have lower quality restrooms, restaurants, and even houses. Some white people have bombed black churches and important buildings. An example is the 16th Street church bombing which killed four little girls who were attending Sunday school. A handful of others were blinded and injured.
013My excerpt is um a sports announcer after Jackie Robinson's first game. Let's flash back to this article in 1947 where Jackie Robinson changed the game for black athletes fighting for their rights. Today we're here at Ebott's Field Field where the Brooklyn Dodgers just took on the Boston Braves. Where Jackie Robinson made his first ever MLB debut. The moment Jackie stepped on the field, it was pure chaos. There was cha trash thrown at him and a lot not a lot of very nice words. It was three to three at the bottom of the ninth inning. Jackie Robinson was up was up with one man on and hit an absolute monster out of the park to win the game for the Dodgers. It was a good day for the 14,000 black people in the stands of Everett
014Field. My essay is about the Montgomery bus boycott and Claudet Culvin. You all probably know of Rosa Parks who got arrested on December 1st, 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on the bus. You all know of her, but have you ever heard of Cladette Culvin? Probably not, right? Well, Claudet is a big part of the Montgomery bus boycott that you probably missed. Claudet Kovven is a 16-year-old girl who was just like Rosa Parks. Claudet is a nurse aid and a junior in high school. On March 2nd, 1955, 15year-old Claudet refused to give up her seat on the bus just nine months before Rosa Parks. She and three other black women were sitting next to her. And when a white woman entered the bus, two of the women left to go to the back,
015but Claudette and a pregnant woman refused to give up their seats. Cladette was arrested and fined $10. Culvin was charged with violating segregation laws and disturbing the peace. Police officers boarded the bus and forcibly removed her. This all happened when she was just 15 years old. Glad Coven was a big part of the civil rights movement and the Montgomery bus boycott. After the bookworms presentation, we now invite everyone here to go down to the fifth grade hallway and read all of the fifth grade civil rights essays. Thank you so much. Do you three want to come up here for a second? >> I would love to give you a pin for coming. >> Nice job speakers. >> Thank you so much. Um, and next on our agenda tonight is our presentation on MTSS. And our
016um, hammer friends, you are welcome to stay, but if you would like to go home, you can do that, too. >> I'll see you guys. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. >> Hi Jen. >> I'm Jen Spila, the director of MTSS and I want to introduce um who's with me up here tonight. We have Ian Knox of course, principal of Hamrail, Katherine Howell, who is our um SEAL behavioral coach, and Allison Heer, who you know from our last meeting, who is our >> I had so much fun, I had to. >> Yes. So, we are here to provide an update for MTSS for all of you. So, as you know, MTSS, multi-tered systems of support, is a data-driven framework. And this framework is designed to support the whole student and that means in academics, behavior
017and social emotional areas. Our goal is that every student has an opportunity to learn at high levels and we want to identify students early, intervene quickly so that we can close gaps in any deficit areas. Um our we have a district steering committee and that committee is made up of representatives and stakeholders all across the district K8 and the purpose of this uh committee is to ensure that infrastructure resources and vision are consistent across the district and we meet four times a year. Um, we use data and feedback to determine the impact of our programming on student learning. And it also is used this feedback and all of our work together helps us determine where we want to focus our efforts and resources. And we also come up with district goals aligned with our strategic
018goals of the district. And um, that is kind of summarizing a quick overview of the work of the district committee. Okay, take a slide. Okay. So, as you know, we uh had requested this year to add an additional 2.0 reading teachers and I wanted to talk a little bit about how that decision was made and how that's going to impact our students moving forward. So, um we our goal is to take benchmark information for all students. So, we do our additional wide screening of everyone and then from that point we want to narrow that focus. So we eventually get from okay, what can all of our students do and then we look a little bit deeper into the skill areas of need for students and then from there we want to be able to design
019interventions for all students and then see how that intervention is going. We want to intervene as early as possible so we have an opportunity to close the gap instead of waiting for the students to show that they have deficits. So allowing by having these two additional reading teachers that will allow us for better integration between our identified students so that all of our students are working together in groups. Um and we can really group students by need and that allows us also to take a current specialized reading and align it all under one system. We also through this model and the addition of the teachers are can better provide a progression of intensity where we're really servicing students um heavily and intensely at K2 so that we can really build those foundational skills for them
020and adding this additional FTE allows us to be able to do that within our model. Um, also it's it allows us to increase our ability to be flexible with student grouping by having this integrated model under one system for our identified students who had previously been getting specialized reading in a separate area. Now we're all together. So students are integrated and it gives us that flexibility to be be more responsive in exactly what we're targeting in those students and be able to reform those groups every four to six weeks to make sure that our targeted instruction is matching their skill deficit. Okay, next slide. So, in addition to that, we also did request an additional instructional coach, and I wanted to invite our two coaches here tonight to give you a little more detail into
021what their work is like on a day-to-day basis, and they would be the best people to talk about that. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Sure. >> Um, all right. So the goal of instructional coaching and uh social emotional behavioral coaching is that every child has access to high quality instruction and that we're building really supportive environments within the classroom. We're thinking about student well-being and engagement. Um the key message to know about coaching is that it's conducted in collaboration with teachers. It's not a separate process that a teacher goes through or that a teacher does. It's something that we do with a teacher. It's a lot of brainstorming. It's a lot of um trying different strategies together to improve student outcomes. So, I know I was with you at the last meeting and I
022talked a lot about my role with lab classroom and that is more of what I would consider technical coaching because when you're technically coaching that's working on the implementation of a program which is bookworms but typically Katherine and I um are more student focused coaching and we do cycles which are called student focused coaching cycles and the most important part of that is where it says student focused. So, we look at data and we look at how students are performing. We will go into classrooms and we will observe. We're not observing the teacher and teaching. Typically, we're observing the classroom and the students to see what's going on with them. And then after we do that, we meet with teachers and we take a deep dive. I will probably look at um formative assessments or
023things like that with the teacher. Um listen to their feedback about what they're seeing in the classroom. Uh Katherine will do the same in terms of a behavioral perspective and see what's going on with either one, two children in the room. Um and then we come up with a goal, something that we're going to work on. That goal is always going to be tied to a standard. So we'll think of a goal that we want, tie that to a standard, and then we develop a plan. And again, as Katherine said, we are partners with the teacher. So we are not experts going in and telling the teacher, "This is your goal, and this is what we need to do for the next four to six weeks, we problem solve that together. So, we come up
024with a goal and then we implement that. Um, an implementation can look different based on what we're doing. For me, I may be going in and observing. I may be modeling a lesson. We may co-e a lesson together. And then a cycle is typically four to six weeks. So, within that time frame, I would be working with usually a group of teachers. We meet um at least once a week if not more than that to see how the students are doing. Do we need to adjust the goal? Do we need to do something different in order to do that? Um and that's the reflect and adjust. We look at their lesson. We look at our lessons. We look at the student work. And then after that four to six weeks, we see did we meet
025our goal? Um and hopefully that's what our goal is is to do that. And um the success is not how do we feel, what do we think, it's by evidence. So we always usually have some sort of post assessment to take a look and see what they did. And that's really what we do in our jobs with cycles. Um cycles are always determined like I said on student data and seeing what we see in the classrooms as well as teacher feedback. >> Am I missing anything? I talked a lot about academic but yeah. Okay. So in as I started off talking about our district committee, we also have committees at each building site and Ian is going to talk about um the work that's done at the building level. >> Yeah. So the role of
026a principal is it varies dayto day and I think one of the most important things we can do as uh building leaders is be a bridge between district level initiatives and our teachers and faculty and staff who are working with the kids. Um, so I take that role really seriously and I think it's I'm a part of the district MTSS committee as all the principles are. Um, so we find it's really important work that we're bringing back a message and we're trying to live it with our teachers each and every day. And I also think having really strong relationships with the individuals up here um really helps because I'm able to allocate resources and understand expertise um and really can be a huge bridge between the district's goals, our building goals and really serving teachers
027that are you know strapped their stress dayto day. So it's uh important work. Um so how are we being responsive? We have a building team here at Hammerrell. All buildings have a team. Uh our team consists of a very group of members. is our coordinated care team is on the team. Our school psych, our social worker, and our counselor, as we said, uh behavior is under the umbrella of MTSS. It's important they're at the table. We have a rep from a K2 perspective and a grade three through five perspective just in case uh just to make sure we have that lens at the table. Related service providers such as speech pathologist or occupational therapist uh on our team is our speech pathologist is on our building team. Um, we also have a special education teacher
028who has a great perspective on um, curriculum, but also um, developmental needs that kids have, certainly behavioral needs that we may be experiencing. And then Jen joins us at our building meetings and those are standing meetings we have once a month and those are agenda driven by uh, this year primarily we focused on building our team really ensuring that we're on the same page in terms of what are what is our goal as a team? how do how are we responsive to the teachers in our building when they're concerned about something and really just looking at student data holistically. We've had some really great sessions this year uh doing some data re review with both Katherine and Allison and Jen taking a deep dive as a building and looking at our student data both in
029I Ready and other avenues and also through Sabers which is actually was one of our better sessions we had two weeks ago is looking at our student data holistically as a building on this behavioral tool we use a screener we use and really like making a game plan for how we're going to have touch points with the teachers to check in about the students who maybe scored with a concerning level or maybe the teacher scored them with a concerning level. You know, a lot of times teachers are doing these things and there's no followthrough of like what are we doing with this data? And these meetings provide an opportunity to make a game plan for how we're going to be responsive to student needs. And that's just ongoing work. And aside from that monthly meeting
030we have every month, we also meet to be responsive to teachers. If they have a concern about a student academically or behaviorally, we schedule those uh when they come up. So, where do teachers go when they have a concern? I am the point person for that. And there's a process for filling out a principal interview. We go through kind of what their concerns are. Have they contacted the parent about their concern? Have they touched um one p important piece is have they collaborated with a colleague who may have expertise in this um in this particular concerned area. Um that's really something we want to really help leverage is is really looking at the expertise in the building and how do we leverage that more. Um so we fill out a principal u interview and then
031we schedule a meeting. um all the individuals that I talked about at that building once a month team meeting don't necessarily go to a meeting. If there's a concern about math fact fluency for instance, I probably don't need my social worker at that meeting. And so it really is just a kind of a think tank. Okay, who could really bring expertise to the table to help think of an intervention that we could provide this teacher? Um, and so that's kind of an ad hoc time where I will reach out to the team and say, "Hey, we have a concern in math. Who's available to meet and we will meet together and create a plan for that teacher?" Um, so that's kind of how we're being responsive as a building. Um, we're trying to align ourselves
032with our district goals while also being uh very responsive to specific buildings. Um, so it's kind of mirroring those two things. Go ahead, and future goals and next steps. I think that we actually are at the at the forefront of MTSS in the capital region in terms of where we are. Uh we've done a lot of really great things. We are still um growing and learning as we go. Um we recently had a subcommittee meeting from our district committee to talk about a goal, a tangible goal for next year that we could uh roll out to everyone. And so I think we meet in a few weeks to talk to our district team about that goal. We're really going to be focused on data integration and boosting subgroup performance. Uh spec specifically in my building,
033we have a large special education population. Um and we're so fortunate to have the extra reading support in my building where our students from our self-contained foundations programs are receiving reading support from a reading teacher. In the past, that wasn't the case. And we're seeing really amazing benefits both just from students growth, but also just parent feedback, how excited they are for that. but really want to continue to boost performance of our subgroups. Um, and that aligns perfectly with the district mission and goals. Um, like I said, the reading support has been a huge uh piece and boost and we're excited to see that continue to grow next year. One thing and the misconception, I think Jen mentioned this and I mentioned in the beginning is this whole child approach. I think a lot of
034times that there is this idea that academics are the only thing we can be talking about, but truly if there's a behavioral issue, there's probably an academic issue that goes with it. if there's a student who is maybe chronically absent, um there could be some uh risk factors for um struggling academically or behaviorally. So really, we want to come to the table and sure, yes, we're talking about math facts, but we're really going to talk about the whole child and make sure that we responsive to them. And then we're excited to expand the coaching support. I mean, I can't tell you how valuable it is to have Katherine and Allison in my building. Um they are not observers. They're not judging teachers. And frankly, there's some days I don't even know they're in classrooms working
035with teachers, but they are a resource that our teachers find so valuable and they're so knowledgeable. We're really thankful for that support uh to increase next year. So, those are some future goals and next steps. And I think with that, if there's any questions, uh we'll move to you. >> Sure. Thank you. Um, you know, I had one question and I can see how you can measure success with respect to academic goals that you're trying to achieve for a particular student. How do you measure success with respect to a behavioral goal? >> Um, it's it's it's difficult. It's a softer skill. Um, but we do sometimes we tally behavior if we're talking about an individual student. Um uh if we're talking about transitions, we can see how long a transition might take. Um we look
036at Sabers's data which has um emotional risk, academic risk, and social risk. Um and uh and then there is also the anecdotal side of it. Uh where we're we might be using information gathered from a counseling session or from a group session. We do um exit tickets when our lessons. So that's just some of the ways Thank you. Other questions? >> Catherine, >> I'm just curious. It sounded um one of the things that came through from the presentation was that being responsive to the data that you're getting and and I'm curious as well is is this happening from the other direction? Are there teachers saying like, hey, like can we brainstorm something? How does it work from lat level? And there we have only so many um coaches. How do you all do the work
037of >> of so many people? >> That's why we asked for more. One of the reasons no I can say we do uh a combination of things. So we do an overall kind of health check of each building. Okay. So after we do a benchmarking at the beginning of the year, we take all of those students and there's no need for teachers to come and say I'm worried about this student. they're already kind of proactively folded into our response, right? So, if we notice that a student has demonstrated a need in a particular area of reading or a particular area of math, we already have a plan to intervene with them uh from our Sabers data at the end of this year and also we track, you know, attendance concerns as well. We know those
038going into the beginning of the year next year. So we can kind of be proactive and okay, we've got a group of students that we're going to need to really discuss and have eyes on and build plans for. We already know that's the known. And then as the year goes on, we're progress monitoring students that are already in the system, so to speak, to see if they're making adequate progress. And then often teachers will say, "Okay, well, I have other students maybe that weren't folded into that initial group, and I might need some help there." So Ian kind of referenced that we have a space where we can go to you can call it a think tank or an intervention team and that's where we would look at the whole child and decide who needs
039to be at the table and that starts with the building principal by asking the teacher okay what are what are you concerned about is it primarily academic are there attendance needs and then whoever is invited to that kind of think tank to brainstorm solutions for the student and develop an intervention plan is invited there and that's how we come up with setting a goal for the student how we're going to track it how we want to involve families and then how we're going to know if it's working or not. >> So, it's kind of ongoing in both directions. >> Um I'll add just because the social emotional piece is a little bit different. So, um four days of the week and in one building there's two. There's coordinated care team meetings each morning from somewhere
040between 8 and 9. So, I help run those meetings. So, I'm in a different building each day. Yeah. Each day. And so, teachers know that, you know, Friday is my Glenmont day. And so I'll get emails from teachers saying, "Oh, hey, can you stop by my room? I want to talk about something." So it it it does flow both ways and it it works really well that way. The only that fourth day is tricky. I have to alternate the hammock and eagle, but we we figure it out. >> Thank you. I am I'm so grateful for the resources that you all provide. What a like what a cool program and what a great asset. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do you have any questions? Um yeah, what grades um is our current MTSS
041um structure covering? And if if it doesn't go to high school, what are we doing to support um kids as they transition to high school? >> That's a great question. So MTSS, the committee covers K8, >> so elementary and middle, and then the high school has separate systems that are kind of run through the department and the counseling center. and they have kind of a different approach because intervention looks really different at high school than it does at K8. Uh there's also attendance committees that meet regularly to you know go through behavioral data and attendance needs for the students. So >> yeah. >> Um and I think this probably follows on that question but going in the opposite direction. Do we what kinds of um how do you help when the kids are moving from
042elementary school to middle school because that's going to be that's a transition as well. >> Yes. So um I'm the point person for all the buildings. So I meet with the middle school we call them AIS providers or academic intervention services. They have a very robust program at the middle school as well. And when we transition from fifth to sixth, I have the endofear data to be able to say these are the students that we need to be looking at the these are the students who have plans moving forward that we need to make sure that we know. We also can recommend students for a grow program or those academic intervention services at different frequencies. Some need to be seen every day, some need to be seen less regularly depending on their area of need.
043So we're in contact at multiple points throughout the year, but we kind of have a big transition at the end of the year to make sure that we again are being proactive for those students. We know what we are what's coming in so we can plan for them and then we meet to say do we still need that level of service? Do we need to increase? Do we need to decrease? Um depending on what the student needs. >> The counseling department does something similar to there. the middle school counselors meet with the not only the fifth grade teachers but meet with the elementary counselors to make sure that if we have a social emotional behavioral intervention in place that the middle school team is aware of it too. >> And our educ system is it's
044all in there. So any forms or interventions that have been planned for the student live with that student in that system. So you can view previous years interventions and see how the student responded and we can see data if the student's been with us since kindergarten. By the time they're you can see it all the way through and how the students progressed over time. >> Great. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Is there like a milestone point where you want to get a student to and then they may not be part of the MTSSO system or is it once they're kind of in they're kind of monitored throughout? How does that how does that work? >> Yeah. So, I think what you're asking is once you're in and we know that you've got needs
045and we're addressing those, how do you get out? Right. So, we have uh different data cycles. We have five built into a year where we're coming together and reviewing how that student progressed. Uh once you're kind of in this framework, students are progress monitored often every week. If it's an academic need and if it's um social emotional behavior, sometimes it takes a little longer for us to see the impact of the intervention. But we're meeting to check in on those students and determine again what intensity is needed. Can we back off a little bit to see how the student is is doing? Are they ready to be released back to just core instruction? Do we need to increase that service? Do we need to look at other areas? So, for instance, if a student we're
046noticing is struggling with reading and oh, they've made really great progress, they can be dismissed from intensive reading services, they may now have a need that shows up in another area like writing or math. So we might we would want to tailor that more specifically to the student. And progress monitoring regularly really allows us to know exactly how much progress that students made and how we need to tailor it to make sure that it's impactful. So if it's not working, we need to either have a different intervention or have the team come back together to brainstorm how we can either change the intervention to make sure that it matches the need intensify or sometimes we might want to roll it back but keep an eye on the student to see if they're able to kind
047of on their own a bit. >> Thank you. >> Just to reiterate like FTSS sometimes is misconceived as like a service given to a child from outside the classroom and we have small group blocks set up in all of our classrooms where teachers are meeting regularly every day with small groups of kids. And so a student might be in like a tier 2 intervention with their teacher only. And so they're not necessarily getting a service from a reading provider or say a social worker. They could be getting that service from their teacher just based on where they are on a part of their curriculum where they might need support. So a lot of times we just think that the p they're being pulled out for reading they're in this MTSS system truly any student just
048needing extra support in a particular standard could be getting that support just within their classroom setting. >> Yeah. No, I I mean I think it's phenomenal. I guess my other question is and it's probably hard to do. How do you with different schools having different needs? How do you try to keep some type of consistency or is that just kind of a a secondary concern because you really just focus on trying to find the best need for for each student? >> I would say depending on what the need is, we do have certain criteria to determine how intense of a service that you need. So, um I can speak to reading because you know we're asking for additional. So, regardless of your identified status, okay, our goal is all students are part of this MTSS
049system. So, it's not just for students that struggle. It's for all core instruction, even for, you know, allowing a student extension time. So, we've built in these small group blocks. We don't call them intervention blocks because it's not just for strugglers. It really is a time for teachers to provide targeted instruction what area, whatever area that student needs. Um, and we have to do it frequently and check in often so we know how those students are accessing. So we, you know, for our identified students, we've got a highly qualified reading team and we have a high highly qualified special education team and they work in tandem to make sure that all of those areas are included for that student. So the communication collaboration is really important as well as from the behavioral side often you
050can have more than one area that you're focused on. So, it's important that we check in often to build plans to see are they making adequate progress and if not, how are we going to be proactive to be able to address that? >> One more question. Any idea like what the percentage has been of kids who get involved in MTSS and the supports you you provide are are adequate without them having to go to the next level being involved in like a special education program. >> Sure. Our goal is to be able to provide as much intensity as we can. Like I said, all of our we every student is a general education student first. So if we're providing an intensity of our intervention and instruction, you can get the most intensive reading service and
051not yet be identified. And anything that is added from a special education side would be added to what the students already getting, not a replacement board for. Okay. So we would ask ourselves, okay, we've got the reading, intensive reading piece, intensive math. Then does the student need specially designed instruction within the classroom environment to supplement that? And that would look more scaffold and supports to be able to allow the student to access that grade level content um in their in their area. But one thing, John, my one of the things that with some of the new curriculum and with the additional reading support um and interventions, the goal would be that we would see less kids being referred and identified for special education services. So we would see that over time. For example, if our
052classification rate, for example, at the elementary level tends to hover around >> anywhere from 12 to 14%. It would be great if we see with the additional interventions and with the more focused and targeted instruction that that these guys have been talking about that if that percentage were to drop to 10% or 11% then that would demonstrate that the instructional changes we made in this targeted interventions were actually getting kids to where they need to be. So, we're not actually referring that >> because there is a lot of research that shows students who have IEPs who are labeled um generally have less success academically throughout their career in school. So, the goal is to get them the intervention early, close that gap so they're not actually referred for special education services. So we definitely have
053the data in regards to how many students have been identified percentage-wise out of the student population over many years. Hopefully we would see those percentages go down with the level of supports we're providing. >> Yeah, it's great. So there's not like a timeline like oh they've been involved in MTSS for nine months and now they have like we can keep on tracking things and just working with them to try to help them to achieve the greatest success. Right? >> There's no time limit. as long as the student needs it. So if they need that intense level of support, say it looks like the student has significant needs in that area, we continue to do that. When it becomes a question, do we need to start considering it if it is a true disability? Then we
054we're able to say that, you know, we haven't noticed that the gap has closed despite all these things that we're doing. So we can say it's not a deficit skill, it's looking more disabilities. Great. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Next is our recognition of public comment on an agenda item. If we have any visitors who would like to address the board on an agenda item, now would be the time to connect to the microphone. Uh, next item six, action items. A, finance action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following finance action items one and two. >> So, second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. B. Professional personnel
055action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following professional personnel action items one through seven. >> So moved >> second. >> Uh any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. And I just want to flag that by our action this evening, we have appointed Laura Rosa as our interim director of special education and Sarah Ler as our interim assistant director of special education. Um, and I don't know if you guys want to just come and say hi. >> Since you're here, >> I'm Laura Rosa. Thank you so much for this opportunity. We're so excited to be working together and especially after the MTSS uh presentation because we've been working closely with Jen now for a couple of years and and her folks and
056we're really excited for what we've been working on, but a lot of things just coming to fruition and supporting our students. So, I'm really super excited and thrilled. So, thank you for this opportunity. >> Absolutely. I'm Sarah Ler. Um, I've been working within the reading department and um, special ed prior to that for 26 years now. Um, and I can bring a lot of that expertise and experience to this position specifically while we're kind of going through this brand new process that is um, going to just fine-tune what we've got going on that's already good. >> So, thank you again for the opportunity. >> Thank you. >> Uh, C, support personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following support staff action items one through eight. >>
057So move second. >> Uh any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries? D. Other action items? It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following action item number one. Uh any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Item seven, recognition of public comment on a non-aggenda item. Um, at this time, if we have any visitors who would like to address the board on a non-aggenda item, now would be the time to come to the microphone. Item eight, future meetings and events. Um, on Monday, April 27th at six o'clock, um, in the district office, we have a policy committee meeting. Um, on Wednesday, April 29th at, um, are we doing 8:15? It says 8:15. Said 8. You want to do 8.
058What's better for everyone? >> 8:15. >> 8. At 8:15, we are having a special um 8:15 a.m. I should say, we are having a special board of education meeting um because we need to uh address the the Bosey's budget um at that time. Um and then on Wednesday, May 6th is our next regularly scheduled board meeting. Um and that is back at the high school anticipating an executive session uh at 6 and reconvening to open session at 7. And I would just say um Claire and Rose, I don't think you're required to go to the 8:15. >> You guys do not need to be there. >> They have to go to class. >> You guys got to go. I didn't even think about that, but yes, you do not need to be there. >> Yes,
059please go to class >> or come late. Come >> or is it Are you later than that? >> Yeah, maybe now. Um, seeing no need to go into exe back into executive session, could I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So moved. Second. >> Uh, all in favor? I. Meeting adjourned. And, um, our pig supera students, don't forget to