001y that Kathleen oh sorry I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all where is she where' Casey go would she hear at all we started well if she was here then went to the bathroom went good okay yep okay all right well we'll go ahead and can I get a motion to approve uh the meeting agenda Item B all motion can I get a second any discussion all those in favor okay okay I'm going to ask for a moment of silence for Dr St flurry Board of Education member from 2006 to 2012 who passed away just recently okay thank you sad news for sure um item c community open form do we have
002any blue cards no no blue cards okay on to item d special presentations to the board Mr Smith chy Smith yep special education all right so I'm gonna give a little bit of overview of what um our department um includes and then we'll go through some of the pieces of what kind of services we have for our students so our department includes um students with disabilities students with IEPs um we also include preschool special education um that's students who are ages 3 through five and for that piece we coordinate with the county which for our district includes Three Counties um as well as preschool agencies they do the evaluations and then preschool related services and programming um for special education programming we also have students in our upk program who receive services from the agencies
003such as speech OT PT things like that um it also includes students with 504 plans so that's a student um who has a disability that impacts their life functioning it impacts um their learning in some way shape or form but they may not necessarily need um special education teacher services to provide support for it they may need classroom accommodations test accommodations things like that our department also includes um students and foster care so we coordinate with the county um when students are coming coming to us from a foster care placement we work with the county on what's called a best interest determination meeting um where we meet with the previous school district and then with us and then the county official to determine which school district is the most appropriate for the student to attend
004and then we also work with the athletic department on Unified sports and Special Olympics which for Sugo County it's called oi so sgo County Olympiad Invitational this is a brief overview of our numbers for students with disabilities um which would be students with IEPs the preschool special education numbers students with 504 plans and then students um who currently have foster care in terms of Staffing for our department we have 40 special education teachers um we have related service providers and that includes occupational therapy physical therapy and speech therapy services um School psychologists are also included in our department we currently have nine which includes one intern as well we have 128 teaching assistants and that's districtwide and then our office staff has two clerical and then myself and another administrator in terms of the programs
005and services we offer for our students we have direct and indirect consultant teacher Services direct consultant teacher means that we have a special education teacher who pushes into a general education class to support to support A specific group of students with disabilities indirect consultant teacher Services is a special education teacher working with a general education teacher on what kind of classroom accommodations they can provide um or how they can support students in their work we also have integrated co- teing Services um we have that grades 1 through 8th and at the elementary level we have it in ela and math and at the middle school level we also have it in science and social studies in addition to ELA and math that looks like a special education teacher pushing in and teaching with the general
006education teacher during those core subject areas we have 15 to1 programming that means there's up to 15 students in a class with one teacher um and then if students also have teaching assistance we have that as well at the elementary level we have that in grades four and five we call it the bridges program that's housed at a Cole Elementary and students from any of our elementary buildings Brewerton Hawk um Hastings if they qualify for the 15 to1 class um they also can go to this program it's not just for Cole students at the secondary level we have 15 to1 programming um in grades 6 through 12 as well at the middle school we have Ela and math and at the high school we also have in addition to ELA math science and social studies
007this is typically students who are functioning two to three grade levels below what their peers are functioning in terms of their reading skills or math skills things like that we also have what we call the foundations program and that's 121 3+1 so it's up to 12 students in a class a special education teacher and then up to four teaching assistants as well um we have two classes at Hastings Elementary for this um and we try to group them with k12 and then 34 five um we have a middle school class that is combined grades um 6 78 and then a high school class as well um these are students that are often on a track of alternate assessment as opposed to um taking like the New York State 3 through eight math and Ela and
008science assessments or Regents exam um not always but typically that's the profile of the students um that we have in that class we also teach life skills to them in terms of when they're going to graduate from high school what that can look like for work study skills um we have students who come down to the district office once a week um that are like quote unquote selling us like coffee or tea to learn how to do that interaction how to do the math things like that we have adaptive physical education K through 12 these are often students in our foundations class not always but typically it is and that's physical education adapted to a level um that's appropriate for their learning level we also have um in District occupational Physical Therapy speech therapy um
009we have counseling that's provided by both our school psychologists or social workers and school counselors and then we contract out for some students for music therapy and what that looks like is it's typically students in our foundations class who have limited um communication skills and music therapy helps enhance how they can communicate and how long they can communicate for um out of District placements that we can refer students to um for bosis programming they bosis has an Autism um design class A Behavior Support class they also have a day treatment class which that's um a mental health based class um we also contract with ocm Bose for a DEA and heart of hearing class we have a student who attends there um and then we also contract contct with bosies if a student needed like
010teacher of the de Services teacher the visually impaired um in addition to we have some students who are in residential programs the referral process to an outof District placement um it looks like we start with the least restrictive environment first that's what we're required to start with um there's extensive data collection involved we have numerous team meetings if it's a behavior-based class or a day treatment type program um a functional Behavior assessment must be completed and a behavior intervention plan in place for a minimum of six to eight weeks prior to us referring to the bosis program um we also do program tours with um students and families prior to us placing them there to be sure it's a good fit for bosis but also a good fit for our families and students a big
011piece of what we also do in our office is manifestation determination meetings and what that means is it's a meeting to determine if when a student breaks the code of conduct or has a referral um that they didn't file the code of conduct we have a meeting to talk about is that related to their disability was it caused by that um if it is determined that it's related to their disability we would determine is a suspension appropriate for every manifestation that is is connected to a student's disability we have to follow that up with a CSE meeting and then determine if a functional Behavior assessment and behavior intervention plan are needed and then have another meeting to review that as well so it's kind of a three-prong piece to that can you stay on that
012for a second because I think it's important that it's said many many times in public space when the State education department changed that rule within a few years ago that a student with an i AP 504 has already accumulated 10 suspension days that they they require manifestation hearing and the only way around that is if whatever they did resulted in serious injury drugs or weapons so when something happens in the classroom that doesn't fall into those three buckets what is the process in assembling the manifestation hearing that the people around it just so people know that can't happen at the drop of a hat sure so that it happens I don't want to say daily but multiple times a week I would say so it happened this morning um where a student had a referral
013but he's over 10 days of suspension so they contact me they have to pause before they they can't suspend they have to pause and contact me first to set up a meeting I set up a meeting as soon as possible a manifestation is I think the only meeting that you don't require a 5-day notification all CSE meetings do require a 5-day notification with the exception of a manifestation um so I have to assemble um whoever is on that student's team so if it's a student with an IEP we have the school counselor the social worker if they're providing counseling services to that student um we also have a special education teacher a general education teacher a principal um that's part of the referral piece and if the student had related services that we think could
014impact um the referral that they have um if it's a 504 student we have the school counselor we have the general education teacher um the school psychologist is at both of those meetings either 504 or csse meeting um and I chair all the the manifestation determination meetings so just so everyone can hear that when a student breaks code of conduct there's a massive disruption to all of those other students that that would have been their gen ed teacher that would have been their special ed teacher all of those things things now have to get disrupted so that we can comply with New York State's making us to comply before we can suspend for behavior that anyone else would have been suspended for correct if they're over 10 suspensions and they have an IEP or a
015504 thank you um so like I said if it's determined that it's connected we have to have another meeting after that to talk about um if there's any deficiencies in the IEP or anything that needs to be updated or changed as part of it and then if a behavor aor intervention plan is appropriate um if it's not connected the um principal can proceed with the suspension or the consequence that they were going to provide chrisy just one clarification on that for the 10 days once you hit the 10 days but in that 10 days is there a distinction between connected or or not connected we're not required to have a meeting okay um in that 10day slot unless it's a superintendent hearing okay then as a good practice rule of thumb even if the kids
016only had five days of suspension we would have a meeting for that purpose okay and the reason for that is that if there is a connection then we're obligated to then go and look at the IEP to put in any kind of changes because if the state sees that the same kids with IEPs or 504s continually are suspended but that the IEPs are 504s are never modified they're going to then blame the school and say what clearly you realize that it wasn't working is what the state has said to us yeah and I'm I'm kind of a data guy so so what what's the results are you seeing positive results by this overall system in that once once this gets I I know it's a loaded question but i' I've got to ask it so
017are you seeing a positive result or is the behavior still continuing so you're you're doing this Monumental lift I would say you know we have students who continue to vape continue to um display inappropriate behaviors and we can find it not connected and it's like we have a meeting almost once a week for some kids um we have parent meetings we have social workers visit the house we have school psychologists work with the family um we connect them with farum um and you know sometimes not everyone is on board with our same Mission um so you know although we can put as many any supports in place as possible we also have to have the buyin from absolutely all the pieces um so short answer is no no yeah exactly no so okay and just
018one other clarification so you you just mentioned something that like vaping now with the new cell phone policy if it's a you know failure to follow directions and put the cell phone away you know things that if it's determined today that Johnny was vaping it's not connected manifestation hearing held not connected we're going to suspend him out when he comes back if day two he's vaping again do you have to do another manifestation hearing even though it's the same conduct yes so after 10 we have to have a meeting for every single instance of ISS or OSS so that same student could Vape every day he comes back from suspension and then the manifestation determines it's not connected so then they can be suspended again and that can just rinse you know wash rinse repeat
019all like I said unfortunately we do have some students that we meet on on a very regular basis um so to Steve's point it it's not helping it's the state system it's I understand this is not criticizing you absolutely not but it just seems like for the same conduct if you've already determined that it's not connected there should be some type of streamlined process that you know what Ian yeah I totally agree absolutely yeah because because the lesson that that needs to be learned is that once the student graduates and continues this Behavior they're not going to be they're that process doesn't exist in the outside world right so we have some students that um say very inappropriate things verbally and you know something I may ask the family would they say that if they
020were at Walmart well no they wouldn't say that at Walmart then why would you say it at school it's not appropriate there it's not appropriate here you know when they graduate in a few months who's going to tell them that's not appropriate it's going to be a police officer or something you know correct that that's that's kind of my point is that if it if it's if it's not working they make us go you know the long way around the tree and it we're just not getting any we're not getting any better results and at the end of the day you know I I think as a board you know protecting the overall conduct of the district is important absolutely and that everybody needs to follow the rules and and be a good good student
021and and hopefully become a good citizen and if you're not going down that path is a manifestation meeting every other day helping that and I think it's important we discuss it here because we have situations where parents call Chrissy Smith call the principal they'll call me and they'll say there's a kid in the room my heart goes out to them clearly they got special needs but they distraction for my kid I want the special kid removed from that classroom and we say that we can't do that and parents get frustrated so the more that we can talk like this in Open Session that people understand that we have rules that we have to follow from the state education department it's the better for everybody because at least then they know right and to Tom and
022Steve's point the you know aside from what's going to happen with that kid down the road when there's not these protections it's almost to some extent in those situations where there's not Improvement now it's really just this kid's protected he's living in a bubble while he's in school protected by this knowing he's you know protected from being in trouble disrupting your time the psychologist time from serving other students disrupting the teaching disrupting the educational environment in perpetuity for what Positive Purpose you know um we also have a manifestation um if a parent requested it say we're not up to 10 days yet we're at seven days or 5 days they can always request one and we would we would go with that um like I said every suspension Beyond 10 days every instance of ISS
023or OSS um and then like Tom had said we can suspend prior to having a manifestation meeting for drugs weapons or Serious botle injury yeah and this this might be a silly question but could we write a policy to to extend that paragraph drugs weapons serious Bly injury personal conduct is there any any way we can we can extend that out okay we we can't policy can't supersede regulation like when the 10year came out and the state said it's instead of years now it's going to be four and I remember having a conversation with the board members not here anymore I said well can we make a policy that says three we can't have a board policy that supersedes regulation I wish we could so some proactive steps that we're taking to help mitigate some
024of the manifestation pieces are training our student services um staff and principles and therapeutic Crisis Intervention for schools to deescalate um students who are escalated um a follow-up process with them after um in terms of almost like a wraparound care in terms of um you know what happened why did it happen what could we do different next time um we're also providing professional development to staff on trauma informed practices so approaching a student who has a history of trauma looks different than approaching a student who doesn't um and the way we respond to them when they're upset or escalated may look different and then coordinating with outside supports for families as well is a big piece that our social workers count counselors and school PES also do in terms of extracurricular activities we have Unified
025sports um which right now we have bowling and basketball so we have special education students at the high school level that participate in this um and then we have general education students who um are like their helpers um that join them on the core or on um at the bowling alley as well and then our Special Olympics like I said it's called oi um we have special education students who participate in this and then we also have general education students um who Provide support um and this is a really big day um I always say it's my favorite day of the year we have um teaching assistants special education teachers we have speech therapists and physical therapists who come um some of our school psychologists come as well and this is a big day um
026in the county all the County Schools come together at Phoenix and um we celebrate our students there's many activities for them um there's a gold medal ceremony it's it's a really nice thing any questions oh I didn't even notice [Laughter] what no questions no just a big thank you for for what you do each and every day it it it's it does not go unnoticed and it's a heavy lift and it's we just thank you for it thank you chrisy thank you next we have Aaron Phillips yay my favorite part we got some great data micone oh on right that's what I say I know all right use that's for another day all right so midyear data so I I thought about it I worked with Brent um I wanted to focus a little bit
027differently this year change it up a little bit um so so what we're going to look at is we always talk about growth but it's always in a different manner so Brent showed me a new tool a new toy and because he and I are a little bit of a a data Geeks we we had a little bit of fun with it so um the presentation looks a little bit different but we're going to look at some composite Trend data from the beginning of the year to show that the students are retaining the information that they learn the previous year because they're coming in and you're going to see the trend lines and where they they have come over the last few years we're going to look at growth from beginning of the year to
028middle of the year um the Tinker plats is the program that we're going to use it still Dibbles data it just looks different and then um we're going to within the the program we're going to look at how the students achievement level so where they're functioning and how much growth was made because a lot of times we see sometimes those kids in the blue and the green that are going backwards so it'll be it'll be fun that was that way yeah all right so here is the trend data that um that I was talking about so I did not show kindergarten simple things simple things people simple things um I didn't show kindergarten because we don't have any control over kindergarten except for those small group of kids that not small but the hund and
029something kids that go to upk but they're spread out so um what we can control is what our students are taught in kindergarten and then beyond so here's first grade so you can see the trend line is going up and the dark line is where our kids are so first grade kind of plateaued a little bit went up a little bit um but from where we were in 2021 you can see that the kids are retaining that information and they're moving and this is composite so that takes into all account all of the different subtests that there they're tested on so Aaron just to be clear 2021 the years those that's first grade in that year so these are different groups of kids and what they're the score they're coming in with corre in first
030grade yes so the kids correct so 2020s kindergarten we're taught so the skills the the tools that we are using to instruct our kids are working right like that's what this shows you so so could you talk about how big of a of right so we got a 329 up to a 343 MH but how how does that equate to Performance and just I'm I'm searching for the best word to use in that is that you you you struggled to get them to 329 but now we're starting out at 343 how much better is that that that has happened right am I following this right I think so so so if it's so my point is that is if you you spend a year with a student uh they take the summer off and then
031they come back in this number indicates what they retained in Back to the fall so if they've retained a lot more is is there a big difference between 329 and 343 so so the year going into 2021 it would take longer to get them back up onto track than it would be what the kids are currently well so let's look at second grade right so this group of first graders that left first grade went into second grade and you can see because 2021 is where we started using our mclass system where it pulls our data so it's kind of housed there so that's why this starts in 2021 because that's where our data set kind of starts right so you can see that those first graders that are leaving first grade are then coming in
032and their data is on the upward Trend too so it's not just the one grade level it's all of them and we're going to see two through five or three through five on the next slide so back when we were down at 32 329 326 for incoming second graders to get a slope like that shows continuous growth which is what you want so I mean to when you before you know when we were looking at it we didn't didn't really know what that summer slide did right or where they were but this shows that our kids are retaining that information so there are kids who do have the summer slide that they don't retain it or whatever but as a whole in our district this is District perspective and the the changes that our teachers
033have made instructionally are holding so they're at least holding moving because they're going up so if they were just holding they would be 343 and then right for sure for each second grade class that comes in like if I look at 2023 3428 MH and then they would have been second graders in 2024 so they started the year at 3 42.8 in first grade but then in in second grade they started the year well that one's 0.1 down but but the bar raised right so like the bar so okay so that's that's important distinction so this isn't taking the same test so no because it's a grade level right okay so those scores don't go up with grade level so like it's not building from first grade to second grade to third grade like those
034numbers don't go up so that's the 342 I guess so what I'm trying to say is a 343 in first grade uhu if they just retained what they got the 343 in first grade they they learned nothing they skipped a year essentially and that number would be substantially lower in second grade yes because the bar raises okay so the number doesn't necessarily raise correct from first to second then you see what I'm their overall number their overall score she's saying she's saying like if you look at 2023 first grade whatever that number is 3 42.8 342 now look at 2024 the second grade 343 point it looks like they went they it looks like they went almost down 0.1 yes but they didn't they didn't it's a42 a second grade 342 is a lot so
035the Spectrum yes okay so yes because this is a whole year so that's at the beginning of the year so that's where the kids came in right so now the kids have gone through first grade this is now where the second graders came in their oral reading fluency is supposed to be up here the passage is harder the words that they're reading that are nonsense word fluency are they're not just you know three syllables so to get a 342 it's a lot harder in second grade okay that's what I'm saying so it's not like a that level isn't 380 correct no okay so it's all right yeah and I I and I think these this is this is phenomenal yes this is great right because you see like that's the the trend line because a
036lot of times when you see trend lines they're sometimes Peaks and valleys to have a a stagnant and or not stagnant but a steady not negative at all incline is is huge that's great it's huge so then here's three four and five so it's Sim very similar right fifth grade that one year that was a a dip but then it kind of shifted worked its way back up not too sure it happens it does and that year 2022 fifth graders 2022 fifth graders 2023 sixth graders 2024 7 yeah potentially so it it's staying true to all the the grade levels which is what you want to see so so it's good good positive information which you always wonder you know where is that summer slide what are we you know is what we're doing enough
037and this shows that the kids are retaining those skills because they're able to apply it to harder passages more difficult um skills so proud of our teachers proud of our students for sure all right so here's my new Tinker plot thing so well for a colorblind person this does nothing for me I know I'm sorry but I can't I can't do it any other way I'm teasing I'm teasing all right no I'm not going to do that I'm going to use all right so I'm going to teach you this new new thing all right so it's still psf the phoni segmentation which is what we looked at last year and the year before that so it's still the same data set same subtest this side is their achievement level all right so some students are
038well below Benchmark below at or above down here is the growth that was made for these students so these red lines right here you want to be on this side of the red line growth-wise right so you see if you're a a student who struggles right and that phonological awareness skills but you're over you know so you're over here but your growth is on this side of this red line so your you're a low struggle you're a struggling student but you're moving and you're making above average growth this is where gaps close right when you're over here so that's we want to see students over here up here these are going to be your red and or your green and blues that have gone the other way because these are students who were at Benchmark
039but are making well below average growth for this skill so there this is where you start sliding backwards right so for teachers to see and each one of these dots is a student so if we were actually in the program Tinker plots we could click on this student and see who he or she was we could click on that student and see who or she where you know who they are um we can go into our system and see what errors they're making so is it a specific vowel sound that they're getting tripped up on um at one of the grade level meetings we were talking and one of the kindergarten teachers said we are right now in the the program that we use called hegerty at the onset and rhyme so that's the beginning
040sound and then the ending sounds so that when I heard that I said that makes a lot of sense because when I opened up and I saw the students profile and how they did on the test because you can dig in that's what the students were doing so really you want to say if I say the word um go what are the sounds you hear and go and the students are supposed to say go o what are the individual ones what some students were doing is they were doing if the word was um cat let's just say they were going C at onset is C and then at is that rhyme part so it's the beginning and end so they were blending it you don't get credit for the at part because they want each
041individual sound but that's what they were in their lessons that's what they were learning so that made a lot of sense so now come end of the year right so the these kids that are kind of down here or up here that went the other way now we're going to progress monitor them and we're going to see is that you know can we adjust that and when you're progress monitoring you can kind of do a little bit of um teaching and things in there too um so this is a great representation for the teachers and the principles to see where are these students and what is causing them to stay back here or what is causing them to move and I think In fairness to the teachers there are some kids that you can click
042on and see that they've already missed 67 days a school for some so yep that is and that's why they' they might not have they've got a they work with the social worker the counselor this the student support team on getting their attendance here right so um and what teachers will say is when they're here they're they get it and then they're gone for a week and then they come back and they get it and then they're gone so it's really hard to to rule out certain things you know is it a disability is it other situ situations that are getting in the way what's getting in the way of their learning and we chalk it up to attendance to start until we know better because once they're there and they get consistent instruction then
043we have a better idea and you have the data to back that up as far as what what the root cause of it is and that and that to me is the the most important within my training that's the most important thing is understanding truly what's the root cause of it and um and the help my handicap so be in the upper right hand having that many dots up there that's a good thing right that's a good thing because those are our kids who are above above Benchmark well above average still making well above average growth right I don't know what those colors are but I'm just the colors are the different school so you can see the there's a lot of them right there's a lot of them okay thanks quantity that's a good
044thing so that's how you read it so now we're going to go into correct letter sounds again the same the same um data point that we were looking at before set up the same way this is where the kids for those of you who are new they will get a nonsense word so it might be um that's wasn't a real word um Zat and they have to say zat right so they are um they read it and then they look at it that way when they in first grade I switch this and they want to we want them to be able to look at zot and just read zot that way instead of sounding it all out so um so this is the kids are still learning their their letters and their the sounds that
045go with them so the foundation is this so this is where I'm spending my focus because if their Foundation isn't strong then getting to this point is not going to get there and then getting to the in second grade when it gets or first grade and second grade when it gets to those nonsense words they will not they will struggle with multicab words when they get into third grade so this is where I'm going to focus with my AIS staff this is where I'm focusing with the principles um and that's the conversation that we're having cuz this has got to be strong so again same thing we have a lot of dots up here these ones are here you know we want to keep a close eye on these students who are at Benchmark and
046making average growth that they don't go to this side of that line right because if they go here then they're going from a green to a yellow and we don't want that we want them to keep going this way um so these students that you see down here are a lot of the same students that you saw on the other one right so um so we're we're narrowing down and looking at them so here's our first grade so you see this column over here is different though right like this is the tested out column so this is first grade phony segmentation same phonological awareness skill but these are kids who have the skill they test it out they're they're moving on they're onto something different so a lot of times these kids don't come into
047play in the document that I was showing you the last couple years um so those are kids those are good too because that's they've mastered that skill right so they're not worried we're not worried about them so again we start to have a little bit more here um this is troublesome but again I want to look back and see where were the students with this skill in kindergarten and that's that's what we've got to look at right so um what's being done so that they continue to move and not go back this way so here this is that shift so they're going to see zot and just read zot and the more words that they can read that are not familiar to them lets us know that they have their code they can get those
048words off the page um and again these students where are they with their correct letter sounds when they're leaving kindergarten so that Foundation is is is really where we're we're spending our time this year and this kind of puts it into perspective a little bit it allows us to see it in a different way colors and then here's our second grade with the same skill read look at that and again a lot of them tested out that are up here next color is pink and then orange is Hastings and then green is blue okay thank you and then here's our second great ORF which is that oral reading fluency so this is we got a lot here who are at Benchmark but at this midyear Mark right that passage increases so if students aren't reading
049enough and they're not in text doing the the hard work themselves they're not practicing enough and that's what this shows us so those are the conversations that principles are having um at data meetings with their with their teachers because that's what that comes down to now if some of these students when we click on them are low down here with those other skills we've got to fix that before we can go on because when they get to third grade it's it'll be a struggle right so we've got to work on that foundation so that's my focus this year for our readers and then here's the third grade words read correctly and remember once they get past third grade third grade is like our last ditch effort right we want to get those kids on on
050grade level by third grade so that they are successful Beyond so that's we've got a group that tested out over there you see them but then we still have this and this is that this is what we're trying to prevent we'll get there and then here's their ORF and then here is so we started a new program this year not new last year we were using it but we were still using for math so I wanted we usually don't have anything for math um but we have happy numbers and that is a program that all of our elementary kids upk to 5 are using and it is it gets them where they're at so if they're struggling with single digigit Edition in second grade that's what they're still working on but then we've got some
051kids who are in first grade that are working on telling time just depends on their skill level so it adjusts to their levels and they take um placement tests and this is where um our middle of the Year assessment results were so they cut it in half between yes below and meets yep is almost a, and then it's 500 yep that's good so it's it's and the kids love it it's fun it's you know engaging for them and we kind of set parameters on the data or the time on Chromebooks for the kids for both um boost and happy numbers because we don't want them just on it um all the time so we've got some limitations to it but they're on it and they're liking it and the results are showing then here's so
052Aon just to clarify so happy numbers is is is kind of is it a testing thing that they do or what you just said makes me think it's more of like a program they can play in their free time no it's during math or intervention time okay so if they're like it's a center but is it like a game it's game H not really because they'll have like um so I I've seen like like the kids are counting if they're working at one toone correspondence so the a bunch of oranges will go across and they've got to count the oranges and they type in the number and then if they don't get it right it'll kind of let them it'll give them like reprompt them to do it again it might show them let's say
053five and then it'll roll out five more oranges again and the kids count and then hopefully they get five so just repeated exposure um the placement test is timed and the teachers can go in and see um if they rush through through it and reset them and have them do it again so these scores are the placement test scores yes these are the yes so this is where they were at the beginning of the year to the middle of the year so you can see that the they're improving same this is like the similar bar that we had last year so the placement test at the beginning of the year for second grade we had 48 kids that were they didn't reach that Benchmark and this time we had 18 right so it's you can
054see these green bars are increasing which is the ONG grade level good results so yeah so it's good to see because we really haven't looked at math um we haven't had a tool so this is a tool that is helping us um and and our kids so and then there's three through five gets a little bit trickier here because the skills you know are different um but hopefully the work that they're doing will help improve this improving any questions I learn the point I think it's it's just awesome I mean it really I think about my time on the board and where we were seven years ago compared to where we are today it's just phenomenal work by by you folks and it's it it really yeah and the teachers have not been I'm not
055going to say they haven't been afraid to take chances and learn something new because there's always that fear right when you're doing something new but they have because they're seeing the change in the kids and they're seeing the progress that's being made they are jumping in with both feet and what can we do and there's not a Elementary building in the district that doesn't say rework groups and rework you know who's best here what's going on and the groups are changing constantly and that's what you want to see because you're using that data to drive your instructions and we're not going to keep a student who's ready to move back here when they're ready to go let them go let them fly and we'll give them you know maybe 15 minutes here instead of 40
056here with you know kids so um they give them the skills and and they're moving on so yeah I'm very proud of everybody and I and I pity the person that would comes comes in with the brand new program right oh I've got something new today yeah get out right right Ju Just just be clear conversations about programs some of my AIS teachers they don't really like when I say no we don't need a program no we don't need it and if we do if we're having a struggle what is the program that's going to fit that based on our data so it's not just we're going to put this out there because it's easier it's pre-planned and all that nope no no no no it it we are this is phenomenal and just to
057piggyback that so what I've been able to see Aaron do with the elementary principles in my 10 years here my first year here remember I oversaw then the five Elementary Billings and I was Personnel director and well teachers were doing a great job ad been doing a great job they were there were literally five separate islands and they were just doing things totally different and the benchmarks like they weren't there we we didn't have the data like this and when I look at it now that was a Monumental lift and that's something that she lives and breeds with her team of uh teachers and admin and I just say and again two of them are sitting right there kudos to all of you great job yeah thanks okay on to item e can I get
058a motion to accept e in its entirety no motion and second any discussion all those in favor okay thank you on to item F consent agenda could I get a motion to accept F in its entirety I'll second any discussion all those in favor okay on to item G Matteo we'll have you start off thank you the drama club's opening night of Hades town was very successful the cast did a wonderful job and are set to return for the remaining shows February 27th through March 1st there was a member in the audience so taken with the performance that she reached out to members of the original cast in national tour to let them know of our production and its quality we received a video from a Maya banza who played Ury in the national tour
059as well as Malcolm Armwood swinger member of the original Broadway cast and still performing to wish our students success and congratulations um if anyone's interested Miss shance was kind enough to give me one of the messages to share with you guys but moving on for now student government and Miss shant have been planning and are looking forward to the educational Disney trip taking place this March 99th through 14th more information to come Miss Nelson reports that the DECA Club State qualifiers have been hard at work preparing for the competition and are set to head to the Rochester Convention Center this March 5th through 7th good luck to them all the girls varsity sectional basketball game is set to take place this Wednesday February 26 if they win they will advance to the semi-finals on March
0604th again good luck to the allall the center for instruction technology and Innovation recently celebrated the remarkable accomplishments of the Career and Technical education top three students across various programs this year we had over 40 students recognized from Central Square congratulations to them all and indoor track and field sectionals were very successful congratulations to the girls 2025 class AA Section 3 Champions state qualifiers are set to take place tomorrow February 25th I again would like to wish luck for the student athletes participating and lastly congratulations to senior Jackson Perkins who held a record of 430 this wrestling season and will be representing Paul V Moore at States held in Albany New York and that's all for me thank you thank you yeah I was going to say you could take your job Tom um yeah
061I only have a couple after that want to ask the board yeah no we we uh any any board members have anything to report I don't want to Tom no go ahead yeah you know I got to just we've been dealing with still and uh kudos to our our staff as far as they did a wonderful job I mean there's no delays uh you come on campus and obviously it looks like a a bomb has gone off because the amount of snowbanks but amazing job uh the fact that uh no issues with our roofs they were prepared um says a lot about them I I can't say enough about it thank you and did to that and on top of Friday before break I know it seems like forever ago but we had a remote
062learning day and at least from what I heard and saw it was seamless you know so I I would like to share those Kudos as well coule now yeah I should you did an awesome job very thorough um again I was at the um top three uh for City BOS CTE in the morning in the afternoon we only had three because the majority of our students are du the morning programs we had more than I could even count I want to say we had about 30 um top three winners which was phenomenal in the morning so it was great being able to be there the week before a break to to share that with their families and the students um kudos to as you said the SEC our our athletes in the winter done a
063wonderful job just want to give a couple quick updates um piggy back on what Ken said um the maintenance workers and the custodial workers I say Herculean effort it was I was there with them I got to see what they do and I did it myself and they've been I did what I did for nine hours what they've been doing for the past several months with all of the snow we got 100 inches of snow basically within 10 days and they were phenomenal I worked with some phenomenal uh custodians these ladies were wonderful tough on the roof at um the middle school on the back of the roof where they had a whole system in place they they did a phenomenal job and I also want to give a shout out to all the bus
064drivers that came in uh with all of our mechanics because they had to clear the whole bus lot so when I was up on the roof in the middle school I had the perfect view of the system that they had and we had about 10 or 12 feet of snow that had drifted on top of the buses so they had to dig all 70 something buses out then they had to move the buses and then they had to clear out the huge uh bus cage area and then we got hit with even more snow when I was watching them do this so phenomenal job to them I don't want to say anything negative to the districts that had to go remote today because you never know how much more snow people could get but I'm
065just so proud of all the people that rolled their sleeves up so that we were able uh to to open today because of the roof and and I will say kudos to Paul brette who doesn't take any chances um the whole reason why my story was on channel 9 was I got a phone call because parents were calling Channel 9 because they were concerned because there was rumors that the Walmart roof had collapsed it hadn't they were proactively there were some leaks and whatnot from what I heard and so parents were worried because all of our schools obviously were right here in Central Square and so when Channel 9 called me to say that some of the parents were calling them and that they had sent out photographers to get pictures or videos I said
066I know I'm looking at your truck right now that's when they saw that I was there um but I made it a point to say everybody was on the buildings Paul brassette spent the whole day two days up here at the high school and they all did a phenomenal job every single custodian maintenance worker they my hats off to them what they were able to clear and are still clearing is phenomenal but through the whole time they've been in contact with the engineers and the Architects and again kudos to Paul when we do our capital projects we're always adding more steel framing knowing the load that we we could experience this is what he had planned for and again Paul's a genius um the other thing today was day one of the cell phone policy
067and I just want to say to any parent that may be watching this or may hear me say this I just want to say it publicly that if you have a child that makes a mistake in a block they have their phone teacher says take it away or put it away they do there's not an issue it's only when the kid keeps taking it out and so for any parent or Guardian grandparent raising their kid whoever that may be if you see if you know that there's a problem and that your child or grandkid is going to be stubborn and not do it please don't let them bring the phone to school let's just eliminate that whole standoffish that all that and then we won't have to do it because we do have a board
068policy the governor has been saying it all since end of uh or spring of last year throughout the summer and she's not slowing down her State of the State was that she's going to do it and um so we got ahead of that and we did it the right way with feedback so I did talk to some students um I don't know if Mato was able to talk to some students but the students at the end of the day said we can use it in the cafeteria we can use it in the hallway it's not like we lose it the whole day so but again for those parents that know that it's going to be a problem with their kid please be a parent be proactive and just don't let your kid bring it if
069if you know that there's going to be that something that could ultimately result in a suspension nobody wants that um next thing I just want to say um what Chrissy Fishman said remote learning I checked in throughout Friday our principles were amazing um the elementary teachers were just either texting me or emailing me saying we have all of our students they're all in the cameras are on high school teachers Middle School were saying this this was great and they're really saying it's different than the pandemic because they never actually got to meet their students where now they built those relationships and the kids were logging on nothing's ever perfect but I will remind people it was Friday before a long vacation and and even when they were in person we wouldn't have had a lot
070of kids because it's the Friday before the long vacation but again hats off to our teachers and our admin support staff they did a wonderful job because that was technically would have been our seventh emergency day we have not used that many in my in my 10 years here this has been a crazy storm so with that that concludes my superintendent report thank you Mato okay on to item H I will make a motion that the census Square School District Board of Education hereby move into executive session discussion matter leading up to the tenure of one particular person with no action to follow can I get a second thank you Christie any discussion all those in favor okay thank you very much everybody so we can go in there